# Shopify vs Shopify Plus: When the Upgrade Pays Off Author: Nikhil Bhansali S Author URL: https://maxwize.in/blog/author/nikhil-bhansali-s Published: 2026-08-24 Category: Shopify Plus Category URL: https://maxwize.in/blog/category/shopify-plus Meta Title: Shopify vs Shopify Plus: When to Upgrade (2026) Meta Description: Shopify vs Shopify Plus on verified 2026 US prices, fees and features, plus the five triggers that make the upgrade worth $2,300 a month. Tags: Pricing, Comparison Tag URLs: Pricing (https://maxwize.in/blog/tag/pricing), Comparison (https://maxwize.in/blog/tag/comparison) URL: https://maxwize.in/blog/shopify-vs-shopify-plus # Shopify vs Shopify Plus: When the Upgrade Pays Off Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 per month on a three-year term, against $299 per month for the Advanced plan billed yearly. That is $2,001 a month extra, and fee savings alone do not cover it until you are doing about $500,000 a month in sales through a third-party gateway. Almost nobody upgrades for the fee math. They upgrade because they hit a wall: checkout they cannot change, a wholesale catalog limit, API throttling, a second country storefront, or a sixteenth staff account. All prices below are US dollars, checked on shopify.com on 21 August 2026. ## The four plans, side by side BasicGrowAdvancedPlusPay monthly$39/mo$105/mo$399/moFrom $2,300/moPay yearly$29/mo$79/mo$299/moTerm contract, no yearly rateOnline card rate2.9% + 30¢2.7% + 30¢2.5% + 30¢Quoted by sales, varies by countryThird-party gateway fee2%1%0.6%0.2%Staff accounts1515UnlimitedInventory locations101010200B2B catalogsUp to 3Up to 3Up to 3UnlimitedCheckout customizationLimitedLimitedLimitedFullAdmin API rate limit100 points/sec100 points/sec200 points/sec1,000 points/secPOS Pro$89/mo per location$89/mo per location$89/mo per locationFirst 20 locations included Two things surprise people. First, Plus has no monthly rolling option and no annual prepay discount. It is a one-year term at $2,500 a month or a three-year term at $2,300 a month, and you can cancel when the term expires. Second, high-volume or structurally complex merchants do not pay a flat fee at all. Shopify moves them to a variable platform fee based on revenue and business model. That figure is negotiated with sales, not published. Shopify publishes the same terms in several currencies. The one-year and three-year rates are $2,500 and $2,300 in USD, £1,950 and £1,800 in GBP, €2,250 and €2,100 in EUR, and ₹190,000 and ₹175,000 in INR. ## Advanced Shopify vs Shopify Plus: what changes "Advanced Shopify" is the old name for what Shopify now calls the Advanced plan. It is the last stop before Plus, and it already includes 15 staff accounts, carrier-calculated shipping and double the standard API rate limit. Here is what only Plus gives you. **Full checkout customization.** On Basic, Grow and Advanced, checkout customization is limited to branding controls and app blocks from the App Store. On Plus you get the Checkout Branding API for visual control, direct editing through checkout extensions, and separate checkout flows for B2B and D2C buyers inside one store. If your conversion team has a list of checkout changes it cannot ship, that list is your business case. We cover the practical scope in the [Shopify Plus checkout customization guide](https://maxwize.in/blog/shopify-plus-checkout-customization). **Custom apps built on Shopify Functions.** Any plan can install a public App Store app that contains Functions. Only Plus stores can run custom apps that use the Shopify Function APIs. That is the difference between buying someone else's discount logic and writing your own pricing, delivery and payment rules. **API headroom.** The GraphQL Admin API allows 100 points per second on Basic and Grow, 200 on Advanced and 1,000 on Plus. If your ERP sync, PIM or 3PL integration is throttling during catalog updates or peak order volume, this single number is often the whole reason to move. **Expansion stores.** Plus includes your main store plus 9 expansion stores in the platform fee. On Advanced, every additional storefront is a separate $299 a month subscription with its own admin to keep in sync. Four country storefronts add $1,196 a month before anyone builds anything. **Unlimited B2B catalogs.