The short answer
A monthly plan (from $39 in the US), card fees on each sale, any paid apps and theme, and the one-off cost of the build. Here's every line of the bill.
"How much is a Shopify store?" has two answers, and most people only hear one of them. There's what it costs to run the shop every month, which Shopify publishes. And there's what it costs to get the shop built and set up properly, which depends on who does it. Here's every line of the bill, so nothing surprises you later.
All the Shopify figures below are for the US, in US dollars, at the time of writing (mid 2026). Prices vary by country and change from time to time, so check Shopify's own pricing page for yours before you budget.
1. The Shopify plan
This is the monthly subscription that keeps your shop online. For most small businesses the Basic plan is enough. It costs $39 a month if you pay monthly, or $29 a month if you pay for a year up front. The bigger plans add things like more staff accounts, better shipping discounts and lower card rates, and they only start to pay for themselves once you're selling a fair amount.
Shopify usually runs a free trial, and often a cheap first few months, so you can set everything up before paying full price.
2. Card fees on every sale
Whenever a customer pays by card, a small percentage goes to the payment processor. If you use Shopify Payments (Shopify's built-in option), the online rate on the Basic plan is 2.9% plus 30 cents per order in the US. On a $50 order, that's $1.75.
If you use a different payment provider instead, Shopify adds its own extra fee on top of that provider's fees (2% on Basic). That's why most shops use Shopify Payments where it's available.
3. Your theme
The theme is the design of your shop. Shopify has several good free themes. Premium themes from the theme store are a one-off payment to their maker, and they tend to offer more layout options. A custom theme, designed and built for you, costs more again, because it's real design and development work. We explain the difference in Shopify template vs custom theme.
4. Apps
Apps add features Shopify doesn't have out of the box: product reviews, subscriptions, advanced shipping rules, bundles, loyalty points. Many have a free tier, and paid ones are usually a monthly fee. This is the line that creeps up most quietly. We've seen shops paying for eight apps, three of which did the same job.
Start with as few apps as you can. Add one when a real problem shows up, not because a blog post said every shop needs it.
5. Your domain name
Your web address (yourshop.com) is paid yearly. You can buy it through Shopify or elsewhere, and it's usually a small cost. Register it in your own name, whoever sets up the shop, so it always stays yours.
6. Shipping and packaging
Not a Shopify fee as such, but it belongs on the bill. Shopify offers discounted shipping labels in some countries, which helps. You'll still need boxes, mailers, tape and printed labels or a label printer. Decide early whether you'll charge customers for shipping, offer free shipping over a certain amount, or build it into your prices.
7. The build
This is the one-off cost of getting the shop from nothing to open. It covers choosing and setting up the theme (or designing a custom one), adding your products and photos, setting up payments, shipping, taxes and order emails, connecting the domain, testing a few real orders, and showing you how to run it.
You can do this yourself. Plenty of people do, and Shopify is designed to make it possible. What you're paying for when you hire someone is time, fewer mistakes and a shop that looks finished. What it costs depends mainly on how many products you have and whether the design is ready-made or custom. We quote it after a call, as one price in writing, and we list every running cost above in the same plan.
A rough monthly picture
For a small US shop on the Basic plan with a free or one-off theme and two modest apps, the fixed monthly cost is roughly the plan fee plus the apps, and the variable cost is about 3% of sales plus 30 cents an order. Add the domain once a year, and your packaging as you go. That's the whole picture.
Compare that with what you pay now. If you're selling on Etsy, for example, the fees on each sale are higher, but you don't pay a monthly plan. For some shops that sums up in Etsy's favour and for others Shopify comes out ahead. We compare them in moving from Etsy to Shopify.
A worked example
Say you run a small US shop on the Basic plan, paying monthly. You take 100 orders a month at an average of $40, so $4,000 in sales. You use Shopify Payments and two apps at around $10 a month each.
- Shopify plan: $39.
- Card fees: 2.9% of $4,000 is $116, plus 30 cents on each of 100 orders, $30. That's $146.
- Apps: $20.
- Total: about $205 a month, or roughly 5% of sales.
Your domain adds a small amount once a year, and packaging depends on what you sell. Notice that the card fees are the biggest line and they grow with sales, while the plan stays the same. That's why the plan matters less than people think once a shop is busy, and why cheap-looking alternatives with higher per-sale fees can end up costing more.
Ways to keep the bill down
- Pay for the plan yearly once you're sure you're staying. It's a quarter cheaper.
- Use Shopify Payments where it's available, to avoid the extra fee on outside payment providers.
- Check what the theme already does before adding an app for it.
- Cancel app trials you don't use before they start charging.
- Raise your average order a little, with bundles or a free-shipping threshold, so fixed per-order fees matter less.
Hidden costs to watch for
- Paying yearly for apps you stop using. Review your app list every few months.
- Premium theme updates. Most include updates, but check before you buy.
- Currency conversion if you sell in several currencies. Small, but it adds up.
- Chargebacks, when a customer disputes a payment. Rare for most shops, but they come with a fee.
- Your own time. A shop that's hard to manage costs you hours every week.
What we'd do
Start on the Basic plan, use Shopify Payments, pick a good free or premium theme, and add apps only when you need them. Spend the money you save on product photos, which make more difference to sales than almost anything else. If you'd like help, our Shopify store setup covers the whole build, and every cost you'll pay to Shopify and others is written into your plan before you agree to anything.
