Shopify plan prices in rupees, the third-party gateway fee Indian stores pay, themes, apps and build options: the full cost of a Shopify store, October 2026.
A Shopify store in India costs ₹1,499 to ₹22,680 a month in plan fees on yearly billing (₹1,994 to ₹30,164 if you pay monthly), plus a 0.6–2% Shopify fee on online payments through gateways like Razorpay, Cashfree or PayU, your gateway's own charges, a theme, and monthly app subscriptions.
The plan fee is the number everyone quotes and the one that matters least. For most Indian stores the bigger costs are the transaction fee, the apps that pile up after launch, and shipping. Here is each line, with the prices checked against Shopify's own pages as of October 2026.
How much are Shopify plans in India?
Shopify's Indian pricing page lists four plans, from ₹1,499 a month (Basic, billed yearly) to ₹1,75,000 a month (Plus). Paying monthly instead of yearly costs roughly a third more on Basic, Grow and Advanced.
| Plan | Billed yearly (per month) | Billed monthly | Fee on third-party gateways |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | ₹1,499 | ₹1,994 | 2% |
| Grow | ₹5,599 | ₹7,447 | 1% |
| Advanced | ₹22,680 | ₹30,164 | 0.6% |
| Plus | From ₹1,75,000 | From ₹1,75,000 | 0.2% |
Source: Shopify India pricing, as of October 2026. Shopify states there are no setup fees on any plan. At the time of writing it also offers a 3-day free trial followed by ₹20 a month for the first three months; promotions change, so check before you budget around one. Taxes may be added to the listed price, and your Shopify billing page shows the final amount.
Yearly billing saves ₹5,940 a year on Basic and ₹22,176 on Grow. If you are confident the store will run for twelve months, it is the easiest saving available.
What transaction fees does Shopify charge in India?
Indian stores pay Shopify's third-party transaction fee — 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus — on every online payment, because Shopify Payments is not available in India.
India does not appear on Shopify's list of Shopify Payments countries, so Indian merchants use a third-party gateway such as Razorpay, Cashfree or PayU. Shopify says third-party transaction fees apply to all transactions processed through those gateways.
That gives you two separate charges on each prepaid order:
- Shopify's fee — the percentage in the table above, billed by Shopify.
- The gateway's fee — the payment provider's own charge, which varies by payment method (UPI, cards, net banking, wallets) and by your agreement. Read it on the gateway's own pricing page before you choose one.
The plan decision is mostly a transaction-fee decision. On yearly billing, Grow costs ₹4,100 a month more than Basic but saves 1% of gateway sales. The two break even at about ₹4.1 lakh of online sales a month. Above that, Grow is cheaper overall. Advanced only beats Grow above roughly ₹42.7 lakh a month on the same arithmetic.
Cash on delivery is exempt. Shopify says it does not charge third-party transaction fees on manual payments, and COD is a manual payment method. A store with a high COD share pays less to Shopify than its total sales suggest.
How much do Shopify themes and apps cost?
A Shopify theme is either free or a paid purchase of about US$100 to US$500; apps are usually a recurring monthly charge, and they are where running costs quietly grow.
Themes. The Shopify Theme Store lists free themes built by Shopify alongside paid themes from independent developers. Sorted by price in October 2026, paid themes run from $100 to $500. A free theme is a sensible start for a small catalogue; a paid theme earns its price when it already does what you would otherwise pay a developer to build, such as mega menus, lookbooks or detailed size guides.
Apps. Shopify bills most apps as recurring charges every 30 days, some on usage, and a few as one-time purchases. Typical categories for an Indian store are reviews, WhatsApp order notifications, GST invoicing, COD verification, shipping, and subscriptions or bundles. Each looks small. Six of them together often cost more than the Basic plan.
Audit apps every quarter. Uninstalling one you stopped using is a direct saving, and every app you remove also takes its scripts off the storefront, which helps page speed. Our guide to Core Web Vitals explains why that matters for search and conversion.
What other costs does an Indian Shopify store have?
Beyond Shopify itself, an Indian store pays for a domain, GST-compliant invoicing, shipping and the hidden cost of cash on delivery.
- Domain. A yearly renewal, bought through Shopify or any registrar. A .in or .com is a small line, but put the renewal on a card that will not expire.
- GST invoicing. If you are GST-registered, your invoices need your GSTIN, HSN codes and the correct tax split. Most stores either install an invoicing app or push orders into their accounting software. Either is a recurring cost.
- Shipping. Most Indian D2C brands use a shipping aggregator such as Shiprocket rather than contracting couriers one by one. You pay per shipment, by weight and zone, and the aggregator handles pickups, tracking and courier allocation.
- COD. Couriers usually charge extra to collect cash, and refused or undelivered COD orders come back at your expense (return to origin, or RTO). Many stores add OTP or WhatsApp confirmation before dispatching COD orders to cut this.
- Product photography and content. Not a Shopify cost, but no store launches without it, and it is the most common reason launches slip.
Which way should you build a Shopify store?
