Shopify Pricing (2026): Plans, Fees & Real Costs

Last updated: July 2026

Shopify offers six pricing plans in 2026: the new Agentic plan ($0/mo), Starter ($5/mo), Basic ($39/mo), Grow ($105/mo), Advanced ($399/mo), and Plus (from $2,300/mo). But the subscription is only part of the cost. Transaction fees, payment processing, apps, and development can double or triple your monthly spend.

This guide breaks down every Shopify cost, compares every plan, and includes a free calculator so you can see what Shopify will actually cost your business.

In this post, you’ll learn:

• The real costs of running a Shopify store
• How to choose the right Shopify plan for your business
• Insider tips to save money on Shopify fees
• The latest Spring '26 updates for your store

The guide runs in three parts: pricing and fees, plan reviews, and build costs.

Key Takeaways:

• The plan is the easy part; the real monthly cost shows up in payment fees, apps, and add-ons.
• The #1 profit loss is fees adding up when using third-party gateways.
• There’s a point where upgrading reduces total cost (we’ll show the break-even).
• International selling comes with additional costs that most merchants don't plan for.

Shopify Pricing Calculator

Pick a plan, enter your monthly revenue and average order value, and the calculator returns your estimated orders, transaction fees, and total monthly Shopify cost.

Shopify plan Basic Grow Advanced Shopify Plus

Select a plan to apply the correct fees.

Monthly revenue Select revenue $5,000 $10,000 $25,000 $50,000 $100,000 $250,000 $500,000 $1,000,000 Other (Enter custom value)

Choose your estimated monthly gross revenue.

Average order value (AOV)

Enter your typical order value in USD.

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Estimated Orders / Month

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Estimated Transaction Fees

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Total Monthly Cost

Grow: $105/mo + 2.6% + $0.30 per order.

Want a custom cost estimate for your store? Our team can build a full cost projection based on your catalog, traffic, and growth goals. Get a Custom Estimate →

Now let’s break down Shopify fees and plans in detail so you can see how the numbers add up behind the calculator results.

Shopify Pricing Explained: Fees, Processing & Hidden Costs

Shopify pricing has three layers: the plan subscription, payment processing, and the add-ons around them. Here is a breakdown of each Shopify plan, updated for 2026.

Does Shopify Offer a Free Trial?

Yes. Shopify offers a 3-day free trial, followed by a 1-month trial for $1, no credit card required. If you pick a paid plan during the trial, you are not charged until it ends, and your work is saved.

Shopify Plans Overview

Shopify offers six distinct plans, each with unique features and pricing.

• Starter: $5/month: For selling via social, messaging apps, and shareable product links (the successor to Shopify Lite / Buy Button-style selling).
• Agentic: $0/month: The new 2026 plan that sells your catalog through AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, and the Shop app). No storefront; you pay per completed sale.
• Basic: $39/month: The entry-level plan for a full online store (best for solo entrepreneurs).
• Grow (formerly called 'Shopify' plan in many guides): $105/month: Built for growing businesses and small teams that need stronger reporting and more operational features.
• Advanced: $399/month: Designed for scaling brands that need deeper reporting, more automation options, and advanced capabilities.
• Shopify Plus: from $2,300+/month: Enterprise plan; listed as $2,300/month (3-year term) or $2,500/month (1-year term) for standard setups, with variable platform fees for more complex/higher-volume businesses.

Prices above are shown in USD (US list pricing). Shopify prices vary by country and billing term, check Shopify’s pricing page for your region.

The live Shopify plans, shown in yearly billing. The middle plan is called Grow now, $79/mo annual or $105 monthly. Source: shopify.com/pricing, captured July 2026.

The subscription is only the entry ticket. Two of the six plans, Starter and Agentic, skip the storefront and work as sales channels. The Agentic section later in this guide covers when that trade-off makes sense. Payment processing and transaction fees are where the rest of the bill comes from, so let's cover those next.

