Shopify Cost in Germany 2026: What a Store Really Costs

Your Shopify cost is made up of more than the plan price on the pricing page. In this article you'll see every item that actually comes up for a store in Germany: subscription, payment fees, theme, apps, domain, legal texts and shipping. With a worked example and an answer to the question of when a bigger plan pays off. If you're just getting started with planning, you'll find the full overview in our article Starting a Shopify store: costs, setup and launch.

Shopify cost in 2026: the plans at a glance

Shopify offers four plans for new stores: Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Basic is almost always enough to start. The formerly popular Starter plan can no longer be booked for new stores, according to Shopify. It remains available only to merchants who already have it.

With annual billing you save about a quarter, but you pay the whole year in advance. That only makes sense once you're sure you'll run the store for at least twelve months. For testing an idea, monthly billing is the more honest choice.

How you pay your Shopify bill

You don't need an American credit card. According to the Shopify Help Center, Shopify accepts credit cards, debit cards with credit card functionality (such as Visa Debit or Debit Mastercard) and PayPal for the bill. Stores based in Germany can also pay by SEPA direct debit, except on the Plus plan. Paid apps are billed through this same bill in addition to the plan.

Free trial: what happens when it ends?

Shopify currently advertises three free trial days followed by three months for €1 or $1 per month. These promotions change regularly, so check the pricing page for what currently applies.

The most common question in the comments: do I have to cancel anything? According to the Shopify Help Center:

• You haven't chosen a plan: The store is paused after the trial. You don't have to cancel anything and nothing is charged. Products and settings are kept.
• You have already chosen a plan: Then it is charged after the trial. If you don't want to continue, you have to pause or deactivate the store yourself.
• Apps: Paid apps you installed during the trial appear on your first bill.

You can only sell with a paid plan. During the trial you can remove the password, but the checkout stays inactive.

Two details that often cause trouble: according to Shopify, the trial starts when you sign up, not when you start building. So gather product data, copy and images beforehand. And after it ends, the store is paused until you choose a plan. Expect that you can only keep building from then on. Your data is kept, though the Help Center doesn't say exactly for how long.

Fees per sale

In addition to the subscription, you pay fees to the payment provider on every order. How high they are depends on whether you use Shopify Payments or an external provider.

Shopify Payments

With Shopify Payments, Shopify processes credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Klarna itself. No additional Shopify transaction fee applies in that case. The fees according to German comparison sites (as of September 2026, not officially confirmed):

According to one comparison site, Klarna via Shopify Payments costs about 2.99% + €0.35. The percentages for the additional fee are listed on the official pricing page.

PayPal

In Germany, PayPal doesn't run through Shopify Payments but as a separate account (PayPal Express Checkout). You pay the fees directly to PayPal: for domestic PayPal Checkout, 2.99% + €0.39 according to the PayPal fee page (German) (page dated September 7, 2026). The good news: if Shopify Payments is your main payment provider, PayPal payments are exempt from the additional transaction fee, according to Shopify.

External payment providers

If you use a different provider instead of Shopify Payments, you pay twice: the provider's fee plus the Shopify transaction fee (2% on the Basic plan). With €1,000 in revenue, that's €20 extra per month, just to Shopify. That's why Shopify Payments is the cheapest basis for most German stores. How to set up the combination of Shopify Payments, PayPal and Klarna is covered in our guide Setting up payment methods in Shopify.

Theme, apps and domain

Theme: free is enough to start

The Shopify Theme Store has free themes from Shopify itself, such as Dawn and the Horizon family. Premium themes cost a one-time fee of about $150 to $450 (similar in euros, depending on the exchange rate). They come with more ready-made sections, but they don't automatically make a store more successful. When buying one is worth it is covered in Choosing a Shopify theme: free or premium.

Apps: the underestimated cost driver

Apps are the item that adds up without you noticing. Many have a free plan; paid tiers are billed monthly, often in US dollars. Five apps at $10 to $20 each quickly cost more than the Shopify subscription itself. At the start, only install what solves a specific problem. We've put together which ones those are in The Shopify apps you really need at the start.

Domain: a few euros a year

According to Shopify, a domain through Shopify "usually starts at $9 USD per year", depending on the extension. According to the Help Center, however, you can't buy a .de domain through Shopify. You get it from a German provider (e.g. INWX, IONOS or Strato) for usually about €5 to €20 a year and connect it to your store. How that works is shown in the guide Connecting your own domain to Shopify. You don't need separate hosting; it's included in the Shopify plan.

Costs outside of Shopify

These items don't appear on any Shopify pricing page, but they're part of every store in Germany:

Why you shouldn't cut corners on legal texts and what was added in 2026 (withdrawal button, legal guarantee label) is explained in the article Shopify legal requirements in Germany. A single warning letter (Abmahnung) quickly costs more than several years of a legal-text subscription. Free generators do exist, but then you have to update the texts yourself every time the law changes.

Inventory: you pay for purchasing yourself

Even with dropshipping, the goods aren't free. When an order comes in, you pay the supplier immediately with your own money. Shopify Payments in Germany pays out your customer's money after 3 business days at the earliest. With 10 orders a day at a €25 purchase price each, you're advancing €250 per day. On top of that, many dropshipping tools have their own monthly fees. How an order flows from the customer to the supplier is shown in The dropshipping process: what happens after the first order.

