Shopify Pricing UK Explained (2026): Which Plan is Right For You?

Choosing the right Shopify plan for your UK business can feel overwhelming. You're likely weighing the differences between Basic, Shopify, and Advanced, all while worrying about the hidden costs that aren't immediately obvious—like transaction fees, payment processing rates, and essential app subscriptions. It’s a critical decision that can directly impact your profitability and potential for growth, and making the wrong choice can mean overpaying for features you don't need or hitting a roadblock just as your business starts to scale.

At NB eCommerce & Design, we're here to bring clarity to the complex world of Shopify pricing. In this definitive 2026 guide, we provide a complete breakdown of every plan, comparing not just the monthly subscription costs in pounds sterling (£), but also the crucial details that determine your total expenditure. You will gain a clear, confident understanding of which plan is the most cost-effective for you right now and a strategic roadmap for when to upgrade in the future, ensuring you can invest wisely and build a rock-solid foundation for your eCommerce success.

Shopify Plans at a Glance: A Head-to-Head Comparison

Navigating the different shopify pricing tiers can feel complex, but it's designed to provide a clear growth path for your business. Shopify has established itself as a rock-solid foundation for e-commerce, and understanding its evolution (you can read more about Shopify's history and growth) helps to see why its tiered structure is designed to support businesses at every stage. The best plan for you will ultimately depend on your current sales volume, required features, and team size.

To simplify your decision, here is a direct comparison of the three core plans. All plans include secure web hosting, an SSL certificate, and the essential commerce features you need to start selling. Paying annually offers significant savings over the monthly cost.

Shopify Basic: For New Businesses & Startups

The Basic plan is the ideal entry point for solopreneurs, market testers, and businesses launching their first online store. It provides all the essentials, including two staff accounts, basic performance reports, and the ability to manage inventory across up to 1,000 locations. Its primary limitation lies in the higher transaction fees and lack of in-depth reporting, which can become a factor as your sales volume increases.

Shopify (The 'Grow' Plan): For Scaling Businesses

Best suited for businesses with consistent sales and a growing team, the core 'Shopify' plan is built for growth. It offers five staff accounts and, crucially, access to professional reports. These reports provide deeper insights into customer behaviour and sales trends, which are vital for making informed decisions to scale your business. The lower transaction fees can quickly offset the higher monthly cost as your revenue grows, making it a smart financial choice for established stores.

Advanced Shopify: For Established Retailers

Designed for high-volume sellers, Advanced Shopify provides the most powerful tools and the lowest transaction fees. With 15 staff accounts, it supports larger teams and complex operations. Key features include an advanced report builder for creating custom reports and third-party calculated shipping rates, which allows you to offer precise, real-time shipping costs at checkout. This plan is the definitive solution for established retailers looking to streamline operations and maximise profitability at scale.

Beyond the Monthly Subscription: Understanding Shopify's Full Cost

When evaluating shopify pricing, it's crucial to look beyond the monthly subscription fee. The plan you choose is the foundation, but a realistic budget must account for the total cost of ownership. These additional costs aren't hidden fees; they are strategic investments that unlock powerful customisation, streamline your operations, and fuel your growth. Planning for these from day one is just as important as adhering to official UK business regulations when you launch.

Here’s a breakdown of the key costs to factor into your forecast.

Transaction Fees & Payment Processing

Every time a customer buys from you, a fee is charged to process the payment. Shopify gives you two options:

• Shopify Payments: This is Shopify’s integrated payment gateway. It offers competitive credit card rates and, crucially, removes the need to pay any extra transaction fees to Shopify.
• Third-Party Gateways: You can use other providers like PayPal or Stripe, but Shopify will charge an additional transaction fee on top of what the gateway itself charges. This fee is 2.0% on the Basic plan, 1.0% on the Shopify plan, and 0.5% on the Advanced plan.

For example, on a £100 order using the Basic Shopify plan, your fees would be:

• With Shopify Payments: £2.25 (2% + 25p)
• With a Third-Party Gateway: £2.00 (to Shopify) + the gateway's own processing fee.

Shopify App Store Costs

The Shopify App Store is where you can truly tailor your store's functionality. Apps can add powerful features for marketing automation, SEO, customer reviews, loyalty programs, and much more. While many essential apps offer a free starting plan, you should budget for premium subscriptions as your business scales. For a growing store, we recommend allocating £50 - £150 per month for a solid toolkit of essential apps that will help drive sales and improve efficiency.

Theme and Design Costs

Your theme is your digital shopfront. Shopify provides a range of excellent free themes that are perfect for getting started. However, investing in a premium theme (typically a one-off cost of £150-£300) often provides superior design, more built-in features, and dedicated technical support. For businesses aiming for a distinct brand identity and a fully optimised customer journey, custom design and development is the ultimate solution. A bespoke theme ensures your store is perfectly aligned with your vision. You can see examples of stores we've built to understand the impact a professional, conversion-focused design can have.

