How much does Shopify cost per month and per sale?

Shopify costs per month: how the plans work

Shopify bills through a monthly subscription. The plans range from entry-level options for small stores, through packages with more staff accounts, advanced reports, and lower fee rates, up to Shopify Plus for large merchants, which is agreed individually. Those who pay annually instead of monthly generally get a lower monthly price from Shopify – but commit for longer in return.

Shopify publishes the current amounts in euros on its pricing page; they change occasionally, and promotions for new customers are common. We deliberately don't quote figures here that could be outdated tomorrow. What matters more for your decision is which plan offers the features your store really needs, and how the fees per sale differ from plan to plan.

Shopify costs per sale: payment and transaction fees

Fees for payment processing apply per order. With Shopify Payments, Shopify processes credit cards and other payment methods directly; the rates depend on the plan and on the type of payment. Payment services that are connected separately – such as PayPal – charge their own fees under their own terms, which you should check in addition.

If you use an external payment provider instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify generally charges an additional transaction fee on the revenue, the amount of which depends on the plan. There is no fee per listed item in the regular plans. The question of Shopify costs per item is therefore answered through the fees per sale, not through the number of products in the store.

Additional costs: apps, themes, domain, and setup

Many features that merchants in Germany need come through apps: legal texts, reviews, product filters, bundles, subscriptions, or connections to inventory management and accounting. Numerous apps charge a monthly fee, and several small subscriptions quickly add up to a significant item. So before every installation, check whether the feature is really necessary or already included in the plan.

On top come a premium theme as a one-time purchase or a custom design, the domain, and professional setup: creating products, configuring payments and shipping, setting up taxes, integrating legal texts, and transferring data from an old store. We support you with this setup – our packages offer a guide: Starter from €2,500 and Professional from €8,000.

Shopify costs in Germany: taxes, law, and payment methods

A Shopify store in Germany is subject to the same obligations as any online store: legal notice (Impressum), privacy policy, general terms and conditions, right-of-withdrawal notice, correct price information, and a clearly labeled order button. Shopify supplies the technology; you or your service provider have to enter the content and settings correctly. The cookie consent must also match the apps and services in use.

In terms of tax, note that Shopify generally bills its services to merchants in the EU through a company in another EU country. For businesses, the reverse-charge procedure can then apply, under which you declare the VAT yourself. Clarify the exact treatment with your tax advisor; this guide does not replace legal or tax advice.

Booking Shopify costs under SKR03 and SKR04

For accounting under the standard German charts of accounts SKR03 and SKR04, it pays to separate Shopify costs by type. The subscription fee and app subscriptions are ongoing expenses for using software; accounts for the temporary licensing of rights are often used for them, such as SKR03 4964 or SKR04 6837. Fees for payment processing are usually booked as ancillary costs of financial transactions, such as SKR03 4970 or SKR04 6855.

Whether this assignment is right for your company, which additional accounts are needed for reverse charge, and how payouts from Shopify Payments are reconciled with orders is determined by your tax advisor. On the technical side, we help by setting up exports, receipts, and payout reports so that they flow cleanly into your accounting – if needed, also via an interface to DATEV, the widely used German accounting software.

Trying Shopify for free – and free alternatives

Shopify regularly offers new customers a free or discounted trial period; the duration and terms change. Use this time deliberately: set up a few real products, test the checkout and payment methods, and check which apps you really need. That way you see early which ongoing costs are coming before you decide on a plan.

WooCommerce and the Shopware Community Edition are often mentioned as free alternatives. But only the software is free there: you still pay for hosting, security updates, extensions, and maintenance – with money or with your own time. For merchants who want full control over data and technology, that can make sense; if you don't want to deal with servers, a hosted store is often more relaxed.

WordPress or Shopify: which fits your store?

WordPress with WooCommerce is suitable if content, blog, and store are closely intertwined and you want a lot of design freedom. In return, you are responsible for hosting and updates. Shopify fits if you want to start quickly, manage little technology, and draw on a large selection of apps – at the price of monthly fees and a certain tie to the platform.

Switching is possible but laborious: products, customers, order history, and above all the page addresses have to be transferred so that Google rankings are preserved. So plan the system decision for several years. We advise independently of vendors and, if needed, also handle the Shopify migration from an existing store, including redirects and testing of the most important pages.