Shopify Starter vs Basic — Which Plan is Right for You?

In this Shopify Starter vs Basic comparison, I’m going to help you decide between the two cheapest versions of Shopify.

Reasons to use Shopify Starter

1. It’s much cheaper to use

The strongest argument for using Shopify Starter over the Shopify Basic plan involves cost. At just $5 per month, it’s roughly one eighth of the price of the Basic plan, which costs $39 per month.

But despite this, it still gives you a basic storefront (via its ‘Spotlight’ theme, pictured below) and a means to accept payments in person.

In fact, I’d argue that Shopify’s Starter plan represents one of the very cheapest ways to start selling products online, full stop.

2. It’s a better solution for merchants who don’t want a full website

Running a website properly is hard work — you need to think about branding, product uploads, content updates, blogging, SEO and a whole lot more besides. Setting up a store with Shopify’s Basic plan will typically require you to get involved with all these things.

But for merchants who don’t want to get bogged down in all this, and just want to sell on social media or in person, Shopify Starter is a much better choice than the Basic plan.

First, it gives you a way to share product links easily on any social platform you like.

And, thanks to its bundled point-of-sale (POS) features, it lets you accept in-person payments too — you simply download the Shopify POS app to a smartphone or table and you can immediately start accepting payments in physical locations like shops, pop-up stores or market stalls.

3. It’s a better option for merchants who already have a website

If you’ve already got a website that you simply want to sell on, Shopify Starter is a better choice than the Basic plan. Its ‘Buy button’ feature lets you embed products onto an existing site with a minimum of fuss.

While the Basic Shopify plan also comes with this feature, the plan is more geared towards those aiming to build an entirely new store.

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

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Reasons to use the Basic plan

1. It lets you build a fully-functional store

Although Shopify’s Starter plan technically lets you create a storefront (via its ‘Spotlight’ theme), this is extremely basic in nature, and there are barely any customization options available for it. All you get on it are product pages and a checkout.

The Basic plan lifts these restrictions and gives you a highly editable, highly customizable professional store. You can tweak just about any style setting you like and align your website design perfectly with your brand.

2. You can avoid transaction fees on the Basic plan

When you use the Starter plan, Shopify applies a transaction fee of 5% to all your sales. This is a very high fee.

But with the Basic plan, so long as you’re using Shopify Payments — Shopify’s own payment processing service — you can avoid transaction fees entirely. So if you’re a high volume seller, this makes choosing the Shopify Basic plan a much better option than using the Starter plan.

3. It lets you categorize your products

Shopify’s Basic plan lets you categorize your products into collections. This makes it easier for shoppers to find what they’re looking for on your store, or discover products that they might not have previously considered buying.

Unfortunately the Shopify Starter plan storefront doesn’t let you do this — your store visitors will have to trawl through all your inventory to find what they’re looking for.

4. It’s better for blogging and content marketing

Blogging is usually a crucial tool for SEO and attracting visitors to your store. By creating topically relevant, interesting blog posts, you can get eyeballs on your website — and the opportunity to sell your products.

While Shopify’s Basic plan comes with a simple yet effective blogging feature, there are no blogging tools available at all on the Starter plan.

5. More apps work with Basic Shopify than the Starter plan

One of the best things about Shopify is the huge range of apps available for it. These let you extend the functionality of your store in all sorts of interesting ways and scale your selling operation up.

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

Shopify Starter vs Basic — conclusion

To sum things up, Shopify’s Starter plan is the best option for merchants who don’t need a website and are content to sell via product links or in person. If you’re serious about creating a standalone store however, the Basic plan is the much better choice.

At-a-glance comparison