Is There a Free Trial on Shopify?
If you’re looking to build your Shopify store, you’re probably wondering if you can do it for free. The platform doesn’t offer such an option, but you can try out its features using a 3-day trial available in most Shopify plans.
The free trial allows you to build and customize your online store. Yet, you can start selling only by subscribing to one of the Shopify pricing plans:
- Shopify Starter. This plan costs $5 per month.
- Shopify Basic. This plan costs $24 per month.
- Shopify Main. This plan costs $69 per month.
- Shopify Advanced. This plan costs $299 per month.
- Shopify Plus. This plan doesn’t offer a free trial and starts at $2,000 per month.
We’ll look at all these tariff plans in more detail. Thus, after reading this article, you’ll understand which is the most suitable for your company.
How to Choose the Right Shopify Pricing Plan?
How to choose a Shopify plan? A critical factor to consider is the features and their number. The more functionalities you need for your store to run smoothly, the more expensive plan you require.
So, Shopify has four non-enterprise pricing plans and one enterprise-level solution. Let’s compare them and the basic features they offer for online businesses.
Finally, are there any features available on all Shopify pricing plans? As you see in the table above, all tariffs include 24/7 support (except for phone call support in the Starter plan). Each Shopify pricing option offers sales channels, point-of-sale solutions, unlimited products, smooth Shopify checkout, and order management features.
These were the core features of the plans offered by Shopify. Keep reading to learn more about each tariff.
Shopify Basic
Let’s start our comparison with a Basic Shopify plan.
We won’t describe the Shopify cheapest plan — Starter, as it suits social media commerce and doesn’t allow building your eCommerce website. Since you most likely want a Shopify-based online store, you should consider the other four pricing plans.
Going back to the Basic tariff, it’s the least expensive option for building your eCommerce website. It’ll cost you $24 per month with a 2% transaction fee if you use a third-party payment provider. There are no such charges if you use Shopify Payments.
Shopify Basic allows you to create a functional online store and customize it through the admin panel. In this Shopify pricing plan, you get the following features:
- Built-in theme editor
- Build-in blogging feature
- SSL certificates
- Unlimited number of products
- Two staff accounts
- Up to four inventory locations
- Cross-border management feature for international commerce
- Basic reports, including analytics page, Live View, product analytics, finances, inventory, acquisition, behavior, and marketing reports
Even though Shopify Basic offers numerous features and is cheaper than the others, it’s still the lowest-level plan. And here’s why.
While the subscription fee looks attractive, the transaction costs are the highest among all pricing plans unless you use Shopify Payments. You can only access a limited reporting tool set, two staff logins, and not-that-many inventory locations.
Yet, while those can be significant disadvantages for some businesses, other companies may not need a more advanced functionality to make their stores a success. So who may benefit from Shopify Basic?
If you are a small business that needs a customizable eCommerce website and doesn’t want to spend money on extra features, then this Shopify pricing plan is best for you. It also suits companies that don’t yet sell in large volumes.
Shopify Main
Shopify’s core pricing plan includes all features available in the Basic option. You can access a bit of extended functionality by paying Shopify monthly fees of $69. On top of that, the transaction costs are lower — 1%.
Let’s look at some feature enhancements offered by the Shopify plan:
- More competitive transaction fees
- Five staff accounts
- Up to five inventory locations
- Automation tools
- Shipping discounts
Professional reports, including analytics page, Live View, product analytics, finances, acquisition, inventory, behavior, marketing, order, sales, retail sales, profit, and customers reports
As you can see, with the main Shopify pricing plan, you get more options for your business growth. However, you may face some limitations.
For example, you still don’t qualify for Shopify Shipping even having better shipping terms. This plan will also not suit you if your online business needs more than five staff accounts and inventory locations.
So for which companies is this option the best? This Shopify plan is quite popular as it covers businesses with revenue from around $16k to $110k. That is, it’s an excellent option for expanding eCommerce companies.
Shopify Advanced
As you may have already figured out, Shopify Advanced includes all functions of Basic and Shopify plans. Speaking of the price, it’s a significant jump compared to previous tariffs. This plan will cost you $299 monthly and offer a 0.5% transaction fee.
What are the most notable changes in functionality? They are as follows:
- The lowest transaction fees among all non-enterprise pricing plans
- 15 staff accounts
- Up to eight inventory locations
- Carrier-calculated shipping
- Calculating and collecting duties and import taxes for international commerce
Custom report builder, including analytics page, Live View, product analytics, finances, products, acquisition, inventory, behavior, marketing, order, sales, retail sales, profit, customers, and custom reports
This pricing plan on Shopify doesn’t seem to have any downsides. The only thing that may not suit your business is a monthly subscription cost.
Therefore, consider whether you have sufficient sales volume when choosing the Advanced Shopify option. Typically, this Shopify pricing plan is suitable for businesses with income from around $110K to $680K. Thus, Advanced is best for established eCommerce companies that plan to expand further and use top-notch analytical tools.
Shopify Plus
Continuing our Shopify plans comparison, it’s time to stop at the enterprise-level pricing option. It differs significantly from the previous ones, and costs respectively. Shopify Plus’s price starts at $2,000 per month. It may cost even more if your online store requires complex customizations.
