Shopify has become one of the leading ecommerce platforms, but before you start using it, you're probably thinking:

How much does it cost to start selling on Shopify?

To give you a quick answer; you can start selling for as low as $1 per month, but the fees can add up quickly if you want to invest in Shopify apps, paid themes, or a custom domain. In that case, we recommend a starting budget of at least $300.

There is a lot to discover here, so keep reading to find out how much it actually costs to sell on Shopify.

Tip: Have you already created your Shopify account? If not, sign up by clicking this link here to get a free 3-day trial + 3 months for $1 each!

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What are the different costs of selling on Shopify?

Home page of Shopify

Here is a quick breakdown of the different costs of selling on Shopify:

  1. Shopify pricing plans. Shopify pricing plans range from $1/month to $2,300/month.
  2. Transaction fees. Transaction fees can be as high as 5% per transaction or as low as 2.15% + $0.30 per transaction.
  3. Shopify apps. Shopify app costs range from $0 to $200/month.
  4. Shopify themes. Shopify theme costs range from $0 to $150/month or $400 as a one-time fee for a lifetime theme.
  5. Shopify domain name. Shopify domain name costs range from $0 to $16/year.
  6. Shopify POS. Shopify POS costs range from $0 to $89/month.

After calculating these together, how much can you expect to pay each month to start a Shopify store?

Here are the costs calculated together:

  • One-time/yearly costs. You can expect to pay as low as $0 or as much as $409.95 as one-time/yearly costs when starting your Shopify business.
  • Monthly costs. As low as $1/month or as high as $2,739/month when starting your Shopify store.

As you can see, starting a Shopify store doesn't have to be expensive if you make the right choices and save where you can.

Tip: Looking for an all-in-one article on how much it costs to start an online store? If so, check out our article on the costs of starting an online store.

Breakdown of the total cost selling on Shopify in 2025

Next, let's go through all the costs related to selling with Shopify in detail!

1. Shopify pricing plan cost

Shopify pricing table

The first (and the most obvious) cost of selling with Shopify is the Shopify subscription.

Shopify offers a fair trial for new customers. New users can try Shopify free for three days, and after that, the monthly cost is only $1 per month for the first three months.

To take advantage of this, you can start your Shopify trial here.

After the free trial, you need to start paying the regular pricing plan cost.

Here is a quick overview of the available Shopify plans (all of them include hosting):

  • Starter plan ($5/month). Ideal for selling products through a simple store and sharing links via social media, email, SMS, or WhatsApp.
  • Basic plan ($39/month). Perfect for launching an online store. It gives you access to theme editing and the ability to add different pages, like product and blog pages.
  • Shopify plan ($105/month). This is the best plan for businesses that already have a small team of around five employees. It includes professional reports and lower transaction fees.
  • Advanced plan ($399/month). Designed for growing businesses that already have steady sales, multiple inventory locations, and require custom reports and analytics, and enhanced customer service.
  • Plus plan (Starting at $2,300/month). The best plan for large ecommerce businesses that require more checkout capacity, unlimited staff accounts, dozens of inventory locations, and priority support.

After reading the above, you may wonder: What’s the best plan for me? Can I start with the cheapest option?

For most people, the Basic plan ($39/month) is the best when starting. It gives you the right tools to create an online store, list products, and sell them.

For a more detailed breakdown of the different Shopify plans, look at our Shopify pricing plans guide.

Shopify pricing plan costs: $1 per month for the first three months, and after that, $39 to $2,300/month, depending on the plan you choose.

2. Transaction fees

Paying with a credit card

Based on the Shopify plan you select, your transaction fees will differ.

The transaction fees for Shopify plans are as follows:

  • Starter plan. 5% per transaction
  • Basic plan. 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
  • Shopify plan. 2.75% + $0.30 per transaction
  • Advanced plan. 2.5% + $0.30 per transaction
  • Plus plan. 2.15% + $0.30 per transaction

As you can see, the more expensive the Shopify plan you select, the lower the transaction fees will be.

