Is Shopify Worth It? Latest Shopify Reviews from Experts

Before committing to Shopify, a common concern arises: Is Shopify worth it for your eCommerce store presence? Shopify is an intuitive site builder that features a full-scale sales ecosystem. Hosting, payment processing, storefront optimization, fulfillment tracking, app integrations, reporting, analytics, marketing, and POS monitoring–they are centralized in your Shopify Admin. 

However, this breath is also what makes Shopify confusing for some users. With multiple pricing tiers, paid themes, transaction fees, app subscriptions, and upgrade paths, the actual value of Shopify is often not immediately apparent. Understanding this, we have created this blog to help merchants make more informed decisions about their investment in the Shopify ecosystem. 

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Is Shopify Worth It?

Definitely Yes. The values that Shopify offers users lie in both its features and customer service. That’s why there is a range of positive numbers associated with Shopify: the number of users, the volume of sales processed, and the broader economic impact it enables. The next sections detail statistics to highlight why Shopify remains a strong choice, along with its pros and cons. 

The Statistics of Shopify 

This section includes telling numbers to help answer the question, “Is Shopify worth it?”

• Number of active Shopify websites

There are over 6.8 million current Shopify customers across business sizes, industries, and models (e.g., dropshipping, print-on-demand). This widespread adoption highlights Shopify’s flexibility, scalability, and long-term reliability for a diverse range of needs. Notably, the US and Canada have been dominating the Shopify market, excluding the Shopify Plus selection. 

Shopify has over 6.8 million active websites from diverse countries and regions

• The value of Shopify sales 

Founded in 2006, Shopify has become a significant eCommerce platform, contributing approximately 10% to the global eCommerce market. Decathlon, Fashion Nova, Netflix, and Gymshark are well-known international brands that have their businesses built on Shopify. 

According to a 2024 report by Shopify, Shopify merchants drove a record-high $11.5 billion in sales during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday period. Over 76 million buyers purchased from Shopify-powered businesses, and 16,500+ businesses made their first sale on Shopify. 

Since early 2025, Shopify has gained over 570,000 customers from other eCommerce platforms, such as WooCommerce, Wix Stores, Big Cartel, and more. This is because many brands recognize the potential of Shopify and are willing to migrate their stores to transform their sales. As a result, Shopify achieved 32% revenue growth for the third quarter of 2025. 

Shopify Pros and Cons

Like any eCommerce platform for small businesses and enterprises, Shopify also has benefits and limitations. Understanding these aspects helps identify whether it aligns with your goals: 

Pros

• Easy to use and quick to set up

• Designed for non-technical users

• An extensive Shopify App Store of over 8,000 apps and integrations

• Support over 100 payment providers 

• A range of themes (free and paid options)

• Shop Pay (built-in Shopify payment gateway) to reduce the transaction costs 

• Omnichannel selling via online store and Shopify POS

• Built-in hosting, security, and maintenance

• Reliable infrastructure with high uptime

• Only $1/month for the first 3 months 

Cons

• Require learning Shopify’s Liquid for advanced customization

• Transaction fees apply when using third-party payment gateways

• Limited number of free themes and user accounts on lower-tier plans

• No native email hosting for custom domains. 

With real statistics from Shopify and its pros and cons, the answer to the question “Is Shopify worth it for beginners?” is “yes”. It is apparent that Shopify is top-rated for an intuitive editor, aiming at non-tech users, and its distinctive Shopify Payments to help sellers minimize costs. 

Sellers need to consider both Shopify pros and cons before kicking off their stores

Learn more: Shopify Tutorial: Everything For Success

Shopify Pricing Plans

Shopify offers a 3-day trial and the first 3 months for $ 1 per month, making it affordable for beginners to discover Shopify's features. However, Shopify plan pricing varies by country. The following table of Shopify plan reviews is based on the UK market. Therefore, if you plan to operate in another country, you should carefully clarify each pricing tier before starting. 

In addition to the four pricing plans, Shopify offers the Shopify Starter plan, designed for online sellers who want to sell products through messaging apps and social media channels. You can effortlessly create product links and share them to engage customers and drive conversions. However, you need to pre-build your website or social media channel to satisfy this perspective. 

