So, what does it take to set up and run a Shopify site? What are the costs involved? Keep reading as we cover all of the potential costs you may come across when building your Shopify site.
How Much Does Shopify Cost?
While free alternatives like WordPress may have you questioning whether or not you want to pay for Shopify’s monthly fees, it’s important to understand that the upfront costs of starting a Shopify site are very much worth the time and headaches you will save when setting up your storefront. Also, the add-ons that are required to make WordPress eCommerce-friendly, quickly add up to the annual cost of using Shopify.
Shopify offers a 14-day free trial that lets you give it a test run before making the commitment (you will need to sign up for a plan before you can actually start selling products though). Once you get a feel for the system, you can choose between three plans, with two additional plans available that aren’t applicable to most new users.
| Shopify Plan | Monthly Price |
|---|---|
| Shopify Lite | $9 |
| Basic Shopify | $29 |
| Shopify | $79 |
| Advanced Shopify | $299 |
| Shopify Plus | $2,000 (negotiable) |
Shopify Lite
Monthly Price: $9
Target User: Businesses that already have a website but want to add eCommerce functionality to it
With Shopify Lite, you don’t get access to a fully functioning standalone site. The plan is designed for businesses that already have a site, but don’t have a way to sell goods or services through it. For example, it lets you insert a “Buy” button on your site (WordPress, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace), run a point of sale (POS) app that makes it easy to sell at events, and create and send invoices to customers.
Basic Shopify
Monthly Price: $29
Target User: Small businesses with a limited budget
With the Basic Shopify plan, there are no limits to the number of products you can sell and you get full access to Shopify’s core features. Along with a fully functioning website and blog, all your orders are managed through Shopify.
Additionally, you get fraud analysis tools, free SSL certification, a shipping labels generator, the ability to manually create orders if you sell products in person, unlimited file storage, and 24/7 support — just to name a few.
Built-in abandoned cart recovery is perhaps one of the most profitable features included in the basic plan. It allows you to extract contact information from an abandoned cart, which means, you can email the customer to try and regain the sale.
Shopify
Monthly Price: $79
Target User: Small to medium businesses looking to grow
Although there is quite a jump in pricing, this is the most popular Shopify plan. The features offered with this plan give you more of what the basic plan has plus a few new add-ons that can help set you apart from your competitors.
You still get the core features of the Basic plan, but several of them take it up a notch. These include better shipping rate discounts provided to Shopify by DHL Express, UPS, or USPS, and better credit card rates when processing payments through Shopify.
The plan also gives you access to even more high-quality reports, including:
- sales reports
- retail sales reports
- profit reports
- customer reports
Advanced Shopify
Monthly Price: $299
Target User: Large companies looking to scale their business
Commit to the Advanced Shopify plan and you will be rewarded with even more savings on discounted shipping costs and transaction fees.
Additionally, this plan is the best choice if admin access to Shopify needs to be given to 10 employees or more or if you have already negotiated better shipping rates than what Shopify can offer.
Shopify Plus
Monthly Price: $2,000 (negotiable)
Target User: 7-figure sales and up
Although this plan is designed for large companies, it’s still worth mentioning. With Shopify Plus, there are no transaction fees and your site is fully hosted. The plan allows you to focus more on marketing and design rather than orders and shipping.
Shopify Add-ons
From Basic Shopify to Advanced Shopify, you get a lot — but not everything. The following add-ons are highly recommended for any Shopify plan if you want to successfully compete in the eCommerce space.
Shopify Themes
Price: Free, $100–180
A lot is already set up for you in Shopify when you sign up, but you still need to customize your site, which will take time and the cost of a good theme. On average, paid Shopify themes cost between $140–180. Alternatively, you can hire a Shopify Expert or freelance developer support to help you customize a free theme. Although developer prices vary greatly, be prepared to pay more than the cost of a paid theme if you want to add features tailored to your specific brand and needs.
Shopify Experts and Freelancer Developers
Generally, you will find that the free themes are often lacking in features and will require an expert to change the coding at some point. Normally, a developer will charge approximately $50–200 for basic customizations climbing to $1,000 or more if you’re looking to make major changes or redesign your site.
If you’re starting off with a very small budget, we recommend going with a free theme and then upgrading or customizing the code later. Just be aware that you will lose any modified HTML/CSS and customized theme pages when you switch themes.
Shopify Apps
Price: Free, $5–100 / month
Shopify apps are a great way to help you boost or manage your website. There are some fantastic free and paid options available including our nine picks.
Basic apps offer free tools for product reviews, upselling, email marketing, blog management, among other things, which is great if your budget is limited. However, it’s also worth investing in apps that can better cater to your customers’ needs. Normally, prices for paid apps can range from as little as $5 to $99 a month with many offering a free trial to get a taste of their features and test out performance.
Domain Name Registration Through Shopify
If you already bought a domain name, great! If you haven’t yet, don’t worry!
Shopify does it’s best to streamline every stage of building an eCommerce website, including domain name registration (which you still need to pay for) and website hosting (which is provided as part of Shopify’s monthly fee). Shopify will charge you more for buying a domain than other popular domain providers like NameCheap or GoDaddy, but the simple fact that Shopify does all the setup for you makes it worth the little amount you would save going elsewhere.
Domains purchased through Shopify start at $11 a year and you retain ownership of the domain even if you decide to leave Shopify.
Is Shopify Worth the Cost?
By now, you have a good idea of how much Shopify costs to get started. Granted, it’s not the cheapest e-commerce solution up front, but it’s definitely one of the most reliable and easiest ways to build your site with little to no experience. If you’re serious about investing in and growing your store, then Shopify’s prices are not unreasonable.
The comprehensive eCommerce features that Shopify offers along with its 24/7 support can reliably help you scale up your business. If you make use of all the features provided with your chosen price plan and invest your time in learning digital marketing best practices and trends, you can take your business to new heights.