Build on a theme yourself if you are testing an idea, hire a developer to customise a theme for most brands, and reserve custom themes and headless builds for brands whose design or scale demands it.
| Option | Effort | Right when |
|---|---|---|
| DIY with a theme | Your own time; days to a few weeks | You are validating a product with a small catalogue and can live with the theme's layout |
| Theme customisation by a developer | Two to six weeks, mostly content and configuration | You want your brand, not the theme demo, plus a few custom sections, app setup and speed work |
| Custom theme | Design and development from scratch; one to three months | Your brand depends on a distinct look or merchandising logic no theme offers |
| Headless | A separate front end built on Shopify's APIs; ongoing engineering | High traffic, multiple storefronts or app-like experiences, with a team to maintain it |
Most Indian brands are best served by the second row. It keeps Shopify's admin, checkout and app ecosystem intact while the storefront looks and behaves like your brand. Headless is powerful, but it turns a store into a software product with its own hosting and release cycle.
At Kredosys, a digital agency in Udaipur, we have built four Shopify stores that are live today: Reyshell (women's fashion), dharmic.store (devotional goods), Selinx (streetwear) and MEHVA (gourmet gifting). If you are looking for a Shopify developer in Udaipur or anywhere in India, they are a fair way to judge the work. For the general factors that move a build quote, see what a business website should cost.
What does a Shopify store cost to run each month?
A Shopify store's monthly running cost is the plan, plus transaction and gateway fees on prepaid sales, plus apps, shipping and COD losses. Use this checklist to build your own number:
- Plan fee — ₹1,499 to ₹22,680 on yearly billing for Basic to Advanced.
- Shopify transaction fee — your plan's percentage × online (non-COD) sales.
- Gateway fee — your gateway's rate × online sales, per its own pricing.
- Apps — the sum of every recurring and usage charge on your Shopify bill.
- Shipping — orders × average shipment cost, including returns.
- COD costs — collection charges plus RTO shipping on refused orders.
- Invoicing and accounting — app or software subscription for GST.
- Domain and email — annual renewals, spread across the year.
- Developer support — if you keep someone on call for changes and fixes.
Add a twelve-month view before you choose a plan or a build. A store that is cheaper to launch is not always cheaper to run.
Shopify or WooCommerce for an Indian brand?
Choose Shopify if you want a hosted store your team can run without a developer; choose WooCommerce if you already run WordPress, have developer support and want to avoid platform fees.
| Shopify | WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | Monthly plan, ₹1,499 upwards (yearly billing) | Free plugin; no monthly platform fees |
| Fee on Indian gateways | 0.6–2% Shopify fee by plan, plus gateway fee | Gateway fee only |
| Hosting and security | Included | You buy hosting and handle security |
| Updates | Handled by Shopify | WordPress, plugin and theme updates are yours to apply and test |
| Extensions | Apps, mostly monthly | Plugins, free or paid, often yearly licences |
| Flexibility | High within Shopify's rules | Near total, with the code to match |
| Best for | Brands without in-house developers who want to sell quickly | Content-heavy brands already on WordPress with technical support |
WooCommerce looks cheaper because the fees are spread across hosting, plugins and developer hours. Shopify looks dearer because its fees are on one bill. Compare twelve months of both, including the time someone spends keeping the store running.
If you are weighing the two for a specific catalogue, our e-commerce team can walk through the numbers with you.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify Payments available in India?
No. As of October 2026, India is not on Shopify's list of supported countries for Shopify Payments, so Indian stores use a third-party gateway such as Razorpay, Cashfree or PayU. That means Shopify's third-party transaction fee applies to online payments: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus.
Does Shopify charge a fee on cash on delivery orders?
No. Cash on delivery is a manual payment method, and Shopify states that third-party transaction fees are not charged on manual payments. Your courier or shipping aggregator may still charge a COD collection fee, and refused COD parcels cost you shipping both ways, so COD is free of Shopify's fee rather than free.
Which Shopify plan should a new Indian store choose?
Most new stores should start on Basic. Move to Grow once online sales through your payment gateway pass roughly ₹4.1 lakh a month on yearly billing, because Grow's 1% lower transaction fee then outweighs its higher plan price. Below that level, the extra features rarely justify the difference for a small team.
Is WooCommerce cheaper than Shopify in India?
Often on paper, not always in practice. WooCommerce has no monthly platform fee and no platform transaction fee, but you pay for hosting, premium plugins, security and someone to apply updates. For a small team without a developer, Shopify's fixed monthly cost is usually easier to manage; for a developer-led team, WooCommerce can cost less.
How long does it take to build a Shopify store?
A theme-based store with your branding and a modest catalogue usually takes two to six weeks, most of it spent on product photos, descriptions and policies rather than development. A custom theme takes one to three months, and a headless build is an ongoing engineering project. Content readiness, not code, is the usual bottleneck.
Do I need a developer to run a Shopify store?
Not for day-to-day running. Adding products, processing orders and running discounts all happen in the Shopify admin without code. You need a developer for changes the theme editor cannot make, custom sections, app integrations that misbehave and speed work. Many brands use a developer for the build and occasionally afterwards.
