Marketed as "selling for beginners," the Practice Shopify Starter Plan is an entry-level ecommerce plan for Shopify that helps users sell products online without complicated tools, high pricing, or even your own website. In this Shopify Starter plan review, we explore the differences between this plan and other Shopify plans, by touching on aspects like pricing, features, and customer support.
We'll also detail who should consider the Shopify Starter plan, as it's definitely not for everyone.
Shopify Starter Plan: An Overview
Price: $5 per month
Support selling on social media
Best for previously built sites, small inventory, only selling on social media, or when adding products to a blog or creator site
On social media (WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger)
Monetize links to put on social media resumes
Order management
data analysis
How much does the Shopify Starter plan cost?
The only subscription fee for the Starter plan is $5 per month.
That's it; no upgrade option, or reason to consider having to pay more monthly fees or hidden fees (besides the usual payment processing credit card transaction fees - but these aren't hidden).
Remember, this is one of the best prices for adding e-commerce functionality to a website or selling strictly through social media. It used to email list be called the Practice Shopify Lite plan , and it was $9 a month, so the plan has gotten cheaper over the years and has more features to help you.
That being said, you can definitely upgrade to one of the full Shopify pricing plans, including the $29 per month Basic Shopify plan, the $79 per month Shopify plan, and the $299 per month Advanced Shopify plan. There is also an enterprise option called the Shopify Plus plan. However, the starter plan is a completely different type of online selling. It's not a full online store, but an easy way to add products to an existing website or blog without the full website builder Shopify.
Just like other Shopify plans, you can actually try the Shopify Launcher for 14 days . The free trial provides access to all of Shopify's introductory features without any limitations (except the ability to use payment gateways to process payments). This way, you can upload products and test how product pages and buy buttons work on your social media sites or your current website. After the free trial period ends, all changes will be saved, but in order to continue customizing and processing payments, you will eventually have to enter your credit card number and pay for the $5 per month plan.
Finally, payment processing requires a percentage of each transaction, via the Shopify Starter. This is one of the main drawbacks of using Shopify to start one of the major ecommerce plans (like the Basic, Shopify, or Premium plans) because the credit card fee is a flat 5% per transaction (via Shopify Payments). In comparison, the basic plan Shopify credit card rate is 2.9% + $0.30. So you spend more on credit card payments with the Shopify Launcher, but it also lowers your upfront costs. No need to pay 5% until you make a sale.