Shopify Pricing (2022): What should we expect from their plans and prices?

Shopify development company – one of the most profitable e-commerce businesses. Just look at these crazy ecommerce numbers:

It turns out that I have hardly written about Shopify at all: I looked at the service itself, made a comparison with competitors, and also found interesting statistics about all this.

But today I will talk about one specific part of Shopify:

Pricing.

While Shopify seems like a great option, there’s no shortage of competitors. And truth be told, even if Shopify is a great service, costs can add up quickly.

So if you’re interested in Shopify, you need to know if the price is worth it.

Let’s dig a little deeper. I’ll start with an overview of:

Shopify Pricing: Plans

First, let me show you the actual prices we’re looking at.

These are the three main levels:

Shopify also offers a couple of other plans:

One is Shopify Lite, which costs just $9 a month and lets you add a shopping cart to your store and sell on Facebook.

The other is Shopify Plus, which is an enterprise-level solution. You’d have to run a pretty big business to use this, so the price would be custom.

For the most part, I’m only going to talk about the three main pricing plans in this article.

This is because this is what most of you will be looking at, and these are the plans Shopify usually rates on.

One more note about pricing that is VERY important:

These prices assume you pay monthly, which is the default method for Shopify.

Why does it matter?

TONS of software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies list prices as $ _/month, but actually charge you upfront for a year of service. The price per month is often a clever way to make it look cheap.

Prices are actually monthly, which makes them much more flexible.

You can buy a 2 or XNUMX year plan that discounts 10% and 20%, respectively.

So, given this pricing structure, let’s delve into what the numbers actually mean for you.

Breakdown by Shopify Prices

Part 1: How much does Shopify cost?

I’ve already shown you the pricing levels, and I’m going to cover additional costs soon, but first let’s do a quick overview to keep it simple:

Shopify Costs are essentially distributed as follows:

• Shopify Lite + Everything you spend on your online presence
• 3 basic Shopify tiers + transaction fees + domain name + additional premium themes, apps
• These costs are paid monthly, unless you choose a 1-2 year commitment.

Part 2: Which plan is right for you?

If you’re trying to keep costs down as much as possible, and you already have some online presence for your brand-a website, Facebook page, etc.-then Shopify-Level Lite ($9/month) isn’t bad., etc. – then Shopify-Level Lite ($9/month) isn’t bad.

However, it really depends on how much you’re already spending on your online presence. If you’re paying a minimal amount for an online presence, a simple Shopify checkout integration might be worth it.

But if you’re already spending a little, it might be worth using one of the following options: Shopifybasic levels, or B) using a website builder or web hosting plan that includes basic shopping cart features.

In general, small businesses and individuals are well suited to the first tier, basic Shopify.

It’s much more expensive than the Lite plan, but it also offers you a comprehensive solution.

So if you’re a small brand and prefer ease of use, being able to manage everything on one platform, Basic Shopify is better, If you’re small and want to keep your flexibility by connecting different services together, Shopify Lite is better.

Tiers two and three have the same basic features (unlimited products, discounts, etc.), As well as storage and bandwidth permissions.

So, the main differences between the tiers are advanced features, not performance:

Previously, the abandoned garbage can recovery tool was only available for tiers two and three and was the main reason people chose these higher plans.

So while the first plan for this feature is now much improved, you will need to ask yourself if your business is profitable enough with these OTHER additional features:

Gift cards are useful if your customer base is significant and consistent enough, and helpful reports are always helpful.

Shipping discounts are a great incentive to upgrade levels IF you sell items that need to be shipped.

But if you’re selling digital downloads, for example, I’m not sure the highest level is really necessary – first or second would be fine, depending on how many sales you make.

It goes without saying that every case is unique. But as a rule of thumb, this is a guide to choosing a plan.

Now let’s break down some of these extra costs that don’t show up at first glance:

Part 3: Additional Shopify costs

The first additional cost to consider is the transaction fee. Shopify charges a certain percentage of sales for using its default payment provider, Shopify Payments.

Here’s what those fees look like for each of the main payment plans:

The first level pays the highest rate for online card purchases.

You can use other payment systems in your store. But don’t get your hopes up:

Most other payment systems are going to charge transaction fees, so it stacks up against Shopify-additional fees.

While Shopify-Payment providers’ fees aren’t that big, they’re certainly a nuisance, especially when you consider that some Shopify-competitors (like BigCommerce) do NOT extract these fees.

Another potential cost is the cost of templates. Shopify has many templates, but only a small number are free:

If you look in the upper left corner, you will see that only 8 themes are free, compared to 64 paid themes.

And even these free templates look a bit similar.

So while they work just fine, realistically many companies need to buy a paid theme to get a site that looks more robust.

You may also have additional costs from integrations, or Programs:

Honestly, Shopify is a good choice and some are free.

Many are paid, but fairly affordable:

But others are significant extras compared to what you pay for your online site.

It can range from free to a couple of dollars a month to $20 a month.

To be clear, this is not necessarily Shopify’s fault, many of these apps may be available on other platforms and have similar prices, and Shopify has more free and affordable apps than ever before.

For example, if you want to create periodic backups of your site, you will need an app like Rewind that costs as little as $3 per month. Or, if you want to protect your website against data breaches, you would need an app like McAfee SECURE which is free for up to 500 visitors a month.

But if you are trying to set up store management, you will probably use an app.

