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Shopify Pricing 2026: How Much Does It Really Cost to Run a Store?

Naj Ahmed 5
Articles Ecommerce Reviews Ecommerce Selling Advice Shopify

Shopify pricing starts at $5 per month for the Starter plan, and can go as high as $2,300+ per month depending on the plan you choose.

After testing Shopify for over 100 hours and launching multiple stores across different plans, I can confidently say this platform is built for serious ecommerce growth.

But it doesn’t come cheap, and the listed prices are just the start. Between monthly plans, apps, and hidden fees, your actual Shopify cost can vary a lot.

In this breakdown, I’ll walk through everything you need to know about Shopify pricing, including core plans, hidden fees, what each plan includes, and how to avoid spending more than you need to.

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Shopify Free Trial 2026: Everything You Need to Know Before You Launch

Naj Ahmed
Articles Shopify

Shopify offers a free 3-day trial, followed by 3 months at just $1 per month. During the trial, you can build your store, test all features, use Shopify’s new AI website builder, and prepare to start selling — without needing to commit to a full-priced plan upfront.

In this guide, we’ll break down exactly what the Shopify free trial includes, how to make the most of it, and why their new AI website builder makes launching a store faster and easier than ever.

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The Best Corporate Gifting and Employee Swag Platforms Worth Using to Reward Your Staff

Bogdan Rancea
Articles
1

Best Overall

 Fourthwall 4.9 ★★★★★ View Pricing Read Review →

Free plan, no minimums
Pay the base cost per product

Branded corporate store Print-on-demand catalog, incl. sustainable lines 100% off codes, giveaway links, redemption analytics ✓ Best Overall 2

Best for kits and packs

 SwagUp 4.7 ★★★★★ View Pricing Visit SwagUp →

Free plan available
Paid plans from $99/month

New-hire packs and event kits Redeem pages with up to 12 items Warehousing, packing and shipping handled 3

Best for ABM gifting

 Sendoso 4.6 ★★★★★ View Pricing Visit Sendoso →

Custom quote
No published pricing tiers

CRM integrations for revenue teams eGifts, physical gifts, direct mail and swag Delivery to 165 countries

Corporate gifting strategies are way more impactful than most leaders consider them to be, even if they have read all the reports promising that the occasional bit of branded merch does wonders for loyalty, morale, retention, and whatever else.

A lot of leaders see all that data, agree with it, but still put very little effort into finding the right swag to give out. Anything that’s cheap enough and easy to distribute gets added to the catalog, mostly because managers don’t have the time to handle a whole corporate gifting strategy themselves.

Fortunately, the platforms that support this process are getting a lot better these days, going beyond simply listing products you can buy, to helping you keep your strategy running painlessly. After browsing through a few myself, here are the top options I’d recommend.

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What Is a B2B Procurement Platform? The Two Types, Costs, and When You Need One

Bogdan Rancea
Articles

A B2B procurement platform is software or an online marketplace a business uses to request, approve, order and pay for what it buys from other businesses. The catch is that the phrase names two different things: procure-to-pay software you run internally (Procurify, Precoro, Coupa, SAP Ariba) and B2B buying marketplaces where you shop many suppliers at once (Amazon Business, Alibaba.com, Faire).

Mixing them up is how a 15-person company ends up on a sales call for a suite priced from around $50,000 a year, when a free Amazon Business account and the purchase orders built into QuickBooks Online Plus would do the job.

This guide covers how each type works, how punch-out catalogs connect them, what the named tools cost, and the point where a small business actually needs one. Most guides on this topic come from companies selling procurement software. This one does not, so we can tell you when waiting is the smarter call.

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Monta Review: Is This the Ideal Fulfillment and WMS Partner for Ecommerce Stores?

Bogdan Rancea
Articles

I like reviewing store builders and ecommerce platforms because they let me get experimental with how everything looks and works together.

Reviewing a logistics and fulfillment specialist, like Monta, is a bit trickier, especially if you’re planning to run an ecommerce company that serves more than one region. Monta is hyper-focused on the European market and serves companies best that cater to that market as well, with more than 20 locations across the region.

