Shopify review

Shopify is the most complete hosted option for a small brand that expects to sell in several places. The Basic plan already covers unlimited products, 10 inventory locations, 200+ real-time reports, email campaigns, abandoned checkout recovery and 24/7 live chat support, and Shopify B2B with up to 3 catalogs. Selling in person works from a phone or a card reader, and a POS Pro add-on adds staff roles, in-store inventory and pickup for physical shops. The app store and APIs cover almost any gap, and the Agentic plan lists products in AI chat channels. The catch is cost structure: if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a 2% third-party transaction fee on Basic, and live third-party shipping rates wait until the Advanced plan. Staff accounts also scale by plan, up to 5 on Grow and 15 on Advanced. The pricing page showed local currency from our location, so we list the USD price as pending.

Who it is for

small brands that plan to grow past one sales channel

Price

See vendor pricing (USD check pending).

US price check pending. See the vendor pricing page.

Key features

• Basic plan sells unlimited products and includes 10 inventory locations
• 200+ real-time reports plus custom analytics on every plan
• Built-in email campaigns, abandoned checkout recovery, discount codes and gift cards
• In-person sales from a phone or card reader, with POS Pro as a paid add-on per location
• Sidekick AI assistant and sales in AI chats through the Agentic plan

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Shopify B2B with up to 3 catalogs is included even on Basic
• Strength: Integrates with 1000s of apps and supports custom apps through its APIs
• Strength: Up to 50 synced marketplace orders per month at no extra fee
• Weakness: A 2% third-party transaction fee applies when you skip Shopify Payments
• Weakness: Live third-party shipping rates start on the Advanced plan
• Weakness: Pricing page shows local currency here, so the USD price is not verified

Key facts

• Free trial: 3 days
• Third-party transaction fee: 2% on Basic
• Staff accounts: Up to 5 on Grow, 15 on Advanced
• Inventory locations: 10 on Basic

Where it ranks

Shopify is No. 1 in our Best Ecommerce Platforms verdict and No. 5 in Best Website Builders for Small Business.