Shopify Plus
Cost Estimator

How this estimate is calibrated

The ranges in this calculator come from Shopify Plus migrations we've actually shipped between Q4 2024 and Q2 2026 across UK and EU brands. Every input below maps to a specific cost driver our engineering team has measured at scale, not Shopify list prices, not unrealistic agency proposals.

What's included in the platform fee

Shopify Plus base subscriptions in 2026 start at £1,800/month on a 3-year term or £1,950/month on a 1-year term. Plus includes nine expansion stores; each live expansion store needs its own theme licence, and Shopify Markets itself has no per-market fee. Higher-volume or more complex businesses move to a variable platform fee, negotiated with Shopify.

What drives the build cost

The single biggest cost driver isn't storefront design, it's integration depth. Headless (Hydrogen or Catalyst) doubles initial build effort. ERP integration (NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics) adds 4-8 weeks. B2B requirements (multi-tier pricing, draft order workflows, net terms) add 2-4 weeks. Shopify Functions for custom discount/delivery/payment logic add 1-3 weeks per Function.

What the retainer actually buys

UK Shopify Plus retainers in 2026 typically run £3,000-£22,000/month depending on app extensibility scope, ongoing Functions/Extensions work, and multi-region/B2B operational support. Below £3K/month you're buying triage, not engineering. Above £10K/month the work becomes embedded delivery.

What this estimate intentionally excludes

One-off costs we don't price into the headline range: brand rebrand work, content migration of legacy blog/PDP content (we typically scope separately), data cleanup pre-import, and Shopify Plus transaction fees on alternative payment gateways (which depend on your processor and volume). We'll quantify these in a real proposal, they vary too widely for a generic calculator.

Why most other Shopify Plus calculators lie

App store calculators show the headline £1,800 base and stop there. Migration agencies often quote a build figure without the next 12 months of platform and retainer cost. Real total cost of ownership in year one is usually 2.5-4x the agency's build line item. We built this to surface that whole picture upfront.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Shopify Plus cost in the UK in 2026?

Shopify Plus base subscriptions in 2026 start at £1,800/month on a 3-year term or £1,950/month on a 1-year term, and higher-volume or more complex businesses move to a variable platform fee. But the platform fee is rarely your real number, agency build, app stack, and an ongoing engineering retainer push first-year total cost of ownership to roughly 2.5-4x the build line item. The estimator separates all four layers.

What costs does the estimator include beyond the platform fee?

Four layers: the Shopify Plus platform fee, the agency build (where integration depth, headless, ERP, B2B, Functions, is the biggest driver, not storefront design), the recurring app stack, and an ongoing engineering retainer that typically runs £3,000-£22,000/month. The retainer and integration depth are the lines most teams under-budget.

Is the Shopify Plus cost estimator free?

Yes, completely free, no email, no sign-up, no sales call. Enter your store profile and see the breakdown instantly. The ranges are calibrated against real Shopify Plus migrations we shipped between Q4 2024 and Q2 2026, not vendor list prices.