Shopify Pricing Plans Compared: The True Cost
The monthly sticker price is only part of the cost — payment processing rate and transaction fee change based on plan too.
By Marginory teamContent reviewed
Plan comparison
| Fee type | Basic ($39/mo) | Grow ($105/mo) | Advanced ($399/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Payments rate | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.7% + $0.30 | 2.5% + $0.30 |
| 3rd-party gateway transaction fee | 2% | 1% | 0.6% |
| Annual billing discount | ~25% | ~25% | ~25% |
US monthly pricing reference: shopify.com/pricing, checked September 2026. Local prices and billing-term discounts vary.
When the processing rate difference matters
The 0.4-percentage-point gap between Basic (2.9%) and Advanced (2.5%) sounds small, but at high volume it adds up. On $50,000/month in sales, that's a $200/month difference in processing fees alone — potentially enough to justify the higher plan cost.
Break-even volume for upgrading Basic → Grow:
($105 − $39) ÷ (2.9% − 2.7%) = $33,000/month in sales
Which plan should a beginner choose?
Start with Basic if its features cover what you need. It is the lowest plan with a full online store, checkout and Shopify Payments. The Starter plan only sells through links and buy buttons on social or messaging apps; it has no full storefront, so it suits testing demand rather than running a store.
Move up for features you will actually use, or when the lower card rate pays for the higher plan. For Basic to Grow that is about $33,000 a month in online card sales, as shown above.
What adds to the real monthly total
- Payment processing: the card rate above on every order; it grows with sales, unlike the plan fee.
- Third-party gateway fee: 2%, 1% or 0.6% on top of the gateway's own charge if you do not use Shopify Payments.
- Apps and theme: many apps bill monthly and premium themes are a one-off cost. List the ones you will install and add them to the plan price.
- Domain: a yearly fee if you do not already own one.
Put your plan, apps and expected monthly sales into the Shopify fee calculator to see the full monthly cost.
Don't just compare the sticker price
A common mistake is choosing a plan purely on monthly fee without modeling the payment processing savings at your actual sales volume. For growing stores, the crossover point where a higher plan becomes cheaper overall often arrives sooner than expected.