Shopify and Shopify Plus serve different types of businesses, with Shopify Plus tailored to enterprises and larger operations.

While Shopify is great for small to mid-sized businesses with its affordability and ease of use, Shopify Plus is built for high-growth brands that need automation, custom checkout, and enterprise-level support. I’d recommend Shopify Plus for businesses already earning a steady $80,000 in monthly sales.

Here’s a breakdown of their pricing structures, including a breakdown of Shopify Plus features you won’t get with Shopify plans.

A glance at Shopify vs Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus vs Shopify feature comparison

Looking at the differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus, Shopify Plus essentially has everything included in the standard Shopify plans and more. So, I outline the key differences between the two in the table below, along with detailed explanations below.

Here are some Shopify Plus features that elevate Shopify Plus above Shopify’s basic and mid-tier offerings, particularly for large businesses or enterprises that require custom workflows, scalability, and advanced support.

1. Dedicated account management and support

Shopify is known for its outstanding support — reviewed and validated by its users. It is one of the few e-commerce platforms that provide 24/7 support via phone, live chat, and email — in multiple languages. If these aren’t enough, you can hire Shopify experts. All these are available to you under the usual Shopify tiers.

However, with Shopify Plus, you are included in the Merchant Success Program on top of the support previously mentioned, which gives you access to the following:

• Dedicated account manager: Personalized support and guidance for business strategy, growth, and troubleshooting
• Priority 24/7 support: Access to priority customer support with guaranteed response times, including technical support from a dedicated team
• Launch support: Assistance from a Shopify Plus expert during store setup or significant changes.

Under the Merchant Success Program, you gain access to exclusive resources such as:

• A private Facebook community where you can interact with other Shopify Plus users
• Shopify Plus Partners, a directory you can consult to  keep you abreast of industry trends and help with staging events for your online store
• Shopify Plus Academy, an exclusive program with more advanced self-guided resources, including courses and webinars to enhance your online store’s design, operations, marketing, and more
• Access to exclusive beta programs

2. Lower fees with higher transaction volume

Shopify’s transaction fees are waived when using Shopify Payments for both Shopify and Shopify Payments. However, if you go with another payment provider, the following transaction fees apply:

Standard Shopify transaction fees:

• Shopify Starter: 5%
• Basic Shopify: 2%
• Shopify: 1%
• Advanced Shopify: 0.5%

Shopify Plus transaction fees:

• If using only Shopify Payments or both Shopify Payments and a third-party provider: Minimal rates apply and will vary based on location
• If using a third-party provider exclusively: 0.20% per transaction

For example, a business earns around $1 million in annual revenue and uses a third-party payment provider. If it is under a standard Shopify plan (say, Advanced Shopify, which charges 0.5% in transaction fees),  transaction fees would be $5,000/year. Under Shopify Plus, transaction fees would only be $1,500/year (0.15% transaction fee).

3. Custom integrations and private apps

Under Shopify’s standard plans, you already have access to more than 8,000 third-party integrations or apps in the Shopify App Store. For Shopify Plus merchants, API integrations have more flexibility with external systems, such as ERP or CRM platforms.

For example, Shopify Plus users can integrate their online stores with their existing platform systems, something those under Shopify standard plans cannot do. Shopify Plus merchants can also build their own private apps through Shopify Functions.

Some examples of Shopify Plus API solutions include:

• Gift Card: Unique gift cards that work in the Shopify POS and can be used as an alternative payment method
• Multipass: Unite customer logins for your forum, website, and online store without needing to synchronize any customer database
• User: Add, remove, edit, and retrieve data about Shopify staff accounts

4. More theme and checkout customization

A key difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus is the ability to further customize themes. Under standard Shopify plans, you can configure your chosen Shopify theme templates using the Online Store 2.0 (OS 2.0) editor, but advanced customization is limited.

Shopify Plus gives you access to Shopify’s theme language, Liquid. With Liquid, you can make backend changes at the code level for greater control. You can also use headless commerce, which separates your back-end infrastructure from your front-end customer touchpoints. You have more control over your buyer and developer experiences, as explained in the image below.

Shopify Plus also lets you customize your customer’s purchase experience through the checkout page. Shopify recommends using checkout UI extensions (custom UI or content you can add to the checkout process and order status page), which is only available under Shopify Plus.

5. E-commerce automations using Launchpad

Shopify’s marketing tools let you set up discounts, promo codes, and gift cards. With standard plans, you have to do this manually. You can schedule when sale campaigns (exclusive discounts) go live and when they end, but you will need to monitor them.

Shopify Plus makes promotions easier with automation through Launchpad. This app allows you to schedule and launch events such as promotions, restocks, and product drops. It also automates most steps needed for promotional campaigns, discounts, flash sales, and product releases.

