That's a good question, and once you've looked at the pricing – the basic plan at €27 per month, the Shopify plan at €79 per month, the Advanced plan at €289 per month, and finally the Shopify Plus plan at $2300 per month – we haven't quite finished the journey to understand the monthly cost.
Indeed, for each Basic, Shopify, Advanced, or Plus plan, we have differing main functionalities, such as the number of international markets, the number of inventory locations, and many other criteria.
What you should remember, however, is that the cheaper the plan, the higher Shopify's commission cost will be. There are therefore naturally equilibrium points where, depending on the revenue you generate, Shopify's commission, added to the monthly cost, will give you a total cost.
For example, if you make over €6000 per month, it will be more advantageous to switch to a Shopify plan at €79 per month than to stay on the basic subscription at €27 per month, which has a much higher Shopify commission, and therefore the average and the average monthly cost of Shopify will, in one case, be to your disadvantage.
Comparison of Shopify's average monthly cost
- With the basic plan at €27 per month, you have a commission of 1.5% plus €0.25 per order.
- The average cost of the Shopify plan at €79 per month has a commission of 1.3% plus €0.25 per order.
- While the Advanced plan at €289 per month has a commission rate of 1.1% plus €0.25 per order.
You can see that the fixed cost per order of €0.25 is the same across all three plans.
However, in the cheapest plan, Shopify will take a larger commission, 1.5%. For the slightly more expensive plan at €79 per month, Shopify will take a commission of 1.3% instead of 1.5%. And finally, for the Advanced plan at €289 per month, the commission will be 1.1% instead of 1.3% in the Shopify plan and instead of 1.5% in the basic plan.
Once we have clearly understood how Shopify's average monthly cost is structured with two adjustment variables: your revenue and your number of monthly orders, we have a good vision of the costs.
However, it should not be forgotten that Shopify's economic model is also based on monthly subscriptions for applications that are very useful for the development of your activity.
What is the average monthly cost of Shopify apps?
You should therefore plan to add average monthly costs for Shopify applications, including those for GDPR, sending invoices, cross-selling, verified reviews, etc. If you are starting your activity, perhaps plan for an additional €50 in average monthly costs in addition to Shopify and its subscription.
Finally, we must not forget the price of an e-commerce site, and typically, you could choose to amortize it, for example, over three years, and therefore divide the price to create your Shopify store by 36 months.
In conclusion, how much Shopify costs on average and monthly is a topic that needs to be well anticipated.
You may also have management fees with an e-commerce manager that need to be added to these monthly costs.
Finally, regarding the Shopify commission, also remember that if you do not use Shopify Payments, you will pay a commission to payment service providers.
Typically:
for the basic plan, you will pay an additional 2%
for the Shopify plan, you will pay an additional 1%
and for the Advanced plan, you will pay an additional 0.6%.
It is therefore important to be vigilant and do the math correctly because a payment service provider can be competitive, but if Shopify charges you an additional 1%, it may ultimately not be profitable.
To remember: the higher your monthly revenue, the more you can negotiate a competitive commission rate with a third-party provider.
Our advice: for businesses starting out or merchants who want to get started and therefore have no revenue, you should start with the basic plan until you reach approximately €5000 to €6000 in revenue, and at that point, it will be opportune to switch to the Shopify plan. Of course, and once again, some functionalities you want to use may be in the higher plan. And consequently, the sole criterion of revenue will not be sufficient for this decision of choosing a plan.
