This is the most comprehensive guide to Shopify online.

In this new guide you’ll learn the differences between each Shopify package AND which one to pick.

Let’s dive right in:

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an ecommerce platform that allows entrepreneurs to create online stores.

Simply explained, Shopify is a website that allows users to easily set up, maintain, and manage their online stores.

Shopify is the most cost-efficient and beginner-friendly ecommerce platform because of all it’s features and benefits.

If you are interested in opening a dropshipping or ecommerce store, Shopify is the best choice for beginners.

Boasting extraordinary numbers, Shopify went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015 and brought in $1.58 billion revenue in 2019.

Shopify is constantly improving the platform, user-experience, and will continue to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to ecommerce. 

Creating an online store by yourself just one decade ago would have cost tens of thousands of dollars. Shopify is a platform that allows you to easily create an online store starting at only $29/month. 

Why Use Shopify For Dropshipping

Whether you’re a beginner or not, Shopify is the most cost-efficient ecommerce platform out there.

The amount of value you obtain from a Shopify subscription is immense.

Through fully testing Shopify’s main competitors, we learned that Shopify is above the pack in all areas.

Let’s take a look at why Shopify is the best ecommerce platform:

Ease of Use

Shopify’s main advantage over other platforms is its ease of use.

It allows anybody with a computer and internet connection to fully set up an online store in just a few hours.

Furthermore, you don’t need any background knowledge on coding or web design.

Here’s what the Shopify admin dashboard looks like.

As you can see, the platform is extremely self-explanatory and easy to navigate.

Other platforms such as WooCommerce require users to have a knowledgeable understanding on coding to be able to set up the store.

It not only takes longer to build a store, but also requires you to hire a web developer if you don’t know how to code.

Themes

Rather than spending weeks to months coding a store to perfection, Shopify offers a plethora of free or paid themes that allow users to create beautiful stores.

Here are some of the free themes that Shopify offers.

These themes are immensely simple to set up.

Shopify Apps

Another reason Shopify is so easy to use is because of the applications. Along with their themes, Shopify has thousands of applications with all sorts of functionality.

Here are the applications that we have installed on one of our stores.

Check out our article on “How To Dropship On Shopify” if you want to learn how to completely set up a dropshipping store on Shopify. 

Customer Service 

Shopify’s customer service is easily the best out of all the ecommerce platforms.

They offer 24/7 email, phone, and chat support. Regardless of what time you need help, a Shopify customer support agent will be available and willing to help you.

We have used Shopify support hundreds of times and are always impressed with how knowledgeable and helpful the staff is.

They also often follow-up with you in an email to make sure your problem is completely solved. 

Gold Standard

Shopify is the gold standard when it comes to ecommerce platforms.

It’s akin to Nike in the athletics industry or McDonalds in the fast food industry.

It’s popular because it not only works well, but performs above all expectations.

Shopify is the ecommerce platform that our 100,164 YouTube subscribers and 53,197 members on our Facebook group use.

Feel free to subscribe to our channel and join our Facebook group if you haven’t already. All of our content will be taught using Shopify, so be sure to stay updated. 

Now that you understand why Shopify is the best ecommerce platform for your online store, let’s talk about their pricing plans and options. 

Shopify Pricing Plans

Shopify has 3 different packages to choose from ranging from $29/month to $299/month.

They are called Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify.

All 3 packages contain most of the same features, such as the ability to fully create an online store and being able to post an unlimited amount of products.

The main differences between the three packages relate to how many staff accounts you can add and what the credit card rates and transaction costs are for your payment gateway. 

The credit card fees are how much Shopify charges you per order on your store.

For example, when using Shopify Payments as your payment gateway, Basic Shopify costs 2.9% + $0.30 and Advanced Shopify costs 2.4% + $0.30 per order.

If you use a third party payment provider (anything other than Shopify Payments), Shopify charges an additional 2% for Basic Shopify and 0.5% for Advanced Shopify as the transaction cost.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is the payment processor customers use to checkout from your store.

