Stop overpaying for features you don't need. Data-driven guide to choosing the right Shopify plan for your business stage, team size, and revenue — from Starter to Plus.
March 23, 2026·13 min read·
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Choosing a Shopify plan doesn't have to be complicated. Here's everything that matters — skim first, then dive into the section most relevant to your situation.
Most new stores should start on Basic ($39/mo) — it includes everything you need to launch, sell, and grow until you hit ~$33K/mo in revenue.
Starter ($5/mo) isn't a real store — it's a link-based checkout for social sellers. No custom storefront, no SEO, 5% card rates.
Grow ($105/mo) is about team, not features — the main upgrade: 5 staff accounts and professional reports. Lower card rates (2.7%) are a bonus.
Card rate savings alone rarely justify upgrades — the 0.2% difference between plans saves just $100/mo at $50K revenue. Upgrade for operational needs.
Plus ($2,300/mo) is for enterprise operations — checkout customization, Shopify Audiences, and B2B features are the differentiators at this tier.
Staff accounts are the #1 upgrade trigger — Basic allows only 1 (owner). If you hire anyone who needs admin access, you need Grow.
Annual billing saves up to 25% — Basic drops from $39 to $29/mo. Don't pay monthly unless you're still testing.
Don't over-upgrade — the most expensive mistake isn't choosing the wrong plan, it's paying for features you won't use for another year.
What You'll Learn
1Which Shopify plan fits your business right now
2How to decide between plans without guessing
3Feature differences that actually matter
4Cost-vs-value analysis at every revenue level
5When to upgrade — and when NOT to
6Mistakes that cost merchants hundreds per month
In This Article
Quick Answer: Which Plan Do You Need?
Don't overthink it. Your Shopify plan choice depends on three things: your monthly revenue, your team size, and whether you sell internationally. Here's the shortest possible answer:
1
Social selling only? → Starter ($5/mo)
You sell through Instagram, TikTok, or messaging apps. You don't need a custom online store. You're OK with 5% + 30¢ card rates and a basic link-based checkout.
2
Building a real store? → Basic ($39/mo)
You're launching an online store, solo or with a partner. Revenue under $33K/mo. You need unlimited products, Shopify Payments (2.9% + 30¢), abandoned cart recovery, and shipping discounts.
3
Growing team? → Grow ($105/mo)
You have 2–5 people who need admin access. Revenue $10K–$150K/mo. You want professional reports and slightly lower card rates (2.7% + 30¢).
4
Scaling internationally? → Advanced ($399/mo)
Revenue $150K+/mo, 6–15 staff, and selling across borders. You need calculated shipping rates at checkout, enhanced support, and 2.5% + 30¢ card rates.
5
Enterprise / $800K+ revenue? → Plus (from $2,300/mo)
You need customizable checkout, B2B wholesale, Shopify Audiences, bot protection, unlimited staff, and the lowest card rates.
Not sure? Start on Basic
You can upgrade or downgrade at any time from Settings → Plan. There's no penalty, no lock-in, and no data loss. Start on Basic, and upgrade only when you need a feature that Basic doesn't have — not when you think you might need it someday.
How Much Does Shopify Cost? | Shopify Pricing Explained in Under 3 MinutesQuick visual overview of all Shopify plans and what each tier includes — ideal if you prefer watching over reading.
Revenue thresholds are based on card rate breakeven analysis. See our full cost breakdown for details.
3Where and how do you sell?
Online only, domestic → Basic or Grow
Social media / link-based → Starter
International shipping → Advanced (carrier-calculated rates)
B2B + wholesale → Plus (built-in B2B channel)
4What's your 12-month growth target?
Testing / validating → Basic + $1/mo trial
Scaling to $50K+/mo → Start Basic, plan for Grow
Building a team → Grow from day one
Enterprise ambitions → Advanced or Plus
Want a quick recommendation? Take this interactive quiz — it maps your answers to the right plan automatically.