Specialist Plans: Shopify Starter and Shopify Plus

While the three core plans-Basic, Shopify, and Advanced-serve the vast majority of online retailers, the full spectrum of Shopify pricing also includes two specialist plans. These sit at the opposite ends of the e-commerce journey, designed for very specific use cases: one for those just beginning to sell online without a website, and the other for enterprise-level brands demanding maximum power and customisation.

Understanding where these plans fit is key to confirming that one of the core options is, as is most likely, the right choice for your business.

Shopify Starter: For Social Selling & Link-in-Bio

The Shopify Starter plan is the most stripped-back, accessible entry point into the ecosystem. It is not a full online store. Instead, it’s designed for creators, influencers, and businesses who want to sell products through social media, messaging apps, or on an existing blog. For just a few pounds a month, you get simple, shareable product pages with a secure checkout link-perfect for a 'link-in-bio' setup. It's a powerful tool for monetising an audience without the overhead of building and managing a complete website.

Shopify Plus: For Enterprise & High-Growth Merchants

At the other end of the scale is Shopify Plus, the enterprise solution for high-volume merchants. This plan is typically for businesses processing over £1 million in annual revenue and requiring a platform that can handle significant complexity and scale. Moving to Plus is a strategic decision for businesses whose growth is being limited by the advanced plan, and it's a core part of a sophisticated e-commerce strategy for market leaders.

Pricing for Shopify Plus starts at around £2,000 per month and is tailored to your sales volume. In return, you gain access to a suite of powerful, exclusive features designed to streamline operations and boost conversions:

• Fully Customisable Checkout: Gain unparalleled control over your checkout experience to optimise for conversion.
• Shopify Flow: An advanced automation tool to create custom workflows for inventory, customer segmentation, and fraud prevention.
• Dedicated Support: Access to a dedicated Launch Engineer for migration and a Merchant Success Manager for ongoing strategy.
• Unlimited Staff Accounts and nine expansion stores for international growth.

Ultimately, Shopify Plus is the rock-solid, future-proof platform for businesses that need to operate at a global scale without compromise.

How to Choose the Right Shopify Plan (And When to Upgrade)

Understanding the features of each plan is one thing; applying that knowledge to your unique business is another. The right choice in the complex world of shopify pricing isn't just about the features you need today, but about positioning your business for future growth. The key is to see your Shopify plan not as a fixed cost, but as a flexible tool that evolves with you. Remember, you can upgrade or downgrade at any time, so the initial decision is about finding the best starting point.

Key Questions to Guide Your Choice

To cut through the noise and make a confident decision, focus on these four critical areas of your business. Your answers will point you directly to the most suitable plan:

• What is your projected monthly sales volume? This is crucial. As your sales grow, the lower transaction fees on the Shopify and Advanced plans can save you a significant amount of money, often justifying the higher monthly subscription.
• How many team members need access? The Basic plan includes 2 staff accounts. If you have a larger team needing to manage products, orders, or marketing, the 5 accounts on the Shopify plan or 15 on Advanced become essential.
• Do you require detailed business reports? While Basic offers standard reports, the professional reports on the Shopify plan provide the deep insights needed to optimise sales and understand customer behaviour.
• Are you an omnichannel retailer? If you have a brick-and-mortar store, the more advanced POS Pro features included with higher-tier plans will be critical for seamlessly syncing inventory, sales, and customer data.

Knowing When It's Time to Upgrade

Your business will give you clear signals when it has outgrown its current plan. The most common trigger is sales volume. A simple calculation can tell you when it's more economical to upgrade: if the amount you'd save from lower transaction fees is greater than the monthly price increase of the next plan, it's time to move. Other signs include needing more staff accounts for a growing team or requiring more sophisticated analytics to make data-driven decisions. Our advice is almost always to start on the plan that fits your current needs and upgrade only when the benefits clearly outweigh the cost.

Get a Personalised Recommendation

Choosing a plan can feel daunting, but you don't have to make the decision in a vacuum. As Shopify Experts, we analyse your specific business model, sales projections, and operational needs to recommend the most cost-effective solution. This ensures you're not overpaying for features you don't need, nor are you limiting your growth with a plan that's too restrictive. For a clear, unbiased assessment tailored to your business, we invite you to get in touch.

Consult with a Shopify Expert for personalised advice on your Shopify plan.

Don't Forget Shopify POS: Integrating Your Retail Store

For many modern retailers, success isn't just about a great online store; it's about creating a unified brand experience across all sales channels. If you run a brick-and-mortar shop alongside your eCommerce site, managing two separate systems for inventory, sales, and customer data can be a significant operational headache. This is precisely the problem Shopify POS is designed to solve.

Shopify's Point of Sale system seamlessly syncs your in-person sales with your online store, giving you one centralised hub to manage your entire business. From inventory levels to customer purchase history, everything is kept perfectly in sync. The key is choosing the tier that matches the complexity of your retail operations, a crucial factor in the overall shopify pricing and value you receive.