** B2B is available on every plan, capped at three active catalogs on Basic, Grow and Advanced. Plus removes the cap and adds catalogs assigned directly to a company or company location, deposit requirements, partial payments and payment requests per fulfillment. Companies, payment terms, price breaks and quantity rules are on every plan. If wholesale is a real revenue line, see how the pieces fit in our [Shopify Plus B2B setup guide](https://maxwize.in/blog/shopify-plus-b2b-setup). Plus also adds items that rarely drive the decision but change daily work: unlimited staff accounts, up to 100 themes, 1 TB of file storage per store, up to 25 Hydrogen storefronts, Launchpad for scheduled drops and sales, and extended payment authorization (up to 30 days on Visa, Mastercard and American Express, 10 days on Discover and JCB). ## The fee math, honestly Run this before you talk to anyone in sales. **If you use a third-party payment gateway.** The fee Shopify charges you drops from 0.6% to 0.2%, a saving of 0.4% of gross sales. The upgrade costs $2,001 more per month than Advanced billed yearly. Break-even is $2,001 divided by 0.004, or $500,250 a month in sales, about $6 million a year. On a one-year Plus term the extra is $2,201 a month, pushing break-even to roughly $550,000 a month. **If you use Shopify Payments.** Third-party transaction fees are waived on every plan, so the only saving is on card rates. Advanced is 2.5% + 30¢ on standard online cards. Shopify does not publish the Plus card rate, because it is set per merchant and per country. Get your quoted rate in writing before you model anything: at a 0.25% improvement you need roughly $800,000 a month in card sales to break even, and at 0.1% you never get there on rates alone. **If you run physical retail.** POS Pro is $89 a month per location on Basic, Grow and Advanced. Plus includes the first 20 POS Pro locations. Twenty locations at $89 is $1,780 a month, which covers most of the upgrade on its own. Retailers with 15 or more POS Pro locations should do this calculation first. ## When to stay where you are Stay on Advanced if all of these are true: you are under about $500,000 a month in sales, you use Shopify Payments, your checkout needs are met by App Store apps, you have one storefront, wholesale fits inside three catalogs, and your integrations are not hitting rate limits. In that position, $2,001 a month buys you nothing you will use. Spend it on merchandising, paid media or a conversion program instead. Stay on Grow if you have fewer than five staff and your third-party gateway fee at 1% is smaller than the $220 a month gap up to Advanced, which is true below about $55,000 a month in sales through that gateway. ## The five triggers that justify the upgrade 1. **Checkout is blocking revenue.** You have tested changes you cannot deploy: custom upsell logic, B2B-only flows, a field your finance team needs, shipping rules that App Store apps do not support. 2. **An integration is throttled.** Your ERP, OMS or 3PL sync is failing or slow because of Admin API limits, and the fix is 1,000 points per second rather than more engineering. 3. **You are opening a second market or brand.** Nine expansion stores included, each with its own currency, domain, catalog and tax setup, against $299 a month per extra Advanced store. 4. **Wholesale is growing past three catalogs.** Company-level pricing, deposits and partial payments are Plus-only, and building around that limit with apps costs more than upgrading. 5. **Retail is at scale.** You run 15 or more POS Pro locations, or 10 inventory locations is no longer enough and you need the 200-location ceiling. If none of those apply, the upgrade is a purchase, not an investment. ## Shopify to Shopify Plus: what the move involves Going from Shopify to Shopify Plus is a plan change, not a migration. Your store, orders, customers, theme and apps stay exactly where they are. There is no self-serve upgrade button, so the first step is a conversation with Shopify sales to agree the term and the rate. The work sits after the switch, and it is where the money goes: - Rebuilding checkout with extensions and the Checkout Branding API rather than the branding settings you had before. - Replacing App Store workarounds with custom Functions, which usually means retiring two or three paid apps. - Setting up your organization and expansion stores, and deciding what is shared and what is per-store. - Configuring B2B companies, catalogs and payment terms if wholesale is part of the plan. - Moving scheduled sales and drops into Launchpad, and the rest of your operational