Tools · calculator
The same store on both platforms, every line of the bill split into what stays fixed and what grows with every sale. Public prices, with the date each was read.
Orders a month are the sales divided by the average order. Card fees are the rate times the sales plus the cents times the orders, on both platforms, because both take cards through a processor and neither escapes that line. On Shopify with Shopify Payments the rate is the plan’s published online rate for US cards, 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on Basic, 2.7 on Grow, 2.5 on Advanced; on WooCommerce, or on Shopify with another provider, it is the rate you typed, and the line names the processor when the rate matches a published one. Shopify’s third-party transaction fee is the plan’s percentage times the sales, on top of the provider’s own rate, so Stripe on Basic is 2.9 plus 30 cents plus 2, which is 4.9 percent plus 30 cents; it applies only when the payments chip says another provider and is waived with Shopify Payments. WooCommerce has no fee on sales on any processor.
Then the two kinds of line. Fixed lines cost the same whether you sell one kit or a thousand: on Shopify the plan, the apps, the theme and the domain; on WooCommerce the hosting, the extensions, the page builder, the theme and the domain. Yearly lines are spread over twelve, because a 279-dollar renewal is about 23 dollars a month and it does not feel like 23 dollars a month; it feels like nothing for eleven months and then a bill. A theme bought once is spread over three years, which is about how long a theme lasts before the store outgrows it. Percentage lines are taken from every sale: the card fees, and on Shopify the third-party transaction fee when Shopify Payments is not the provider.
The bill is fixed plus percentage. The cost per order is the bill over the orders, and it is the number worth comparing. The share is the bill over the sales. Then everything again at double the sales, so you can watch which column moves; the fixed column does not, and the percentage column doubles.
What the calculator does not claim. No build cost for either platform, no developer hour when an update breaks the checkout, no traffic overage at the host, no app you install for one campaign next spring. Those are on the statement, not on the pricing page, which is the whole argument of the guide this comes from.
| Line | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic | 39 a month, 29 paid yearly, US | GemPages’ plan pricing by country (24 March 2026); Koronapos (rates verified 18 June 2026); WooCommerce’s pricing page |
| Shopify Grow | 105, 79 paid yearly, US | the same |
| Shopify Advanced, Plus | 399, 299 paid yearly; Plus from 2,300 | shopify.com/pricing, read 6 September 2026 |
| Shopify’s third-party transaction fee | on top of the provider’s own rate: 2, 1, 0.6 percent by plan, 0.2 on Plus, on sales through a third-party provider; waived on Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, PayPal Express or manual methods when Shopify Payments is activated | shopify.com/pricing and the help page on third-party transaction fees, read 6 September 2026, the pricing page again 7 September 2026 |
| Shopify Payments, online | 2.9, 2.7, 2.5 percent plus 30 cents by plan for US cards; in person 2.6, 2.5, 2.4 plus 10 cents | Shopify’s article on card processing fees (13 January 2026) for the online range and the in-person rates by plan; the online split by plan as WooCommerce’s table and Koronapos quote it |
| Shopify Payments, extras | a sale in another currency 1.5 percent more in the US, 2 elsewhere; a chargeback 15 dollars, returned if you win; Shopify’s page puts fees on cards issued abroad with the customer’s bank, not with you | Shopify help, fees and costs, and the chargeback process page, read 7 September 2026 |
| Stripe, extras | a card issued abroad plus 1.5 percent, a sale in another currency plus 1, a card typed in by hand plus 0.5, a dispute 15 dollars, no monthly fee | stripe.com/pricing, read 7 September 2026 |
| WooPayments, extras | a foreign-issued card plus 1.5 percent, a sale in another currency plus 1, a dispute 15 dollars, no monthly fee | woocommerce.com fees documentation, read 7 September 2026 |
| Shopify themes | paid themes 180 to 500, bought once for one store; free themes exist | themes.shopify.com, read 6 September 2026 |
| WooPayments, US | 2.90 percent plus 30 cents, no monthly fee | woocommerce.com fees documentation, read 6 September 2026 |
| Stripe, US | 2.9 percent plus 30 cents online | stripe.com/pricing, read 6 September 2026 |
| PayPal, US | 2.99 percent plus 49 cents on cards; 3.49 plus 49 on PayPal checkout | paypal.com merchant fees, read 6 September 2026 |
| Cloudways | 11 a month for a 2 GB, 50 GB DigitalOcean server, no term | cloudways.com, read 6 September 2026 |
| Hostinger | 16.99 a month at renewal on a 48-month term (3.99 the first term), 50 GB NVMe | hostinger.com, read 6 September 2026 |
| SiteGround | StartUp renews at 17.99, GrowBig at 29.99, GoGeek at 44.99, prepaid 12 months (2.99, 4.99 and 7.99 the first year) | siteground.com, read 6 September 2026 |
| WP Engine | Essential 28 a month, 25,000 visits, 20 percent less yearly | wpengine.com, read 6 September 2026 |
| Kinsta | 35 a month, 30 on a yearly plan, 35,000 visits | kinsta.com/plans, read 6 September 2026 |
| WooCommerce extensions | 29 to 299 a year each; Subscriptions is 279 | woocommerce.com, read 6 September 2026 |
| Elementor Pro | 49 a year for one site; the free editor is 0 | elementor.com/pricing, read 6 September 2026 |
| A WooCommerce theme | Flatsome 59, bought once, six months of support | themeforest.net, read 6 September 2026 |
| Shopify apps | 50 to 300 a month for a store under a million a year, modelled from listing prices, not statements | Eightx, 1 June 2026 |
Read the statement, not the plan page. Open last month’s statements, the platform’s, the payment provider’s and the card the apps go on, and write every line on one page in two columns, fixed and percentage. Total each. Divide the whole by last month’s orders and write that number at the top: what the store costs you per order. This page does the arithmetic; the statement has the lines.
