Shopify review: pricing, features, and 5 alternatives for 2026

See what Shopify costs at every plan, who it's built for, and where Whop (and other alternatives) fit in.

Shopify merchants account for more than 14% of US ecommerce sales, according to Shopify’s annual results, and processed $119 billion in gross merchandise volume in Q3 2026 alone, up from $92 billion a year earlier (Shopify Q3 2026 results).

Whether you're picking your first platform or thinking about a switch, here's what Shopify costs, what you get at each tier, and the best Shopify alternatives.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform for building an online store, and it's a strong fit for businesses of almost any size – solo sellers, growing DTC brands, and large multi-market retailers.

Shopify pricing: what you pay at every stage of growth

Shopify has four plans that include a full online store. Basic is $29 a month, Grow is $79, Advanced is $299, and Plus starts at $2,300 a month on a three-year term. Large enterprises can also get custom Enterprise pricing.

These fees reflect yearly billing – monthly billing costs more.

Four core plans

Every plan includes a full online store, unlimited products, and Shopify's checkout. Higher tiers add more staff accounts, stronger reporting, and lower payment processing rates.

Social and agentic selling

There is also a Starter plan which costs just $5 per month. This plan is only for social and link-based selling – there is no full storefront.

Want more? Shopify also offers a free Agentic plan for selling through AI shopping channels.

You add your products to Shopify's Catalog, choose which AI channels you want to sell in, and Shopify only takes a cut when you make a sale. Card rates start from 2.9% + $0.30 on the online sales that come through those AI channels.

What do you get with each Shopify plan?

The biggest difference between Shopify plans is not the storefront tools (every plan gets those) but staff accounts, checkout customization, and API access.

Checkout customization is what matters most for larger, brand-conscious stores. Every plan below Plus gets a limited checkout, with full customization reserved for Plus.

B2B catalogs cap at 3 on every plan except Plus, and headless storefronts cap at 1 outside Plus too, both worth knowing if you're running wholesale alongside DTC or building a custom frontend.

Transaction fees by plan

Fees drop as you move up tiers, so as you start to process more volume you should consider moving up a tier:

Free trial and add-ons

Shopify offers a three-day free trial, followed by $1/month for the first three months.

The introductory offer gives you time to explore the platform before paying the regular subscription price, although you'll still need to factor in any paid apps, themes, and payment processing fees.

What a Shopify store actually costs each month

To help you budget, here’s what a store doing $10,000 a month in online sales (200 orders at $50) might pay on Basic vs Grow, including a few common add-ons.

This example assumes standard US cards through Shopify Payments, with no premium, international, or currency conversion fees. It uses regular plan pricing, not the $1-a-month intro offer, and list prices from the Shopify App Store and Theme Store.

At $10,000 a month, Basic is the cheaper plan. Grow's lower card rate only covers its higher price once you pass about $25,000 in monthly online sales, or $33,000 if you pay monthly.

But what about a larger store?

Here’s what a store doing $50,000 a month in online sales (1,000 orders at $50) might pay on Grow vs Advanced. The last two columns cover a store that keeps Authorize.net as its payment gateway instead of using Shopify Payments.

On Shopify Payments, Grow is still the cheaper plan at $50,000 a month.

Advanced’s lower card rate only covers its higher price once you pass about $110,000 in monthly online sales, or $147,000 if you pay monthly. Advanced does include third-party calculated shipping, which Grow only offers as a paid add-on, so that narrows the gap if you need live carrier rates.

Keeping your own gateway changes the picture.

Shopify’s surcharge (1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced) brings the break-even down to about $55,000 a month, and at $50,000 the two plans cost almost the same.

Either way, the surcharge adds $300 to $500 a month, which is more than Grow’s plan fee.

Who is Shopify for? From first sales to global scale

Shopify serves three very different kinds of sellers, from a single-person side hustle to a multi-country enterprise.

So, how it "works" for you changes a lot depending on which of those buckets you fall into.