rules into [Shopify Flow automations](https://maxwize.in/blog/shopify-flow-automation-guide). Budget for that separately from the platform fee. Maxwize Shopify projects run $800 to $8,000 depending on scope, and our [Shopify Plus agency pricing breakdown](https://maxwize.in/blog/shopify-plus-agency-pricing) sets out what different budget bands buy across the market. Verify the current numbers yourself before you commit. The plan comparison lives on [shopify.com/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/pricing), the term structure and variable fee on [shopify.com/plus/pricing](https://www.shopify.com/plus/pricing), and the full Plus feature list with regional pricing in [Shopify's help center](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/plans-features/shopify-plus-plan). ## FAQ **How much more is Shopify Plus than the Advanced plan?** As of August 2026, Advanced is $299 per month billed yearly and Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 per month on a three-year term or $2,500 on a one-year term. Against Advanced billed yearly, the gap is $2,001 per month. **At what revenue does Shopify Plus pay for itself?** On fee savings alone, a store using a third-party gateway breaks even at roughly $500,000 per month in sales, because the third-party transaction fee drops from 0.6% on Advanced to 0.2% on Plus. Most stores upgrade well before that for capability reasons, not fee reasons. **What is the difference between Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus?** Advanced gives you 15 staff accounts, 0.6% third-party transaction fees, 200 API points per second and up to 3 B2B catalogs. Plus gives you unlimited staff, 0.2% fees, 1,000 API points per second, full checkout customization, custom apps built on Shopify Functions, 9 expansion stores and unlimited B2B catalogs. **Does Shopify Plus have a monthly or annual plan?** Neither. Plus is sold on a one-year or three-year term commitment, and Shopify's pricing page shows no pay-yearly discount row for Plus. You can cancel when the term expires. **Do I have to rebuild my store to move to Shopify Plus?** No. Upgrading from Basic, Grow or Advanced to Plus keeps the same store, data, theme and apps. The work is in adopting the new capabilities, such as checkout extensions, expansion stores and custom Functions apps. ## Where Maxwize fits Maxwize builds and supports Shopify and [Shopify Plus](https://maxwize.in/services/ecommerce/shopify-plus) stores for merchants in the US, UK, India and the UAE. If you are weighing the upgrade, we will run the fee math against your numbers and tell you plainly whether Plus solves your problem or whether an app and a week of theme work does it for a fraction of the cost. Send us your current plan, monthly sales and the list of things you cannot do today, and we will come back with a straight answer. ## FAQs Q: How much more is Shopify Plus than the Advanced plan? A: As of August 2026, Advanced is $299 per month billed yearly and Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 per month on a three-year term or $2,500 on a one-year term. Against Advanced billed yearly, the gap is $2,001 per month. Q: At what revenue does Shopify Plus pay for itself? A: On fee savings alone, a store using a third-party gateway breaks even at roughly $500,000 per month in sales, because the third-party transaction fee drops from 0.6% on Advanced to 0.2% on Plus. Most stores upgrade well before that for capability reasons, not fee reasons. Q: What is the difference between Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus? A: Advanced gives you 15 staff accounts, 0.6% third-party transaction fees, 200 API points per second and up to 3 B2B catalogs. Plus gives you unlimited staff, 0.2% fees, 1,000 API points per second, full checkout customization, custom apps built on Shopify Functions, 9 expansion stores and unlimited B2B catalogs. Q: Does Shopify Plus have a monthly or annual plan? A: Neither. Plus is sold on a one-year or three-year term commitment, and Shopify's pricing page shows no pay-yearly discount row for Plus. You can cancel when the term expires. Q: Do I have to rebuild my store to move to Shopify Plus? A: No. Upgrading from Basic, Grow or Advanced to Plus keeps the same store, data, theme and apps. The work is in adopting the new capabilities, such as checkout extensions, expansion stores and custom Functions apps. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. ---