Shopify Advanced is enough for most growing brands that run one store and need better reports, 15 staff accounts and lower fees. Shopify Plus is worth it only when you hit a wall Advanced can’t fix, like a custom checkout, unlimited B2B catalogs, extra storefronts or much higher API limits. Don’t upgrade just because sales went up.
Store owners who use Shopify ask us this all the time. “We’re doing well on Advanced. Should we move to Plus now?” Honestly, the answer is usually “not yet.” But sometimes it’s “yes, and you’re losing money by waiting.”
Choosing between Shopify Plus and Advanced comes down to one simple thing. Does Plus fix a problem that costs you more than the Plus fee? This guide gives you the real India prices, what each plan can and can’t do, and an easy way to do that math for your own Shopify store. No heavy jargon. Promise.
Shopify Advanced or Plus? Key Differences at a Glance
Here’s the short version. Every number below comes from what Shopify provides on its official pricing and help pages.
| Feature | Advanced | Plus |
| Price in India | ₹22,680/month (billed yearly) | From ₹1,75,000/month (3-year term) |
| Fee on payments through a gateway like Razorpay | 0.6% | 0.2% |
| Staff logins | 15 | Unlimited |
| Inventory locations | 10 | Up to 200 |
| Stores on one plan | 1 | 1 main store + 9 expansion stores |
| B2B catalogs | Up to 3 | Unlimited |
| Edit the information, shipping and payment steps | No | Yes |
| Your own custom Functions | No | Yes |
| Flow automation | Yes | Yes |
| Launchpad for scheduled sales | No | Yes |
| Admin API limit | 200 points/second | 1,000 points/second |
| Support | Enhanced 24/7 chat | Priority 24/7 support |
Prices are without 18% GST. They change from time to time, so check the Shopify pricing page before you decide.
What Is Shopify Advanced?
Shopify offers Advanced as the bridge between its small-business plans and its enterprise plan. It sits one step above Grow and is the biggest of the standard plans offered by Shopify. Shopify Advanced is designed for brands that are growing fast but still run one main online store. Think of it as the senior class before you graduate to enterprise.
The Advanced Shopify plan suits businesses that require advanced reports and live shipping rates but don’t need enterprise tools. Here’s what Shopify Advanced offers:
- 15 staff accounts, so your team, your agency and freelancers each get their own login.
- Custom reports and better analytics. You can build your own reports and see which products, ads and customers actually make money. Shopify calls this advanced reporting.
- Live courier rates at checkout, also called third-party calculated shipping rates.
- 10 inventory locations for warehouses, retail shops or 3PL partners.
- Local storefronts by market through Shopify Markets, so a buyer in Dubai can see prices in AED.
- Native B2B with up to 3 catalogs. Since April 2026, B2B works on all paid plans, not just Plus.
- Flow, a free Shopify app that puts boring tasks on autopilot.
- 0.6% Shopify fee on payments that go through a gateway.
Where does it stop? You can’t change the main checkout steps, you get only 3 B2B price lists, and you get one store. For a lot of brands that’s totally fine.
single-brand D2C stores, teams of 15 or fewer, and brands selling mostly in India or in a handful of countries. Use Advanced to help your team grow without paying enterprise prices.
What Is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is Shopify’s enterprise plan. It unlocks the full capabilities of Shopify for big or complicated businesses. Lots of orders, many teams, wholesale buyers, or separate stores in different countries. In simple words, Shopify Plus provides more control, more stores and more room to grow.
What Plus includes on top of Advanced:
- Unlimited staff accounts with custom permissions.
- A checkout you can change. Shopify Plus allows advanced customization of the information, shipping and payment pages through Checkout Extensibility. Think upsells, gift notes, delivery date pickers or loyalty points, right before the customer pays. For most brands this is the biggest reason to move.
- Custom Shopify Functions. A developer can write your own discount, shipping and payment rules.
- Full B2B features. Unlimited catalogs, a catalog for each company, deposits and partial payments.
- 9 extra stores for the same brand. Handy if you want a separate US or UAE store with its own language and content.
- Launchpad to schedule sales, product drops and theme changes.
- Up to 200 locations, with the first 20 POS Pro locations included.
- 5 times higher API limits, which matters when your ERP, CRM or warehouse integration syncs data all day.
- 0.2% Shopify fee on gateway payments.