Which Shopify Plan Do You Need?Answer 5 questions to get a personalized plan recommendation
Question 1 of 5
How many people need admin access to your store?
Multiple factors point to different plans?
When your answers suggest different plans, go with the one driven by team size. You can't work around staff account limits, but you can absorb slightly higher card rates. A team that can't access the admin panel costs more in lost productivity than the card rate difference.
Best Plan by Business Type
Now that you've answered the four framework questions, here's how those answers map to specific business scenarios:
Solo Entrepreneur / Side Hustle
Plan: Basic ($39/mo). You're doing everything yourself. You need a full store but don't need staff accounts. Use the $1/mo trial to validate. Upgrade to Grow only when you hire your first team member.
Small DTC Brand ($10K–$50K/mo)
Plan: Basic or Grow. If it's just you and one VA, Basic works. If you have 2+ team members needing admin access, Grow is the right call. The card rate difference saves ~$50–$100/mo — helpful but not the deciding factor.
Dropshipping Business
Plan: Basic. Dropshipping margins are tight — keep platform costs low. Card rates matter less because your AOV is typically lower. Focus spending on ads and product testing, not plan upgrades.
Growing Brand ($50K–$200K/mo)
Plan: Grow or Advanced. Team size is the deciding factor. Grow handles up to 5 staff; Advanced adds carrier-calculated shipping and 15 accounts. Consider Advanced only when international logistics require real-time rates.
Retail + Online (Omnichannel)
Plan: Grow + POS Pro ($89/location). You need staff accounts for store employees and POS Pro for advanced inventory. Basic's single account is too limiting for physical retail operations.
B2B / Wholesale
Plan: Plus. Only Plus includes native B2B features: custom catalogs, company accounts, volume pricing, and net payment terms (net 30/60). No workaround on lower plans matches this.
International / Multi-Market
Plan: Advanced or Plus. Shopify Markets works on all plans, but calculated shipping rates (Advanced+) are critical for international orders. Plus adds multi-currency pricing control and expansion stores.
High-Volume / Enterprise ($500K+/mo)
Plan: Plus. Checkout customization, Shopify Audiences, and B2B features are the differentiators. At this scale, Plus's higher cost is a small fraction of revenue.
Found your scenario? Now let's dive into the details of each plan — you'll know exactly which sections to focus on.
All 5 Shopify Plans Explained
Shopify offers five pricing tiersVerified SourceShopify Pricing PageShopify · 2026View source in 2026. All prices are USD monthly rates — annual billing saves up to 25% on every plan.
“We offer a 25% discount for yearly subscriptions if you choose the Basic, Grow, or Advanced plans.”
Starter is not a traditional e-commerce plan. It gives you a simple product page and Shopify's checkout, designed for selling through social media, messaging apps, or embedding buy buttons on existing websites. There's no customizable online store, no SEO-optimized storefront, and card rates are the highest at 5% + 30¢.
Best for: Creators, influencers, and social sellers who want to monetize an audience without building a full store. If you plan to drive organic traffic through Google, Starter is the wrong choice.
Basic — $39/month ($29 annual)
Basic is the default starting point for new Shopify stores. It includes everything you need for a real business: unlimited products, a fully customizable online store, abandoned cart recovery, discount codes, up to 87% shipping discounts, and Shopify Payments at 2.9% + 30¢Verified SourceShopify PaymentsShopify · 2026View source .
The main limitation: only 1 staff account (the store owner). If anyone else needs admin access — a virtual assistant, a fulfillment partner, a marketing manager — you'll need Grow.
Grow — $105/month ($79 annual)
Grow (previously named "Shopify" plan) is the team plan. The headline upgrade: 5 staff accountsVerified SourceShopify PricingShopify · 2026View source with permission controls, plus professional reports for deeper analytics. Card rates drop to 2.7% + 30¢.
Best for: Growing businesses with 2–5 team members who need admin access. The $66/mo price difference from Basic is justified by staff accounts alone — hiring help without giving them platform access creates operational bottlenecks.