When users enter their credit card information and pay for their products, the payment gateway is what allows them to do so.

The payment gateway will hold all the revenue your store generates and then pay you out within a certain timeframe.

Shopify doesn’t have their own built-in payment processor, but they partnered with Stripe, which is a massive online payment processing company, to form Shopify Payments.

We recommend all beginners use Shopify Payments because it is easy to set up and convenient to use.

However, Shopify Payments is not available in every country.

Click here to see if Shopify Payments is available in your country. If it’s not available in your country, it’s still perfectly okay to use Shopify, you will just need to set up an external payment gateway. 

As you can see below, regardless of what payment processor you use, you will be charged a credit card fee per transaction on your store.

You will also see that third-party payment processors include an additional fee.

If you use Shopify Payments you won’t be paying the additional percentage fee.

If you live in a country that doesn’t support Shopify payments, you must do your own research to see which third-party payment gateway is best for you.

You can go to your Shopify dashboard and go to “Settings”. From here, click “Payments”, scroll down to click “Choose third-party provider”, and see which ones are available to you.

Remember, if you use Shopify Payments as your payment gateway then the additional transaction costs don’t apply to you. You will only be charged the credit card rates.

What are Staff Accounts on Shopify?

Another main difference between the three Shopify plans is the amount of staff accounts you can have on your store.

Staff accounts are users that can login to your Shopify admin. For example, you would create a staff account for any business partners or employees you have.

As the store owner, you can also choose to filter the amount of access the staff member has on your store.

You can either give them full access or limit their access.

As you can see this Shopify account has the ability to add 5 staff accounts, and 2 of the staff accounts have limited access.

Now that you understand the main difference between the Shopify pricing plans, let’s take a closer look at each of these three plans.

Basic Shopify

Basic Shopify costs $29/month and is what we recommend all beginners to use.

Don’t let the lower price point fool you because Basic Shopify offers everything you need to build and grow a successful dropshipping store.

The main drawback of Basic Shopify is that you are only allowed to add 2 additional staff accounts with Basic Shopify. This means that a total of 3 email accounts will have access to your Shopify admin.

However, if you don’t have any business partners or employees, this is irrelevant to you.

Furthermore, the credit card rates are the highest out of all 3 plans costing 2.9% and $0.30 per order. An additional 2% transaction fee is added if you don’t use Shopify Payments and use an external payment gateway. 

The features and value you get out of a $29/month subscription is tremendous. Basic Shopify offers an all-inclusive ecommerce solution to anyone starting a dropshipping or online store. 

Shopify

Shopify is considered the intermediate package and costs $79/month.

There are just a few differences between Shopify and Basic Shopify.

Shopify allows your store to add 5 additional members to the Shopify admin, rather than 2.

Furthermore, the online credit card rate is 2.6% + $0.30 per order with an additional 1% transaction fee if you don’t use Shopify payments.

These two differences are the main reasons users upgrade their plan from Basic Shopify to Shopify.

If you have a large team of business partners or want lower credit card fees, Shopify is preferred to Basic Shopify.

However, we recommend users stick to Basic Shopify until the features Shopify offers grant significant value.

For example, if you need more staff accounts, it’s perfectly fine to have multiple people logging in using the same email. This is a way to navigate the staff account limitations. 

Advanced Shopify

Advanced Shopify is significantly more expensive than the other two plans at a price of $299/month.

This package should only be considered for advanced dropshippers that have at least 5 figure revenue stores.

With this package you are granted access to add 15 additional staff accounts. Furthermore, the credit card rates are 2.4% + $0.30 per order and an additional 0.5% transaction cost if you use an external payment gateway.

Everything else is the exact same when compared to Shopify. The reasons that dropshippers use Advanced Shopify is because they can actually save a significant amount of money with the lower transaction costs.

The 0.2% difference in credit card fee and 0.5% transaction cost can actually be a lot of money for large stores. 

Best Shopify Plan For Beginner Dropshippers

There is a clear-cut winner when it comes to which Shopify plan beginners should pick.

