How much does a Shopify store really cost in 2026?

Most owners budget for the Shopify plan and are then surprised by everything around it. In our three worked examples a first year costs from about $2,100 for a simple store to more than $115,000 for one with custom features, and once someone is paid to build the store, the plan fee falls below 5% of the total. Below are the plan prices for the US, UK and India, the fees that grow with your sales, what a build really costs, and a worksheet you can fill in today.

A note on the numbers. Every Shopify price here is as shown on Shopify’s pricing pages in early October 2026: US figures from an archived copy of the US page dated 3 October, because Shopify shows prices by location, and the UK and India pages checked live on 4 October. Prices vary by country and change, so confirm them on Shopify’s site. Themes, apps and domains bill in US dollars; we convert at European Central Bank rates for 2 October 2026 ($1 = £0.7575 = ₹96.32).

The short answer: three first-year budgets

From the worked examples further down, using prices as shown in early October 2026. Ranges reflect US agency rates of $100–$149 an hour.

The spread is not driven by Shopify. In examples B and C the plan is under 5% of the total; the money goes on build and maintenance hours and on payment fees. Marketing is left out because it is a choice, not a platform cost, though in our view it is where most first-year budgets go wrong.

Shopify plan prices in the US, UK and India

Price per month, as shown on Shopify’s pricing pages in early October 2026 (US archived 3 October; UK and India checked 4 October). Yearly plans are billed once a year. Prices vary by country; confirm them on Shopify’s site.

Paying yearly saves about a quarter: on US Basic, (39 − 29) ÷ 39 = 25.6%. Hosting and SSL are included, and Shopify says “there are no setup fees on any of our plans” (Shopify UK pricing).

What pushes most small teams up a plan is not the card rate. Grow includes up to 5 staff accounts and Advanced up to 15, while Basic lists no additional staff accounts (Shopify US pricing, archived).

The $1 offer and the new-merchant credit

New stores get 3 days free, then pay $1, £1 or ₹20 a month for 3 months before standard monthly pricing starts (Shopify India pricing). On Basic, that makes year one cost about the same either way:

So pay monthly in year one and stay free to leave.

New merchants also earn credit against subscription bills: for the first 6 months, 1% of Shopify Payments sales (0.5% through other providers), once you pass $1,000 in sales, capped at $5,000 on Basic (Shopify Help Center: offers). It never covers apps, themes or card fees.

Shopify Plus and the closed Starter plan

Plus “starts at $2,300 USD/mo” in the US (Shopify US pricing, archived). In the UK it is from £1,800 a month on a 3-year term or £1,950 on a 1-year term, and “more complex, higher volume businesses” move to a variable fee based on revenue (Shopify Plus UK). India lists ₹1,75,000 or ₹1,90,000 (Shopify Plus India). A fixed term can only be cancelled when it ends. For a business with 5 to 50 staff, Plus usually comes too early: on card fees alone it pays back only at roughly $800,000 a month in sales.

The $5 Starter plan is not an option. Some guides still suggest it, but Shopify’s Help Center says Starter “isn’t available to new stores” (Shopify Starter plan).

Payment fees: the cost that grows with your sales

Plan fees are fixed. Payment fees rise with every order and soon outgrow the plan. With Shopify Payments you pay a card rate and no extra transaction fee:

Standard domestic cards, as shown on Shopify’s pricing pages in early October 2026. Confirm the rates for your country on Shopify’s site.

Some cards cost more: US international cards add 1% (Shopify US pricing, archived), and UK Amex and international cards cost 3.1% + 25p on Basic (Shopify UK pricing). UK rates sit well below US rates, so the US examples show higher fees.

Use your own payment provider and Shopify adds its third-party fee on top of your provider’s charge. The fee skips point-of-sale orders and manual payments such as cash on delivery, and it is not returned when you refund (third-party transaction fees).

India: why you pay twice

Shopify’s India pricing page shows no Shopify Payments rates, only the third-party fee (Shopify India pricing). So an Indian store on Basic pays its gateway and Shopify’s 2% on every prepaid order. Razorpay’s standard rate is 2% per domestic transaction plus 18% GST on that fee (Razorpay pricing).

Worked example. Assumption: ₹10,00,000 of prepaid online sales on Basic, all through Razorpay.

• Razorpay: 2% × ₹10,00,000 = ₹20,000
• GST on Razorpay’s fee: 18% × ₹20,000 = ₹3,600
• Shopify’s third-party fee: 2% × ₹10,00,000 = ₹20,000
• Total: ₹43,600, or 4.36% of sales

Cash-on-delivery orders are exempt from Shopify’s part.

When a bigger plan pays for itself

A higher plan costs more each month but takes a smaller cut of each sale. The point where the two cancel out:

Break-even monthly online card sales = difference in plan price ÷ difference in percentage rate.

The per-order fee (30¢ or 25p) is the same on every plan, so it drops out.

