Shopify vs Shopify Plus.
Most stores should stay on Advanced. Move to Plus when you need checkout changes in every step, custom Shopify Functions, company-specific B2B pricing, many retail locations or several regional stores. Plus costs $24,012 a year more than Advanced on a three-year term, and on Shopify Payments the published fees do not earn that back on their own. Below is each plan on price, term, fees, checkout, B2B, stores, automation, APIs, support and POS, from Shopify's own pages on 23 October 2026.
Thirteen questions, one platform, two price levels.
Prices are from Shopify's US pricing pages, in US dollars. Shopify prices by region, so check the figure for your country.
| Question | Shopify (Basic, Grow, Advanced) | Shopify Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Billed yearly: Basic $19, Grow $49, Advanced $299 a month. Billed monthly: $25, $65 and $399. | From $2,300 a month on a three-year term, or $2,500 a month on a one-year term. |
| Contract term | Billed monthly or yearly. There is no multi-year term. | A one-year or three-year term. Shopify's pricing page says you can cancel when the term expires. |
| Variable platform fee | None. The plan price is fixed. | Higher-volume or more complex businesses move to a variable platform fee based on revenue and business model, with different rates for B2B and direct-to-consumer orders. Multi-store accounts can pay a revenue share across all stores. Shopify does not publish the rate, threshold or cap. |
| Card rates (Shopify Payments, US) | Online: 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow, 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced. In person: 2.6%, 2.5% and 2.4% + 10¢. | Not published. Shopify's Plus pricing page says card rates vary by country, and its POS page offers the best rates for high-volume merchants. |
| Third-party gateway fee | 2% of each order on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced when you take payment through a provider other than Shopify Payments. | 0.2% per transaction. On every plan, PayPal orders are exempt when Shopify Payments is your primary provider. |
| Staff accounts | None on Basic, up to 5 on Grow, up to 15 on Advanced. | Unlimited. |
| Checkout customisation | Shopify calls it limited. Public App Store apps that use Shopify Functions (discounts, delivery and payment rules) work on every plan. Checkout UI extensions in the information, shipping and payment steps do not. | Checkout UI extensions in every step, custom apps built on Shopify Functions and the Checkout Branding API. Shopify Scripts stopped running on 30 June 2026; Functions replace them. |
| B2B | Built in. Up to 3 active catalogs across your B2B markets. Companies, locations, vaulted cards, quantity rules and price breaks are on every plan. | Unlimited catalogs, catalogs assigned directly to companies and locations for customer-level pricing, and deposits, partial payments and payment requests per fulfilment. |
| Expansion stores | Not included. A second store is a second plan, at $299 a month on Advanced. Shopify Markets sells to several countries from one store on every plan. | Your main store plus 9 expansion stores, each needing its own theme licence. More cost $300 a month per store. |
| Automation | Shopify Flow is a free app on every plan. Its Send HTTP Request action needs Grow or Advanced. | Flow plus tasks from custom partner apps, and Launchpad for scheduled and automated promotions. |
| APIs and rate limits | GraphQL Admin API: 100 cost points a second on standard plans, 200 on Advanced. Storefront API traffic from real buyers has no fixed request limit on any plan. | 1,000 points a second, ten times standard, and higher limits on request through support. |
| Support | Live chat on Basic and Grow, enhanced live chat on Advanced. | Priority 24/7 phone and chat support. |
| Point of sale | In-person selling with a phone or card reader on every plan. POS Pro is $89 a month per location, billed yearly. 10 inventory locations. | The first 20 POS Pro locations are included. The POS Pro fee is waived for up to 200 retail locations if Shopify Payments is your primary retail provider, among other conditions. 200 inventory locations. |
Read on Shopify's own pages on 23 October 2026; the sources are listed below. Prices are US dollars, and Basic, Grow and Advanced are billed yearly unless a monthly figure is given. For Shopify against a self-hosted store, see Shopify vs WooCommerce. Plans change often, so check the source before you budget.
Each level is the right answer for someone.
Stay on Advanced when
FitsYou take payment through Shopify Payments, App Store apps cover your checkout needs, 15 staff accounts are enough and three B2B catalogs cover your wholesale price lists.
Watch forThe 0.6% fee on other gateways adds up. At $6 million a year through another provider, Plus's lower fee alone covers its extra cost.
Move to Plus when
FitsYou need custom code in the checkout's information, shipping or payment steps, a custom Shopify Functions app, prices set per B2B company, a retail estate of 20 or more stores, or separate stores per region or brand.
Watch forIt is a one- or three-year commitment from $2,300 a month, and higher-volume stores move to a revenue-based fee Shopify quotes privately. Get the fee in writing before you sign.
Choose Basic or Grow when
FitsYou are still small. On our arithmetic from the card rates, Grow pays for itself over Basic at about $180,000 a year of online card sales, and Advanced over Grow at about $1.5 million.
Watch forBasic has no staff accounts and Grow stops at five, so a growing team can force the upgrade before the fees do.
Look past Shopify's themes when
FitsThe storefront, checkout or data model has to work in a way Shopify does not expose, even on Plus.