You’ll access the following features if you opt for this option, in contrast to the cheaper pricing plans from Shopify:
- The lowest transaction fee of 0.15%
- Unlimited staff accounts
- Up to 20 inventory locations
- Up to nine expansion stores creation
- Up to 100 themes for your account
- Shopify organization admin for managing all procedures in one place
- Customizable checkout for better branding
- Access to advanced Shopify apps and channels
- Additional APIs support
- More automation tools
- Launch team support for your online store settings
- Permission settings for better staff management
- Additional point-of-sale features
- Exclusive access to some integrations
Isn’t that impressive? Shopify Plus can turn any of your online store ideas into reality. Yet, this plan won’t suit your business if the high subscription cost doesn’t justify the extensive functionality and isn’t proportional to your earnings.
Yet, Shopify Plus is the best option to expand your business if you sell in high volume and can be considered an enterprise. So try this Shopify pricing plan out for your store if your monthly revenue is over $680K.
Read also: 10 Best Shopify Payment Methods & Its Integration
Additional Shopify Solutions Costs
If you want your online store to run smoothly, you may need to spend some extra money on Shopify solutions beyond the main Shopify pricing plans. Here are some that we suggest:
Shopify Payments
You may have noticed that each pricing plan involves charging a transaction fee. Somewhere more, somewhere less, but all this equally affects the earnings of your online store.
If you don’t want to spend on those fees, then pay attention to Shopify Payments. It’s a card payment processing service offering lucrative conditions: zero transaction fees and a 2.4% + 25 cents credit card rate.
This service is a valuable addition to your store, but it is only available in some countries.
Shopify Apps
In addition to the features provided by Shopify subscription plans, the platform offers many applications and extensions to implement in your store. There are numerous free options. Yet, there are also paid ones that typically offer a monthly subscription.
It’s challenging to estimate how much cost you need for a Shopify app. Why so? Everything depends on what specific digital solutions you plan to implement in your online store. For example, some apps charge $6 a month, while others cost you over $1,000.
Shopify Themes
Although Shopify offers enough free themes to power your website design, you may want a more distinctive solution. In this case, you can choose from 100 paid ones available in the Shopify Themes store.
Shopify themes cost somewhere between $180 and $350. Yet, you can look for cheaper options at other marketplaces like Envato Market or hire an expert to create a custom solution.
Other Shopify Costs
In addition to the monthly Shopify pricing and plans fees, transaction, app, and theme costs, other things require extra payment. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Domain Name Registration
You don’t get a domain name right away when you create an online store on Shopify. You are required to spend additional costs on this. One option is to buy a domain name directly from Shopify, starting at $14 per year.
Another thing you can do is to purchase it from other service providers, but make sure the domain name settings are worth the effort.
Email Hosting
Shopify stores don’t support email hosting. It means you won’t be able to send emails to your customers under your domain name.
You will require to install a specialized app to add this feature to your online store. Shopify took care of this and offered its solution — Shopify Email, where you can send up to 10,000 emails per month for free and then pay $1 for 1,000 emails.
When you face these additional costs, you have various options to deal with them. For example, you may use third-party solutions instead of sticking up solely to the ones offered by Shopify. Generally, buying a domain name elsewhere is cheaper than from Shopify. You can also carefully consider which add-ons you need and not invest in supplementary solutions.
Read also: Shopify Hosting for eCommerce
Shopify POS Pricing
A point of sale or POS is a system for making and managing sales. How does it work? Shopify POS streamlines sales between your online and offline store, providing a seamless shopping experience.
All Shopify plans and features offer POS solutions, except for Shopify Starter. That is, Shopify Basic, Shopify, Shopify Advanced, and Shopify Plus have Shopify POS Lite on board. And it’s free. A Shopify card reader is the only thing you should pay for, which costs $49.
If Shopify POS Lite’s features are not enough for your store and you require an advanced solution, there is a Shopify POS Pro. It offers such handy tools as smart inventory tracking, staff management, reporting, and more. Its price is $89 per month.
Conclusion: Which Shopify Pricing Plan to Choose?
Shopify pricing plans are one of the first things to deal with for businesses that aim to launch their online store. For many, figuring out the available options can be confusing, considering the additional costs you may encounter.
While it can be challenging to choose pricing plans, Shopify is still the platform that offers the most flexible and profitable options in 2023. Some may think that the subscription is too expensive, but considering the many benefits and features the business will get; all prices are justified.
We hope today’s article helped you pick a Shopify plan that best suits your business. In conclusion, we’ll say the following:
- Shopify Starter is a great eCommerce solution for selling through social networks.
- Shopify Basic is a good option for businesses entering the world of eCommerce.
- Shopify Main is a standard option for small businesses with earnings of up to $100k.
- Shopify Advanced is a pricing plan that is best for expanding businesses.
- Finally, Shopify Plus is an impeccable enterprise-level solution.
Even knowing the difference between all the pricing plans offered by the Shopify platform, you may still have some questions. Our team is proficient in Shopify store development and design, having delivered over 200 eCommerce projects successfully. Thus, you can contact GenovaWebArt experts who will help you choose the best option for your business.
