PLATFORM PROFILE

Shopify

Hosted online store from $19 a month; a 2% charge on sales through third-party payment providers unless you use Shopify Payments.

5published0not published3not checked yet2026-09-12last checked

Counts, not a score. 5 of 8 things we look for are published by Shopify, and 3 we have not checked yet. A ratio would need a denominator from outside this site. A count does not.

What it costs you

What it really costs to startAll in, not the first-year promotional price.Basic at 19 US$/mo when paid yearly or $25 USD/mo paid monthly, after a free start; a custom domain bought through Shopify renews automatically each year on topPricing · source · checked 2026-09-12 · different for you?

What it costs to keep alivePer year, once the introductory pricing is over.Basic 19 US$/mo with 2% on 3rd-party payment providers, Grow 49 US$/mo with 1%, Advanced 299 US$/mo with 0.6%, Plus from 2,300 US$/mo with 0.2%; POS Pro is an extra 89 US$/mo per locationPricing · source · checked 2026-09-12 · different for you?

The gate before the first cent

The gate before it pays anythingThe traffic, sales or balance you must reach before a single cent moves.We have not checked this one yet. That is our gap, not theirs.

How long before the first paymentThe gap you have to fund out of your own pocket.We have not checked this one yet. That is our gap, not theirs.

Is it yours or theirs

Who owns what you buildYours, or a room you are allowed to sit in until the rules change?Shopify does not take ownership of the Materials you provide, but you grant it a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify and publicly perform them, and you waive your moral rights in them8.1 Your Materials · source · checked 2026-09-12 · different for you?

Can you take it with youThe domain, the list, the content. What actually leaves with you.You can remove your Shopify Store at any time by deleting your Account; that does not end the licenses to your Materials that Shopify needed during the term, and a domain bought through Shopify keeps auto-renewing while the Account is activeTerms of Service · source · checked 2026-09-12 · different for you?

Can it be soldIs there a resale market, and what does it pay?We have not checked this one yet. That is our gap, not theirs.

What takes it all awayThe single rule, ban or dependency that ends it overnight.Shopify may reject your application for an Account, or cancel an existing Account, for any reason, at its sole discretion; fees unpaid for 60 days after a suspension also let it terminate the Account, and you must be 18 or the age of majority to open oneAccount Terms · source · checked 2026-09-12 · different for you?

Put Shopify next to something else

No article here covers Shopify alongside another platform yet, so there is nothing to suggest. Pick your own pairing and the same questions get asked of each.

OPEN THE COMPARISON TABLE

How to read this page

The ten things above are not our idea of what matters. They are what the checklists in twenty hand-written articles on this site already asked, counted up: country and eligibility came first in nineteen of them, waiting time and what you are paid in came next. The payout minimum, the number most people search for, barely appeared. It is one row here, not the headline.

A row marked not publishedmeans we opened the company's own pages looking for it and it was not there. That is a finding, and it is dated. A row marked not checked yet means we have not done the work. Those two are kept apart on purpose: an empty box because we were slow should never look like an empty box because they were quiet.

Found something that has moved? Tell us. It gets checked against the source and the change is dated on the corrections page.

ALL PLATFORMS