Shopify for solopreneurs

For one-person businesses, Shopify works as a true all-in-one platform. One dashboard has you covered for storefront, payments, inventory, and marketing.

On the Basic plan you get your full online store, unlimited products, and Shopify's checkout without paying for staff accounts or advanced reporting.

I tested Shopify's setup process by creating a store for selling digital products.

During onboarding, Shopify asked what I planned to sell, with options including physical products, dropshipping, print-on-demand, digital products, and migrating an existing store.

Once inside the admin, I had access to products, orders, customers, marketing, analytics, and the online store builder from one sidebar.

The dashboard also suggested ways to get started, including finding products to dropship, exploring print-on-demand, or adding my own inventory.

Adding products was easy: the Products tab offered manual product creation, CSV uploads, and imports from platforms including Etsy, Amazon, Square, WooCommerce, Squarespace, and more.

I could explore the store builder and customize a storefront without installing any additional apps.

For a solo seller, Shopify makes the initial setup approachable. However, there's still work between opening an account and launching a store, including adding products, configuring payments, and preparing the storefront for customers.

Payments are handled through Shopify Payments without needing a separate payment gateway.

Shopify for small businesses

Small businesses benefit most from the Shopify Grow and Advanced plans. Shopify Grow lets you add up to five staff accounts, and Advanced extends that to fifteen. If your business has more than one staff member but fewer than fifteen, these are the plans you should consider.

This is also where Shopify's multichannel selling becomes more valuable: the same dashboard manages your online store, social selling, and marketplace listings, so a small team is using one platform for one catalog.

Shopify for enterprises

When it comes to enterprise-level businesses, Shopify works as infrastructure rather than storefront-in-a-box. Shopify Plus is built for this.

With Shopify Plus you get full checkout customization, unlimited staff accounts, up to 200 inventory locations, and an API rate limit up to 10 times higher than standard.

This matters most if you're running heavy custom integrations or syncing data with other systems in real time. Custom checkout flows, deep integrations, and B2B catalogs sold alongside a DTC storefront are what this tier is built for.

When does it make sense to move from Advanced to Plus?

The jump from Advanced to Plus is Shopify's largest pricing jump, and the decision to make that leap usually comes down to one of four things: checkout control, B2B complexity, integration depth, or inventory footprint.

Shopify's key features: the core tools

Shopify's core toolset covers designing, selling, and running an online store, with a website builder, built-in marketing, a large app ecosystem, POS for in-person sales, and AI tools.

Shopify website builder and themes

Shopify is well-known for its drag-and-drop store builder. You don't need to code anything, with 24 free themes and 1,335 paid themes (as of November 2026, ranging from $100 to $500).

I tried Shopify's AI theme generator by describing a store selling digital products for writers.

It returned several free themes to preview, each with different layouts, imagery, and suggested copy. I could open a preview before choosing a theme, then customize the storefront using Shopify's visual editor.

Editing generated themes was easy within the theme editor. I could select a section, change its heading or description in the sidebar, and see the changes reflected immediately in the preview.

The AI-generated copy and imagery weren't always relevant to my business idea, though, so I'd treat the generated designs as starting points rather than finished storefronts.

Every Shopify theme is mobile-responsive by default.

If you need more customization, Shopify gives direct access to CSS, HTML, and Liquid, so you can edit code for parts of your store while still using the visual drag-and-drop editor for everything else.

Shopify also gave my store a free myshopify.com address, which I could customize without buying a domain. I checked the availability of the branded subdomain I wanted by going to "Settings" and "Domains".

Shopify also offered options to buy, connect, or transfer a custom domain.

Marketing and automation, built into every plan

Every Shopify plan includes email campaigns, customer segmentation, discount codes, gift cards, and abandoned checkout recovery.

Shopify Flow, the platform's automation tool, lets you build workflows without writing code: for example, you can automatically tag high-value customers, send a restock alert when inventory drops, or flag fraudulent-seeming orders for manual review.

Running seasonal promotions or campaigns? This automation layer removes the manual, repetitive work involved.

