If we're currently on Advanced and considering Plus mainly for Launchpad flash-sale scheduling, is that a strong enough reason on its own?

What does Launchpad do that an Advanced store cannot?

Launchpad runs a whole sales event from one schedule, and only Plus stores get it. Shopify says “The Launchpad app is available only to stores on the Shopify Plus plan” (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). Shopify describes Launchpad as a way “to schedule, coordinate, and execute events, such as sales, product drops, and inventory restocks.” One Launchpad event changes product prices at the start and end, releases products to sales channels, raises inventory, schedules theme changes and password-protects the store beforehand.

One item on Shopify's own Launchpad list is stale. Shopify's Launchpad help page still offers to “Schedule line item and shipping scripts to change prices and grant discounts at checkout.” Shopify Scripts were deprecated as of 30 June 2026, and any still published “have been deactivated and no longer work” (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). So if scheduled Scripts were part of the Launchpad case, that reason ended in June. The wider Advanced vs. Plus decision at $1M a month weighs the Plus-only features that still count.

How much of a Launchpad event can an Advanced store schedule today?

An Advanced store can now schedule most of a Launchpad event, though not from one switch. Rollouts, on the Basic plan or higher, schedule a theme change and can revert it when the rollout ends (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). Shopify Flow is free on every plan from Basic to Plus (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). A Flow workflow can run at a set time and change the store through its application programming interface (API), which means prices and stock can move on a timer too.

Is coordinating a drop in one event worth the Plus plan fee on its own?

No. Plus costs $1,901 to $2,201 a month more than Advanced, or $22,812 a year at the low end (Deploi arithmetic from shopify.com/pricing and shopify.com/plus/pricing, October 2026). Launchpad's one-switch coordination is worth less than that. What Advanced lacks is a native event that changes product prices, stock and releases in the same minute and resets prices at the end, which Launchpad does (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). At 9:00am on a drop, all of it flipping together beats four people flipping four things within ninety seconds. That is worth something on a handful of events a year, and less than the fee.

What limits does Launchpad put on a drop?

Launchpad's guidelines limit when a drop can run, how its discounts apply and what happens to the password page (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). The scheduling rules bite hardest: they rule Launchpad out for regional drops that overlap, because one event must end before the next begins:

• “You can't run or schedule overlapping events.”
• “Events must be scheduled to begin at least five minutes after the previous one has ended.”
• “When you add collections to a Launchpad event, verify that no collection contains more than 1000 products.”
• “All percentage discounts in an event apply to the regular prices of a product, not the compare-at prices.”
• “Adding a product to the collection during the event doesn't apply the discount.”
• Launchpad can't sell a gift card below its face value, because Shopify treats a gift card as currency.
• Launchpad discounts also reach products in business-to-business (B2B) catalogs, so a B2B buyer can get the event discount and the catalog discount together.
• Switching on a password page in Launchpad removes the one you already had when the event begins, and “It isn't restored when your event ends.”

So a brand that staggers drops by region has to run them back to back, at least five minutes apart.

When does Launchpad tip the decision toward Plus?

Launchpad tips the decision toward Plus when timed drops are the business model and Launchpad arrives with other Plus-only needs.

• When drops are the business model. Weekly or twice-weekly releases, where a ninety-second coordination window is a revenue event, not an inconvenience.
• When it arrives with bot protection and high-volume checkout. Bot protection is also Plus-only (Shopify Help Center, October 2026), and high-volume checkout is listed only for Plus (shopify.com/pricing, October 2026), so the three drop tools make a case together that Launchpad cannot make alone.
• When it arrives third on a list. Launchpad behind a checkout requirement and a functions requirement is a fine third reason.

To test whether Launchpad tips the decision, run it on the paid Plus trial: $399 USD a month for 1 to 2 months, with Launchpad included but not bot protection (Shopify Help Center, October 2026). If you take no action, the store “is automatically enrolled in a full Plus plan,” so set a decision date before you start. Once you are on Plus, Launchpad costs nothing extra (Shopify App Store, October 2026), so it rides along with an upgrade made for other reasons. Deploi's flash-sale scheduling record scores it WAIT on Plus for that reason (October 2026).