Shopify Pricing: Plans, Fees and Hidden Costs

Shopify pricing in Australia starts at $7 per month going up to $2970+ per month with three other price points in between. In this costs guide we’ll break down the pricing and plans Shopify currently offers to online merchants.

Shopify regularly updates its pricing and plans, so it’s no wonder you’ve come here to get some clear answers. What’s more, the transaction fees and hidden costs can get a bit confusing so we’ll take the time to explain all of those as well.

In our independent testing, we scored Shopify 3/5 for overall value for money. This is on a par with competitors BigCommerce, Americommerce and Pinacle Cart – all of which scored the same as Shopify in terms of how their range of services compared with the prices charged.

Shopify Pricing: How Much Does Shopify Cost?

We all want to know how much a website costs. To make this easy, we’ve created this side-by-side comparison of costs for Shopify plans. There are five plans available, ranging in price and scale to match the particular needs of your business.

Subscription fees are charged in US dollars, however, we have converted the prices to Australian dollars to give you a better insight into your potential costs.

Pricing correct as of last update. Pricing does not include tax, and remember USD-AUD exchange rates will affect how much you pay.

Even though Shopify increased its prices in January this year – and scrapped the chance to save more money by paying for two or three years upfront – it remains a market-leading tool. Platform technicians at Shopify have recently improved localization by allowing upload of different images or videos to your main website pages (not product pages), depending on the location of your web visitor.

Updates to customer analytics this year mean you can now access additional metrics to give you better insight into your best-selling products and most successful marketing channels. So there is some justification for the increase in pricing.

Shopify offers a free trial of three days. Right now there’s a deal on for your first month for $1 after your free trial ends, so you can test out a price plan to see whether it’s the right fit.

Shopify Starter Pricing Plan

• What: Sell products via URLs and a simple landing page
• Who: Mobile-first merchants of handmade or lower-priced goods
• Why: Easy to sell via social media channels
• How much: US$5 (roughly A$7) per month

Shopify Starter (formerly called “Lite”) is the cheap option for online sellers to send “shoppable” product links in instant messages over WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS and email. This means your customers click a URL link and can buy your product directly or add to a cart and buy some more. It’s not a full online store and you’ll need your own social media channels or website to post the links on. It’s aimed at mobile device users because there isn’t loads of space for product specs, product videos, lengthy descriptions or customer reviews.

You’re encouraged to use Shopify’s free landing page app called Linkpop which lets you list products directly for sale. The idea is you can put this landing page link in your social media bio for users to quickly find your products for sale. It’s much simpler than a full online shop, and much less formal, hence the cheaper subscription price. For this reason you can expect to sell merchandise, homeware, handmade gifts, clothing, accessories and the like. It’s not a platform aimed at expensive or regulated items such as precious jewellery and medical supplies.

Shopify Starter Transaction Fees

Transaction fees: 5.0% for all third-party payment providers
Online credit card rates: 5% + 30¢

Shopify Starter Features

– One user
– Unlimited product pages
– Customer support inbox
– Shopping cart
– Order management
– Discounted shipping rates from Sendle

Basic Shopify Pricing Plan

• What: Build an ecommerce website where customers buy your products
• Who: Small-scale merchants, independent boutiques, startup businesses
• Why: Sell from a professional ecommerce website
• How much: US$29 (roughly A$42) per month – if paying for one year upfront (or US$39 equiv. roughly A$56 paying month-to-month)

This is the lowest price you can pay to set up your own Shopify webstore. You create your own online shop using the Shopify drag-and-drop website builder and gain access to Shopify’s ecommerce platform. This means you can display your products, take payments, manage order fulfilment and benefit from Sendle shipping discounts all from one place.

It’s not by chance we’ve named Shopify as one of our best ecommerce platforms for small businesses. The convenience of the Shopify Basic plan is the ability to streamline your order purchase and fulfilment workflow. You’ll be able to print shipping labels and track packages through Shopify and pay your shipping costs in the same monthly bill as your subscription.

Basic Shopify Transaction fees

Third-party transaction fees: 2.0%
Online Australian credit card rates: 1.75% + 30¢
Online international/Amex credit card rates: 2.9% + 30¢
Currency conversion fee: 2.0%

Basic Shopify Features

– Up to two users
– Online ecommerce website and blog
– Maximum four inventory locations
– Unlimited products
– Order management
– Sendle discounts up to 44%

Discount Shipping Rates: Basic Shopify Pricing Plan

While Shopify claims you’ll save up to 44% on Sendle rates, a saving of around 11% is more realistic. Here are the discounted rates available for a 1kg package with Basic Shopify.

Shopify Main Pricing Plan

• What: A solid ecommerce website with workflow automations
• Who: Managers of growing online stores
• Why: Save time on manual tasks with ecommerce automations
• How much: US$79 (roughly A$114) per month – if you pay for a year upfront (or US$105 equiv. roughly A$152 paying month-to-month)

Shopify’s mid-tier price plan doesn’t have a name, it’s simply called “Shopify”. But we’ve given it the nickname “Shopify main” to make things a bit clearer because all of the price plans are named “Shopify” in some form or another.

Shopify’s main plan includes all the features you get with lower-priced tiers, including an ecommerce website with social media channel integration so you can sell across several platforms. This is really handy because you save on the individual website maintenance costs such as hosting and a security certificate.