It has a lot to give the right team. You’ve got outsourced fulfillment, warehouse management, plus a great selection of direct integrations. There’s also a lot of credibility packed into the offer, like the 99.98% performance guarantee. Already about 3,000 webshops trust Monta, and I’ll help you decide whether it’s the right tool for you.

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Best Zendrop Alternatives for 2026: Our Top 8 Picks

Bogdan Rancea
Articles dropshipping Dropshipping Companies

Based on our testing of 8 dropshipping apps, DSers is the best Zendrop alternative for 2026 because it offers a free plan for 3 stores and 3,000 products, an official AliExpress partnership, and room for up to 25 stores on its Pro plan.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the key features, pricing, and drawbacks of each of these top-rated Zendrop alternatives, so you can find the right replacement for your store.

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Fourthwall vs Gelato: Who Should You Build Your Business With This Year?

Bogdan Rancea
Articles Ecommerce Print on Demand

I’ve been a big fan of both Gelato and Fourthwall for quite some time now, but I still don’t recommend them automatically to the same people. Gelato is brilliant if you want a global, sustainable print on demand provider with genuinely excellent products, and a huge range of tools to make your designs look incredible.

Fourthwall also gives you retail-grade customizable products, but it’s also giving you a custom website, multiple ways to sell other products (like digital downloads or memberships), plus a range of tools to help scale a brand.

If fulfillment is what’s missing from your strategy, Gelato is still a great pick, if you’re looking to build something a lot bigger, without the extra admin headaches, Fourthwall is better.

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Clover vs Square vs Shopify: Which POS Should Your Store Actually Run?

Bogdan Rancea
Articles POS POS Comparisons

For most single-store retailers, Square is the safest starting point. It is the only one of the three with a genuinely free software tier, a published rate that is the same for every merchant, and nothing to sign before you take your first payment.

But do not stop there. Shopify is the better answer the moment online selling matters, and Clover is the only one of the three that lets a high-volume store negotiate its own processing rate instead of accepting whatever is printed on the rate card.

Part of what makes this comparison awkward is that these are not the same kind of product. Two are payment companies that built POS software, one is an ecommerce platform that added a till, and only one of the three reaches you through a middleman rather than from the company that builds it.

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Lightspeed eCommerce Alternatives: Cheaper and Better Options Ranked

Bogdan Rancea
Articles

Lightspeed eCom is a solid choice if you run a brick-and-mortar store and want your online shop wired directly into Lightspeed Retail.

But if you are here, you have probably hit one of its limits: the price climbs quickly once you add locations and registers, the online storefront tooling lags behind dedicated ecommerce builders, and the platform makes far more sense for physical retailers than for online-first brands.

After comparing the leading ecommerce platforms across pricing, sales features, point-of-sale integration, design flexibility, and ease of use, I have shortlisted five Lightspeed eCom alternatives worth your attention.

Shopify is my top recommendation because it is the only platform on this list that matches Lightspeed’s unified online-and-in-store model while offering a stronger app ecosystem, better templates, and more predictable pricing.

In this guide, I will walk you through the key features, pricing, and drawbacks of each alternative, so you can find the right fit for your store.

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Xero vs FreshBooks: Which Accounting Software is Better for Your Team?

Bogdan Rancea
Accounting Software Articles

Xero and FreshBooks aren’t as far apart in the accounting software space as they used to be, even if they still do clearly serve different audiences. Both of these platforms today have a lot of overlapping features, from double-entry accounting tools, to automation and reports.

The main difference is that FreshBooks still pushes its features mostly towards freelancers and agencies that work regularly with clients and need to send out custom invoices or reminders. Xero is a bit more directed towards growing businesses who have a lot of currencies, products and sales channels to manage at once.

They’re both valuable tools, and they’re both great if you’re sick of trying to handle all of the complicated parts of financial management yourself. The one you choose really just depends on the business you’re trying to run.

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