We often receive questions about the differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus. While choosing the basic Shopify plans is relatively easy, understanding the distinctions between Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus can be a bit more challenging. To make it simpler for you, we have created a detailed comparison of these two options. Let’s dive in and explore the key differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus.
What kind of subscription plans does Shopify have?
Shopify is a Canadian ecommerce SaaS app that is becoming more and more popular. It sells five subscription plans.
- Shopify Starter – it’s basically just a buy button that you can put on a website or landing page; it costs $5/month; it comes in handy when you’re testing a store idea;
- Shopify Basic – it’s an online store for $32 per month ($24 per month – yearly); that plan is perfect if you set up your first store and you need a testing ground;
- Shopify – it’s an ideal plan for small ecommerce stores that have ecommerce experience; it’s priced at $92 monthly ($69 per month – yearly)
- Shopify Advanced – $399 monthly ($299 per month – yearly); we will tell you about this plan shortly;
- Shopify Plus – an enterprise version of Shopify; the monthly cost is established on an individual basis, but it starts at 2,3-2,5 thousand dollars a month.
If you don’t have a Shopify store, you can get a 3-day free trial. After this trial period, you will pay only $1 for 1 month on select plans. Use our trial link to register and get to know the Shopify platform. When it comes to Shopify Plus development – schedule a call with us or the Shopify Plus salesperson.
Tip: Using Shopify to sell in Poland? You can reduce transactional fees by integrating Shopify with Przelewy24 if you collect over 6000 monthly transactions.
In today’s article, we focus on Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus comparison. We will show you when investing in Shopify Plus makes sense and when it is better to stick to the Advanced plan. Let’s start.
Shopify Advanced vs. Shopify Plus: simple plan comparison
The admin panels of Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus looks the same, yet they differ in functionalities. We prepared a plan comparison, so any Shopify merchant can decide which plan is best for them. Let’s start the discussion with describing Shopify Plus.
What makes Shopify Plus stand out?
Shopify Plus is a plan on which Nestle, Red Bull, Pepsi, or fashion designers, such as Rebecca Minkoff and Victoria Beckham chose to set up their stores. What makes it so special?
Full control of the checkout with Shopify Plus*
Shopify Plus enjoys a lot of attention from merchants who run enterprise businesses, because it gives a total control over the store look and feel. What does it mean?
Shopify has a great choice of various store themes that you can develop in whatever way you like. You can change colors or layout, you can add subpages and functionalities, etc. But you don’t need to use them if you can’t find a theme you like. You can create your own store theme and upload it in your Shopify Admin Panel.
With Shopify Plus, there are no barriers to customizing your shop. You can even go headless with your e-commerce and use something other than Shopify front-end. Lack of design boundaries isn’t the only thing that differentiates Shopify from other plans. What else is there?
*It’s worth noting that Shopify announced that merchants can manipulate checkouts on lower plans, too (June 2021).
10 storefronts in the price of one Shopify Plus account
The price gap between Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus accounts is large, but when you compare the two, you can see that Shopify Plus contains 10 storefronts. It may come in handy when you expand your brand abroad or when you target B2B customers. Every one of those stores can be personalized to the target consumer, and that is something which helps you to stay ahead of the curve.
An additional storefront is a great testing environment for introducing new features into your store. It may help you prevent a stressful situation in which you break your main store because of some buggy feature. Transform one of the 10 storefronts into your testing environment.
Shopify Plus has a dedicated B2B sales channel
Shopify Plus has unique features to support B2B ecommerce stores. By choosing this plan, we can easily launch an additional sales channel and prepare an offer that is tailored to the B2B sector. Not so long ago, we helped build the very first Shopify B2B store – Protektor.
What do you get with a Shopify B2B sales channel? Above all else, it allows you to manage prices and discounts for B2B customers. In what way?
- you can set up lower prices for all B2B customers
- you can create a site-wide discount or lower the prices for chosen category
- you can set different prices for different customer groups
- you can set up pricing based on the order volume
What’s more, you can limit the access to your B2B store. Prices can be made visible only for the registered users. There are other benefits that we described in our previous blog entry: How to set up Shopify for B2B and wholesale.
Speaking about automation, we have two tools in mind: Shopify Scripts i Launchpad. They are available only on the Shopify Plus plan. What are those?
- Shopify Scripts – use it to automate repetitive tasks, such as tagging customers adding products into collections, ordering products when the inventory is almost depleted, order notifications, etc. It saves you a ton of time.
- Shopify Launchpad – it’s an automation tool for launching a sale or adding a new collection. It automatically publishes products across any sales channel you want, updates the homepage, and adds discounted prices whenever you set it up to. The tool stops the sale too. That’s convenient, isn’t it?
Moreover, Shopify Plus owners can integrate Google Tag Manage with Shopify.
Multi-currency with Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus can help you run sales with multiple currencies at the checkout. It’s convenient for those of you who can’t use Shopify Payments in their country. The countries that can’t use Shopify Payments, can’t collect foreign currencies at the checkout. That’s why for those shops, we either recommend opening another store or choosing a Shopify Plus account. See more: Shopify or Shopify Plus: Which is better for launching a successful global e-commerce business immediately?
