Shopify vs Shopify Plus

If you’ve been growing your store, it may have become hard to know when you should choose standard Shopify plans vs Shopify Plus. The Plus plan offers features specifically for enterprises, such as checkout customization, B2B features, and priority support.

However, it’s way more expensive than standard plans, starting from $2,300/month, depending on your needs.

Keep reading to learn what the main differences are between standard Shopify plans and Shopify Plus. We’ll help you understand whether the Plus plan is already worth it for your business or whether you should save your money for now.

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Shopify vs Shopify Plus: key differences

• Standard Shopify plans are suitable for small to large businesses, while Shopify Plus is best for enterprises making millions of sales per year and having custom needs.
• Shopify has monthly or yearly plans starting from $29/month, while Shopify Plus depends on the business needs and starts from around $2,300/month.
• Shopify allows basic edits to the checkout page, while Shopify Plus gives you more control over how checkout looks and behaves, enabling checkout extensibility and Shopify Functions.
• You can use Shopify Plus to manage up to 9 expansion stores for free with localized languages and currency.
• Shopify Plus comes with a dedicated B2B system for wholesale selling, while standard plans don’t get access to it.
• Standard Shopify stores get 24/7 support through live chat, but Shopify Plus stores get priority support and access to the Shopify Plus community forum.

Which plan to choose?

Shopify standard plans can handle both small and large stores, depending on the plan you choose, including in terms of sales, traffic, and SEO features. Meanwhile, Shopify Plus is best for large enterprises with custom needs.

• Basic – great if you’re just starting out, especially if you’re running the website solo.
• Grow – choose this plan when your revenue becomes consistent, or you have a small team working on the project. Considering the transaction fees, if your store makes more than $200,000/year, this plan may be a better choice financially than Basic.
• Advanced – best for businesses that need low transaction fees and more features for retail stores. If your sales go over $1,320,000/year, the Advanced plan can be a better choice than Grow.
• Shopify Plus – when you become an enterprise-level business with high traffic or even an international audience, then the Plus plan can be the right choice. It gives you more flexibility in terms of checkout customization, B2B selling, and multi-store management.

We’d recommend looking at the Shopify Help Center article to find out the break-even rates in different locations.

Shopify vs Shopify Plus features compared

Shopify Plus has all the features of the Shopify standard plans, plus extra functionalities. For example, it allows checkout customization, more in-depth reports, better support, multi-store management, and B2B selling. Let’s compare the standard Shopify plans with Shopify Plus.

1. Scalability

Standard Shopify plans are meant for small to large companies. They have all the features needed to support a growing store and offer great performance.

Shopify Plus is designed to handle huge traffic spikes and high transaction volumes. We’d suggest considering switching to Shopify Plus when you reach at least $80,000/month or more in online sales.

This plan also supports higher API rate limits than standard tiers, which is great for stores that have large product catalogs or use custom apps or complex integrations.

2. Price and transaction fees

The standard Shopify plans are much cheaper than Shopify Plus, but the latter offers lower transaction fees and rates. We’ve put the main differences in a comparison table:

Shopify has a clear pricing system – the more expensive plan you choose, the lower the transaction rates you get.

But aside from the plans and transaction fees, there are some other costs you should take into account:

1. Shopify themes. You can choose free options from the Shopify Theme Store, or you can invest in paid themes. Free options are some of the fastest themes based on our testing, but paid options usually come with premium designs and more features.
2. Shopify apps. You can browse the Shopify App Store to get apps for various needs. For example, PageFly offers an easy to use page builder, while we also have the TinyIMG app for SEO optimization.
3. Shopify POS. If you’re selling in person, not just online, you’ll need to pay for the Shopify POS Pro, which is $89/month per location. With the Plus plan, you get 20 locations for free or 200 with Shopify Payments per location.

3. Checkout customization

Shopify Plus offers more checkout customization freedom compared to standard plans. For example, a standard Shopify plan will let you change your logo, alter the fonts, layout, or brand colors.