Advanced — $399/month ($299 annual)
Advanced is for scaling operations with international reach. It adds 15 staff accountsVerified SourceShopify PricingShopify · 2026View source , calculated third-party shipping rates at checkout, enhanced support, and card rates at 2.5% + 30¢. Third-party transaction fees drop to just 0.6%.
Best for: Businesses doing $150K+/mo or selling internationally where real-time carrier-calculated shipping rates matter. If you're under $150K/mo and don't need the extra staff accounts or shipping features, you're likely overpaying.
Plus — from $2,300/month
Plus is Shopify's enterprise tier with features unavailable on any other plan: customizable checkout, B2B wholesale, Shopify Audiences, bot protection, unlimited staff, and the most competitive card ratesVerified SourceShopify Plus PricingShopify · 2026View source . Pricing is negotiable based on volume.
Best for: Businesses doing $800K+ annually where checkout customization, B2B, or Audiences can deliver measurable ROI. The specific return depends on your product type, average order value, and current conversion rates.
“Save money on every transaction and lower your cost of ownership with Shopify Plus, the platform of choice for over 14,000 of the world's leading brands.”
Shopify — Shopify Plus Pricing · View source (shopify.com)Shopify Pricing Plans: Starter vs Basic vs Grow vs Advanced vs Plus — How Much Does Shopify Cost?Detailed walkthrough of every Shopify plan tier with side-by-side feature comparison.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Here's the complete side-by-side breakdown. Focus on the rows that matter for your business — most merchants only need 3–4 of these features to differentiate between plans.
Many merchants obsess over which plan has the lowest card rate, but the real value difference is in operational features. Here's what each plan upgrade actually buys you:
What Each Upgrade Actually Buys You
Upgrade
Price Jump
Key Gains
Fee Breakeven
Basic → Grow
+$66/mo
+4 staff accounts, professional reports, 0.2% lower card rate
Notice the pattern: card rate savings alone rarely justify an upgrade. The breakeven points assume identical features — in practice, you upgrade because you need staff accounts, shipping rates, or enterprise capabilities. For a complete cost analysis with interactive calculator, see our Shopify Pricing Explained guide.
Don't forget total cost of ownership
Plan fees represent just 5–15% of your total monthly Shopify spend. Transaction fees (2.15%–2.9%), apps ($100–$500+/mo), and themes ($0–$400 one-time) make up the rest. A store doing $30K/mo on Basic pays ~$39 in plan fees but ~$900+ total. See the True Cost Calculator for your specific breakdown.
Shopify Pricing Plans 2025 — Which One Should You Pick?In-depth analysis of which plan delivers the best value at different revenue levels.
When to Upgrade: Clear Signals
The most expensive mistake isn't choosing the wrong plan — it's upgrading too early and paying for features you won't use. Here are the clear, unambiguous signals that it's time to move up:
You need more staff accounts
The #1 upgrade trigger. If you're sharing your owner login with employees (a security risk), it's time for Grow. Each unauthorized shared login increases your vulnerability to accidental changes or data exposure.
Revenue crosses the breakeven point
Basic → Grow at ~$33K/mo. Grow → Advanced at ~$147K/mo. At these points, lower card rates offset the plan price difference — and you get extra features as a bonus.
You're making decisions without data
Basic's analytics are limited. If you need cohort analysis, customer lifetime value, or product performance reports to make decisions, Grow's professional reports are worth the upgrade.
International shipping is costing you sales
If customers abandon checkout because shipping costs aren't calculated accurately, Advanced's carrier-calculated rates pay for themselves quickly.
You need checkout customization
Only Plus lets you add custom fields, upsells, loyalty integration, and branding to checkout. If your conversion rate plateaus and you've optimized everything else, this is the lever.
You're launching B2B/wholesale
No lower plan offers native B2B with custom catalogs, company accounts, and net terms. If you're manually managing wholesale orders, Plus eliminates hours of operational overhead.
