Shopify charges rent, not commission
Every marketplace fee calculator answers "what does this sale cost me". For Shopify that is the wrong question, because most of what you pay has nothing to do with any individual sale.
You pay a subscription whether you sell one item or ten thousand, plus a card rate on what you do sell. So the only meaningful number is the all-in rate: everything you pay Shopify in a month, divided by the revenue you took. That is what this calculator reports.
The formulas
- Monthly revenue = average order value × orders a month.
- Card fees = card % × revenue + fixed fee × orders.
- Total = subscription + card fees (+ the gateway fee, if you don't use Shopify Payments).
- All-in rate = total ÷ revenue.
- Break-even against a marketplace = subscription ÷ (marketplace rate − your variable rate).
Worked example: 100 orders of $50 on Basic
You take 100 orders a month at $50.00 each, on the Basic plan billed monthly, using Shopify Payments at 2.9% + $0.30.
- Revenue = $50.00 × 100 = $5,000.00.
- Subscription = $25.00.
- Card fees = 2.9% × $5,000.00 + $0.30 × 100 = $175.00.
- Total = $200.00, an all-in rate of 4%.
- That is $2.00 an order — against roughly $4.25 on Etsy or $5.84 on eBay for the same sale.
How the rate falls with volume
Basic plan, $50.00 average order, Shopify Payments.
| Orders a month | Revenue | Total fees | All-in rate | Per order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $500.00 | $42.50 | 8.5% | $4.25 |
| 50 | $2,500.00 | $112.50 | 4.5% | $2.25 |
| 100 | $5,000.00 | $200.00 | 4% | $2.00 |
| 250 | $12,500.00 | $462.50 | 3.7% | $1.85 |
| 1000 | $50,000.00 | $1,775.00 | 3.55% | $1.78 |
The all-in rate falls steadily towards the card rate as volume rises, but never reaches it — the subscription is always there. This is the opposite shape to a marketplace, where the rate is flat forever. It is why Shopify suits sellers who already have an audience and marketplaces suit those who need one.
The plans
| Plan | Monthly | Yearly | Outside gateway fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $25.00/mo | $19.00/mo | 2% |
| Grow | $65.00/mo | $49.00/mo | 1% |
| Advanced | $399.00/mo | $299.00/mo | 0.6% |
A dearer plan only pays for itself if its lower gateway fee or extra features outweigh the extra subscription. If you use Shopify Payments, the gateway column is irrelevant to you, and the case for Advanced rests entirely on features rather than fees.
When the subscription is worth it
The break-even figure in the results answers a narrow question: at what revenue does Shopify cost less than a marketplace commission. It is a useful anchor, but it understates the case against Shopify for a new seller, because it compares only the fees and not what the fees buy.
A marketplace commission includes distribution. Etsy and eBay put your listing in front of people already searching for something like it, and you pay for that in percentage points. Shopify charges you rent on an empty shop. If you cross the break-even revenue but get there by spending on ads, the ad budget belongs in the comparison, and it is usually larger than the fee difference.
The sellers Shopify genuinely suits are the ones who already own their demand: an existing audience, a mailing list, a social following, repeat customers who would buy direct if you let them. For them the marketplace commission is pure cost, because the marketplace is not supplying anything they cannot supply themselves. For everyone else, the honest comparison is Shopify plus a marketing budget against a marketplace fee, and that is a much closer contest than the raw percentages suggest.
Reading your own rate
The one figure here you should replace with your own is the card rate. Shopify advertises "from 2.9% + 30¢" for Basic in the US, and the "from" is doing real work: the rate varies by plan, by country, by card type, and in-person sales are charged differently again. Your Shopify billing page shows what you are actually paying.
It is worth checking rather than assuming, because the card rate is the part that scales. On$5,000.00 of monthly revenue, a difference of half a percentage point is$25.00 a month — the whole Basic subscription. Any estimate built on the advertised headline rate is a starting point, not an answer.
Common mistakes
- Comparing the card rate to a marketplace commission. You must include the subscription, or Shopify looks far cheaper than it is.
- Ignoring volume. The same plan can cost 20% of revenue or 3%, depending only on how much you sell.
- Forgetting the gateway penalty. Using an outside processor adds a fee on top of that processor's own.
- Assuming 2.9% applies to you. It is the published US Basic rate; yours may differ by plan and country.
- Leaving out the cost of traffic. Shopify brings no buyers — marketplace fees partly buy an audience.
To put this next to the marketplaces on a single sale, use themarketplace fee comparison, or see theEtsy fee calculator andeBay fee calculator for each platform in detail. If you are pricing handmade goods, how to price for Etsy feescovers the arithmetic of pricing around a percentage fee.
Frequently asked questions
What does Shopify actually cost per order?
It depends entirely on volume. At $50.00 average order value and 100 orders a month on Basic, the all-in cost is $2.00 an order, or 4% of revenue. At 10 orders a month the same subscription makes it far dearer per order; at 1,000 it becomes close to the card rate alone.
Is Shopify cheaper than Etsy or eBay?
Above a certain revenue, yes. Marketplaces charge a commission that never falls, around 9–14% of each sale. Shopify charges a fixed subscription plus roughly 2.9% + $0.30, so its effective rate drops as you grow. With the default figures, Shopify beats a 9.5% marketplace fee above $416.67 of monthly revenue. Below that, the marketplace is cheaper.
Why does the calculator ask me for the card rate?
Because Shopify does not publish a complete list. It advertises “from 2.9% + 30¢” for Basic in the US, but rates differ by plan and by country and are not published per plan anywhere we could cite. Rather than invent the missing figures, the field is prefilled with the published Basic rate and you can correct it from your own Shopify billing page.
What is the 2% third-party transaction fee?
A penalty for not using Shopify Payments. If you take payments through an outside gateway, Shopify adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced, on top of whatever that gateway charges. It is not charged when Shopify Payments is your only provider. Tick the box above to include it.
Should I pay yearly?
It is a straight discount: $19.00 a month instead of $25.00 on Basic, and $299.00 instead of $399.00 on Advanced. Switch the billing toggle to compare. The saving is real but modest next to the card fees once you are selling steadily.
Sources & last checked
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