Now, the main new benefit you get with this plan compared with Basic Shopify is ecommerce automations. These features equip leaders of growing online stores to build workflows and save time on manual tasks, making it well worth the investment.

Although the price of this tier goes up significantly compared with the Shopify Basic plan, you won’t make big savings on credit card fees: the charge for online Australian credit cards is just 0.15% lower compared with the Basic plan. However, transaction fees are 1% which is a decent saving compared with 2% on the Basic plan. To save real money here you’d need to be selling in far greater quantities than you would be on the Basic plan.

Shopify Main Transaction fees

Third-party transaction fees: 1.0%
Online Australian credit card rates: 1.6% + 30¢
Online international/Amex credit card rates: 2.8% + 30¢
Currency conversion fee: 2.0%

Shopify Main Features

– Up to five users
– Ecommerce automations
– Maximum five inventory locations
– Unlimited products
– Order management
– Sendle discounts up to 44%

Discount Shipping Rates: Shopify Main Pricing Plan

You’ll save around 10% on Sendle shipping rates for a 1kg parcel with Shopify’s main pricing plan. 

Advanced Shopify Pricing Plan

• What: Ecommerce website with advanced reporting and more international options
• Who: International sellers with medium or large stores
• Why: Improved control on international selling and cost transparency for buyers
• How much: US$299 per month (roughly A$433 per month) – if paying for a year upfront (or US$399 equiv roughly A$577 if paying month-to-month)

Advanced Shopify is aimed at international sellers with medium-to-large scale ecommerce businesses. At this tier, you’ll benefit from 1.5% duties and import taxes rates (0.85% if you use Shopify’s own payment gateway) and country-specific features such as international pricing. The advantage of functions like these is greater pricing control for merchants and better cost transparency for ecommerce customers.

This is the cheapest Shopify price plan at which you can get third-party calculated shipping rates. Unlike the three cheaper Shopify price plans, Advanced Shopify lets you set specific price points for products in various international locations. Again, there are slight savings to be made on credit card fees but the currency conversion fee remains the same as the other price plans at 2%.

Advanced Shopify Transaction fees

Third-party transaction fees: 0.5%
Online Australian credit card rates: 1.4% + 30¢
Online international/Amex credit card rates: 2.7% + 30¢
Currency conversion fee: 2.0%

Advanced Shopify Features

– Up to 15 users
– Set variable international price points
– Maximum eight inventory locations
– Advanced report builder
– Sendle discounts up to 44%
– Third-party calculated shipping rates

Discount Shipping Rates: Advanced Shopify Pricing Plan

With Advanced Shopify you’ll save around 11% on Sendle shipping rates. Here is the price list for a 1kg parcel. 

Does Shopify Have a Free Plan?

Shopify doesn’t have a free plan but it does offer a 3-day free trial so you can test its ecommerce services free of charge. This is on par with its competitors, most of whom also offer a two-week trial period at no cost. To make it easier to start using Shopify’s features without commitment, Shopify won’t ask for your payment details until the end of the two-week period at which point you can simply walk away if you’re not comfortable signing up.

This is really convenient for those looking to set up an online store and try out the best ecommerce platforms without committing financially at first. You can save your dollars until you’re absolutely sure which ecommerce provider is best for your particular business.

Shopify Fees and Costs: Billing Cycles, Ongoing Costs and Hidden Fees

Lots of services are included in all Shopify pricing plans including the following:

• Website builder
• Web hosting
• SSL certificate
• Unlimited products
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Discounted Sendle shipping rates

Shopify Billing Cycles

• Shopify subscriptions are charged month to month unless you pay in advance for a whole year
• Cancel your Shopify subscription at any time (however, you won’t be refunded that month’s fee)
• You can downgrade or upgrade your Shopify plan at any time

Additional Shopify Costs:

• Domain name that isn’t myshopify.com
• Third-party transaction fees of 2%, 1% or 0.5% with the Basic Shopify, Shopify and Advanced Shopify plans respectively
• Currency conversion fees of 2%
• Credit and debit card fees (these vary depending on price plan)
• Mandatory taxes such as GST
• Duties and import taxes rates of 1.5% (applicable for Advanced Shopify)

However, you can avoid transaction fees by signing up for and using Shopify Payments, the company’s proprietary payment gateway. With Shopify Payments the duties and import taxes rates decreases to 0.85%.

Shopify Pricing Versus Competitors’ Pricing

According to our independent research, Shopify is middle-of-the-road when it comes to Value For Money, scoring 3 out of a possible 5. This puts it on exactly the same level as BigCommerce, Americommerce and Pinacle Cart.

Competitors Which Scored Higher than Shopify in Value for Money:

Shopify was not the top-scoring ecommerce platform provider when our researchers looked into its value for money. The following providers are better value for money, according to our in-depth testing:

1. Square: 4.7/5
2. WooCommerce: 4.3/5
3. Squarespace: 4.2/5
4. Wix: 4.2/5

When you’re working out which ecommerce platform provider is best for your particular business needs, you should be aware that BigCommerce, unlike Shopify, doesn’t charge any transaction fees. Feel free to check out our complete guide to the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses if Shopify looks like the wrong fit for your strategic goals.