$1M a year doesn’t mean you need Shopify Plus.
By Jason Cross · Solution Architect
Someone's put a Plus contract in front of you at $3,700 a month. One line on that list can pay for itself, and on the published rates it needs $18.75M a year in card volume.
- SHOPIFY ADVANCED
- $575 AUD a month, or $431 if you pay yearly. Card rates from 1.4% + 30¢.
- THE GAP
- $3,125 a month, comparing monthly billing on both. More if you pay Advanced yearly.
- THE RATE DIFFERENCE
- The 30¢ is identical on both plans, so the whole saving is 0.2%.
- BREAK-EVEN
- $18.75 million a year in card volume before the better rate covers the fee.
Ask when you should upgrade to Shopify Plus and you get a revenue number back. Shopify's own page says brands typically move at around USD 80,000 a month. The agency posts ranking under it say $1M, or $1–3M, or $2M. One tells you to upgrade when you need a second storefront for another country or brand.
Every one of those describes who tends to buy Plus. None of them tells you whether it does anything for you. And the storefront one is flatly wrong — Shopify's own pricing FAQ says an expansion store carries one brand.
Most of that list won't apply to you. Two lines might, and one of them you can settle with a calculator.
Before you sign
One line on that list can pay for itself. Whether it does is a division you can do today.
You upgrade when you're short of something. Turnover is a proxy for that, and it's the wrong one.
Why the list gets shorter fast
Most of it answers questions you haven't got
Multiple currencies and shipping regions are on the standard plans already. If your site is in one language and you sell into one market, the internationalisation half of Plus is solving nothing you have.
Unlimited staff accounts, when the plan below caps at fifteen. Two hundred POS Pro locations, when you have two. Bot protection and up to 500% higher API call limits, for load you haven't got.
Which is why the list gets short fast. Two lines can move real money, and one of them you can settle with a calculator.
The only two that could move money
Card rates: the $18.75M break-even
Plus starts at 1.2% + 30¢ where Advanced starts at 1.4% + 30¢. The 30¢ is identical on both, so the entire saving is 0.2% of whatever you run through the card.
The fee difference is $3,125 a month, comparing monthly billing on both plans. Divide one by the other: $3,125 ÷ 0.002 = $1,562,500 a month, or roughly $18.75 million a year in card volume before the better rate alone covers the upgrade.
At the $1 million a year everyone quotes as the trigger, 0.2% comes to $2,000. The upgrade costs $3,125 a month, which is $37,500 a year. You'd be spending $37,500 to save $2,000.
Two things that sum doesn't cover. Both rates are floors — Shopify publishes them as “from” and says they vary by region — so run it again on the numbers you're quoted. And it prices the card rate and nothing else. If you need something further down the list, you're buying that, and the better rate is a discount on top.
B2B catalogs: the line most people ask about
Trade orders are the usual candidate. Hentley Farm takes theirs by email and phone, and that suits them for now. If it stops suiting them, a portal on Advanced could probably do the same job. Scope that build when someone asks for it.
The sum, run on a real business
Why they looked at Plus
Hentley Farm looked at Plus for one line on the list: the card rate.
They ran it against their volume. It didn't pay, and that was the end of the Plus conversation.
The rest of the list never came up. Advanced already did what they needed, the site is in English, and there was no multi-region problem to go shopping for a multi-region feature.
What they're doing instead
Villain & Vixen is a bottle range they sell, and it wanted its own site. It's getting one without a plan change.
One Shopify store. Hydrogen on Shopify's Oxygen in front of it for the new label, while Hentley Farm keeps its Liquid theme. Both will read the same catalogue through API keys, so a product created once in Shopify admin will be sellable on either site.
Prismic will sit alongside, so marketing will be able to build campaign pages for one brand without touching the other's site. Nothing in the back office has to move.
Shopify's Australian pricing page, checked 3 Sep 2026. $3,700 − $575 = $3,125, comparing monthly billing on both. On yearly Advanced billing the gap is larger.
