What an online store costs in 2026: Shopify in DACH

In short

A Shopify store has three layers of running costs: the monthly plan (in Germany from €19 billed yearly), fees on every payment, and apps including legal texts. In the worked example of a German store on the Grow plan with €10,000 in monthly sales, fixed costs come to about €67 plus $28 for apps, and with estimated payment fees to about €362 plus $28 a month. On top of that comes the one-off cost of building the store, at Alpinefy from €4,000.

All prices come from the providers' official price pages as of 3 November 2026. Shopify notes that prices can vary depending on where the store is based; the plan prices below are as shown on Shopify's pricing page in November 2026. Providers publish prices partly excluding and partly including VAT, which is noted for each. App prices are mostly in US dollars and change often. This article is not tax or legal advice.

Monthly Shopify plan in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

The plan price depends on the country where the store is registered. Basic and Grow cost more in Austria than in Germany, and Switzerland pays in Swiss francs.

• Yearly or monthly: billing yearly lowers the monthly price; in Germany the Grow plan drops from €74 to €56, which is €216 less per year. According to Shopify, the yearly discount is available on selected plans.
• Plus is billed in euros in Switzerland too, on a one-year or three-year term.
• Trial: 3 days free, then 3 months at €1 a month (CHF 1 in Switzerland) on most plans, then the regular price.
• Setup fee: none, on any plan.
• Included: hosting, unlimited bandwidth and an SSL certificate for the store's own domain.
• Physical shop: Shopify POS Pro costs an extra €79 a month per location in Germany and Austria, CHF 69 in Switzerland.

The pricing page does not say whether plan prices include or exclude VAT.

Payment fees

Shopify Payments, Shopify's own payment service, is available to stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A store that uses it as its main provider pays the Shopify Payments card fees but no extra transaction fee. The rates depend on the plan.

Germany: the German pricing page does not show Shopify Payments rates; Shopify only says they depend on the plan. The rates that apply to a German store are shown at signup and in the Shopify admin under Settings > Payments. For reference, here are the rates Shopify publishes for Austria and Switzerland.

In Austria, Klarna costs 2.99% + €0.35 (2.19% + €0.35 on Plus) and EPS costs 1.75% + €0.25 on every plan. Bancontact, iDEAL, BLIK, Przelewy24, TWINT, MB WAY and Bizum cost the same as cards.

Klarna costs 2.99% + CHF 0.35 in Switzerland (2.19% on Plus). If a customer pays in a currency other than the store's payout currency, Shopify's help centre says Shopify Payments charges 2% for the conversion in most countries.

Third-party payment providers: for every payment through a third-party provider or an alternative payment method, Shopify charges its own transaction fee, even when Shopify Payments is active. The rates are the same in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Manual methods such as cash on delivery or bank transfer do not carry this fee.

PayPal is the exception: PayPal payments are exempt from Shopify's transaction fee, as long as Shopify Payments is the store's main provider. PayPal does charge its own fees. For merchants in Germany, PayPal's fee page (last updated on 7 September 2026) lists:

PayPal's lower rate of 2.49% + €0.35 applies to sending and receiving money for goods and services, not to checkout in an online store.

Theme

The Shopify Theme Store offers 24 free themes by Shopify, including the Horizon family and Dawn, and 1,335 paid ones. On the first page of paid themes, prices range from $170 to $500, mostly $300 to $400. A paid theme is a one-off payment and the licence covers one store. Updates from the Theme Store are free: changes made in the theme editor carry over, code changes only if they do not conflict with the new version.

Apps

The prices below come from the Shopify App Store and the providers' websites. Many apps bill in US dollars.

Legal texts: terms, withdrawal notice, privacy policy, imprint

eRecht24's pricing page does not say whether its prices include VAT. With an update service, the texts are adjusted when the law changes.

Cookie consent

Shopify has a built-in cookie banner in the admin under Settings > Customer privacy. Stores that need Google Consent Mode V2 or more settings use an app or an external tool.

