Shopify Pricing Canada (2024): From Monthly Plans to Credit Card Rates

Some of the highest traffic websites on the Shopify ecommerce platform come from Canada. From Instantpot.com to Ecobee.com, Shopify powers quite a few top brands throughout The Great White North. In fact, Shopify, as a company, started in Canada.

And as of this article, Canada accounts for the fourth-highest number of Shopify users in the world, behind the US, the UK, and Australia. So, that begs the question, what is the Shopify pricing in Canada?

Do Canadians get their own pricing that’s separate from the standard USD pricing listed on most Shopify websites? And can Canadian merchants expect to pay unique credit card rates, and in CAD?

We answer all of these questions in our complete guide on Shopify pricing in Canada.

Here are the main points:

Is Shopify pricing in Canada different from other places in the world?
Monthly Shopify pricing plans in Canada
Free trials for Canadian Shopify merchants
Shopify credit card fees in CAD
Domain pricing in Canada
Pricing for Shopify themes in Canada
Pricing for Shopify apps in Canada
Shopify shipping fees and savings in Canada
Shopify point of sale and savings in Canada
Hosting fees
Bandwidth fees
Security and SSL fees in Canada

Continue reading to learn all about Shopify pricing in Canada!

Is Shopify Pricing in Canada Any Different from Other Countries?

For monthly plans, no. But most merchants will pay in CAD; so, since Shopify lists its plans in USD (even on the Shopify.ca website), you may get a better/worse value based on the exchange rate.

Credit card fees are a different story, since Shopify lists all transactional fees in CAD, and includes special rates for Canadian credit cards and Interac debits.

Other than that, themes, apps, and even POS systems cost the same in Canada as they do in other countries, primarily priced in USD for standardization across the globe.

We can say, however, that Canadians receive special shipping discounts, starting at 45% off and increasing to up to 53% off as you upgrade your Shopify subscription.

Some other countries don’t get a variable shipping discount based on your Shopify plan.

Finally, Shopify pricing in Canada also provides benefits like a free trial for the entire platform and up to 20% off discounts on biennial platform plans.

Overall, the relationship of the Canadian Dollar to the United States Dollar may also dictate the overall value of your purchase with Shopify.

Currently, CAD is weaker than USD, but those two currencies usually remain similar, so you shouldn’t have to worry much about discrepancies.

With that said, take a look at our thorough analysis below to find out what you should expect to pay when using Shopify in Canada.

Shopify Pricing Plans in Canada

These are the Shopify pricing plans in Canada:

Most Shopify customers opt for the Basic, Shopify, or Advanced plans, considering they’re best for small to midsized businesses trying to scale.

The Starter plan works if you intend to sell some products on an existing website—or if you have no website at all.

The Shopify Plus plan comes into play for enterprise level brands with highly advanced branding and customization needs. They’re both available for the extremes, but we tend to send online business owners to the Basic, Shopify, or Advanced plans first.

We’ll cover the pricing plans shortly, but it’s worth mentioning that all Canadian Shopify plans have options for discounts. You can save by choosing:

Yearly payments: Save 10% when you pay for a year upfront.
Biennial payments: Save 20% when you pay for two years upfront.

Shopify pricing in Canada also includes a free trial, which we’ll talk about more in the following sections. And it’s always possible to upgrade or downgrade Shopify plans if you’d like to save money, or if you require more functionality.

Note: Shopify still lists plan pricing as USD, even if you visit the Canadian Shopify Pricing page. So, we'll make conversions to CAD for this blog post. Remember, the CAD/USD exchange rates will change in the future. Furthermore, you may have to pay GST (Goods and Services Tax) on your Shopify invoices.

Is There a Free Shopify Trial for Canadian Merchants?

Yes. All Canadian Shopify users receive a free 14-day trial. That’s how every pricing plan from Shopify starts.

The free trial comes with:

All features from Shopify.
No requirement to type in your credit card information.
The eventual requirement to pick and pay for a plan if you want to connect a payment processor, even PayPal.

Once the trial ends, you must choose a payment plan; otherwise, your features get restricted. However, you don’t lose any of the customizations on your Shopify store.

Instead, you simply need to log back into your account whenever you are ready to select a plan and type in credit card information.

Before the free trial ends, the only real limitations include publishing to a custom domain name and setting up payment processing. Other than that, you actually get a live online store; it’s just on a MyShopify subdomain.

