The short version
Start on IONOS Starter only if none of its limits will bind within a year or two; otherwise start on Shopify and skip the later move.
On ionos.com (US), read October 23, 2026, the IONOS Online Store Starter and Plus plans cost $6 and $1 a month in the first year with a 1-year term, then $26 and $32 — so Plus ends up above Shopify Basic at $29 a month billed yearly.
Unlike Shopify Basic, which adds 2% per order when you use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments, IONOS charges no transaction fees of its own, but its pages disagree on cards: its plan page lists all major credit cards, while its store help pages set up PayPal, manual methods and Stripe for Apple Pay and Google Pay.
If you bought your domain from IONOS, Shopify connects it automatically and the registration stays with IONOS — note your MX records before you connect.
The Quick Verdict
Find your row; the sections below carry the prices, limits and sources behind each answer.
Which platform, by store profile
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 500 physical products, PayPal or offline payments are enough, and your domain and mailbox already sit at IONOS | IONOS Starter | $6 a month in year one with a 1-year term, then $26 — still under Shopify Basic's $29 billed yearly, on ionos.com (US), read October 23, 2026. |
| The same, but with up to 5,000 products | IONOS Plus — budget for year two | $1 a month in year one with a 1-year term, then $32 — above Shopify Basic's $29 billed yearly, on ionos.com (US), read October 23, 2026. |
| Card payments must be confirmed before you launch | Shopify | IONOS's pages disagree on cards: its plan page lists all major credit cards, while its store help pages set up PayPal, manual methods and Stripe for Apple Pay and Google Pay — test card checkout within the 30-day money-back window. Shopify Payments charges 2.9% + 30¢ per US online standard-card payment on Basic. |
| Buyers pay in more than one currency | Shopify | IONOS's FAQ allows one currency per shop, though its plan matrix lists multi-currency support — test it before you commit. |
| You expect to grow out of the builder | Shopify from the start | No Shopify migration page we read on October 23, 2026 names IONOS as a source, and a later CSV move leaves orders and blog posts behind. |
| The store goes to Shopify, but the domain and email stay at IONOS | Connect the IONOS domain | Shopify connects a domain bought from IONOS automatically; registration and renewal stay with IONOS, and the mailbox can too — note your MX records before you connect. |
What IONOS Sells an Online Store
Key takeaway
The store IONOS sells to a small business is the IONOS Online Store, built inside its eCommerce website builder. On ionos.com (US), read on October 23, 2026, it comes as four plans: Starter, Plus, Pro and Expert. Every plan includes a domain for the first year and an email mailbox, and IONOS pitches the bundle as one place to “choose a domain name and create a professional email address.”
There is no way to start for free. The builder page's FAQ is blunt — “No, if you're looking for a free plan, you won't find one at IONOS” — and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee instead. Hostinger sells the same kind of store inside its builder, as our Hostinger vs Shopify comparison shows.
IONOS also sells an eCommerce Plugin that adds a shop to a website you already run elsewhere, and its page promises “30+ payment providers including PayPal, Stripe, Square, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and all major credit cards.” That list belongs to the plugin. What the four Online Store plans compared in this article offer is set out under payments below.
What Each Platform Costs
Key takeaway
Both companies advertise a monthly number, and the two numbers mean different things. IONOS's is a first-year price tied to a 1-year term; Shopify's is the standing price of the plan, before payment fees. The three parts below set them side by side.
IONOS Plan Prices: Year One and After
Key takeaway
The IONOS plan page prices each plan per month “with a 1-year term” and, for two of them, adds what comes after: Starter is $6 a month, “then only $26”, and Plus is $1 a month, then $32, on ionos.com (US), read October 23, 2026. Products and mailbox size grow with the plan.
IONOS Online Store plans: year-one price, later price, products, mailbox
| IONOS plan | Year one, with a 1-year term | Price the page gives after it | Products | Mailbox |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $6/month | $26/month | Up to 500 physical | 2 GB |
| Plus | $1/month | $32/month | 5,000 | 12 GB |
| Pro | $34 or $29/month (two figures on the page) | Not stated on the plan page | 10,000 | 50 GB |
| Expert | $44 or $39/month (two figures on the page) | Not stated on the plan page | Unlimited | 50 GB |
Source: IONOS eCommerce website builder, ionos.com (US), read October 23, 2026. Every plan includes a domain for the first year; the plan page does not state the domain's price after that year. The page adds that state and local sales taxes may apply.
Pro and Expert are where the page disagrees with itself. Its plan table shows Pro at $34 and Expert at $44 a month with a 1-year term, while the “What do you want to do” block lower on the same page shows Pro at $29 and Expert at $39, both read October 23, 2026.
