Shopify is now the world’s most popular SaaS (Software as a Service) e-commerce platform. Part of its popularity lies in its flexibility, rapid deployment, easy template customisation and an extended app store with thousands of apps. Shopify followers can thus already be found in around 165 countries* and licence numbers are rising every year. Shopify Or Shopify Plus? Let us find out which plan will prove more tailored to the scale of your business.
*Source https://www.shopify.com/
The platform offers a total of five licence plans:
- 3 Standard (most popular) – Shopify Basic, Shopify, and Shopify Advanced
- 1 Lite Plan – Shopify Lite
- 1 Enterprise Plan – Shopify Plus
Pricing:
- Shopify Lite (9$/month)
- Basic Shopify (29$/month)
- Shopify (79$/month)
- Advanced Shopify (299$/month)
- Shopify Plus (2000$/month)
Plan Shopify Lite
The Shopify Lite plan is intended for anyone who wants to sell their products without having to run an online store. You can create and add a product with a Buy Now button directly to an external website. This option offers a shopping cart and Shopify Checkout, skipping the other sections of an online store. The solution is most effective for bloggers, influencers or micro-sellers working on systems (Weebly, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace).
Source: https://www.shopify.com/
Comparison of Shopify Basic Vs Shopify Vs Shopify Advanced Plans
| Plan | Basic 29$/msc | Shopify 79$/msc | Advanced 299$/msc |
| Feautres | |||
| Online Store Online store website and blog |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Unlitmited products | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| 24/7 Support | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Number of users Personal access to administration account at Shopify and POS |
2 | 5 | 15 |
| Sales channels | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Inventory locations Set-up, allocation, and synchronisation of stock across multiple sales channels |
up to 4 | up to 5 | up to 8 |
| Discount codes | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Free SSL Certificate | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Abandoned cart | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Gift Cards | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Reports | – | Standard | Advanced |
| Third-party calculated shipping rates Shipping rates calculated by third-party businesses or applications at Checkout |
– | – | ✔ |
| Customer segmentation Marketing automation, Unlimited contacts | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| E-commerce automation, (Workflow generation, task automotion) | – | – | ✔ |
|
Shopify Payments* rates available here |
|||
| Fraud analysis | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Transaction costs using payments other than Shopify payments | 2,0% | 1,0% | 0,5% |
| Point Of Sale | |||
| Shopify POS Lite – External payment acceptance. E.g., in brick-and-mortar shops, markets, etc. |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Shopify POS Pro (Per Location) | +89$/monthly | +89$/monthly | +89$/monthly |
| International sales | |||
| International market management The system can be set up for international sales standards |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Market domains and subfolders Creation of a dedicated domain or a subfolder for international markets |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
|
Language translation Assigning a language to a specific market |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Currency conversion Automatic currency conversion adapted to the country of sale – Shopify Payments required |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
|
Setting up local payments methods Option to set up local payment methods tailored to the country of sale under a single licence – Shopify Payments required |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Duties and import taxes Estimation and collection of import cost, including but not limited to Duties and taxes at Checkout when processing transactions. | – | – | ✔ |
| Custom pricing by market Exact price settings for products by country of sale | – | – | ✔ |
*Table compiled from the price list available at https://www.shopify.com/pricing
Differences in Shopify Basic – Shopify – Shopify Advanced Plans
- Number of users — number of employees with access to the administration panel at Shopify
- Reports — access to analytics and reports.
- Sales commission — the value of any additional commission charged by Shopify, for non-Shopify payments. Should a payment other than Shopify payment be opted for, then an extra commission from 2% – 0.5% is charged, depending on the plan chosen. The commission value usually determines the plan that customers opt for.
- Number of inventories – from 4 to 8 inventories.
- Access to Carrier Service API – enabling the modification of deliveries in Checkout at Shopify. For example, the option to display a list with a selection of parcel lockers or a delivery price converter.
- International sales — for international sales based on Shopify markets. The Shopify Advanced Plan offers the most extra features. Duties and taxes, option to add duties and import taxes at Checkout. Customisation of different rates by foreign market
Shopify Basic is a sufficient sales plan for small and medium-sized businesses. The Shopify or Shopify Advanced plan to be considered should more staff and sales reports be involved. The most common factor affecting the choice of licence apart from the above features is the sales commission. If the commission starts to exceed the licence costs, it is a sign to switch to a higher plan.
Example No. 1
An online store generates a turnover of $25,000/month. We use payments other than Shopify Payments in a store.
| Plan | Basic | Shopify | Shopify Advanced |
| Licence Cost | 29$ | 79$ | 299$ |
| Transaction commission value | 2% | 1% | 0,5% |
| Monthly commission | 500$ | 250$ | 125$ |
| Total monthly costs (plan + sales commission) | 529$ | 329$ | 424$ |
The most favourable plan is the standard plan at Shopify for an online store with a turnover of $25,000.