Here are some tasks that made easier through automation:

• Schedule new products and create campaigns that can launch across multiple sales channels
• Generate predetermined discounts for specific products or entire collections
• Create and update sales campaign themes
• Return pricing to normal on campaign end dates

6. A unified dashboard to manage multiple stores

Because Shopify Plus lets you have an unlimited number of online stores under one brand, you can manage all of your stores from one location in your Shopify admin dashboard. You can also easily manage staff accounts, user permissions, and automation tools (like Shopify Flow), as well as view analytics and reporting.

• Analytics overview: Get a centralized view of your entire organization’s performance, allowing you to track and compare key business metrics across multiple time periods and all stores in real time.
• User management: Manage your team efficiently from a single hub. Assign roles, control access, and oversee staff permissions across all stores in your organization.
• Store management: Gain a comprehensive view of all your stores in one place. Easily test new strategies, launch additional stores, and leverage existing data—such as users and first-party apps—while seamlessly switching between stores.
• Unified billing with organization billing: Shopify Plus consolidates all store-related charges into a single bill, making it easier to manage payments, track costs, and streamline financial operations.

7. Easier customer acquisition with Shopify Audiences

You get access to marketing tools that help grow your audience with Shopify’s standard plans. However, Shopify Plus takes this a step further by giving you access to Shopify Audiences.

Shopify Audiences enables you to find new customers by generating an audience list for advertising platforms (currently exclusive to U.S. and Canada locations). These audiences are those likely to purchase from your store and are automatically exported to your digital advertising accounts (such as Facebook, Google, and Pinterest), where you can launch ad campaigns to target these audiences.

If you are concerned about data privacy, exported data from Shopify is transmitted securely and can’t be downloaded from the digital ad platform. The transmitted raw data is used to match the advertising platforms’ records and then deleted.

Here’s how Shopify Audiences help your business:

• Boost ad performance: Shopify Audiences uses advanced algorithms to generate high-intent buyer segments based on millions of purchase signals.
• Scale digital ad strategy: Leverage Shopify Audiences across Facebook, Instagram, Google, and more to drive performance at scale.
• Get accurate measurement: Track audience performance with precise conversion attribution — directly within Shopify. Use real-time data to optimize campaigns, improve targeting, and make informed ad spend decisions.

8. Advanced international capabilities

Shopify Plus offers advanced international capabilities, allowing businesses to manage multiple international stores from a single account. With built-in currency conversion, region-specific pricing, and tax configurations, brands can tailor their offerings to different markets effortlessly.

Additionally, Shopify Plus adapts checkout experiences to local languages and currencies automatically, ensuring a seamless and familiar purchasing process for global customers.

This is done through Shopify Markets and Shopify Payments. Shopify Markets serves as a centralized tool for managing international sales, allowing businesses to implement localized pricing strategies and tax adjustments. Meanwhile, Shopify Payments automates real-time currency conversion, ensuring customers see accurate local pricing and can complete transactions in their preferred currency.

Related: Understanding cross-border payments

9. Manage B2B and DTC selling from one platform

With B2B on Shopify Plus, you can sell to wholesale and retail customers from a single store or platform, eliminating the need for third-party solutions or complex integrations. Shopify Plus provides a flexible, built-in suite of wholesale tools, including custom themes, discounts, Functions, and APIs, allowing you to tailor the B2B experience effortlessly.

Whether you choose to manage both B2B and DTC sales from a single blended store or create a dedicated B2B expansion store, Shopify Plus gives you the flexibility to scale. Key features like customer-specific pricing, catalogs, payment terms, easy reordering, and a self-serve customer portal ensure a seamless buying experience for every customer — without writing a single line of code.

Pricing difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus

Pricing is one of the key differentiators when comparing Shopify vs. Shopify Plus. Subscription fees and transaction fees are the main costs when considering pricing.

• Subscription fees: Shopify’s pricing plans are significantly more affordable compared to Shopify Plus, but Shopify Plus offers a lot of additional features for large-scale businesses.
• Transaction fees: Shopify Plus eliminates transaction fees if using Shopify Payments, which can be a significant saving for businesses with high sales volumes.

Here’s a detailed pricing comparison between Shopify and Shopify Plus:

Shopify’s standard plans comes in three tiers, namely:

• Basic Shopify ($39/month): Includes all the main e-commerce features but has limited reporting. Online transactions are charged at 2.9% + 30 cents.
• Shopify ($105/month): Provides stronger reporting (such as first-time vs. returning customer sales), USPS cubic pricing, and a discounted transaction fee of 2.6% + 30 cents.
• Advanced Shopify ($399/month): Lets you build custom reports and show third-party calculated shipping rates at checkout. Online transactions are further discounted to 2.4% + 30 cents.

These three plans are suitable for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with growing or established online stores. However, once a business scales to a certain size and complexity, Shopify Plus may be the better option.