The plan page we read gives a “then only” price for Starter and Plus only; the sources we checked are listed under Moving From IONOS to Shopify Later. Don't average the two figures: the price in the IONOS cart before you pay is the one that governs, and that is also where to find what Pro or Expert costs after the first term.
What an IONOS Store Costs in Year One and Year Two
Key takeaway
Here is the arithmetic once, per month, on ionos.com (US) prices read October 23, 2026. IONOS Starter: $6 in year one, $26 in year two. IONOS Plus: $1 in year one, $32 in year two. Shopify Basic billed yearly: $29 in both years, or $39 paid month to month.
The jump comes from one clock: the first-year price lasts for the 1-year term, and the page's “then only” price takes over after it. That is why Plus, the cheapest plan to start on, is the dearer plan in year two — dearer than Starter and dearer than Shopify Basic billed yearly.
Two parts of the IONOS bill stay outside this example: the bundled domain is free only for the first year, and the plan page does not say what it costs after that; Pro and Expert are left out because the page gives them no later price.
What Shopify Charges at the Entry Tier
Key takeaway
Shopify's entry plan, Basic, is $39 a month, or $29 a month billed yearly, in US dollars on Shopify's pricing page. A new store starts with a 3-day free trial, then pays $1 a month for the first 3 months on most plans before standard monthly pricing applies.
That is the honest weakness on Shopify's side of this comparison: in year one it costs more than IONOS Starter or Plus in the example above, and the plan price is not the whole bill. Payment processing comes on top, and so does anything you add later, as our breakdown of Shopify's cost stack shows. What the higher price buys is in the sections on payments and limits below, not in the monthly line.
Payments and Transaction Fees
Key takeaway
A store's payment cost has two layers: what the platform charges per order, and what the payment provider charges for processing. The two platforms split those layers differently, and IONOS's own pages don't agree on which methods its store offers.
Which Payment Methods an IONOS Store Takes
Key takeaway
Four IONOS pages talk about payments, and they describe different things. Two of them, read side by side on October 23–24, 2026, are help pages for the Online Store itself — one for “Online Stores ordered from 2017 onwards,” the other for “MyWebsite Now and MyWebsite Creator with an Online Store” — and neither names the four plans:
What each IONOS page says about payment methods
| IONOS page | What it names | Which product it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Help: adding payment methods to your IONOS Online Store | Opens with “e.g. credit card or PayPal”; its setup step adds a PayPal account or a manual method to the defaults of prepayment, invoice, cash on delivery and cash payment. Stripe and Square are not named. | The Online Store, for stores ordered from 2017 onwards |
| Help: adding Apple Pay and Google Pay to your Online Store | Stripe, as “the payment service that handles Apple Pay and Google Pay”; Square is not named | MyWebsite Now and MyWebsite Creator with an Online Store |
| eCommerce website builder (marketing page) | "Credit card, PayPal, direct debit and many more"; its plan matrix lists all major credit cards and PayPal on all four plans, direct debit on Pro and Expert only; its FAQ adds “direct debit, invoicing options, and even Stripe and Bitcoin” without naming a plan | The Starter, Plus, Pro and Expert plans |
| eCommerce Plugin | 30+ payment providers, including PayPal, Stripe, Square, Google Pay, Apple Pay and all major credit cards | Only the plugin that adds a shop to another website, not the four plans |
Sources: IONOS Help — adding payment methods to your IONOS Online Store, IONOS Help — adding Apple Pay and Google Pay to your Online Store, the IONOS eCommerce website builder page and the eCommerce Plugin page, read October 23–24, 2026.
The payment-methods help page opens by saying customers can pay “e.g. credit card or PayPal,” but its setup step names “a PayPal account or manual payment method”; the plan page promises “credit card, PayPal, direct debit and many more,” and its FAQ adds “even Stripe and Bitcoin” without naming a plan. A second help page, for MyWebsite Now and MyWebsite Creator stores, names Stripe as “the payment service that handles Apple Pay and Google Pay.” No IONOS page we read shows how a card payment is set up for the four plans. Before you build the catalog, set up payments inside the 30-day money-back window and check that the method your buyers need — a card option, usually — actually appears.
What IONOS does promise is the absence of its own fee: the plan page says that with its eCommerce website builder “you'll never have to pay any additional transaction fees.” That covers IONOS's cut only. The page does not discuss what PayPal or any other provider charges for processing, so price that layer from the provider's own terms.
