Shopify costs more than the plan. This guide explains plans, billing, fees for outside payment providers, card fees, themes, apps, domains and currencies, with a made-up worked example and a budget method.
How much does Shopify cost? There is no single figure, because the bill has several parts: a subscription for your plan, fees on payments, and optional extras such as apps, a paid theme and a domain. Shopify changes plans and prices and shows them by region, so this guide quotes none: it explains each kind of cost and where to read the current number, as of October 2026.
In short
As of October 2026, Shopify's pricing page lists Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus, with a POS Pro add-on for physical shops; the help centre also lists plans for narrower uses, such as Starter and Retail. The core is the same on every plan: the online store and themes, unlimited products, checkout, hosting, a free SSL certificate, discount codes, gift cards and a custom domain. There are no setup fees.
Shopify says no one plan suits every business. What changes as you move up:
| Area | What differs |
|---|---|
| Staff accounts | More on each higher plan |
| Support | Live chat on the lower plans, fuller support higher up |
| Checkout and developer access | Fuller checkout customisation and higher API limits on the higher plans |
| Regional selling | Advanced and Plus add a tailored regional store experience |
| Fees | The fee on outside payment providers, and card rates, vary by plan |
| Plus only | Features for large operations, such as high-volume checkout and custom functions |
Shopify's billing overview says a billing cycle is 30 days, that you cannot pick your billing date, and that a one-year cycle gives a lower effective monthly rate but is charged for the whole year in advance. Upgrades take effect at once and are prorated; a move to a lower plan, or from yearly to monthly, takes effect at the end of the cycle (plan changes).
Three cautions. Subscription charges are generally non-refundable. The pricing page describes an introductory rate for a limited period, so find out what the plan costs afterwards. In some regions plan prices are adjusted to the local cost of living, based on where your store is, so a price quoted elsewhere may not be yours. Bills may also show taxes that depend on your location, so ask your accountant.
If customers pay through a provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee. Shopify says it covers a secure checkout, comes on top of your provider's own fees, varies by plan (higher on the lower plans, per the pricing page) and is not returned when you refund an order, according to the fee page. Shopify's refund-order page adds that where Shopify Payments is unavailable the fee is credited in proportion when you refund from the Shopify admin, but not when you refund in your provider's dashboard. The two pages differ, so check the current wording before you rely on either. For stores created on or after 12 May 2025 it also applies to orders paid with store credit or gift cards.
It is not charged on Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, Shop Pay Installments or manual methods such as cash on delivery and bank transfer. It appears on your bill under Transaction fees and, with app charges, counts towards a billing threshold that can trigger an early bill.
Country matters because the way to avoid the fee, Shopify Payments, works only for businesses in the supported countries. As of October 2026 the list includes the United Arab Emirates but not Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain or Oman, so stores in those five normally pay the fee unless they sell only by manual methods. The pricing page adds that prices and payment options can differ with the location of your business. We found no Shopify page explaining why the rate itself differs by country, so read the figure shown for yours. See Shopify Payments in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
There are two layers. With Shopify Payments, Shopify charges a fee for accepting cards; its cost page says rates vary by plan and market, with no monthly or setup fees for Shopify Payments itself; current rates are on the pricing page. Online and in-person rates differ, cards issued abroad are priced separately, and card fees are not returned on refunds.
With an outside provider, the provider sets its own schedule: a charge per transaction, and sometimes set-up, monthly, refund, chargeback or payout fees. Get it in writing and compare it as in payment gateways in Saudi Arabia.
Free themes come from Shopify. Paid themes come from third-party developers and are billed immediately when you buy. Theme Store purchases are final sale, Shopify's Terms of Service license a downloaded theme to a single store, and the developer, not Shopify, supports a paid theme and does not make customisations. Changes beyond the theme editor mean hiring a Shopify Partner or developer. How to choose a Shopify theme shows how to test first, and you can browse Shopify themes on DevMarket, where each item shows its support period and update policy.
Shopify's app charges page describes recurring, usage-based and one-time charges. Subscription apps bill on their own 30-day cycle, so usage can land on two bills. Cancelling inside an app does not uninstall it: uninstall it under Settings, then Apps. Pausing a store does not necessarily stop app fees. See Shopify's advice on choosing apps and our guide to best Shopify apps, and remember that apps can slow a store: speed up your Shopify store.
Every store has a free myshopify.com address and an SSL certificate. A domain bought through Shopify is renewed annually, billed apart from your plan, non-refundable, and priced by its ending. You can buy elsewhere and connect it, then renew with that registrar. Email is separate: forwarding is one-way, so sending from your own address needs an email hosting service, usually a recurring cost from another provider.
The pricing page lists Markets, translation, local currency display and local domains on every plan, with a note that local currency display and local payment methods require Shopify Payments. Shopify's international payments page explains the effect: with another provider, local currency changes only how prices are displayed, and the customer is charged in your store's default currency.
When you sell in local currencies through Shopify Payments, its fees page says you pay the regular processing fee plus a currency conversion fee that depends on your store's primary country; the exchange rate itself carries no markup. Managed Markets, where Global-e acts as merchant of record for a per-order fee, needs Shopify Payments and is open only to businesses in certain countries; its overview does not list the Gulf.
The Shopify bill is only part of it: stock, shipping, returns, marketing, registrations, accounting and your own time add more. Our cost map for Saudi Arabia lists them. Against WooCommerce the difference is in kind: Shopify bundles hosting, security and checkout into the subscription, then adds app and payment fees, while WooCommerce is free to download but hosting, extensions and maintenance are yours to pay for. Compare two-year totals, as Shopify vs WooCommerce suggests.
Made-up numbers
Every figure is invented to show the method, in made-up currency units. None is a real price, fee or quote. Real fees usually depend on the order value; the example uses a flat amount per order to keep the sums simple.
A small shop takes 60 orders a month through an outside payment provider.
| Monthly line | Units |
|---|---|
| Plan | 100 |
| Three apps | 60 |
| Shopify fee on outside provider: 60 orders at 3 | 180 |
| Provider's own fees: 60 orders at 6 | 360 |
| Domain and email | 15 |
| Total per month | 715 |
Twelve months come to 8,580. One-off lines are a paid theme (300), photos and a logo (500) and a lawyer's review of the policies (400), so 1,200, plus a contingency of 1,000. The first-year total on the Shopify side is 10,780, before stock, shipping and marketing. Without the Shopify fee line the year would be 2,160 lower, though card fees would still apply: that is why this line deserves a check for your own country.
Shopify offers a free trial, not a free plan, according to its pricing page. A trial store starts private with checkout inactive, and Shopify's launch guide says you need to choose a paid plan before you go live.
Not always. Card payments through Shopify Payments carry processing fees, and orders through an outside provider carry a transaction fee plus the provider's charges. Manual methods such as cash on delivery carry no transaction fee. The plan subscription comes on top.
Neither is cheaper in every case. Shopify's costs are the subscription, apps and fees; WooCommerce's are hosting, extensions and maintenance. Compare your own two-year total.
Deactivating cancels the subscription at the end of the cycle and bills pending charges. Apps are uninstalled, and Shopify-managed domains can still renew unless you turn renewal off.
Follow the order of work in how to start a Shopify store, then compare the wider picture with what an online store costs in Saudi Arabia. Browse Shopify themes once your budget has a line for one.
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