Shopify

Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform, founded in 2006 in Ottawa and listed on the public markets, that bundles storefront themes, product management, checkout and payments into one subscription. Nothing about the servers is the merchant’s concern, and there is no shell or filesystem to reach.

Customisation runs through Shopify’s own layers — Liquid templates, the app ecosystem and defined checkout extension points — and store data lives inside the platform, so a store is built against Shopify’s interfaces rather than against portable ones. Plans are fixed monthly tiers, from a single-store entry plan up to an enterprise tier, with a short trial and an introductory rate before the standing price begins.

Worth knowing

The subscription is only part of the cost. Every sale carries a card processing rate that falls as the plan rises, and choosing a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify’s own adds a further per-transaction fee on top.

Annual billing is priced well below paying month to month, so the headline figure on the pricing page is the committed-year rate rather than the monthly one.