Shopify plans compared for a UK shop

The short answer: the cheapest Shopify plan is rarely the cheapest overall, because what you pay per sale matters more than the monthly subscription. Basic costs £25 a month with monthly billing, or £19 on annual. It charges 2% plus 25p per online sale through Shopify Payments, according to Shopify's UK pricing page checked on 25 August 2026. Grow at £65 a month drops that fee to 1% plus 25p, so the £40 subscription difference breaks even at £4,000 in monthly card volume. Annual billing cuts every plan by 25%, and a £1-for-three-months promo runs alongside the standard 3-day free trial. Apps, a premium theme, and VAT registration at £90,000 turnover all cost extra.

The plan price is the number Shopify advertises. It is almost never the number that leaves your account. If you are also setting up the shop itself, our [setting up a Shopify shop in the UK] guide covers registration, VAT, and consumer law.

Heads up: this guide uses Shopify affiliate links. Sign up through one and we are paid a commission, and you pay exactly the same as you would otherwise.

Shopify plans, pricing and features change; always verify the current details on shopify.com before deciding.

There were 2.73 million VAT and/or PAYE businesses in the UK as of March 2025, up 0.4% from a year earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics. Of the 2.1 million companies on that register, 44.0% are single-employee limited companies. For a one-person operation, the gap between paying 2% and 1% on every card sale is not a rounding error. The ONS Retail Sales Index tracks internet sales as a growing share of total UK retail, which is the market these plans serve.

What each Shopify plan costs in pounds

Shopify sells four plans to UK merchants on its pricing page. A fifth tier, Starter, exists for social selling but does not run a full shop. The figures below come from that page, checked on 25 August 2026. Shopify can change them; the linked page is authoritative.

Annual billing saves 25% against monthly on every plan. The 3-day free trial precedes both, and the £1-for-three-months promo applies to Basic, Grow, and Advanced, not Plus. Reporting features scale across the tiers: Basic gives standard reports, Grow adds professional analytics, and Advanced adds custom reports. Plus adds a dedicated support layer and automation tools.

Two things are not on that page. In-person card rates are lower than online rates and vary by hardware. Plus pricing is negotiated per merchant, and Shopify does not publish a fixed GBP figure.

Companies and public corporations represented 76.7% of total UK businesses in 2025, while sole proprietors and partnerships fell to 19.8%, the ONS business bulletin records. The professional, scientific, and technical sector alone made up 15.3% of all registered businesses. Those firms tend to have higher average order values, which shifts the break-even maths in their favour. Shopify holds a substantial share of the UK e-commerce software market, according to Statista's market share data, so these plan decisions affect a large number of British shops.

The transaction fee trap: why Shopify Payments changes the maths

The subscription is a fixed cost. The transaction fee is a variable one. That distinction is the whole article in a sentence.

On Basic, every £100 you take through Shopify Payments costs you £2.25. On Grow, the same sale costs £1.25. The saving is £1 per £100, or 1% of card volume. Grow costs £40 more per month than Basic on monthly billing, £30 more on annual. So the question is not whether Grow is worth £65 a month, but whether you process enough card volume for the 1% saving to cover the £40 difference.

If you use a third-party gateway like Stripe or PayPal instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a surcharge on top of the gateway's own fees. On Basic that is 2%, on Grow 1%, on Advanced 0.5%. The surcharge mirrors the Shopify Payments percentage, so avoiding Shopify Payments costs you the same rate either way. You also pay the gateway's separate processing fee on top.

Our [Shopify Payments in the UK] guide covers fees and setup in detail. The short version: use Shopify Payments unless you have a specific reason not to, because the third-party surcharge makes any alternative more expensive on every plan. If you want a broader overview of the platform first, [what is Shopify, and how does it work in the UK?] is a good starting point.

Shopify also runs a Credits programme that refunds 1% of eligible Shopify Payments revenue towards your shipping costs, up to a cap. It does not change the break-even maths, but it softens the sting on Basic.

