What does a Shopify store really cost in Australia?

More than the monthly plan

Shopify advertises a simple monthly price, and it’s a fair one. But the plan is only one part of what a store costs to build and run. Payment fees, apps, the theme and the design work all add up, and they’re the parts that surprise people.

This guide breaks down every cost in plain English, with Australian prices, so you can budget properly before you start. Prices were checked in October 2026 and Shopify changes them from time to time, so always confirm on Shopify’s own pricing page.

1. The Shopify plan

Shopify has three main plans for most businesses. In Australia, at the time of writing:

• Basic: about $56 a month, or $42 a month if you pay yearly. Fine for new and small stores.
• Grow: about $149 a month, or $114 a month yearly. Lower payment fees and more staff accounts, which suits stores with steady sales.
• Advanced: about $575 a month, or $431 a month yearly. For larger stores where lower fees and more reporting pay for themselves.

There’s also Shopify Plus for high-volume brands, which starts in the thousands each month and is a different conversation entirely.

Most small Australian stores start on Basic or Grow. A good rule of thumb: once the payment fee savings on Grow are worth more than the extra monthly cost, it’s time to move up.

2. Payment fees

Every sale has a payment fee. With Shopify Payments, online card rates in Australia are around 1.75% plus 30 cents per sale on Basic, dropping a little on higher plans.

If you use a different payment provider instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own extra fee on top of what that provider charges: around 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced. For most stores, Shopify Payments is the simpler and cheaper option.

Buy now, pay later options like Afterpay and services like PayPal have their own fees, usually higher than card rates. They can lift sales, but it’s worth knowing what each one costs you.

Here’s how it adds up on a $100 sale on Basic with Shopify Payments: about $1.75 plus 30 cents, so roughly $2.05.

3. Apps

Apps are where Shopify costs quietly grow. Reviews, email marketing, subscriptions, bundles, wholesale pricing, product filters and loyalty programs are often paid apps, commonly somewhere from $10 to $50 a month each, and some much more.

A store with eight or ten apps can easily spend more on apps than on the Shopify plan itself. Apps can also slow your store down, which costs sales. We keep apps to what a store genuinely needs and use built-in features wherever we can.

4. The theme

Shopify has free themes, and premium themes that usually cost a few hundred dollars once. A theme is a starting point, not a finished store. Most businesses still need it adapted to their brand, products and the way their customers shop.

5. Design and build

This is the biggest one-off cost, and the widest range. Roughly, for an Australian business:

• Setting up a theme with your branding and products: a few thousand dollars
• A custom-designed store with your own layouts and features: often $7,000 to $30,000 or more
• Migrating from another platform: extra, depending on how many products, customers and orders need moving

What pushes the price up is usually the number of products and variants, custom features, integrations with stock or accounting systems, and how much content and photography needs creating. Our website cost guide explains what drives prices in more detail, and our Shopify page lists our own starting prices.

6. Running costs after launch

Once your store is live, budget for:

• Your Shopify plan and apps each month
• Your domain, usually less than $50 a year
• Product photos and content as your range grows
• Marketing to bring people to the store, such as Google Shopping, Meta ads and email
• Occasional help with updates, new features or fixes

Marketing is often the biggest ongoing cost, and the most important. A beautiful store with no visitors doesn’t sell. Our guides to how much to spend on Google Ads and Facebook and Instagram ads cover how to budget for it.

Shopify or WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is the main alternative for many Australian businesses. It runs on WordPress and the plugin itself is free, but you pay for hosting, premium extensions and ongoing maintenance.

• Choose Shopify if you want something reliable that handles hosting, security and checkout for you, and you’d rather spend your time selling than maintaining software.
• Choose WooCommerce if your store is tightly tied to a content-heavy WordPress site, or you need unusual custom features and full control over your hosting and data.

Neither is cheaper in every case. Shopify’s costs are mostly monthly and predictable. WooCommerce often looks cheaper upfront, then costs more in maintenance and fixes over time. Our comparison of Framer, Squarespace, WordPress, Shopify and custom code covers the wider choice.

When Shopify is the right choice

Shopify is usually the right call if:

• Selling products online is a main part of your business
• You sell in person too, and want stock and sales in one place
• You want to grow without worrying about servers, security or updates
• Your team needs to add products and run sales without a developer

It’s less suited to businesses that mostly sell services, where a booking system or simple enquiry form does the job, or to content-led sites where the store is a small side feature.

Moving an existing store?

If you’re moving from another platform, plan the move carefully. Products, customers and order history need migrating, and every old page needs to redirect to its new address so you keep your Google rankings. Our guide to switching platforms without losing your rankings walks through it, and our free pre-launch checklist covers the checks to run before you go live.

The short version

• The plan is about $56 to $575 a month for most businesses, less if you pay yearly
• Payment fees are around 1.75% plus 30 cents per sale on Basic with Shopify Payments
• Apps can cost more than the plan, so keep them lean
• A professionally built store typically costs $7,000 to $30,000 or more
• Budget for marketing from day one

Planning a new store, or wondering whether Shopify is right for you? Book a free 20 minute call and we’ll give you a straight answer on platform and cost.