$3,125 a month × 12 = $37,500 a year. The $2,000 is 0.2% of $1M — the saving the better card rate returns at the revenue figure most sources name as the trigger.
1.4% + 30¢ against 1.2% + 30¢ leaves 0.2% as the whole saving. $3,125 ÷ 0.002 = $1,562,500 a month, × 12 = $18.75 million a year. Published floor rates, and it prices the card rate only — anything else on the list you need is bought separately.
“You'd be spending $37,500 to save $2,000.”
When Plus is the right call
We build Shopify Plus sites
We just don't sell one to a brand that's short of nothing on that list. $3,700 a month doesn't stop when the project does.
When there is a need, it's usually obvious. You're selling into three languages. Your transaction volume has crossed the line where the rates pay the fee. You've got a checkout requirement Advanced can't hold.
Any of those and Plus is the cheaper answer, and we'll say so.
What upgrading early costs
Shopify lists two terms: one year, or three. It publishes $3,700 a month on the three-year term against a struck-out $4,000, and doesn't publish the one-year figure on the same panel. Ask what yours is, because the cheaper monthly number is usually the longer lock-in.
Then do the sum on the term you're signing. Three years at $3,125 a month more than Advanced is $112,500.
If the only box you're ticking is “we want a second site”, that's $112,500 — and if the second site is a second brand, an expansion store wouldn't have carried it anyway.
Asked before the contract
When should you upgrade to Shopify Plus?
When the arithmetic says so. Revenue milestones tell you what other brands did. The only line that can pay for itself is the card rate, and on Shopify's published floor rates that takes about $18.75 million a year in card volume — 0.2% of it has to cover $3,125 a month. Below that you're buying features, so name which ones and check none of them can be built for less. Run the sum again on the rates you're actually quoted, because both figures are floors.
Is Shopify Plus worth it?
It's worth it when you need something on its list: expansion stores, better card rates, a fully customisable checkout, B2B catalogs, unlimited staff, bot protection, higher API limits, priority support, and others. Shopify's page is the list — go down it against your business rather than your revenue. Most of it won't apply. We had a client look at Plus for the card rate alone, run it against their volume, and stay where they were.
How much does Shopify Plus cost in Australia?
From $3,700 AUD a month on a three-year term, against $575 for Advanced on monthly billing. Shopify's own Australian pricing page publishes both, and lists a one-year term or a variable platform fee for more complex business structures without printing the one-year figure. Ask what yours is, because the cheaper monthly number is usually the longer lock-in. Over three years the gap is $112,500 more than staying on Advanced.
Can you run two brands on Shopify without Plus?
You can run two storefronts over one store, and Plus is not the way to do it. Shopify's pricing FAQ is explicit: “Unlimited online stores, but one brand per contract”, and “if you have multiple brands under the same company, you will need a separate Shopify Plus contract per brand”. The nine expansion stores are there for one brand selling internationally.
Hentley Farm's second range, Villain & Vixen, is getting its own site on Hydrogen and Oxygen while the winery keeps its Liquid theme, both set to read the same catalogue through API keys. One admin, one product list, two front ends that will look nothing like each other.
That works when the two brands share a catalogue and a back office. If they don't — different products, different fulfilment, different accounting — you want two stores, and then the second Plus contract is the conversation.
Do you lose your apps and integrations if you add a second storefront?
Not if the second storefront sits over the same store. Apps that work through Shopify's admin never touched your storefront, so a new front end doesn't disturb them. What does need rebuilding is anything that installs itself into a Liquid theme, because a custom front end has no theme to install into. List those before anyone quotes the work.
Check the numbers yourself
*Pricing moves. If these pages disagree with us, believe them.
Who argued this
If someone has put a Plus contract in front of you, go down the feature list and mark the ones you're short of.If the list comes back empty except for “we want a second site”, don't sign it yet.Send us the quote and we'll do the arithmetic with you in a teardown. If Plus is the cheaper answer we'll tell you that too, and then build it.