How much does a Shopify store cost in 2026?

The short version

The plan is rarely the biggest number. For most businesses, the build and the apps decide the budget.

Shopify’s plans

Shopify sets prices per country, so check the pricing page for the country your business is in. Two euro examples, as listed in November 2026:

Sources: Shopify Bulgaria pricing, Shopify Ireland pricing.

Basic is enough for most new stores. Grow mainly buys lower card rates and more staff accounts, so it starts to pay off once sales are steady.

Payment and transaction fees

Every card sale has a fee. Through Shopify Payments, Shopify’s Bulgarian page lists online card rates of 1.9% + €0.25 on Basic, 1.8% + €0.25 on Grow and 1.7% + €0.25 on Advanced. Ireland’s rates differ (2%, 1.7% and 1.5%, each + €0.25), another reason to check your own country’s page.

If you use a different payment provider instead, Shopify adds its own third-party transaction fee on top of that provider’s charges: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus. For most stores in supported countries, Shopify Payments is the cheaper option.

Themes

A theme is the design your store is built on. The Theme Store has free themes and paid ones, and a paid theme is a one-time purchase for one store, not a subscription. ShopThemeDetector’s count of 330 paid themes (November 2026) puts the median at $300 and the average at $283, with half of them between $220 and $360.

A theme sets the layout, but it doesn’t make a store look like yours. Stores that want a distinctive look have a theme designed and built around their brand instead. Our work for Magnolia Blooms, a boutique florist in Bendigo, Australia, is an example: a Shopify store designed from scratch, where the home page gives bouquets, wedding enquiries and floral workshops their own paths, with products added to the cart straight from each row.

Apps

Apps add what Shopify doesn’t include out of the box: reviews, subscriptions, shipping integrations, email marketing. Most charge monthly. Avada puts apps and integrations at $0–$200 a month for a typical store, while Magedelight estimates $200–$400 a month for an advanced stack of 8–12 apps.

App fees add up quietly. Before installing one, check whether your theme or Shopify itself already covers the feature.

Having the store built

Who builds the store makes the biggest difference to the price. Magedelight’s 2026 estimates:

Avada gives a wider range of $500 to $20,000+ for professional services, from small theme changes up to full builds. Prices depend mostly on the number of products, how much of the design is custom, and the integrations you need, so compare quotes on what they include, not only on the total.

Selling in Bulgaria

Bulgarian stores have two things to plan for:

• Cash on delivery. According to the Bulgarian E-commerce Association, cash on delivery was still about 48% of online payments in 2025 (cards 38%), based on 4.95 million shipments. Shopify supports it as a manual payment method (Shopify Help), so offer it alongside cards.
• Couriers. Econt and Speedy connect through apps such as Econt’s own Deliver with Econt (free) or Sendway. Test the checkout with real addresses before launch.

Shopify Payments works for businesses in Bulgaria and pays out in euro, but only for online sales, not in-person payments.

How to keep the cost down

1. Start on Basic, billed yearly. Upgrade when the lower card rates on Grow outweigh the higher plan price.
2. Use Shopify Payments where it’s available, to avoid the third-party transaction fee.
3. Install apps one at a time, and remove any you stop using.
4. Spend on what customers see: product photos, product pages and a quick checkout matter more than extra features.
5. Get the scope in writing, including who owns the theme and the store once it’s built.

Planning a store? Our Shopify development service starts with a free consultation where we look at what you sell and recommend the plan and setup that fits.