Which Shopify plan should I choose for a small business?

Shopify’s four core plans differ mainly in staff access, API data access for custom integrations, and transaction fees, not in core store features like unlimited products, reporting, or checkout. That’s why the right plan isn’t about business size in the abstract, it’s about which of those specific limits you’ve actually hit.

If you’re still deciding whether Shopify is the right platform at all before comparing plans, see our answer on what Shopify is and how it works.

Shopify Plans at a Glance

Annual billing saves 25% versus monthly on Basic, Grow, and Advanced, per Shopify’s own pricing page. Pricing shown is current USD pricing for the US market. Shopify prices vary by country and change periodically, so confirm current figures for your region under Settings → Plan in your Shopify Admin before deciding.

Plan-by-Plan Breakdown

Basic, for New and Solo Businesses

Basic covers a full-featured online store: unlimited products, themes, standard checkout, and selling across social channels and marketplaces. It includes the same 200+ real-time reports and custom analytics as every other plan, so reporting depth isn’t a reason to upgrade off Basic. The real limits are that Basic includes no staff accounts beyond the owner, only limited data access for custom apps built on Shopify’s APIs, and the highest transaction fees of the three core plans at 2.9% + 30¢ online (plus a 2% penalty if you skip Shopify Payments for a third-party processor).

Choose Basic if you’re launching your first store, running it solo or close to it, and don’t need a custom API integration yet.

Grow, for Teams or Custom Integrations

Grow includes everything in Basic, plus five additional staff accounts, full data access for custom apps built on Shopify’s APIs, and a lower online card rate at 2.7% + 30¢ (with the third-party processor penalty dropping to 1%).

Choose Grow if you need more than one person in the admin, you’re building or connecting a custom app that needs full API access, or your monthly card volume is high enough that the 0.2-point rate drop from Basic covers the $66/month gap in plan cost.

Advanced, for Higher-Volume Operations

Advanced includes everything in Grow, plus up to fifteen staff accounts, enhanced live chat support, the lowest standard rate of the three core plans at 2.5% + 30¢ (with the third-party penalty down to 0.6%), and up to 2x higher rate limits on select APIs.

Choose Advanced if your card volume is high enough that the further rate drop from Grow clearly outweighs the $294/month jump in plan cost, or you need the larger team or the higher API ceiling for heavier integration work.

Where Plus Pulls Ahead

Plus is built for enterprise and high-growth B2B operations, not typical small businesses. It’s the only tier with unlimited staff accounts, 200 inventory locations instead of 10, and fully customizable checkout instead of the standard checkout on the other three plans. It starts at $2,300/month on a 3-year term, roughly six times the Advanced price, which is a large enough jump that it rarely makes sense before a business has already outgrown what Advanced offers.

How to Decide

• Pre-revenue or just launching, running solo: Basic covers everything needed to get to market without overpaying.
• Adding a team member, building a custom integration, or card volume is consistent: Grow, for the staff access, full API data access, and lower rate.
• High card volume or a bigger team: Advanced, once the fee savings or staff needs clearly beat the price jump.
• Enterprise or complex B2B needs: Plus.

Upgrading later doesn’t cost you store data or configuration, so there’s no real downside to starting on a smaller plan and moving up when a specific limitation actually shows up.

If you’re migrating an existing store rather than launching new, the right plan depends on sales history, team size, and any custom API work you already have, not a guess. Our Shopify development team can map your actual numbers to the right tier before you switch.