Monthly online card sales needed, from the plan prices and rates above. UK Plus uses the 3-year price; India uses the third-party fee.

Below these lines, upgrade only for a feature you can name, such as staff accounts, reports or shipping rates.

Themes, apps, domain and email

Themes. The Theme Store lists 24 free themes and paid ones from $100 to $500, priced in US dollars (Shopify Theme Store), roughly £76–£379 or ₹9,632–₹48,162 before your card’s foreign-exchange charge. A paid theme is a one-time charge for one store, and “final sale and non-refundable” (Shopify refund policy). Updates are free, but code edits carry over only if they do not clash (updating themes). Most of the build cost goes into setting a theme up, not into the licence.

Apps. This is where monthly costs creep up. Every listing below bills in US dollars, with recurring charges every 30 days.

From the Shopify App Store listings, checked 4 October 2026. Email app prices rise with list size.

Many apps charge by contacts, orders or transactions, so the bill grows with the store. Free tiers can run a starter store: Judge.me Free, Shopify Messaging and Shopify Subscriptions cost nothing. And some apps, including Klaviyo, Omnisend and Recharge, may bill outside Shopify; Shopify warns that “uninstalling the app from your Shopify admin doesn’t cancel external charges” (uninstalling apps).

Domain and email. A .com bought through Shopify costs “around $16 per year”, with most names at $10 to $30 (Shopify blog). That includes email forwarding but not an inbox. Google Workspace Business Starter costs $7 per user per month in the US on an annual plan (Google Workspace pricing, archived) and ₹270 in India (Google Workspace India). In the UK it is £5.90 a month on an annual plan, excluding VAT, according to Google partner Refractiv.

What it costs to have someone build it

We are an official Shopify Partner and we build stores, so we have an interest here. The rates below come from public data, not from our price list.

The rate is only half the sum. No public source publishes hours, so the hours below are our assumptions; swap in the hours from a real quote.

Hours × rate. The UK column assumes a 7.5-hour day; India figures are upper bounds because Clutch gives “under $25”.

Worked example. A simple UK store, assuming a 7.5-hour day. Low end: 20 hours ÷ 7.5 = 2.67 days × £378 = £1,008. High end: 40 hours ÷ 7.5 = 5.33 days × £505 = £2,693.

Hours move the total more than the rate does, so a written scope that fixes the hours, or a fixed price, protects you better than a cheaper rate. If your store needs custom features or integrations, have each priced as its own line. Before you sign, check that the quote:

• lists hours or deliverables for theme setup, product import, apps, integrations, redirects and testing;
• puts the store, theme, app and domain accounts in your name from day one;
• names the apps it assumes and their monthly cost at your order volume;
• prices support after launch and says what is out of scope;
• uses a Theme Store theme, since themes bought elsewhere get no Shopify-supported updates.

Maintenance. After launch a store keeps needing updates, fixes and small changes, and some apps leave code in your theme after you uninstall them (uninstalling apps). We assume about 4 hours a month for a growing brand and 10 for a custom store. At US agency rates that is $4,800–$7,152 a year for 48 hours, or $12,000–$17,880 for 120. At the UK median day rate, 48 hours is about £3,123. A few hours a month is a job for a small retainer or a freelancer; a dedicated developer only makes sense when a store keeps someone busy for much of the week.

Worked examples: the full first year

We found no store that publishes its full first-year budget, so these use the public prices above and our stated assumptions. Card fees use standard domestic rates; marketing is excluded.

Example A: a simple starter store, in three countries

Worked example A. Assumptions: the owner does most of the setup, with one inbox, a free theme and free app tiers. US: $30,000 of sales from 500 orders through Shopify Payments, plus 20 hours of freelance help at Upwork’s intermediate $33. UK: £25,000 from 500 orders, plus 3 days of a contractor at the £488 median. India: ₹10,00,000 of prepaid sales through Razorpay, plus 20 hours of agency time at Clutch’s $25 upper bound.

The credit only reduces subscription bills. In the UK the contractor is the biggest line: twenty hours from an offshore freelancer at $33 an hour (about £500) would cut the total to about £1,436. In India, if 40% of orders were cash on delivery, Shopify’s 2% would apply to only ₹6,00,000, saving ₹8,000.

Example B: a growing brand

Worked example B (US). Assumptions: $240,000 of sales from 4,000 orders (average $60); 3 staff, so Grow for the staff accounts; a $450 paid theme; 80 hours of agency customisation; 4 hours a month of maintenance.

Why Grow and not Basic? On plan and fees alone Basic would be $120 cheaper: $348 + (2.9% × $240,000 + $1,200) = $8,508, against Grow’s $948 + $7,680 = $8,628. At $20,000 a month the store is below the $25,000 break-even, so Grow is chosen for the staff accounts, which is the right reason to upgrade.

Marketing would sit on top. At LocaliQ’s average of $4.14 a click for shopping, collectibles and gifts searches, $1,000 a month buys about 242 clicks (LocaliQ benchmarks).