Also, the transaction fees differ based on the payment gateway. Credit cards are often cheaper than for other payment methods.

If you're just starting out and don't have many orders each month, these fees won't significantly impact your costs.

However, after you start getting hundreds of monthly orders, upgrading your plan with lower transaction fees can save you money.

Transaction fee costs: Depending on your Shopify plan, transaction fees can be as high as 5% per transaction or as low as 2.15% and $0.30 per transaction.

3. Shopify apps

If you want to extend your store's functionality, you can invest in Shopify apps, which are available in the Shopify App Store.

Shopify App store homepage

The main reason to invest in Shopify apps is that Shopify doesn't have great built-in capabilities for tasks like email marketing, product fulfillment, and upselling.

While these apps aren't 100% necessary, they undoubtedly increase the chances that your online store will succeed.

Below is a breakdown of the best Shopify apps for each use case, with both free and paid options:

What the app is used forBest free optionCostBest paid optionCost
Email marketingKlaviyo$0/monthKlaviyo$20/month
SMS marketingSMSBump$0/monthSMSBump (paid plan)$19/month
Social proof (sales notifications)Proof Bear$0/monthProve Source$29/month
Social proof (reviews)Judge.me$0/monthLoox$9.99/month
Social proof (trust badges)ShopClimb$0/monthTrustedSite$39/month
Building urgency (countdown timer)TimexBar$0/monthHextom$9.99/month
Building FAQ pageHelpCenter$0/monthZendesk$49/month
Processing dropshipping ordersDSers (for AliExpress dropshipping)$0/monthAutoDS (for dropshipping with multiple suppliers)$12.90/month
GDPR complianceConsentmo GDPR Compliance$0/monthConsentmo GDPR Compliance (paid plan)$8/month

As you can see, there are free app options for almost every task.

Obviously, the features of the free apps are more limited, but often, they're enough to get you started. As your store grows, you can always upgrade to a paid app or plan if needed.

Shopify app costs: $0 - $200/month, depending on whether you choose free or paid Shopify apps.

If you’d like to learn more about the best Shopify apps, check out these detailed articles from us:

4. Shopify themes

Just like Shopify apps, there are many free Shopify themes available.

Free themes like SenseDawn, and Refresh are great options for getting started with Shopify.

These themes are easy to use, have countless design options, and work with Shopify apps to add more functionality.

In addition to free themes, there are many paid themes available. The paid themes arguably have more functionality but also come at a price.

For example, Debutify is a commonly used paid Shopify theme. Its paid plans start at $29 per month, and compared to the free themes, it offers more customizability.

Home page of Debutify

Paid themes, like Debutify, can also replace Shopify apps since they offer to upsell widgets, currency converters, and multi-language support.

This means that by investing in a paid theme, you might end up saving more money!

Other two popular paid theme options are Booster Theme and Turbo Theme, which both cost around $400 for a lifetime.

These themes have many features for improving your conversion rates, which, again, can pay itself back quickly.

Another option is to use a landing page builder, such as PageFly, which is available in the Shopify App Store.

PageFly official homepage

Shopify theme costs: Around $0 to $150 per month or $400 for a lifetime, depending on whether you choose a free or paid theme.

5. Shopify domain name

Buy domain with Shopify

Shopify offers both free and paid domain name options.

There is a free 'yourstore.myshopify.com' domain available, but we don't recommend using it as customers easily view it as untrustworthy.

Another option is to buy a domain from Shopify. The .com domain extension costs $16/year.

If you want to save on your domain costs, buy your domain from a provider outside of Shopify, like Namecheap.

For example, .com domains on Namecheap cost $9.98/year, which is significantly cheaper than what Shopify offers.

After purchasing, you can then link the domain to Shopify for free.

Shopify domain costs: $0 to $16/year, depending on whether you use the free domain offered by Shopify or buy a custom domain.

6. Shopify POS

Shopify POS homepage

Shopify POS is not a necessity for most online stores, but if you want to use Shopify for your physical store, you’ll need to factor in the Shopify POS costs.

