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Shopify

What Features Are Available on Each Shopify Plan?

12 Jun 2026

10 Min Read

What Features Are Available on Each Shopify Plan

Vardhan Jain

Director of Product Program @ GoKwik

Vardhan leads product and growth initiatives at GoKwik, driving D2C e-commerce innovations, conversion optimization, and scalable growth programs for products. An ISB alumnus based in Bengaluru, he brings expertise from Unacademy, Ola, and Mahindra in building high-impact product strategies.

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You're evaluating Shopify plans but aren't sure which tier gives you the features you actually need. Every plan upgrade comes with additional capabilities, but also higher monthly costs and potentially lower transaction fees.

This guide is for D2C brands and ecommerce managers deciding between Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans. You'll get a clear breakdown of what each plan includes, how features differ across tiers, and when upgrading makes financial sense based on your sales volume.

Features Available on All Shopify Plans

Before comparing plan-specific features, understand what you get regardless of which tier you choose. Every paid Shopify plan includes access to free and paid themes from the Shopify Theme Store, apps from the Shopify App Store to expand functionality, and Shopify's own payment provider to accept card payments.

All plans also provide 24/7 support access, the ability to sell through multiple sales channels, and basic POS functionality for in-person selling. You can build an online store, process payments, and manage inventory regardless of whether you're on Basic or Advanced.

The key differences between plans involve staff accounts, reporting capabilities, transaction fees, and advanced features for retail or B2B selling.

Basic Plan Features

The Basic plan is designed for new businesses ready to launch an online store and start making sales. This tier gives you the essentials to run a functional ecommerce operation without advanced reporting or team management features.

What's Included in Basic

You get up to 5 staff accounts, which limits how many team members can access your Shopify admin. For selling in person, you receive basic POS features including integrated payment hardware with Shopify Payments (in supported regions), customizable smart grid, and the ability to add and edit customer profiles.

The Basic plan includes standard reports that cover sales, orders, and basic inventory tracking. You can process refunds and track cash, but advanced retail features like order cancellations, exchanges, and inventory tracking within POS require upgrading.

For B2B selling, Basic allows you to create companies and company locations, set up net payment terms, and use quantity rules and price breaks. However, you're limited to 3 active catalogs across all B2B markets, and you cannot assign catalogs directly to individual companies.

Transaction fees on Basic are higher than upper tiers. If you're not using Shopify Payments, you'll pay third-party transaction fees on every sale.

Basic Plan Limitations

You cannot access advanced reports, professional retail analytics, or custom reporting. Staff management is limited to 0 accounts, which is not feasible as your team grows. For retail operations, features like unlimited POS-only staff, sales attribution, saved carts, and ship-to-home ordering are not available.

Theme customization is fully available on Basic, unlike the Retail plan which restricts you to only the Spotlight theme.

One workaround worth knowing: Shopify offers Collaborator accounts, which allow developers, agencies, or part-time help to access specific areas of your admin without occupying a staff account slot. If your only reason for upgrading from Basic is to give limited access to an external contractor or VA, Collaborator accounts may remove that need.

Grow Plan Features

The Grow plan suits businesses with consistent sales that need more features, particularly around reporting and team management. This tier is where transaction fee savings can offset the higher monthly cost if your sales volume is sufficient.

What's Included in Grow

Staff accounts increase to 5, giving you more flexibility for team access. You get access to professional reports that provide deeper insights into sales performance, customer behavior, and inventory trends.

All B2B features from Basic remain available, still with the 3-catalog limit across B2B markets. The Grow plan doesn't unlock additional B2B catalogs or direct company catalog assignment—those features remain Plus-exclusive.

For POS, the same limitations apply as Basic unless you add POS Pro subscriptions. The standard POS features included with your plan don't change, but lower credit card processing fees make this tier more economical at higher sales volumes.

When Grow Makes Financial Sense

Credit card fees are lower on Grow than Basic. Grow includes up to 87% off shipping rates, and Advanced includes up to 88% off. For merchants with high shipping volume, these discounts represent a second dimension of savings beyond transaction fees and are worth modelling alongside the break-even analysis above.

Review your break-even point based on region and whether you use Shopify Payments:

Estimated annual sales where upgrading to Grow saves money:

If your annual sales exceed these thresholds, the transaction fee savings likely cover the higher monthly plan cost. Calculate your specific situation using current rates on the Shopify pricing page.

*For India, payments go through a third-party gateway.

Region	Using Shopify Payments	Not using Shopify Payments
US, UK, Ireland	$200,000/year	$60,000/year
Canada, New Zealand	$300,000/year	$60,000/year
Australia	$400,000/year	$60,000/year
Singapore	$600,000/year	$60,000/year

Advanced Plan Features

The Advanced plan targets high-volume businesses that need the lowest transaction fees or those migrating from another platform with established operations. This tier includes enhanced features for retail stores and more robust reporting.

What's Included in Advanced

You get 15 staff accounts, supporting larger teams across operations, marketing, and customer service. Advanced reports provide the most detailed analytics available outside of Shopify Plus, including custom report building capabilities.

