Shopify is the leading hosted e-commerce platform for building an online store, and it is the best fit for businesses whose main goal is selling products online and scaling up. Shopify’s Basic plan costs $29/month billed yearly ($39 billed monthly), with online card rates from 2.9% + 30¢ through Shopify Payments, and new stores can start with a 3-day free trial followed by $1/month for three months. Our verdict: Shopify is the strongest all-round choice for serious online stores, but apps and payment fees raise the real cost. See Shopify’s current plans.
Updated October 2026.
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Shopify at a glance: key facts
| Item | Shopify (October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Starting price | $29/mo (Basic, billed yearly); $5/mo Starter for social selling only |
| Renewal price | Same list price; monthly billing costs about 25% more ($39/mo for Basic) |
| Best for | Online-first stores, dropshipping, DTC brands and growing retailers |
| Free domain? | No custom domain included; you get a free myshopify.com address |
| Money-back guarantee | None; 3-day free trial, then $1/month for three months |
| Online card rate | 2.9% + 30¢ (Basic), 2.7% + 30¢ (Grow), 2.5% + 30¢ (Advanced) |
| Rating | 4.6/5 (our assessment) |
Pros:
- Purpose-built for e-commerce, from first sale to large catalogs
- Huge app store and theme marketplace
- Shopify Payments, Shop Pay and built-in multichannel selling
- Shopify Sidekick AI assistant and AI store tools included
- Integrated Shopify POS for in-person sales
Cons:
- Extra 2% to 0.6% fee if you use a third-party payment gateway
- Paid apps and premium themes add up quickly
- No free plan and no money-back guarantee
- Content and blogging tools are basic compared with WordPress
What is Shopify and who is it for?
Shopify is a hosted e-commerce platform from Shopify Inc., headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. Shopify gives you the storefront, checkout, hosting, security and payment processing in one subscription, so you can launch an online store without managing servers or plugins.
Shopify fits sellers who expect e-commerce to be the core of their business:
- New brands launching a direct-to-consumer store
- Dropshipping and print-on-demand sellers using apps such as DSers or Printful
- Retailers who want online, social and in-person sales in one system
- Growing stores that may later need Shopify Plus or enterprise features
If you need a content-heavy site with a small shop, a general website builder may suit you better; compare options in our best e-commerce website builders guide.
How much does Shopify cost in 2026?
Shopify sells monthly subscriptions, with roughly 25% off when you pay yearly. The US prices below are as published in 2026.
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Online card rate (Shopify Payments) | Third-party gateway fee | Additional staff accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $5/mo | n/a | Higher per-sale fees | n/a | Social and link selling only |
| Basic | $29/mo | $39/mo | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2% | No additional staff |
| Grow | $79/mo | $105/mo | 2.7% + 30¢ | 1% | 5 |
| Advanced | $299/mo | $399/mo | 2.5% + 30¢ | 0.6% | 15 |
| Plus | From $2,300/mo (3-year term) | n/a | Negotiated | 0.2% | Unlimited |
Shopify’s current trial offer is three days free, then $1/month for the first three months on eligible plans. There is no free plan, and Shopify doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee, so use the trial to test properly before you commit.
What does Shopify really cost?
The plan fee is only the starting point. Typical extra costs include:
- Payment processing: 2.9% + 30¢ per online card sale on Basic through Shopify Payments.
- Third-party gateway fees: if you use PayPal, Stripe or another provider instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds 2% (Basic), 1% (Grow) or 0.6% (Advanced) on top of that provider’s fees.
- Apps: reviews, subscriptions, upsells and email marketing apps often cost $10 to $50+ per month each.
- Themes: Shopify offers free themes, while premium themes are a one-time purchase that commonly costs a few hundred dollars.
- Domain: a custom domain is bought separately through Shopify or another registrar.
Which Shopify plan should you choose?
Basic covers most new stores. Grow makes sense once lower card rates and staff accounts save more than the $50/month difference. Advanced suits high-volume stores that need custom reports and the lowest standard rates. Starter isn’t a full store: it is for selling through social media and links.
What are Shopify’s best features?
Checkout and Shop Pay
Shopify’s checkout is one of the most trusted in e-commerce. Shop Pay saves buyer details for one-tap checkout across Shopify stores, and Shopify supports major wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
App store and themes
Shopify’s app store has thousands of apps for reviews, subscriptions, bundles, loyalty, shipping and marketing. The theme store includes free themes and premium themes, all mobile-responsive and editable in Shopify’s section-based theme editor.
Multichannel and in-person selling
Shopify connects your catalog to sales channels such as Facebook and Instagram, Google, TikTok and marketplaces through apps. Shopify POS lets you sell in person with the same inventory and customer data. Shopify also promotes “agentic commerce” on Basic and above, which helps products surface and sell inside AI chat assistants.
Shopify Sidekick and AI tools
Shopify Sidekick is an AI assistant built into the Shopify admin. It can answer questions about your store, draft product descriptions, build reports and help with settings. Shopify also offers AI tools for generating theme content and images.
Scalability
Shopify handles everything from a first product to very large catalogs and traffic spikes, and stores can move up to Shopify Plus without re-platforming. That growth path is a key reason brands choose Shopify over general website builders.
How good is Shopify for SEO and marketing?