Shopify Plus’ pricing starts at $2,500/month for a one-year term and $2,300 for a three-year term. Aside from all the features available in the above-mentioned plans, you get:

• Up to 25 headless storefronts, and 9 free expansion stores
• Up to 200 inventory locations
• Up to first 20 Shopify POS Pro locations are free (or 200 with Shopify Payments)
• Priority support
• Advanced reports and Shopify QL
• And more

How to decide between Shopify vs Shopify Plus

Choosing between Shopify and Shopify Plus depends on your business size, sales volume, and growth strategy. Here are key factors to consider when deciding:

1. Business size and sales volume

• Shopify: Best for small to mid-sized businesses making less than $1M/year in revenue.
• Shopify Plus: Designed for large-scale businesses earning $1M+ per year or processing high-order volumes.

Rule of thumb: If you’re processing over $80,000 worth of online sales a month,  Shopify Plus may save you money on transaction fees and provide scalability.

2. Customization and checkout control

• Shopify: Limited checkout customization (basic branding).
• Shopify Plus: Full control over checkout with Shopify Scripts (custom pricing, discounts, shipping rules).

If you need advanced checkout features like custom discounts, multi-currency support, or tailored user experiences, Shopify Plus is worth considering.

3. Automation and efficiency

• Shopify: Basic automation tools.
• Shopify Plus: Advanced automation with Shopify Flow (auto-tagging, order routing, inventory management).

For businesses looking to scale without hiring extra staff, Shopify Plus saves time through automation.

4. Multi-store and international expansion

• Shopify: Supports multiple languages but lacks multi-store management.
• Shopify Plus: Allows multiple storefronts for different regions, currencies, and pricing strategies.

If you’re expanding globally, Shopify Plus offers better localization options.

5. Support and account management

• Shopify: Standard 24/7 support via chat and email.
• Shopify Plus: Dedicated Merchant Success Manager for strategic growth and troubleshooting.

If you need priority support and a direct point of contact, Shopify Plus is a better option.

6. Cost and return of investment (ROI)

• Shopify: $39–$399/month + transaction fees.
• Shopify Plus: $2,500/month with lower transaction fees.

Upgrade to Shopify Plus if the lower transaction fees offset the higher cost. Stay on Shopify if your business isn’t hitting the revenue threshold yet.

How can I upgrade to Shopify Plus?

Shopify doesn’t have a self-serve Plus upgrade. You’ll need to talk to a Shopify Plus advisor. Go to the Shopify Plus contact page, fill out the form (basic business details and growth goals), and expect a follow-up from a sales rep within 24-48 hours.

When dealing with a Shopify Plus advisor, ask about contract flexibility. Some brands negotiate better based on volume. Once you lock in a contract, you get access to a Dedicated Account Manager.

If you are already on Shopify, they will guide you through a seamless upgrade with zero downtime. If you’re migrating from another platform (Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce), Shopify provides white-glove support for a smooth transition.

Once you are properly onboarded and your store successfully migrates, your Merchant Success Manager is going to be your go-to for growth strategies.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Click through the questions below to find the answers to the most often asked questions about Shopify and Shopify Plus.

Is it worth upgrading to Shopify plus?

It depends on your business size and needs. If you’re generating $1M+ in annual revenue, need custom checkout, advanced automation, B2B functionality, or multi-store management, Shopify Plus is worth it. Otherwise, Shopify Advanced ($399/month) may be more cost-effective.

How many brands use Shopify plus?

As of January 2024, over 48,000 brands across 175 countries use Shopify Plus. Notable companies include Heinz, Allbirds, and Steve Madden.

How old is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus was launched in February 2014, making it 10 years old as of 2024. It was introduced as an enterprise-level solution for high-growth and large-scale businesses needing more customization, automation, and support than standard Shopify plans.

Who is Shopify best suited for?

Shopify is best suited for small to mid-sized businesses looking for an easy-to-use, scalable e-commerce platform with built-in tools for selling online, in-store, and across multiple channels. It’s ideal for entrepreneurs, startups, and growing brands that need a reliable, low-maintenance solution without extensive technical expertise.

How do you qualify for Shopify Plus?

There are no strict requirements to qualify for Shopify Plus, but it’s typically recommended for businesses generating $1M+ in annual revenue or handling high-order volumes. To upgrade, you must contact Shopify Plus sales for a consultation.

Shopify vs Shopify Plus: Conclusion

Choosing between Shopify and Shopify Plus ultimately depends on the scale and needs of your business.

If you are running a small to mid-sized business with limited customization needs and a tighter budget, Shopify’s standard plans are likely the best fit. However, if your business is scaling rapidly, expanding internationally, or needs more advanced e-commerce features, Shopify Plus is an investment that will pay off in the form of improved performance, better support, and more robust customization options.

So, if you’re doing $1M+ in sales and scaling fast, Shopify Plus isn’t just an upgrade—it’s an efficiency multiplier.