When Shopify Adds a Transaction Fee
Key takeaway
On Shopify, cards run through Shopify Payments, which on Basic charges 2.9% + 30¢ for a US online payment with a standard card, per Shopify's pricing page in October 2026. Use a different provider and Shopify adds a third-party transaction fee, which its Help Center says is “in addition to processing fees charged by your third-party payment provider.” The fee also applies when Shopify Payments is switched on alongside another gateway:
Third-party transaction fees apply to all transactions processed through third-party and alternate payment gateways, even when Shopify Payments is activated.
The fee varies by plan, per Shopify's third-party transaction fees page, and Shopify's pricing page shows it falling as the plan goes up:
Shopify's third-party transaction fee by plan
| Shopify plan | Price, billed monthly | Third-party transaction fee |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39/month | 2% |
| Grow | $105/month | 1% |
| Advanced | $399/month | 0.6% |
| Plus | From $2,300/month | 0.2% |
Source: Shopify pricing page and Help Center, USD, read October 2026. The fee is charged on top of the third-party provider's own processing fees.
In money: $1,000 of sales through a third-party provider on Basic costs $20 in Shopify fees, before that provider takes its own share. That is the fee IONOS says it never charges, and the reason a Shopify store usually runs on Shopify Payments.
PayPal is the exception most small stores care about: Shopify exempts PayPal transactions from the fee when Shopify Payments is your primary provider. The other cases where the fee falls away are listed in our guide to when Shopify's gateway fee is waived.
Where an IONOS Store Stops
Key takeaway
Price is rarely what pushes a store off a website builder; limits are. These are the four that IONOS's plan page, read October 23–24, 2026, puts on its store:
The currency limit is the one to test rather than trust. The builder page's FAQ says “you can only select one currency for your shop,” and the comparison table on the same page lists multi-currency support on all four plans. Treat one currency as the rule and confirm it in the store setup during the money-back window before you plan sales abroad.
On in-person selling, the same FAQ says: “The easiest way to connect your retail location with your eCommerce store is with Online Store Expert.” The plan matrix on the same page, read October 24, 2026, is wider: it lists online and offline sync with POS on Pro and Expert, Lightspeed Retail POS on Plus, Pro and Expert, and Square POS and Clover POS on Expert only.
Shopify's side of the catalog question has its own short answer in our FAQ on how many products you can have on Shopify.
When IONOS Is Enough — and When It Isn't
Key takeaway
Neither platform is the right answer for everyone, and IONOS is right more often than a Shopify blog usually admits. The test is whether the next year or two of selling fits inside IONOS's limits.
Where IONOS Is the Sensible Pick
Key takeaway
A small business that already runs its domain and email at IONOS, sells a few hundred products to local buyers, and is happy with PayPal, invoices or cash on delivery gets a working store on one bill. On Starter, that store stays below Shopify Basic billed yearly in year one and year two, and the bundled mailbox comes with it.
The choice that matters inside IONOS is the plan for year two, not year one. Plus is the cheapest way in, but its later price is the highest of the two plans in the example, so pick by the catalog and the price after the first term rather than by the first-year figure.
Where Shopify Earns Its Higher Price
Key takeaway
The case for Shopify is a set of stop signals. Any one of them, expected within a year or two, is reason enough to start there:
- Card payments must be settled before launch. IONOS's pages disagree on cards: its plan page lists all major credit cards, while its store help pages set up PayPal, manual methods and Stripe for Apple Pay and Google Pay — test card checkout within the 30-day money-back window, or choose Shopify Payments.
- A catalog that may pass the plan cap. Beyond 10,000 products only Expert is listed as unlimited, and its later price is not on the plan page.
- Buyers in more than one currency. IONOS's FAQ allows one currency per shop.
- A move you would rather not make later. No Shopify migration page we read names IONOS, so a later move uses Shopify's general routes, such as CSV files, and a CSV move leaves orders and blog posts behind.
None of that is free. Shopify costs more at the entry tier than IONOS Starter or Plus in year one, and orders paid through a provider other than Shopify Payments carry Shopify's own fee on top of the provider's.
Keeping Your IONOS Domain and Email
Key takeaway
Many readers of this page already pay IONOS for a domain and email, and that part doesn't have to move. The store can run on Shopify while the domain stays registered at IONOS.
Does Shopify Connect an IONOS Domain Automatically?
Key takeaway
The condition is where the domain was bought, not where its DNS happens to sit. Shopify's automatic connection guide puts it in one line:
If you purchased your domain from Cloudflare, GoDaddy, or IONOS, then you can connect your domain to Shopify automatically.