Shopify offers two POS plans:

  • Starter ($5/month). The Starter plan (known as POS Lite) allows you to sell products in one physical location.
  • Retail ($89/month). The Retail plan (known as POS Pro) provides more powerful in-person selling tools, such as staff management, customer profiles, and lower transaction fees.

Keep in mind that Shopify's Basic, Shopify, and Advanced plans automatically include the POS Lite, while the POS Pro version is included in the Plus plan.

This means that if you have one of Shopify's online store plans, you don't need to pay for the POS system unless you need the POS Pro version. If you don't have the Plus plan, the POS Pro version costs $89/month in addition to your Basic Shopify plan.

Shopify POS costs: $0 to $89/month, depending on which POS plan you choose and existing Shopify plan.

7. Additional costs to consider

When starting your Shopify store, you may face additional costs in terms of design, shipping, marketing, advertising, and more.

Here’s a breakdown of the potential extra expenses:

  • Logo creation. Shopify offers a free logo generator that you can use. If you need something more customized, platforms like Fiverr can help, but this may come with additional costs.
  • Website design. If you don't have the required skills to design your Shopify store, you might need to hire someone for the website setup. If you hire someone from Fiverr or Upwork, you can expect to pay an amount between $50 and $500 for a good design.
  • Payment processor fees. To accept payments, you’ll need a payment processor like Stripe. Fees vary but generally range from 0.15% to 3.49% per transaction. Platforms like Stripe also charge a cash fee for every purchase ($0.30).
  • Website maintenance and support. After you have launched your Shopify site, you may need to hire someone to provide customer support or maintain your website. For example, you may need help fixing technical issues or updating product listings.

To save on additional costs, Shopify has many free tools that you should look into. These include logo makers, name generators, slogan makers, invoice generators, and more.

FAQs about Shopify costs

Here are some more FAQs answered about Shopify costs:

Can you get started selling on Shopify for free?

While it's technically possible to get started for free, it is not recommended. At a minimum, you should invest in a custom domain to make your store appear trustworthy and legitimate to customers.

Is Shopify overpriced?

Shopify is actually one of the most affordable ecommerce platforms available, especially when you factor in their free trial. Plus, there are many free Shopify apps that help to extend functionality.

Are there any hidden costs with Shopify?

Shopify is extremely transparent about its costs and showcases all of them on its pricing pages. However, when you invest in additional features like Shopify apps, be sure to review all associated costs to avoid surprises.

Taking action

Reading and absorbing information and knowledge is great (definitely if it's free!), but do you know what's even better?

Taking action!

So, to help you with taking action with what you have learned in this article, take a look at the bullet points:

  • Know your budget. Before launching your Shopify store, know your budget. This will determine the plan you select, the theme and the apps you use, and how much money you have for additional costs.
  • Understand different Shopify costs. The different costs related to Shopify are pricing plans, transaction fees, Shopify apps, Shopify themes, domain name, Shopify POS, and additional costs. When starting out, you should be aware of these.
  • Choose free or paid options. For most Shopify-related costs, free and paid options are available. Depending on your budget, go with the option that makes the most sense in terms of your budget.
  • Know the total cost of starting a Shopify store. Based on your choices, you can launch your Shopify store for as low as $1/month or as high as $2,739/month.
  • Launch your Shopify store. Once you understand the Shopify costs better, you can launch your store. If you need help with that, you can read our guides on launching your Shopify store and how Shopify works.

Conclusion

As you can see, starting to sell with Shopify is relatively cheap, especially because of their fair trial system.

If you aren't aware of it, Shopify offers the first three days for free, and then you pay only $1 per month for the first three months.

If you think Shopify is not the right platform for you, you can also explore other platforms for selling products online.

While you can find cheaper options, beating Shopify's extensive functionality can be hard.

No matter which option you choose, we wish you good luck with your ecommerce journey!

Want to learn more about ecommerce?

Ready to move your online store to the next level? Check out the articles below:

Plus, don't forget to check out our in-depth how to start an online store guide here.

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