When Advanced pays for itself: break-even calculations

Here is where the thesis gets concrete. Three worked examples, all on monthly billing, all using Shopify Payments.

Basic to Grow. The subscription difference is £40 a month. The fee difference is 1% of card volume. Break-even: £40 ÷ 0.01 = £4,000 a month. Process more than £4,000 through Shopify Payments and Grow saves you money. On annual billing, the difference is £30, so the threshold drops to £3,000.

Grow to Advanced. The subscription difference is £279 a month (£344 minus £65). The fee difference is 0.5% of card volume. Break-even: £279 ÷ 0.005 = £55,800 a month. On annual billing: £210 ÷ 0.005 = £42,000.

Basic to Advanced. Skipping Grow entirely, the difference is £319 a month and the fee saving is 1.5%. Break-even: £319 ÷ 0.015 = £21,267 a month. On annual billing: £240 ÷ 0.015 = £16,000.

Our take: for most UK shops, Basic is the right starting plan. This is because the break-even to Grow sits at £4,000 a month in card volume, and most new shops do not clear that in their first year. The jump from Grow to Advanced is the expensive one, and the £55,800 monthly break-even means Advanced only makes sense once you have a proven, high-volume operation. Our call is that the £1 promo makes Basic nearly free for the first three months, so start there and upgrade when the maths says to.

The hidden costs Shopify doesn't list

The plan fee and the transaction fee are not your whole bill. Apps, a theme, a domain, and possibly a POS subscription sit on top.

Apps are the biggest variable. A reviews app, an email app, and a returns app can easily run £50 to £200 a month between them. Shopify's App Store prices vary wildly, and there is no cap on what the total becomes.

A premium theme is a one-off cost, typically £150 to £350. Free themes exist and are genuinely usable, but most shops buy a premium one within the first year.

A custom domain costs roughly £10 to £30 a year through Shopify, or less from a registrar. Email hosting is separate; Shopify does not provide inbox hosting. If you sell in multiple currencies, Shopify charges a 1.5% currency conversion fee on multi-currency transactions unless you use Shopify Payments' multi-currency features.

If you sell in person, Shopify POS Pro costs £69 a month per location on top of your plan. The free POS Lite handles basic selling, but inventory transfer, staff PINs, and returns processing require Pro.

None of these change which plan you should pick. They do change your total cost of ownership, which is often double the headline subscription by the end of year one. Our [what does Shopify cost per month in the UK?] guide breaks this down further.

When Shopify Plus makes sense for a UK shop

Plus is Shopify's enterprise tier. Shopify does not publish a fixed GBP price. The commonly cited figure is around $2,300 a month, but the actual cost is negotiated per merchant and depends on volume, customisation, and contract length.

What you get is a custom checkout, unlimited staff accounts, 200 inventory locations instead of 10, lower transaction fees, and access to Shopify's scripting and automation tools. The third-party surcharge drops to 0.15%.

The break-even from Advanced to Plus depends on the negotiated price. If Plus costs £1,700 a month and the fee difference from Advanced is 0.35%, the break-even sits at roughly £485,000 a month in card volume. At that level, the subscription difference is dwarfed by the fee saving.

There were 3.2 million sites (local units) in the UK as of March 2025, up 0.2% from 2024, according to the ONS. A shop with multiple physical locations will hit the 10-location cap on standard plans quickly. That alone can justify Plus before the transaction fee maths does.

Switching plans without losing your settings

You can upgrade or downgrade at any time from the Shopify admin. Upgrades take effect immediately, and Shopify prorates the charge for the remaining billing period. Downgrades issue a prorated credit to your account.

One thing you lose on a downgrade: the lower transaction fee. Drop from Advanced to Grow mid-month and your fee rate changes to Grow's 1% plus 25p from that point forward. Sales already processed at the Advanced rate are not recharged.

If you need to pause entirely, Shopify offers a Pause and Build plan at around £9 a month. Your shop stays online in a limited state, but checkout is disabled. It is designed for seasonal shops or during a rebuild, not as a long-term holding pattern.

