You’re ready to get in the game! So let’s go through Shopify’s plans so you can find the one that best suits your needs.
The Shopify team offers four plans to choose from: Lite, Basic Shopify, Shopify and Advanced Shopify. It's often tough to see which one you should choose, considering you don't want to needlessly spend money for features you don't require.
Shopify Pricing: Hosting, Domains and Cancellations
Although Shopify provides domains for a mere $9 per year, I would also recommend checking out places like GoDaddy and NameCheap to shop around and see if any other pricing options are available.
Shopify presents you with monthly and yearly payment options, and although you can upgrade or downgrade your account at any time for no charge, I would consider going with the monthly plans to start out. This way, you don't get stuck in a yearly cycle if you need to modify the plan or completely stop using Shopify. The yearly plan might be better if you already have an established business and you're just migrating over to Shopify, or if you've had a successful first year with Shopify. However, startups and inventors should probably go with the monthly plan in case something happens where you need to shut down.
You can cancel your plan at any point without being charged any fees, but yearly payment is not reimbursed, so that's another reason to stick with a monthly plan to start. Now, let's take a look at the four Shopify payment plans to see which is ideal for you.
Here's a breakdown of the pricing for each plan:
- Lite – $9 per month + a Buy button
- Basic Shopify – $29 per month + 2.9% and 30¢ per transaction
- Shopify – $79 per month + 2.6% and 30¢ per transaction
- Advanced Shopify – $299 per month + 2.4% and 30¢ per transaction
There's also an Enterprise plan that gives you all the tools needed for a large operation. You'll have to contact Shopify in order to establish a custom rate along with whatever features you need. Needless to say, this is a highly customized plan so there's no need to cover it. You'll simply have to talk to Shopify if your store demands this type of support.
The Shopify Lite Plan
The Lite plan goes for $9 per month and gives you tools for selling on Facebook, accepting credit card payments and using Buy buttons. It's not exactly a real online store with a shopping cart, but it does the trick for smaller companies. I also like it if you're trying to install a few basic Buy buttons on an existing website, like for your blog or podcast website.
A new addition involves the Facebook Messenger app, which is included with Shopify Lite and allows you to chat with customers through the Facebook Messenger. This is perfect for customer support.
Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?
Shopify Lite won’t work just by purchasing a hosting plan – the intent with Shopify Lite is to add ecommerce functionality to something you already have like a blog or information site. Therefore, you need a full website already configured with hosting, a domain and everything. For example, you could install Shopify Lite on a WordPress site.
The Basic Shopify Plan
The Basic Shopify Plan takes it up a notch since you receive a discount code engine, fraud analysis tools and the ability to upload an unlimited number of products to your store. The primary step up is the fact that you gain a fully functional website and blog through Shopify. Therefore, all of your products and orders are managed through Shopify, and you won't need a separate website to make it work.
Some other perks include a free SSL certificate, manual order creation, shipping labels, unlimited file storage and 24/7 support.
The pricing structure is set at $29 per month + 2.9% and 30¢ per transaction, which is a bit higher than the Lite Plan, but it gives you the freedom to expand your store with tons of products.
Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?
If your business plans on selling more than 25 products, but you don't want to pay for the features in the Professional Plan, this is the sweet spot for you. It's also the plan you go with if you don't already have a website that you can pair with the Lite plan.
The Shopify Plan
As the most popular Shopify solution, the Shopify Plan goes for $79 per month + 2.6% and 30¢ per transaction, which is quite the jump up from the Basic Shopify Plan, yet you receive pretty much every feature Shopify has to offer.
Create an unlimited amount of products, and take advantage of everything you would get with the Basic Shopify Plan. In addition, you gain access to gift cards, professional reports and abandoned cart recovery. This abandoned cart recovery tool is one of the main reasons people tend to opt for the Professional Plan since it's one of the best ways to grab contact information from people who don't finish their orders.
This obviously shows that the person was somewhat interested, so you can contact them later to prompt a purchase. The coolest part is that the abandoned cart tool sends out automated emails based on your own preferences. For example, if user abandons a cart in your shop, you can choose to send them a promo or reminder message within six hours.
This feature is a huge deal, since on average 67.89% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts, but these abandoners spend 55% more when they are remarketed to. It's imperative to reach out to these customers and figure out why they are leaving early.
Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?
The Professional Plan works nicely for companies that plan on scaling up quick, since the unlimited products and 5 GB of data ensure that all of your items fit well into the site. If your site brings in more than $5,000 per month, the Professional Plan is a good idea, since the transaction fees drop due to the volume. You also get that coveted abandoned cart recovery tool, which is known to improve sales without much work on your end.
The Shopify Advanced Plan
The Advanced Shopify Plan is priced at $299 per month + 2.4% and 30¢ per transaction, which gives you all the features from the previous plans along with an advanced report builder and third-party calculated shipping rates. Unlimited product uploads are still available, and your transaction percentage fees go down a bit.
The best part of the Advanced Shopify pricing plan is that everything is absolutely unlimited, so your storage capabilities are never ending. Feel free to upload as many products as you want, post as many videos and images as needed and bring in all the traffic you require. Abandoned cart recovery also comes with the Unlimited package, which ensures that you can reach those sales numbers that make the increased plan pricing worthwhile.
The abandoned cart feature includes a handy area for managing all customers who have left their carts early to see if an email has been sent, and to figure out the reasons for their early departures. Finally, you can give dashboard access to 15 users, and the Shopify shipping discount is the best you can find compared to the other plans.
Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?
The Advanced Shopify Plan serves companies that would rather have their shipping handled by a third party. It's also nice for high-revenue companies that crave advanced reports, which allow for testing and projecting. You save a bit of money with the decreased transaction fees and Shopify shipping discounts, making it ideal for companies bringing in over $10,000 per month.
Shopify Pricing: Transaction Fees
If you utilize the Shopify Payments processor, you don't have to worry about processing fees. However, if you choose an option like PayPal or Authorize.net, you can expect to pay somewhere around 3% + 30¢ per transaction. Not only that, but Shopify charges on your turnover, and this ranges from 0.5% to 2%. However, some require payments. For example, S Loyalty runs at $19.99 – $119.19 per month depending on your plan.