- Priority support. Shopify Plus merchants get faster help when something breaks.
One thing to clear up. Many older blogs (honestly, our own old version of this post too) list Shopify Scripts as a Plus perk. That’s outdated now. Scripts stopped working on 30 June 2026 and Functions replaced them. If someone pitches you Plus “for Scripts,” they’re working off old info.
Also, Shopify Plus isn’t a magic switch for more sales. Most Plus features need a developer to set up before they do anything.
high-volume brands, D2C plus wholesale businesses, brands with stores in several countries, and teams bigger than 15.
Shopify Plus vs Advanced: Pricing in India
Here’s the full Shopify Plus pricing next to Advanced, as shown on Shopify India.
| Cost item | Advanced | Plus |
| Plan fee, billed yearly | ₹22,680/month | Not offered |
| Plan fee, billed monthly | About ₹30,164/month | Not offered |
| 1-year contract | Not needed | ₹1,90,000/month |
| 3-year contract | Not needed | ₹1,75,000/month |
| Shopify fee on gateway payments | 0.6% | 0.2% |
| More stores | Not available | 9 included, then about $250/month each |
| POS Pro | About ₹7,000/month per location | First 20 included |
| GST | 18% extra | 18% extra |
Shopify Plus offers flat monthly pricing to most brands. Very big or complex businesses may get a variable platform fee (a small % of sales) instead of the flat fee. Shopify decides this when you talk to its sales team. In short, Plus costs about 8 times more than Advanced.
Why the gateway fee matters so much in India
Shopify Payments is not available in India. So every Indian store has to use a third-party payment gateway like Razorpay, PayU or Cashfree. You pay the gateway its own charge, and Shopify adds its transaction fee on top. Cash on delivery orders don’t get this Shopify fee, because no gateway is involved.
Quick example. Say you do ₹10 lakh in prepaid sales a month.
- On Advanced, the Shopify fee is 0.6%, so ₹6,000.
- On Plus, it’s 0.2%, so ₹2,000.
- You save ₹4,000. But you pay ₹1,52,320 more per month for Plus.
The price difference is huge. Fee savings alone won’t cover it for most stores.
Which Features Actually Need Plus?
A lot of people pay for Plus to get stuff Advanced already has. Here’s what’s really Plus-only.
| Feature | On Advanced? | Plus-only? |
| Flow automation | Yes | No |
| B2B companies, net terms, volume pricing | Yes (3 catalogs) | Unlimited catalogs + company catalogs |
| Discount or shipping apps built on Functions | Yes | No |
| Your own custom Functions | No | Yes |
| Thank you and order status page blocks | Yes | No |
| Changing the information, shipping and payment steps | No | Yes |
| Launchpad | No | Yes |
| Extra storefronts for the same brand | No | Yes |
| More than 15 staff logins | No | Yes |
Does Shopify Flow work on the Advanced plan?
Yes. Shopify Flow comes free with every plan from Basic up, including Advanced. Plus doesn’t give you a “better” Flow. The real difference is limits. How much Flow can do depends on your plan’s API limits, and Plus has higher ones. So Flow alone is not a reason to switch.
Is Shopify Plus Worth the Extra Cost?
Forget the old “move up once you cross $1 million” rule. Revenue alone tells you nothing. What matters is this:
- What you pay extra each month = Plus fee minus Advanced fee
- Extra benefit each month = gateway fees saved + app bills you can cancel + team hours saved + extra profit from Plus-only tools
If the benefit is bigger than the cost, month after month, Plus pays for itself. If not, stay where you are.
A worked example
Let’s take a brand doing ₹1 crore a month in prepaid online sales, on the 3-year term.
| Line | Amount each month |
| Extra plan cost (₹1,75,000 minus ₹22,680) | ₹1,52,320 |
| Gateway fee saved (0.4% of ₹1 crore) | minus ₹40,000 |
| Apps you can cancel, say a wholesale app and an upsell app | minus ₹15,000 |
| Gap still left | ₹97,320 |
So Plus-only features like checkout upsells or company price lists need to bring in about ₹97,000 extra profit every month. Profit, not sales. If your margin is 30%, that’s roughly ₹3.25 lakh in extra sales each month. Some brands hit that easily. Many don’t.
And if you only count fee savings? You’d need about ₹3.8 crore of gateway sales every single month to break even. That’s why “Plus has lower fees” is almost never the real reason to switch.