Shopify Transaction Fees by Plan: What You'll Pay

With Shopify Payments you pay no added transaction fee on any plan, only the credit card processing rate. With a third-party gateway, Shopify adds its own fee on top: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus.

How Shopify Payments Works (And Why It Affects Your Fees)

Shopify Payments is Shopify's built-in payment processor. Use it and you pay only the card processing rate; use another gateway and Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top. Those fees are separate from your subscription and belong in your budget from day one.

Either way, your customers can still check out with Shop Pay, PayPal, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, and more.

For a smaller merchant, an external processor can make sense as part of a wider expense and revenue analysis. As sales grow, though, switching to Shopify Payments almost always wins, because it is the only way to remove Shopify's added transaction fee.

Recent Shopify Payments updates:

• Shop Pay keeps expanding internationally, including Shop Pay Installments in more regions (notably the UK, with longer terms). Apple Pay can appear alongside it as an accelerated checkout option.
• Shop Pay works for international orders through Shopify Managed Markets (powered by Global-e), if you use the upgraded checkout and qualify for Managed Markets.
• Switching to Shopify Payments now runs with zero downtime, with faster onboarding, so moving off a third-party processor no longer interrupts checkout.

Here is what those fees look like, plan by plan. Most eCommerce transactions incur a set fee, usually around $0.30, plus a percentage of the order value. When setting up payments on Shopify, you have two main options:

1. Use Shopify Payments
2. Use a Third-Party Payment Processor

Option 1: Shopify Payments

• Primary Gateway: If you choose Shopify Payments as your primary gateway, you can also add a third-party processor (e.g., FirstData) as a secondary option.
• No Transaction Fees: Manual payment methods like cash, cash on delivery (COD), and bank transfers do not incur transaction fees.
• Shopify Plus Perk: For Shopify Plus merchants, the transaction fees for all additional, secondary payment methods are waived. This includes methods like Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments, PayPal Express, and manual payment methods.

Option 2: Third-Party Payment Processor

• Additional Fees: If you opt for a third-party payment provider, you'll pay their processing fees plus an additional Shopify transaction fee. These fees cover Shopify's cost of integrating with external payment providers.
• Fee Structure: Additional Shopify transaction fees vary by plan and are shown in the table below. They are charged only when you use a third-party payment provider.

To check if your payment provider is supported, navigate to your Shopify Admin, go to Settings, and select Payments>Payment Methods in Shopify

Shopify Transaction Fee Calculator Example

Remember that higher-tier Shopify plans offer lower rates for higher sales volumes, and they also reduce or eliminate Shopify’s additional transaction fees if you use a third-party payment provider

To calculate your potential Shopify credit card fees, follow these steps:

1. Estimate your monthly sales volume
2. Choose a Shopify plan
3. Decide on your payment provider
4. Use Shopify's fee calculator or this formula:
   (Transaction fee % x Sales) + (Per-transaction fee x Number of transactions)

Example:

• Monthly sales: $10,000
• 100 transactions
• Basic Shopify plan with Shopify Payment
  

Calculation

(2.9% x $10,000) + ($0.30 x 100) = $290 + $30 = $320 in fees

For now, just remember that there are two rate structures for Shopify Payments: one for online sales and one for in-person sales. Cash on delivery and bank transfers don't incur a payment processing fee. To help make your calculation easy, below is the summary of Shopify fees you pay depending on the plan you are using:

As your sales grow, consider upgrading your plan to potentially reduce overall costs.

Note that:

• On Shopify Plus, Shopify states third-party transaction fees are waived globally when Shopify Payments is primary; and if a third-party processor is primary, Shopify charges 0.20% per transaction for security/compliance
• If Shopify Payments is activated, then PayPal and manual payment methods are excluded from third-party transaction fees

Those are the rates. Whether Shopify Payments itself deserves the job is the next question.