Credit card processing fees hit their lowest point on Advanced (excluding Plus). This makes the plan economically viable for stores processing significant sales volume.

For B2B operations, you still face the 3-catalog limit across markets and cannot assign catalogs directly to companies. Advanced also enables contextual experiences through Shopify Markets, allowing you to customize checkout and storefront based on buyer location and context.

POS features included with the plan remain at the standard level unless you add POS Pro. However, Advanced is positioned as the best option for businesses with significant retail operations due to overall platform capabilities.

When Advanced Makes Financial Sense

The break-even point for Advanced is substantially higher than Grow:

Estimated annual sales where upgrading to Advanced saves money:

Most stores should only consider Advanced when approaching or exceeding these sales volumes, or when the 25 staff accounts and advanced reporting become operationally necessary.

Region	Using Shopify Payments	Not using Shopify Payments
US, Australia	$1,320,000/year	$528,000/year
Canada, UK, Ireland	$880,000/year	$528,000/year
Singapore, New Zealand	$2,640,000/year	$528,000/year

Comparison Table: Key Features by Plan

Note: Transaction fees decrease with each tier. All B2B features except catalog limits and advanced payments are available on Basic and above.

Feature Category	Basic	Grow	Advanced
Staff accounts	0	5	15
Reports	Standard	Professional	Advanced + Custom
B2B catalogs (across all markets)	3	3	3
Direct company catalogs	No	No	No
Contextual Markets experiences	No	No	Yes
POS features (standard)	Basic	Basic	Basic
Best for annual sales	Under $200K	$200K-$880K	$880K+

Features That Require Shopify Plus

Certain capabilities remain exclusive to Shopify Plus regardless of which standard plan you choose. These include unlimited B2B market catalogs, direct company catalog assignment for customer-level pricing, and advanced B2B payment features like deposit requirements, partial payments, and payment requests per fulfillment.

Shopify Flow is available on all paid plans, including Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus. What Plus adds is higher API call limits that support more complex multi-system workflows, and access to Launchpad for scheduling coordinated campaigns — those remain Plus-exclusive.

Starter Plan

The Starter plan is available only to new merchants and those in the free trial period. It's designed for selling through social media or messaging apps without maintaining a full online store. You cannot upgrade to Starter from another plan.

Retail Plan

The Retail plan serves retail businesses selling in-store who want a simple online presence. It includes all Starter features plus multiple Shopify POS app features including one POS Pro location, unlimited staff accounts, professional reports, and unlimited registers.

The major limitation: you can only use the Spotlight theme. Other Shopify themes like Dawn, Colorblock, or Crave are not available on Retail. This plan suits brick-and-mortar focused businesses where the online store is secondary.

How to Choose Your Plan

Start by calculating your expected annual sales volume. Compare that number to the break-even points for your region to see where transaction fee savings justify higher monthly costs.

Next, count how many staff members need Shopify admin access. If you need more than 5 accounts, you must upgrade from Basic. More than 15 requires Advanced.

Evaluate your reporting needs. If standard sales and inventory reports suffice, Basic works. If you need deeper customer analytics, revenue forecasting, or custom report building, Grow or Advanced become necessary.

For B2B operations, understand that catalog limits remain consistent across Basic, Grow, and Advanced. Only Plus removes the 3-catalog restriction and adds direct company assignment.

Finally, consider your retail presence. If you operate physical locations, review whether standard POS features meet your needs or if you should add POS Pro subscriptions regardless of plan tier.

Upgrading or Downgrading Your Plan

You can change your Shopify plan at any time from your admin settings. Go to Settings > Plan to view your current subscription and available upgrade options.

When you upgrade, the new features and pricing take effect immediately. When you downgrade, changes apply at the start of your next billing cycle to avoid mid-cycle complications.

Before downgrading, verify that your store remains compatible. If you're using 15 staff accounts on Grow and downgrade to Basic, you'll need to remove 10 accounts before the change processes.

💡 Tip from Reddit Community

Don’t optimize for “bigger carts,” optimize for contribution profit per order, because some revenue quietly makes you poorer
Most margin leaks are boring but fixable: kill apps that do not clearly lift revenue, renegotiate shipping/3PL costs, reduce return causes, and test small price or free-shipping-threshold increases.

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AUTHOR

Vardhan Jain

Director of Product Program @ GoKwik

AUTHOR

Vardhan Jain

Director of Product Program @ GoKwik

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Read this blog on your favourite platform

Features Available on All Shopify Plans

Basic Plan Features

What's Included in Basic

Basic Plan Limitations

Grow Plan Features

What's Included in Grow

When Grow Makes Financial Sense

Advanced Plan Features

What's Included in Advanced

When Advanced Makes Financial Sense

Comparison Table: Key Features by Plan

Features That Require Shopify Plus

Starter Plan

Retail Plan

How to Choose Your Plan

Upgrading or Downgrading Your Plan

💡 Tip from Reddit Community

FAQ

Vardhan Jain

Vardhan Jain