Example C: custom features, and why not Plus

Worked example C (US). Assumptions: $1,200,000 of sales from 15,000 orders (average $80); 30% of revenue from subscriptions, over 4,500 subscription transactions; 8 staff; US sales tax collected through Shopify Tax on all sales; 300 hours of custom build (subscriptions, ERP integration, B2B pricing); 10 hours a month of maintenance.

Shopify Tax is free up to $100,000 in sales (a lifetime threshold for stores created on or after 13 May 2026), then 0.35% in the US, capped at $0.99 an order (Shopify Tax pricing); on an $80 order that is 28¢. Email uses Google’s Business Standard tier (Google Workspace pricing, archived).

Why not Plus? Plus: $2,300 × 12 = $27,600, plus card fees of 2.25% × $1,200,000 + $4,500 = $31,500, so $59,100. Advanced: $3,588 + $34,500 = $38,088. Plus costs $21,012 more a year on plan and fees alone.

Choose Plus for features you can name, not to save on fees.

Hidden costs and common mistakes

1. Chargebacks. With Shopify Payments each dispute costs $15 in the US or £10 in the UK, returned only if you win, and can take up to 75 days to settle (chargeback process).
2. Refunds keep the card fee. “The original credit card transaction fee isn’t refunded to you” (Shopify Payments refunds), and neither is the third-party fee.
3. Other currencies. Selling in them adds a conversion fee of 1.5% for US stores and 2% for UK stores and most other regions (international pricing fees).
4. Gift cards and store credit. Stores created on or after 12 May 2025 pay the third-party fee on the part of an order paid this way, even on Shopify Payments (third-party transaction fees).
5. Shopify Tax. Past $100,000 in sales, 0.35% (US) or 0.25% (UK) (Shopify Tax pricing).
6. App creep. Uninstalling stops future charges, “but you might still be billed for the current billing cycle”; external charges continue until you cancel with the developer (uninstalling apps).
7. Switching themes. A new licence plus the setup hours again.
8. Migration. Moving products, customers and 301 redirects takes tools, such as Matrixify at $20–$200 a month, plus hours. Missing redirects lose search traffic.
9. Locking in early. Shopify plans are “generally non-refundable”, with refund requests considered within 7 days (monthly) or 30 days (yearly) (Shopify refund policy).

How to keep costs down

• Pay monthly in year one with the $1, £1 or ₹20 offer, then switch to yearly.
• Use Shopify Payments where offered; in India, offer cash on delivery where margins allow.
• Start on free app tiers and add a paid app only for a job you can name.
• Pick a free theme or one at $100–$300 and spend the difference on photos and copy.
• Compare quotes on hours, not just rate.

When Shopify is not the right choice

WooCommerce is a free plugin, but its makers put hosting at “$25–$350/month for most stores” and extensions at “$29–$299/year per extension” (WooCommerce pricing). WooPayments charges 2.9% + $0.30 in the US and 1.5% + £0.25 in the UK, with extra for international cards (WooPayments fees). It suits a business that already runs a content-heavy WordPress site, wants full control of its code and data, or has unusual product logic, and in India it avoids Shopify’s extra fee. The trade-off: you take on hosting, security, updates and backups, which means developer time that Shopify includes in the plan.

BigCommerce matches Shopify’s headline prices: Core at $39 ($29 yearly), Growth at $105 ($79) and Scale at $399 ($299) (BigCommerce pricing). It charges no platform fee with its embedded payment providers, such as Stripe, PayPal and Adyen, so it suits a business that wants to keep its own processor. Watch the sales caps: Core covers up to $30,000 and Growth up to $100,000 of sales over 12 months, and a store that passes its cap is moved up a plan automatically.

Stay with Shopify if you have no in-house developer, want hosting, security and checkout handled for you, can use Shopify Payments in the US or UK, and can cover your needs with a theme and a handful of apps.

Your first-year Shopify cost worksheet

Fill in one line at a time with your own numbers. The right-hand column shows Example A for scale.

The upgrade rule. Move up a plan only when monthly online card sales pass the plan price difference divided by the rate difference: for Basic to Grow on yearly billing, about $25,000 (US), £10,000 (UK) or ₹4.1 lakh (India). Below that, upgrade only for a named feature.

The quarterly app audit. Put it in the calendar:

1. List every app, and every subscription billed outside Shopify.
2. Write down the job each one does.
3. Check each price at this quarter’s orders or contacts.
4. Remove apps with no job, along with the code they left in your theme.
5. Cancel external billing with the developer separately.

A Shopify store is cheap to open and easy to underestimate. The plan is a known number; the build hours, card fees and apps are the lines that move. Fill in the worksheet with your own sales, get the hours in writing, and check Shopify’s site for your country’s prices before you commit. Then revisit it each quarter, because the costs that grow with a store are the ones nobody notices until the invoice arrives.