In the Shopify admin, go to Settings > Domains and choose Connect existing (the guide calls it Connect existing domain), enter the domain without a subdomain, choose Connect automatically and log in to your IONOS account. Shopify says it might take up to 48 hours for the domain to be fully live.
- Settings
- Domains
On the IONOS side, its help page on linking a domain to Shopify says “the setup assistant automatically sets the appropriate A record and CNAME record for the www subdomain to shops.myshopify.com.” If the automatic route doesn't go through, Shopify's IONOS connection guide gives the manual version for a domain that stays at IONOS, and warns that your domain might require extra verification through a TXT record.
Shopify's automatic list also names GoDaddy and Cloudflare, and our comparison answers whether Shopify works with a GoDaddy domain the same way.
What Happens to Your IONOS Mailbox
Key takeaway
Connecting is not transferring. Shopify's Help Center says that after you connect a third-party domain, you still log in to your domain provider “to manage domain settings, pay for your domain, and renew it,” and that Shopify Support can't log in to that account for you even with your permission. What stays with the registrar when you connect rather than transfer is laid out in our domain guide's section on connecting without transferring.
Email is the usual reason to keep it that way. Shopify's connect-or-transfer guide lists, as a reason to connect, that “you use other services (such as custom email hosting or other DNS records) that are tied to your domain provider.” Its manual connection page adds that custom or external nameservers “can cause connection and email problems when they aren't set up correctly.”
What none of the Shopify or IONOS connection pages we read on October 22–23, 2026 describes is what the automatic connection does to your existing MX records; the sources we checked are listed under Moving From IONOS to Shopify Later. So write down your MX records in IONOS before you connect, and check them afterwards.
Shopify's email setup page also says automatic authentication for IONOS domains sets up DKIM and SPF but doesn't configure a DMARC record. Our FAQ covers what stays with you after an automatic connection.
Moving From IONOS to Shopify Later
Key takeaway
Starting on IONOS and moving later is possible, but IONOS appears neither in the source list of the Store Migration app nor among the ten platform guides in Shopify's migration help, read October 23, 2026. Besides automatic import, the app's listing offers a file upload:
Upload a CSV file or, on supported platforms, connect your account to import automatically with guided setup.
Shopify's migration page describes the CSV route as the simpler approach and adds: “Note that some data like orders and blog posts can't be moved this way.” For the product file, Shopify's import guide sets one limit: “Your product CSV can't exceed 15 MB.”
What moves from IONOS to Shopify by CSV
| Data | Moves by CSV? | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Products | Yes | Shopify's product import caps one product CSV at 15 MB; split a bigger catalog into several files |
| Customers | Yes | Shopify's migration page names products and customers as what a CSV transfers |
| Orders | No | Shopify says orders can't be moved this way |
| Blog posts | No | Same note: blog posts don't move by CSV |
Sources: Shopify migration page and product import guide, read October 23, 2026. The export step happens on the IONOS side and is not covered here.
CSV is one of the routes Shopify's migration help lists, beside copying content by hand, a migration app, a Shopify Partner or the API. Which of them suits your catalog and how much work you want to do yourself is the question our migration guide answers in its section on migration methods.
Several sentences on this page describe something the official pages do not state:
- the price of IONOS Pro and Expert after the first term;
- the domain price after the free first year;
- Square in IONOS's Online Store payment help, or a setup step for card payments on the four plans on any IONOS page we read;
- an IONOS help page that names the Starter–Expert plans;
- what connecting a domain does to existing MX records;
- IONOS as a platform Shopify migrates from.
We read Shopify's Help Center pages on connecting domains (automatic, IONOS, manual, considerations, connect vs transfer), email setup and migrating to Shopify, the Store Migration app listing and shopify.com/migrate; and on IONOS, the eCommerce website builder page (US), its help pages on adding payment methods and on adding Apple Pay and Google Pay, and its two help pages on connecting a domain to Shopify — on October 22–24, 2026. The absence is the finding; if one of those pages changes, the sentence that rests on it changes too.
The Bottom Line
Key takeaway
A website-builder store is enough for a small business that sells locally, takes PayPal or offline payments and already lives at IONOS. The deciding question is not the first-year price but whether your next year or two of selling fits inside IONOS's plan caps, the one currency its FAQ allows and the payment setup its help pages describe.
Frequently Asked Questions
Front-end developer specializing in Shopify since 2017. Experienced in building custom Liquid themes, optimizing storefront performance, and integrating third-party apps. Directs the editorial process behind Ecom Store Pro: sets its topics and the rules every AI-written page must pass before publication.
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