I spent three weeks helping a brand migrate from Shopify Advanced to Shopify Plus. Halfway through, I realized most of the blog posts comparing these two plans were either outdated or written by people who had never actually run a store on either. The pricing numbers were wrong. The feature lists were copy-pasted from 2023. And almost nobody mentioned that Shopify Scripts is being shut down on June 30, 2026, which makes the checkout story completely different today.
So here is the honest version.
The Short Answer
Shopify and Shopify Plus run on the same core platform. The difference is what you unlock at scale: custom checkout logic, native B2B, multi-store operations, and automation that runs without a developer on call. Whether the upgrade is worth it depends entirely on your monthly revenue and which specific ceiling you are hitting right now.
Here is where the plans live in the product lineup before you read further.
Shopify Plan Ladder (2026)
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Starter $5/mo — social selling only
Basic $39/mo — new stores
Grow $105/mo — growing teams
Advanced $399/mo — scaling brands
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Plus $2,300+/mo — enterprise tier
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Note: The plan formerly called "Shopify" is now called Grow in Shopify's latest pricing structure. If you see older comparisons using the name "Shopify plan," that is the same product.
Pricing: What You Actually Pay
The pricing gap between standard Shopify and Shopify Plus is not just a number. It reflects a completely different commercial model.
Standard Shopify Plans (2026)
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Online Card Rate | 3rd-Party Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $39 | $29 | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2% |
| Grow | $105 | $79 | 2.7% + 30¢ | 1% |
| Advanced | $399 | $299 | 2.5% + 30¢ | 0.6% |
Shopify Plus Pricing (2026)
| Term | Monthly Fee | Revenue Model Trigger | Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-year | $2,300 | 0.35% above $800K/mo revenue | $40,000/mo |
| 1-year | $2,500 | 0.40% above $800K/mo revenue | $40,000/mo |
The variable model is the part most comparison posts skip. Once your store clears $800,000 in monthly gross merchandise value, Shopify Plus stops charging a flat fee and switches to a percentage of revenue instead. The cap at $40,000 per month means even a $100M-per-year brand does not pay more than that.
Transaction fees drop sharply on Plus as well. Standard plans charge 0.15% for third-party payment gateways, compared to 0.6% to 2% on standard tiers. For a store doing $500,000 per month through a third-party gateway, that fee reduction alone covers a significant portion of the monthly Plus cost.
The 5 Features That Actually Separate Them
1. Checkout Customization
This is the single biggest technical difference between the two plans in 2026.
Standard Shopify plans give you Checkout Extensibility with restrictions on extension count, custom JavaScript, and branding control. Shopify Plus opens the full surface: apps and UI extensions on every step of the checkout flow, Shopify Functions for custom discount and shipping logic, and the Branding API for pixel-level visual control.
Checkout Customization Gap
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Standard Plans Shopify Plus
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Basic branding Full Branding API access
Limited extensions Unlimited UI extensions
No custom JS Shopify Functions (logic)
No checkout A/B A/B testing supported
No market variants Per-market checkout flows
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One important deadline affects every Shopify merchant right now. Shopify Scripts is being permanently removed on June 30, 2026. If you or your agency built checkout logic using the Script Editor, you need to migrate that to Shopify Functions before that date. Functions are the modern replacement and they require Shopify Plus to access at full capability.
The Winter 2026 Edition also added per-market checkout customization, letting Plus merchants serve different checkout flows to different countries or B2B customer segments from a single store instance.
Callout: Checkout Extensibility as of August 28, 2025 is required for all customizations on the Thank You page and Order Status page for Plus merchants. Direct HTML and CSS editing of checkout is no longer supported on any plan.
2. B2B Commerce
Standard Shopify added foundational B2B features to all paid plans as of April 2, 2026. This is a real change worth knowing. You can now set up company accounts and custom pricing on any paid plan.
