Shopify

Shopify is a commerce platform for building and running an online store, selling in person and reaching buyers on marketplaces, social networks and AI channels. It offers hosting, checkout, payments, point of sale and order management as one subscription service.

It solves the problem of putting together a working shop without managing servers, checkout security or payment integrations. Merchants start from a theme, add products and connect payments, then extend the store with apps from the Shopify App Store or custom development with Shopify's APIs.

Key features

• Online store builder. Prebuilt themes and a visual editor for launching a storefront quickly.
• Checkout and Shop Pay. A hosted checkout with Shop Pay, Shopify's accelerated checkout, which the company says reaches 250M+ shoppers.
• Point of sale. In-person selling is included on all plans; POS Pro is an add-on per location for stores with retail locations.
• Selling everywhere. Channels for social media, marketplaces and AI shopping assistants alongside the main store.
• App ecosystem. More than 21,000 apps in the Shopify App Store.
• Sidekick AI. An AI assistant inside the Shopify admin for store tasks and growth suggestions.
• International selling. Translated storefronts, local currency display and Shopify Markets on all plans.
• Developer platform. APIs and the Hydrogen toolkit on shopify.dev for headless and custom builds.

Who it is for

Shopify suits solo founders launching a first product, small brands selling online and in person, and growing teams that need staff accounts and international selling. Shopify Plus serves larger and more complex businesses with B2B catalogues, full checkout customisation and many retail locations.

Pricing at a glance

• Basic: the full online store and core features; no additional staff accounts; 2% fee when using a third-party payment provider.
• Grow: up to 5 staff accounts; 1% third-party provider fee.
• Advanced: up to 15 staff accounts and more advanced features; 0.6% third-party provider fee.
• Plus: unlimited staff accounts, up to 200 inventory locations, fully customisable checkout and priority 24/7 phone support; 0.2% third-party provider fee.

Yearly billing costs less per month than monthly billing. New stores get a free trial, followed by a low-cost introductory period. Shopify shows plan prices in local currency, so check the exact US dollar amounts on the pricing page.

Prices as checked on 7 October 2026; confirm on the vendor's pricing page.

Things to consider

• Shopify Payments is available in 39 countries. India is not one of them, so stores there use a third-party payment provider and pay the extra transaction fee for their plan.
• Many common features come from paid apps, which add to the monthly cost.
• Checkout customisation is limited below Plus.
• Themes, apps and Shopify-specific data structures make moving to another platform a real project.

Getting started

1. Start a free trial and pick a theme.
2. Add products, shipping zones and tax settings.
3. Set up payments: Shopify Payments where it is available, or a third-party provider elsewhere.
4. Connect a domain and place a test order.
5. Choose a plan on the pricing page before the trial ends.