Shopify review

• Merchants whose main job is selling products online and who want hosting, security, and checkout handled by the vendor.
• Stores that expect to add apps for reviews, subscriptions, email, inventory, or fulfillment, and want the widest app choice (Shopify's App Store says it lists over 16,000 apps).
• Businesses that sell online and in person from one catalog, or expect to add wholesale (B2B) ordering later; B2B catalogs are now included on every plan.
• Founders who want to start small: Basic is $29/month billed yearly ($39 billed monthly).

• You need to own the code and hosting. Shopify is a closed, hosted platform. If your team runs WordPress and wants full control, compare WooCommerce (see Shopify vs WooCommerce).
• Your site is mainly content or services with a small catalog. A website builder such as Squarespace or Wix may cost less and be simpler (see Shopify vs Squarespace and Shopify vs Wix).
• You must use a third-party payment processor. Shopify adds its own transaction fee (2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus) on top of that processor's fees. BigCommerce is the closest hosted alternative to compare on this point (see Shopify vs BigCommerce).
• You need deep, custom enterprise architecture with dedicated implementation teams; compare Adobe Commerce.

• Launching a first online store without managing hosting or checkout infrastructure.
• Selling across online, social, and retail channels from one catalog.
• Extending the store with apps for inventory (Katana), support (Tidio, Gorgias), restock alerts (Notify Me!), print on demand (Printful, Printify), and post-purchase upsells (Rebuy). Compare inventory systems on the inventory and operations desk and supplier costs on the print-on-demand desk.

Low to start, rising with ambition. A basic store can be configured from the admin without code, and Shopify's pricing page advertises a built-in AI website builder. Custom themes, multiple markets, POS hardware, B2B price lists, and checkout customization add implementation work, and most growing stores add several paid apps.

Shopify's App Store says it lists over 16,000 apps, which is the platform's main advantage and its main cost risk. Breadth means there is usually an app for the job; it also means overlapping subscriptions, more scripts on the storefront, and more vendors with access to your store data. Audit app spend quarterly. Shopify also publishes an ecommerce software guide of its own; treat it as vendor-authored, not a neutral ranking.

All prices are in US dollars from Shopify's US pricing page. Shopify bills plans monthly or yearly; yearly billing lowers the monthly equivalent by roughly 25%.

Grow is the plan Shopify previously listed as “Shopify”. The Starter plan is no longer shown on Shopify's US pricing page, and shopify.com/starter now redirects to Shopify's free-trial page. Shopify also lists a $0 “Agentic” plan for selling only in AI channels (you pay card fees from 2.9% + 30¢ when you make a sale); it is not a full online store.

Costs beyond the plan

• POS Pro: $89 per location per month, billed yearly, for advanced in-store features. Plus includes 20 POS Pro locations, up to 200 with Shopify Payments.
• Currency conversion: 1.5% per transaction when buyers pay in their local currency.
• Managed Markets (Shopify as merchant of record for international orders): 3.5% per transaction (3.25% on Plus), plus Shopify Payments processing that Shopify describes as a variable blended rate of about 3.9%.
• Shopify Tax: free on the first $100,000 of lifetime sales, then a 0.35% calculation fee (0.25% on Plus) on orders to US states where you collect tax. Shopify says this applies to stores created on or after May 13, 2026 with under $25 million in annual sales; older stores should check their own terms.
• Marketplace order sync: 50 synced marketplace orders a month are free; above that Shopify charges 1%, capped at $99 a month.
• Apps and themes: priced by each developer; many charge monthly.
• Promotions: Shopify currently advertises a 3-day free trial, then $1/month for the first 3 months on select plans, and “1% back on sales” credits capped at $5,000, $7,500, or $10,000 by plan. These are promotions with their own terms; do not count them in a long-term cost model.

Which plan pays for itself? (worked example — editorial calculation)

The online card rate falls by 0.2 percentage points from Basic to Grow (2.9% → 2.7%). On yearly billing, Grow costs $50 more per month than Basic, so Grow's lower card rate covers that difference once you process about $25,000 a month in standard online card sales through Shopify Payments ($50 ÷ 0.002). On monthly billing the gap is $66, so the break-even is about $33,000 a month. Grow to Advanced is another 0.2 points for $220 more per month on yearly billing, so the break-even is about $110,000 a month in card sales. This ignores the 30¢ per-order fee (identical on all three plans), premium and international cards, staff limits, and shipping features, so treat it as a starting point and model your own mix in the platform cost calculator and payment fee calculator.

Third-party processor example: a Basic-plan store processing $20,000 a month through a third-party gateway pays Shopify about $400 a month in transaction fees (2%) before the gateway's own fees. On Grow, the same volume costs about $200 a month (1%).

For how Shopify's costs compare with other platforms, see ecommerce platform pricing compared and ecommerce payment processing fees.

Last verified: Oct 7, 2026, against shopify.com/pricing, shopify.com/plus/pricing, shopify.com/pos/pricing, shopify.com/international/pricing, and shopify.com/tax.

Compare 8 Shopify alternatives by cost and fit

This page is based on first-party sources. BestStorefront has not yet created an account or run hands-on tests for this product.

• Create and configure a representative catalog, variants, inventory, shipping zones, and tax settings.
• Run storefront editing, checkout, refund, discount, and fulfillment workflows.
• Evaluate app installation, permissions, uninstall cleanup, analytics, and reporting.
• Test support responsiveness and document the full operating cost for defined merchant scenarios.

Standard storefront platforms protocol — tasks every product in this category goes through:

• Create a catalog with products, variants and inventory
• Customize a theme and core page templates
• Configure shipping, tax and payment settings
• Place a test order and issue a refund
• Install and uninstall an app; check cleanup and permissions
• Export products, customers and orders

No score or final verdict will be added until this work is complete.

Shopify is a sensible default for product-led businesses that want a managed platform, especially if they will use Shopify Payments. Before choosing it, model three numbers: your plan, your card fees at your expected sales mix, and the apps you will need on day one. If those three numbers are acceptable and you do not need to control hosting or code, Shopify is a reasonable choice. Carlos Gil's experience building Outlaw Masks on Shopify in 2020 informs the questions we ask, but it is not a current hands-on test. This assessment is based on Shopify's public pricing and documentation and carries no score.

This overview is based on Shopify's public pricing and documentation, checked Oct 7, 2026. Feature availability and commercial terms can change; verify details with Shopify.