Shopify covers the SEO basics well. You can edit page titles, meta descriptions and URL handles for products, collections and pages, and Shopify generates a sitemap and canonical tags automatically. Every store gets an SSL certificate at no extra cost. One limitation is Shopify’s fixed URL structure, which adds prefixes such as /products/ and /collections/ that you can’t remove.
For marketing, Shopify includes discount codes, gift cards (on most plans), abandoned-checkout emails and customer segmentation. Shopify Email and Shopify Inbox handle email campaigns and customer chat, and the app store covers reviews, loyalty programs and advanced SEO tools.
Shipping and international selling
Shopify Shipping lets you buy discounted labels from major carriers inside the admin, and Shopify Markets helps you sell in multiple currencies and languages with local pricing. Grow and Advanced plans add more reporting and better shipping discounts, which matter once order volume rises.
What is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is the enterprise tier for high-volume brands. Plus starts around $2,300/month on a three-year term and adds checkout customization, automation with Shopify Flow, B2B features, expansion stores and dedicated support. Most small businesses never need Plus, but knowing it exists matters if you plan to scale.
What are the downsides of Shopify?
Transaction fees for third-party gateways
Shopify pushes sellers toward Shopify Payments. If you need a different processor, the extra 0.6% to 2% per sale is a real cost at volume.
App costs add up
Features that some competitors include, such as advanced product reviews, subscriptions or complex product options, often need paid apps on Shopify. A store with several apps can easily spend more on apps than on the plan itself.
Limited content tools
Shopify’s blog and page editor are adequate for product marketing, but content-led sites will find WordPress, Wix or Squarespace more flexible.
No refunds on subscription fees
Shopify doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee. You can cancel anytime, but paid months aren’t refunded.
Is Shopify easy to use?
Shopify is easy for beginners who follow the setup checklist: add products, choose a theme, set up payments and shipping, and connect a domain. The theme editor is section-based, so it’s harder to break the layout than in freeform builders. More advanced customization uses Liquid, Shopify’s theme language, or apps.
Before launching, pick a store name that is free everywhere. Brainstorm with the namechk business name generator or brand name generator, then check domains and social handles with the namechk username and domain checker.
How does Shopify compare with alternatives?
| Platform | Starting price (yearly billing) | Online card rate | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | $29/mo (Basic) | 2.9% + 30¢ | Online-first stores that want to scale |
| BigCommerce | $29/mo (Core) | From 2.89% + 29¢ | Larger catalogs, B2B and multi-storefront selling |
| Wix | $29/mo (Core) | Processor fees only | Service businesses with a store |
| Square Online | $0 (Free plan) | 3.3% + 30¢ on Free | Square POS users and restaurants |
For the closest alternative, see our BigCommerce review.
How we evaluated Shopify
This Shopify review is based on Shopify’s published pricing, help-center documentation on fees, product pages for Sidekick and Shopify POS, and a reputable third-party pricing breakdown updated in 2026 (Shopify’s pricing page showed local currency to our tools). We compared plan costs, payment fees, extra costs, features and scalability against BigCommerce, Wix and Square Online. We did not run test stores; the review reflects documentation as of October 2026.
Is Shopify worth it in 2026? Our verdict
Shopify is worth it for anyone building a serious online store. It offers the most mature e-commerce ecosystem, a trusted checkout and a clear path from first sale to enterprise. The trade-offs are cost creep from apps and fees for third-party gateways, plus limited content tools.
Our rating: 4.6/5 (our assessment). If selling online is your main goal, start a Shopify trial and map out your app and payment costs before you pick a plan.
FAQs
How much does Shopify cost per month in 2026?
Shopify’s Basic plan costs $29 per month billed yearly or $39 billed monthly. Grow costs $79 per month yearly or $105 monthly, and Advanced costs $299 yearly or $399 monthly. Starter costs $5 per month for social and link selling, and Shopify Plus starts around $2,300 per month on a three-year term. Payment processing and apps cost extra.
Does Shopify charge transaction fees?
Shopify charges card processing through Shopify Payments, starting at 2.9% + 30¢ per online sale on Basic. If you use a third-party payment gateway instead, Shopify adds a transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced, on top of that provider’s own fees. Using Shopify Payments avoids the extra fee.
Is Shopify good for beginners?
Yes. Shopify is beginner-friendly for online stores: the setup checklist walks you through products, theme, payments, shipping and domain, and the section-based theme editor makes layout changes safe. Shopify Sidekick, the built-in AI assistant, can answer setup questions and draft content. Beginners should budget for apps, which add features but also cost.
Does Shopify have a free plan or free trial?
Shopify has no permanent free plan. As of 2026, new merchants can try Shopify free for three days and then pay $1 per month for the first three months on eligible plans before standard pricing applies. Shopify doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee, so use the trial period to test your store setup.
Is Shopify better than Wix for e-commerce?
For dedicated online stores, Shopify is usually better: it has deeper inventory and checkout features, a larger app ecosystem and a clearer path to high volume. Wix is better for businesses that need a full website with bookings, events or content and a smaller shop. Both start at $29 per month billed yearly for selling plans.
Do I need my own domain for Shopify?
No. Every Shopify store gets a free myshopify.com address, but most businesses connect a custom domain for branding and trust. Shopify doesn’t include a free custom domain with its plans; you can buy one through Shopify or another registrar and connect it in your admin settings.
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