You need to evolve your ecommerce platform capacity, reach, and functionality, aligned with the growth of your online business. Choosing the right platform expansion at the right time can boost your growth, but if chosen poorly, it can torpedo it. Shopify currently offers two types of plans, Shopify Standard and Shopify Plus.
While every mid-level business chooses Shopify Standard, Shopify Plus is reserved for enterprises. Both Shopify Plus and Shopify Standard have a lot of differences in features and options and merchants have to choose wisely between them.
In this guide, we will compare Shopify Plus and Shopify Standard, so you can assess if your business is ready for the Shopify Plus migration with confidence. Shopify Plus might be your next big step towards your enterprise ecommerce growth.
Understanding Shopify Standard
Before deciding if your business is ready for Shopify Plus, let’s first understand Shopify Standard and what it offers. Shopify Standard has three price options, namely Basic, Shopify, and Advanced. All these three options come with different features and add-ons. If you are a small to mid-size business looking for the following, then Shopify Standard should be your go-to choice.
1. A quick launch store
2. A simple solution for inventory and order management
3. An easy and seamless way to integrate with apps
4. A budget option scalable to your needs
5. Privilege of staff accounts (Up to 15 in the advanced plan)
6. Access to basic automation features
7. Access to standard checkout and reporting options
8. Access to the Shopify ecosystem
Understanding Shopify Plus
Now, coming towards Shopify’s premium enterprise ecommerce solution, that is Shopify Plus. Generally speaking, if your business is doing over $1million+ a year, then you might need a Shopify Plus account.
Shopify Plus is a powerful platform used by many leading global brands like Heinz, Allbirds, and Gymshark.
It starts at $2000 a month and comes with the following perks and privileges.
1. Unlimited staff accounts
2. A fully customizable Shopify checkout
3. Access to B2B features on the same platform
4. Ability to manage multiple stores
5. Powerful automation powered by Shopify Flow
6. Access to a dedicated account manager with priority support
Key Difference Between Shopify Standard and Shopify Plus
To equip you better in choosing between the Shopify Standard and Shopify Plus, we will now guide you about their key differences. The following are the key differences between Shopify Standard and Shopify Plus.
Pricing: The Biggest difference between the two is the pricing. All three variants of Shopify Standard range from $29 to $299 a month. Shopify Enterprise Ecommerce Solution, Shopify Plus, starts at $2000/mo.
Transaction Fee: Unless you are using Shopify payments, Shopify Standard will charge you more than Shopify Plus. Shopify Standard is 0.5% to 2% while Shopify Plus is 0% to 0.15%.
API Access: Shopify Standard offers limited API access while Shopify Plus offers full API access. This opens gateways to deep integration and automation.
Checkout: Standard has limited checkout customization options, while for Shopify Plus, checkout is fully customizable.
Performance: Shopify Standard has the ability to handle moderate traffic, but it can slow down during peak times. On the other hand, Shopify Plus guarantees 99.9% uptime and can handle high traffic. Shopify Plus subscription outshines Standard, especially at events like Black Friday, when there is huge ecommerce traffic to handle.
Multi-Store Management: After Shopify Plus migration, you get access to a unified dashboard for multi-store management, which can handle up to 10 stores. Shopify Standard requires manual setup for multiple stores.
Support: Shopify Standard comes with 24/7 live chat and email support, but with Plus, you get priority 24/7 support. Also, you get a launch engineer to help with your Shopify Plus migration.
Automation: With Shopify Standard, you get a limited automation option. You rely on the third-party apps for basic tasks like inventory syncing or customer segmentation. While in Plus with Shopify Flow, you can automate basic repetitive tasks like order tagging or marketing campaigns. This reduces manual errors and boosts efficiency by cutting down the time.
Search Engine Optimization: Shopify Standard includes SEO features in the form of meta tags, alt text, and sitemaps. For more advanced SEO operations, you will require external apps, which have an additional cost or manual code modifications. Shopify Plus provides quicker load speeds, which is essential for rankings, and gives you strong analytics so that you can monitor your organic traffic.
