Shopify Pricing: Annual Bills, Payment Fees and the Cost of Leaving

Shopify’s plan price is only the first line of the store budget. Payment processing, paid apps, mailboxes and the work needed to move later can change the decision more than a small subscription discount.

Checked October 5, 2026: this guide uses the United States pricing page in USD. It separates published rates from HRL calculations. Confirm your country, billing cycle and checkout quote before paying; we have not performed a hands-on store or migration test.

Shopify monthly and annual prices

Shopify also advertises Plus from $2,300/month; obtain its contract quote separately. Hosting and SSL are included in the store plans. A custom domain can be connected, but that does not make domain registration free. Source: Shopify’s official pricing page.

The annual equivalents above are not monthly invoices. Shopify documents annual subscriptions as a full-year upfront payment. Its subscription charges are generally non-refundable, subject to its refund policy. A short introductory offer is separate from these standard rates. Source: Shopify billing overview.

Three-year and five-year subscription cost

These are HRL constant-rate scenarios, not a renewal-price guarantee or total ownership cost. We multiply the current annual bill by three or five, with annual billing throughout. Promotions, taxes, future price changes and every extra below are excluded.

For renewals, record your actual next invoice date, annual amount and app renewal dates. Recheck the quote before each commitment. Saving $120 a year on Basic by choosing annual billing matters only if that commitment suits the business.

Payment processing and third-party transaction fees

The US pricing page lists standard online card rates of 2.9% + 30¢ for Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ for Grow and 2.5% + 30¢ for Advanced. Premium or international cards and other payment methods have different rates. Listed third-party transaction rates are 2%, 1% and 0.6%, respectively.

When a third-party gateway is used, Shopify’s transaction charge can sit alongside that gateway’s processing charge. Shopify documents exemptions for specified methods when Shopify Payments is used, but also special treatment for gift-card and store-credit payments on stores created from May 12, 2025. Check the actual payment mix rather than assuming all payments are exempt. See the official fee conditions.

A worked budget, without pretending every order costs the same

Assume Basic, annual billing, $10,000 in monthly sales and 100 orders, all eligible for the listed standard online card rate. HRL calculates processing as $290 plus $30, or $320. Add the $29 subscription equivalent: $349 per month before apps, domains, email, taxes and other charges. The annual subscription still requires $348 upfront.

Under the same simplified card-rate assumptions, Grow’s $50 higher annual-billing monthly equivalent is offset by its 0.2 percentage-point processing reduction at $25,000 in monthly eligible sales. This is a fee-only break-even calculation. It excludes other rates and features, and is not a recommendation to upgrade automatically.

Costs to put beside the subscription

• Domain: write down both registration and renewal quotes for your chosen name.
• Email: Shopify does not host custom-domain mailboxes; budget for a separate service. See Shopify email-hosting documentation.
• Apps and design: obtain the actual price for each required tool or theme. Include usage charges and implementation work, not just a headline app subscription.
• Recovery: decide which records need preservation and how you will restore them. Price the chosen backup workflow.
• Operations: budget separately for shipping, returns, tax administration, stock and staff. A website subscription cannot stand in for the business budget.

Build the monthly budget from subscription equivalent + processing + applicable transaction fees + app costs + recurring services. Keep the annual cash payment visible beside it.

What happens if you leave Shopify?

Shopify documents CSV exports for several store records and a theme download. Its duplication instructions still require app reinstallation and manual configuration; orders cannot be imported through the standard admin workflow. A paid Shopify Theme Store theme is licensed to its original store. Source: Shopify backups and duplication.

HRL’s planning implication: preserving records is not the same as obtaining a working store on another platform. Ask the destination developer to map product fields, customer access, order history, redirects, payments and each app’s replacement. Test those functions before canceling the old store.

Use our export vs. backup guide and website handover checklist to define acceptance. Keep domain and mailbox ownership in that record.

For stores, compare Wix vs. Shopify and Squarespace vs. Shopify by selling workflows, fees and export boundaries.

Shopify operation and recovery guides

• Shopify backups and recovery limits
• Shopify launch and handover checklist
• Shopify app and renewal cost audit

Continue your Shopify research

• Shopify vs. WooCommerce: cost, maintenance and ownership
• WooCommerce pricing: build the full store budget
• Moving from Shopify to WooCommerce: acceptance and cutover
• Shopify domain and email costs: separate renewals and accounts

Use a payment-method scenario before choosing a tier

Build a small budget with the same sales volume and payment-method mix on each eligible Shopify tier. Separate the subscription difference, processing charges and any applicable third-party transaction charge. Then add the apps each workflow requires. A lower percentage in one row does not prove a cheaper complete store; the plan’s extra fixed cost and the transactions to which that rate applies both matter.

Choose the platform around the store you need

Start with a list of required selling workflows, then cost the smallest plan and app combination that supports them. If you are comparing a hosted builder with a WordPress store, include the maintenance and support arrangement in both budgets. Our ecommerce hosting shortlist covers hosting candidates, rather than claiming they replace Shopify without setup work.

Continue with the website-builder research hub, Wix pricing guide and Squarespace pricing guide. See our research methodology and affiliate disclosure. The Shopify source link here is an ordinary official link; no Shopify affiliate approval is claimed.