SEO and site performance

The basics of SEO on Shopify are handled automatically – sitemaps, redirects, SSL certificates, and mobile optimization are all built in.

Page titles, meta descriptions, URL handles, and product SEO fields can all be edited directly from the admin.

Hosting is fully managed as part of the platform, with Shopify handling server uptime, security patches, and infrastructure scaling.

Shopify's AI layer: Sidekick and Magic

Shopify's AI features are bundled under Shopify Magic – available on every plan at no extra cost. The main character here is Sidekick, an AI assistant built directly into the dashboard.

Sidekick can answer questions, help configure your store, and generate content such as product descriptions, marketing emails, and blog posts.

I tested Sidekick by asking it to help create my first digital product. It opened directly alongside the Products page and suggested starting with a small PDF or template rather than a full course.

It also outlined how it could help with the product idea, name, description, pricing, and digital delivery.

The Shopify App Store

Shopify's App Store has over 13,000 apps, covering everything from SEO and loyalty programs to shipping, accounting, and reporting. If your store needs a specific capability that Shopify doesn't have natively built-in, then there's very likely an app for it.

Omnichannel and marketplace integrations

From one dashboard you can manage your online store, social selling (across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok) and marketplace listings together.

Products sync across these three channels automatically, so you're not repeating the same update across many platforms.

Tracking performance: reports and data

Every Shopify plan includes access to the reporting suite, with over 200 real-time reports (plus custom analytics) built in.

These reports cover sales, customer behavior, marketing performance, and finance.

Reporting depth scales with plan: Advanced and Plus unlock more granular, fully customizable reports.

Selling in person and online (Shopify POS app)

Sell at markets or pop-up stores? Shopify's POS app is included on every plan, keeping online and in-person sales synced in real time.

Inventory updates the moment something sells, whether that sale happened online or at a physical counter.

Need more advanced control? Get unlimited staff logins, custom printed receipts, purchase orders and commission tracking with POS Pro ($89/month per location).

What you can – and can't – sell with Shopify

Shopify supports physical products, digital products, services, subscriptions, and dropshipping. Nearly any legal business model fits – though what's allowed depends on your country and whether you use Shopify Payments.

Where Shopify shines, and what to consider

Shopify’s biggest strengths are its breadth: the app ecosystem, omnichannel selling, and built-in tools. The main things to plan for are which features sit on which tier, and how your costs change as your store grows.

What are the advantages of Shopify?

• Scales from solo seller to enterprise without switching platforms – the same core system runs a first store and a multi-region operation.
• Massive app ecosystem with over 13,000 apps covering almost any feature Shopify doesn't natively build in.
• Built-in marketing tools on every plan, including email campaigns, discount codes, and abandoned checkout recovery (features some competitors reserve for higher tiers).
• Omnichannel by default – one dashboard runs your entire online store, social selling, marketplaces and POS.
• Deep reporting: over 200 real-time reports on every tier.

What to consider before choosing Shopify

• Checkout customization is a Plus feature. Plans below Plus use Shopify’s standard checkout, which works well for most stores but offers less flexibility.
• Staff accounts grow with your plan, while Basic is designed for solo sellers, so if you have a team, Grow or higher may suit you better.
• Some features come from apps: things like advanced product options or custom checkout fields are added through the App Store, so budget for apps as your store grows.
• Plus is priced for enterprise. It starts at $2,300 a month on a three-year term, compared with $299 a month for Advanced, so it’s best suited to high-volume brands.

Read our guide to Shopify's pros and cons for more insights.

5 Shopify alternatives

Whop, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Square Online, and Squarespace are all strong Shopify alternatives: let's take a look at each.

Whop

Whop gives you a storefront, checkout, payments, and payouts in one place – or you can keep your existing website or store and use Whop to power what happens underneath it.

Add Whop checkout links alongside your store, or embed Whop’s checkout directly into your own website.

Read how Nickel grew payment completion from 29% to 47% with Whop embedded checkout.

If you run Whop ads, the Whop Pixel tracks checkouts on your Shopify store. And when a payment succeeds, Whop can send a webhook to your system so fulfillment starts automatically.

