Quick answer: should you move from Shopify Advanced to Plus?
For most brands on Advanced, not yet. Advanced is the highest standard plan and covers the needs of most growing DTC businesses. Shopify Plus is worth considering when you need capabilities Advanced does not provide, such as deeper checkout customization, expansion stores, more advanced B2B controls, or higher platform limits. The lower payment rate is a partial offset, not the reason to upgrade. Buy Plus for capabilities, not for the rate.
This is the focused Advanced-versus-Plus decision. If you are still choosing between all Shopify plans, start with our full Shopify plans guide, then come back here once it is down to Advanced or Plus.
Advanced vs Plus: who each one is for
Shopify Advanced is the highest standard plan. It fits a growing brand with a real team, higher operational and API needs, carrier-calculated shipping, and a single storefront or straightforward multi-market setup.
Shopify Plus is Shopify's enterprise plan. It fits brands that have outgrown specific standard-plan limits or need capabilities that are exclusive to Plus, such as deeper checkout customization, expansion stores, more advanced B2B functionality, or higher platform limits. The gap between the two is less about how large your business is and more about what your operation actually requires.
What is Shopify Advanced?
Advanced is the top of Shopify's standard plans. It includes higher platform limits than the lower plans, carrier-calculated shipping, advanced reporting, international commerce features, and native B2B functionality. For most growing DTC brands, Advanced can support a serious operation without requiring an enterprise plan.
What is Shopify Plus?
Plus is Shopify's enterprise tier. It adds capabilities that go beyond the standard plans, including deeper checkout customization, expansion stores, additional B2B controls, and higher platform limits. It is a subscription tier on the same Shopify platform, not a different commerce system.
Shopify Advanced vs Plus: the comparison
| Area | Advanced | Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Standard Shopify subscription | Term-based enterprise subscription |
| Payment processing | Standard plan rates | Lower rates can partially offset the higher subscription |
| Admin users | Standard plan limit | Higher organization-level capacity |
| Checkout customization | Advanced checkout and market customization | Additional checkout customization capabilities |
| Expansion stores | Not included | Included within the Plus organization structure |
| Native B2B | Core B2B with a standard catalog limit | Unlimited catalogs, direct company catalog assignment, and additional payment capabilities |
| Inventory locations | Standard plan limit | Higher platform limit |
| API rate limits | Higher than lower standard plans | Higher limits on select APIs |
| Headless storefronts | Standard storefront options and limits | Additional headless storefront capacity |
| Plus-only tools | No | Access to Plus-specific tools and features |
| Support | Enhanced standard-plan support | Priority Plus support |
| Best fit | Most growing DTC brands | Brands with specific enterprise requirements |
The exact figures behind these limits and fees can change over time and by region, so we keep the current numbers in the Shopify plans guide and update them there.
Pricing and fees: what actually changes
Moving from Advanced to Plus changes both the subscription and the payment economics. Plus has a substantially higher subscription cost, while its payment rates can be lower. The lower rate can offset part of the difference, but the fee savings alone rarely make Plus the reason to upgrade.
The amount of payment volume needed to offset the subscription depends on your plan, payment method, region, and contract. That is why the honest framing is capabilities, not fees. If you want to see the current break-even math across Shopify plans, the plans guide lays it out. For Advanced to Plus specifically, treat the lower rate as a partial offset, not the business case.
What Plus adds that Advanced cannot do
These are the real reasons brands move up:
- Deeper checkout customization. Advanced already supports checkout customization, including market-specific checkout and accounts customization. Any plan can install public App Store apps built on Shopify Functions to customize discounts, shipping, and payment rules. What requires Plus is running your own custom app with Shopify Function APIs and the deeper checkout extensibility that comes with it. Shopify lists checkout customization as limited on the standard plans and full on Plus. When the standard checkout tools and existing apps are not enough, that is often the deciding factor.
- Expansion stores. Plus supports additional stores within the same organization and contract, which can matter for international, B2B, employee, or other separate storefront operations.
- Enterprise B2B. Advanced includes native B2B, but standard plans have a limit on B2B market catalogs. Plus adds unlimited B2B catalogs, direct catalog assignment to companies and company locations, and additional payment capabilities such as deposits and partial payments.
- Higher platform limits. Plus raises limits across areas such as users, inventory locations, and selected APIs. The exact limits vary by feature, so check the current Shopify documentation before making the upgrade decision.
- Plus-only tools and support. Plus includes tools such as Shopify Audiences, Launchpad, and Combined Listings, along with priority support, which the standard plans do not have.
If none of these map to a real requirement you have today, that is the signal to stay on Advanced.
What stays the same when you upgrade
Moving from Advanced to Plus is a subscription change on the Shopify platform, not a replatform onto another commerce system. You are still using Shopify for your products, orders, customers, checkout, payments, and store infrastructure.
What does change is access to Plus-only capabilities. If your store comes to rely on features that are exclusive to Plus, those need to be accounted for if you ever move back to a standard plan. That can include Plus-specific B2B features, checkout functionality, additional storefronts, and other plan-dependent features.
If you are moving to Plus because of checkout requirements, the implementation work depends on how your current checkout is set up and which Shopify extensibility tools you are using. We cover the process in our guide to when to upgrade to Shopify Plus.
When to stay on Shopify Advanced
- Your checkout needs are covered by Advanced's available customization options and public App Store apps
- You run one storefront, or a straightforward multi-market setup
- Your B2B operation fits within Advanced's standard catalog and feature limits
- You are within the standard platform limits for users, locations, and API usage
- The only case for Plus you can make is the lower payment rate, which is usually only a partial offset
When to move to Shopify Plus
- You need checkout logic that goes beyond what Advanced and public apps support, built as your own custom app on Shopify Functions
- You are launching additional storefronts that need to sit within a Plus organization
- Your B2B operation needs unlimited catalogs, direct company catalog assignment, or Plus-only payment capabilities
- You are actively hitting platform limits that Plus raises
- You want Plus-only tools or support and the capability is worth the additional commitment
The part that actually moves revenue
Changing your plan changes platform capabilities and limits. It does not redesign your storefront. The expensive mistake is upgrading to Plus and changing nothing else, then expecting the plan itself to improve conversion. The plan tier determines what the platform can support. The storefront is where the customer experience gets built.
Speed and conversion come from the storefront implementation, not from being on a higher Shopify plan. Plus gives you more platform capabilities. A custom storefront determines how effectively you use them.
Liquid Lemon is a Shopify / Shopify Plus design + development studio that designs and develops custom Shopify storefronts in a 30-day sprint at a fixed price, including Shopify Plus builds. If you are weighing Advanced against Plus and want to know what the storefront work looks like either way, get in touch.
Written by Andrew Zam, Co-founder of Liquid Lemon, a Shopify / Shopify Plus design + development studio for DTC brands.
