Shopify

This Shopify review covers what the ecommerce platform is used for, its key features, Shopify pricing and fees, where it shines and falls short, and how it compares with other online store builders. Shopify hosts the store for you: web hosting, security, checkout and updates are part of every Shopify plan, so you pick a theme, add products and start selling. The same account can run an online store, a point of sale in a shop, social and marketplace channels, and wholesale orders. Shopify starts with a short free trial; after that, plans start at a low monthly price and grow with the features, staff accounts and payment rates your business needs.

What is Shopify used for?

Shopify is used to run an online store without managing servers or writing code. Typical users are direct-to-consumer brands, retailers with one or more physical locations, creators selling merch or digital products, and larger brands on Shopify Plus that sell to both consumers and business customers. A small business can open a professional storefront in a day, sell unlimited products, accept payments by card, wallet or local methods, and handle shipping, tax and inventory from one dashboard.

Beyond the store itself, Shopify is a sales channel hub. You can sell products on Facebook, Instagram, Google and other channels and marketplaces from the same catalog, and use Shopify POS to sell in person with the same inventory. That single commerce platform is the main reason merchants pick it over a plain website builder, and it is used across almost every retail industry, from fashion and food to software and digital goods.

Key features

• Store builder and templates: free and paid templates, a visual theme editor and blocks for product pages, collections and a blog. Developers can edit the theme code (Liquid) or build a headless storefront.
• Checkout and Shopify Payments: a hosted checkout with Shop Pay, cards and local payment methods; Shopify Payments removes the extra third-party transaction fee.
• Point of sale: Shopify POS for in-person sales, with inventory synced across locations.
• Apps: an app store with more than 8,000 apps for reviews, subscriptions, quizzes, marketing and more.
• Shipping, tax and inventory: shipping labels and rates, tax calculation, and stock tracking per location.
• Marketing and analytics: email marketing, discounts, reporting and a dashboard for sales, traffic, customers and conversion.
• AI tools: Shopify Magic and the Sidekick AI assistant help create product text, edit images and answer questions about your store data, and AI features are included on most plans.
• Security and web hosting: Shopify hosts every store with SSL, a PCI-compliant checkout and fast performance included on every Shopify plan.

Shopify pricing

Shopify is sold as a monthly subscription, cheaper when billed yearly. These are the prices Shopify's pricing page shows for Europe as of September 2026, in euros:

• Basic: €21 a month billed yearly, €28 billed monthly. No staff accounts, 2% fee with third-party payment providers.
• Grow: €59 a month yearly, €78 monthly. Up to 5 staff accounts, 1% third-party fee.
• Advanced: €289 a month yearly, €384 monthly. Up to 15 staff accounts, 0.6% third-party fee.
• Shopify Plus: from €2,100 a month, unlimited staff, 0.2% third-party fee.

Online card rates with Shopify Payments in Europe start at 1.9% + €0.25 on Basic and fall to 1.6% + €0.25 on Advanced; Amex and international cards cost more. Prices and rates differ per country: third-party US guides list Basic at $29 a month billed yearly and online card rates of 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic (Demandsage). New stores get 3 days free, then €1 a month for the first 3 months.

The cost surprise to check is everything around the plan. A $100 sale on Basic in the US costs about $3.20 in card fees with Shopify Payments, and 2% more if you use a third-party payment provider. Paid apps, a premium theme and a custom domain add up quickly, so most stores pay well above the plan price. Check the card rates for your country and the monthly cost of each app before you decide.

When to upgrade: start on Basic, move to Grow when you need staff accounts and lower card rates, and to Advanced when volume makes the lower rates pay for the higher plan price. Shopify Plus is for high-volume brands that need B2B, automation and more checkout control.

Getting started: Shopify store, web hosting and domain

Sign up with an email to start the trial (check whether a credit card is required in your country), and Shopify creates a store on a myshopify.com domain. Pick a theme, add products with images, prices and inventory, set shipping zones and taxes, and connect a payment provider. Buy or connect your own domain before launch; web hosting is already included, so there is no separate host to set up. Most first stores are live in a few days; the time goes into product photos and copy rather than setup. Keep the app list short at the start: every app adds cost and can slow the store's performance.

Web hosting, security and AI on the Shopify platform

Web hosting is the part of Shopify that most new merchants underestimate. Every Shopify plan includes web hosting on Shopify's own platform, with unlimited bandwidth, SSL and a PCI-compliant checkout, so you never rent a separate host or patch a server. That is the main difference with self-hosted ecommerce websites such as WordPress with WooCommerce, where the business pays for web hosting, security plugins and updates on its own. Shopify also takes care of performance at busy moments like sales campaigns, which is hard to match on cheap shared hosting.

AI is built into the platform too. Shopify Magic can create product descriptions, email marketing copy and image edits, and the Sidekick AI assistant answers questions about sales and customers in plain language. These AI features come free with most plans, so they save time without adding to the monthly cost. For a business that wants to spend its money on products and marketing instead of infrastructure, this hosted setup is the core of the Shopify offer.

Shopify, Etsy and Amazon

Shopify is not a marketplace like Etsy or Amazon. On Etsy and Amazon you sell to their customers inside their site and pay listing and referral fees per sale. On Shopify you own the store, the domain and the customer data, and you pay a plan price plus payment fees, but you have to bring your own traffic. Many businesses use both: Shopify as the main store, and marketplaces as extra channels connected to the same catalog.

Where Shopify shines — and where it falls short

Strengths:

• Web hosting, security, checkout and updates are handled for you on every plan.
• One system for online, in-person and social sales.
• A large app store and many themes, developers and agencies.
• Scales from a first product to Shopify Plus, with the same platform and storefront.

Trade-offs:

• The real cost is the plan plus payment fees and apps.
• A 2% extra fee on Basic if you don't use Shopify Payments.
• Deeper customization needs Liquid code or a developer.
• Content-heavy websites and blogs are weaker than on a CMS such as WordPress.

How Shopify compares

• BigCommerce: more built-in features and no extra transaction fee for other payment providers.
• Squarespace: design-first websites with simpler commerce.
• Wix: an all-round website builder with an online store option.
• Webflow: full design control, with e-commerce as a secondary feature.
• Gumroad and Payhip: simpler checkouts for digital products and creators.

Is Shopify worth it?

Shopify is worth it for businesses that want to sell physical products online, and often in person too, without running their own hosting or checkout. It is the safe default for a growing online store, with a large ecosystem of apps, templates and experts, and the Shopify plan can grow with the business. It is less of a fit for a site that is mainly content, for a few digital downloads, or for sellers who want to avoid ongoing fees, where a simpler checkout or a self-hosted store costs less. If you want help building a Shopify store or custom features on top of it, the agencies and developers on LowCodeDevs can take it on.

Sources

• Shopify pricing: plans, card rates, third-party fees and staff accounts (European prices, September 2026).
• What is Shopify and how does it work?, Shopify: the platform, channels and point of sale.
• Shopify pricing, Demandsage: US plan prices and card rates (third-party).
• Best Shopify alternatives, Lovable: alternatives and reasons to switch (written by a competitor).