Shopify Payments: Pros, Cons & What to Watch For

Shopify Payments is the right default for most stores: it is the cheapest and simplest way to accept payments on Shopify, with the real risks sitting in eligibility, chargebacks, and regional availability. Here is the trade-off in one view:

For Shopify Plus Merchants Not Using Shopify Payments

If you’re a Shopify Plus merchant but choose not to use Shopify Payments, you should be aware of the following:

The short version: you pay Shopify's 0.2 percent transaction fee on every order, your negotiated Plus pricing has to absorb it, you lose the fee waiver on secondary payment methods, and you still carry your gateway's own costs and reporting overhead. That stack is why very few Plus merchants stay off Shopify Payments by choice.

Other Shopify Fees

Currency conversion fees: 1.5% for US stores and 2% for stores in other countries, applied after the conversion rate is calculated. PayPal wallet transactions through Shopify Payments carry a separate 3% conversion fee in the US and France when capturing a non-domestic currency.

International transaction fees: banks and card issuers may add their own fees for international customers, even when they pay in their local currency. Shopify does not control these.

Marketplace Connect fees: selling on Amazon or eBay through Marketplace Connect gives you 50 free synced orders per month, then 1% per order, capped at $99 per month.

Shopify Tax: free for the first $100,000 in US sales per calendar year, then 0.35% on transactions where tax is calculated, capped at $0.99 per order and $5,000 per year. Note that Basic Tax stopped being offered as of July 1, 2025.

Store credit and gift cards can trigger third-party transaction fees

For stores created on or after May 12, 2025, orders paid with store credit or gift cards can be charged third-party transaction fees on that amount. Older stores are exempt, and Plus stores running Shopify Payments as primary have the fees waived on all other payment methods, store credit and gift cards included.

The verdict: go with Shopify Payments as your primary gateway unless your industry, region, or risk profile rules it out. It zeroes out Shopify's added transaction fee, enables Shop Pay, and keeps payouts and reporting in one place, while the watch-outs are chargebacks, eligibility limits, and account holds in higher-risk categories. All the fees above sit on top of your subscription, so model them against last month's orders before you commit. So what do these rates take out of a real order? Run a $100 sale through each plan and the differences get specific.

What a $100 Sale Actually Costs on Each Plan

On a $100 online sale with Shopify Payments, you keep between $96.80 and $97.55 before the subscription. Basic takes $3.20, Grow takes $3.00, Advanced takes $2.80, and Plus takes $2.45. Sell that $100 product in person and the rates drop: 2.6% + $0.10 on Basic, 2.5% + $0.10 on Grow, and 2.4% + $0.10 on Advanced.

That difference looks small until you multiply it. At 1,000 orders a month with an $80 average order, the processing difference between Basic and Advanced is $320 a month. The plan upgrade costs $360. You are one growth spurt away from the upgrade paying for itself.

Shopify Basic costs you 75 cents more per $100 sale than Shopify Plus. Small per order difference but large at volume. Computed from Shopify Payments US online rates, July 2026.

Run this on your own numbers before picking a plan. Take last month's card volume, multiply by the rate difference, and compare it against the subscription gap. The fee math alone never justifies an upgrade. From about $1M a year in sales the feature value does, and that is when the Plus conversation starts. The Plus section covers the full case..

What the Spring '26 Editions Changed About Pricing

The Spring '26 "Everywhere" release (June 17) did not raise a single plan price. It moved cost off your app stack instead, and most stores have not done the math yet.

Spring '26 Editions: core B2B moved out of Plus and onto every standard plan. Source: shopify.com/editions, captured July 2026.

Four changes carry real dollars:

1. B2B is no longer a Plus feature. Core B2B, including company profiles, price lists, and net payment terms, now runs on Basic, Grow, and Advanced. Stores that were quoted $27,600 a year for Plus just to get wholesale can now test B2B on a $399 plan. Our B2B builds increasingly start there.

2. Rollouts brings free native A/B testing. Checkout and theme testing that used to need a $99 to $299/mo app is now built in. If you run a testing app today, this line item goes to zero.

3. Functions fully replaced Scripts on June 30. Plus stores running legacy Scripts had to migrate. Budget the one-time dev work if you have not done it, because discounts and checkout logic silently breaking is the expensive version of this change.