Here are the Shopify pricing plans offered in Canada:

Starter: $5 USD per month (about $7 CAD)

The Shopify Starter plan sells for $5 per month. Right now, that’s roughly $7 CAD per month.

Starter plans are rather different when compared to their counterparts, since you don’t get a full online store or custom checkout on your domain.

Instead, the Starter plan is a budget solution for selling online when you don’t have a website, or when you have a non-ecommerce site and want to list a few simple products.

The plan doesn't get you a shopping cart and complete online store on your own domain. Rather, it provides a simple dashboard for creating product pages that you can sell anywhere online.

Having said that, you still receive access to a Shopify dashboard for managing inventory, checking quick reports, and grabbing product page links.

It’s an ideal solution to sell on social media, a blog, or even through email. Some merchants only utilize the unique product pages and use those as their website.

What do you get with the $5 USD per month Starter plan?

Simple product pages for adding descriptions, images, and pricing.
Quick links to share your products with followers or customers.
Buy buttons on every product page, for processing credit card payments.
Options to share your products on social media sites such as WhatsApp and Instagram.
A link shortener and social website tool from Linkpop. This essentially allows you to make a landing page for your store products and put the link to the page in your social bios, like on Instagram and Twitter.
Analytics tools for checking on fulfillment progress, sales, and customer information.
Fulfillment tools for managing orders.

We recommend the Starter plan for those in need of a budget-friendly way to sell products, especially if you lack an ecommerce store, or a website altogether.

However, it’s not a complete ecommerce platform, so if you want a shopping cart, custom domain, and tools like abandoned cart recovery, start with the Basic Shopify plan and work up from there.

Note: Every sale you make with the Starter plan has credit card transaction fees, which align with the Basic plan’s credit card rates listed further down in this article.

Basic: $29 USD per month (about $37 CAD)

At $29 per month USD, or roughly $37 CAD, the Basic Shopify plan is the first option from Shopify that includes everything you need to run a complete online store: a website builder, payment gateway, inventory management, fulfillment, and shopping cart.

The Basic plan serves as the minimum starting point for serious online store owners who want to sell more than a few products on a blog.

This gets you access to the powerhouse collection of features from Shopify, and you can configure a POS system to go with it.

The Basic plan pricing unlocks the following:

A full ecommerce shop with 24/7 support, 2 accounts for staff, and an unlimited number of products.
Options to list on other sales channels like on Facebook, Etsy, Amazon, and eBay.
Four inventory locations.
A completely free SSL certificate.
Affordable payment processing.
Steep shipping discounts.
Unlimited business contacts.
Marketing automation tools.
Customer segmenting.
Basic analytics and reports.
Gift cards.
Discount codes.
Manual ordering.
Abandoned cart tools.
Point of sale support.
Fraud reduction and analysis.
Shipping labels that print with normal printers.
Custom domains.
Features for international selling, such as local payment methods, currency conversions, and market domains.

Shopify: $79 USD per month (about $102 CAD)

The Shopify plan sells for $79 USD per month, which comes out to around $102 CAD. With the upgrade, merchants receive better reports, more staff accounts, and several other automations for improving upon your day-to-day workflows.

You’ll also notice that all payment processing credit card rates see a decrease, at least the main ones, like online and in-person processing.

We consider the Shopify plan as having the best overall value when it comes to all Shopify plans in Canada. Not only do you get steeper shipping discounts and card rates, but there’s a myriad of improved reports and ecommerce automations.

Here's what you get with the Shopify plan:

A full online store with the usual unlimited products, and an increase to 5 staff accounts.
Social media and marketplace selling.
Support for 5 inventory locations.
Manual orders.
A free SSL.
Gift cards and discounts.
Abandoned cart messaging.
Marketing automation, and ecommerce automation with workflows.
Segmentation of all customers.
An unlimited database for contacts.
Upgraded reports.
Fraud protection.
Decreased credit card rates and improved discounts on shipping.
Point of sale support with Shopify POS Lite and Shopify POS Pro (costs extra).
International business features like market management, market domains, and local payment methods.

Advanced: $299 USD per month (about $385 AUD)

The Advanced Shopify plan sells for $299 USD per month, which comes out to around $385 CAD.

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We like it most for scaling businesses, considering it comes with even more advanced reporting than the previous plan. You can also take advantage of another decrease in credit card rates, extra international commerce tools, and more staff accounts.