Meanwhile, Shopify Plus enables:

• Checkout extensibility. It means that your developers can create custom functionality for your checkout, such as adding custom delivery date picking or gift message fields.
• Shopify Functions. This feature lets developers create backend logic that runs within Shopify, helping create advanced discount rules or free shipping logic.

4. Reports and analytics

Shopify reports are available for all plan users, but the Shopify Plus plan has some advantages. For example, you can access analytics for different customer segments. You also get advanced reports for sales, inventory, and customers, together with custom dashboards.

5. Support options

Standard Shopify plan users can contact customer support through a 24/7 live chat located in the Help Center. Advanced plan users also get enhanced live chat, meaning that you get faster access to support agents.

Meanwhile, Shopify Plus comes with multiple exclusive support options, including:

• Priority 24/7 support – users on Plus plans are the first to get their questions answered.
• Shopify Plus Academy – you can take courses to learn more about growing your business.
• Shopify Plus Community – you can join a network of Shopify Plus brands to share resources or other tips.

6. Multi-store management

With standard Shopify plans, you can only build a single store, while Shopify Plus users can create up to 9 expansion stores.

Expansion stores let you create additional stores without paying for separate Shopify subscriptions. While they’re separate stores with their own themes, domains, and products, they’re mainly intended to be used for the same business.

Common use cases include:

• International stores – you can create an identical brand under different languages and currencies.
• Product line extensions – for stores that want to expand their product offerings into different categories while using the same brand.
• B2B stores – stores with an identical brand and products that are wholesale-focused.
• Employee or VIP stores – you can create stores that are meant for employees or reserved for members only.
• Physical retail – Shopify allows creating physical retail stores that operate without online sales.

7. Shopify apps and integrations

All Shopify stores have access to the Shopify App Store, which has over 18,000 apps for different categories. While most apps have the same pricing system for all stores, some developers choose to price their tools based on the plan you use.

Shopify Plus users also get a list of Plus-certified apps. These are apps that have been tested by Shopify and have proven to handle huge traffic spikes and ensure important security requirements.

Apps that become a “Certified Technology Partner” are then added to the Shopify Technology Partner Directory.

8. B2B selling

Both standard Shopify plans and the Plus plan offer B2B catalogs, but with different limits. You can set quantity rules and quantity price breaks on any plan you have.

Here’s the B2B feature availability based on the plan you choose:

Standard Shopify plans include limited B2B functionality, while Shopify Plus has way more useful features for B2B companies.

Standard plans only include 3 B2B catalogs, which are used to tailor products and prices for different B2B customers, while the Plus plan allows unlimited catalogs. Plus users can also set up direct company catalogs, meaning custom pricing can be set for a specific company.

Shopify Plus is also the only plan to allow partial payments, so you can offer more flexible options for your customers.

You can learn more about specific B2B features in every plan by reading the Shopify Help Center article.

9. Launchpad

The standard Shopify apps can use Shopify Flow to automate specific tasks, like order fulfillment or inventory management.

However, Plus users can also use Launchpad, which is a Shopify app that’s used for scheduling and coordinating events, like sales or restocks.

Here are some of the event tasks it can automate:

• Change product pricing at the beginning and end of an event.
• Set product releases at specific times and dates.
• Increase inventory levels when events start.
• Schedule theme customizations for an event.
• Gather data about the event.

For large stores, it helps save loads of time and may even prevent human error. However, the reviews on the App Store are mixed, so we recommend reading them to know possible issues before setting it up.

Final thoughts

For the majority of eCommerce stores, the standard Shopify plans are already enough to grow a successful business. The Shopify Plus plan is worth it for large enterprises that make millions in sales yearly and need custom features.

Compared to standard plans, Shopify Plus offers checkout customization, lower transaction fees, advanced analytics, multi-store management, and B2B features. It also ensures you get priority support.

So, consider whether these features would benefit your business and justify the cost based on your yearly sales and the lower transaction fees.

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About the author

Kristina Jaruseviciute

Kristina is a Content Lead at TinyIMG responsible for informing and educating readers on all things Shopify-related. She covers a broad range of topics around SEO, AI visibility, website performance, and conversion rates to help merchants stand out in a competitive landscape.