4. Shopify Catalog and UCP made your product feed an AI storefront. Your catalog now syndicates to ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity through the Universal Commerce Protocol. The feed apps that charged monthly for this are optional now. We covered the plumbing in our agentic commerce guide.

The pattern across all four: Shopify is bundling what apps used to charge for. A Shopify-commissioned TCO study puts its total cost about 33 percent below competing platforms, and bundling is how that number keeps moving. Commissioned research deserves skepticism, but the shrinking app bill is visible on real invoices.

The New $0 Agentic Plan

On other eCommerce platforms you have to build your own Agentic UCP and MCP features. On Shopify, this is built-in, costs you $0, and it is the most interesting pricing move Shopify has made in years. The Agentic plan launched in April 2026 at $0 per month. No online store, no theme. Your catalog syndicates into ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, and the Shop app, and you pay per completed sale.

For an established store, Agentic commerce is not a replacement. It is a rent-free sales channel that lives where your next customer is already asking questions. Turn it on, keep doing what you're doing on your storefront, and watch which channel grows.

We're working with a few clients who are not on Shopify. Setting up Agentic Commerce on Magento or Woo is a big project with multiple sprints. On Shopify, regardless of the plan you're on, you can now reach AI shopping channels with a click of a button.

For a brand testing a product line, it is a new, low cost way to launch a product and test. We track how brands show up in these engines in our AI readiness report, and the stores winning there treat the catalog data itself as the product page.

That is the pricing map after Spring '26. Now the plans themselves.

Shopify Plans Compared: Features, Pricing & Best Fit

Four plans carry most Shopify stores: Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus. Judge each one on subscription and processing added together. Here is the pricing side by side, then each plan in detail.

Monthly/Annual Shopify Plan Costs

This is the subscription cost for a Shopify website. Of the six tiers, Shopify Starter and the $0 Agentic plan are covered above; the four storefront plans are compared below.

You’re billed monthly by default, but you can also opt into a one-year, two-year, or three-year plan for the Plus plan. All cycles are prepaid at the beginning of the term.

Extending your billing period to annual instead of monthly can help to save 25% on your Shopify Subscription.

Below is a summary of the four most popular Shopify plans, along with each plan's cost breakdown and key features that differentiate one from the other, and the pros and cons of each Shopify Plan:

Card rates shown are common US online and in-person examples for Shopify Payments. Your exact rates depend on region and card type.

Not sure which Shopify plan fits your business? We help merchants pick the right plan and avoid overpaying. Schedule a Free Consultation →

Next, let's break down each Shopify plan in detail and look at its Pros and Cons.

Shopify Basic Plan: Pricing, Features & Who It's For

Basic is $39 a month ($29 on annual billing) and built for a first store or a business where eCommerce is not yet the main income. You get the full storefront, secure checkout, two staff accounts, and entry-level reporting. Start on Basic, and plan to outgrow it once a team or real order volume shows up.

Shopify Grow Plan: Pricing, Features & Who It's For

Grow is $105 a month ($79 on annual billing) and fits stores where eCommerce carries a real share of the income and more than one person works in the admin. The upgrade buys five staff accounts, better shipping discounts, and the advanced reporting Basic holds back. For growing stores under about $1M a year in sales, Grow is the right plan. Upgrade to Advanced before then only when its reporting, shipping rates, or team seats earn it.

Shopify Advanced Plan: Pricing, Features & Who It's For

Advanced is $399 a month ($299 on annual billing) and built for high-volume stores that need custom reports, third-party calculated shipping rates, and a team of up to 15 staff accounts. The lower credit card rate offsets part of the subscription as you grow, but the features are the reason to be here. Advanced tops out around $1M a year in sales; past that, the plan conversation is Plus.