Here are the main Advanced plan features:

A complete online store with 15 staff accounts, an unlimited number of products, and customer support 24/7.
Selling on all channels like social media and marketplaces.
Eight inventory locations.
Manual ordering.
Abandoned shopping carts.
A free SSL certificate.
Gift cards.
Advanced reporting.
Discount code tools.
Real-time shipping rates with third-party calculations.
Ecommerce and marketing automations.
Shipping and credit card rate discounts.
Shipping labels.
Segmentation for an unlimited number of contacts.
POS support.
Fraud detection.
International commerce extras like custom market pricing and duties/import taxes.

Shopify Plus: Starting at $2,300 USD per month (about $3,100 CAD)

The enterprise package from Shopify, called Shopify Plus, starts at $2,300 USD (roughly $3,100 CAD at the time of this article).

The idea behind this plan is to provide full customization support, advanced control, and a complete view of where your business is going, so the pricing is custom to each organization.

You may pay $2,300 USD, or you may end up paying $10,000; you don’t know until you speak with a Shopify representative.

We do know, however, that Shopify Plus members receive the steepest discounts possible in terms of credit card rates and shipping fees.

And here are the primary features/advantages of Shopify Plus:

You can re-platform with full support from Shopify.
There are no additional fees for infrastructure or hosting.
You don’t have to worry about load testing, performance testing, security patches, or upgrades.
You get the highest performance checkout.
The platform is optimized to boost conversions.
You can add advanced media to product pages like 3D media and AR.
There’s localization with multiple languages and currencies.
You get a 99.99% uptime guarantee.
You can customize every aspect of the checkout.
There are automations for campaigns and discounts.
Integrate with your entire tech stack.
Sell on any channel you want.

Furthermore, Shopify Plus offers a variable fee structure if you’d rather opt for that instead of the usual monthly fee. This works well for high-volume or complex businesses.

Shopify Credit Card Fees in Australia

All ecommerce businesses must pay credit card fees for transactions. These are generally small fees taken by the credit card companies for processing and approving payments online.

Shopify doesn’t have anything to do with this; you’d pay similar credit card fees with platforms like Squarespace, BigCommerce, and Wix as well.

Luckily, Shopify is one of the few ecommerce platforms with a tiered credit card fee system, where the rates decrease as you upgrade your monthly plan.

So, a store on the Advanced plan would pay less in credit card fees than a shop on the Basic plan.

In addition to that, the pricing is easier to understand for Canadian users, since it’s all shown and processed in CAD.

Keep in mind that in order to avoid additional transaction fees, and to take advantage of the best credit card rates, you must use Shopify Payments. It’s still possible to use a third-party processor if necessary.

So, what are the credit card rates for Shopify in Canada? Let’s take a look at the rates you’ll pay based on your Shopify plan.

Credit Card Rates for the Basic Plan:

Online credit card rate in Canada: 2.9% + 30¢ CAD
Online credit card rate for Amex and international cards: 3.5% + 30¢ CAD
Debit card and in-person rate: 2.7% + 0¢ CAD
In-person Interac debit rate: 10¢ CAD
Third-party processing fee (when not using Shopify Payments—this is an extra fee on top of the credit card rates): 2.0%

Rates for the Shopify Plan:

Online credit card rate in Canada: 2.7% + 30¢ CAD
Online credit card rate for Amex and international cards: 3.4% + 30¢ CAD
Debit card and in-person rate: 2.6% + 0¢ CAD
In-person Interac debit rate: 10¢ CAD
Third-party processing fee (when not using Shopify Payments—this is an extra fee on top of the credit card rates): 1.0%

Credit Card Rates for the Advanced Plan:

Online credit card rate in Canada: 2.4% + 30¢ CAD
Online credit card rate for Amex and international cards: 3.3% + 30¢ CAD
Debit card and in-person rate: 2.4% + 0¢ CAD
In-person Interac debit rate: 10¢ CAD
Third-party processing fee (when not using Shopify Payments—this is an extra fee on top of the credit card rates): 0.5%

Domain Pricing in Canada

To add a custom domain to your Shopify store, you can either buy one right from your Shopify dashboard, or choose to transfer one you purchased from a third-party seller.

In general, most domain names cost anywhere from $10 to $25 CAD per year, and you won’t find that Shopify is any different from the third-party sellers like GoDaddy and Namecheap. Or if you were to buy from another ecommerce platform like Squarespace.

Having said that, we’d still recommend buying your domain from Shopify, since it’s significantly easier to just publish a site to a domain in Shopify than transfer one from another system.

