What Does a Shopify Shop Cost? Plan, Build, Apps and Operation
Aqtelo teamDesign and engineering team
- Published
- Focus
- Germany, Switzerland
- Reading time
- 5 minutes
A Shopify shop costs in four blocks: the monthly plan, the one-time build, ongoing app fees and operation. You know the plan up front. The other three blocks depend on your range, your systems and your design. Here you see what makes each block more or less expensive.
The Shopify plans
Shopify publishes its plans on its pricing page. As of October 2026, these monthly prices apply, each for annual and for monthly billing:
| Plan | Germany | Switzerland |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | €24 annually, €32 monthly | CHF 21 annually, CHF 29 monthly |
| Grow | €69 annually, €92 monthly | CHF 59 annually, CHF 79 monthly |
| Advanced | €289 annually, €384 monthly | CHF 269 annually, CHF 359 monthly |
| Plus | from €2,250 a month on a one-year term, from €2,100 on three years | same as Germany, shown in euros |
Sources: Shopify pricing Germany and Shopify pricing Switzerland, as of October 2026. Check the pages before you decide. Shopify adjusts prices from time to time.
Payment fees
On top of the plan come fees per payment. With Shopify Payments, the German pricing page lists 2% plus €0.25 for online card payments on the Basic plan and 1.5% plus €0.25 on Plus. If you use another payment provider, Shopify charges an additional transaction fee: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus. That provider's fees come on top. At high revenue, this item often decides the plan.
Theme, custom theme or headless
The biggest lever in the build is how the shop looks and how it is built.
| Route | What happens | Fits if |
|---|---|---|
| Adapt a theme | A ready-made theme from the Theme Store, adapted to your colors, fonts and content | Standard range, quick start, tight budget |
| Custom theme | Design and templates are created for your brand, built on Shopify | The brand should stand out clearly, processes differ from the standard |
| Headless | A custom storefront, for example with Next.js, talks to Shopify through the Storefront API | A lot of editorial content, high demands on speed and design |
Headless is the most elaborate route. It pays off if content, brand or load time really matter. For many shops, a well-adapted theme is enough. You can read more about the difference in Shopify or WooCommerce.
Apps
Shopify covers the basic functions. For reviews, subscriptions, product filters, invoices, translations or cookie banners, many shops use apps. Most cost a monthly fee. Individually the amounts look small. Together, ten apps quickly add up to more than the plan.
- For each app, check whether Shopify now includes the function itself.
- Check whether an app charges by orders or revenue.
- Every app loads code into your shop. Too many apps slow the site down.
- Check where the app stores data, and name it in your privacy policy.
Integrations
A shop rarely lives alone. Stock comes from inventory management, invoices go to accounting, parcels to the shipping service. Each of these connections costs effort:
- Ready-made connectors: For common systems there are apps. They are quick to set up but have fixed limits.
- Custom integration: With older or customized ERP systems, the connection is built specially. That is development with tests and error handling.
- Product data: Many variants, price lists or data from a PIM raise the import effort.
In the briefing, name every system with its name and version. Only then can the effort be estimated honestly.
Data and migration
If you come from another shop system, products, customers, orders and content are part of the project. Redirects for all old URLs come on top. Without them, you lose rankings. Shopify does not take over passwords from another system. Existing customers set a new password after the move. Plan an email to your customers for that.
Operation
Shopify handles servers and security. Work remains anyway: updating apps, setting up new campaigns, checking load time, keeping legal texts current, reading reports. Clarify whether your team takes this on or a partner. In Germany, the Accessibility Strengthening Act (BFSG) also applies to many shops. More in Accessibility under the BFSG.
When Shopify Plus
Plus is meant for merchants with high revenue, several shops or complex wholesale. Since 2026, Shopify also offers the basic B2B features in Basic, Grow and Advanced. According to the Shopify Help Center, some features remain reserved for Plus: unlimited catalogs for customer-specific prices, direct assignment of catalogs, partial payments and deposits. The other plans allow up to three active B2B catalogs. As of October 2026.
With Plus, do not just weigh the plan price. Lower payment fees and saved apps can offset part of it. Read more about Plus under Shopify Plus.
How to get a reliable quote
- Number of products and variants, and where the data comes from.
- Countries, currencies and languages.
- Payment methods your customers expect, such as PayPal, invoice or TWINT.
- All systems: inventory management, accounting, shipping, CRM, newsletter.
- Preferred route: theme, custom theme or headless.
- Existing shop with its address, if a move is planned.
- Who maintains the shop after launch.
Frequently asked questions
For many shops, Basic or Grow is enough. What tips the balance are payment fees at your revenue, the number of staff accounts and reports. You can switch at any time later.
Yes. Products, customers and orders stay in Shopify. A new theme or a headless storefront can be put on the same data later.
Yes. Shopify shows the plans in Switzerland in francs, but Plus in euros. You will find the payment fees for Switzerland on the Swiss pricing page.
That depends on design, range and integrations. With the list above, the effort can be estimated concretely. Without these details, any number would be a guess.
The first step
List all systems that touch orders, stock or invoices today. Next to each, write who looks after it. This list shapes the effort more than any design. How we plan and build shops on Shopify is described under Shopify.
Read with AI
Related services
Keep reading
6 min read
Shopify or WooCommerce: Which Online Shop Fits Your Business?
A sober comparison for merchants in Germany and Switzerland: who takes care of what, where the data sits and when each system fits.
6 min read
Framer Alternative: Which Path Fits Your Website
Webflow, WordPress, custom code or Wix and Squarespace: who maintains the site, what happens to your rankings and what do you own? The comparison by what counts in daily work.
6 min read
Relaunch Without Losing SEO: How to Keep Your Rankings When You Start Over
After a relaunch, traffic is almost always lost through missing redirects, deleted content and a forgotten noindex. Here is how we go about it, step by step.