Upgrade anti-patterns
Don't upgrade because: you think it'll make your store faster (it won't — all plans use the same infrastructure). You want "better analytics" at $5K/mo (use Google Analytics instead). You feel you've "outgrown" Basic (Basic handles stores doing $50K+/mo just fine). You want lower card rates at low volume (the savings are negligible below breakeven points).
7 Common Plan Selection Mistakes
1
Starting on Grow 'just in case'
If you're the only person running the store, you don't need 5 staff accounts. That's $66/mo ($792/year) wasted. Start on Basic — you can upgrade in 2 clicks.
2
Upgrading for card rate savings at low volume
The 0.2% rate difference between Basic and Grow saves just $20/mo at $10K revenue. You're paying $66/mo more for the plan — a net loss of $46/mo.
3
Choosing Starter to 'save money'
Starter's 5% card rate means you pay $500 in processing on $10K revenue, vs $320 on Basic's 2.9%. The $34/mo 'savings' on the plan fee costs you $180/mo in extra fees.
4
Paying monthly instead of annually
If you've been on Shopify for more than 3 months and plan to continue, switch to annual billing. Basic: $120/yr saved. Grow: $312/yr. Advanced: $1,200/yr.
5
Upgrading to Advanced for 'better reports'
At $15K/mo, you're paying an extra $294/mo for reports you could get from Google Analytics and Shopify's free Basic analytics. The reports don't pay for themselves until ~$100K/mo+.
6
Not using Shopify Payments
Using an external gateway on Basic adds 2.0% per transaction on top of the gateway's fees. On $20K/mo, that's $400/mo in unnecessary fees — more than the difference between Basic and Advanced. See our complete Shopify Payments guide for fee details.
7
Ignoring the $1/month trial
New stores that skip the 3-day free trial + $1/mo for 3 months promotion leave $114 on the table (difference between $3 and $117 for 3 months of Basic). Always start with the promotional offer.
“Accept payments online, in-store, and on-the-go with Shopify Payments. Get faster payouts, unlock Shop Pay checkout, and access growth tools like Finance, unified retail, and Markets.”
After analyzing features, fees, and breakeven points across all five Shopify plans, here's our clear recommendation:
The best Shopify plan isn't the one with the most features — it's the cheapest plan that doesn't limit your daily operations. You can change plans at any time. Start low, measure results, and upgrade only when you hit a concrete wall.
Basic ($39/mo, or $29/mo with annual billing) is the best plan for beginners. It includes everything you need: unlimited products, a full online store, Shopify Payments (2.9% + 30¢), abandoned cart recovery, discount codes, shipping labels with up to 87% discounts, and 24/7 support. The Starter plan ($5/mo) is too limited for most businesses — it doesn't give you a customizable online store. Start on Basic and upgrade only when your revenue or team size demands it.
The main differences are: (1) Staff accounts — Basic has 1 (owner only), Grow has 5. (2) Card rates — Basic charges 2.9% + 30¢, Grow charges 2.7% + 30¢ online. (3) Reporting — Grow includes professional reports with custom filtering. (4) Price — Basic is $39/mo ($29 annual), Grow is $105/mo ($79 annual). The card rate difference saves about $100/mo at $50K revenue. For most merchants, the staff account limit is the real reason to upgrade, not the fee savings.
Upgrade to Grow when: (1) You need to give admin access to employees or partners — Basic only allows the store owner. (2) You need professional reports for data-driven decisions. (3) Your monthly revenue consistently exceeds $33K — at that point, the lower card rates offset the $66/mo price difference. Most merchants upgrade because of staff needs well before the fee math justifies it.
Advanced is worth it primarily for operational features, not card rate savings. You need ~$147K/mo revenue for the 0.2% card rate difference (2.7% → 2.5%) to offset the $294/mo price gap. But Advanced also offers: 15 staff accounts, calculated third-party shipping rates at checkout, enhanced support, and better API limits. If you sell internationally and need live carrier rates, or have a team of 6–15 people, Advanced delivers value beyond the fee math.
