Why Shopify Costs More Than You Think

Do you have an ecommerce business and are looking for the perfect ecommerce platform?

Then you’ve probably heard of Shopify. After all, it’s one of the biggest names in ecommerce right now.

But what you might not realize is the final cost associated with Shopify.

While a lot of people seem to think it’s cheaper than a custom-built ecommerce solution, the truth is that the recurring monthly fee and add-on costs can pile up quickly. And this can make it more expensive than you might think.

So we are here to give you the information about Shopify pricing that you need to make an informed decision about the best ecommerce solution for your specific business needs.

We’re passionate about helping ecommerce businesses thrive, so if you are in Jackson, MS or Montgomery, AL or anywhere else in the US, we can help your ecommerce store get the site traffic, conversions, and sales you deserve.

Shopify pricing

Shopify charges a monthly fee for their platform. The monthly fee depends on which Shopify plan that you choose. But they do offer a 10% discount if you sign up for a year plan or a 20% discount if you commit to a 2-year plan.

So let’s do a breakdown of Shopify’s plans and their costs.

There are three main Shopify plans:

1. Shopify Basic costs $29 per month plus a 2.9% + 30¢ per online transaction.
2. The Shopify plan costs $79 per month plus 2.6% + 30¢ per transaction.
3. Advanced Shopify costs $299 per month plus 2.4% + 30¢ per transaction.

*Please note that this is just an overview of Shopify pricing. For more information, check out Shopify’s full price breakdown.

Add-on pricing

Here’s the thing about Shopify, out of the box, you are only going to have access to a shopping cart, product pages, and a homepage. So if you want a more customized feel and a wider range of functionality, then a tailored-made solution with Craft Commerce might be a great fit.

How Shopify add-ons can affect the cost of your ecommerce store

We love building ecommerce solutions, and we can certainly help you with your Shopify store. But we tend to see a lot of extra add-on cost that our clients weren’t expecting when using Shopify.

How you ask?

Below is an example of how quick Shopify costs can add up, going over your budget.

Let’s say you have an ecommerce store selling organic makeup. At the beginning stages, you feel like all you need is a nice-looking website to place orders and a simple landing page-- nothing too fancy or complicated.

This would be a great option for Shopify’s basic plan. And at only $29 a month, it seems like a great deal.

So you get excited and start building your ecommerce store with Shopify. But as you are bringing your store to life, you realize that setting things up is a little more time-consuming than you thought. And not only that, but you also would like a little more functionality and creative control. So you give your ecommerce website development professionals a call and have them help you with your Shopify store.

But as they continue to develop your store, you realize that you don’t like the layout that comes with your Shopify subscription, So your development agency looks into some premium themes, still none of them are quite what you’re looking for, so you have your agency custom-create you a Shopify template (an added expense you weren’t expecting).

You also would like a few extra pages added like a “FAQ” page, so you use a 3rd-party app to build out any additional custom pages. And that 3rd-party app costs you $10 a month.

Then you think it would be a good idea to add a subscription option for your products, but unfortunately, you would need to pay extra for that as well that also costs around $10 a month.

As you move through the project, your development agency must use several add-ons and even custom code some templates just to get your store close to the way you want it.

And just like that, a $1,500 project can turn into a $3,000 project.

But that’s not the worst part, you still have things you would like to change because your store’s functionality isn’t exactly what you want it to be and you would like more creative control over the look, feel, and layout…

This scenario is exactly what we mean when we say that Shopify isn’t always as cheap as it appears.

Why choose a custom-built ecommerce solution with Craft Commerce

We can help you create a custom ecommerce solution with Shopify, but we’ll be frank, we really dig Craft Commerce and here’s why...

For the same price and sometimes even cheaper, you can have a custom-built ecommerce site created to look exactly how you want it to and perform exactly the way you need it to.

While it may seem like an expensive cost upfront, more times than not, it’s going to end up costing less over time while giving you the exact feel, look, and functionality that you need. And an online store built with Craft Commerce is also flexible enough to evolve and grow as your business needs evolve and grow.

We know that sometimes Shopify will work for your basic needs. And we find Shopify can be helpful at the beginning stages to prototype and test out your products and to better understand what functionality you might need or want in the future. But most of the time, we think a custom-created store with Craft Commerce gets you more bang for your buck.

And while we love building custom ecommerce websites on flexible platforms like Craft CMS, we can also help you with your Shopify store too.

If you would like Rocket Park to determine the best ecommerce platform for your needs, give us a call today at (214) 225-2011 for a free consultation.

Rocket Park can help you choose the best platform for the most cost-effective and successful ecommerce store

We are here to help you with your ecommerce needs in any way that we can. And we know that setting up your ecommerce store in the most cost-effective and efficient way can make or break an online retailer.

We’ve been custom developing websites since 2005, and we love building innovative ecommerce solutions. Contact us today to see how we can get your ecommerce store on the right track.

A better online shop, more traffic, and increased conversions with Rocket Park.