Where Plus pulls ahead is at scale. Five capabilities remain Plus-exclusive and they matter once your wholesale operation gets complex.
| B2B Feature | Standard Plans | Shopify Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Company accounts | Yes (basic) | Yes (unlimited) |
| Custom price lists | Yes | Unlimited catalogs |
| Partial payments and deposits | No | Yes |
| Volume pricing at variant level | No | Yes |
| Sales rep permission scoping | No | Yes |
| Net terms | Limited | Full support |
The partial payments feature changes cash flow for made-to-order and high-ticket wholesale. A Plus merchant can collect a 50% deposit at order and the remaining 50% at shipment. Standard plans cannot do this natively. For brands where B2B represents more than 20% of revenue, this feature set alone can replace a third-party wholesale tool that typically costs $500 to $2,000 per month.
3. Shopify Flow and Launchpad
Shopify Flow is Shopify Plus's no-code workflow automation engine. It uses triggers, conditions, and actions to automate operational tasks without requiring custom code. Think of it as Zapier but built directly into your store's backend with access to every internal event Shopify tracks.
Flow connects natively with Slack, Gmail, Google Sheets, Asana, Trello, and dozens of Shopify apps. Common workflows Plus merchants build include high-risk order routing, VIP customer tagging, automatic inventory alerts, B2B account onboarding sequences, and loyalty tier management.
Launchpad is the companion tool for scheduled events. You use it to automate product drops, flash sales, theme changes, and promotional campaign launches with exact timing and automated rollback. If your brand runs frequent seasonal campaigns or limited-edition releases, Launchpad removes the manual execution burden entirely.
Neither Flow nor Launchpad is available on standard Shopify plans.
4. Staff Accounts and Organizational Structure
Standard Shopify plans cap staff accounts at low numbers. Basic gives you 2, Grow gives you 5, and Advanced gives you 15.
Shopify Plus removes that ceiling completely. Unlimited staff accounts are included, and Plus adds an Organization Admin dashboard. This is a centralized management layer that sits above all your stores, letting you manage users, permissions, campaigns, and automation across your entire business from one place.
If you have a team of 20 or more people touching your store operations, the Advanced plan's 15-account limit becomes a real bottleneck before you hit any revenue threshold.
5. Expansion Stores and Multi-Store Architecture
Shopify Plus includes 10 total store instances: your primary store plus 9 expansion stores. Each expansion store is a fully functional Shopify environment with its own domain, currency, language, product catalog, and checkout configuration.
Standard plans give you one store. If you operate multiple brands, multiple regional storefronts, or both a DTC and wholesale storefront, you are either paying for multiple separate Shopify subscriptions or compromising on the experience.
Multi-Store Architecture on Plus
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Organization Admin (top level)
|
|-- Primary Store (main brand, USD)
|-- Expansion Store 1 (EU region, EUR)
|-- Expansion Store 2 (UK region, GBP)
|-- Expansion Store 3 (B2B wholesale)
|-- Expansion Store 4 (new brand vertical)
|
(up to 10 stores total on one Plus contract)
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Each expansion store is included in the Plus contract at no additional subscription cost, though they have their own transaction fee billing.
When to Stay on Standard Shopify
Upgrading to Plus is not always the right move. Here is where standard plans are the smarter choice.
If your store generates less than $500,000 per month in revenue, the math rarely works out in favor of Plus. The fee reduction on transactions does not offset $2,300 per month in subscription cost until you are doing significant volume. Most agencies who work on migrations say the real breakeven happens somewhere between $500,000 and $700,000 per month, well before the commonly quoted $1M threshold.
You also do not need Plus if your checkout customization requirements are basic. Standard Checkout Extensibility covers the majority of use cases. The Plus-specific features matter most when you need custom discount logic at the backend, per-market checkout flows, or deeply branded checkout UI that cannot be built with standard extensions.
If your team has fewer than 15 people touching the admin, and you are operating a single storefront with no wholesale component, Advanced at $399 per month is a fully capable platform that handles up to roughly $20M in annual revenue without constraint.
When to Upgrade to Shopify Plus
The signals that point toward Plus are operational, not aspirational. Look for these in your current store.
You are hitting API rate limits regularly, especially during peak traffic. Standard plans have API caps that choke high-volume integrations with ERPs, 3PLs, or custom middleware. Plus gives you 10 times the standard API rate limits.
Your checkout conversion depends on logic that standard Checkout Extensibility cannot deliver. This includes backend discount rules, custom shipping calculations at checkout, or B2B-specific payment flows like net terms and partial deposits.
