Shopify 🧰 Platform Paid

Shopify hosts an online store end to end: checkout, hosting, inventory, shipping labels, tax calculation and a large app ecosystem, so a creator or publisher can start selling merch or physical products without building a site from scratch. Plans are Basic at $29/month billed annually ($39 month-to-month), Grow at $79/month ($105 month-to-month), Advanced at $299/month ($399 month-to-month) and a custom Plus tier from about $2,300/month for high-volume stores.

Shopify Payments (built-in) charges 2.9% + 30 cents on Basic, tapering to 2.7% on Grow and 2.5% on Advanced as the monthly fee rises; using an external gateway instead adds a surcharge of 2%, 1% or 0.6% depending on plan. Payouts land in your bank on a rolling schedule, typically 2-3 business days after a sale. There is no revenue share beyond these processing and subscription fees — Shopify does not take a cut of merch or print-on-demand margins itself.

For monetization, Shopify is the fastest route from idea to a working store: print-on-demand apps (Printful, Printify) and dropshipping tools plug in directly, and it also supports selling digital products, memberships and subscriptions through apps, not just physical goods. New merchants get 3 days free, then $1/month for the first 3 months, no credit card required, before standard pricing applies.

The trade-off is cost stacking: the monthly plan, app subscriptions and the higher Advanced/Plus tiers needed to unlock lower processing fees add up quickly for a small store, and the checkout, while highly customizable via themes and apps, is still Shopify's platform with its own rules on what you can sell. Best for creators and publishers who want a serious, scalable storefront rather than a lightweight link-in-bio shop, and who are ready to commit to a recurring plan before the first sale.