Merchants can consider to register one of four Shopify pricing plans (valued GBP)

Basic Shopify Plan

The Basic Shopify Plan is ideal for beginners launching a small online business. It provides all the essential tools needed to build, customize, and manage a professional eCommerce store. This plan enables solo sellers to test their ideas, build inventory, and create a solid presence. 

Outstanding features:

• 10 inventory locations

• 24/7 chat support

• In-person selling by phone or a POS device

Grow Shopify Plan

The Grow Plan is a go-to choice for small to mid-sized businesses that need more flexibility and lower transaction costs. It offers you reduced credit card rates, additional staff accounts, and advanced selling features, including gift cards and abandoned cart recovery. Businesses can also facilitate international expansion by customizing their stores for varied regions and areas. 

Outstanding features: 

• 10 inventory locations

• 24/7 chat support

• 5 staff accounts

• In-person selling by phone or a POS device

Advanced Shopify Plan

If you seek to scale its operations and expand globally, the Advanced plan will be a top-of-mind choice. It includes the lowest transaction fees, advanced reporting, and the ability to create reports using detailed analytics and predictive insights. This Shopify plan can also support multiple markets and larger teams, identify growth chances, and control diversified operations. 

Outstanding features: 

• 10 inventory locations

• Enhanced 24/7 chat support

• Local storefronts by market

• 15 staff accounts

• In-person selling by phone or a POS device

Shopify Plus Plan

The final Shopify plan is Shopify’s enterprise-level solution for large retailers, high-growth brands, and B2B businesses operating at scale. It offers the full suite of Shopify features, advanced infrastructure, automation, and deep customization. With this plan, you can also customize the checkout process, control complex international storefronts, and integrate online and offline channels to maximize sales. While Shopify Plus pricing starts from $2,300/month, it is worth it for supporting your global and high-volume commerce with competitive discounts. 

Outstanding features: 

• 200 inventory locations

• Priority 24/7 phone support

• Local storefronts by market

• Unlimited staff account

• Fully customizable checkout

• Up to 200 POS Pro locations

• Sell wholesale/B2B 

Learn more: Understanding of 2026 eCommerce: How Much Does a Website Cost?

A Comprehensive Review Of Key Shopify Features 

1. Intuitive Shopify editor

Shopify’s editor is widely recognized for its user-friendly interface, making it accessible even for beginners. The dashboard is logically structured, allowing users to navigate themes, pages, and settings without friction. You can design and update text, images, colors, and layouts quickly, enabling a focus on merchandising and growth opportunities rather than technical execution. 

Shopify offers a clean, user-friendly editor for easy store design and optimization

With Shopify, users can directly preview and fine-tune both desktop and mobile versions of their stores in its editor, ensuring a consistent shopping experience across devices. You can access 23 free templates, including 10 Shopify Horizon ones updated from the Summer Edition 2025. Last but not least, Sidekick Shopify is another powerful update designed to help merchants complete design and content-related tasks more efficiently. From answering setup questions to generating suggestions, Sidekick reduces manual effort and accelerates store development. 

Despite this, the native Shopify editor does have limitations. For an advanced layout and deeper control over web pages, you need to learn Shopify Liquid language to enable custom coding. Additionally, many Shopify themes that closely align with specific branding or performance demands can be relatively expensive, increasing upfront costs for startups and solo merchants. 

Shopify has a distinctive website that provides users with full Liquid documents 

That’s when you need a dedicated page builder like GemPages Landing Page Builder for Shopify. GemPages provides access to over 200 CRO templates, a comprehensive library of visual elements, and advanced design flexibility, all without requiring code modifications. 

Let’s take a look at what GemPages can offer to enable a smoother Shopify store optimization. 

• A drag-and-drop editor with an AI-powered Image-to-Layout feature

• GemPages Sales Funnel to enable upsell and cross-sell to improve eCommerce AOV

  

  Customize your Shopify store pages your way

  The powerful page builder lets you craft unique, high-converting store pages. No coding required.

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• SEO-friendly pages and built-in CRO & sales boosters

• Seamless integration with third-party apps, such as Gem X for A/B testing and CRO, 

• Dedicated customer support for live chat, email, priority support, and video call. 

