Shopify is one of the world’s leading e-commerce platforms with a global market share of 10.32% in 2024. With new features, expanded capabilities, and a growing marketplace—it’s still a top choice for businesses.
However, despite its international popularity, is it still worth using in 2024? Many solid competitors exist in the E-commerce marketplace, such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix Commerce, and Magneto.
These all have their own pros and cons, but are they better options than Spotify?
In this article, we’ll look into Shopify’s pricing, features, and pros and cons. By the end of the article, you’ll be able to answer is Shopify worth it?
Shopify Pricing
Cost is one of the most important factors to consider when assessing eCommerce platforms. There are many affordable options (some more affordable than Shopify).
Shopify has four primary plans:
- Basic Shopify: For $39 per month, the Basic Shopify plan is excellent if you need basic eCommerce features. It also provides superb reporting tools if you have lower transaction volumes.
- Shopify: At $105 per month, the Shopify plan is ideal if you’re an expanding business. It offers additional reporting tools, better shipping discounts, and more staff accounts.
- Advanced Shopify: For $399 per month, the Advanced Shopify plan is for larger businesses that need advanced reporting features, third-party calculated shipping rates, and more help for international selling.
- Shopify Plus: Shopify’s enterprise-level solution—Shopify Plus—is created for high-volume merchants. Although pricing is custom depending on your business’s needs—the plan offers comprehensive tools for large-scale operations.
In summary, each plan offers a variety of features; however, the key is to choose one that matches your business’s current stage.
Additional Costs to Consider
Above the primary subscription cost, running a Shopify store includes several additional expenses you’ll need to account for. If you’re wondering is Shopify worth it, you must consider these additional costs.
Some key examples include:
1. Themes
Shopify offers a wide range of themes to choose from (some free and others premium). Although free themes are often adequate for new stores, premium themes—which range from $100 to $180—provide more customization options, advanced features, and enhanced design quality. As a result, it can be a major additional cost for your business.
2. Apps
Shopify’s app store has thousands of apps designed to expand functionality. Many apps offer free plans, but most require monthly payments depending on their functionality. These apps can range from $5 to $50 or more, depending on your needs.
3. Shopify Fees
Shopify charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for online credit card payments. These fees can add up if you have a high sales volume. Using an external payment gateway can also increase fees, but Shopify Payments is often the most cost-effective choice.
4. Payment Processing
Although Shopify Payments streamlines payments, external payment gateways may cause additional transaction fees. Depending on the gateway, these fees add a layer of cost to your operations.
5. Currency Conversion Fees
If your company is selling internationally, you must consider currency conversion fees. Shopify lets you sell in multiple currencies. That said, conversion fees apply and could affect your profit margins.
6. Email Hosting & Domain
Shopify doesn’t include email hosting, so you’ll need to set that up with a third-party provider—such as Google Workspace. Domain registration is available through Shopify, with prices starting at around $14 per year. However, you can also connect an external domain if you already have one.
7. Developer Costs
If your store requires custom development or advanced features, you probably need to hire a Shopify developer. Developer costs can vary, but it’s essential to budget for this—particularly if you want to build a highly customized store.
8. Shipping Costs
If you’re fulfilling orders yourself or using third-party fulfillment services, shipping costs can be a significant expense. Shopify does offer discounts on shipping rates through partnerships with major carriers like USPS, UPS, and DHL.
But still, the cost of shipping materials, packaging, and fulfillment services can add up.
9. Marketing and Advertising
Driving traffic to your store often requires a marketing budget, especially if you’re running paid social media ads, Google Ads, or influencer marketing campaigns.
Shopify does provide built-in marketing tools. But to drive substantial traffic and conversions, you often need to invest in additional advertising strategies, which makes marketing a notable recurring cost.
Pros and Cons of Shopify
When evaluating is Shopify worth it in 2024, you must weigh the platform’s strengths and weaknesses.
Here are some examples:
Pros of Using Shopify
1. Ease of Use
Shopify is simple to use, making it ideal for beginners with no technical experience. The platform has a drag-and-drop interface that allows users to build their store visually without needing to write code.
Similarly, Shopify provides a step-by-step guide to help new merchants set up their stores—from adding products to configuring payments and shipping options.
2. Variety of Themes and Apps
Shopify’s platform offers a wide range of themes (both free and premium) that are mobile-responsive and customizable. This gives you flexibility in creating your store without hiring a developer.
In addition, the app store additionally enhances customization, with thousands of apps that extend your store’s functionality. These include inventory management, customer support, and marketing.
3. Integrated Payment Processing
Shopify Payments simplifies payments by enabling transactions without needing a third-party gateway. This is extremely convenient for small businesses needing an all-in-one solution. Shopify Payments also supports various payment methods: credit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay.
4. SEO and Marketing Tools
Shopify has built-in SEO tools that help optimize your store for search engines. You can edit meta tags, titles, and product descriptions to enhance your search rankings.
Additionally, Shopify’s marketing tools include features for social media integration, email marketing, and discount code creation—which can help drive traffic to your store. The platform even allows you to create blogs to boost content marketing efforts.
5. Scalability
Shopify’s pricing structure makes it scalable for businesses of all sizes. As your business grows, you can upgrade to plans that offer more advanced analytics, better shipping options, and stronger customer support.
6. Mobile-Friendly Platform
Having a mobile-friendly store is crucial in 2024. Nevertheless, Shopify ensures all its themes are optimized for mobile devices by offering customers a seamless shopping experience via smartphones and tablets.