Cancellation is rolling on monthly billing; you stop paying when you stop. Annual plans do not get a refund for the remaining months, so check your renewal date before committing to a year.

A decision rule for choosing your plan

The thesis, distilled: your monthly card volume through Shopify Payments determines the plan, not the headline price. Here is a checklist you can copy and fill in.

Suggested plan decision checklist

1. Estimate your monthly sales through Shopify Payments in GBP. 2. Check your average order value (total sales ÷ orders). 3. If monthly card volume is under £4,000, pick Basic. 4. If it is between £4,000 and £42,000, pick Grow. 5. If it is above £42,000 on annual billing, or £55,800 on monthly, pick Advanced. 6. If you need more than 10 inventory locations or a custom checkout, look at Plus. 7. Use the £1 promo for the first three months regardless, then reassess.

The thresholds above are pure break-even maths. They do not account for staff accounts, reporting needs, or seasonal swings. If your sales fluctuate heavily, pick the plan that covers your average month, not your peak.

VAT registration does not change the plan decision, but it changes your cash flow. Once your taxable turnover passes £90,000, you must register with HMRC and charge 20% VAT. Our [VAT on a Shopify shop] guide covers this in detail. Stripe's UK VAT threshold resource summarises the same rules from a payment provider's perspective. If you sell to EU customers, the European Commission's One Stop Shop guide explains how to handle cross-border VAT without registering in each member state separately.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Shopify Plus cost for a business with £2 million annual revenue?

Shopify does not publish a fixed Plus price. For a business doing £2 million a year (roughly £167,000 a month), the fee saving from Advanced to Plus at 0.35% would be about £585 a month. If Plus costs £1,700 a month, the net cost after fee savings is around £1,115 a month, which buys the custom checkout, 200 locations, and unlimited staff.

Does the £1/month promo apply to all plans?

The £1-for-three-months offer applies to Basic, Grow, and Advanced, according to Shopify's UK pricing page checked on 25 August 2026. It does not apply to Plus, which is negotiated separately. After the three months, billing reverts to the standard rate for your chosen plan, so factor that into your year-one budget.

Can I use Shopify Payments if I sell age-restricted products?

Shopify Payments has a prohibited-businesses list, and some age-restricted categories like CBD may be restricted or require review. Eligibility depends on the specific product and your trading history. If Shopify Payments is unavailable, the third-party surcharge on your plan still applies, which pushes you towards the cheapest plan to minimise the percentage hit.

What is the Pause and Build plan?

Pause and Build costs around £9 a month and keeps your shop online in a reduced state. Customers can browse but cannot check out. It is designed for seasonal shops or during a redesign, and Shopify limits how long you can stay on it before you must either resume or cancel.

Do I pay VAT on my Shopify subscription?

If you are VAT-registered, Shopify's subscription may be subject to reverse charge, meaning you account for the VAT on your VAT return rather than Shopify adding it to the invoice. If you are not VAT-registered, the price shown on Shopify's pricing page is what you pay. Check HMRC's guidance for your specific situation, as the rules differ for digital services supplied to UK versus EU customers.

Sources

1. Shopify, "Pricing." https://www.shopify.com/uk/pricing — checked on 25 August 2026.
2. Office for National Statistics, "UK business; activity, size and location: 2025." https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/bulletins/ukbusinessactivitysizeandlocation/2025 — checked on 25 August 2026.
3. Office for National Statistics, "Retail Sales Index internet sales." https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/datasets/retailsalesindexinternetsales — checked on 25 August 2026.
4. Statista, "E-commerce software provider market share in the UK." https://www.statista.com/statistics/685438/e-commerce-software-provider-market-share-in-the-uk/ — checked on 25 August 2026.
5. Stripe, "What is the UK VAT threshold? What businesses need to know." https://stripe.com/gb/resources/more/what-is-the-uk-vat-threshold-what-businesses-need-to-know — checked on 25 August 2026.
6. European Commission, "Guides - VAT e-Commerce - One Stop Shop." https://vat-one-stop-shop.ec.europa.eu/guides_en — checked on 25 August 2026.