GemPages Shopify Page Builder Tutorial (2025 Guide)

2. Order Management and Fulfillment Process 

Shopify’s purchase order management system covers the entire journey from checkout to delivery, including payment processing, inventory updates, shipping, and product returns. Once your customer places an order, it appears in the Orders dashboard, where merchants can view, edit, filter, and fulfil orders from a single, centralized interface. Store owners can opt for manual fulfillment for greater control and lower costs, or automate the process using Shopify Flow, third-party fulfillment services, or the Shopify Fulfillment Network to save time as volumes grow. 

Users manage all orders and fulfillment activities in their Shopify Admin dashboard

Shopify also supports bulk actions, real-time order tracking, and smart inventory routing across multiple locations, as well as integration with major shipping carriers. Additionally, detailed order timelines and reporting offer insights into fulfillment performance and your customer behavior. Apparently, the answer to “Is Shopify worth it?” is always yes, as it not only supports your store design but also enables a high level of accuracy for fulfillment, ordering, and stock tracking. 

3. Payment Gateways

Is Shopify worth it? This section will make your concerns more apparent. Shopify is one of the first eCommerce platforms that has its own payment ecosystem, called Shopify Payments, to help Shopify store owners avoid the extra fees charged for using third-party payment gateways. This means that you only pay for Shopify’s credit card without the additional costs of up to 2%. However, Shopify Payments is only available in 39 countries, which limits its use worldwide. 

On the other hand, you can choose from over 100 credit card payment providers to offer buyers Shopify payment methods. Shopify even provides a distinct filter for payment providers by country or region, allowing you to target your market effortlessly. Importantly, you need to clarify that Shopify supports two different types of providers: direct providers and external providers. The former allows customers to complete their purchases directly on your Shopify store, whereas the latter forces them to end their purchases on a checkout page outside of your store. 

Shopify works with 100+ card payment providers (based on regions and countries)

With the Shopify Plus plan, when you activate Shopify Payments, third-party transaction fees might be waived, depending on your area. For more details, please contact Shopify Support. 

Learn more: Shopify Payments vs. Paypal: What's Best for You in 2025?

4. Marketing and SEO

Shopify offers a comprehensive set of built-in tools to support both visibility and growth, making it well-suited for SEO for eCommerce and ongoing marketing optimization. For SEO, Shopify includes core features that help your store rank and perform better in search results, including: 

• A global Content Delivery Network (CDN) to ensure fast page loading speeds

• Automatically generated XML Shopify sitemaps and clean URL structures

• 301 redirects for managing content changes without losing SEO value

• Access to third-party SEO apps for advanced optimization and performance tracking. 

Moreover, Shopify also provides a strong marketing toolkit designed to help merchants attract, convert, and retain customers through data-driven optimization. You can leverage the features:

• Customer segmentation for targeted and personalized campaigns

• Free engagement tools like Shopify Email, Inbox, Forms, and Subscriptions

• Flexible discount options (Buy X Get Y, volume, shipping, and storewide discounts)

• Abandoned cart recovery to recapture lost revenue

• Campaign tracking dashboards and customer review integrations. 

Shopify Admin Dashboard has a distinctive marketing window to control campaigns

Learn more: Shopify SEO Checklist for Beginners (2026)

5. Shopify integration

Another advantage of Shopify that strengthens the answer “yes” to “Is Shopify worth it?” is its extensive app ecosystem. Currently, the Shopify App Store has over 8,000 apps, allowing merchants to extend functionality without custom development. You can even integrate your Shopify Admin Dashboard with a third-party app through APIs to satisfy your operational needs. 

Shopify App Store has 8,000+ apps for diversified optimization and integration needs

Here are the best Shopify apps rated by users and experts by category that you can consider: 

• Shopify Marketing apps: Mailchimp, Vitals, UpPromote, Klaviyo, etc. 

• Shopify Landing Page builders: GemPages, Instant, PageFly, etc. 

• Shopify A/B testing apps: GemX: CRO & A/B testing, Intelligent, Visually, etc. 

• Shopify Product apps: Easify Custom Product Options, Infinite Product Options, etc. 