Shopify POS Lite (Included with all plans)

Included with every Shopify plan at no extra monthly cost, POS Lite is the perfect entry point for in-person selling. It’s ideal for pop-up shops, market stalls, or businesses that only occasionally need to process a physical transaction. Despite its name, it’s a powerful tool that allows you to:

• Accept secure payments using your smartphone or tablet.
• Manage orders and access customer profiles on the go.
• Automatically sync product inventory and sales data with your online store.

Shopify POS Pro (Additional Monthly Fee)

For established brick-and-mortar stores with more demanding needs, Shopify POS Pro is the all-in-one retail solution. For an additional monthly fee (from £69/month per location), it unlocks a suite of advanced features built to streamline and scale your physical retail operations. Key benefits include:

• Advanced Inventory Management: Handle stock transfers between locations, generate purchase orders, and perform detailed inventory counts.
• Staff Roles & Permissions: Create unlimited staff accounts with custom roles to control access to sensitive information.
• In-depth Analytics: Gain deeper insights into your store's performance with detailed daily sales reports and analytics.
• Omnichannel Features: Offer customers seamless options like "buy online, pick up in store" or "buy in-store, ship to customer".

Deciding on the right setup can feel daunting, but it's a critical step. To help, you can learn more about choosing the right POS system for your shop and explore the hardware that will future-proof your business.

Your Next Step: Navigating Shopify Pricing with Confidence

Choosing the right Shopify plan is a critical decision for your UK business. As we've explored, the best choice depends on your sales volume, growth stage, and whether you need to integrate a brick-and-mortar store with Shopify POS. Remember to look beyond the monthly subscription; the full picture of shopify pricing includes transaction fees, app costs, and payment processing rates that directly impact your bottom line.

Making this decision can feel complex, but you don't have to do it alone. As a Certified Shopify Partner and Expert Agency with decades of experience, we've guided countless retailers to success. From our base in the North East, we serve the entire UK, offering clear, jargon-free advice to help you build a profitable and future-proof online store on the perfect plan for your specific needs.

Ready to invest in a platform that can scale with your ambition? Get in touch for a no-obligation chat about your Shopify project. Let's build the ideal foundation for your growth together.

Frequently Asked Questions About Shopify Pricing

Can I use Shopify for free?

Shopify doesn't offer a permanent free plan for a full online store. However, they provide a free trial which is an excellent way to explore the platform's capabilities without commitment. This trial gives you access to most features, allowing you to build your store and test its functions. For those just starting, the Shopify Starter plan offers a simplified solution for selling through social media and messaging apps for a very low monthly cost, currently £5 per month in the UK.

How can I avoid Shopify's transaction fees?

The most straightforward way to avoid Shopify's own transaction fees is by using their integrated payment gateway, Shopify Payments. When you use Shopify Payments, the platform waives its own percentage-based fee. You will still be subject to the standard credit card processing rates, but you eliminate the additional Shopify fee which applies when using a third-party gateway. For most UK retailers, this is the most cost-effective and streamlined method for processing payments.

Can I change my Shopify plan at any time?

Absolutely. Shopify is designed to scale with your business, giving you the flexibility to change your plan whenever you need to. You can easily upgrade to a higher tier to access more advanced features or add more staff accounts as your business grows. Conversely, if you need to streamline costs, you can downgrade your plan. This can all be managed directly from your Shopify admin dashboard, ensuring your plan always aligns with your current business requirements.

Does Shopify offer discounts on their plans?

Yes, Shopify provides a significant discount for merchants who commit to a longer-term subscription. By paying for your plan upfront for a full year, you can receive a discount of up to 25% compared to paying month-to-month. This is a practical way to reduce your operational costs and is an excellent option for established businesses with predictable revenue who are confident in their choice of platform and want to maximise their savings on Shopify pricing.

What's the difference between staff accounts and customer accounts?

Staff accounts are for your team members, allowing them to access the Shopify admin dashboard to manage products, orders, and other store operations. The number of staff accounts you can have depends on your Shopify plan. Customer accounts, on the other hand, are created by your shoppers. These accounts allow them to view their order history, save shipping addresses, and manage their profile, creating a more seamless checkout experience for repeat purchases. You can have unlimited customer accounts on any plan.

Is the annual plan worth it?

For businesses committed to the Shopify platform for the long term, the annual plan is certainly worth it. The primary benefit is the cost savings, which can be up to 25% off your monthly subscription fee. This frees up capital that can be reinvested into marketing or inventory. If you have a stable, growing business and are past the initial testing phase, locking in the annual rate is a smart financial decision that simplifies your accounting with a single yearly payment.

Do I need to pay for hosting separately with Shopify?

No, you do not. One of the major advantages of the Shopify pricing structure is that all plans include secure, unlimited, and high-performance web hosting. Shopify manages all the technical aspects, including server maintenance, security updates, and ensuring your site can handle high traffic volumes. This simplifies your operations immensely, as you don't need to find, configure, or pay for a separate third-party hosting provider, allowing you to focus on growing your business.