Shopify Standard vs Shopify Plus
Enterprise Migration Decision Matrix
| Feature | Shopify Standard | Shopify Plus |
|---|---|---|
| 💰 Monthly Pricing | $29 – $299 | From $2,000 |
| 💳 Transaction Fees | 0.5% – 2.0% | 0% – 0.15% |
| 👥 Staff Accounts | Up to 15 | Unlimited |
| 🛒 Checkout Customization | Limited | Fully Customizable |
| 🔌 API Access | Limited | Full API Access |
| ⚡ Performance & Uptime | Moderate traffic May slow during peaks |
99.9% Uptime High traffic ready |
| 🤖 Automation | Basic 3rd party apps |
Shopify Flow Advanced automation |
| 🏪 Multi-Store Management | Manual setup required | Up to 10 stores Unified dashboard |
| 🎧 Support | 24/7 Chat & Email | Priority 24/7 + Dedicated manager |
| 🏢 B2B Capabilities | Limited | Full B2B Suite Same platform |
| ✨ Best For | Small to Mid-Size Businesses Under $1M revenue |
Enterprise & High-Growth Businesses $1M+ annual revenue |
Ready to evaluate if Shopify Plus is right for your business?
Assess Your Readiness →When Should You Move to Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus migration can be a real game-changer for your online business. Shopify Plus comes with a lot of added features and, of course, a hefty price tag as well. So, you need to do a careful evaluation of whether you are in the right place and time to migrate to Shopify Plus. Ask yourself the following questions to assess if you are ready for Shopify Plus migration.
1. Is your business revenue increasing beyond $1 million a year?
2. Do you need to manage multiple storefronts?
3. Do you feel the need to upgrade your checkout for advanced marketing or discount logic, etc?
4. Does your business demand more automation and third-party integration?
5. Are your sales getting affected on busy sale days like Black Friday?
6. Do you need dedicated support for your business from Shopify?
7. Is your team big enough that you need more than 15 staff accounts?
If your answer to most of the above questions was yes, then you need Shopify Plus migration.
Key Considerations for Shopify Plus migration
If you have decided to proceed with the Shopify Plus migration, then you need to consider and pay attention to the following points.
Cost & Pricing
The starting platform fee for Shopify Plus is $2,000 per month, with custom pricing available for high-value merchants. You will face some development costs of custom integrations, theme upgrades, or app replacements. With the lower fee of 0% to 0.15% you are looking at substantial savings in this part.
SEO Audit
You must conduct an SEO audit for your rankings, backlinks, and site performance. Documenting all meta tags, alt text, and URL structures will help preserve your SEO rankings.
Backup
Backup all your critical data related to products, customers, orders, and content before going for the Shopify Plus migration. It is also the right time to remove outdated and duplicate data. This will help you streamline your migration process and will enhance your performance on the new platform.
Content and Metadata Transfer
Transfer your metadata, descriptions, and alt text carefully to maintain your visibility. Again, this is the right time to review and optimize your content to make sure it aligns with your keyword strategy.
Testing After Migration
Once your migration to Shopify Plus has been completed, now is the time to verify it through testing. Test things like redirects, site speed, and crawlability, and keep on monitoring the organic traffic to identify any early issues.
Partnering with Experts
There are migration agencies like Objects Shopify Team that can help you out with your migration to ensure minimum downtime. We offer services like data mapping, custom integrations, and SEO preservation.
Shopify Plus: Success Stories
Shopify Plus is the right platform for enterprise ecommerce, and there are many success stories to back up this claim.
Gymshark: GymShark is a UK-based fitness clothing brand known for selling stylish and practical gym wear. They went for Shopify Plus migration and achieved $128 million in revenue across 180+ countries. All this through leveraging the Shopify Plus scalability and fast checkouts.
PDH Sports: It is a racket sports retailer specializing in racket sports gear. After struggling with a bespoke ecommerce platform, they shifted to Shopify Plus. With a refreshed design and engaging user experience, their online store visits increased by 9% and revenue grew by 29%.
SweetLegs: SweetLegs faced issues with their large data on Black Friday on WooCommerce. Such failures encouraged them to move to Shopify Plus, where they completed their migration in under a month. Their site held strong during the next Black Friday with over 11,000 orders, which is around 25$ of their annual volume. All this was done in the first post-launch month with a $2 million sales boost.
Planning Your Shopify Plus Migration
Shopify Plus is the frontrunner in enterprise ecommerce. With its scalability, customization, SEO tools, automation, and dedicated support, it is helping big enterprises expand and boost their growth. It also supports custom checkout and multiple storefront management capabilities, which are among the things that are not offered to Shopify Standard merchants.
All of this, of course, comes with its price tag, and this is something that you must factor in while choosing between the Standard and the Plus packages. Shopify Standard is also a very agile platform for growing businesses that are running on a short budget.
So, after factoring in all the points shared in this post, decide carefully if the Shopify Plus migration is the right move for your business or if you need some more time on your Standard subscription.
