A candle maker in Austin told me last week she's paying $271 a month to run a store that brings in $5,000. She thought she was paying $39. That gap - between what Shopify's pricing page says and what your bank account actually shows - is what this article is about.
Why the sticker price is a lie
Not a malicious lie. Shopify isn't hiding anything. But $39/month is the subscription. It doesn't include the 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction you pay on every single credit card swipe. It doesn't include the $50 to $300 a month most stores spend on apps just to get basic functionality like email marketing, product reviews, and live chat. And it definitely doesn't include the 2% surcharge Shopify slaps on every order if you dare use a payment processor that isn't Shopify Payments.
The result? A store doing $5,000 a month on Shopify Basic actually pays about $271.50 per month. That's 5.4% of revenue gone before you've paid for product, shipping, or a single ad click.
The fee math at three revenue tiers
I modeled three stores. Real scenarios, not cherry-picked nonsense. All use Shopify Payments (the cheapest option for Shopify merchants) and a lean app stack.
The side-hustle store: $5,000/mo revenue, $40 AOV
- Shopify Basic: $39 subscription + $182.50 processing + $50 apps = $271.50/mo (5.4% of revenue)
- SellStein: $9 subscription + $182.50 processing + $0 apps = $191.50/mo (3.8% of revenue)
- Annual savings on SellStein: $960
The growing DTC brand: $25,000/mo revenue, $65 AOV
- Shopify Grow: $105 subscription + $790.38 processing + $150 apps = $1,045.38/mo (4.2% of revenue)
- SellStein: $9 subscription + $840.38 processing + $0 apps = $849.38/mo (3.4% of revenue)
- Annual savings on SellStein: $2,352
The established seller: $100,000/mo revenue, $80 AOV
- Shopify Advanced: $399 subscription + $2,875 processing + $300 apps = $3,574/mo (3.6% of revenue)
- SellStein: $9 subscription + $3,275 processing + $0 apps = $3,284/mo (3.3% of revenue)
- Annual savings on SellStein: $3,480
Notice something? The processing fees are nearly identical. Shopify Payments charges 2.9% + 30 cents on Basic. SellStein passes through Stripe at 2.9% + 30 cents. The difference comes from two places: the subscription gap and the app tax.
The app tax nobody talks about
Here's where Shopify quietly gets expensive. The platform ships without email marketing automation, without a real reviews system, without live chat, without advanced analytics. You bolt those on through the Shopify App Store. Each one costs $15 to $80 per month.
A typical lean stack for a new store runs $50 to $80 a month. An established store with proper marketing tools? $200 to $500 a month. Shero Commerce, a Shopify Premier agency, estimates that stores doing $2M to $5M in annual revenue spend $3,000 to $12,000 per year on app subscriptions alone.
SellStein builds the core tools in. AI-generated product descriptions, email automation, analytics, and storefront design are part of the $9 plan. You don't go shopping for eight separate apps on day one. That's not a small detail. For a store doing $25K a month, it's the difference between paying $150/mo for apps and paying $0.
The third-party processor penalty
This one catches merchants off guard. If you use Stripe directly, or PayPal, or any processor other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a surcharge on top of your processor's fee. On Basic, that's an extra 2%. On Grow, 1%. On Advanced, 0.6%.
Do the math on a $100 order using Stripe on Shopify Basic: you pay Stripe's 2.9% + 30 cents ($3.20) PLUS Shopify's 2% penalty ($2.00). Total: $5.20 per order. That's 5.2% gone on processing alone.
SellStein doesn't penalize you for your payment processor choice. You connect Stripe, pay Stripe's rate, and that's it. No platform surcharge. No loyalty tax.
Where Shopify still wins (honestly)
I'm not going to pretend Shopify doesn't have real strengths. It does.
Shopify's app ecosystem is massive. If you need a niche integration - say, connecting to a specific 3PL in Germany or a custom ERP - there's probably a Shopify app for it. SellStein's app library is smaller. That's just true.
Shopify's theme store has hundreds of premium themes. Some of them are genuinely beautiful. SellStein relies on AI to generate storefronts, which is faster but gives you less granular control if you want pixel-perfect design.
And Shopify Plus, at $2,300+/month, offers enterprise features like B2B storefronts, custom checkout, and 200 inventory locations. If you're doing half a million a month, Plus is built for you.
But here's the thing. Most stores aren't doing half a million a month. Most stores are doing $5K to $50K. And at that range, every dollar in fees eats directly into whether you can afford your next ad campaign or your next inventory order.
What the numbers look like over a year
Let's zoom out. A store doing $25,000/month on Shopify Grow pays $12,544.56 per year in total platform costs (subscription + processing + apps). The same store on SellStein pays $10,192.56. That's $2,352 back in your pocket.
For a $5K/month store, the annual gap is $960. Not life-changing. But that's two months of ad spend for a small brand. Or a professional product photoshoot. Or the difference between surviving Q1 and not.
For a $100K/month store, the gap widens to $3,480 per year. That's real money that compounds.
FAQ: What merchants ask us
Does SellStein charge transaction fees on top of Stripe? No. You pay Stripe's rate (2.9% + 30 cents for US cards). SellStein doesn't add a platform surcharge on any plan. Check
for the full breakdown.
Can I migrate my Shopify store to SellStein? Yes. SellStein has a one-click import tool that pulls your products, customers, and order history from Shopify. Most stores are fully migrated in under an hour.
What about Shopify's annual billing discount? Shopify offers 25% off if you pay yearly. That drops Basic to $29/mo and Grow to $79/mo. Even with that discount, the total cost (after processing and apps) still runs higher than SellStein at every tier we modeled.
Is SellStein good for high-risk products? Yes. SellStein has dedicated
with processors that specialize in supplements, CBD, and other restricted categories.
What AI features does SellStein include? Product descriptions, storefront design, email campaigns, and analytics are all AI-assisted and included in the base plan. No extra apps needed.
Make the switch before your next billing cycle
Pull up your Shopify invoice from last month. Add the subscription, the processing fees, and every app charge. Compare it to $9 plus Stripe passthrough. If the gap is wider than you expected - and for most merchants it is - you can move your store to SellStein in about five minutes.