The Benefits of a Shopify Plan Comparison?

Executive Summary:

Looking to get started with the Shopify store? Before you start, make sure you know all about different Shopify pricing plans to not overpay. Read on, as we do a Shopify plan comparison to know more about which Shopify plan is best suited for your business.

Introduction: What are the Benefits of a Shopify Plan Comparison

There is little doubt about the efficacy and strengths of Shopify as one of the leading eCommerce web development platforms. It comes with all the robust features and functionalities a modern eCommerce store needs to compete and dominate the respective industry.

If you, too, are planning to set up your Shopify store in a bid to expand your existing business or to venture into the massive eCommerce market, you must have a bundle of questions in your mind. Is it worth investing in the platform? Will I be able to sustain and grow my business? What will be my sales on the platform? Is Shopify free? What are Shopify plan prices? What’s the Shopify plan difference? Which plan is best for Shopify and much more?

Well, while we won’t be able to answer all your queries in this blog, we will definitely help you know everything about Shopify plan comparison and which Shopify plan is best suited for your business mode.

So, without wasting any time, let’s get the balls rolling.

Read more about Shopify Pricing Plan here!

How does Shopify offer different plans to fit the needs of different businesses?

Shopify as the absolute leader in the ecommerce web development platform space brings in various pricing plans to support businesses of all sizes. Each Shopify plan comes with unique features and tools that are fit to support the need of different business sizes. The best part, you won’t necessarily have to be a tech guru to get started with your online store on Shopify (not at least if you are a startup or SME with a few hundred SKUs). Nonetheless, for large stores, you can always choose Folio3 Shopify development services.

While we will get into the details of the Shopify plan comparison in a little while, here’s a brief overview of all the different pricing plans Shopify offer to businesses.

• Shopify Lite

To start our Shopify plan comparison, it is the Shopify cheapest plan, which basically offers a point-of-sale system and a “Buy” button generator. This option is best for startups and small stores that are currently selling their products on another website, blog, or social media. Some of the features offered by the store include; order management, invoices, product management, reports, invoices, and other basic functionalities.

• Basic Shopify

Basic Shopify can be termed as the first full-fledged plan that enables Shopify store development. The plan enables users to sell unlimited products, apply discount codes, use multiple sales channels, capitalize on abandoned cart recovery, enable security with free SSL, and more. This plan is aptly suited for startups and small businesses getting started with online stores.

• Shopify

The Shopify Plan includes everything from the Basic Shopify plus has better shipping discounts, better credit card rates, professional reports, domains, and international pricing. This plan is well-suited to meet the needs of SMEs who are looking to expand their operations.

• Shopify Advanced

With Shopify Advanced Plan, things started to get heat-up. This is one of the most powerful and feature-packed plans that includes everything from Basic Shopify and Shopify plans plus some other amazing features, including third-party shipping calculations, better shipping rates, individual product pricing to support international sales, discounted credit card rates, and more. This plan is ideally suited for large businesses with expansive global operations.

• Shopify Plus

It’s the most feature-rich and expensive plan offered by Shopify. The Shopify Plus plan is exclusively meant for large conglomerate and enterprises and offer advanced features like optimized checkouts, advanced shipping rate calculations, personalized shopping experiences, built-in media, and many more customization features.

Read more about Shopify web design pricing here

Why The basic plan is a good starting point for small businesses?

Well, if you are a startup or small business, your best bet is to start with the Basic Shopify plan. The plan only costs USD 29/month and has enough features and functionalities to allow independent store operations. With the Basic Shopify plan, you would have an unlimited product upload option, plus you can also create 2 staff accounts.

While you may miss some of the high-end customization features like third-party calculated shipping rates or professional reports, but then at this stage you won’t necessarily need these tools. Also, you can choose custom Shopify development services to get started immediately with your startup store. Lastly, you always have the option to move to a higher plan once you achieve a sustained growth rate.

Read More: If I Close My Shopify Store Will I Still Be Charged

Why The advanced plan has more features and is better suited for larger businesses?

Shopify Advanced Plan is one of the most expensive packages offered by the ecommerce web development platform. The pricing for Shopify Advance Plan starts at USD 299 per month, however, it does come packed with advanced features and tools. You can also create up to 15 staff accounts on this plan.

The Shopify advance plan also allows merchants to integrate third-party shipping carriers (Check out how Folio3 Shopify Integration services can help you make the most of your Shopify Advance plan). Nonetheless, with a third-party integration option, merchants are in a better position to offer customized and localized shopping experiences to customers and improve their conversion rates.