Watch forA headless or composable build costs more to run every year. Read what composable commerce costs before you plan one.
The licence gap is what Plus has to earn back.
Our arithmetic from Shopify's published prices, with yearly billing on Advanced. Card rates on Plus are not published, so they are left out.
$24,012 a year
Plus on a three-year term is $27,600 a year; Advanced billed yearly is $3,588. The difference is $24,012, or $26,412 on a one-year term. At $2 million in yearly sales that is 1.2% of revenue, before any variable fee.
Gateway fees, POS, stores
If all your sales go through another gateway, the fee drops from 0.6% to 0.2%, and that 0.4-point saving covers $24,012 once about $6 million a year goes through it. Twenty included POS Pro locations are worth $21,360 a year at $89 a month each. Running 7 extra stores on Advanced would cost more than the gap. On Shopify Payments with one store and no retail, only the features justify Plus.
The build is quoted separately
A Shopify store build with us starts at $9,000 fixed, from 6 weeks; Shopify Plus, headless and B2B builds are quoted higher, as a fixed price. A migration to Shopify starts at $7,000 fixed. Ongoing work on checkout extensions and Functions is an embedded pod at $3,000–$7,500 per engineer per month. What each includes.
Where each fact came from.
All read on 23 October 2026.
Do not upgrade because revenue crossed a round number. Write down the checkout change, the B2B pricing rule, the store count or the retail estate that Advanced cannot handle, price it against the $24,012 gap and the variable fee Shopify quotes you, and upgrade when the list is real. We are a Shopify Partner and both of our published commerce case studies run on Plus, and we still tell most stores to stay on Advanced.
Shopify vs Shopify Plus
How much does Shopify Plus cost?
On Shopify's US pages on 23 October 2026, Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 a month on a three-year term or $2,500 a month on a one-year term. Higher-volume or more complex businesses move to a variable platform fee based on revenue and business model, which Shopify quotes through sales and does not publish. Card processing, apps, a theme licence for each live expansion store and any agency work are on top.
What is the difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus?
It is the same platform. Plus adds checkout UI extensions in the information, shipping and payment steps, custom apps built on Shopify Functions, unlimited staff accounts and B2B catalogs, catalogs assigned to specific companies, nine expansion stores, 20 included POS Pro locations, a 0.2% fee on third-party gateways instead of 0.6% on Advanced, ten times the standard GraphQL Admin API rate and priority phone support. It also adds a one- or three-year term.
When should you upgrade to Shopify Plus?
When a specific need outruns Advanced: checkout code in every step, a custom Functions app, company-level B2B pricing, more than 15 staff, many retail locations or several stores. On fees alone, our arithmetic says the 0.4-point gateway saving covers the $24,012 yearly gap at about $6 million of sales through another provider. On Shopify Payments there is no published fee saving, so revenue alone is not a reason to move.
What is the Shopify Plus variable platform fee?
Shopify says more complex, higher-volume businesses move from the fixed monthly price to a variable platform fee based on revenue and business model, with different rates for B2B and direct-to-consumer orders. It does not publish the rate, the revenue level where it starts or any cap. Figures on agency blogs disagree with each other, so ask Shopify for the fee in writing for your revenue before you sign.
Can you customise Shopify checkout without Plus?
Partly. On every plan you can install App Store apps that use Shopify Functions to change discounts, delivery options and payment methods. Checkout UI extensions in the information, shipping and payment steps, and custom apps that contain Shopify Functions, are Plus only. Shopify Scripts stopped running on 30 June 2026, so old Plus checkout scripts need rebuilding as Functions.
Does Shopify Plus have lower card rates?
Shopify does not publish Plus card rates. Its Plus pricing page says card rates vary by country. On the lower plans in the US, online rates are 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow and 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced. Ask for the Plus rate in your quote and compare it with Advanced on your own sales mix.
Is Shopify Plus worth it for B2B?
Often, when wholesale is a real share of sales. Every plan has B2B companies, locations, quantity rules and price breaks, but Basic to Advanced allow only three active catalogs and cannot assign a catalog to a specific company. Plus allows unlimited catalogs, customer-level pricing and deposits or partial payments. If three price lists cover your wholesale customers, Advanced is enough.
What does Gigabit charge to build on Shopify Plus?
A Shopify store starts at $9,000 fixed, covering a custom theme, up to 500 products, payments, shipping, tax and up to three integrations. Shopify Plus, headless and B2B builds are quoted higher, as a fixed price after scoping. A migration to Shopify starts at $7,000 fixed. We are a Shopify Partner.
Where to go next.
Our Shopify work
Store builds, migrations, checkout extensions, Functions and the AI agents that work inside Shopify and Shopify Plus stores.
Our Shopify workShopify vs WooCommerce
Hosted against self-hosted: plan price, payment fees, PCI, checkout control and who runs the servers.
Shopify vs WooCommerceComposable commerce
What headless and composable builds cost to run, and when a store should stay on a single platform.
Composable commerce
Upgrade when the list is real, not when the revenue is round.
Thirty minutes on your checkout, B2B pricing, stores and retail locations, and whether Advanced or Plus fits them.