Join the GenieLab Community
Receive regular updates and inspiration to help your business stay ahead of the game.
Need Assistance?
Contact US today It’s free – Click HERE.You may also like...
Thegenielab: Your Partner for Shopify ADA Compliance
Key Highlights ADA compliance helps Shopify merchants create web accessibility across eCommerce sites for more shop...
How to Implement Control Marketing in Shopify Forms
Introduction Successfully navigating today’s competitive landscape demands that you maintain tight control over your ...
Shopify Theme Detector: Find Any Store's Theme (Free Tool)
Want to know what theme a Shopify store is using? Paste the store's page source into the tool below and we'll scan it...
Mastering Audience Analytics for Customer Loyalty
Key Highlights Understanding audience analytics is crucial for building customer loyalty in today's digital age. Se...
Wholesale Suppliers: The Key to Your Business Success
Introduction For business owners, particularly small businesses, having a steady supply of wholesale products is ver...
The Importance of Featured Products for ECommerce
Key Highlights Featured products are a great way to showcase your best items. Choosing the right products is essen...
The short answer
Upgrade to Advanced once you're past roughly $50,000/month in revenue and actively need custom reports or real-time carrier shipping rates. Upgrade to Plus once you're past roughly $2M in annual revenue and need checkout customization, native B2B, or multi-store/international infrastructure. This guide walks through exactly why those thresholds make sense and what you're actually paying for at each tier.
Overview: what each plan is actually for
Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus are the two highest tiers, sitting above the entry-level Basic and Grow (formerly called "Shopify") plans. Advanced is built for scaling businesses that need deeper reporting and better shipping tools without enterprise-level complexity. Plus is a genuinely different product — a fully customizable, enterprise-grade platform for high-volume, high-complexity operations.
Shopify Advanced
Advanced includes everything in Basic and Grow, plus custom reporting, third-party calculated shipping rates, and up to 15 staff accounts. It's the plan for a business that's outgrown simple tooling but doesn't need Plus-level customization.
Shopify Plus
Plus is Shopify's enterprise solution: a dedicated Merchant Success Manager, full checkout customization via Shopify Functions, native B2B channels, Shopify Flow automation, and support for up to 9 expansion stores and 50 markets (versus 3 markets on Advanced).
Pricing breakdown (2026)
Shopify Advanced
$399/month billed monthly, or $299/month billed annually. Shopify Payments online credit card rate: 2.5% + 30¢. Using a third-party payment gateway instead adds a 0.6% fee on top of your gateway's rate.
Shopify Plus
Starts at $2,300/month on a 3-year term, or $2,500/month on a 1-year term. Above roughly $800K/month in GMV, pricing shifts to a variable platform fee based on revenue instead of a flat rate. Transaction fees are negotiable and typically start around 2.15% or lower with Shopify Payments — with a 0.2% fee if using a third-party gateway, versus 0.6% on Advanced.
The decision framework
Rather than comparing feature lists, work through these four questions in order — the first one that applies to you usually settles the decision:
- Do you need to customize checkout itself (custom fields, complex discount logic, unique post-purchase flows)? Only Plus gives you this, via Shopify Functions and the checkout editor. If yes, you need Plus regardless of revenue.
- Do you sell B2B/wholesale alongside D2C? Plus has a native B2B channel with custom pricing, tiered discounts, and net payment terms. Advanced requires third-party apps to approximate this, and it's never as seamless.
- Are you expanding into more than 3 international markets, or need multiple regional storefronts? Advanced caps you at 3 markets; Plus supports up to 50 markets and 9 expansion stores under one account.
- Is your revenue past roughly $2M/year with no complex requirements above? If none of the above apply, the transaction-fee savings on Plus start to offset its higher monthly cost around this revenue level — but if you're below it, Advanced is very likely the more economical choice.
If none of questions 1–3 apply and you're below the revenue threshold in question 4, stay on Advanced. Upgrading early means paying enterprise pricing for features you're not using yet.
Total cost by revenue level
| Monthly Revenue | Advanced (fees + platform) | Plus (fees + platform) |
|---|---|---|
| $500K | ~$1,441 | ~$3,196 |
| $1M | ~$2,482 | ~$4,092 |
| $5M | ~$10,816 | ~$11,258 |
| $10M | ~$21,232 | ~$20,217 |
On transaction fees and platform cost alone, Plus becomes cheaper around the $7M/month revenue mark. In practice, most brands upgrade well before that point because they need a specific Plus-only capability (checkout customization, native B2B, or multi-market infrastructure) — not because of the fee math.
Feature comparison
Customization and checkout
Advanced limits you to theme customization and App Store apps — the checkout itself is fixed. Plus gives you Shopify Functions and full checkout editor access, letting you build custom promotions, unique shipping logic, and a fully bespoke purchase flow.
B2B and wholesale
Plus includes a native, password-protected B2B storefront with custom pricing and net payment terms built in. Advanced can approximate parts of this with third-party apps, but it's not a first-class experience.
Automation
Shopify Flow — no-code workflow automation for tagging, inventory alerts, and customer segmentation — is Plus-exclusive. Advanced users rely on third-party apps for equivalent automation.
API limits and integrations
Advanced has a capped API call rate that can bottleneck complex integrations. Plus removes this ceiling, which matters if you're connecting to an ERP, CRM, or other systems with high-volume data sync needs.
Support
Advanced gets 24/7 live chat and email support. Plus adds a dedicated Merchant Success Manager and a Launch Engineer for migrations — a meaningfully different level of hands-on support for large-scale operations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the single biggest difference between Advanced and Plus?
Checkout customization. It's the one capability Advanced genuinely cannot replicate at any price, and it's the reason many brands upgrade to Plus before they've hit an obvious revenue threshold.
Is it worth upgrading from Advanced to Plus?
Worth it if you need checkout customization, native B2B, or more than 3 international markets — or if you're consistently above $2M in annual revenue with growing complexity. Below that, Advanced usually remains the more economical choice.
How do I decide without overpaying?
Work through the four-question framework above in order. Most merchants who upgrade to Plus "too early" do so because of a specific feature need, not revenue — which is a legitimate reason, but worth being clear-eyed about versus assuming Plus is simply the "next tier up."