You are running or planning to run a B2B wholesale channel alongside your DTC store. Attempting to manage both on a single standard plan using apps and workarounds creates complexity that compounds as you scale. Plus handles both channels from a single admin natively.
You have multiple brands or regional storefronts and are currently paying for multiple separate Shopify subscriptions. Consolidating into one Plus contract with expansion stores is almost always cheaper and operationally simpler.
Your operational team has outgrown 15 staff accounts. Unlimited accounts plus Organization Admin makes a meaningful difference at that point.
The Migration Reality
A standard Shopify to Shopify Plus migration takes 8 to 12 weeks when the data is clean and the feature requirements are well documented. Complex integrations with ERP systems, warehouse management software, or custom checkout logic can add 4 to 8 weeks on top of that.
Budget between $50,000 and $150,000 depending on scope. Theme rebuilds, custom app development, data migration, and team training are the main cost drivers. The largest variable is whether your current checkout uses Shopify Scripts, because those workflows need to be rebuilt in Shopify Functions before June 30, 2026 regardless of plan.
Before any migration, audit your current apps for Plus compatibility. Most third-party apps from the Shopify App Store work seamlessly on Plus, but some require upgraded versions or replacements. Document all custom code and theme modifications before the transition begins.
Side-by-Side Summary
| Feature | Basic | Grow | Advanced | Shopify Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $39 | $105 | $399 | $2,300+ |
| Staff accounts | 2 | 5 | 15 | Unlimited |
| Checkout customization | Basic | Basic | Basic | Full (Functions + Branding API) |
| Shopify Flow | No | No | No | Yes |
| Launchpad | No | No | No | Yes |
| B2B features | Foundational | Foundational | Foundational | Full (Plus-exclusive scale) |
| Expansion stores | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 (10 total) |
| API rate limits | Standard | Standard | Standard | 10x standard |
| 3rd-party gateway fee | 2% | 1% | 0.6% | 0.15% |
| Organization Admin | No | No | No | Yes |
| Dedicated success manager | No | No | No | Yes |
| POS Pro locations | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 included |
FAQs
What is the main difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus?
Shopify is built for small to mid-size businesses while Shopify Plus is an enterprise platform with advanced checkout customization, native B2B, automation tools, and multi-store architecture starting at $2,300 per month.
How much does Shopify Plus cost in 2026?
Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 per month on a 3-year contract or $2,500 per month on a 1-year contract, switching to a 0.35% revenue share model once monthly GMV exceeds $800,000, capped at $40,000 per month.
When should I upgrade from Shopify to Shopify Plus?
Most agencies find the upgrade makes financial sense between $500,000 and $700,000 in monthly revenue, though operational triggers like API limits, checkout customization needs, B2B requirements, or multi-store architecture often drive the decision before revenue thresholds.
Is Shopify Plus worth it for B2B businesses?
Yes, if your wholesale volume is significant, because Plus unlocks unlimited price catalogs, partial payments, deposits, sales rep scoping, and per-market checkout flows that standard plans cannot support natively.
What happens to Shopify Scripts in 2026?
Shopify Scripts and the Script Editor are being permanently removed on June 30, 2026. All custom checkout logic must be migrated to Shopify Functions before that deadline.
Can I downgrade from Shopify Plus back to a standard plan?
Yes. Downgrading removes access to Plus-exclusive features including B2B company accounts, Shopify Flow, Launchpad, expansion stores, full Checkout Extensibility, and elevated API limits. Your store data and products remain unaffected.
How long does a Shopify to Shopify Plus migration take?
Standard migrations take 8 to 12 weeks with clean data. Complex integrations with ERP or custom checkout logic can add 4 to 8 weeks, with migration budgets typically ranging from $50,000 to $150,000 depending on scope.
I write deeper technical breakdowns on ecommerce architecture, AI tools, and developer workflows over at krunalkanojiya.com. If this helped, that is where the next one lives.
Pricing reflects Shopify's published rates as of May 2026. Verify current rates at shopify.com/plus before making any commercial decision. Transaction fee rates may vary by region.
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