If you are planning to have an online existence of your offline store through one of the best eCommerce platforms, Shopify, then you must have deep knowledge about its different pricing plans and services included in it.
Choosing the right pricing plan can be very daunting, but not for you, because by reaching the end of this informative blog, you will have decided which plan is the best for your business. In this article, you will look deep into Shopify functionalities according to their plan prices.
What is Shopify?
Founded in 2006 with the purpose of helping businesses integrate their stores into online marketplaces, Shopify has now become a platform that allows businesses to create their own online store along with the services of integrating your store into online marketplaces.
Shopify is a SaaS tool, i.e., software as a service tool, which charges you for using the software and not owning it. The functionalities you benefit from depending on the Shopify plan you have chosen. Shopify mainly offers four pricing plans, from basic to advanced.
Other than that, Shopify charges separately for additional services like domain names, premium Shopify plugins and apps, premium themes, and more, for which Shopify has its own appstore.
Importance of Choosing the Right Pricing Plan
In e-commerce, revenue is everything. It determines whether you can expand into new markets or destroy inventory you can no longer afford to store.
Choosing the appropriate Shopify pricing strategy guarantees access to features that will help run your business more productively without paying excessive amounts for capabilities you cannot or cannot utilize. Also, choosing the right Shopify pricing plan may feature your brand and fulfill its growth requirements.
| Shopify Starter Plan | Shopify Basic Plan | Shopify Regular Plan | Shopify Advanced Plan |
Shopify Plus |
|
|
Price |
$1/month
For 3 months |
$18 | $68 | $275 |
Starting from $1845 |
|
Online Credit Card Processing Fees |
5% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.6% + 30¢ | 2.4% + 30¢ |
2.15% + 30¢ |
|
In-person Credit Card Sales |
2.7% | 2.7% | 2.5% | 2.4% |
Varies |
|
Staff Accounts |
1 | 2 | 5 | 15 |
unlimited |
|
Social Media sales & Buy Button |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
✅ |
|
Online Shopify store |
❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
✅ Multiple stores |
|
Add unlimited products |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
✅ |
|
Analytical reports |
❌ | ❌ | ✅
Standard |
✅
Advanced |
✅ More advanced |
|
Fraud Analysis |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
|
24/7 Customer Support |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Inventory Locations (Max.) | 1 | 4 | 5 | 8 |
20 |
|
Multilingual stores |
❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| SSL Certificates | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
✅ |
| Abandoned Cart Recovery | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
✅ |
Shopify Pricing Plans (2024)
Every business has an allotted budget, whether a startup or a huge business firm and Shopify being a merchant-friendly eCommerce platform, will definitely have a plan matching your business needs and budget.
Though Shopify provides a 14-day free trial of its store, after that, no matter which Shopify plan you choose, certain standard things are offered in all plans, which are 24/7 customer support, automatic product order and updates, and inventory updates. Additionally, the more costly plan you choose, the more Shopify services and benefits Shopify will provide you.
1. Shopify Starter Plan
As the plan’s name suggests, the Shopify Starter Plan is for want-to-take-business-online merchants to sell their products online without needing website maintenance and give them an overview of how an online website looks.
Features:
- Allows you to add unlimited product images and descriptions on the product pages.
- A shareable link will be added to your Shopify store, allowing you to share your products with customers through social media platforms.
- Customers can shop for your products through the product links you share with them, and Shopify will look after the entire checkout process.
- Even though you still do not have a website, Shopify will allow your customers to add products to their shopping carts.
- Admin can create a contact page for your customers to address their issues.
- You are provided with a Shopify inbox to chat with customers and drive more sales.
- 24/7 Shopify’s support team to assist you.
Limitations:
- You will not have a website, just shareable links to share your product links through social media platforms.
- You will have a default uneditable Shopify theme to design your product links.
- Shopify POS will be inaccessible, i.e., in-person sales will not be possible.
Shopify Starter Plan: $1 monthly for 3 months
Payment Options:
- 0% transaction fees via Shopify payments.
- 5% transaction fees via 3rd party payment gateways
- 5% + 30¢ for online credit card purchases.
- 2.7% for in-person credit card sales.
2. Shopify Basic Plan
If any merchant wants to know how a full-functioned website functions and sells the products, the Shopify Basic Plan is the one they should opt for. From customizing the website theme to managing the inventories and your customers, Shopify’s basic plan can give much more than this.
Features:
- Enables you to build a fully functional and customizable Shopify store.
- POS features are supported for in-person sales.
- Multilingual store (up to 20 languages)
- Two staff accounts are supported.
- Enables you to create new manual orders.
- SSL certificates are supported for security protocols and secure server and browser connections.
- The blog section is allowed to publish blog content.
- Provides shipping discounts of up to 77%
Limitations
- Cannot have more have two staff accounts.
- Does not provide flexible discounts on Shipping costs
- Does not provide advanced analytical data.
Shopify Basic Plan Cost: $18 (if yearly subscribed) ($24 if monthly subscribed)
Payment Options:
- 0% transaction fees via Shopify payments.
- 2% transaction fees via 3rd party payment gateways
- 2.9% + 30¢ for online credit card purchases.
- 2.7% for in-person credit card sales.
3. Shopify Regular Plan
If you are a growing business with a high sales volume, then Shopify Regular Plan, AKA ‘Shopify’ plan, should be your perfect choice.
Features:
- Supports 5 staff accounts
- Supports 5 inventory locations
- Detailed analytical reporting for (orders, sales, customers, profits, etc.)