Shopify Plus Plan: Pricing, Features & Who It's For

Price: Plus starts at $2,300 USD/month on a 3-year term (billed yearly) and is contract-based, with pricing varying by terms and setup.
Payment & Transaction Fees: 2.15% + 30¢ per payment (negotiable)
Inventory Locations: Up to 200 (more available on request). Shopify Plus is the enterprise tier, built for high-volume merchants and complex operations.

Two 2026 updates to that price. First, above a certain sales volume the flat fee converts to a variable platform fee. Shopify does not publish that threshold; partner-reported figures put it near $800,000 a month in GMV, so treat the exact trigger as negotiable and get it in writing during the contract. Second, processing savings are the last reason to buy Plus. In practice we move brands to Plus much earlier, from about $1M a year in sales, because checkout extensibility, the lower rates, B2B depth, and the support tier are worth more than the fee spread. That matches how Shopify's own team advises merchants.

What You Get:

• Everything in the Advanced plan
• Unlimited staff accounts
• Exclusive apps for streamlined store management
• Enhanced checkout branding and customization
• 24/7 priority support
• Access to premium educational content

Shopify Plus Only Features:

B2B built into Shopify

• Native B2B suite (companies, locations, catalogs, B2B pricing/workflows)
• Run B2B + DTC in one store (or separate stores if needed)

2026 update: core B2B (company profiles, price lists, net payment terms) now runs on Basic, Grow, and Advanced too, which changed when Plus is worth it. You can prove a wholesale model on Advanced first, while Plus keeps the deeper wholesale channel, volume terms, and expansion features. Shopify's own FY2025 results reported B2B GMV up 96 percent, and that growth is concentrated on Plus.

Internationalization Tools

• 1 main store + 9 expansion stores included under the organization
• Custom domains for each market (.co, .ca, .uk, .com, etc.)
• Multipass for smooth customer login across platforms

Automation, checkout, and scale

Flow automation and Launchpad event coordination come standard, alongside AI-powered personalization, higher API limits, custom checkout, and the headroom to absorb massive traffic spikes. Checkout Components went GA this year, which widened the gap between Plus checkout and everything else.

The Only Downsides:

• Price Tag: From $27,600 a year before apps and processing
• Multiple Store Management: Can be complex, especially internationally
• App Fees: Can add up with multiple stores (but often negotiable)
• Customization Limits: Some aspects of the platform remain locked down

Is It Right for You?

Shopify Plus is perfect if:

• You're doing $1M+ a year in online sales
• You need enterprise-level features and support
• You're expanding internationally
• You require advanced automation and customization

Bottom Line: From about $1M a year in sales, the capabilities and dedicated support justify the price. Below that mark, prove the model on Advanced first.

Additional Popular Shopify Services

Shopify POS

Shopify POS runs in-store and online sales as one system, and big retail is taking it seriously: GAP's Banana Republic moved all 300 US stores to it.

Shopify POS Lite is included with all plans, or you can upgrade to Shopify POS Pro for $89/month (included with Shopify Plus).

The table below shows what separates the two tiers:

Shopify Shipping

Shopify Shipping handles rates, labels, tracking, and shipping insurance from the Shopify admin, with discounted USPS, UPS, and DHL rates.

Discounts deepen as your plan tier rises, and using your own negotiated carrier rates requires Advanced or Plus.

Shopify Email

Shopify Email runs branded campaigns, automation, segmentation, and campaign analytics inside the Shopify admin, and for many stores it replaces a paid email tool entirely.

Send up to 10,000 emails per month free, then $1 for every additional 1,000 emails.

Shopify Markets

If you're selling globally, Shopify Markets runs multi-currency, multi-language, and local domains from a single store, usually cheaper and cleaner than multiple expansion stores. For eligible US brands, Managed Markets (Markets Pro) offloads duties, taxes, and localized payments via Global-e, but adds per-order fees you should model in your total cost.

Here is an overview of the pricing:

Shopify Markets

• No monthly or setup fee.
• Charges are applied only when you use international features such as currency conversion and duties:
  • Currency conversion: 1.5% per transaction, added to customer pricing.
  • Duties & taxes calculation: 0.85% per transaction when using Shopify Payments, or 1.5% with alternative payment gateways.