The plan also offers an advanced report builder, which assists merchants to edit default reports or create a new customized report. You also get deep and insightful data from your store performance, which helps you to assess the overall performance of the store and take meaningful actions to improve ROIs.

The Plan is ideally suited for large enterprises and businesses that are already well-established and now looking to expand their operations horizontally or vertically. The Shopify Advance Plan brings in complete scalability options to support your business expansion ideas.

Reach out to Folio3 Shopify Theme Customization solutions to get the most professionally designed and functional Shopify Advance store!

Why The Shopify plus plan is designed for high-volume businesses?

Next in line for our Shopify plan comparison is the Shopify Plus Plan, which is definitely a unique and exclusive plan that’s meant exclusively for the largest enterprises and conglomerates. To put it plainly, the plan offers merchants complete control of every function of their store; including infinite staff accounts, customized checkouts, expansion stores, and many more customized perks.

Looking to hire Shopify Developer? Get in touch with Folio3 Shopify Development partners to get started!

Now, there are endless features offered with the Shopify Plus plan and we won’t be able to discuss all of those here. Nonetheless, some of the worth-mentioning features offered with the Shopify Plus plan include; Shopify organization control, customizable checkout, merchant success program, Additional API calls, unlimited staff accounts, Shopify Plus partner program, advanced Shopify apps, exclusive beta access, 100-theme capacity, Shopify Plus Academy, app-specific permission controls, nine expansion stores, wholesale channel, Shopify POS for all locations, Individual wholesale store, wholesale password protection, and much more.

However, all of these exclusive features don’t come cheap. In fact, there is no official pricing for the plan from Shopify. Instead, you would have to speak to sales representatives and inform them about your business operations and requirements to get a custom quote. Generally, you can expect the price to start from USD 2,000 per month.

So, until you are a large conglomerate with hundreds of thousands of monthly transactions, this plan isn’t suited for you.

Check our Folio3 Shopify web design solutions here!

How to upgrade or downgrade your plan?

Well, now that we are mostly done with our Shopify plan comparison, let’s move on to see how you can upgrade or downgrade your Shopify plan.

Looking to move to Shopify from another platform? Folio3 Shopify Migration services can help you get started immediately!

Shopify has a simple and straightforward procedure that enables merchants to easily upgrade or downgrade their plans. Below we have come up with simple steps that you can follow to upgrade or downgrade your Shopify plan.

Read here about how to cancel a Shopify plan

Here’s the stepwise breakdown to upgrade or downgrade your Shopify plan:

Step 1: Open Account Settings

From your main admin account, click “Settings” and then, “Account”

Step 2: Select Compare plans

Once you are in the accounts section, you will have access to all key information about the store. You can click “Account Overview” or “Compare Plans” to view the details.

Step 3: Choose the Plan

Once you have chosen the right plan for your store, simply click “Choose this Plan”.

Step 4: Adjust the billing cycle

This is a crucial step that you can’t ignore. Once, you are done reading all billing cycle options, you need to choose/change the billing cycle. If you forget to choose/change the billing cycle, your bill will be stuck at the same rate and only the product purchases will be changed as per your choice.

Step 5: Confirm changes

Once you have checked all the information, simply click “Confirm Changes” to save the updates.

FAQs About The Benefits of a Shopify Plan Comparison:

Shopify offers a free trial so you can try out the different plans before you decide which one is right for you?

Yes. If you aren’t sure about the usability or ROIs of using one of the many Shopify plans, the platform does offer a free trial period. While the functionalities will be limited during the trial period, you can nevertheless have a feel about the store options and see the platform is the right choice for your eCommerce store needs.

Shopify pricing and features comparison chart?

Features	Basic Shopify	Shopify	Advanced Shopify
Monthly Price	$29.00	$79.00	$299.00
Online Credit Card Rates	2.9% + $0.30	2.6% + $0.30	2.4% + $0.30
In-Person Credit Card Rates	2.7% + $0	2.5% + $0	2.4% + $0
Transaction Fees	Shopify Payments = 0.0% Other Processors = 2.0%	Shopify Payments = 0.0% Other Processors = 1.0%	Shopify Payments = 0.0% Other Processors = 0.5%
No. of Products	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
24/7 Support	Yes	Yes	Yes
Discount Codes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Blogging	Yes	Yes	Yes
Free SSL	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gift Cards	No	Yes	Yes
Detailed Reporting	No	Yes	Yes
Abandoned Cart Recovery	Yes	Yes	Yes
Advanced Reporting	No	No	Yes
Real-Time Shipping	No	No	Yes
Features	Basic Shopify	Shopify	Advanced Shopify