Shopify Plus merchants don’t have to worry about it. Allowing your customers to pay in their currency can help you lower cart abandonment rates in your store.
More development possibilities and faster API calls
API is a fast way of integrating Shopify with other apps. Shopify Plus has faster and more flexible API requests compared to Shopify Advanced. With API, merchants can grow their stores, and introduce innovative concepts without needing to switching to a more complex ecommerce platform. Talking about store migration, Shopify has a nice feature for those of you who move their stores from other solutions.
Extra help with Shopify migration
A lot of Shopify merchants are experienced in e-commerce. They used an alternative solution but switched to Shopify for its simplicity and scalability (like Toys’R’Us Poland).
Replatforming to Shopify Plus is relatively easy. Besides having Shopify specialists to help you with the migration, you have a suite of tools that make the move painless. Why wouldn’t you change the platform then?
Unlimited staff accounts
Basic plans limit the number of accounts that you can create to manage your store. Shopify Plus doesn’t have those limits. You can create a separate account for every person who takes care of your online store and manages the Shopify admin panel.
Shopify Plus support and community
Extra features are a plus for sure. But aside from them, Shopify Plus has another benefit. As a Shopify Plus merchant, you have a support of Shopify Plus experts. You can ask them to help you grow your store, fix some issues, etc.
If you are more of a do-it-yourself person, you can access a library of Shopify Plus resources, sign up to be a part of an official Facebook group, where merchants share their tips and tricks. Moreover, you can be a part of Merchant Success Programs, and get expert support to grow your brand online.
Shopify plus vs Advanced plan – what do you get?
We went over the most important perks of Shopify Plus. What about the Advanced plan? What kind of functionalities does it have? After reading about Shopify Plus, it may be not so easy to see advantages of Advanced Shopify. Yet, we may surprise you – that’s also a great choice.
Shopify Plus has 10 storefronts, additional sales channel and great automation tools, but are they necessary? It all depends on your business. Let’s see what you can count on when you choose Advanced Shopify.
Growing an online store is also frictionless with Shopify Advanced
Shopify Advanced integrates well with third-party tools via API. It allows merchants to connect with their payment tools and courier services, as well as build original functionalities.
The Advanced pricing plan has its limits when it comes to API. So, if you’re going to build a lot of custom solution on top of Shopify, choose the Plus version. If you can manage with Shopify that has a smaller suite of apps connected to it, go for Advanced Shopify.
Shopify Advanced has great sales channels
The wholesale extension that Shopify Plus has is one of the sales channels that you can connect with Shopify. The rest of plans, the Advanced one included, can use social media as sales channels, so you can connect to Shopify and sell your collection via platforms, such as
- Facebook store
- Instagram store
- YouTube
Moreover, Shopify Advanced gives you access to Shopify POS (for countries that has Shopify Payments enabled) and syncs with Google Ads or Google Merchant Center, isn’t that a plus?
Multiregional sales isn’t that advanced
What about international sales with Shopify Advanced? If you sell your products abroad, you can find it difficult to use Shopify Advanced. You can translate your store, change prices, but in order to connect local payments and courier systems, you need an additional storefront. Shopify Plus is better suited for global sales than the rest of plans.
Marketing and sales tactics made easy
No matter what plan it is in, every Shopify store sends cart abandonment emails. The admin panel connects with social media profiles and Shopify themes have loads of interesting marketing and sales-enabling functionalities (cross-selling, etc.). They also make it easy to position the store in Google (learn more about Shopify SEO).
See: Best Shopify store examples
Shopify Advanced vs. Shopify Plus, which plan is better?
We compared two plans: Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus, but we can’t declare the winner. Truth be told, it all depends on the seller’s needs, and that’s what we usally advise our customers, when we help them choose the plan for them.
Before you make any decision, study your needs when it comes to e-commerce store.
👉 Do you need a well-performing store that holds traffic? You will get it with Shopify regardless of what you’re paying.
👉 Do you need a responsive store that can handle m-commerce? You will get it no matter which plan you choose.
👉 Do you want to scale sales? Both plans are suited for that.
If you need a wholesale channel, more integrations, global store, choose Shopify Plus. Then, if it is hard to establish what you want your ecommerce to be right now, stick with basics plans like Shopify Advanced. For that price, you will get an excellent ecommerce platform. Shopify Plus has its purpose if you have a strategy for it (building new features, headless commerce, customizing storefronts, making the user journey personal.)
Launch a Shopify store with WeCanFly
Did you make up your mind? We would love to hear which plan you picked. And if you’re looking for a partner to grow Shopify or Shopify Plus, we would love to work with you. We have years of experience creating, growing, and maintaining Shopify-based ecommerce stores. We develop features, build themes, and help you achieve your business goals. Reach out to us via the form below.
Maria Siewierska
Digital Marketing Specialist
