If you want to start an eCommerce store today, you have several options. One of the popular platforms you will often read about is Shopify.
But is it the best e-commerce software for everyone?
In this Shopify review, I’ll explore various aspects of the eCommerce store builder to help you better understand it and find the right balance for your budget, features, and business growth.
I’ll discuss its features, pros and cons, pricing model, selling features, and design. I’ll also review the Shopify support system and other aspects to help you decide if it’s worth it.
So, let’s get started.
Quick Summary
Shopify is an ideal choice for beginners and growing small businesses that prioritize ease of use, security, and integrated sales channels over total design control. If you are looking for a platform that handles the “technical headaches” so you can focus on marketing and sales, Shopify is worth the investment.
Shopify
Shopify is an all-in-one hosted eCommerce platform with everything you need to launch, manage, and grow an online store. But is it the right platform for you?
Price: 19
Price Currency: USD
Operating System: Web
Application Category: E-commerce Platform
4.78
Shopify Overview
Shopify was launched in 2006 to help businesses sell online and in-person, in retail stores and brick-and-mortar businesses.
Shopify powers over 6 million online eCommerce stores in more than 175 countries. You can sell anywhere with Shopify, whether online or through POS payment systems.
According to BuiltWith, there will be 4 million active Shopify stores in 2025.
Shopify enables anyone to start, manage, and grow an e-commerce business without being tech-savvy or needing to write code. You don’t have to learn or understand HTML or CSS to use it.
Shopify is a hosted platform, meaning you don’t have to worry about hosting costs, server-side management, or integrating features to keep your store running smoothly.
The platform is designed with features that make it effortless to start an online store in under 5 minutes.
Whether you’re dropshipping, printing on demand, or selling products from your store and processing online payments, Shopify allows you to take control of your business.
You can also sell digital downloadable products such as music, files, software, video, and even services through Shopify.
It offers beautiful (free and paid) pre-made Shopify templates to help you build your store with responsive designs, sell your products, and establish your brand. The Shopify app store helps you extend core features, functions, and design capabilities.
Shopify also allows you to start a blog on its platform; this might provide additional SEO benefits, increase SERP visibility, and help customers learn more about your business through updated content.
From adding products to inventory management, selling, and delivery, Shopify has all the tools to ensure your customers receive their orders securely and promptly.
Now, let’s dive into the Shopify review properly.
Ease of Use – How Easy is Shopify?
We will begin with the ease of use. How easily can beginners get on the platform, access core features, build a store, and start selling without much difficulty?
First, completing the Shopify signup process is straightforward; anyone can start and complete the registration in under three minutes.
If you haven’t signed up for a Shopify account, you can get a 3-day free trial and $1/m for the next 90 days.
This means you sign up for an initial 3-day trial without a credit card. No payment is required; you get three free days to use Shopify.
If you want to extend the free trial to 30 days, the $1 is another opportunity to test all Shopify features thoroughly against your business needs.
One of the questions you will be asked during the signup is to select where you will be selling online. You can choose as many options as you want or skip the steps if you are unsure of your answer.
After completing the signup process, you must confirm the email address you entered. Once you do this, your Shopify store is ready to use.
Within your Shopify admin dashboard, you have all the features you need to create and manage your store. The menus for the core feature are placed on the left side.
You can access the theme gallery from the admin dashboard, pick a Shopify theme, customize it to fit your brand, and start selling on Shopify in minutes.
Using the Shopify user admin area is straightforward; there’s no steep learning. If you need help, a setup guide panel walks you through all the steps.
In summary, Shopify is designed to let an average internet user build an online store without a complex process.
Shopify Features
Some features make Shopify what it is today, and why millions of merchants choose it over competitors like Wix, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Magento, etc.
In this section, I will review some of these features, their uses, and how they can help you grow your eCommerce store to the next level.
Website Design Features
Shopify offers 12 free, readymade themes to help you start with minimal cost. As a beginner, these themes will help you save on website design costs.
The paid themes currently number 125, as of writing. The cost starts from $180 to $360.
