How Much Does a Shopify Store Really Cost? (2026 Breakdown)

A Shopify store costs about 39 dollars/month on the Basic plan (roughly 29 dollars/month billed annually), plus payment processing of about 2.9% + 30 cents per sale. A realistic beginner all-in — plan, a few apps, a theme, and a domain — runs roughly 40–100 dollars/month before advertising. All figures below are approximate and as of 2026; verify the live rate on shopify.com/pricing.

Shopify plan fees (approximate, 2026)

Shopify runs on a "monthly fee plus payment processing" model. Higher plans cost more per month but charge lower per-transaction card rates:

Common promo: around 1 dollar/month for the first few months, plus a 3-day free trial. If you do not use Shopify Payments and connect a third-party gateway instead, you are charged an extra transaction fee of about 2% (Basic) / 1% (Grow) / 0.6% (Advanced).

Beyond the monthly fee: the other costs

What actually blows up a budget usually is not the plan fee — it is these:

What a beginner spends in year one

Excluding ads, a lean new store's first-year cash outlay lands roughly between 500 and 1,500 dollars (plan + domain + a few apps + maybe one paid theme). Add payment processing on top, which grows in proportion to your sales.

But remember: the real cost is traffic. Building the store is cheap; the hard, expensive part is getting people to show up and buy. That is why answering "how much does Shopify cost" and stopping at the monthly fee is dangerous — you have not counted acquisition yet.

The most underestimated cost: ads

Shopify only gives you an empty store. On opening day there is no organic traffic, so you either spend time making content or spend money buying traffic. Most new stores' true cost structure is: a few dozen dollars of infrastructure plus a much larger ad budget. Whether that ad spend comes back depends on your conversion rate and average order value — start with how to reduce Shopify cart abandonment rate and Shopify store traffic but no sales: how to fix.

If you have not built the store yet, see how to start a Shopify store: step-by-step checklist; if you are weighing self-hosting to save money, see Shopify vs WooCommerce; if you are deciding between TikTok Shop and Shopify first, see TikTok Shop vs Shopify.

Frequently asked questions

Is Shopify free? No. There is a 3-day free trial, and new stores often get a roughly 1 dollar/month promo for the first few months, after which the Basic plan is about 39 dollars/month plus payment processing.

How much does Shopify take per sale? With Shopify Payments, the online card rate is about 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction (lower on higher plans), with no extra transaction fee. If you use a third-party gateway, you are charged an additional transaction fee of roughly 0.6%–2%.

What is the cheapest way to start? On a very tight budget, start with Starter (about 5 dollars/month, social/link selling only), or Basic + the free Dawn theme + free apps. Do not, however, sacrifice necessary conversion work just to save on the monthly fee.

What are Shopify's hidden costs? The most common are: paid-app monthly fees that snowball, one-time premium-theme purchases, the extra transaction fee for third-party gateways, and the biggest one — ads. The monthly fee is only the entry ticket.

Is Shopify or WooCommerce cheaper? WooCommerce has a lower base cost (the plugin itself is free), but hosting, paid plugins, and your own maintenance time are hidden costs. For the full 5-year total-cost comparison, see Shopify vs WooCommerce.

Costing it out is only step one — once the store is live, what actually decides profit is whether you can buy traffic efficiently and convert it into orders. If you want every ad dollar to land more accurately, try our AI ad launch.