Shopify
Hosted e-commerce platform: themes, checkout and unlimited products on every plan; 3-day free trial, no free store plan.
Founded 2006
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Shopify is a hosted commerce platform, first released in 2006. You start from a pre-built theme or an AI prompt, then add and rearrange sections and blocks in the theme editor; beyond that, you can edit the theme's Liquid, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Every plan includes unlimited hosting and bandwidth, a free SSL certificate and a free myshopify.com address. There is no free plan for a public store, only a 3-day free trial that needs no credit card.
In the US, Basic costs $29, Grow $79 and Advanced $299 a month billed yearly, or $39, $105 and $399 month to month; Plus starts at $2,300 a month on a 3-year term. All plans sell unlimited products and include a blog. Orders paid through a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments carry a 2% fee on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced.
Best for
Businesses whose website is mainly a store, from a first online shop to multichannel and in-person selling, that want products, checkout, payments and inventory in one platform.
Pros
- Every plan sells unlimited products and includes hosting, a free SSL certificate and custom domain support
- Checkout, Shopify Payments, email campaigns and abandoned checkout recovery on every plan
- Built-in SEO basics: editable titles, descriptions and URLs, automatic sitemap, 301 redirects, editable robots.txt
- Editable theme code (Liquid, HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and 21,000+ apps in the Shopify App Store
Cons
- No free plan for a public store: a 3-day trial, and the $0 Agentic plan keeps the online store password-protected
- Using a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments adds a 2% fee on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced
- Memberships and gated content are not among the plan features; membership apps from the Shopify App Store add them
- Basic includes no additional staff accounts; Grow allows 5 and Advanced 15
- Without editing code, layouts use the sections and blocks a theme and its apps provide, up to 25 sections per template
Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly (12-month total) |
|---|---|---|
| Basic$29/month billed yearly; online card rates from 2.9% + 30¢, 2% fee with third-party payment providers, no additional staff accounts | $39/mo | $348/yr ($29/mo) |
| Grow$79/month billed yearly; online card rates from 2.7% + 30¢, 1% fee with third-party payment providers, 5 staff accounts | $105/mo | $948/yr ($79/mo) |
| Advanced$299/month billed yearly; online card rates from 2.5% + 30¢, 0.6% fee with third-party payment providers, 15 staff accounts | $399/mo | $3,588/yr ($299/mo) |
| PlusStarting price on a 3-year term ($2,500/month on a 1-year term); variable platform fee for complex businesses; 0.2% third-party payment fee | $2,300/mo | no yearly price |
Prices checked on .
Features
In Website builders
| Feature | Shopify |
|---|---|
| E-commerce | Yes · All plans: unlimited products, checkout and Shopify Payments; online card rates from 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic |
| CMS | Yes · Built-in blog engine and web pages; metaobjects for reusable structured content and landing pages |
| Custom code | Yes · Edit theme Liquid, HTML, CSS and JavaScript; custom apps via Shopify APIs (limited data access on Basic) |
| Hosting included | Yes · All plans: unlimited hosting and bandwidth, free SSL, free myshopify.com address |
| Design freedom | Partial · Theme editor: add and drag the sections and blocks a theme provides, up to 25 sections per template; more needs code |
| Templates | Yes · 24 free themes plus paid themes in the Shopify Theme Store; paid themes are one-time purchases |
| SEO tools | Yes · Editable titles, meta descriptions and URLs; automatic sitemap and canonical tags; 301 redirects; editable robots.txt |
| Memberships | Add-on · Not in the plan features; membership apps add it (e.g. Appstle: free up to 25 memberships, paid from $19/month); free Shopify Subscriptions app bills recurring orders |
| Free plan | No · 3-day free trial; the $0 Agentic plan sells in AI channels and keeps the online store password-protected |