When you compare the available Shopify themes to what’s available in eCommerce builders like Wix, Shopify falls short in its theme gallery. Wix has over 800 free themes plus more than 150 paid ones.
However, you can sort the Shopify themes database based on features, industry, or catalog size.
For example, you can check the box to search themes with specific features and industries, such as countdown timers, age verifiers, electronics, home and garden, pet suppliers, etc.
The free and paid themes are fully responsive, customizable, and suitable for digital sales. The block editor allows you to customize every part of your Shopify store.
All themes are professionally designed and offer endless possibilities to make them your own.
Still, if you want to build a custom Shopify theme, there are many helpful tutorials available to guide you through modifying existing themes or building one from scratch.
Product Management Features
First, Shopify provides a straightforward method for adding products to your store.
If you don’t have products to sell, you can search for them using several options in the Shopify app store. If you have products to upload, you can do so from the product management interface.
When you upload products to your store, you can add all the necessary information, including tax information, shipping costs, product images, pricing, and SKU, among others. You can also indicate if the product is physical.
Under the products menu, you have collections, inventory, purchase orders, gift cards, and transfers. These features enable you to manage various aspects of your store’s products.
You can set your store to target a national or international audience. Shopify automatically sets up your store location in your country of registration.
One thing to note about Shopify product images is that when you upload them, the photos won’t automatically crop to a unified aspect ratio.
However, you can solve this issue using an image editing tool like Canva to create your image with a standard aspect ratio before uploading it to Shopify.
Or, better still, use one of the paid image optimization apps in the Shopify store to solve the issue automatically. Shopify also features a built-in photo editor, enabling you to crop images to the required ratio after uploading.
So, the image ratio isn’t something to worry about.
Sales Features
One notable Shopify sales feature is the POS (point of sale), which allows merchants to sell in brick-and-mortar stores, at events, and in pop-up shops. It does all this while keeping your offline sales data synchronized with your online store.
During the 3-day free trial, you can access the Shopify POS Pro features to see how they work and how they allow you to sell offline.
The Point of Sale pro features allow merchants to give permission, customize payment receipts, add local pickup, and more.
However, you must purchase hardware and add-ons to make POS payments work. The Shopify POS GO, Tap, and Chip readers are not supported in all countries.
POS Go is only available in the US and Canada, while Tap and Card Reader are only available in the US. If your store is outside supported countries, you can purchase supported models from authorized third-party hardware sellers.
Check the Shopify help page for available hardware devices and supported countries.
Depending on where you intend to sell offline, you can purchase Shopify POS Go, which lets you sell on the floor or at the counter with a mobile POS machine. It also features a barcode scanner and card reader.
You can also get the Shopify Retail Kit with a card reader and iPad stand. Other POS payment hardware add-on features include a Bluetooth printer, barcode scanner, and cash drawer.
The Tap on Payment feature is also available, allowing customers to pay with their iPhones using contactless technology.
If you do not need features such as unlimited staff access to POS, receipt customizations, sales notifications, customer data, or tags, the Shopify POS Lite version is a good fit.
The POS Lite and Pro plans come with 24/7 support, order history, cash tracking, split payments, gift cards, a retail POS app, and more. If you subscribe to a monthly plan, the Pro plan costs $89 per location per month.
SEO Features
One of the major concerns for people who haven’t used Shopify is SEO. They often ask if Shopify is good for SEO.
The short answer to this question is a big YES: Shopify is good for SEO.
As with most website builders, you can write your product meta descriptions, title, add tags, image alt tags, etc.
Shopify AI helps you write optimized meta descriptions. You must input your target keyword; product features set the content tone and specific instructions, and then the AI will write the description in seconds.
Shopify gives you control over the robots.txt file; you can set which part or URL section of the website crawlers can access. You can add crawl delay rules, set up 301 redirects, generate an XML sitemap, ping search engines, etc.
If you want to go further with your store SEO, several Shopify SEO apps can optimize your store and increase your search engine visibility. Just like with WordPress, there are apps for varying aspects of SEO.
