Shopify Verdict (2026)

Score sheet

Why B: Class-leading checkout, apps and point of sale, held back by a no-refunds contract, discretionary payout reserves, and support that is chat-only for everyone below Plus and Retail.

Overall is the weighted mean of the five rows, adjusted by a small slug-seeded offset so that brands never line up in a false staircase, and capped at 9.8. Full working on the Methodology page (v2.1).

Key findings

1. Basic lists at $29 a month on annual billing or $39 monthly; Grow at $89 or $105; Advanced at $359 or $399; Plus starts at $2,300 a month.
2. Shopify Payments online card rates fall from 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic to 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced; using another payment provider adds a 2%, 1% or 0.6% fee.
3. The Terms of Service state plainly that Shopify does not provide refunds, and Shopify may suspend or terminate an account for any reason, without notice.
4. Chat support runs 24/7 on every plan after an AI search step, but email and inbound phone are reserved for Plus, Retail and POS Pro.
5. New merchants get a three-day free trial, then $1 a month for three months on most plans before standard pricing applies.

The product line

Shopify is a Canadian company that rents merchants a hosted online store, checkout and back office, priced by monthly plan plus payment-processing fees. The public plans are Basic, Grow and Advanced, with Plus for large brands on one- or three-year terms. POS Pro adds in-store selling per location, and an older Starter plan for selling through social links is no longer offered to new stores. Shopify Payments handles cards, and the Shop Pay wallet speeds up checkout for returning buyers. A large third-party app store fills the gaps in email, reviews and subscriptions, usually at extra monthly cost. It suits anyone serious about running their own online shop, from a first product to a brand doing millions in sales; it is overkill for someone selling a handful of items a year.

Product by product

6 items. Each chip is a per-product call and can differ from the brand verdict.

Basic plan BUY

Lists at $29 a month on annual billing or $39 month to month, with online card rates of 2.9% + 30¢ and in-person rates of 2.6% + 10¢ through Shopify Payments. It includes the full online store, checkout, more than 200 reports and up to 10 inventory locations, but no extra staff accounts. Using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a 2% fee on every sale, which is the main hidden cost to check. Most new stores should start here; upgrade only when card-rate savings outweigh the jump in subscription price.

StrengthA complete store and checkout at the lowest monthly cost

WeaknessNo staff accounts, and a 2% fee for outside payment providers

Check at Shopify

Grow plan CONSIDER

Lists at $89 a month on annual billing or $105 monthly. Grow cuts online card rates to 2.7% + 30¢, halves the outside-provider fee to 1%, and adds five staff accounts. The arithmetic is simple: the upgrade from Basic pays for itself on card fees only once monthly sales reach a level many small stores never see, so the real reason to move is staff logins. Live chat support is the same as on Basic. Run your own numbers from the pricing page before switching, because the annual commitment cannot be refunded.

StrengthFive staff accounts and lower card rates

WeaknessCard savings alone rarely justify the price jump

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Advanced plan CONSIDER

Lists at $359 a month on annual billing or $399 monthly. Online card rates drop to 2.5% + 30¢, the outside-provider fee to 0.6%, and staff accounts rise to 15, with enhanced live chat support. It makes sense for stores processing serious volume, where a few tenths of a percent on every card payment covers the subscription. Below that, it is an expensive way to buy a better support queue. It still lacks email and phone support, which only arrive with Plus, Retail or POS Pro.

StrengthLowest self-serve card rates and 15 staff accounts

WeaknessStill chat-only support at nearly $400 a month

Check at Shopify

Shopify Plus CONSIDER

Starts at $2,300 a month, sold on one- or three-year terms that can only be cancelled when the term ends. Plus brings online card rates of 2.25% + 30¢, a 0.2% outside-provider fee, unlimited staff, up to 200 inventory locations, 20 POS Pro locations, B2B catalogs, and priority support including email and phone. For a brand at scale it is often cheaper than running its own commerce stack. The fixed term is the risk: a business that shrinks is still committed to the contract.

StrengthLowest fees and the only tier with email and phone support

WeaknessMulti-year commitment with no early exit

Check at Shopify

POS Pro CONSIDER

An add-on for in-person selling at $89 a month per location, included for 20 locations on Plus. It extends Shopify’s point of sale with staff roles, inventory tools and in-store reporting, and it unlocks inbound phone support through the Help Center, which no self-serve online plan gets. For a shop with a physical counter it unifies stock and customers in one system. For a market stall or occasional pop-up, the free point-of-sale features on standard plans are usually enough.

StrengthOne inventory and customer record across shop and site

WeaknessPer-location fee adds up quickly across several stores

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Starter plan SKIP

Starter was the cheap way to sell through social posts and messaging apps with product links and a single-page Spotlight theme. Shopify’s help center now states it is not available to new stores, and anyone who leaves it cannot return. Existing users get a simplified store but no staff accounts, collections, theme customization, B2B, or carrier-calculated shipping, and checkout needs a paid plan or private mode switched off. Third-party guides still advertise it as an entry point, which is out of date. Treat Basic as the real starting tier.

StrengthStill works for existing link-in-bio sellers

WeaknessClosed to new stores; leaving it is one-way

Check at Shopify

Policies at a glance

Values are short phrases taken from the brand's own pages at the time of the last update. "Not stated" means the desk could not find the policy in writing.

Red flags

• The Terms of Service say Shopify does not provide refunds and may terminate an account for any reason, without notice; merchants have no contractual protection if a store is shut.
• Shopify Payments terms let Shopify set reserves at its discretion and hold funds after termination, with no interest; merchant reviews describe funds frozen during disputes.
• Below Plus and Retail, support is chat only and requires logging into the store, which leaves locked-out merchants with a form that does not open a ticket.

Review themes

Shopify’s Trustpilot page reads “Bad” at 1.3, with one-star reviews the overwhelming majority, but it needs careful reading. Most of those reviews come from shoppers who bought from a scam or slow store built on Shopify and then found Shopify would only forward the complaint to the seller. That is a real issue about how the platform polices bad merchants, not about the software.

Merchant reviews are fewer and more mixed. The complaints that recur are funds held during chargebacks, billing that continued after cancelling, and difficulty reaching a person beyond chat. A small group of long-time merchants praise ease of setup and say the platform is worth its cost. Shopify does not reply to negative reviews there.

Rivals worth a look

Verdict

Desk notes

• Read shopify.com pricing page (USD version via a text proxy) in October 2026 for plan prices, card rates and trial terms.
• Read the Shopify Terms of Service and Shopify Payments terms in October 2026 for refunds, termination and reserves.
• Read Shopify Help Center pages on contacting support, the Starter plan and Pause and Build in October 2026.
• Read the Trustpilot profile for shopify.com in October 2026, including one-star and recent reviews.

Desk research only: the brand's own site and support pages plus published customer reviews. Nothing was purchased or tested by this site. Scored under Methodology v2.1.