Whop supports 100+ local payment methods, including buy now, pay later. With orchestration enabled, it routes each payment across multiple payment providers to approve more transactions, boosting revenue by around 6%.

Selling globally? Turn on adaptive pricing for a checkout link, and buyers see your price in their local currency at no extra cost to you.

And, if you're running a marketplace or platform rather than a single store, Whop’s toolkit extends further:

• Onboard sellers with an embeddable KYC flow
• Pay them out in 187+ countries
• Set your own fees on top of Whop’s to earn on every transaction

You can also send invoices with automated recurring billing and issue cards.

It's the same underlying system allowing you to accept payments, pay people out, and stay compliant.

Standard payment acceptance is 2.7% + $0.30, and add-ons are priced separately when you turn them on: orchestration is 0.8%, billing 0.5%, and tax and remittance 2% when tax is collected.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is the closest like-for-like Shopify alternative, with tiered plans and a similar starting price. But, its plans are built around revenue caps rather than feature-gating.

Choose BigCommerce if you want to use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments without paying extra transaction fees. Unlike Shopify, which charges 0.6% to 2% for third-party gateways, BigCommerce doesn't add fees for its embedded payment providers.

However, plans have annual sales limits: $30,000 for Core and $100,000 for Growth. Exceeding these limits triggers an automatic upgrade.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the option for stores that want full ownership, rather than renting a platform. It's a free, open-source plugin built on WordPress, with no revenue share and no features locked behind tiers. You pay for hosting, a domain, and any premium plugins you choose.

The tradeoff? You're responsible for more of the technical setup yourself.

Choose WooCommerce if you already use WordPress or have access to a developer and prefer paying for hosting over a platform subscription.

WooCommerce has no platform fees or revenue share, although hosting typically costs $25 to $350 per month.

WooPayments charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the US.

Square Online

Square Online is a good fit for those already taking Square payments in person with Square POS.

It keeps in-person and online inventory, orders, and payments unified from day one – though its ecommerce features are lighter than Shopify's at higher volumes.

Still, choose Square Online if you already use Square for in-person sales and want to start selling online without another monthly subscription.

The Free plan has no monthly fee but charges 3.3% + $0.30 per online payment, compared with Shopify Basic’s 2.9% + $0.30 at $29 a month (billed yearly). That makes Square Free the cheaper option until you pass about $7,250 a month in online sales.

However, you'll need a paid plan to use a custom domain.

Squarespace

Squarespace leans hardest into store design, and its fee structure is best for stores selling digital products specifically: transaction fees on digital products and memberships drop from 7% on the entry tier to 0% on Advanced.

Squarespace is a good choice if you sell digital products or memberships and want a customizable, design-focused storefront.

The most cost-effective plan depends on your monthly digital product sales:

• Under $500: Basic costs $19/month, with a 7% digital product fee.
• $500–$5,000: Plus costs $49/month, with a 1% fee.
• Over $5,000: Advanced costs $99/month, with no digital product fee.

Prices are billed annually. Standard card processing fees apply on top of each plan.

How do the alternatives compare on cost?

Here’s what the same store, doing $10,000 a month in online sales (200 orders at $50), would pay in plan and card fees on each platform.

These totals cover plan and card fees only, at list prices. Themes, apps, and add-ons come on top for every platform.

So, how do you choose which platform is best for you? We've weighed them up below.

Power your store with Whop

Shopify remains one of the most capable ecommerce platforms available, with options for every business, from a single-person operation to a multi-country enterprise.

As your business grows, payments often get more complex. Whop is built for exactly that. It handles payments, local payment methods, and payouts for more complex operations, including marketplaces that pay out multiple sellers, with built-in BNPL.

You can build a hosted storefront using Whop Websites by deploying a blueprint from your dashboard, migrating an existing site, describing what you want to Whop's AI, or building with the CLI.

Run it all from your Whop dashboard, or hand it to the Whop CLI and manage your whole business from the terminal.