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Common Questions

For a merchant doing $500K/month in GMV, is the fully-loaded cost of staying on Advanced with a heavier app stack actually cheaper than upgrading to Plus and consolidating natively?

No honest single total exists for a $500K per month merchant, because Shopify publishes no committed Plus card rate. The published arithmetic runs: plan fee gap $2,001 per month, card rate gap 0.25 points or $1,250 per month at the published floors, net $751 per month more on Plus before any app saving (shopify.com/pricing, September 2026).

Is Shopify genuinely cheaper in total cost of ownership than BigCommerce Enterprise or Adobe Commerce at the same $50M/year GMV, once all fees are counted?

Shopify is the only one of the three that publishes a plan fee. Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 per month on a three-year term; BigCommerce publishes Performance at $1,499 per month billed annually and nothing for Enterprise; Adobe publishes no Commerce price at all (vendor pricing pages, September 2026). No honest TCO comparison exists at $50M GMV.

For a $5M-$10M/year merchant still on Advanced (not yet Plus), what's the realistic full monthly spend including apps, processing, and a part-time freelance developer?

A $5M to $10M merchant on Advanced pays $299 per month on annual billing or $399 monthly, plus 2.5% and 30 cents per online card transaction, plus Shopify Tax at 0.35% of US orders above $100,000 and capped at $5,000 a year (shopify.com/pricing and Shopify Help Center, September 2026). Developer cost has no published rate.

What's the realistic all-in monthly TCO for a mid-market Shopify Plus merchant running a minimal app stack (just email and reviews) versus one running 15+ apps?

App-stack weight changes a Plus merchant's bill by the sum of the apps, and no published benchmark gives that sum. App Store prices are entry prices: Klaviyo lists $20 per month for 251 to 500 contacts, and Gorgias charges $900 per month for 5,000 tickets plus $36 per additional 100 (App Store listings, September 2026).