Pricing for Shopify Themes in Canada

All Shopify themes you find in the Canadian Shopify Theme Store have USD price tags.

Most premium templates sell for $200 to $400 per theme, and that’s a onetime fee, so you don’t have to think about paying upgrade fees in the future.

So, we’d recommend budgeting around $250 to $550 CAD in order to buy one of the premium Shopify themes.

As an alternative, you could opt for one of the free Shopify themes, which aren’t as feature-rich, but they have beautiful designs and usually enough features to support small businesses.

The only problem is that Shopify seems to have cut down its collection of free themes to about 5 options, so it’s a little trickier trying to establish your brand when so many other companies are using the same themes.

Shopify App Pricing in Canada

Similar to the theme store, Shopify’s App Store lists its products in USD.

Typically, merchants can find free add-ons to satisfy their needs. However, you may discover that certain requirements such as dropshipping, advanced marketing, and multichannel selling require you to purchase apps, most of which have subscription fees, not onetime costs.

We encourage you to locate free apps before committing to paid ones but, of course, you may need to opt for some premium apps.

In that case, you can expect to, generally, pay anywhere from $5 to $50 per month for each app. Some of them go into the hundreds of dollars per month, but those are more advanced suites.

So, a $5 USD app would cost about $6.45 CAD right now. And a $20 app would be close to $26 CAD as of this article, and that’s a monthly cost.

Shipping Fees and Savings for Shopify Canada

If you’re shipping products, you’re paying fees to the carriers, whether it’s through Canada Post, UPS, FedEx, or any other shipping provider.

Shopify doesn’t charge any extra fees for you to print out labels, integrate with the carrier tools, or to send out the packages.

In fact, going with Shopify means that you take advantage of shipping discounts. Compared to other countries that don’t receive better discounts as you upgrade your Shopify plan, Canadian users actually receive better discounts as you grow.

Here are the shipping discounts for Canadian merchants based on your Shopify plan:

Basic plan: Up to 45% of shipping rates.
Shopify plan: Up to 50% off shipping rates.
Advanced plan: Up to 53% off shipping rates.

Another advantage is that Shopify offers shipping label software that prints directly to any standard printer, saving you money on special equipment that you would otherwise need.

Shopify Point Of Sale Pricing in Canada

Shopify offers two point of sale products:

Shopify POS Lite: A free online interface for running your point of sale, using card readers, and syncing online inventory.
Shopify POS Pro: A more powerful POS system with tools for local pickup, exchanges, local delivery, and purchase orders. It costs $89 USD per month (on top of your Shopify plan), which comes out to around $115 per month in CAD.

Shopify Hosting Fees ($0)

Shopify includes all hosting fees with your monthly ecommerce platform plan. So, there’s no need to spend time and money finding a third-party hosting provider.

And you don’t have to worry about site performance, security, or uptime, all of which you may have ended up spending money on with a third-party host.

Bandwidth Fees ($0)

Unlimited bandwidth also comes with your monthly Shopify plan. This ensures that your site supports influxes in traffic, particularly during busy seasons.

The Cost of an SSL Certificate ($0)

Shopify boasts a wide variety of security features, all of which are free with your monthly Shopify plan. You’re protected from brute force attacks, malware, hackers, and fraud. We recommend making automated backups to your site as well.

It’s usually required, by law, to have an SSL certificate installed on your ecommerce shop. Some hosts and ecommerce platforms make you pay for this.

Not Shopify. Every Shopify plan comes with a free SSL certificate already installed, which protects your business and customers by encrypting all transactional data.

A Summary on Shopify Pricing in Canada

To summarize what we’ve covered, here are the main points to remember as a Canadian Shopify merchant:

The monthly Shopify plans get listed in USD, so you must do the math to convert to CAD. And the current conversion rate applies.
You can pay anywhere from $5 to $2,000+ per month for a Shopify plan. Yet, the most popular plans go for $29 and $79 per month.
Credit card rates get listed in Canadian Dollars.
You save money on credit card rates as you upgrade your monthly Shopify plan.
Standard online credit card rates start at 2.9% + 30¢ CAD.
Hosting, SSL certificates, and bandwidth are free with your plan.
The Shopify themes get listed in USD, and you can opt for some of the free themes.
Shopify's apps usually range from $5 to $50 per month, and are listed in USD.

You are welcome to leave us a comment if you have any thoughts about Shopify costs and pricing plans in Canada!