- Shopify will automatically execute certain website tasks like inventory reordering when inventory is less, back-in-stock notifications to customers, etc.
- Avail huge shipping discounts according to the product size and weight, along with getting shipping insurance.
- Benefitted from the reduced transaction and credit card fees.
- Supports international domains
Limitations:
- Does not provide any data regarding tax and duty collections at checkout.
- This plan is not for you if you want more than 5 inventory locations and staff logins.
- Does not benefit from more advanced shipping discounts and deep analytical reports.
‘Shopify’ Plan Cost: $68 (if yearly subscribed) ($90 if monthly subscribed)
Payment Options
- 0% transaction fees via Shopify payments.
- 1% transaction fees via 3rd party payment gateways
- 2.6% + 30¢ for online credit card purchases.
- 2.5% for in-person credit card sales.
4. Shopify Advanced Plan
Though the price of this plan heavily shoots up, it is also fully loaded with all the features offered by the basic and standard plans. Shopify Advanced Plan also benefits you with the low transaction and credit card charges.
Features:
- All features of basic and standard plans are included
- Supports 15 staff accounts
- Supports 8 inventory locations
- Tax and duty calculation, as well as the collection, will be done automatically by Shopify.
- Can set different shipping and product rates for different countries.
- Detailed analytical report of store functionality (covers complete details)
Limitations:
- Not for those needing customized services.
Shopify Advanced Plan Cost: $275 (if yearly subscribed) ($366 if monthly subscribed)
Payment Options:
- 0% transaction fees via Shopify payments.
- 0.5% transaction fees via 3rd party payment gateways
- 2.4% + 30¢ for online credit card purchases.
- 2.4% for in-person credit card sales.
5. Shopify Plus Plan
The most costly plan in the entire Shopify pricing range, Shopify Plus, is specially created for enterprise-level businesses who want customized services for pricing, tech support, etc.
Features:
- Supports unlimited quantity of staff accounts
- Supports 20 inventory locations
- Provides highly advanced customization like theme design, branding, offers, discounts, etc.
- Provides Launchpad to launch any event automatically
- Provides launch manager, merchant success manager and solutions engineer for dedicated customer support
- Features compatible with wholesalers and B2B customers.
- Provides features to deal with huge customer traffic easily.
- Can have multiple stores for other country locations.
- Supports additional POS features.
- Makes Shopify plus apps like Bulk Invitor, Transporter, etc., accessible
Limitations:
- Very costly and cannot be afforded by startup businesses.
Shopify Plus Cost: Starting from $1845 per month
Choosing the Right Shopify Plan for You
Now that you have a clear view of all Shopify plans, it will be easy for you to choose the right plan for your business, but before picking the one, you should conduct an analysis of your business to check your business requirements and the cost for your customized Shopify store accordingly.
Here are some important points to consider while choosing the right Shopify plan for your business.
1. Your Business Size and its Potential Growth
As we know, businesses are classified into three categories, small-sized, medium-sized and large business firms. Consider your business size, categorize it into these three business sizes, and then select the right Shopify plan for you.
If you are a startup business, you must opt for the least-priced Shopify plan, either the starter or the lite plan. If you are a medium-sized business potentially witnessing growth in customer traffic and sales, you can upgrade to the Shopify basic or regular plan. And as your business needs grow, you can level up your Shopify subscription plan.
2. Evaluate Your Payment Processing Needs
Shopify provides its payment gateway, Shopify payments, but you are also open to using any other payment gateway, as Shopify supports third-party payment gateway options. However, Shopify charges you for using any third-party payment options, and each Shopify pricing plan has different charges.
For this, you must know which payment process is highly preferred by your customers, whether the third-party payment option or the Shopify payment option and then choose your plan accordingly.
3. Know Your Store’s Customization and Integration Requirements
For some businesses, the services included in the pricing plans are not enough. Their business needs more than that, but the Shopify Plus plan can be very costly for their customized services, and they can face a financial crisis.
Fortunately, Shopify provides different plugins that can be integrated into your website regardless of your chosen pricing plan. There is a long list of over 8000 plugins provided by Shopify, some of which are as follows:
- Shopify Required Login
- Buy X Restrict Y
- Limit Orders Per Day
- All in One SMS Notification
- Volume Discount & Tier Price
- WhatsApp Notifications+ChatBot
- WhatsApp Notifications
- Limit Quantity Purchase and so many more.
As we know, Shopify also helps us build a fully-functioned Mobile App store to conduct our business with Shopify Mobile App Builder.
You can choose any Shopify plugin to integrate into your website. The choice of Shopify plugin will determine your monthly pricing plan.
Which is the Right Shopify Plan for You?
No matter what, Shopify still continues to be one of the best eCommerce platforms. As we discussed above, choosing the right Shopify pricing plan by the end of this blog will not be daunting and time-consuming for you.
Certain Shopify features are included in all Shopify plans, like customer support, fraud analysis, and other useful features. Additionally, if you want detailed analytical reports, more staff account logins, more inventory locations, etc., you must loosen up your pocket and choose a higher-priced plan.
Note – Shopify price changes will be applicable from 23rd April 2023. If you have chosen a monthly subscription for your store, it is advised to switch your monthly billing plan to a yearly billing plan and save hundreds of bucks on your pricing plan.
We are here at your service if you cannot decide and need some expert advice or hire a Shopify developer to add Shopify plugins and build a mobile app for you.