Shopify Plus adds tonnes of cool features to your Shopify experience and could be exactly what you’re looking for to take your online business to the next level.
However, it isn’t for everyone and it’s important to think about whether or not you’re going to get the most out of the subscription.
In this article, we’ll compare Shopify and Shopify Plus and help you decide which version is best for you and your business.
What Features Do You Get?
As we’ve already said, Shopify Plus brings a lot of unique and interesting features to your website that you don’t get with a standard subscription.
Some of these have the power to completely transform your transactions whilst others are more simple quality-of-life improvements.
Here are some of the key features that you’ll receive when you sign up for Shopify Plus. Take a read of all of them and decide whether they are things you’d be willing to pay for.
Shopify Organisation Admin
The Shopify Organisation Admin platform is one of the main benefits available to Shopify Plus Merchants. The Organisation Admin gives merchants a full overview of their business and allows them to analyse how they have been performing over time.
They have access to important business metrics and can view real-time information about their store. As a result, Shopify Plus members have a useful tool to help them make improvements to their online business going forward.
Additionally, the Organisation Admin lets business owners manage their team with ease. Staff Accounts can be linked together and managed from a central location. This is one area where other eCommerce platforms can’t match what Shopify Plus offers.
Finally, this tool can be used to quickly create and experiment with new stores. Shopify Plus supports up to 10 expansion stores under one license, which helps with multi store management for the same brand and makes international expansion across multiple regions more practical when you need multiple stores.
A storefront can be created in a matter of seconds and data from existing stores can be instantly transferred over.
You can also clone themes and settings between separate stores for a faster rollout. This is a fantastic way to try out new things and see what works the best for your business.
Looking more information? Talk with one of our expert Shopify developers today!
Advanced Shopify Apps
Investing in a Shopify Plus subscription will bring access to a range of advanced Shopify apps.
Beyond individual tools, the Shopify App Store gives merchants access to a vast ecosystem. When native features are not enough, brands can extend the platform with custom apps for specific operational workflows.
Advanced Shopify Apps can help with shipping and fulfilment, integrating social media platforms, collecting data for tax purposes and much more.
Built-in tools like Shopify Flow handle automation without coding, reducing manual workloads and human error. Meanwhile, Launchpad schedules campaign activities for sales, product releases and seasonal events.
The Advanced Shopify Plus Apps are aimed at sellers who are aiming for high-growth as quickly as possible.
If you’re an ambitious entrepreneur, then this could be the feature that convinces you to invest in Shopify Plus.
Customise Your Checkout
Shopify uses a base design across all of the websites that it works with, but unlike standard Shopify plans and other standard plans, Shopify Plus offers more checkout flexibility than standard Shopify.
This also gives website owners the chance to make their websites stand out from others who use the Shopify platform, with advanced features that matter for more tailored experiences.
Changes to Shopify’s checkout no longer rely on editing checkout.liquid; instead, checkout customisation is now handled through extensibility apps, while the platform still has the SaaS-style backend limits typical of hosted systems.
This process may still require some technical knowledge, but as a Shopify Plus member, you’ll receive priority support from Shopify staff who can advise you on what to do.
You’ll quickly be able to introduce a range of new checkout options to your site, and a better checkout can help lift conversion and average order value.
Merchant Success Program
The Merchant Success Program connects businesses with professional consultants. On signing up for the program, you’ll be assigned a Merchant Success Manager, with 24/7 support available alongside that guidance.
Merchant Success Managers will offer expert strategic advice and help you put a growth roadmap together for the future.
Managers will also guide you through data migration in order to set up your brand new store. This support model helps internal teams launch faster with less operational overhead than other platforms, which can make the move more cost effective.
This is perfect for anyone who has limited eCommerce experience or who just wants to save some of their valuable time.
Your manager will stay available for consultation throughout your time as a Shopify Plus member.
Even the most established, enterprise-level stores make use of the expertise offered by Shopify Plus consultants. Our enterprise website designers can provide you with more information on this.
Third-Party Integration Assistance
As well as having access to a Success Manager, Shopify Plus members can also consult a Launch Engineer as they prepare to upload their new store.
A Launch Manager will assist with the integration of any third-party content, ERP platforms and other operational systems you need for your shop via APIs, which can also support smoother B2B workflows and account management.
Shopify Plus also supports high-throughput API access with up to 10x standard limits and as much as 500% higher API call limits, which matters for complex operations and peak traffic.
Launch Managers will also help you find design partners who will work on development projects. This means your Shopify eCommerce store will be tailored towards you.
Being able to pick the brains of the Success and Launch Managers is undoubtedly one of the biggest advantages of Shopify Plus and this one feature might make the subscription worth it for a lot of people.
Plus Academy
The Shopify Plus Academy is a platform specifically designed for Shopify Plus merchants who want to expand their skill sets and improve their performance.
The Academy has a range of courses available, from quick lessons to in-depth growth theory.
Shopify Plus members will learn how to expand to new markets, introduce paid adverts to their sites, improve their conversion rate and much more.
For website owners who don’t have a lot of eCommerce experience, the Academy is a fantastic resource to help them learn.
Looking for more help? Our eCommerce website design team are on hand to answer any questions you may have.
Lower Transaction Fees
One of the biggest reasons that people are attracted to Shopify Plus is the reduction in transaction fees.
