You want to create an e-commerce site with Shopify, but you don't know which to choose between the Shopify and Shopify Plus plans? Shopify's basic offerings are an excellent option for freelancers and small businesses who want to sell online. But if you are a large company already making many sales through points of sale and/or e-commerce, the Shopify Plus plan will be more interesting to you.
The latter offers many features and support services to boost your growth.
Let's look at the main differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus!
What is Shopify Plus?
Shopify and Shopify Plus belong to the same platform. And even though the plans may seem radically different, they share several things in common:
- They are built with the same technology.
- They use the same themes.
- They offer a similar interface and all the basic e-commerce features.
The difference comes down to the “enterprise” functions that are unlocked when you use the Shopify Plus plan. These provide access to more integrations (APIs and your third-party tools), to the underlying code of your store, to dedicated support options, and more.
While Shopify focuses on making its platform available, Shopify Plus provides a set of support services for businesses. It is aimed at groups that need:
- More customization and control.
- Greater automation capabilities.
- Improved multichannel and omnichannel features.
- Faster speeds.
- Ability to reliably handle huge volumes of traffic and sales.
It's no coincidence that among Shopify Plus users we find brands like Tesla, So Shape, Kylie Cosmetics, Solendro, Heinz…
The main differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus
What sets Shopify and Shopify Plus apart? Let's go through the main criteria that differentiate these offerings…
Pricing
The first major difference between Shopify and the Shopify Plus plan lies in pricing.
For microbusinesses, SMEs and young entrepreneurs, Shopify offers 4 scalable plans with different monthly costs:
Starter plan
For €5 per month, you can sell on marketplaces, social networks or via WhatsApp. However, you do not have your own online store.
Basic Plan
At €27 per month, this plan is aimed at beginners who want to start selling online quickly and affordably. The offer also includes transaction fees:
- 8% + €0.25 for European payments.
- 3% + €0.25 for international settlements (or via American Express).
- 2% for transactions made outside the Shopify Payments platform.
Shopify Plan
The Shopify plan remains the most used! At €79 per month, it lets you take advantage of e‑commerce automation to save time in your daily management.
Transaction fees are also lower:
- 1.6% + €0.25 for European payments.
- 2.9% + €0.25 for international settlements (or via American Express).
- 1% for transactions made outside the Shopify Payments platform.
Advanced Plan
At €289 per month, this plan stands out with advanced analytics features that help you boost the growth of your online store.
Transaction fees are also reduced:
- 1.4% + €0.25 for European payments.
- 2.7% + €0.25 for international settlements (or via American Express).
- 0.5% for transactions made outside the Shopify Payments platform.
Shopify Plus is aimed at established e‑commerce businesses with specific needs in automation, image management, APIs and support. The offer starts at €2000 / month, but you need to speak with their team to get a quote.
If the price seems high, you should know this plan offers many options and personalized support. Which leads us to the differences between “classic” Shopify and Shopify Plus!
A dedicated account manager for your Shopify Plus account
With Shopify, you have support by phone, email and live chat. It’s possible to call on Shopify experts occasionally to help you perform certain tasks or develop additional features. These services are not included in Shopify subscriptions and incur an additional cost.
By contrast, Shopify Plus offers personalized, dedicated support for your online store. As soon as you subscribe to this plan, a launch engineer supports you throughout the installation and migration process of your store. They help you synchronize your third‑party tools and find partners to work on specific e‑commerce needs. Their promise is to help you create a fully operational online store in a maximum of 90 days!
In addition, a Merchant Success Manager advises and trains you so that you know how to use the full potential of Shopify Plus. This expert also analyzes trends in your sector and provides you with an action plan to engage and grow your e‑commerce.
You also become eligible for the Merchant Success Program from Spotify. A program that gives you access to webinars, training videos and checklists to help you reach your growth goals.
