Real Cost of Running a Shopify Store
Fixed Monthly Costs
Shopify Subscription
Your base subscription is a fixed monthly cost that does not change with sales volume:
- Starter: $5/month (no storefront, only product links and checkout)
- Basic: $39/month ($29/month on annual billing)
- Shopify: $105/month ($79/month on annual billing)
- Advanced: $399/month ($299/month on annual billing)
- Plus: Starting at $2,300/month (negotiable)
Annual billing saves 25% on Basic, Shopify, and Advanced plans. If you are confident your store will run for at least a year, annual billing is a straightforward savings: $120/year on Basic, $312/year on Shopify, $1,200/year on Advanced. For a detailed comparison of what each plan includes, see Shopify Pricing Plans Explained.
Domain Name
A custom domain costs $9 to $14 per year ($0.75 to $1.17/month). Buy through Shopify ($14/year with automatic connection), Namecheap ($9 to $13/year), or Cloudflare Registrar ($9 to $10/year at wholesale cost). This is a negligible expense that every store needs. Using the free yourstore.myshopify.com URL looks unprofessional and hurts customer trust.
Apps
Apps are the most variable fixed cost because every store's app stack differs. Based on common usage patterns:
Minimal app stack ($0 to $30/month): Shopify Email (free for 10,000 emails), Judge.me reviews (free tier), Smart SEO (free tier). This covers basic email, reviews, and SEO for a store just starting out.
Growth app stack ($50 to $150/month): Klaviyo email ($20 to $45/month for 500 to 1,500 contacts), Judge.me paid ($15/month), ReConvert upsells ($4.99/month), AfterShip tracking ($11/month). This stack adds sophisticated email automation, post-purchase upsells, and branded order tracking.
Advanced app stack ($150 to $300/month): Klaviyo email + SMS ($100 to $200/month for larger lists), Loox photo reviews ($34.99/month), Lucky Orange analytics ($32/month), Gorgias helpdesk ($60/month). This covers the needs of stores processing $50,000+/month that need advanced analytics, customer support tooling, and multi-channel marketing.
The average Shopify store spends $80 to $120/month on apps. Audit your app costs quarterly and cancel apps you are not actively using. App subscriptions are the ecommerce equivalent of forgotten gym memberships, easy to accumulate and easy to forget about.
Variable Costs (Scale with Revenue)
Payment Processing Fees
Payment processing is your largest variable cost and the one most store owners underestimate. Using Shopify Payments (which you should, to avoid the additional 0.6% to 2% third-party gateway surcharge):
- Basic: 2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction
- Shopify: 2.6% + $0.30 per online transaction
- Advanced: 2.4% + $0.30 per online transaction
At various revenue levels on the Basic plan (2.9% + $0.30), assuming an average order value of $50:
- $5,000/month (100 orders): $175 in processing fees
- $10,000/month (200 orders): $350 in processing fees
- $25,000/month (500 orders): $875 in processing fees
- $50,000/month (1,000 orders): $1,750 in processing fees
The $0.30 per-transaction fee matters more for lower-priced items. On a $10 order, the effective rate on Basic is 5.9% ($0.29 + $0.30 = $0.59). On a $100 order, the effective rate drops to 3.2% ($2.90 + $0.30 = $3.20). If you sell a high volume of low-priced items, the per-transaction fee takes a larger bite of your margins.
Third-Party Gateway Surcharge
If you use a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments (like Stripe directly, Authorize.net, or a specialized processor), Shopify charges an additional surcharge on every transaction: 2% on Basic, 1% on Shopify, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.15% on Plus. This surcharge is on top of your gateway's own processing fees. At $50,000/month on Basic, that is an extra $1,000/month in surcharges, making Shopify Payments the obvious default choice unless you have a compelling reason for an alternative processor.
One-Time Costs
Theme
Free themes (Dawn, Refresh, Craft, Sense) cost $0 and are excellent starting points. Premium themes from the Shopify Theme Store cost $180 to $400 as a one-time purchase. Third-party premium themes from marketplaces like ThemeForest cost $50 to $200 but may not receive the same level of updates and support as official Theme Store themes. Budget $0 to $400 for your theme, and treat it as a one-time investment that lasts 2 to 3 years before you might want to refresh your store's look.
Logo and Branding
A professional logo from a freelance designer on Fiverr costs $20 to $200, from 99designs costs $299+, and from a branding agency costs $1,000 to $10,000+. For a new store, a $50 to $200 Fiverr logo is perfectly adequate. You can always rebrand later when revenue justifies a larger investment. Shopify's free logo maker (Hatchful) creates basic logos at no cost, though the designs are generic.
Product Photography
Professional product photography costs $25 to $75 per product for studio shots (white background, multiple angles). A basic DIY setup (lightbox, phone camera, editing app) costs $50 to $150 total and produces good results for most products. Lifestyle photography (products styled in real environments with models) costs $200 to $500 per session. Start with DIY photography and invest in professional shots for your best-selling products as revenue grows.
Total Monthly Cost at Different Revenue Levels
These estimates assume Shopify Payments, a moderate app stack, and the plan most appropriate for the revenue level:
$5,000/month revenue (Basic plan):
- Subscription: $39
- Processing fees: $175
- Apps: $30 to $50
- Domain: $1
- Total: $245 to $265 (5% to 5.3% of revenue)
$10,000/month revenue (Basic plan):
- Subscription: $39
- Processing fees: $350
- Apps: $50 to $100
- Domain: $1
- Total: $440 to $490 (4.4% to 4.9% of revenue)
$25,000/month revenue (Shopify plan):
- Subscription: $105
- Processing fees: $800
- Apps: $80 to $150
- Domain: $1
- Total: $986 to $1,056 (3.9% to 4.2% of revenue)
$50,000/month revenue (Shopify plan):
- Subscription: $105
- Processing fees: $1,600
- Apps: $100 to $200
- Domain: $1
- Total: $1,806 to $1,906 (3.6% to 3.8% of revenue)
$100,000/month revenue (Advanced plan):
- Subscription: $399
- Processing fees: $2,700
- Apps: $150 to $300
- Domain: $1
- Total: $3,250 to $3,400 (3.3% to 3.4% of revenue)
The pattern is clear: total Shopify costs as a percentage of revenue decrease as your store grows. A store doing $5,000/month pays about 5% of revenue to Shopify-related costs. A store doing $100,000/month pays about 3.3%. This declining cost percentage is because the subscription fee becomes a smaller share of total costs as processing fees (which scale linearly with revenue) dominate.
Hidden Costs to Watch For
App creep: The most common budget leak. You install an app for a one-time project, forget about it, and pay $15/month for years. Review your installed apps monthly and uninstall anything you are not actively using.
Currency conversion fees: If you sell internationally and receive payments in foreign currencies, Shopify Payments charges a 1.5% currency conversion fee when converting to your payout currency. At $10,000/month in international sales, that is $150/month in conversion fees.
Chargeback fees: Shopify Payments charges a $15 fee per chargeback, regardless of whether you win the dispute. If you experience a 1% chargeback rate on $50,000/month (10 chargebacks), that is $150/month in fees plus the lost revenue from disputed orders. For chargeback prevention strategies, see How to Prevent Chargebacks.
Shipping label costs: If you use Shopify Shipping, label costs are charged to your Shopify bill. While the rates are discounted, shipping costs are a significant per-order expense. A USPS Priority Mail label averaging $8 per order on 500 orders/month is $4,000/month in shipping costs, which is a product cost, not a Shopify cost, but it comes through the same bill and can surprise new store owners.