Shopify Plus vs Shopify Advanced: An Honest Look at When to Upgrade

Do I need Shopify Plus, or is Shopify Advanced enough? It is one of the most common questions we get, and the honest answer depends on your business, not on what tier sounds more impressive.

As a Shopify Premier Partner, our incentive could be to always say ‘go to Plus.’ That is not our actual advice. Plus is excellent when a business needs it, and expensive when it does not. Here is a clear comparison and our real take on when the upgrade is worth it.

What Plus adds over Advanced

The Plus advantages that matter most for the businesses we work with cluster into five areas.

• Checkout customization. Full Checkout Extensibility, Shopify Functions for discount/shipping/payment logic, and the Branding API. Advanced is limited to basic branding changes.
• Shopify Flow on steroids. Flow is now available on all plans, but Plus unlocks deeper integrations with Functions, B2B, and custom apps.
• Launchpad. Scheduled events, sales, and theme swaps for flash sales, product drops, and major campaigns.
• Multi store. Up to 9 additional expansion stores included, for international storefronts or distinct brand concepts.
• Native B2B. Company accounts, catalogs, payment terms, and volume pricing, all included. Advanced has no native B2B equivalent.
• Higher API limits. 500 percent higher than standard plans, which matters if your store runs complex integrations or high traffic events.
• Uncapped GraphQL, larger Function batch execution, and priority support.

Pricing: when the math works

Plus pricing starts around $2,300 USD per month and scales based on revenue. Advanced is $399 USD per month flat. The raw gap is roughly $1,900 per month, or about $23,000 per year.

A useful way to think about the math: if Plus features will generate more than $23,000 per year in incremental revenue or save more than $23,000 per year in operational cost, the upgrade pays for itself. That sounds obvious, but it is worth doing the actual calculation before making the call.

Who needs Plus

A few signals that push a merchant toward Plus.

• Revenue. Most Plus merchants are doing $1M+ annually. Below that threshold the math rarely works unless complexity is the driver.
• Checkout complexity. If custom delivery rules, complex discounts, or subscription checkouts are critical, Plus is the only way to build them properly.
• B2B. Wholesale or trade channels that need company accounts and catalogs.
• International expansion. Multi store setups for country specific domains.
• Operational automation. Scheduled events, complex workflows, and ERP integrations that Flow and Functions handle natively.

Who doesn’t need Plus

Advanced is a real platform, not a downgrade. Businesses that should probably stay on Advanced include:

• Most stores under $1M in annual revenue.
• Merchants with simple checkout needs and a standard discount structure.
• Single storefront, single market operations.
• Businesses that do not need B2B and are not planning international expansion in the next 12 months.

The right move for these stores is usually to double down on conversion, retention, and merchandising on Advanced, and revisit the Plus question once revenue or complexity justifies it.

When port80 recommends the upgrade

The most common trigger we see is not revenue alone. It is a specific feature gap that is costing the business real money or limiting growth. A client cannot implement a custom delivery rule Advanced does not allow. A B2B channel is being held back by the lack of company accounts. An international launch needs a separate storefront the current plan cannot support.

When those conversations come up, Plus is usually the right answer. When they are not happening and a merchant is just wondering if Plus would be ‘better,’ the right answer is usually no, not yet.

The right Shopify tier is whatever lets your business ship the next twelve months of work without fighting the platform. Sometimes that is Plus. Often it is Advanced with a focused build on top of it. We can help you figure out which.