• Sales channels: Pinterest, Google & Youtube, Facebook & Instagram, Flexify, etc. 

• Shopify subscription apps: Appstle, Seal, Kaching, Subi, Joy, Loop, Recharge, etc. 

• Shopify SEO apps: SmartSEO, SearchPie, SEOAnt, SEO Manager, etc. 

• Apps by Shopify: Shopify Flow, Shopify Inbox, Shop, Shopify Messaging, etc. 

All of these apps listed are free to install, integrate seamlessly, sync data in real-time, and follow eCommerce UX standards. In other words, users can start lean and add advanced features only when needed, making Shopify a flexible, accessible, and scalable platform for long-term growth.  

6. Shopify Point-of-Sales (POS) system

Shopify POS enables merchants to manage both online and offline sales from a single, unified dashboard. This system also supports various payment methods, including credit and debit cards, as well as mobile wallets, and works across physical stores, pop-up shops, and events. 

Shopify has a powerful built-in POS system to enable more sales channels

Your inventory will sync in real-time across all sales channels, ensuring accurate stock levels and consistent data. You can leverage your purchase history and integrated marketing tools to deliver more personalized in-store experiences. To unlock the full power of Shopify POS, you must register for a Basic Shopify plan or higher, which is not ideal for those with limited budgets. However, in fact, this function is nearly tailored for businesses aiming for omnichannel sales. 

Learn more: 

• Shopify POS App: What Is It & Its Purposes

• Shopify POS Go: What Is It? Why Should You Get It?

7. Analytics and Reporting

You can monitor key performance metrics, including product sales data from the last 90 days, to evaluate store health and trends. Shopify reports are organized into clear, detailed categories, including sales, orders, finances, acquisition, behavior, customers, inventory, and marketing. 

Shopify Analytics provides useful insights for performance optimization

These reports provide actionable insights into customer behaviors, purchasing patterns, traffic sources, and performance for omnichannel experiences. Merchants on higher-tier plans can benefit from a more granular database. In contrast, the Advanced Shopify plan enables custom reporting, providing deeper analysis tailored to specific business goals and operational needs. 

8. Scalability 

Is Shopify worth it for small businesses? Definitely yes, but it is not enough, as Shopify supports a diverse range of companies, from small and medium-sized brands to large-scale enterprises, thanks to its robust design features, sales functions, and consistent, extensive infrastructure. 

For high-growth brands and enterprises, Shopify Plus will be the go-to choice, offering the ability to enable enterprise-grade performance, higher API limits, advanced automation, and multi-stores through Shopify Flow, customizable checkout experiences, and dedicated support. 

9. Shopify Customer Services

Shopify stands out with a comprehensive and well-structured customer support ecosystem: 

• 24/7 Live chat for all merchants

• 24/7 Email support and takes an average of 24+ hours to respond

• Thousands of written documents of step-by-step processes and embedded videos

• An extensive library of YouTube videos 

• A Shopify Community of around 900,000 members, including active users and Shopify experts, where you can search for similar issues to see if a resolution has been found. 

Live chat box is available from the Shopify Help Center page

10. Shopify Security

Shopify stores come with a free SSL certificate, ensuring that all data exchanged between the store and customers, such as login credentials and payment details, is fully encrypted. Shopify is also Level 1 PCI DSS compliant, meaning it meets the highest standards for payment security and card transaction processes without requiring sellers to manage compliance themselves.

Additionally, Shopify handles platform-level security tasks, including server maintenance, automatic updates, fraud analysis, and protection against DDoS attacks. Regular backups and secure hosting further help sellers reduce operational risk. For merchants who prefer to focus on growth rather than technical safeguards, these built-in protections often answer the question, 'Is Shopify worth it?' with a 'yes,' especially for businesses that prioritize reliability and trust.

Is Shopify the Best eCommerce Platform? Shopify Alternatives 

Shopify has been the most widely used platform in the U.S. eCommerce software market, thanks to its intuitive editor, extensive app ecosystem, varied payment gateway options, robust eCommerce features, scalability, different pricing plans, dedicated support, and high security. 

