We get asked all the time: Which Shopify plan is the right one for us? The answer is never as simple as the price list suggests. Because the cost of a plan is only part of the equation. Transaction fees, tier structures, hidden features, and above all your business goals play an equally important role.
This overview helps you understand the actual costs — and decide when an upgrade is truly worth it.
Shopify Plans 2026: Price and Feature Overview
Basic Plan — 36 €/month
The entry-level plan for small shops and solo entrepreneurs.
What's included:
- Up to 2 staff accounts
- Basic reports (sales, products, customers)
- Transaction fees: 2.7% + 0.30 € per online store sale
- Basic automation
- 1 location
When this plan is suitable:
- Just started, under 1k €/month revenue
- Test shops, side projects, or experimental stores
- Minimal technical requirements
Realistic monthly budget for this plan:
- Shopify fee: 36 €
- Transaction fees (at 3k € revenue): ~81 €
- Domain: ~10 €
- Total budget month 1: ~127 €
Shopify Plan — 105 €/month
The Goldilocks plan for growing shops with a clear ROI focus.
What sets it apart from the Basic Plan:
- Up to 5 staff accounts
- Advanced reports (customer behavior, sales reps, profit and loss)
- Transaction fees: 2.4% + 0.30 € per sale (0.3% savings)
- Better automation options
- Up to 3 locations
What really helps you: The 15-20 € savings from reduced transaction fees add up quickly with steady growth. At 10k € monthly sales, you save about 300 € per year from the lower fees.
When the upgrade is worth it:
- 5k €+ monthly revenue
- Team of 2-4 people
- You need detailed sales analytics
Realistic monthly budget:
- Shopify fee: 105 €
- Transaction fees (at 10k € revenue): ~240 €
- Apps (email, reviews): ~50-100 €
- Domain: ~10 €
- Total budget month 6: ~405-455 €
Advanced Plan — 384 €/month
For serious retail businesses and brands with real volume.
What changes:
- Up to 15 staff accounts
- Advanced reports + custom reports
- Transaction fees: 2.1% + 0.30 € (another 0.3% savings)
- Advanced inventory management
- CSV data exports
- Priority support (faster responses)
- Up to 8 locations
The financial tipping point: This plan pays for itself starting at around 30k-50k € monthly revenue. The transaction fee savings cover the plan quickly.
When this is the right plan:
- 20k €+ monthly revenue (over 240k €/year)
- 5+ employees
- You need more complex inventory management and custom reports
- You have multiple sales channels
Realistic monthly budget:
- Shopify fee: 384 €
- Transaction fees (at 50k € revenue): ~1,050 €
- Apps + services: ~150-250 €
- Domain, images, hosting: ~50 €
- Total budget month 12: ~1,634-1,734 €
Shopify Plus — from 2.3k €/month
Enterprise solution for large brands, B2B companies, and multi-channel operations.
What fundamentally changes:
- Dedicated account manager
- No transaction fees (you only pay for what you use)
- Custom tier structures possible
- Up to 800 staff accounts
- API access for complex integrations
- Native multilingual and multi-currency support
- Unlimited locations
- SLA and uptime guarantees
The Plus model is fundamentally different: With Plus, you negotiate directly with Shopify. Costs depend on:
- Monthly revenue
- Required API requests
- Additional features (Launchpad, Flow, etc.)
When Plus is necessary:
- 250k €+ monthly revenue
- Multiple brands or markets
- B2B models with custom workflows
- Complex integrations with backend systems
- You need dedicated technical support
Realistic monthly budget:
- Shopify Plus base fee: 2.3k €
- Variable fees (at 500k € revenue): ~2,500-5k €
- Development + customization: ~5k-15k €/month
- Dedicated infrastructure: ~1k-3k €
- Total budget month 18: ~10,800-25,300 €
The Hidden Reality: What the Plan Doesn't Show
1. Transaction Fees — The Biggest Line Item
We see many shops over-optimizing the plan price while ignoring transaction fees. That's strategically wrong.
