Shopify pricing and monthly fees in 2026: what a store really costs
Shopify advertises one monthly fee, but a real store's bill has more lines: transaction fees, apps, a theme and maintenance. An honest 2026 breakdown of what a small Estonian Shopify store costs per month — and when Plus is worth it.
On Shopify's website the price looks simple: pick a plan, pay monthly, start selling. A real store's monthly bill has more lines than that — transaction fees, apps, a theme and, at some point, maintenance. Here is an honest 2026 breakdown of what a Shopify store costs per month and where an Estonian merchant can save intelligently.
Plans: what the monthly fee buys
Shopify's price list changes from time to time and depends on the billing period, so always take the final number from Shopify's own site. At the time of writing, Basic runs at about €27 a month on annual billing; the same plan costs more when billed monthly. Bigger stores step up to Advanced, which brings better reporting and lower payment processing rates, and the largest move to Shopify Plus. For most Estonian stores starting out, Basic is genuinely enough — the plan does not limit how many products you list or how much you sell, mainly the reporting and extras around it.
Transaction fees: where an attentive merchant wins
If you use a third-party payment provider, Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top of every order. With Shopify Payments that extra fee is waived — and contrary to the outdated advice still floating around, Shopify Payments works in Estonia. Card processing costs always remain, that is the price of any payment service, but the double fee is avoidable. How bank links, Montonio and Maksekeskus fit into this picture is covered in our Estonian payment gateways comparison.
Apps: the quietest budget eater
The app store is Shopify's great strength and an equally great trap. Every "small" addition — reviews, email marketing, translations, search — is its own subscription, and before you notice, the app bill outgrows the platform fee itself. Two habits help: audit your app list critically once a quarter, and when an app does only one simple thing, have it built into the theme instead. One-off development work deletes a recurring fee — exactly the kind of job we do as Shopify development.
Themes: a free start or a one-off investment
Free themes are a perfectly decent start and receive regular updates. Paid themes are a one-time purchase that buys extra flexibility and ready-made sections. When the brand outgrows templates altogether, a theme-based redesign enters the picture: with us such a project starts at €4,500 and ships in 2–4 weeks.
A small Estonian store: monthly cost example
| Cost line | Roughly per month |
|---|---|
| Shopify Basic (annual billing) | about €27 |
| Apps (2–3 carefully chosen) | a few tens of euros |
| Domain | a few euros |
| Shopify transaction fee with Shopify Payments | €0 |
| Payment processing | a percentage of revenue |
For a well-kept store, fixed costs before marketing stay in the tens of euros per month, plus a percentage of revenue for payment processing. Once the store earns properly and every broken day costs more than upkeep, ongoing care starts to pay for itself: our maintenance retainer starts at €1,250 a month and covers updates, fixes and development under one agreement.
When is it time for Shopify Plus?
Plus is built for genuinely large operations: high order volume, several markets at once, B2B and deep checkout customisation. The monthly fee is several times higher than the standard plans, so the decision should come from numbers, not prestige. Most Estonian stores do not need Plus — and that is good news, because a standard plan with well-chosen apps goes a very long way. If you are unsure whether you need Plus, you almost certainly do not yet — growth shows up in the numbers long before the plan change becomes necessary.
If you want to calculate your store's real total cost before launch, see our pricing page or start with our store development service — we build stores so the theme does the work instead of a pile of apps.