Worked example: what a small store costs per month

Assumption: Basic plan with monthly billing, free theme, no paid apps, .de domain from an external registrar, legal texts by subscription. 30 orders of €40 each come in per month, so €1,200 in revenue. 20 customers pay by card or Apple Pay, 10 by PayPal.

That's just over 7% of revenue, just for the infrastructure. With €300 in revenue per month it would be almost 20%, because the fixed costs stay the same. That's exactly why Shopify feels expensive at the start and cheap later on. If you're a small business under the small business rule (Kleinunternehmerregelung) without input tax deduction, you also pay VAT on prices shown net; the legal texts then effectively cost about €11.78.

What's left at the end after purchasing, shipping, advertising and taxes is best calculated per product. You'll find a template in Pricing calculation for your online store.

When does a bigger plan pay off?

Switching from Basic to Grow only pays off mathematically once the lower card fee offsets the higher base price. The difference for standard cards is 0.3 percentage points (2.1% vs. 1.8%).

• Monthly billing: approx. €105 minus approx. €36 = €69 in extra costs. €69 divided by 0.3% = around €23,000 in card revenue per month.
• Annual billing: approx. €79 minus approx. €27 = €52 in extra costs. Break-even at around €17,000 in card revenue per month (with the lower annual prices from another comparison site, €66 minus €25, it would be around €14,000).

Below that, Basic is cheaper. An upgrade can still make sense if you need features from Grow. According to the pricing page, Basic includes no additional staff accounts, for example, while Grow includes up to five. Check the feature differences on the pricing page. PayPal revenue doesn't count here, because the PayPal fee doesn't change with the plan.

You can change your plan later, up or down. How plan changes, pausing and canceling work in detail and what happens to apps and the domain is explained in Shopify account & plan: switch, pause, cancel.

Where you can save and where you can't

You can save here:

• Start with a free theme and only buy one once you're missing a specific feature.
• Clean out apps regularly. Anything you haven't used in a month goes.
• Use Shopify Payments as your main provider so no additional transaction fees arise.
• Pay annually as soon as it's clear the store is here to stay.
• Buy the .de domain from an inexpensive registrar instead of as part of a hosting package.

You shouldn't save here:

• Legal texts. Self-assembled, copied texts are one of the most common sources of warning letters.
• Test orders and samples. A product you've never held in your hands will cost you returns and reviews later.
• A realistic advertising budget if you rely on paid traffic. How much money you should plan for in total is covered in How much starting capital do I need for an online store?

If you have the store built for you instead of setting it up yourself, one-time costs for setup and design come on top. What to expect depending on scope and how to recognize good providers is covered in Hiring Shopify experts: costs, selection & process.

FAQ

Is Shopify free?

No. Shopify only offers a short free trial and usually an introductory offer of €1 per month for three months. After that you pay the plan you've chosen, about €36 a month on the Basic plan. You can only sell once you've chosen a paid plan. On top of that come payment fees per order and possibly apps, domain and legal texts.

Do I have to cancel Shopify after the free trial?

Not if you haven't selected a plan. The store is paused after the trial, nothing is charged and your data is kept. If you have already chosen a plan, however, it will be charged. Then you have to pause or deactivate the store yourself if you want to stop. Also watch out for installed apps that cost money.

Does my store stay online if I don't pay after the trial?

No. Without a paid plan, the store is paused and customers can't order. According to the Help Center, Shopify keeps your products and settings so you can continue later with a plan. Extending the trial isn't provided for. So plan to get the basic setup done in the first few days.

How much does Shopify take per sale?

With Shopify Payments on the Basic plan, you pay about 2.1% + €0.30 per order for standard cards, more for Amex and international cards. There's no extra transaction fee in that case. If you use an external payment provider, Shopify charges an additional 2% on the Basic plan. PayPal fees go directly to PayPal.

When should I start spending money on a store?

Prepare product ideas, copy, images and legal texts before you start the paid plan. That way you use the cheap first months for setup and first sales instead of groundwork. You don't need to be a successful seller to start. But you should know how your first customers are going to find the store.

Can I pay monthly at first and switch to annual later?

Yes, that's the usual approach. Start with monthly billing while you're testing. Once it's clear the store is here to stay, switch to annual billing and save about a quarter. Note that the annual fee is due in advance. You set up the switch in the billing settings of your Shopify admin.

Is it a problem that Shopify charges so many fees?

Only with very small revenue and very cheap products. Fixed costs of about €50 a month for subscription, legal texts and domain weigh heavily at €300 in revenue, but barely at €3,000. You'll have percentage-based payment fees with every store platform, including WooCommerce or Etsy. What matters is that your margin covers all fees.

Can I run several stores with one Shopify subscription?

No. You can manage several stores with the same login, but each store is independent and needs its own plan. Two stores on the Basic plan therefore cost twice as much. For different product groups, one store with several collections is usually enough. A second store only makes sense when brand and target audience really have nothing to do with each other.

Is there a limit on the number of products in Shopify?

No, not by plan. According to the Shopify pricing page, you can sell unlimited products on all plans, including Basic. So the plan doesn't limit your product range; plans differ mainly in payment fees, staff accounts and reports. The real limits are more likely your time for maintaining products and the cost of apps that charge per product.

Last updated: October 2026. Shopify prices in euros and Payments fees partly come from secondary sources and may differ. The official Shopify pricing page is authoritative. This article is not legal or tax advice.