This improves conversion rates because many people shop via mobile phones in 2024. One study found that 45% of global consumers use their phones to shop online once daily.
7. Reliable Hosting and Security
Shopify provides secure and reliable hosting for its users, which removes the requirement to manage servers or security on your own. Shopify takes care of website uptime, load speed, and security issues, such as SSL certification and PCI compliance.
In return, you don’t need to worry about your site crashing during high-traffic periods—and you don’t need to invest in third-party security solutions.
Cons of Using Shopify
1. Transaction Fees
Shopify charges transaction fees if you don’t use Shopify Payments, which can make a big difference to your bottom line. These fees are typically 2.0% to 2.9% per transaction. However, although Shopify Payments eliminates this fee, it also limits your choice of payment gateways if you prefer to use another provider.
2. App Costs
Shopify’s app ecosystem is a major strength, but it’s also a source of additional costs. Many of the most useful apps come with monthly fees, spanning from $5 to $50 or more.
In turn, as your store grows and you need more functionality—these costs can quickly add up, sometimes making Shopify more expensive than initially expected. For example, advanced email marketing or loyalty program apps may require a subscription to a premium plan.
3. Customization Limits
Although Shopify offers various customization options through themes and apps, businesses looking for deep customization might face limitations.
Some advanced customizations require coding, and Shopify uses a proprietary language called Liquid. To overcome these limitations, you may have to hire a Shopify developer, significantly increasing the cost of running the store.
4. Higher-Tier Features
Shopify’s basic plans come with essential features, but some of the platform’s most powerful tools—such as advanced reporting, real-time carrier shipping, and automated workflows—are reserved for higher-tier plans.
These premium features are essential for larger businesses or stores with complex needs, but they come at a steep price, which may be out of reach for smaller businesses.
For instance, access to advanced reporting tools starts at the Shopify Advanced plan, which costs $299 per month.
5. Learning Curve for Advanced Features
Although Shopify is user-friendly for beginners, mastering some of the advanced features—like SEO, analytics, and custom app integrations—can require major effort.
As such, if you want to take full advantage of Shopify’s capabilities, you may need to invest in training or hire experts to optimize your store’s performance.
6. Email Hosting & Domain Management Costs
Shopify doesn’t offer email hosting, so businesses must purchase this service separately through platforms like Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 (adding another layer of cost).
Shopify does offer domain registration, but this can be more expensive than purchasing via a third-party domain provider.
10 Features That Make Shopify Worth It
Now that we’ve covered the costs, let’s look at the specific features that make Shopify worth the investment for so many merchants:
1. Ease of Use
One of Shopify’s standout features is its simplicity. Setting up an online store doesn’t require any coding skills, and that makes it accessible to both beginners and seasoned entrepreneurs. It even offers a drag-and-drop theme, which allows you to design your store quickly.
The intuitive dashboard also helps you manage products, orders, and inventory with minimal effort.
2. Official Theme Store
Shopify’s theme store offers free and premium themes vetted by the platform to ensure quality. These themes are responsive, so they work seamlessly across desktop and mobile devices.
Likewise, they are also highly customizable, which lets you tailor the look and feel of your store to match your brand’s identity.
3. Official App Store
The Shopify app store is home to thousands of apps. However, only reliable, well-vetted apps are allowed on the platform. These apps extend the functionality of your store if you’re looking to integrate with marketing tools, set up advanced shipping options, or add customer reviews.
4. Built-in Marketing & SEO Tools
Shopify comes equipped with built-in SEO features—i.e., customizable title tags, meta descriptions, and an automatically generated XML sitemap—helping you rank higher on search engines.
Furthermore, Shopify’s marketing tools can create email campaigns, offer discounts, and integrate with Google Ads and social media platforms.
5. Built-in Reporting & Analytics
Having access to detailed analytics is crucial for making data-driven decisions. Thankfully, Shopify provides built-in reporting tools that offer insights into your store’s performance—including traffic reports, sales data, and customer behavior. If you choose higher-tier plans, advanced reports offer even deeper insights.
6. Shopify Integrations
Shopify seamlessly integrates with a wide range of services, from dropshipping and print-on-demand to marketing tools and marketplaces like Amazon. If you’re running a traditional online store or managing a dropshipping operation, Shopify has the perfect integration options.
7. Global Expansion Capabilities
If your business is aiming to sell internationally, Shopify offers multi-language support, built-in shipping calculators, and multi-currency payment options. You can even use apps like Weglot, which make it easy to translate your store and reach customers around the world.
8. Point of Sale (POS) System
Shopify’s Point of Sale (POS) system is excellent for merchants who have brick-and-mortar stores. For example, the POS system allows you to unify your online and in-person sales, track inventory, and process payments seamlessly.
9. Developer Tools
Shopify’s robust API allows developers to create custom apps, automate tasks, and optimize store performance. If you require custom solutions, flexibility is a significant advantage.
10. Customer Support
Shopify provides 24/7 customer support through live chat, email, and phone. This helps you whenever you need it—regardless of whether you’re facing technical issues or need advice on optimizing your store.
How Do You Know if Shopify Is Right for Your Online Business?
Choosing whether Shopify is the proper platform for your online business depends on a few key factors. Shopify is tremendous if you want a user-friendly platform with robust tools for growth, marketing, and international expansion.
Nevertheless, it’s essential to consider the additional costs, especially for apps and transaction fees (which can add up over time).
Koala Inspector is the perfect tool for optimizing your Shopify store and building a dropshipping business. Find out more information today.
