Shopify is the shortest route from an idea to a shop that takes money. It is also a platform you rent rather than own, and its monthly plan is the smaller half of what you will actually pay. This review is built from Shopify’s own published prices and terms, read line by line.
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It does not carry a score yet. We score a platform after running a store through a full sales cycle, and we have not finished one — so rather than invent a number, this page gives you every figure that decides whether Shopify suits you, and says plainly where we stand.
Shopify, in one paragraph
If you want to be selling this month and would rather spend your attention on products than on hosting, updates and payment plumbing, Shopify is very hard to beat. You pay for that in monthly fees, app subscriptions and the fact that you never own the platform.
- Best for
- Selling soon, without running a server
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What it costs
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Online card rate | Extra fee, other gateways | Staff accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $29/mo | $39/mo | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2% | None |
| Grow | $79/mo | $105/mo | 2.7% + 30¢ | 1% | Up to 5 |
| Advanced | $299/mo | $399/mo | 2.5% + 30¢ | 0.6% | Up to 15 |
| Plusthree-year term | from $2,300/mo | — | Custom | 0.2% | Unlimited |
Figures from Shopify’s published US pricing, checked 24 September 2026. Prices differ by country — Shopify’s pricing page shows the ones that apply to you.
Read the table from the right, not the left. The card rate and the extra fee for other payment providers are paid on every order, forever; the plan price is paid once a month. Past a certain volume the rate matters more than the plan — our full pricing breakdown works through a real first year, and the fees page shows what the rate costs per order.
What it does better than anyone
- There is nothing to run. Hosting, the SSL certificate, security patches and platform updates are included on every plan. You never log into a server.
- The checkout is the product. Shopify says its checkout converts 15% better on average than other platforms. That is Shopify’s own figure, not an independent one — but the checkout is the part of the platform with the fewest complaints anywhere.
- An app for every gap. The App Store runs to thousands of apps, and most things a store eventually needs exist as one. That is also a cost, below.
- One stock, several shops. Online store, in-person sales, social channels, marketplaces and AI shopping assistants all sell from the same inventory.
- Marketing basics included. Email campaigns, abandoned checkout recovery, discount codes and gift cards are built in, with 10000 free email sends a month before billing starts.
What will annoy you
- The plan price is the small half of the bill. Apps are billed monthly through your Shopify account, and a store rarely runs on fewer than a handful. The best-rated contact form app starts at $14.90 a month on its first paid tier.
- An extra fee if you pay out elsewhere. Use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments and Shopify adds its own cut on every order — 2% on Basic.
- No staff accounts on Basic. The moment a second person needs to log in, you are on Grow.
- Content is an afterthought. The blogging tools are basic next to a system built for publishing. If you plan to win customers by ranking for what you write, that will cost you every week.
- You rent the store. Products, customers and orders export as CSV files. Your theme, your layout and most of your app data do not move with you.
Who should use it
Anyone selling physical or digital products who wants to be live quickly and would rather pay a monthly fee than a developer. It is especially strong if you also sell in person, or across several channels, because all of that runs on one inventory.
Who should not
Three cases. If content is your acquisition channel, a content-first platform will serve you better. If you sell a handful of items a month, the fixed monthly cost is hard to justify. And if owning your stack end to end is a requirement rather than a preference, a hosted platform is the wrong shape of answer. We cover the options in our guide to Shopify alternatives.
How this review was put together
Prices, rates, fees and trial terms are read from Shopify’s own pages and centralised in one place on this site, so a change is corrected everywhere at once. Nothing here is presented as a test result; hands-on findings will be added, dated, once they follow the protocol on our how we test page. Where something is Shopify’s claim rather than our finding — the checkout conversion figure above, for instance — we say so.
Questions we get asked
Is Shopify worth it for a beginner?
Usually, yes — beginners gain the most from not having to run anything. The real question is which plan and at what point to move up, which our decision guide answers with the numbers.
Can I try it before paying?
Yes. The trial is 3 days with no credit card, followed by 3 months at $1 a month. The details — including what you cannot do during it — are on our free trial page.
Can I leave Shopify later?
Yes, but plan for a rebuild rather than a move. Your catalogue, customers and order history export cleanly; your design and most app data do not.
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