However, to identify Shopify as the best platform, several key aspects must be considered. Alternatives such as Wix, Amazon, and self-hosted solutions can offer compelling advantages, depending on your needs, including lower upfront costs, marketplace exposure, and full control. 

• Shopify vs. Wix

Shopify is a dedicated eCommerce platform with powerful tools for inventory management, multichannel sales, advanced analytics, and thousands of third-party integrations. It scales well as stores grow, supporting larger catalogs, advanced shipping, and complex sales workflows. 

Wix, by contrast, is primarily a beginner-friendly website builder with built-in eCommerce features. Its drag-and-drop editor and template flexibility make it ideal for beginners and small businesses prioritizing convenience and low initial costs. Wix also includes basic SEO and marketing tools and tends to be cheaper upfront than Shopify. That said, Wix’s eCommerce capabilities and scalability are more limited, which can become a constraint for online stores. 

• Shopify vs. Amazon

Amazon is a marketplace rather than a standalone platform. Selling on Amazon gives instant access to vast traffic and Prime customers, which can dramatically increase exposure and conversion rates. However, Amazon controls the customer experience, takes significant fees, and limits direct customer relationships. Shopify, on the other hand, enables merchants to build branded stores with complete control over pricing, customer data, and marketing. Moreover, Shopify does not compete directly on the same marketplace feed, focusing on long-term loyalty. 

• Shopify vs. Your Own Website 

Building your own site (e.g., custom development or self-hosted platforms like WooCommerce) offers maximum control over functionality, hosting, and design. It can reduce ongoing platform fees, but comes with numerous responsibilities, including security, maintenance, and technical overhead. Shopify removes these burdens with fully hosted infrastructure, PCI compliance, and dedicated support, letting sellers focus on selling rather than managing their own infrastructure. 

In short, a custom website makes sense for brands that require unique features or in-depth customizations. However, Shopify’s balance of ease, performance, and scalability makes it a more preferable choice for most eCommerce stores without large in-house development teams.

Shopify Reviews from Honest Feedback

This section provides Shopify reviews from Capterra. These reviews comprise honest feedback from users about their actual experiences working with Shopify, its infrastructure, and services. 

The overall review of Shopify on Capterra

Out of 6,600 reviews in Capterra, Shopify managed to garner an excellent score of 4.5 out of 5. Other eCommerce platforms and website builders with sales features are ranked as follows: 

• Odoo: 4.2 / 5.0 (1,200+ reviews)

• WooCommerce: 4.5 / 5.0 (1,000+ reviews)

• Wix: 4.4 / 5.0 (10,400+ reviews)

• PrestaShop: 4.3 / 5.0 (300+ reviews)

• NetSuite: 4.2 / 5.0 (1,700+ reviews) 

User reviews about Shopify are nearly positive in most perspectives

Most users' reviews are positive, particularly in terms of ease of use, support, and features. 

Conclusion

This blog not only answers the question “Is Shopify worth it?” with a simple “Yes” or “No,” but also examines the platform from multiple practical angles by professionals and actual users. From ease of use and design flexibility to scalability, security, integrations, and omnichannel capabilities, Shopify proves itself as an all-in-one solution for your long-term business growth. 

Visit GemPages blogs to learn more insights about the eCommerce and the Shopify platform!

FAQs

Do you actually make money on Shopify?

Yes, many merchants generate sustainable revenue on Shopify, but profitability depends on factors such as product selection, pricing strategy, marketing execution, and cost control. Shopify provides the tools to sell online effectively, but success ultimately comes from how well you manage traffic acquisition, conversion optimization, and product fulfillment.

Is Shopify worth it in the UK?

Yes. Shopify is well-suited for UK businesses, offering GBP pricing, UK-compatible payment gateways, VAT settings, and integrations with local and international shipping providers. Its scalability and compliance-friendly infrastructure make it a strong option for UK-based sellers.

How much does Shopify take from a $100 sale?

Shopify itself does not take a percentage of sales, but transaction costs apply. For example, using Shopify Payments on the Basic plan, fees are around 2.9% $0.30, meaning Shopify would take approximately $3.20 from a $100 sale, excluding any app or subscription fees.

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Shopify Guide