You have many options, from image optimization to content creation, blog post creation, and improving page speed, to AI SEO tools like ChatGPT.
If you’re down with Yoast SEO, you can get a 14-day free trial or pay a $19/month fee. This is ideal if you use WordPress and need something you already trust.
However, Shopify has a dedicated directory of SEO professionals you can hire to handle your store optimization if you need more help from a Shopify expert.
Shopify stores are built with a free SSL certificate and a strong ranking signal from Google. This lets you run your store on a secure internet connection, protecting customers’ financial details from eavesdroppers or cybercriminals.
As per CDN, Shopify integrates with Cloudflare to provide a world-class content delivery network in over 100 countries in 285 global cities.
Content delivery helps users load your website pages and files faster by serving requests from the nearest server location.
Shopify CDN uses Brotli and Gzip compression formats to reduce file size, allowing client browsers to download significantly faster. Requests are served over a secure HTTPS/3 connection, and TLS 1.3 further enhances security and performance.
As for file minification, Shopify automatically minifies CSS and JS files and caches them until the files are updated. This allows browsers to increase download speed and improve website performance.
With the built-in site speed testing tool, you can compare your site speed with other stores in the same category. This can help diagnose performance issues and pinpoint where to make improvements.
In all, Shopify provides features and tools to help with SEO, improve Google Web Vitals, accelerate mobile pages, and give users an optimal user experience.
Several apps let you handle many aspects of improving CWV and use AMP pages on your stores. You need to research and find suitable apps that meet your needs.
Payment and Checkout Features
Aside from the POS feature, Shopify offers dozens of online payment options to process payments directly from your store. You can use Shopify Payments or choose from other payment gateway providers.
Here are some of the popular options:
Shopify has over 100 third-party payment gateways, which allow customers to pay in multiple currencies and help you sell internationally.
Shopify automatically creates your PayPal Express checkout account with the email address on file. However, you need to log in to PayPal to complete the process.
Amazon Pay is also available. You can add service providers to your account by choosing from a range of providers.
Shopify also allows users to set up manual payment methods, including bank deposits, cash on delivery, money orders, and custom payment methods.
The best Shopify online payment option depends on several factors. Let’s explore them to gain a better understanding of how the payment system works.
The Shopify Payment (built-in) is the cheapest and best option if you’re in a supported country. It removes transactional fees on all plans.
Click this link to check if your country supports Shopify Payments.
Third-party payment gateways charge per transaction. The percentage depends on the plan. 5% in the starter plan, 2% in the Basic, 1% in the Shopify, and the Advanced plan 0.5%
An additional 1.5% currency conversion fee applies. The Starter plan has an extra $0.30 for online credit card rates.
You must consider these conditions when choosing the right plan and pricing your products.
Check out Features
There is no complex setup process; most settings simply require a single click.
You can set your preferred checkout language; this is an excellent feature if you sell globally. Aside from this option, all other settings are straightforward.
Here are some things to remember.
Shopify App Store
If you’re used to WordPress, you know plugins are what make WordPress the leading CMS builder.
Shopify has an app store that adds more features and functions to its core functions. These apps let store owners do more with their stores.
There are more than 8,000 Shopify apps, more than many of its alternatives can boost. These apps add more functionality to your store or enable it to integrate with other third-party services and tools.
For example, you have apps for dropshipping that work in so many ways. Some dropship apps source products and import them directly to your store based on your specific criteria.
You have apps for specific marketplaces, product types, locations, product images, etc.
The Shopify app comes with pros and cons.
The pros are that you can do extensive things with your store. If you need a function that isn’t built into the store, the app lets you add it.
For example, the built-in free Shopify email services might be limited for some users or not an ideal option. You can install your favorite email marketing app to collect subscribers’ info and send transactional emails from your store.
Mailchimp, Brevo, GetResponse, and Omnisend are some of the top email marketing services you can use with your Shopify store.
The cons are that these apps can increase the cost of running your Shopify store, add bloat, and hurt performance and SEO.
But these are not something to worry about; you can help by only installing regularly updated apps from the official Shopify store.
