# Shopify

> Hosted commerce platform for online, in-person and social selling

Shopify is a hosted platform for running an online store, with themes, checkout, inventory, shipping labels, marketing email and point-of-sale selling in one admin. Stores can also sync products to marketplaces, social channels and AI chats, and the Shopify App Store adds more features. Plans differ mainly in staff accounts, card rates and the fee charged when you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments.

- **Category:** Online Store Builders
- **Made by:** Shopify
- **Website:** https://www.shopify.com
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 18, 2026

## Pricing

Shopify is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $29 per month, billed yearly ($39 billed monthly).

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 3-day free trial, no credit card required.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic | $29 per month, billed yearly ($39 billed monthly) | For solo sellers: online and in-person sales, card rates from 2.9% + 30¢ online, and a 2% fee on sales taken through another payment provider. |
| Grow | $79 per month, billed yearly ($105 billed monthly) | Up to 5 staff accounts, card rates from 2.7% + 30¢ online and a 1% fee on sales through other payment providers. |
| Advanced | $299 per month, billed yearly ($399 billed monthly) | Up to 15 staff accounts, live third-party shipping rates, card rates from 2.5% + 30¢ and a 0.6% fee with other payment providers. |
| Plus | $2,300 per month and up, billed yearly on a 3-year term | On a 1- or 3-year term: unlimited staff, a fully customizable checkout, card rates from 2.25% + 30¢ and a 0.2% fee with other providers. |

Read from https://www.shopify.com/pricing on Oct 18, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Shopify before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Pay yearly to save about 25%** (Annual discount): Basic costs $29 a month billed yearly against $39 billed monthly, Grow $79 against $105, and Advanced $299 against $399. Source: https://www.shopify.com/pricing
- **$1 a month for the first 3 months** (Other savings): After the 3-day free trial, the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans cost $1 a month for the first 3 months, then the regular price. Source: https://www.shopify.com/pricing

## Key features

- **Store builder and themes:** Build the storefront from a theme (Shopify lists more than 200) or from a written prompt, with hosting, SSL and a custom domain on every plan and no cap on products.
- **Checkout and Shopify Payments:** Shopify's own checkout and payment processing are built in, with fraud analysis, local currencies and local payment methods where Shopify Payments is offered.
- **Inventory, orders and shipping:** Track stock across up to 10 locations (200 on Plus), buy and print discounted shipping labels, with live third-party carrier rates included from Advanced up.
- **Selling in person and on other channels:** Sell at pop-ups from the mobile app or a card reader, and sync products to marketplaces and social channels. A separate $0 Agentic plan lists products in AI chats.
- **Marketing email and automations:** Email campaigns, customer segments, abandoned checkout recovery, discount codes and gift cards come with every plan; SMS campaigns are paid per send.
- **Sidekick AI assistant and apps:** Sidekick answers questions and takes actions in the admin, and the Shopify App Store lists more than 13,000 apps for features the core plans lack.

## Good for

- Brands that sell online and in person from one stock count
- Growing stores that want to add staff and channels without moving platforms
- Sellers who will use Shopify Payments and its shipping discounts

## Worth knowing

- Using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a fee of 2% per sale on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus.
- The free trial lasts 3 days; Basic, Grow and Advanced then cost $1 a month for 3 months before the regular price.
- POS Pro for physical shops costs $89 a month per location, and syncing more than 50 marketplace orders a month costs 1%, up to $99 a month.
- Plus is sold only on a 1- or 3-year term, starting at $2,300 a month on the 3-year term.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.8 out of 4**, graded Oct 18, 2026. Shopify is the safe big pick: store, checkout, shipping labels, email campaigns and in-person selling in one admin, with more than 13,000 apps for anything missing. Basic is $29 a month on yearly billing. What sends some people elsewhere is the 2% fee if you skip Shopify Payments, and a free trial of just 3 days.

- **Value for money: C.** Basic is $29 a month on yearly billing ($39 monthly), with your own domain and unlimited products. That's right at this category's middle. Shopify takes no extra cut if you use Shopify Payments, but adds 2% to each sale on Basic if you use another payment provider.
- **Free plan and trial: D.** No free plan, and the trial is just 3 days, though it needs no card. After that it's $1 a month for 3 months, which is a cheap start rather than a free one.
- **Features: A.** The whole job and then some: themes, checkout, stock across up to 10 locations, discounted labels, email campaigns, selling at pop-ups from your phone, marketplace and social sync, even listing products in AI chats. More than 13,000 apps cover the rest.
- **Ease of use: A.** 4.7 from about 42,800 App Store ratings, far more than any other store here. A theme or a written prompt gets the storefront going, and Sidekick answers questions and does jobs in the admin.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, with Amazon, eBay, Walmart, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Google and YouTube, plus APIs for custom apps. There's no desktop app, which keeps it off an A.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Shopify's own pages on 18 October 2026, and its App Store rating. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among online store builders

- Shopify's GPA of 2.8 is higher than 8 of the 9 other online store builders we grade, and level with 1.
- It stands best on features (A, above 9 of 9) and worst on free plan and trial (D, above 1).
- Its paid plans start at $29 a month, against a middle price of $29 for the category: 3 of the 7 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 3.7 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/online-stores

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Shopify you would be making checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.8 is higher than 8 of the 9 other online store builders we grade. It costs $348 a year.

- You could make: Inventory: an app builder makes this well.
- You could not: Checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you.
- You could not: Discounted carrier rates and labels, which take an agreement with each carrier.
- You could not: Newsletters sent to thousands of people that still reach the inbox.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Amazon, eBay and Walmart among them, and has an API.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features A, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## What people say

- **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 4.7 out of 5 from 42,752 ratings in the United States, read Oct 18, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id371294472

## Works with

Amazon, eBay, Walmart, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Google, YouTube

**Tags:** Online store, Inventory, Shipping labels, Email campaigns, AI features, Public API

## Alternatives

- [BigCommerce](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bigcommerce): Hosted ecommerce platform with plans set by yearly sales. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bigcommerce-vs-shopify)
- [WooCommerce](https://toolgpa.com/tools/woocommerce): Free, open-source store plugin for WordPress that you host yourself. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/shopify-vs-woocommerce)
- [Wix](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wix): Drag-and-drop website builder with an AI agent and business apps. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/shopify-vs-wix)
- [Squarespace](https://toolgpa.com/tools/squarespace): Template-based website builder with an online store and invoicing. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/shopify-vs-squarespace)
- [Square Online](https://toolgpa.com/tools/square-online): Online store builder that shares stock and payments with Square POS. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/shopify-vs-square-online)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 18, 2026:

- https://www.shopify.com/pricing
- https://www.shopify.com/about
- https://www.shopify.com/mobile
- https://www.shopify.com/channels
- https://www.shopify.com/legal/terms

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/shopify
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).