More customization options
With Shopify, you can use Liquid to customize themes. This open‑source language, developed by the platform, lets you modify the HTML or CSS of your online store. Liquid shares a syntax similar to other programming languages. So if you have coding knowledge, you should be comfortable with Liquid.
However, without web development skills, you'll still be able to customize themes. You will simply be limited to the options available in the template's back office, which may be insufficient for businesses with significant customization needs.
By subscribing to Shopify Plus, you gain access to web design experts to help implement an interface consistent with your brand identity. You get a unique store that perfectly represents your brand.
Checkout page customization
Shopify Plus allows you to customize the checkout experience based on conditions you define (ordered products, cart values, etc.).
You can customize shipping methods, customer fields, and payment options. This allows you to:
- Edit discounts for specific products.
- Offer volume-based pricing (useful if you run a B2B e-commerce or wholesale business).
- Edit, hide, or reorder shipping options, prices, and payment methods.
Other Shopify plans do not offer these options. You will need to purchase additional add-ons.
Shopify Plus opens access to exclusive apps
Shopify Plus users have access to exclusive apps and features:
- The wholesale sales channel for B2B companies and wholesalers. Through a separate storefront, accessible only with a password, you can offer your products at discounted rates.
- Shopify Flow to automate many tasks such as tagging loyal customers or sending order renewal requests.
- Launchpad to schedule and automate flash sales, product launches, or sales campaigns.
- The Transporter app to import customer, product, and order records into your Shopify store.
- Bulk Account Inviter to invite your customers imported from another platform or a different store to activate their online accounts on your Shopify store.
- Shopify Fulfillment Network to manage large inventories and the fulfillment of shipments with carriers like UPS and DHL.
Integration with existing platforms
As a Shopify Plus customer, you benefit from an API to connect your platforms for:
- Product information management (PIM)
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
- Inventory and order management (IMS)
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Third-party logistics (3PL)
- Warehouse management (WMS)
Exclusive access to other resources
The Merchant Success Program is not the only service available to Shopify Plus users. Other resources are also available to them, including:
- A Facebook community where you can share your experiences with other Shopify Plus users.
- A partner directory giving you access to web experts, agencies, and solutions to meet your goals.
- Access to exclusive beta programs.
- Access to Shopify Plus Academy for advice and training on using the platform.
A multi-currency feature
If you are an international business, Shopify Plus offers a multi-currency feature. It automatically determines your customers' country and currency based on their IP address. This means customers immediately see product prices in their own currency, although they can still choose a different country if they wish.
Also, if you use Shopify Payments as your payment solution, you can set custom product prices by country. This feature is also available with Shopify's Advanced plan.
Inventory allocation
Shopify lets you distribute your inventory between your e‑commerce store and other points of sale or storage to avoid potential stockouts. The number of locations you can set depends on the selected plan:
- Basic: up to 4 sites
- Shopify: up to 5 sites
- Advanced: up to 8 locations
- Shopify Plus: up to 20 locations
With these plans, you can assign your stock to individual stores, pop-up shops, and fulfillment warehouses.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality has been one of the biggest e‑commerce trends in recent years. It offers an intuitive, immersive experience to users. Thanks to it, they can virtually try your products, which increases the chances of conversion.
With Shopify plans, you can add it to your store if you purchase an additional extension. With Shopify Plus, you automatically get this option.
Shopify or Shopify Plus: which should you choose?
With its four scalable plans, Shopify is aimed at micro-businesses launching or small businesses growing. The offers are suitable for freelancers and companies with fewer than 10 employees.
If you generate €1 million (or more) in monthly revenue, Shopify Plus is a more relevant option. It brings together all the features of Shopify's various plans, with extra customization, support, speed and technical capabilities. It's the most complete offering to boost your sales and propel your visibility!
Do you need help choosing your Shopify plan and creating your online store? Whatever the plan, hire a freelance Shopify developer. To do that, post a job listing on Codeur.com and find a freelancer to support you!