All in all, Shopify has performed excellently, providing a platform that gives users total control and flexibility to achieve unimaginable things through third-party apps, making the store fully customizable.
Shopify Pricing
Shopify has conducted extensive testing and development over the past few years on its pricing plans and available packages. Now you have four standard plans plus 2 others, POS PRO and the Starter plan, with the following entry price:
To save 25% off the prices above, subscribe to a yearly plan instead of paying monthly.
For instance, you save $1,200 on the Advanced plan by paying for 12 monthly subscriptions upfront.
If you browse the Shopify website outside the US, the currency symbol will be in your local currency. This is an even more convenient way to pay for your Shopify plan with your payment method.
There are things to keep in mind about Shopify prices.
Additional fees and hardware purchases apply if you wish to sell in physical stores and utilize Shopify POS (Point of Sale). When selecting a plan, consider any additional features you may need that are not included in the standard price and plan.
There are key differences in the Shopify plan, which you must know to find the right plan for your business.
Depending on your plan, you can access the features shown in the image below.
Shopify Plus is an enterprise plan designed for large ecommerce websites, offering advanced features and requirements that demand more resources.
It offers additional benefits, features, and tools for running enterprise-level stores. Here are some of the Shopify Plus features and benefits:
Check this page for more details on features and access levels for Shopify Plus users.
| Plan | Price (USD/month)* | Best For | Standout Features | Transaction Fees (3rd-party) | Team / Staff | Inventory Locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $5 | Beginners selling via social media | • Sell via WhatsApp, Instagram, links• No full online store• Simple checkout links | ~5% | 1 POS login | Limited |
| Basic | $19–$24 (yearly) | Solo entrepreneurs | • Full online store• 24/7 chat support• POS (in-person selling)• 10 inventory locations | ~2% | Limited (few accounts) | 10 |
| Grow (Shopify) | $54–$69 (yearly) | Small teams scaling | • Everything in Basic• 5 staff accounts• Better reporting• Lower transaction fees | ~1% | 5 staff | 10 |
| Advanced | ~$299 | Scaling/global businesses | • Advanced analytics & reports• Lower fees• Better shipping rates• More staff accounts | ~0.6% | 15 staff | More flexibility |
| Plus | From $2,300+ | Enterprise brands | • Custom checkout• Automation workflows• Dedicated support• Scalable infrastructure | Custom | Unlimited | Enterprise-level |
Shopify Customer Support
Shopify offers 24/7/365 customer support via live chat, email, and phone.
Mostly, customer support is provided in English; the availability of other languages depends on your store location.
Apart from the customer support channel, Shopify regularly adds to its help documentation and extensive video tutorials, providing practical solutions to commonly encountered problems. Before you engage the customer’s rep, check the help library for an immediate solution to your issue.
If you believe the standard Shopify support team does not adequately address your issue, you can log in to the community forum and share your concern; hopefully, someone more knowledgeable will respond.
For more programming-related issues, getting direct help from the community is often more effective than relying on a Shopify customer care representative.
Overall, I don’t see where Shopify lacks in customer support. Although there are always opportunities for improvement, Shopify has performed well.
Pros and Cons of Shopify
This section is helpful if you’re ready to try Shopify on a $1 monthly plan for the next 30 days.
In this Shopify review, you must know about the pros and cons.
Pros of Shopify
Cons of Shopify
FAQ – Shopify Review
I have listed some commonly asked questions about Shopify that you may find helpful.
Is Shopify really that good?
Yes, Shopify is excellent and highly regarded as a top e-commerce platform due to its user-friendly interface and scalable and shared platform. It is also suitable for businesses of all sizes, with extensive app stores (8,000+), mobile-responsive themes, integration with various payment gateways, and shipping options. Shopify also integrates with third-party services and marketing automation tools.
What is the disadvantage of Shopify?
One disadvantage of Shopify is the transaction fees imposed on each sale through external payment gateways. Shopify offers its payment gateway, Shopify Payments, which doesn’t charge transaction fees. However, using a third-party payment provider, such as Stripe, 2Checkout, or PayPal, will cost additional fees on top of the regular credit card processing fees.