You likely need Plus if: (1) You do $800K+/year and need checkout customization for conversion optimization. (2) You need B2B/wholesale with custom pricing and net payment terms. (3) You want Shopify Audiences to optimize ad targeting. (4) You run flash sales and need bot protection. (5) You have 15+ staff. If none of these apply, Advanced or even Grow is sufficient. Don't upgrade to Plus because you think it'll make your store 'more professional' — it's an operational tool for high-volume businesses.
Yes, you can upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time from Settings → Plan in your Shopify admin. When you upgrade, the new plan takes effect immediately and you're charged a prorated amount. When you downgrade, the change takes effect at the start of your next billing cycle. There's no penalty for switching. This means you can start on Basic and upgrade only when you need to — there's no advantage to starting on a higher plan 'just in case.'
Pay annually if you've validated your business idea and plan to sell for at least a year. Annual billing saves 25%: Basic drops from $39 to $29/mo ($120/year saved), Grow from $105 to $79/mo ($312/year saved), Advanced from $399 to $299/mo ($1,200/year saved). Pay monthly only during the initial testing phase — use Shopify's $1/mo promotional offer first, then switch to annual once you're committed.
The cheapest path: (1) Claim Shopify's $1/mo for 3 months offer on the Basic plan ($3 total for ~90 days). (2) Use a free theme like Horizon (Shopify's new default) or Dawn. (3) Use Shopify Payments to avoid third-party fees. (4) Rely on built-in features (email, analytics, abandoned cart) instead of paid apps. (5) After 3 months, switch to annual billing ($29/mo). Your first-year total: $3 + ($29 × 9) = $264 for the subscription. Transaction fees (2.9% + 30¢) are additional.
No. All Shopify plans use the same hosting infrastructure, CDN, and server technology. Your store speed is determined by your theme, app count, image optimization, and code quality — not your plan tier. A Basic plan store can be just as fast as a Plus store. The performance differences between plans are in API rate limits and backend features, not front-end speed.
Shopify Basic ($39/mo) vs BigCommerce Standard ($39/mo): similar pricing, but Shopify has a larger app ecosystem and better theme selection. Shopify vs WooCommerce: WooCommerce is 'free' but hosting ($20–$100+/mo), SSL, security, and maintenance typically cost $100–$500/mo for a comparable setup. Shopify vs Squarespace Commerce ($33/mo): Squarespace is slightly cheaper but has far fewer e-commerce features and integrations. For most online businesses, Shopify offers strong value at the Basic tier.
Every Shopify plan (including Starter) includes: Shopify Payments, unlimited products, 24/7 support, SSL certificate, fraud analysis, manual order creation, and discount codes. Plans from Basic and up add: a full customizable online store, abandoned cart recovery, shipping label printing, staff accounts (varying by plan), analytics, and blogging. The core selling infrastructure is the same — plans differ in team features, reporting depth, and processing rates.
No. Each Shopify store requires its own separate subscription. If you want to run two stores, you'll pay for two plans. Shopify Plus is the exception — it includes additional expansion stores at a reduced rate (negotiated). For merchants who want to sell in multiple markets, Shopify Markets (included in all plans) lets you customize products, pricing, and languages for different regions within a single store — often a better solution than running separate stores.
Front-end developer specializing in Shopify since 2017. Experienced in building custom Liquid themes, optimizing storefront performance, and integrating third-party apps. Writes in-depth, data-driven e-commerce guides based on hands-on experience with real merchant stores.
This article was written entirely by AI under human editorial direction. The editor sets the topic and structure, runs multi-stage validation on facts, links, and interactive elements, and verifies the output is useful from a business perspective. All claims are checked against official Shopify sources. Details may change — always confirm critical data at shopify.com.
