Shopify Plus Pricing Explained: Costs and Transaction Fees

Shopify Plus Pricing Explained: Costs and Transaction Fees

A quick and clear breakdown of the key components in Shopify Plus’s pricing.

Updated: October 2024. 

Shopify Plus's Monthly Subscription Cost Explained

If your online store makes under $800,000 per month in sales:

  • Shopify Plus pricing starts at $2,300 USD per month for a 3-year term.
  • Alternatively, if you want a shorter commitment, Shopify Plus is $2,500 USD per month for a 1-year term.

 If your online store makes $800,000 or more per month:

  • Shopify Plus switches to what it calls a "revenue-based model". 
  • This means you'll pay 0.40% of your monthly revenue, up to a maximum of $40,000 per month​, or $480,000 a year.

Shopify Plus's revenue based pricing model is based on the fact that larger stores with higher sales will inevitably have more complex operational needs. Bigger businesses on Shopify Plus typically require increased server capacity and resources, to handle the much larger volumes of traffic, transactions, and data processing.

Note that Shopify Plus always bills monthly only in US dollars. 

Explaining the Transaction Fees for Shopify Plus

Transaction fees in Shopify Plus are paid every time your store processes a transaction, whether that's online or in-person.

You can choose to handle these fees through Shopify Payments or a third-party payment processor.

Transaction Fees with Shopify Payments on Shopify Plus:

  • Shopify offers its own payment processing with "Shopify Payments".
  • Shopify Payments is directly integrated into your Shopify store setup, enabling you to accept all major payment methods as soon as you launch your store.
  • Using Shopify Payments means there's no need for businesses to set up a separate merchant account or deal with third-party payment providers.
  • Choosing Shopify Payments as your primary payment gateway means you only pay Shopify for all online and in-person card fees, with significantly lower processing fees for Shopify Plus plan members.
  • No third-party transaction fees are charged on orders processed through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments, and PayPal Express. This waiver also applies to manual payment methods like cash, cash on delivery (COD), and bank transfers.
  •  It’s important to verify that Shopify Payments is available in your country as it is only supported in specific regions. Here's a list of the supported countries for Shopify Payments.

    Third-Party Transaction Fees on Shopify Plus:

    • When using a third-party payment gateway on Shopify Plus, you'll incur the payment processor's standard fees plus an additional fee of 0.15% per transaction. This rate may vary depending on the country.
    • While Shopify Payments offers many benefits, some businesses may choose third-party gateways to support specific payment methods not covered by Shopify Payments or to use existing payment processing relationships.
    • Here's a list of the third-party payment providers you can use with Shopify Plus.

    Shopify Plus B2B Transaction Fees

    For businesses using Shopify Plus for their B2B operations, there is a transaction fee of 0.18% on B2B transactions.

    This fee is basically designed to support the additional features and tools specific to B2B selling, such as custom pricing models, bulk ordering capabilities, and advanced account management features.

    Additional Costs for Shopify Plus

    • Apps and Integrations: Depending on your specific business needs, you may choose to integrate additional apps or third-party services with your Shopify Plus store. The costs for these can vary pretty widely, so it’s important to consider which functionalities are important for your operations.
    • Custom Development: While Shopify Plus offers a huge amount of customisation capabilities - hiring developers to implement specific features or bespoke designs does lead to additional costs. These expenses should be factored into your overall budget when considering a move to Shopify Plus.

    Do Shopify Plus's prices ever change? 

    Yes, but not often. Shopify recently (in February 2024) announced increased its monthly minimum prices for Shopify Plus by 25%.

    To put this into context, Shopify Plus merchants used to pay $2,000/month while  now Shopify Plus pricing starts at $2,300 USD per month for a 3-year term or $2,500 USD per month for a 1-year term commitment. 

    This was the first price update Shopify Plus has had in 12 years, since 2017. 25% is certainly a significant increase and caused quite a stir. Shopify has explained the price hike, saying that the capabilities and features of Shopify Plus have expanded greatly since 2017, as well as addressing inflationary pressures. 

    chart showing shopify's evolution since 2010

    Shopify Plus calls itself ‘the only cost-effective enterprise commerce platform’. What does this mean?

    Cost effective doesn't imply that Shopify Plus is 'cheap'—no enterprise e-commerce platform is.

    However, Shopify Plus often proves to be more cost-effective than its competitors (platforms like Salesforce Commerce Cloud or Magento 2) when you consider all the associated costs. These include:

    • Hosting: The cost of hosting your online store.
    • Vendor Fees: The fees charged by the platform provider.
    • App Fees: The cost of third-party applications that enhance functionality.
    • Third-Party Fees: Any fees associated with external integrations or services.
    • Payment Processing Fees: The cost of handling credit card and online transactions.
    • Development Costs: The expenses for building and maintaining custom features or integrations.
    • Support and Maintenance: The cost of customer support and platform maintenance.
    • Resources: The investment in resources needed to effectively use the platform.

    Consider Your Options & Chat with an Expert

    When evaluating the cost of Shopify Plus against other platforms, it's important to consider all potential expenses for a meaningful comparison. This assessment should include everything from setup fees to ongoing operational costs.

    If you'd like a more detailed breakdown or want to discuss how Shopify Plus can fit into your business model, feel free to reach out to me or one of my team members at Rainy City

    Read: Shopify Plus Guide - Everything You Need to Know

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    James McManus

    James McManus

    Shopify Growth Expert

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