Shopify for small business: costs, pros and cons, and how to set it up

Shopify is built for selling. Checkout, payments, taxes, shipping labels, stock and discount codes all work out of the box, and the store runs on Shopify's servers, so you do not manage hosting or security.

It is less of a fit if you mainly sell services, take bookings or need a content-heavy site. Our Squarespace vs Wix vs Webflow comparison covers those cases.

These are the US prices on Shopify's pricing page, checked in October 2026. Shopify also offered a 3-day free trial, followed by $1 a month for the first 3 months on most plans.

On top of the plan, you pay a card processing fee on each online sale when you use Shopify Payments. The rate drops as the plan goes up.

Prices change, so confirm them on Shopify's site before you budget.

The plan is the predictable part. These are the costs that surprise people:

• Third-party payment fees. If you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, per its pricing page.
• Apps. Reviews, subscriptions, email pop-ups and bundles often need apps, and many charge monthly. They add up fast.
• Theme. Free themes are good. Premium themes are a one-off cost.
• Design and setup. A professional build costs more than the platform. See our small business website cost guide for sourced ranges.

The downsides

• Monthly costs creep up as you add apps.
• Lower card rates need higher plans, so growing stores face a choice between fees and plan price.
• Design freedom has limits unless you pay for theme customisation or a custom build.
• Content and blogging tools are basic compared with WordPress or Webflow.

For most small product businesses, the time saved outweighs these limits.

• Shopify is built around commerce first, with the deepest set of selling features and apps.
• Squarespace and Wix are website builders with stores added. They work well for a small catalog alongside services or content. See our Wix vs Squarespace guide.
• WooCommerce runs on WordPress. It gives you full control but you manage hosting, updates and security yourself.

If you are weighing several builders, our list of Squarespace alternatives compares more options.

1. Start with a trial and a free theme. Change the theme later if you outgrow it.
2. Add your products with clear photos, honest descriptions and accurate stock.
3. Set up payments, taxes and shipping zones. Use Shopify Payments to avoid the extra third-party fee.
4. Write your policies: shipping, returns, privacy and terms.
5. Connect your domain and set up a business email.
6. Place a test order from start to finish on a phone and a laptop.
7. Set up basic SEO: product titles, descriptions and image alt text. Our local SEO checklist helps if you also sell in person.

Grow costs $66 more a month than Basic on monthly billing and saves 0.2 percentage points on online card sales. At that rate, the saving only covers the extra cost once you sell about $33,000 a month online. On yearly billing the gap is $50 a month, so the break-even is about $25,000 a month.

Grow also adds 5 staff accounts, and Advanced adds 15, according to Shopify's pricing page. If you need team logins sooner, that can justify the upgrade earlier.

Shopify is designed so owners can run their own store. A small catalog on a free theme is a realistic DIY project.

Bring in help when the store is central to your revenue: a custom design that matches your brand, moving products from another platform, complex variants or subscriptions, or improving speed and conversion. That is the work our website design and development service covers.