Subscription, transaction fees, apps, theme, shipping and hours of work. How to build the annual sum with your own numbers, and where to cut without breaking anything.
by Nadia Maar ·
"How much does Shopify cost?" has an easy, useless answer: the plan's subscription. It's the most visible line and almost never the most expensive. The real sum for a store runs across six lines, and two of them grow with sales — which is fair, but worth knowing before you sign up to a growth plan.
Here's how to build that sum with your numbers. You won't find a price list: plan prices change, and the only reliable source is the official pricing page at the moment you read it. What you'll find is the structure, which rarely changes.
| Line | How it behaves |
|---|---|
| Plan subscription | Fixed monthly; annual billing saves roughly a quarter |
| Transaction fees | A percentage of sales plus a fixed amount per transaction; it falls as you move up plans |
| Apps | Fixed monthly, but it multiplies: the line that grows by itself |
| Theme | One-off if ready-made; a project if custom |
| Shipping and labels | Variable with orders, often handled outside the platform |
| Hours of work | The most expensive line, and the only one that appears in no quote |
Fees read like a small number — two percentage points, a few cents per transaction — and get paid like a big one, because the base is your sales.
The sum takes ten seconds: take monthly sales and multiply by the percentage you pay. On €20,000 a month, two points is €400: more than the subscription on almost any plan. That's why, past a certain threshold, moving up a plan pays even when the subscription doubles — the percentage drops, and the saving beats the increase.
Using a payment system other than the platform's triggers an extra fee on every transaction, on top of the one charged by the provider you chose. Before switching gateway to save a fraction of a point, redo the sum with that line in it: it often comes out worse.
Every missing feature gets solved with an app costing a few euros a month. None of them weighs anything; twelve of them do. The pattern is always the same: they get installed in the first months, stay for years, and half of them do things nobody looks at any more.
| Choice | When it makes sense |
|---|---|
| A ready-made theme, configured well | Standard catalogue, contained budget, a hurry to launch |
| A ready-made theme, customised | Most of it works; you need pages and components the theme doesn't have |
| A bespoke theme | The theme is the ceiling: performance, an unusual buying experience, a strong brand |
The risk with a ready-made theme isn't how it looks: it's the amount of functionality it carries that you'll never use, and that weighs on every page load. A very rich theme configured badly is often slower than a bespoke one written for your catalogue.
The most expensive line of a store isn't in the billing panel: it's people's time. Loading products, fixing photos, checking orders, answering "where is my parcel", correcting wrong stock levels.
Count them for one week, multiply by fifty-two, and compare with the other five lines. They almost always win — and it's also the line where automation pays back fastest, because it replaces hours that repeat every week.
The same platform costs differently depending on how much and how you sell. You don't need figures to see it: just look at which line weighs more than the others, because that's where the sum is decided.
| The store | The line that dominates | Where it pays to work |
|---|---|---|
| Few orders, expensive product | Subscription and theme: fixed costs weigh because sales are low | Minimum plan, ready-made theme, no app that doesn't bring orders |
| Many orders, thin margin | Fees: every decimal on sales is worth more than the subscription | Higher plan if it lowers the fee, payments at the lowest cost |
| Large catalogue, many variants | Hours and apps: loading and keeping it current costs time | Automatic sync with the ERP, fewer apps doing the same job |
The sum takes an afternoon, with two numbers you already have: last year's sales and the hours the store takes every week. The first tells you whether a higher plan pays; the second tells you what automation is worth. Everything else is preference.
Subscription, fees, apps, theme, shipping, hours: six rows and a spreadsheet. Doing it once a year tells you more than any platform comparison.
If you like, we'll do it together in the free audit: we look at the six lines of your store and where hours or margin can be recovered.
The subscription is only one of six lines: there are transaction fees, apps, theme, shipping and hours of work. Fees grow with sales: on €20,000 a month, two percentage points is €400 — more than the subscription on almost any plan. Plan prices change: the only current source is the official pricing page.
Past a certain threshold, yes, because the fee percentage drops: if the saving on transactions beats the higher subscription, the more expensive plan costs less. The sum is made with monthly sales.
Often not: using a system other than the platform's triggers an extra fee on every transaction, on top of your chosen provider's. Redo the sum with that line included.
Annual billing, revisiting the plan as sales grow, clearing out apps twice a year, and automating the step that costs the most hours. Don't cut speed, photos or support: those get paid for in lost sales.