What Shopify really costs in South Africa

Shopify's Basic plan costs US$25 a month billed monthly, or US$19 a month on a yearly plan. At about R16.20 to the dollar (the rate on 23 September 2026), that's roughly R405 or R308 a month. That isn't the whole bill. Shopify Payments isn't available in South Africa, so you pay a local gateway for each card sale, and Shopify adds its own 2% on top of each of those sales on the Basic plan.

For a store selling R50 000 a month, the plan is the smallest line. The per-sale fees are bigger. Below is each piece, then a worked month. If you want a store that doesn't take a cut of sales at all, that's what we built Sirat Retail OS to do.

What are Shopify's plans and prices?

From Shopify's pricing page, checked September 2026. Shopify bills these in US dollars. The rand column uses about R16.20 to the dollar on 23 September 2026 and will move with the exchange rate.

Plan	Billed monthly	Billed yearly (per month)	Rand, monthly billing	Extra fee on local gateway sales
Basic	US$25	US$19	about R405	2%
Grow	US$65	US$49	about R1 053	1%
Advanced	US$399	US$299	about R6 464	0.6%
Plus	from US$2 300		about R37 260	0.2%

New stores get three days free, then US$1 a month for three months. After that the full plan price applies.

Staff accounts are part of the plan difference. Shopify's South African pricing page shows Grow with up to 5 staff accounts and Advanced with up to 15.

Why does Shopify add a fee to every sale here?

In most of its big markets, Shopify processes cards itself through Shopify Payments and charges no extra fee on those sales. South Africa isn't on the list of Shopify Payments countries, so a South African store has to use a third-party gateway such as Payfast, Yoco or Peach Payments.

When you do, Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee. Its help centre says the fee is worked out on the whole order: products less discounts, plus tax and delivery. It doesn't apply to manual payments, such as a bank deposit you check yourself and mark as paid, or to Shopify POS orders.

So you pay twice on every card order: the gateway's fee to process the payment, and Shopify's percentage for using someone else's gateway.

What does the gateway add?

Each local gateway publishes its own fees. On a R1 000 card order, checked September 2026:

Gateway	Published card fee	On R1 000
Payfast	3.2% + R2	R34.00
Yoco gateway	2.95%	R29.50
Peach Payments	2.95% + R1.50	R31.00

We compare all the local options, including the cheaper bank-payment methods, in which payment gateway a South African store should use.

What about themes and apps?

Shopify's theme store had 24 free themes when we looked. Paid themes on the day ranged from US$100 to US$420, bought once and licensed to the one store that bought them (about R1 620 to R6 800 at today's rate).

Apps are where Shopify bills creep. Reviews, loyalty points, product filters, wholesale pricing and delivery-rate tools are usually separate apps, and most charge a monthly fee in US dollars. Prices vary from free to hundreds of dollars a month, so we won't give you a number. Count them before you commit: a store with five paid apps can pay more for apps than for the plan.

A worked month on Shopify Basic

Take a store selling R50 000 a month in 100 orders of R500, all paid by card through Payfast, on Basic billed monthly.

Line	Sum	Amount
Shopify Basic plan	US$25 at about R16.20	about R405
Shopify third-party fee	2% of R50 000	R1 000
Payfast card fees	3.2% of R50 000, plus R2 × 100 orders	R1 800
Total before apps		about R3 205

That's about 6.4% of sales before a single app, domain or theme. Move up to Grow and the Shopify fee halves to R500, but the plan rises to about R1 053, so Grow only works out cheaper once you sell more than about R65 000 a month.

The Shopify fee grows with every sale you make. At R200 000 a month, Basic's 2% is R4 000 a month to Shopify alone, on top of the gateway.

When is Shopify still the right choice?

Shopify is a good product, and for some stores it's the right one:

• You're testing an idea and want to be selling this weekend, on your own, with no setup fee.
• You sell mostly to customers overseas and want Shopify's international tools.
• You need a specific app that only exists on Shopify.

If that's you, use it, and keep an eye on the dollar line on your card statement.

It's a weaker fit for a South African shop that already trades, pays in rands, and wants the shop tills and the website to share one stock count. Shopify vs WooCommerce in South Africa covers the other popular route.

What the same month costs on Sirat Retail OS

Retail OS is our online store and point-of-sale system, priced in rands:

Item	Price
Setup (design in your brand, store build, payments, domain, staff training)	Once-off, quoted per store
Starter plan: 1 branch, 2 staff logins	R400/mo
Growth plan: 3 branches, 5 staff logins, SMS campaigns and loyalty	R900/mo
Pro plan: 5 branches, 10 staff logins, customer app	R1 500/mo
Fee added to your sales	0%

Yearly billing is 10 months' fee. Payments run through Bob Pay, Paystack, Payfast, Payflex, PayJustNow and EFT, and you pay only the provider's own fee. On the same R50 000 month, all by credit card through Bob Pay at its published 2.70%, that's R1 350 in card fees plus the R400 Starter plan: R1 750. Debit cards cost less, at 1.95%.

The trade-off is the setup. We quote it per store after a 20-minute call, because it depends on the design and what the store needs. Shopify lets you start for almost nothing and pay as you go. Retail OS costs more on day one and less every month after that, and the saving grows as your sales grow. Emails and SMS campaigns, unfinished-order emails, loyalty points and review requests are built in on the plans that include them, so there are no dollar apps to add.

Stores on it today include Victoria Packaging, Sizabantu Fabrics, Lumin Haus, Tech Direct SA and Impulse Jewellery.

What to do next

Add up your own month: your plan, your likely apps, your gateway's fee and Shopify's percentage on your expected sales, at today's exchange rate. If the Shopify line is bigger than you expected, see how Sirat Retail OS works, ask for an estimate at /price, or WhatsApp us on +27 73 453 8352. We'll quote a fixed price within two working days of a 20-minute call.