The moment to reconsider is when the percentage column passes the fixed column, or when the store needs a flow the app store does not sell, like a quote that prices itself from the area and lands in the cart. A store at 5,000 a month will not recover a rebuild from a 2 percent fee. A store at 50,000 a month is paying 12,000 dollars a year on that one line. The full case is the guide on why a WooCommerce checkout is slow and the one on instant quotes.
Staying on Shopify is a fair answer. You pay for the simplicity knowingly: know which lines are percentages, what they come to at your sales, and what they come to at twice your sales. If the fixed column is the bigger one and the store does what you need, the plan is worth it, and I will say so on a call.
If the store is already on WooCommerce, the bill is one question and the checkout is another. The checkout speed test puts a product in a cart on your store, opens the real checkout with it, and reads what came back, so you can see whether the hosting line above is buying you a checkout that answers.
If you want a second pair of eyes on the two statements, book the call: thirty minutes, free, and I will tell you which line to cut first. The other calculators are on the tools page.
On Basic with Shopify Payments, 2.9 percent plus 30 cents, so 3.20 dollars, before the plan, the apps and the theme are spread over the month’s orders. With another payment provider Shopify adds its third-party transaction fee on top of that provider’s rate: Stripe on Basic is 2.9 plus 30 cents plus 2, so 4.9 percent plus 30 cents, 5.20 dollars on the same sale. A card issued abroad or a sale in another currency costs more again; the note under the bills has those figures. The calculator spreads the fixed lines over your orders and shows the cost per order that results.
At small sales the answer is whichever fixed lines you carry: a 39-dollar plan, the apps and a bought theme against the hosting, the builder, the theme and the yearly renewals. As the sales grow, the one line that can separate them is Shopify’s third-party transaction fee on top of the provider’s rate, which WooCommerce does not have on any processor. Put your numbers in and read the doubled column.
No. With Shopify Payments activated you pay the plan’s card rate and nothing on top, and Shopify’s help pages say orders through PayPal Express, Shop Pay and manual methods beside it carry no fee either. The fee applies to sales through a third-party provider when Shopify Payments is not your provider, which is also the case in countries where Shopify Payments is not offered. In the US, Stripe on its own is not a choice on Shopify: Shopify Payments is the Stripe-built option, so the 2.9 percent plus 30 cents you would pay Stripe on WooCommerce is what Shopify Payments charges on Basic, with no surcharge.
No. WooCommerce charges no fee on sales on any processor. You pay the processor’s card rate, WooPayments and Stripe at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents in the US, PayPal at 2.99 plus 49, and that is the same shape as Shopify’s card rate. The calculator puts that line on both sides.
The one you pay after the first year. Every shared host sells the first term at a fraction of the renewal: SiteGround’s GrowBig is 4.99 a month for the first year and 29.99 after it. The chips carry the renewal prices, read on their own pages; if you have a quote, type it into the field instead.
Because it is the one line I cannot read from here and you can read from your statement. WooPayments and Stripe publish 2.9 percent plus 30 cents for US domestic cards; Shopify Payments publishes 2.9, 2.7 and 2.5 by plan. Your negotiated rate, or a different provider’s, is what you type.
No. Shopify prices by country, and its pricing page shows the price of the country you open it from. The calculator uses the US prices and says so; if your plan costs something else, type it into the plan price field. The hosts, the processors and the themes publish one US price.
No, while the page’s script is running. The maths runs in your browser. The only thing that carries your numbers is the link you copy, which holds the fields of the form and nothing else, so that whoever opens it sees the same bills. With JavaScript turned off the page still works, and then the fields do travel to my server in the address, the same way a link you copy does.
Why the plan price is the wrong number, a Shopify bill and a WooCommerce bill line by line, the two lines that grow with you, and what a store costs when it is built.
The real monthly cost of a small online storeThe plan is the smallest line. The percentage on every sale, the apps and the renewals are the bill, and two of them grow with you. How to read your own statement.Read the guide →Next step · Norvahl, one designer-engineer, both tradesTaking on projects
Send me last month's statements, the platform's and the payment provider's, and I will tell you whether the answer is a plan change, a shorter app list, or a store you own.
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