Withdrawal button

A built-in withdrawal function could not be found in Shopify's help centre or changelog on 3 November 2026, so the button comes from apps:

Bookkeeping and invoices

These apps only connect Shopify to the bookkeeping software. The subscription to Lexware Office or sevdesk itself comes on top and is not included in this overview.

Shipping and labels

Domain

The domain is paid to a registrar, not to Shopify. Shopify provides the SSL certificate for free. For budgeting, the price after the first year matters, not the introductory price.

Legal requirements that cost money or time

Withdrawal button in Germany: § 356a BGB requires an electronic withdrawal function for distance contracts. The store needs a button labelled "Vertrag widerrufen" (withdraw from contract) or equally clear wording, permanently available during the whole withdrawal period and placed prominently. It is followed by a confirmation button "Widerruf bestätigen" (confirm withdrawal). The store may ask only for the name, details identifying the contract and the channel for the confirmation. Receipt of the withdrawal is confirmed on a durable medium with date and time. The law was promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette, BGBl. 2026 I Nr. 28, on 5 February 2026. According to the German federal government, the consumer association Verbraucherzentrale and the law firm Noerr, the requirement has applied since 19 June 2026.

Withdrawal button in Austria: the VerbRÄG 2026 sets out the button in § 13a FAGG. According to the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKO), it applies from 1 October 2026 to contracts concluded after 30 September 2026.

Switzerland: Switzerland is not in the EU, so EU Directive 2023/2673 does not apply there directly. Whether a Swiss store selling into the EU needs the button should be checked separately.

The cost: an app from the table above (from a free tier up to $25 a month) or a cookie app on the tier with an EU withdrawal page, plus time for setup and testing.

Order button ("Button-Lösung"): under § 312j(3) BGB, the order button must be clearly legible and labelled only with the words "zahlungspflichtig bestellen" (order with obligation to pay) or equally unambiguous wording. Under § 312j(4), no contract is formed otherwise. The checkout button label should therefore be checked in every store language before launch. This costs no fee, only review time.

Legal texts: terms, withdrawal notice, privacy policy and imprint with an update service cost roughly €9.90 to €80 a month in the table above, depending on provider, package and billing. Free texts come without liability and without an update service.

Taxes

• Shopify Tax: for stores in the EU, it is free up to €100,000 in sales. For stores created on or after 13 May 2026, this threshold applies over the store's whole lifetime; for older stores, per calendar year. After that, Shopify Tax costs 0.25% per order (0.15% on Plus), capped at €0.99 per order, and only in regions where tax collection is switched on. The yearly cap of $5,000 per region applies only to stores created before 13 May 2026.
• Basic Tax is only available for regions where the store was set up to collect tax before 13 May 2026. Stores that used it before can keep it. The alternative is setting up tax rates manually.
• OSS: according to the German Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt), distance sales to private customers in other EU countries share a combined threshold of €10,000 in the current and previous year. Below it, the One-Stop-Shop scheme is not mandatory. Opting in voluntarily binds the business for 2 years.

Monthly example: what a Shopify store really costs

A model example, not a real store: a German company on the Grow plan billed yearly, with €10,000 in sales a month across 200 orders of €50 each. 40% of sales go through PayPal (€4,000 in 80 orders) and 60% through cards with Shopify Payments as the main provider (€6,000 in 120 orders). Because German card rates are not published, the card share is calculated with the Austrian Grow rate for reference.

• Fixed costs in euros: 56.00 + 9.90 + 1.30 = €67.20.
• Apps in dollars: 9 + 9 + 10 = $28.
• Payment fees: 150.80 + 144.00 = €294.80, just under 3% of sales.
• Total: 67.20 + 294.80 = €362.00 plus $28 a month.

