Shopify Starter Plan Review — Key Pros and Cons

In this Shopify Starter plan review, I spell out all the key pros and cons of the entry-level version of Shopify — and help you work out if this version of the platform is right for you.

Reasons to use Shopify Starter

1. It’s very cheap

One of the biggest reasons for using Shopify Starter is because — by comparison to competing ecommerce platforms — it is extraordinarily cheap. It costs just $5 per month, yet still gives you tools to:

So, if you need to sell online and are on a really low budget, the Starter plan is a great option.

The other benefit of the Starter plan’s competitive pricing is that it gives you the opportunity to test an online business idea without significant financial risk.

2. It gives you a really quick way to get an online store off the ground

The storefront that the Shopify Starter plan gives you (via its ‘Spotlight’ theme) is very basic in nature, and doesn’t really let you do much other than list products and accept payment for them.

But this simplicity means that you can build a store with the Starter plan extremely quickly. You just upload your products and logo and you’re basically good to go. In fact, if you need to put an online store together quickly, it’s hard to think of a faster way to do so than using the Shopify Starter plan.

And despite its simple nature, an online store built with the Starter plan will still include one of Shopify’s best features — its high-performing checkout.

3. It’s great for social media sellers

A lot of sellers these days don’t bother with a traditional website. Their audience hangs out elsewhere — for example on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

But those sellers still need a way to accept payments for their products — and Shopify Starter provides exactly that, in the form of simple payment links that let you accept payment for goods, no matter where you’re selling.

Besides which, running a website can be hard work — you need to think about branding, product uploads, content updates, blogging, SEO and much else besides. Some merchants simply don’t want to get bogged down in all this — they just want a simple way to make their products available for sale. Again, Shopify’s Starter plan ticks that box.

4. It facilitates point-of-sale selling

One of the best things about Shopify in general is its point of sale features. These let you accept payment for goods in physical locations — retail stores, market stalls, gig venues etc. — via smartphones and card readers.

The Shopify Starter plan includes the standard version of Shopify’s POS system, POS Lite, giving merchants a super low-cost way to start selling in person.

5. It lets you add ecommerce features to any website

The Shopify Starter plan lets you add ecommerce to any website really easily. This is thanks to the inclusion of its ‘Buy Button’ feature, which embeds your products on an existing site.

To use this, you just add a snippet of Shopify code to the site you’d like the products to appear on.

While you’re here, check out our store builder finder tool

Our new store builder finder tool helps you find the right ecommerce platform for your needs. Simply answer a few questions about your requirements and get a personalized recommendation that’s right for you.

👉 You can access the store builder finder here.

Reasons to avoid Shopify Starter

1. It doesn’t give you a fully-functional online store

Although Shopify Starter technically lets you build an online store, the type of site you can put together with it will not be good enough for professional merchants.

In truth, all a Shopify Starter store lets you do is list a few products, accept payment for them, and provide contact details for your customers. You can forget about any meaningful customization options, or even the option to add pages to your store.

Significantly, a Shopify Starter store doesn’t let you organize your products into collections. This makes it harder for shoppers to find what they’re looking for on your store, or to discover products that they might not have previously considered buying.

2. Its transaction fees are very high

When you use the Starter plan, Shopify takes a 5% cut of your sales. This amounts to a very high transaction fee.

But with the other Shopify plans, so long as you’re using Shopify Payments — Shopify’s own payment processing tool — you can avoid transaction fees entirely. So if you’re selling a lot of products, a different Shopify plan will usually work out cheaper in the long run than the Starter one.

3. It’s not great for content marketing or SEO

The Shopify Starter plan doesn’t let you blog or add pages to your store — and this severely curtails your ability to perform content marketing or search engine optimization. So if you’re planning on making organic traffic a key part of your marketing mix, you’re better off with one of the other Shopify plans.

4. It doesn’t give you full access to the Shopify app ecosystem

There is a huge range of apps available for Shopify — over 16,000 in fact. These let you extend the functionality of your store in all sorts of interesting ways.

Although you can install some of these on a Shopify Starter store, many won’t work with this version of the platform — so to get the most out of Shopify apps and integrations, you’re usually better off on one of the other Shopify plans.

Shopify Starter plan: the verdict

Shopify’s Starter plan is a great option for merchants who don’t need a website and are happy to sell via product links or in person. It also lets you build a simple store quickly and easily. However, if you’re serious about creating a truly professional, customizable standalone store, I would look in the direction of one of the other Shopify plans.

Shopify Starter vs other Shopify plans — at-a-glance comparison