Example calculation for 50k €/month revenue:
| Plan | Plan fee | Trans. fees (2.1-2.7%) | Total fee | Savings/month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 36 € | 1.35k € | 1,386 € | — |
| Shopify | 105 € | 1,200 € | 1,305 € | 81 € |
| Advanced | 384 € | 1,050 € | 1,434 € | -48 € (more expensive!) |
| Plus | 2.3k € | 0 € | 2.3k €+ | -914 € |
Interesting insight: Advanced only becomes more economical than Shopify at ~80k € monthly revenue. Below that, you're paying too much.
2. Staff Accounts: The Underestimated Scalability Factor
Each additional staff member on the Basic Plan costs 15 €/month extra. On the Shopify Plan, it's 12 €/month per person beyond the first 2.
With a 5-person team:
- Basic: 36 € + 45 € (3 extra) = 81 €/month
- Shopify: 105 € + 36 € (3 extra) = 141 €/month
- Advanced: 384 € (15 accounts included) = 384 €/month
3. The Reports You Actually Need
On the Basic Plan, you're missing:
- Customer behavior data
- Profit & loss statements
- Repeat customer rate
- Average order value over time
This isn't just a feature list — this is decision-making data. Every week without these metrics costs you optimization opportunities.
4. Automation and Workflows
On the Advanced Plan and Plus, you get access to Shopify Flow — a native automation platform. This saves you apps like Zapier or Make, which otherwise cost 30-100 €/month.
The Upgrade Strategy: When Is the Next Plan Worth It?
We work by a simple rule: A plan upgrade is worth it when the savings cover the additional costs within 3 months.
Concrete thresholds:
- Upgrade to Shopify: From 8k € monthly revenue
- Upgrade to Advanced: From 40k € monthly revenue (and you need advanced reports)
- Upgrade to Plus: From 200k € monthly revenue (API flexibility becomes a business advantage)
Common Mistakes We See
Mistake 1: Staying on the Basic Plan Too Long
Many shops generate 15k € monthly revenue and still pay 36 € plan + high transaction fees. Upgrading to Shopify would save 150-200 €/year.
Mistake 2: Upgrading to Advanced Too Early
Shops with 20k € revenue upgrade to Advanced and pay 384 € instead of 105 €. They don't need the features, and the transaction fee savings are too small.
Mistake 3: Forgetting About Plus
Shops with 300k € revenue pay 105 € plan + 7,200 € transaction fees = 7,305 €. With Plus, you might pay 5k €. But they don't see it because Plus doesn't appear in the pricing calculator.
Our Recommendation: Plan + Service
What we observe: The plan itself doesn't determine success. How you use it determines success.
A shop on the Basic Plan with an optimized checkout converts better than a Plus shop with poor UX.
What this means:
- Choose the plan you can economically justify
- Then optimize the checkout, the product page, the navigation
- Systematically measure conversion, AOV, repeat rate
- Upgrade when the metrics are stable and the plan becomes a bottleneck
For the technical optimization, we help with our packages:
- Foundation (6k €): Checkout optimization, load time, conversion basics
- Architecture+ (10k €): Complete technical audits, SEO optimization, custom workflows
- Scale (1.5k €/month): Ongoing optimization and monitoring
The Checklist: Which Plan Fits You?
You're right on Basic if:
- Revenue under 8k €/month
- Team of 1-2 people
- Still in the experimentation phase
Upgrade to Shopify Plan when:
- 8k-40k € revenue/month
- 2-4 employees
- You need sales analytics
Upgrade to Advanced when:
- 40k-200k € revenue/month
- 4+ employees
- Advanced inventory management needed
- Custom reports important for business decisions
Upgrade to Plus when:
- 200k €+ revenue/month
- Multiple brands or international markets
- Complex integrations with ERP/CRM
- You need API access and compliance
Claudio Gerlich is Technical Architect and founder of smplx. — passionately making the technical side of e-commerce transparent since 2006. With smplx., we have optimized over 100 shops, from startups to seven-figure brands. We don't just show which plan fits — we make that plan profitable. From Munsterland, NRW into the German-speaking e-commerce universe.