For a normal Shopify site, transaction fees can become quite a significant cost. The fact that Shopify Plus members don’t have to pay as much in fees is definitely a plus.
Shopify Plus Online Transaction Fees:
- Domestic: 1.20% + $0.30 AUD per transaction.
- International & AMEX: 2.60% + $0.30 AUD per transaction
Shopify Plus In-Store / POS Transaction Fees:
- EFTPOS Debit: 0.40%
- Visa & Mastercard Debit: 0.75%
- Credit: 1.55%
Third Party Transaction Fee (if not using Shopify Payments): 0.20%
Of course, Shopify Plus comes at a cost and it’s up to you to work out whether having lower fees for Shopify Payments is going to be a net benefit.
The total cost can vary based on business volume and annual revenue, as Shopify Plus uses variable pricing and more complex stores can cost more.
Looking at the bigger picture, monthly pricing can move well beyond the base fee and exceed $4,000 to $10,000 for more advanced setups, which affects the total cost of ownership.
For enterprise-level businesses, this reduction in fees can save them tonnes of money, considering how many products they sell every single day.
Those reduced transaction fees can create meaningful transaction fee with higher annual sales.
Wholesale Multi-Channel
A Shopify Plus account also grants access to wholesale capabilities. Since Shopify Plus introduced built-in B2B features in mid-2022, it’s no longer just about a separate checkout experience for trade customers and those tools can simplify moving from manual processes to online.
It also lets merchants run wholesale and DTC channels in one admin, which makes account management more straightforward across the business.
That includes company profiles, customer accounts, custom price lists, payment terms, purchase order workflows and differentiated catalogues for different buyers.
Shopify Plus provides this multi-channel approach, allowing businesses to better manage their revenue streams and keep different types of sales separate across DTC channels and wholesale operations.
We’d probably go so far as to say that if you want to offer wholesale options to your customers, then Shopify Plus is a must for you.
Shopify Functions
Custom operational logic was historically handled through the legacy Script Editor. Today, Shopify Plus relies on Shopify Functions to handle custom discounts, shipping rules and payment options natively.
This shift allows developers to build fast, reliable server-side backend logic. It ensures your custom rules execute in milliseconds without adding technical debt or slowing down checkout performance.
Implementing custom functions requires developer knowledge, but Shopify provides extensive testing environments to validate logic before going live.
Once deployed, these functions execute natively in the background without modifying core theme files.
How Much Extra Is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is an enterprise-grade platform designed for high-volume merchants rather than just a pricier subscription tier.
Base pricing starts at $3,700 AUD per month on a three-year contract. While this is a significant step up from standard plans, the reduced transaction fees and built-in enterprise features quickly offset the cost for high-revenue stores.
Although this might sound like a high cost, especially when compared to the base Shopify price, the sheer number of features you receive in return is hard to ignore.
It’s also important to note that an eCommerce agency would probably charge more for a similar service.
| Platform | Cost |
| Shopify Advanced | $575 AUD / month ($519 / month, paid annually) |
| Shopify Plus | $3,700 AUD / month ($3,200 / month, 3-year term) |
| Difference | $3,125 AUD / month ($32,172 / year) |
Compared with advanced plans and grow plans, the key differences with Plus are less about entry-level pricing and more about enterprise scale, automation and support.
Final Thoughts
So, is Shopify Plus worth it? The truth is that the answer is extremely situational.
For large or complex businesses, Shopify Plus is a great website solution.
It’s built for companies doing over $1 million in sales annually online and being able to manage staff accounts, use advanced Shopify Apps and pay less in transaction fees more than makeup for the subscription cost.
Its 99.99% uptime SLA, automatic scaling for traffic spikes, and global CDN that reduces latency can be a game changer for most retailers.
That kind of reliability is especially valuable during flash sales or Black Friday peak traffic, with merchants often reporting zero downtime.
For smaller businesses, it’s a little more complicated and for most businesses the cost is too high to be viable, especially if they’ve not got much revenue coming in.
For them, we’d recommend starting with the Shopify Basic plan and then thinking about upgrading to Plus or Advanced in the future.
Having said that, the Shopify Plus platform offers a number of features that would be absolutely fantastic for new businesses.
The Academy, Success Managers, and integration assistance are all things that are really geared towards emerging enterprises.
Be sure to have a good think about the specific benefits that Shopify Plus is going to provide for you and whether or not they are enough to justify the investment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the benefits of Shopify Plus?
The platform is packed with benefits that go well beyond standard Shopify, making it better suited to businesses that need more scalability, control and support as they grow. It also includes exclusive enterprise features like Multipass for single sign-on.
The analytics dashboard, Success Managers and Staff accounts management are all perfect for emerging businesses, whilst wholesale capabilities and low fees will be great for larger operations.
When should I upgrade to Shopify Plus?
You should upgrade to Shopify Plus when the benefits clearly outweigh the costs, which usually means the math works on lower fees and your business has also outgrown standard plans operationally.
This will vary from company to company, so the right timing depends on your revenue, workflows and complexity.
Is having a Shopify store worth it?
Having a Shopify store is the easiest way to sell products on your website. It’s also a flexible platform with fast deployment and seamless integration across 12,000+ apps, especially when compared with more complex options like Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
Whether you want to sell gift cards, digital services, or physical products, you’ll be able to do so with this platform.
A great thing about this platform is that it can be integrated into existing sites. This means you can set up a store alongside your blog posts and other content.