Shopify Markets Pro / Managed Markets

• No monthly or setup costs. Charges are per international order:
  • 6.5% transaction fee, added to customer pricing, which bundles payment processing, duties, taxes, shipping, fraud protection, and local payment methods
  • Currency conversion fee: 2.5% per transaction, also passed on to the customer

A Word on the Cost of Shopify Apps

Most merchants extend their store functionality by adding apps, and the app line deserves the same scrutiny as the plan itself.

Most paid apps bill monthly, anywhere from a few dollars to several hundred per app, and the recurring total is what matters. Free apps usually cap features until you upgrade, one-time purchases exist but need a maintained developer behind them, and premium tiers, usage limits, and in-app fees hide in the fine print. If you need several apps from one developer, ask about bundles. On the stores we audit, the app line runs $200 to $400 a month for a growing brand, and it drifts up unless someone owns it.

Tips for Selecting Shopify Apps

Before installing anything, run it through six quick checks:

• Compatibility with your theme and existing apps
• Reviews and ratings from merchants like you
• Support quality and documentation, especially for anything operationally critical
• A trial period so you can test before paying
• Data privacy and security practices around customer data
• Regular updates, because an unmaintained app becomes a liability

You can build your own custom apps

Custom apps are also more accessible than ever: Sidekick can now connect to app extensions and even assist with building them, which lowers the cost of going custom for unique workflows, ERP and CRM integrations, or strict security and compliance requirements. Find out what custom apps your store needs in our full guide on Shopify app development.

That covers what running on Shopify costs. Now for what building on it costs.

Shopify Website Cost: Development, Migration & Build Pricing

A professional Shopify website costs from $15,000 to over $200,000+. Choosing a plan is step one. Building or migrating the store is where the real investment starts.

Whether you are launching a new site or migrating from Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or another platform, you need a team to handle the work that matters: custom design, data migration, SEO preservation, ERP and PIM integrations, marketing tool setup, and UX optimization. That is what determines whether your customers find what they need and keep coming back.

We have been doing this since 2010. The numbers below reflect what it actually costs based on our experience including our proposals and other Shopify agencies and clients we talk to.

Starter Shopify Website Cost: $15,000 to $20,000

Best for merchants moving from another platform like WooCommerce, Wix, or Squarespace, or launching their first store. You get a prebuilt theme with basic customizations, a branded style guide, product catalog setup and migration, shipping configuration, marketing and email integration, Google Analytics, and QA. This level works for straightforward migrations or new builds, but it will remain a basic site. Budget the low end for a clean catalog and the high end when the data needs cleanup on the way over.

Custom Shopify Website Cost: $30,000 to $50,000+

For growing brands migrating from platforms like Magento or BigCommerce that need more than a template swap. This tier adds custom UX/UI design for Home, PDPs, category pages, CMS pages, and checkout (within Shopify's limits), plus data migration with SEO preservation, advanced search and filtering, enhanced eCommerce analytics, and SEO consulting. Most mid-market migrations we quote land in this tier. Platform: Shopify Advanced or Shopify Plus.

Enterprise Shopify Website Cost: $60,000 to $200,000+

For established merchants with complex operations migrating from platforms like Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, or Commercetools. Design is completely custom, and the build covers the integrations enterprise merchants need: Klevu for advanced search, ShipperHQ for custom shipping rules, Elevar or LittleData for Google Tag Manager, data migrations with customized field mapping, complex catalog structures, custom tax rules, and the preservation of years of SEO equity. That last part is where our experience since 2010 makes the biggest difference. The range is wide because ERP and PIM scope varies more from project to project than design ever does. Platform: Shopify Advanced or Shopify Plus.

Note: These prices reflect US market rates. Costs may vary by region.