Not included: the Lexware Office subscription itself, postage, and VAT where it applies. If the store uses Shopify Tax, a new store pays nothing up to €100,000 in sales, so for ten months at €10,000 a month. After that, 0.25% of €10,000 = €25 a month is added, because each €50 order costs only €0.125 and stays below the €0.99 cap. The total then rises to €387.00 plus $28.

The biggest item is payment fees, not the plan. If the same store processed cards through a third-party provider, Shopify's transaction fee on Grow would add 1% of €6,000 = €60 on top of that provider's fees, and PayPal would lose its exemption, because Shopify Payments would no longer be the main provider: another 1% of €4,000 = €40.

One-off cost of building a Shopify store

On top of running costs comes the one-off cost of building the store. The price is made up of these parts:

• Theme: free, or a one-off payment of mostly $170 to $500, plus customisation or a custom design.
• Creating or importing products, variants, images and texts.
• Setting up and testing payments, shipping and taxes.
• Adding legal texts and checking the withdrawal button, the order button and cookie consent.
• Connecting bookkeeping, tracking and, if needed, translations.
• For an existing store, also moving data and setting up redirects.

The price depends on the scope. At Alpinefy, a Shopify store starts from €4,000, a move to Shopify from €2,900 (from Shoptet or from WordPress) and an e-shop audit from €690. Alpinefy is not a VAT payer, so the quoted price is final.

Base costs compared: Shopware, WooCommerce, Wix

Base costs alone say little. WooCommerce adds hosting and paid extensions, Shopify adds payment fees and apps, and every platform needs legal texts and a build. A detailed comparison is in the article Shopify or WooCommerce.

Checklist before deciding

1. Decide the country of the business: it sets the plan price and the Shopify Payments rates.
2. Choose yearly or monthly billing for the plan.
3. For Germany, read the card rates at signup or in the admin under Settings > Payments.
4. Estimate PayPal's share of sales and calculate it at 2.99% + €0.39.
5. Plan Shopify Payments as the main provider, otherwise the transaction fee also applies to PayPal.
6. Book legal texts with an update service.
7. Set up the withdrawal button: in Germany since 19 June 2026, in Austria for contracts from 1 October 2026.
8. Check the order button label in checkout.
9. Choose a cookie consent tool and clarify whether Google Consent Mode V2 is needed.
10. Budget for bookkeeping: the app plus the bookkeeping software subscription.
11. Budget for the shipping app and postage.
12. Know the thresholds: €100,000 for Shopify Tax, €10,000 for OSS.
13. Budget the domain at the price after the first year.
14. Keep the one-off build separate from running costs in the budget.

If the store is already live, an e-shop audit goes through these points and sorts what to fix first. The free Webcheck also tests the homepage in about 30 seconds. Where mobile shoppers drop off is covered in Why an online store does not sell on mobile, and costs for stores in Slovakia and Czechia in How much a Shopify store costs in 2026.

Sources, checked on 3 November 2026: Shopify pricing (DE), Shopify pricing (AT), Shopify pricing (CH), Shopify plans, hosting and SSL, Shopify Payments countries, Shopify Payments in Germany, third-party payment providers, currency conversion and manual payment fees, PayPal fees (DE), free themes, paid themes, theme licence, theme updates, IT-Recht Kanzlei, Händlerbund, eRecht24, Trusted Shops Rechtstexter, cookie banner in Shopify, Pandectes, Consentmo, Usercentrics, Cookiebot, Revoq, ECOMBEAT, Lexware Office+, sevdesk Buchhaltung, Billbee, Post & DHL Shipping, Sendcloud, shipcloud, IONOS .de, IONOS .at, STRATO, ALL-INKL domains, Hostpoint, § 356a BGB, BGBl. 2026 I Nr. 28, German federal government, Verbraucherzentrale, Noerr, WKO on the withdrawal button, § 312j BGB, Shopify Tax, Basic Tax, One-Stop-Shop (BZSt), Shopware pricing, WooCommerce, WooCommerce extensions, ALL-INKL web hosting, Wix pricing.