Basic Shopify offers everything a beginner needs to succeed. All the functionalities are the same between the 3 different packages in terms of setting up and maintaining your store.

The differences mainly lie in how many staff accounts you can add and the credit card and transaction fees per order.

We used Basic Shopify on many 6-figure revenue stores without any issues at all.

It wasn’t until we calculated how much money we could save on credit card fees by upgrading our Shopify plan that we actually switched to Shopify and Advanced Shopify.

We recommend that beginners choose Basic Shopify without any hesitation at all and focus more on setting up the store and running advertisements.

Your store should have consistent revenue and profit before even considering another Shopify package.

Choosing Shopify Pricing Plans: Which One Fits You?

When your store is generating consistent revenue and profit, there’s a simple formula you can complete to calculate if upgrading your Shopify subscription is worth it.

This is the formula Shopify uses to calculate transaction fees for a 30-day period:

[(cost of products) – discounts) + tax + shipping charges] x rate.

Basically, they take the total revenue your store made and multiple the 2.9% fee for Shopify Basic.

So if you have Basic Shopify and are thinking about upgrading, use the calculation on both the 2.9% fee for Basic Shopify and the 2.6% fee for Shopify.

If the savings are more than the $50 difference between Shopify and Basic Shopify, it may be worth it for you to upgrade.

Furthermore, you can do the same calculation with the $299/month Advanced Shopify and use its 2.4% rate in the formula. 

Remember, you should only consider upgrading your plan from Basic Shopify when your store has stable revenue for at least a month. You don’t want to upgrade your subscription and then suddenly have your revenue fall.

Do Shopify Plan Prices Change By Country

The answer to this question is a simple, no.

Regardless of what country you’re in, the Shopify packages remain the same price.

If you live outside of the United States, you will still pay only $29 converted to your country’s currency for Basic Shopify.

Shopify reported they have over 1,000,000 users from approximately 175 countries and treat all users equally. 

How to Change Your Shopify Plan

You can change your Shopify plan at any time. To change your plan, go to your Shopify admin and click “Settings”, “Plans & permissions”, and then “Upgrade plan”.

When changing your plan, you have the choice of waiting until your current billing cycle runs out and automatically change your plan for the next billing cycle or to start a new billing cycle.

If you start a new billing cycle because you want the additional benefits right away, you will lose the days remaining on your current billing cycle.

For this reason, it’s best to upgrade your Shopify plan at the end of your billing cycle.

How Are Shopify Subscriptions Billed

Your total Shopify bill consists of the subscription, one-time fees, apps, and transaction fees.

The subscription is the fee you pay to Shopify based on which Shopify package you chose.

You will be billed for your Shopify subscription every 30 days. One-time fees include paid Shopify themes, one-time app fees, and domains.

Apps are usually recurring fees like your Shopify subscription that you pay for every month.

If you use Shopify Payments, the credit card fees are automatically deducted from each order.

If you use a third-party payment provider, your transaction costs will typically be billed at the end of your 30-day billing cycle. 

You can find all the information about your bill by going to your Shopify admin and then clicking “Settings” then “Billing”.

How to Cancel my Shopify Subscription

If for any reason you want to close your Shopify account, you can do so extremely easily.

You can go to your Shopify settings and then click “Plans and permissions” to close your store. Before closing your store, it’s important to check if you have any remaining payments or balances.

You also have the option of pausing your store. This allows you to completely pause your store for up to 3 months, pausing your subscription fee as well.

This option is great for users who plan on taking a break. However, you won’t have access to your Shopify admin or have the ability to work on your store at all when it’s paused. To unpause your store, just login to your Shopify account. 

Choosing Your Shopify Plan Closing Thoughts

At this point, you should have a full understanding of all 3 Shopify packages and where their differences lie. Furthermore, you should understand what Shopify is and why it’s the best ecommerce platform. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and we will respond quickly as we can.

If you are interested in dropshipping, check out our YouTube channel and other articles on our blog to learn how to set-up a dropshipping store on Shopify and how to run Facebook ads.