Planning a Shopify build or migration? As a Shopify Premier Partner, we've launched 500+ stores. Talk to Our Team →

Ongoing Shopify Costs: Monthly Maintenance & Support Fees

Ongoing Shopify costs come down to two lines: platform spend (license, apps, processing) and a support retainer. Shopify handles hosting, patching, and upgrades itself, which is real savings against Magento or WooCommerce, but growing stores still budget for the work the platform cannot do.

Count the fixed lines first: the Shopify license fee, app costs, credit card processing, and transaction fees. Growing stores also retain an experienced Shopify agency for ongoing maintenance and updates.

Approximate monthly platform spend including a support retainer, excluding processing. Based on Shero project data across 500+ builds.

Most of the stores we work with have two or three apps they stopped using and one doing a job the platform now does free. After Spring '26, audit the stack against Rollouts, native B2B, and Catalog before renewing anything.

Shopify Maintenance Services

These services can be broken down into the following categories:

Shopify Theme Updates

How often you update your theme depends on how proactive you are with the look and feel of your site as user behavior changes.

A retainer covers theme updates, app audits, bug fixes, and the small conversion tweaks that pay for the hours. From our experience, typical retainer packages for Shopify sites bill at $120 to $160 an hour and break down like this:

General UI/UX and Digital Marketing Consulting

Successful merchants continuously analyze user behavior and adjust their websites accordingly. This ongoing optimization includes user interface/user experience (UI/UX) improvements, eCommerce growth strategies, and more.

Basic covers monthly UI/UX updates and analytics review, Standard adds email automation and basic conversion rate optimization, and Premium runs a full growth program with advanced CRO and customer acquisition strategy. At the same $120 to $160 hourly band, here is what to expect to pay:

Custom eCommerce Solutions

For larger merchants, Shero offers bespoke eCommerce growth and optimization services. These custom solutions are tailored to the unique needs of your business and can include a combination of UI/UX enhancements, strategic eCommerce consulting, and ongoing website maintenance.

• Custom Retainer: Depending on your specific requirements, custom retainers can range from $6,000 to $12,000+ per month. This includes a dedicated team of specialists who will work closely with you to ensure continuous growth and optimization.

Bottom Line: Pick the retainer tier that matches your site's complexity, and revisit it yearly. With every line item covered, you can now put the whole budget together.

How to Estimate Your Total Shopify Cost

Your total Shopify cost is four numbers added together: the plan subscription, payment processing, your app stack, and the build or support work behind the site. Estimate each one honestly and the budget stops surprising you.

Prepare a budget for your website launch or migration

Building an online store is an investment, just like a brick-and-mortar location. Hourly rates for Shopify development run from $25 to $250 depending on whether you hire a freelancer or an agency, and you get what you pay for. If an estimate falls far below the industry average, be skeptical, because your site likely will be too. If another agency tells you they can do your project in a week, don't believe them. Replatforming gets complicated fast, especially around preserving SEO. Rescuing a stalled or poorly built site costs more than building it right the first time.

Shopify website cost calculation example

Take a store doing $50,000 a month at an $80 average order value (625 orders) on the Grow plan with Shopify Payments. The monthly platform bill looks like this:

Notice that the subscription is barely 4 percent of the real monthly bill, which is why plan price alone is the wrong thing to shop on.

For your own numbers, run the calculator at the top of this guide with your plan, revenue, and average order value, then add your app stack and retainer using the spend bands chart in the ongoing costs section. At or near $1M a year in sales, start the Plus conversation before you commit to anything else. And if cash flow allows, pay the subscription annually. The 25 percent discount is the easiest saving in this whole guide.

Final Verdict: Which Shopify Plan Should You Choose?

Choose by sales volume first, then select the features that drive your revenue. Where the business is headed next settles any tie. Here is the short version:

Before you commit, run the calculator at the top of this guide with your real revenue and average order value, and audit your app stack against what Spring '26 made free. 

If you need help choosing a Shopify Plan or migrating your eCommerce store to Shopify, please feel free to contact us.

As a certified Shopify Premier Agency, we can connect you with Shopify much faster than through traditional Shopify channels, and we often have insights into different promos Shopify runs.