Shopify is superb software with a marketing machine so effective that "I should set up a Shopify" has become the default thought for anyone selling anything. Sometimes it's right. Often it's a $468/year subscription for a shop that needed a free option. Here's the decision tree we'd give a friend.
Get Shopify (Basic, $39/mo or ~$19/mo billed annually) if: you're building a branded store as a real sales channel — recurring buyers, growing catalog, apps, and you'll actively drive traffic to it.
Don't get it if: you're testing demand, selling a handful of items a month, or your buyers already live on Etsy or Instagram. Cheaper shapes below cover every one of those cases — including two that are $0/month.
Stay where your buyers already are — total software cost $0/month. Sell in your DMs, at markets, in local Facebook groups. If it's handmade/vintage/craft supplies, list on Etsy: no monthly fee, but know the real toll — $0.20 per listing + 6.5% transaction fee + ~3% + $0.25 payment processing ≈ 10-13% of each sale all-in. That's expensive at scale but unbeatable for testing: you pay only when you sell, and Etsy brings the shoppers.
Square Online, Free plan — $0/month. A real store with a usable free tier; you pay per-transaction processing (3.3% + 30¢ online on Free at our check; 2.6% + 15¢ in person). Especially natural if you already take Square payments at a counter or market stall. Square reworked its pricing in October 2025 into Free / Plus $49 / Premium $149 — the Free tier remains the Main-Street workhorse.
Shopify Starter, $5/month — checkout links and a simple landing shape, not a full store, and note the 5% per-transaction fee on that plan. Honest math: at more than ~$700/month of sales, Starter's 5% starts costing more than Basic's subscription-plus-2.9% — the cheap plan quietly stops being cheap.
Shopify Basic — $39/month (~$19/mo billed annually), online card rates ~2.9% + 30¢. This is where Shopify genuinely earns its keep: proper store, apps, inventory, abandoned-cart recovery. One condition: a store nobody visits sells nothing. Budget your energy for the traffic (content, local SEO, the marketing tools we cover in this series) or the $39 buys you a beautiful empty room.
A bakery that takes custom orders, a salon that sells gift cards: you need a site first. A budget builder like Hostinger (promo pricing from a few dollars a month — check current rates, renewal prices are higher) with a simple order form or payment link covers it without store-grade costs.
Pay a monthly fee only when the store is a channel you actively work. Marketplaces charge per sale (great for testing, expensive at scale); subscriptions charge for existing (cheap at scale, wasteful while you're small). The crossover is YOUR monthly sales volume — not a feeling, a number. Recompute it twice a year.
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Build my free AI Stack →Starter is $5/mo (checkout links only, 5% transaction fee). Basic — the first real store — is $39/mo, or about $19/mo billed annually, plus ~2.9% + 30¢ online card processing. Grow is $105/mo and Advanced $399/mo. Annual billing roughly halves Basic's headline price.
For low volume, usually yes in cash terms: no subscription, roughly 10-13% all-in per sale ($0.20 listing + 6.5% transaction + ~3% + $0.25 processing) — and Etsy brings its own shoppers. At higher volume the percentages flip: Shopify's flat $39 + ~3% beats Etsy's ~13% once you're selling roughly $400+/month, IF you can generate your own traffic.
Yes — two. Square Online's Free plan runs a real store at $0/month (you pay only card processing, 3.3% + 30¢ online at our check). And selling directly through DMs/social with payment links costs nothing but processing. Free tiers are for validating demand; upgrade only when a real limit bites.
Around $700/month in sales. Starter charges 5% per transaction; Basic charges ~2.9% plus its subscription. Above roughly that volume, Basic's math wins — below it, Starter's $5 is hard to beat for link-based selling.
| Claim | Source | Retrieved |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify plans: Starter $5/mo (5% txn); Basic $39/mo or ~$19/mo annual (~2.9%+30¢ online); Grow $105; Advanced $399 | shopify.com/pricing + 2026 pricing guides (NerdWallet et al.) | 2026-08-06 |
| Square unified pricing since Oct 2025: Free $0 / Plus $49 / Premium $149; online processing 3.3%+30¢ on Free (2.9%+30¢ on paid); in-person 2.6%+15¢ | squareup.com pricing + 2026 fee guides | 2026-08-06 |
| Etsy fees: $0.20 listing + 6.5% transaction + ~3%+$0.25 US payment processing ≈ 10-13% all-in | etsy.com/legal/fees + 2026 fee breakdowns (Craftybase) | 2026-08-06 |
| Hostinger website builder: promo pricing from a few $/mo; renewal higher | hostinger.com pricing | 2026-08-06 |
| Starter-vs-Basic crossover ≈ $700/mo sales (5% vs 2.9% + subscription) | Worklever calculation from the plan terms above — check our math | 2026-08-06 |