Blog

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.

Continue reading “Shopify Pricing 2026: How Much Does It Really Cost to Run a Store?”

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.

Continue reading “Shopify Free Trial 2026: Everything You Need to Know Before You Launch”

Gelato Direct-to-Film (DTF) Printing: Everything POD Sellers Need to Know

Bogdan Rancea
Articles Print on Demand

Personally, I’ve been a big fan of Gelato as a print on demand vendor for a while now. They’ve always seemed like a company with their “finger on the pulse”, going eco-friendly before most of their competitors, building a worldwide network, and giving sellers tools other platforms can only dream of (like AI-powered pricing support). Lately though, this company is pulling out all the stops.

You may know Gelato upgraded its (already amazing) premium plan this year, with new extras like free personalization studio, discounts of up to 35%, and specialist tools like Instant Collections (launch entire catalogs instantly with AI), Magic Mockups, and the Velocity Switch migration tool.

What you might not know, though, is that they also added a new printing option: Direct to Film (DTF), and that’s honestly a bigger deal than you might think.

Continue reading “Gelato Direct-to-Film (DTF) Printing: Everything POD Sellers Need to Know”

The Best Gelato Products to Sell on Etsy in 2026

Bogdan Rancea
Articles Print on Demand

Everyone says that launching an Etsy store is easy, and for the most part it is. You don’t need to worry about website design, and you’re launching products on a marketplace that already has millions of buyers, so that takes the pressure off. But there are tough parts too, like figuring out what to sell.

Taking the print on demand route can make things a bit easier. You’re not producing your own products, or dealing with shipping yourself. But you’re still competing with a lot of companies selling similar things, and you’ve got to be pretty careful with Etsy’s rules. For instance, you can’t sell anything if you’re not the “original designer”, so stock image shirts are out.

Still, a little research, and the right print on demand partner can make a world of difference. So here, I’m going to walk you through some of my top picks if you’re selling Gelato products on Etsy next year, and how you can make them stand out.

Continue reading “The Best Gelato Products to Sell on Etsy in 2026”

Design.com Review: The Branding Tool for Founders Who Don’t Want to Be Designers

Bogdan Rancea
Articles

A lot of branding platforms are pretty much the same at this point. They all give you more than just logos, brand kit controls, and AI features. Still, when you review as many of these systems as I do, you do start to notice a few differences between the top contenders.

Design.com is one of those platforms that grabs the attention of people looking for something fast, simple, and affordable. It pulls you in with the logo maker, then keeps you around with a never-ending collection of templates for everything else you might need to “brand”. Social posts, business cards, email signatures, landing pages, everything.

Continue reading “Design.com Review: The Branding Tool for Founders Who Don’t Want to Be Designers”

Shopify x Lovable: What the Integration Actually Does – The Good and the Bad

Bogdan Rancea
Articles Ecommerce Shopify

Lovable's Shopify integration lets you build an entire online store by having a chat with an AI – products, collections, the whole shebang, including cart and checkout setup – while Shopify handles the commerce side of things: taking payments, keeping track of stock levels and shipping.

Sounds like a great way to cut through all the theme customization hassle, especially for solo founders and small teams. But there are some trade-offs lurking beneath the surface that you should know about before taking the plunge.

Continue reading “Shopify x Lovable: What the Integration Actually Does – The Good and the Bad”

Tidio Pricing 2026: Which Plan Offers the Best Value for Ecommerce?

Bogdan Rancea
Articles Ecommerce Live Chat

After testing Tidio across multiple ecommerce stores, we found it to be one of the most user-friendly live chat platforms on the market. In fact, we’ve awarded it our Best Live Chat Tool for Ease of Use badge two years running.

Tidio’s pricing is refreshingly simple compared to many other live chat tools, but as with any subscription-based platform, there are a few things to watch out for, especially as your store grows.

Below, we break down each plan in detail, including which one we think offers the best value, what you actually get, and when you might need to upgrade.

Continue reading “Tidio Pricing 2026: Which Plan Offers the Best Value for Ecommerce?”

BrandCrowd Review: Is This the Full Branding Kit You Need?

Bogdan Rancea
Articles Design Ecommerce Design

Like most people, I have a love-hate relationship with branding toolkits.

Because the gap between “I’m launching a thing” and “my store looks like it belongs on the internet” can either be incredibly big, or pretty short, depending on the solutions you use. There are a lot of platforms that arguably speed things like logo and website design up, but you still end up with a generic asset just about any other company could use.

That’s why reviewing these systems is so tricky, because I’m not just looking at how many templates you get or how easy the editor is, I’m looking at whether you can design something that hits home.

Continue reading “BrandCrowd Review: Is This the Full Branding Kit You Need?”

How to Set Up TikTok Shop with Printful (The Right Way)

Bogdan Rancea
Articles Print on Demand

Setting up TikTok Shop with Printful might sound like a technical mess, but it’s actually pretty smooth when you know what you’re doing.

I’ve done this exact setup, and I’ll walk you through every step with examples, what to avoid, and what’s worked best for me and other sellers.

The direct integration between TikTok Shop and Printful allows you to sell print-on-demand products directly through TikTok without needing Shopify or any other middleman, if you’re in the right region.

If you’re not, I’ll show you a workaround using Shopify that’s reliable and still gets results.

Let’s start with a few quick things to check before jumping in.

Continue reading “How to Set Up TikTok Shop with Printful (The Right Way)”

Brevo vs MailerLite: Which Email Platform Is Better for Ecommerce?

Bogdan Rancea
Articles Email Marketing

If you're running an ecommerce store, you already know how important email marketing is for growth.

Whether you're sending abandoned cart emails, launching product offers, or building long-term customer relationships, your email platform is one of the most important tools in your tech stack.

Brevo and MailerLite are two popular platforms for email marketing, but which one is better for ecommerce?

To help you choose the best option for your store, I’ve compared both platforms across critical areas like pricing, automation, ecommerce integrations, and more. After testing and researching both tools, here’s what I found.

Continue reading “Brevo vs MailerLite: Which Email Platform Is Better for Ecommerce?”

shopify-first-one-dollar-promo-3-months