Is Shopify Worth It in 2026? The Real Monthly Cost at $5K, $20K, and $50K in Sales

Is Shopify worth it in 2026?

As of September 2026, Shopify is worth it for a business whose revenue is products sold online, and usually not worth it for a service business that only needs to take a deposit or an invoice payment. Basic is $39 a month billed monthly, or $29 a month billed yearly, plus 2.9% + 30¢ per online card through Shopify Payments. At $20,000 a month in online sales, that is about $679 a month all in on Basic, or 3.4% of revenue. The subscription is the small number. Card fees are the big one, and the plan you pick only moves them by a few tenths of a point.

Sourcing note: every Shopify figure below is from shopify.com/pricing, read September 14, 2026, for US merchants. The cost tables are arithmetic on those published rates. Shopify changes plans and promotions, so check the page before you budget.

Shopify pricing in 2026

The current offer is "Try 3 days free, then $1/month for 3 months." After that, you pay for one of four plans:

Shopify's FAQ says there are no setup fees on any plan. Paying yearly saves $120 a year on Basic, $312 on Grow, and $1,200 on Advanced. Every plan includes unlimited products, 10 inventory locations (200 on Plus), abandoned checkout recovery, shipping labels, and casual in-person sales at pop-ups and events. A physical storefront that needs staff roles and in-store pickup adds POS Pro at $89 a month per location on Basic, Grow, and Advanced. Plus includes 20 POS Pro locations.

The full Shopify fee table

Shopify Payments rates by plan, as read September 14, 2026:

Three rows cost more than they look. Premium cards run 0.6 points above standard on every plan. Shopify's tooltip says that "includes business cards and American Express," so a B2B store pays more than the headline rate. International cards add 1%. Sync more than 50 marketplace orders a month and Shopify takes 1% of those, capped at $99. The third-party fee is its own trap, covered below.

What Shopify really costs at $5,000, $20,000, and $50,000 a month

Assumptions: every sale is online, every card is a standard domestic card through Shopify Payments, and the average order is $100. That means 50 orders at $5,000, 200 at $20,000, and 500 at $50,000. The totals are subscription plus card fees and leave out apps, themes, POS Pro, and shipping.

Here's how to read it:

• $5,000 a month: Basic wins by $56 over Grow on monthly billing. Even so, the $199 bill is almost 4% of revenue, because $39 is a big share of a small number.
• $20,000 a month: Basic still wins, by $26 billed monthly and $10 billed yearly.
• $50,000 a month: Grow wins, by $34 billed monthly and $50 billed yearly.

Advanced doesn't win at any of these volumes. A lower average order adds more 30¢ fees, and it adds the same amount on every plan. So the order size moves the totals but never changes which plan wins.

When does Grow beat Basic?

Grow beats Basic once online card sales pass $25,000 a month on yearly billing, or $33,000 a month on monthly billing. Grow's card rate is 0.2 points lower than Basic's, and both charge 30¢ per order. So Grow pays for itself when 0.2% of your card sales covers the extra subscription:

• Billed monthly: $105 minus $39 is $66, and $66 is 0.2% of $33,000.
• Billed yearly: $79 minus $29 is $50, and $50 is 0.2% of $25,000.
• Advanced over Grow: another 0.2 points for $294 more a month billed monthly or $220 more billed yearly. The break-even is $147,000 or $110,000 a month.

Staff logins can decide it before the math does. Basic includes no additional staff accounts, Grow includes 5, and Advanced includes 15. If an employee needs their own login, you need Grow no matter your volume.

The 2% trap: using another payment provider

If you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee on top of that provider's fees: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus. Say you sell $20,000 a month on Basic, billed monthly, through an outside provider charging 2.9% + 30¢. You pay:

• $39 for the subscription
• $640 in provider fees
• $400 for Shopify's 2%

That comes to $1,079. The same sales through Shopify Payments cost $679, so the outside provider costs $400 a month, or $4,800 a year.

The fee is worth paying only when Shopify Payments isn't an option. Shopify's own FAQ notes it is "available only in certain countries." Otherwise, turn on Shopify Payments before you compare plans. If you're choosing a processor for a checkout outside Shopify, Stripe vs Square compares those rates.

What the pricing page leaves out: apps

The subscription and the card rate aren't the whole bill. Most stores add a paid theme or apps for reviews, subscriptions, upsells, and shipping rules, and each one charges its own fee. Before you compare plans, list the apps you will actually use and add their prices to the tables above. Every app also adds script to your pages. That's why our ecommerce website best practices guide says to audit your app stack before you pay for a redesign.

Who Shopify is worth it for

• Stores where the product is the business. One account covers the catalog, inventory across up to 10 locations, shipping labels, abandoned checkout recovery, and marketplace listings, from $29 a month billed yearly.
• Brands selling online and at pop-ups. Casual in-person sales are included on every plan at 2.6% + 10¢ on Basic, taken on your phone, a card reader, or at a sales counter.
• Stores that want to sell in AI chats. Every plan includes selling in AI chats. A separate Agentic plan costs $0 a month for selling only in AI channels, with online card rates from 2.9% + 30¢ and fees only when you make a sale.

Who Shopify is not worth it for

A service business that takes deposits, bookings, or invoice payments. A contractor, studio, consultant, or clinic has no use for a product catalog, inventory locations, or shipping discounts. At $5,000 a month in online card payments, Shopify Basic costs $199 billed monthly. Square Free costs $180 in online card fees with no subscription, at 3.3% + 30¢ per Square's pricing page as read September 12, 2026.

A booking page that collects the deposit, or a website builder with payments turned on, usually does the job. Our Wix vs Squarespace comparison covers the builders. Wix's Core tier, about $29 a month on annual billing as reported by 2026 pricing guides, is its first tier with online payments.

When you outgrow Shopify, or at least Basic

1. Your volume passes the break-even. On yearly billing, move to Grow above $25,000 a month in online card sales, and look at Advanced above $110,000. Plus starts at $2,300 a month. It buys unlimited staff accounts, 200 inventory locations, full checkout customization, and card rates from 2.25% + 30¢, so it is for stores where those features, not the rate alone, justify the jump.
2. The operations around the store eat your week. When order and return tickets, product copy, and reporting grow faster than revenue, a bigger plan won't fix it. The problem is operations. Our guide to AI for e-commerce operations covers where automation pays off first.
3. The store needs something a theme and apps can't do. Checkout customization is "Limited" on every plan below Plus, and app fees stack up. Sometimes the site has to connect to your own systems, or the business isn't really a store at all. That's when a custom build is the alternative. SuperDupr's custom web design work runs $10,000 to $30,000 over three to six weeks. That is the wrong spend for a new store, where Shopify Basic is the right one.

The bottom line

If you sell products online, Shopify is worth it. Start on Basic at $39 a month ($29 billed yearly) plus 2.9% + 30¢ per online card, and use Shopify Payments so you never pay the 2% third-party fee. Move to Grow once online card sales pass about $25,000 a month on yearly billing, or $33,000 on monthly billing. If you sell services and just need to get paid, skip the store subscription and put a booking or payment page in front of your customers instead.