Shopify Pricing Explained (2026): Plans, Fees & Real Costs

How much does Shopify cost in 2026? The short answer: the main paid plans are Basic ($39/month), Grow ($105/month), and Advanced ($399/month) when billed monthly, with a 25% discount if you pay annually. There's also a $5/month Starter plan and a free trial to test everything first. But the plan fee is only part of the picture, this guide breaks down the real monthly cost, including transaction fees, themes, and apps, so you can budget honestly before you launch.

All figures below are accurate as of 2026 and reflect US pricing. Shopify adjusts prices and promos over time, so always confirm the live numbers on the pricing page before you commit. You can also start your free Shopify trial and see the current offer applied to your own account. Once you've picked a plan, our step-by-step store setup guide takes you from signup to a live product page.

Shopify pricing plans at a glance

Here are Shopify's core plans and their monthly cost, as of 2026:

Plan	Monthly billing	Annual billing (per month)	Best for
Starter	$5/mo	,	Selling via links/social, no full storefront
Basic	$39/mo	~$29/mo	New stores and most beginners
Grow	$105/mo	~$79/mo	Growing stores with more volume
Advanced	$399/mo	~$299/mo	Established, higher-volume brands
Plus	from ~$2,300/mo	custom	Large/enterprise merchants

A few notes that trip people up:

• Annual billing saves about 25%. Paying for a year up front is the single easiest way to cut your fixed cost. The catch is you commit the cash up front, so only do this once you're confident you'll keep the store.
• "Grow" used to be called "Shopify." If you read an older guide referencing a middle "Shopify plan," that's now the Grow plan. The structure is the same: Basic → Grow → Advanced.
• Starter is not a real storefront. The $5 Starter plan lets you sell through checkout links, social media, and messaging: useful for testing a single product, but most dropshippers will want Basic for a proper store.

Transaction fees: the part beginners miss

This is where the real cost lives, and it's the most misunderstood part of Shopify pricing. There are two separate things going on.

1. Card-processing fees (you pay these on every plan)

Every time a customer pays by card, you pay a processing fee, this is normal across the entire industry, not a Shopify quirk. Using Shopify Payments (the built-in processor), online rates as of 2026 are roughly:

• Basic: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction
• Grow: 2.7% + 30¢ per transaction
• Advanced: 2.5% + 30¢ per transaction

So on a $50 order on Basic, you'd pay about $1.75 in processing. Higher plans lower this rate, which is exactly why scaling stores upgrade.

2. Extra transaction fees (you can avoid these entirely)

Here's the key. If you use a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify charges an additional fee on top of your gateway's own costs:

• Basic: +2.0%
• Grow: +1.0%
• Advanced: +0.6%

The simple way to avoid these extra fees: use Shopify Payments. When Shopify Payments is your processor, that surcharge is $0, you only pay the standard card-processing rate above. For most US beginners, turning on Shopify Payments is the obvious move. (PayPal Express works alongside it as a wallet option without triggering the surcharge in the usual way, but always verify how your specific setup is billed.)

If you want to dig deeper into why the platform is set up this way, our honest take on whether Shopify is legit and safe covers the company and how it handles payments.

What's included in every plan

It's easy to obsess over the price and forget what you actually get. Even on Basic, every Shopify plan includes:

• A full online store with unlimited products
• Secure checkout and a free SSL certificate
• Web hosting (you don't pay separately for hosting or pay-per-visitor bandwidth)
• Access to the Shopify App Store and free + paid themes
• 24/7 support
• Abandoned-cart recovery, discount codes, and basic analytics

Where the plans differ is mostly in staff accounts, reporting depth, lower card rates, and shipping discounts, not in core store functionality. Basic includes no extra staff accounts, Grow adds up to 5, and Advanced up to 15, so for a solo dropshipper, Basic genuinely covers the essentials.

The costs Shopify's price page doesn't show

Your plan fee is the floor, not the ceiling. To budget the real monthly cost, factor in these.

Themes

Shopify offers free themes (like Dawn) that are genuinely good enough to launch with. If you want a premium design, themes in the Shopify Theme Store are typically a one-time purchase in the ~$100-$400 range, not a recurring fee (see our picks for the best Shopify themes for dropshipping). Third-party options like Debutify are subscription-based instead. Start free; upgrade the theme only when revenue justifies it.

Apps

Apps are where budgets quietly balloon. A typical dropshipping store runs a product-import/fulfillment app, maybe an upsell app, and an email tool. Many have free tiers, but paid plans commonly run $10-$50/month each. Some examples beginners actually use:

• Email & SMS: Omnisend has a free tier to start.
• Page building: PageFly or GemPages for custom landing pages.
• Product research (not on your store, but a real cost): tools like Sell The Trend.

See our roundup of the best dropshipping apps for Shopify before installing anything, the goal is two or three that earn their keep, not ten that drain your card.

A custom domain

A domain (yourstore.com) runs roughly $10-$20/year. You can buy it through Shopify or connect one you already own. Minor, but real.

The real monthly cost for a beginner

Putting it together, here's an honest starting budget for a new US dropshipping store, as of 2026:

Item	Realistic cost
Basic plan (annual billing)	~$29/mo
Theme	$0 (free) to start
Apps	$0-$40/mo
Domain	~$1/mo (annual)
Fixed cost subtotal	~$30-$70/mo
Card processing	~2.9% + 30¢ per sale

So the genuine fixed cost of running a lean Shopify store is around $30-$70/month, plus processing fees that scale with your sales. The biggest expense in dropshipping isn't Shopify at all, it's advertising. Once you're running Facebook ads or TikTok Shop traffic, your ad budget will dwarf your platform fee. Keep that in perspective when you compare plans.

The free trial and the $1/month promo

As of 2026, Shopify offers a short free trial (a few days, no credit card required to start) so you can build your store and explore the admin before paying anything. After the trial, most plans run a promotional rate of $1/month for your first 3 months, then switch to standard pricing.

Practically, that means you can build and even soft-launch your store for almost nothing while you find your first winning product. Just remember the promo ends, set a reminder so the jump to full pricing isn't a surprise.

If you're still deciding whether the whole model is for you, read how to start dropshipping in 2026 first, then come back to pricing once you have a plan.

Start your free Shopify trial here to see today's exact offer.

Which plan should you choose?

For 95% of people reading this: start on Basic. It includes everything needed to build a real, professional store, accept payments at standard rates, and install apps. There's no functional reason a new dropshipper needs Grow or Advanced.

Upgrade logic is simple, it's about math, not ambition:

• Move to Grow when your monthly card-processing savings (2.9% → 2.7%) plus the extra staff accounts and reporting outweigh the higher plan fee. That generally happens at meaningful, consistent revenue.
• Move to Advanced when volume is high enough that the 2.5% rate and advanced reports clearly pay for the $399 fee.

If the lower card rate saves you more than the price difference each month, upgrade. If not, stay put.

Still comparing platforms before you commit? See how Shopify's costs stack up in Shopify vs WooCommerce, Shopify vs Wix, and Shopify vs Squarespace.

Conclusion

Shopify's pricing in 2026 is straightforward once you separate the three layers: a plan fee (Basic $39, Grow $105, Advanced $399, or ~25% less annually), card-processing fees on every sale, and the optional extras like apps and a premium theme. Avoid the extra third-party transaction fees simply by using Shopify Payments, start on Basic, and keep your app stack lean, and a beginner store realistically costs around $30-$70/month plus processing.

The best way to know your exact cost is to see it on your own account. Start your free Shopify trial, build your store risk-free, and decide with real numbers in front of you.