Shopify markets itself as fee-free, but the real cost shows up in your payment gateway, plan, app stack, and ad spend. Enter your numbers below — pre-set to Shopify — for the honest per-unit picture.
What Shopify actually costs in 2026
Shopify charges no marketplace commission, but you pay a payment gateway fee — typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction on the Basic plan with Shopify Payments, dropping to 2.6% and 2.4% on higher plans. Use a third-party gateway instead and Shopify adds a 0.5–2% penalty on top, which is how it keeps merchants on Shopify Payments. Plans run $39 (Basic), $105, and $399 per month.
The hidden line items
Two costs sink most Shopify margin math. First, the app stack: a real store running email, reviews, subscriptions, and shipping apps easily spends $400–$1,200/month — the equivalent of a meaningful percentage of revenue. Second, attribution leakage: since iOS privacy changes, most stores under-attribute paid revenue by 20–40%, so the ROAS your ad platform reports is rosier than reality. Enter your real cost-per-unit ad spend, not platform-reported ROAS.
A worked example
A $35 product with $9.00 COGS, $4.50 shipping, and $5.00 ad spend pays roughly $1.32 in gateway fees (2.9% + $0.30). Net profit lands near $15.18 per unit on the transaction alone — but that is before your monthly plan and apps are spread across units. At low volume, fixed monthly costs can quietly erase that per-unit win, which is why Shopify rewards scale.
FAQ
Shopify Profit — common questions
Does Shopify charge a transaction fee?
Shopify charges no marketplace commission, but you pay a payment gateway fee — about 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction with Shopify Payments on Basic. If you use a third-party gateway, Shopify adds a 0.5–2% transaction fee on top. You also pay a monthly plan fee starting at $39.
Is Shopify really cheaper than Amazon or Etsy?
On per-transaction fees, usually yes — there is no referral or listing fee. But Shopify shifts cost to you in two places: you must drive your own traffic (higher ad spend), and you carry the app-stack and plan costs. Whether it is cheaper depends on your volume and marketing efficiency. Compare it directly using the calculator.
What should I include for a true Shopify cost?
Your gateway fee, a per-unit allocation of your monthly plan and apps, real ad cost per unit (not platform-reported ROAS), COGS, and shipping. The app stack and attribution leakage are the two costs sellers most often forget — and the two that most often erase the margin.
When does Shopify Plus make sense?
Shopify Plus ($2,000+/month) pays off when your monthly sales volume times the gateway-fee savings exceeds the upgrade cost, and when you actually use Plus-only features like checkout customization or B2B. Most sellers who upgrade purely for "the features" pay for optionality they never exercise.