There are other costs, not necessarily specific to Shopify:

You can hire someone to design a theme for your Shopify site, or manage your marketing. You may want to upgrade pricing plans to allow more group accounts.

There’s also shipping, but it varies greatly depending on what type of shipping you do (direct shipping, manual shipping), what services you use, and the nature of the products you ship.

If you need real-time shipping (that is, when the checkout page shows the shipping cost that you pay the carrier), you basically need to choose tier three.

Finally, Shopify doesn’t come with a domain name for free. You can connect your own domain if you registered it separately, or you can buy one from Shopify.

So, in general, there are some additional costs that can go along with any e-commerce venture – hiring design and marketing specialists, shipping, and some that are specific to Shopify.

While other platforms have paid templates, paid apps and transaction fee options, we know there’s a good chance you’ll use them through Shopify.

Speaking of other platforms …

Part 4: Shopify pricing compared to competitors

This is one of the trickiest parts of the article, because Shopify has many competitors, and each of them stand up to Shopify differently.

For simplicity, here’s what I focus on:

First, WooCommerce; Second, other out-of-the-box ecommerce platforms; Third, website developers that include ecommerce.

The distinction between the latter two is vague, but it basically boils down to a common goal: Shopify itself is a website builder, but it’s essentially a store builder, and website creation is part of that.

So, WooCommerce:

It’s a free plugin for WordPress that allows you to add a shopping cart to your WordPress site.

The fact that it’s free makes it a really worthy competitor, but here’s the thing:

It has a lot more moving parts, and the price is more variable. Yes, the plugin itself is free, but you can upgrade to get more features.

It also assumes that you’re already paying the host for the site you installed WordPress on, and you’ll probably pay for MORE plugins and site themes to enhance your store.

So it’s hard to know what the typical price is, especially compared to Shopify, It really depends on how much you want to do.

You can check out my comparison of WooCommerce and Shopify here, And my comparison of WordPress and Shopify here.

As for the second category, Shopify compared to similar off-the-shelf solutions, I’d say Shopify takes the cake

It’s not super one-sided, to be clear. BigCommerce, Shopify’s main competitor, offers features here and there that Shopify does not.

The same goes for Voice is another big competitor.

But in the end, Shopify wins because its pricing is similar, features are generally similar, but it has a strong site builder and fantastic shipping integration.

In other words, it’s just the best fit for all purposes. You can read my comparison of Shopify and BigCommerce or Shopify and Volusion for more details, though.

Finally, Shopify compared to website builders that also have e-commerce features.

It’s more complicated because it mostly depends on what you prioritize.

If your priority is building a super slick website that’s a portfolio or for some other tricky purpose, Squarespace might be your best bet (Learn more about how it stacks up with Shopify here).

If your priority is still to build a website, but you’re not as set on SquareSpace’s flashy, individual creator feel, Wix is probably a good bet.

Wix’s e-commerce plans have about the same range as Shopify, but it’s more of a high bandwidth website builder that includes shopping cart features.

This will work well, but if your No. 1 priority is to sell online, Shopify will still win. Still, you can check out more here.

So overall?

Some of Shopify’s. Competitors can bring more value, but only if you’re interested in prioritizing.

For example, if you prioritize flexibility and self-service, WooCommerce is the best fit.

But if you’re just trying to build an online business on one platform, period (especially if you want to keep), Shopify is probably better.

Part 5: Shopify FAQ

How Can We Shopify Be Useful for Saving Money on Shipping?

Depending on the delivery nature of your business, Shopify can provide discounts.

If you do direct shipping, that is, when you don’t keep inventory of the products you offer and let third-party vendors store and ship for you, Shopify is well-equipped.

Shopify integrates with Oberlo, a popular direct delivery service. It also…

Oberlo is free when used with Shopify.

In addition, Shopify offers discounts on shipping by major tiers:

Basically, Shopify has competitive rates from major carriers that don’t guarantee major discounts, but MAY discount most prices.

In addition, the last two tiers have priority mail rates on USPS, which significantly reduces shipping costs for small but heavy packages.

The appeal in pricing is that it can save you money if you plan to do a lot of shipping.

Is there email hosting with Shopify?

Although email hosting and at least a few mailboxes are included in most hosting services, unfortunately, none of the Shopify-Plans go with this.

Are their capacity or storage limitations for any of the Plans?

No. While many hosting plans claim to offer “unlimited” bandwidth or storage without doing so completely, Shopify actually

Most reasons to upgrade your plan would be if you want access to better features, not better storage or bandwidth.

Shopify Price: Conclusion

So while everyone’s situation is different, I think Shopify has a good option for most readers.

If you just need a “buy” button in your existing setup, you can get it for a low monthly price.

However, it may end up being cheaper to just choose a host or website builder with e-commerce functionality rather than paying for a host AND Shopify Lite.

What’s fascinating, though, are the three main tiers. The main difference in the upgrade tiers is the additional features: performance and storage capacity will be the same.

So it’s your call whether the extra features I showed you – gift cards, real-time shipping rates – guarantee higher prices.

Also, you’ll probably have to pay for a premium theme and install some extensions, although the costs for those may vary.

Shopify MAY get expensive quickly, and that’s just the truth.

But Shopify also offers a lot of tools out of the box, and if you know what you’re doing, you can cut your costs overall with Shopify included.

The most realistic thing I can tell you is to check out Shopify yourself!