This can affect your profit margins, especially for businesses with high sales volumes or larger transaction values. While Shopify offers a wide range of themes and customization options, extensive design modifications often require coding knowledge or the assistance of a developer. Lastly, while Shopify offers a robust app store, some advanced features may require premium apps, which can add to the overall cost of running your online store.
How much can I make from Shopify?
The amount of money you can make from Shopify depends on several factors, including your business model, product selection, marketing strategies, industry, and overall execution. Shopify provides a platform and tools to create and run an online store, but success and profitability ultimately rely on your efforts and market demand for your products.
Some Shopify store owners have achieved significant success and generated substantial revenue, while others may require assistance to achieve a profit. Conducting market research, developing a solid business plan, and implementing effective marketing strategies are essential to maximizing your potential earnings. The success and profitability of your Shopify store will depend on the uniqueness and demand for your products, your ability to attract and retain customers, and your overall business acumen.
Is Shopify better than Amazon?
Shopify and Amazon are fundamentally different platforms that serve various purposes. Shopify is an e-commerce platform that enables individuals and businesses to create their online stores, providing more control over branding, customization, and customer experience. Shopify offers a range of features and functions designed to help entrepreneurs establish and grow their independent businesses. On the other hand, Amazon is a massive online marketplace that offers a readymade platform for sellers to reach a vast customer base.
While Amazon provides unparalleled reach and exposure, it also comes with limitations and restrictions on branding and control over the customer experience. The choice between Shopify and Amazon depends on your specific goals and requirements. Shopify may be better if you prioritize independence, control, and customization. However, if you seek the advantages of a massive marketplace and access to a large customer base, Amazon can be a compelling choice.
What are The Best Alternatives to Shopify?
There are several alternatives to Shopify; however, WooCommerce is often regarded as the best. While not a hosted platform like Shopify, WooCommerce offers excellent features and functions for creating an e-commerce business. However, if you’re looking for a hosted platform like Shopify, the best alternative is BigCommerce. It has all the features and functions you’ll find in Shopify, plus more.
Is Shopify Good for Beginners?
Yes, Shopify is an excellent e-commerce software for beginners. It is designed to be user-friendly and accessible to those without programming or technical knowledge. It offers an intuitive user interface, an easy setup process, and a wide range of customization, themes, and apps to help beginners quickly create online stores.
Shopify offers extensive documentation, tutorials, and customer support to help beginners navigate the platform and resolve any issues they may encounter. The platform’s user-friendly admin dashboard makes managing products, orders, tracking, and inventory simple.
Is Shopify worth it for a small business?
Shopify is worth it for a small business. It offers a range of features and benefits that can greatly benefit small business owners. The platform’s intuitive interface for creating and managing an online store enables small businesses to establish an online presence quickly and easily. Shopify offers customizable templates, secure payment options, inventory management tools, and integration with various third-party apps and services.
Shopify’s scalability allows small businesses to grow and expand their operations as they succeed. It also provides dedicated customer support and extensive resources to help small business owners get solutions to any challenges they may face using the platform. Shopify’s features, ease of use, and support make it a practical choice for small businesses looking to establish and grow their online presence.
Conclusion.
If you’re undecided, which Shopify plan is right for you? I have provided you with sufficient information to make an informed decision in this Shopify Review.
It’s extensive and comprehensive, covering many aspects of the eCommerce platform to help you make informed decisions. If you care about Shopify SEO and its comparison to WooCommerce, you may see our Shopify vs WooCommerce SEO in this guide.
Talking about which Shopify plan is right for you?
For beginners, the Shopify Starter plan is ideal; it’s cheaper and offers quick and easy ways to start selling online, on social media, and on your website. However, the Basic plan is the best option to create your e-commerce store.
Except that you’re already selling and can cover the monthly or annual costs, the Shopify and Advanced plans are suitable for businesses that’re already doing well.
If you still have questions about the Shopify Review, leave your comment below, and I will get back to you.
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