If you want to know the differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus, you’ve come to the right place!

When it comes to eCommerce platforms, there is no doubt Shopify and Shopify Plus offer a user-friendly, converting platform that is growing at a considerable rate. In number terms, their revenue grew by an incredible 54% by the end of last year with no signs of slowing down.

Shopify’s biggest benefit is its plan flexibility. With Shopify packages that cater to newbie eCommerce entrapment to growing established businesses, there is an option for any budget.

Bonus Content: Dominate Your eCommerce Sales with These Best Shopify Apps [2020]

But how do you choose the right one for your business goals and budget?

Whether you’re looking to upgrade your current package or open a new online store, we’ve got the inside scoop on Shopify vs. Shopify Plus. In this post, we highlight the main features of comparison for Shopify packages.

Shopify vs. Shopify Plus

Shopify offers four package options within its central Shopify platform. These include:

Basic Shopify : Best-suited for eCommerce entrepreneurs with a limited budget and/or experience and only a few products. Cost: $29 per month.
Shopify [Standard]: Suited for someone looking to build a business that can grow with them and wants something that can accommodate hundreds of products. Cost: $79 per month.
Advanced Shopify: Offers more advanced features that will allow you to scale your business. Cost: $299 per month.

Shopify also offers Shopify Lite, a dashboard that lets you sell your products on Facebook only. The cost for this is $9 per month and is for entrepreneurs wanting to sell products without starting an eCommerce brand.

Then there is Shopify Plus, a separate platform and pricing designed for established store owners looking for specialized features and support for their larger brand. In other words, Plus is Shopify’s enterprise package for high-revenue eCommerce business and the costs start at $2,000 per month. Ultimately, it provides more customization, scalability and higher order volume opportunities ideal for owners with million-dollar apparitions.

Here are some leading brands using Shopify Plus. Recognize anyone?

Of course, you do!

Bonus Content: Learn from These 6 Top Apparel Online Store Examples

As you can see, the first major difference is their price; but the price should be your last consideration when choosing the right package for your business – especially if you have big business goals.

So, let’s look at the main features of both Shopify and Shopify Plus, to help you choose the right option for you.

Shopify’s Top Features

Every Shopify package comes with enough features to get started with eCommerce. These include the following: unlimited products, staff accounts, 24/7 support, marketplace integration, manual order creation, discount codes and abandoned cart recovery. It’s important to also bear in mind that your transaction fees will differ with each package.

Here are the additional features you can expect from Shopify and Advanced Shopify.

1. Standard Shopify Features

These are the additional features you get with standard Shopify – features also included in the Advantaged Shopify option:

Professional reports
Gift cards
Printing shipping labels
Discounted shipping rates
USPS Priority Mail
Fraud analysis
Shopify POS app
Unlimited Shopify POS staff PINs
Third-party POS apps
Five staff accounts

Here are the relevant transaction fees:

Online credit card rates: 2.6% + 30¢
In-person credit card rates: 2.5% + 0¢
Additional fees when using third-party payment gateways: 1.0%

Bonus Content: 7 Secret Shopify Features You Need to Know About

2. Advanced Shopify Features

Along with all the features mentioned, Advanced Shopify offers three more features that are key:

15 staff accounts – ideal for bigger businesses with more team members
Advanced report builder for better eCommerce KPI tracking
The ability for shipping rates to be worked out in checkout for each shopper

Here are the relevant transaction fees:

Online credit card rates: 2.4% + 30¢
In-person credit card rates: 2.4% + 0¢
Additional fees when using third-party payment gateways: 0.5%

3. Shopify Plus Features

Shopify’s enterprise solution, Shopify Plus, offers larger, growing online stores the freedom to grow, adapt and evolve. Over and above all the features mentioned here, Plus is not only more customizable but offers awesome features to help mega brands reach the Plus average revenue growth of 126%. The main differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus include these top Plus features:

For international selling, you can customize dedicated international storefronts
Add, update and manage products without codes
Automate campaigns, product drops and high-demand sales

Storefront, checkout and backend systems are fully customizable
Higher level of support
Over 100 payment gateway options
One dashboard integrated with over 20 sales channels
ERPs, PIMs, OMSs, CRMs and 3PLs integration support

In a nutshell, Shopify Plus is built for speed, reliability and generating demand, ensuring you can process 10,149 products per minute. Along with the extra support and features, it takes a lot of the heavy lifting off your plate, leaving you to concentrate on other key activities such as marketing, customer service and product development.

Bonus Content: Magento Commerce vs. Shopify Plus

How to Choose Between Shopify and Shopify Plus

To choose between Shopify and Shopify Plus you need to look at two things: your budget and your business growth goals. Here are some questions to help you get there:

How much customizability do I need?
What markets do I want to break into?
How many support staff do I have?
What is my available startup budget and what can I afford per month?
How serious/committed am I about building my online business?

If you’re a big brand looking to expand without the hassle or expense of hiring in-house tech staff to manage your store, then Plus is for you. Shopify Plus offers more prominent merchants a lot of vital features needed to grow into a million-dollar business.

However, if you’re making less than a million a year in revenue, don’t have the budget for the support staff needed to rev up to expert level, and want the most out of Shopify – then we suggest the Advanced package.

If you’re a new store with high hopes, standard Shopify has enough functionality to grow a successful online business. The platform does have around half a million standard users, after all.

Alternatively, if you just want to put your feelers out to see if eCommerce is for you, don’t have seed money or are only selling a few digital products, then we suggest you give the basic plan a go.

Conclusion

There you have it, the main differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus.

Whatever you choose, start slowly and build yourself up.

Why?

Because you can upgrade at any stage; this means that as you grow your business, you can move to plans that are better suited to different levels. Shopify Plus would be your final destination, a platform to consider when you’re reaching the one million dollar revenue mark.

If you’re still not sure, check out the following guides to help you choose your eCommerce platform:

Have questions? Post them in the comments below!

Nicole Blanckenberg

Nicole is a content writer at StoreYa with over sixteen years experience and flair for storytelling. She runs on a healthy dose of caffeine and enthusiasm. When she's not researching the next content trend or creating informative small business content, she's an avid beachgoer, coffee shop junkie and hangs out on LinkedIn.

Comments

comments

Shopify vs. Shopify Plus: The main differences

Shopify vs. Shopify Plus