How much does it cost to run a Shopify store?

Shopify's Four Main Plans

Shopify has four core plans: Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus. Basic starts at $19/mo and is aimed at solo entrepreneurs, Grow starts at $54/mo and targets smaller teams, Advanced starts at $299/mo for businesses with global reach, while Plus starts from $2,300/mo and is built for complex businesses. The prices for Basic, Grow, and Advanced are the discounted annual rates. If you pay monthly instead, the prices rise to $27/mo, $72/mo, and $399/mo respectively.

Each plan builds on the last. Basic covers the essentials: selling online, in physical stores, and in AI chats, payment fees of 2.9% + $0.3, plus a built-in AI assistant for content, insights, and store tasks. Grow adds lower card fees from 2.7% + $0.3, up to 5 staff accounts, and up to 87% off shipping compared to standard rates from various carriers. Advanced adds even lower card fees from 2.5%, up to 15 staff accounts, and access to real-time third-party shipping rates, while Plus offers unlimited staff accounts, a fully customizable checkout flow, up to 200 POS Pro locations, and unlimited B2B catalogs.

What Does Shopify Actually Cost — Beyond the Subscription?

The price of the subscription itself is only the first part of the equation. Several independent reviews point to three major extra costs that often catch new store owners off guard.

Transaction fees:
If you don't use Shopify Payments and instead use a third-party provider, Shopify adds an extra fee on top. 2% on Basic, dropping to 0.2% on Plus. The underlying card transaction fees also drop the higher your plan is.

Apps:
Shopify's App Store covers nearly everything from email marketing to reviews and loyalty programs, but few of the good apps are free. Mid-size brands that scale up often end up adding 10-20% on top of their subscription price, depending on how much they rely on apps.

Themes and development:
Few of the themes in Shopify's Theme Store are free. Paid themes start around $100 as a one-time purchase, and if you need a custom solution that apps can't handle, you can hire freelance Shopify developers, typically at an hourly rate of $80-160, if you don't have your own developer.

Currency Conversion Fees
If your store's payout currency differs from the currency your customer pays in, Shopify Payments applies a separate currency conversion fee on top of the regular processing rate. 1.5% for US-based stores, and 2% for stores based elsewhere. This fee is automatically built into the price displayed to international customers when you use automatic exchange rates, so it doesn't come out of your margin directly, but it does make your store slightly more expensive for shoppers paying in a foreign currency. If you aren't using automatic exchange rates, you either have to factor it in yourself or take the extra cost on your end.

For merchants who also receive payouts in a currency different from their domestic one (for example, a US-based store getting paid out in EUR) a separate Multi-Currency Payout fee applies as well, and that rate depends on your plan and store location. Together, these fees mean that selling internationally with automatic currency conversion typically adds 1.5–2% on top of the standard card processing rate, and on top of any third-party gateway surcharge if you're not using Shopify Payments.

Local Payment Methods in Denmark: Is MobilePay Included?

One of the most important things for many Danish merchants is whether their customers can pay with MobilePay directly through the platform, and the answer is fortunately yes. Customers can pay with MobilePay via Shopify Payments when they enter a Denmark address and select DKK as their payment currency at checkout. It used to be the case that the store's main currency had to be DKK in order to process orders paid with MobilePay, but since this can now be done directly via Shopify Payments, the feature no longer requires an extra third-party gateway.

There are, however, some important prerequisites you should know before factoring MobilePay into your payment setup:

• Store location: The Shopify Payments account must be registered in a country where the local payment method is supported. For MobilePay, that's Denmark and Finland.
• Customer location and currency: If the customer is located elsewhere, or doesn't select one of the supported currencies, MobilePay won't appear as a payment option at checkout at all.
• Payout and refunds: Payments made via MobilePay are captured immediately and added to the next available payout, and both full and partial refunds can be issued the same way as with regular card transactions.
• Subscription products: MobilePay doesn't support recurring payments, so businesses offering subscription solutions still need to find another solution for that type of order.

It's worth noting that pure Dankort (without the Visa component) still isn't processed directly through Shopify Payments. In this case, Visa/Dankort cards are handled as regular Visa cards. If you sell exclusively to the Danish market and want full Dankort coverage, or run a business registered outside Denmark, a Danish third-party gateway like QuickPay or Nets is still the standard solution. In that case, the extra third-party fee mentioned in the section above needs to be factored in as a result.

For Danish webshops, the practical takeaway is therefore: if you're registered in Denmark and transact in DKK, EUR, NOK, or SEK, MobilePay can be offered with no extra app or gateway needed. The only things you lose are pure Dankort processing and support for subscription payments.

Shopify Plus: The Price for Large-Scale Businesses

Shopify Plus is typically aimed at businesses that are outgrowing the standard plans. Here, the price isn't fixed. The Plus plan starts at $2.300/mo, but the actual price depends on sales volume and business needs, and usually requires contacting Shopify directly to get a quote.

Is There a Free Trial?

Yes. Shopify offers a 3-day free trial with no credit card required, after which most plans cost just 5 DKK per month for the first 3 months, before the standard price kicks in.

Can You Switch or Cancel Your Subscription?

Yes. You can cancel your Shopify subscription at any time, but if you choose a Plus agreement with a 1- or 3-year term, you can only cancel once the contract period ends.

How to Choose the Right Plan

Based on Shopify's own pricing page, the rule of thumb is:

Basic suits solo businesses and new stores with low order volume.
Grow makes sense once you add more staff and want to lower your transaction fee.
Advanced is relevant if you sell internationally or need advanced shipping integrations.
Plus is for businesses with high revenue, complex B2B needs, or a requirement for a fully customized checkout flow.

You can upgrade at any time with just a few clicks, so there's no need to choose a bigger plan before it's actually necessary, for example, if you expect your team to grow over the next 6-12 months.

Conclusion

Shopify's pricing page shows four clear plans and their corresponding prices, but the real monthly cost for most stores ends up well above the number you see first. Transaction fees, apps, and themes typically add 50–100% on top of the subscription price, and the sooner you factor that into your budget, the fewer surprises you'll run into as your store grows.