There's a line item buried in your Shopify invoice that most merchants never question. It's not the credit card processing fee - everybody expects that. It's the other one. The platform transaction fee. And on Shopify's Basic plan, it's 2% of every single sale you make through a third-party payment processor. A candle maker in Austin doing $25,000 a month? That's $500 gone. Every month. Just for the privilege of using Stripe instead of Shopify Payments.
Why this quietly kills your margins
Here's the thing nobody tells you when you sign up for Shopify: the $29/month plan isn't $29/month. Not even close. Between credit card processing at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and the subscription itself, a store doing $5,000 in monthly revenue on Shopify Basic pays roughly $204 per month - an effective rate of 4.1% of revenue. But if you're using a third-party processor like Stripe or PayPal instead of Shopify Payments, that number jumps to $304 per month. That's a 6.1% effective rate.
Six cents of every dollar. Gone.
And Shopify Payments isn't available everywhere. It only works in about 39 countries as of 2026. If your country isn't on the list, you eat the extra fee. No choice.
The math most sellers miss
Let's do what Shopify's pricing page won't. Real numbers, real scenarios.
A store doing $25,000/month with a $50 average order (500 orders) on Shopify Basic using a third-party processor pays:
- Subscription: $29/month
- Processing (2.9% + $0.30): $875/month
- Platform transaction fee (2%): $500/month
- Total: $1,404/month - or $16,848 per year
That same store on SellStein with Stripe passthrough pricing:
- Subscription: $9/month
- Processing (2.9% + $0.30 - Stripe passthrough): $875/month
- Platform transaction fee: $0
- Total: $884/month - or $10,608 per year
The difference? $6,240 per year. That's not a rounding error. That's a hire. That's an ad budget. That's inventory for your best-selling product.
Even if you compare SellStein to Shopify with Shopify Payments (no third-party penalty), SellStein still saves you $240 a year on subscription costs alone. Small? Sure. But multiply it across a few years and you've paid for an entire redesign.
Where the 2% penalty really hurts
Shopify's third-party transaction fee scales with your revenue. That's the cruel part. The more successful you are, the more you pay.
Here's what Shopify's 2% surcharge alone costs at different revenue levels (Basic plan, third-party processor):
| Monthly Revenue | 2% Fee/Month | 2% Fee/Year | |----------------|-------------|-------------| | $5,000 | $100 | $1,200 | | $10,000 | $200 | $2,400 | | $25,000 | $500 | $6,000 | | $50,000 | $1,000 | $12,000 | | $100,000 | $2,000 | $24,000 |
Read that last row again. $24,000 a year. Just in the surcharge. On top of processing fees. On top of subscription fees. On top of the $50 to $300 per month most Shopify stores spend on apps.
You can reduce it by upgrading to Shopify Grow (1% fee) or Advanced (0.6% fee), but those plans cost $79 and $299 per month. You're trading one fee for another.
SellStein charges 0% platform transaction fees. Period. Use Stripe, use whatever processor works for your business. We don't penalize you for it.
What about BigCommerce?
Fair question. BigCommerce also charges zero platform transaction fees on all plans. That's genuinely good. But their Standard plan starts at $29/month (annual) and forces automatic upgrades when you cross revenue thresholds - $50K annual pushes you to Plus at $79/month, and $180K pushes you to Pro at $299/month.
SellStein doesn't have revenue-based forced upgrades. Your plan stays your plan. And at $9/month, the subscription gap is real. A store on BigCommerce Standard pays $348/year in subscription fees. The same store on SellStein pays $108. That's $240 back in your pocket before you've sold a single thing.
BigCommerce also uses PayPal Braintree as their preferred processor, with rates starting at 2.59% + $0.49 per transaction on the Standard plan. SellStein passes through Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30 with no markup. On smaller orders, that $0.49 fixed fee on BigCommerce adds up faster than you'd think.
Frequently asked questions
Does SellStein really charge zero transaction fees? Yes. You pay your payment processor (Stripe) directly at their standard rate of 2.9% + $0.30. SellStein adds nothing on top. No platform surcharge, no hidden percentage.
Can I use any payment processor on SellStein? SellStein uses Stripe passthrough pricing. You connect your Stripe account directly and keep your existing relationship with them. No middleman markup.
How much will I actually save switching from Shopify? It depends on your revenue and which Shopify plan you're on. A store doing $25K/month on Shopify Basic with a third-party processor saves roughly $6,240 per year by switching to SellStein. Even stores using Shopify Payments save $240/year on subscription costs alone.
Does SellStein force plan upgrades based on revenue? No. Unlike BigCommerce, which automatically bumps you to more expensive plans when you hit revenue thresholds, SellStein lets you stay on your plan regardless of how much you sell.
What's the catch? There isn't one. SellStein makes money on subscriptions, not on taxing your success. That's the whole point.
What to do this week
Pull up your Shopify invoice from last month. Find the line that says "Transaction fees." If it's more than $0, you're overpaying. A store doing $10,000/month in sales loses $2,400 per year to Shopify's third-party surcharge alone. That number only grows as you do.
SellStein gives you a full AI-powered storefront,
at $9/month, and zero platform transaction fees. Connect your Stripe account, import your products, and stop giving away a percentage of every sale to a platform that's already charging you rent.