These numbers are just an example. Plug in your own sales volume, margin and app bills.
Reasons to Choose Shopify Plus Over Advanced (and Reasons to Stay)
Reasons to move to Plus:
- Your checkout is where you lose money, and you want upsells, custom fields or special payment rules right inside it.
- Wholesale is a big part of your sales, and you need more than 3 price lists or a price list for each company.
- You want separate country stores. Plus has stronger international selling capabilities, with each store getting its own language, content and offers.
- Your team is bigger than 15 people.
- Your ERP or warehouse integration keeps hitting Shopify’s speed limits.
- You run huge sale drops and want Launchpad to schedule everything.
Reasons to stay on Advanced:
- One brand, one store, mostly Indian customers.
- Your real problem is traffic, ads or product pages, not the checkout.
- Cheap apps already handle your discounts or wholesale needs.
- The Plus fee would eat a big part of your monthly profit.
When Should You Move Up? A Simple Checklist
If you tick two or more, it’s time to talk to the Shopify sales team:
- You need more than 15 staff logins
- You need more than 3 B2B catalogs, or pricing for each company
- You need to change the checkout steps, not just the thank you page
- You need more than 10 inventory locations
- You want separate stores for other countries
- Your integrations keep hitting speed limits
- The worth-it formula above comes out positive
If you tick none, your money will probably do more work in ads, CRO or SEO for now.
How to Upgrade to Shopify Plus from Advanced
Good news. Moving up is a plan change, not a rebuild.
- Write down the exact problem Plus will fix. If you can’t name one, wait.
- Get a quote from Shopify. Ask if you’ll be on the flat fee or a variable fee.
- Pick a 1-year or 3-year term. A Plus contract for 3 years is cheaper each month, but it locks you in longer.
- Shopify switches your current store to Plus. Your products, orders, customers and theme stay the same.
- Do the Plus setup work. Checkout extensions, wholesale catalogs, extra stores. This part needs a developer or one of the Shopify Plus partners.
- Test everything (payments, gateway, apps) before your next big sale.
Frequently Asked Questions
Shopify Advanced is the top standard plan for growing brands with one store. Shopify Plus is the enterprise plan. The Shopify Plus plan includes checkout customization, unlimited B2B catalogs, extra stores, unlimited staff and higher API limits, at a much higher monthly price.
Plus starts at ₹1,75,000 per month on a 3-year contract, or ₹1,90,000 per month on a 1-year contract. Add 18% GST. Very large businesses may be put on a variable fee based on sales instead.
It’s worth it when a Plus-only tool earns you more profit than the extra fee. For most brands that means a real Plus-only need, like custom payment steps, wholesale or more stores. Lower fees alone rarely cover the cost.
Yes. Most brands do exactly this. Shopify moves your existing store to Plus, so you don’t lose products, orders or customer data.
When people search “Shopify vs Shopify Plus,” they usually mean the regular Shopify plans (Shopify Basic, Grow and Advanced) against Plus. Shopify plans include the same core ecommerce features, like an online store, themes, apps and payments. Plus adds enterprise extras on top. Compared to Shopify Plus, every standard Shopify plan is far cheaper and simpler.
Not really. If you’re on Grow and need more advanced features, Advanced is the natural next step. Jumping straight to Plus only makes sense if you already need a Plus-only tool on day one.
Yes. Shopify charges 0.2% on gateway payments on Plus, against 0.6% on Advanced. Your gateway’s own charges stay the same either way.
Plus runs on a 1-year or 3-year contract, so read your contract terms before you plan any move back.
Final Word: Pick the Right Plan for Today
Shopify is a great ecommerce platform at every level, so you’re not stuck either way. Stay on Advanced while it does the job. Move to Plus when you hit a clear wall (checkout changes, more wholesale price lists, extra country stores or speed limits) and when the worth-it math says yes. Both Advanced and Plus can run a serious brand. The right one is simply the one that pays for itself.
Not sure if Advanced is holding your store back? ROI Hunt can look at your monthly sales, gateway fees, apps, wholesale needs and checkout setup, and tell you honestly whether staying or moving makes more sense. If you do switch, our Shopify Plus agency team can handle the setup, and our Shopify website development and eCommerce marketing services can help you get more out of whichever plan you pick.