Example No. 2
An online store generates a turnover of $ 100,000/month. We use payments other than Shopify Payments in the store.
| Plan | Basic | Shopify | Shopify Advanced |
| Licence Cost | 29$ | 79$ | 299$ |
| Transaction commission value | 2% | 1% | 0,5% |
| Monthly commission | 2.0000$ | 1000$ | 500$ |
| Total monthly costs (plan + sales commission) | 2.029$ | 1.079$ | 799$ |
The Shopify Advanced Plan turns out to be the most favourable option in the above example.
Shopify plus – pros and cons of the enterprise plan
Shopify PLUS is the enterprise version for medium and large online stores. The system features all the functionalities of the Advanced plan and some enhanced ones available only in the PLUS plan. The system costs $2,000 per month.
Extra Store Licences
With 1 instance of Shopify PLUS, we have the option to create up to 10 online store licences. This saves the extra licence purchase costs. The extra licences prove useful when scaling sales to additional international markets or creating multi-brands.
Dedicated Account Manager
Shopify PLUS users get a dedicated Account Manager who supports an online store development. They are also the first to be informed of news, plans or new features planned or available at Shopify.
Unlimited User Accounts
The basic Shopify plan only authorises a few limited user accounts. On the other hand, Shopify Plus enables the addition of an unlimited number of personnel accounts, thus additional permission settings. This enables any number of members of your team to be granted access.
Access to Checkout editing
One of the biggest advantages of Shopify PLUS is access to Checkout editing. The Enterprise package offers the option to edit Checkout using Shopify Scripts. Thus, we can edit checkout boxes, add further information or functionality, e.g., in the form of a parcel locker map, a list of checkboxes, infographics and USP information to increase sales conversions.
Extended API Access
In short, we get more options for using API. The options for combining advanced applications available only in this plan open up to Shopify PLUS users. An additional benefit is that the number of queries over API has been doubled, boosting the speed of the app, resulting in faster content loading, and rendering on a store page.
Transporter
Transporter is an application that helps migrate an online store running on the Shopify PLUS engine. The app allows the migration of products, order lists, customer databases or historical data. Between systems.
For more details, see Analytics options
Shopify offers a detailed analytics dashboard where you can view statistics, such as sales, top products, landing pages or referral pages, return customer rate and more. Professional reports can be created with this tool, providing access to all even the most detailed information about a store.
Community
Store owners on Shopify PLUS are also offered extra bonuses, such as access to closed enterprise-type social groups on Facebook, who exchange knowledge, information, and insights on sales.
Store costs on Shopify PLUS
To calculate Shopify PLUS’s hosting costs, 3 indicators are taken into account. Initial licence cost of $2,000, maximum licence cost of $45,000 and sales commission of 0.25%. $2,000 is the minimum commission we will pay to Shopify even if a store has not generated any turnover.
If your store has a turnover of $2,000,000 per month then the commission shall be: $2 million x 0.25% = $5,000. So, we will pay a commission of $5,000 to Shopify.
If the turnover reaches $50,000 per month, then the commission shall be: 50 k x 0.25% = $125. The commission value is less than the required $2,000. So, the commission we will pay to Shopify will be the equivalent of a base rate of $2,000.
If your store has a turnover of $ 25,000,000 per month then the commission shall be: 25 million x 0.25% = $62,500. The commission is higher than the limit rate of $45,000. So, the commission we will pay to Shopify will be $45,000.
Summary
Shopify provides solutions for micro-enterprises and market leaders. This helps tailor a plan that matches the specifics of our industry and the financial capabilities of the company. The Basic plan for $29/month is the optimised plan for developing small and medium-sized enterprises with up to 2 employees. The standard $79/month Shopify plan will be the best for medium to large stores with more staff to support, access to reports and a lower commission on sales. Whereas the best solution for demanding on-line stores with up to 15 employees, a high turnover requiring a reduction in commission on sales to 0.5%, or with sales in overseas markets under a single Shopify licence would be the $299/month Shopify Advanced plan.
The final enterprise solution is Shopify PLUS featuring all the aforementioned functionalities of Shopify Advanced plus extra extended features. The following are the key benefits of Shopify PLUS: extra licences for a total of 10 licences, access to edit Checkout Shopify using Shopify Scripts, access to an enhanced API, access to Shopify flow, or unlimited employees.
Each of the plans listed has its pros and cons. Best of all is the fact that you can start with low plans, such as Basic and, as your sales grow, increase plans and reduce commission figures to as low as $0.25. I hope you found the article useful and that it helped you better understand the differences between the Shopify and Shopify PLUS plans.
See also categories: Social Media in eCommerce | PPC Campaigns | Shopify technologies | eCommerce SEO | E-mail marketing | eCommerce project management | eCommerce marketing | eCommerce management | eCommerce development | eCommerce b2b | eCommerce automation | eCommerce analytics | Content marketing | Case Study eCommerce | News | Other
eCommerce Manager at Paul Rich – multimillion jewellery premium watch brand. Shopify & Shopify PLUS consultant, blogger and ex-founder of napnell.pl
