Shopify Plus: what it is, what it adds and when the upgrade is worth it

What Shopify Plus is and how it differs from other plans

Shopify Plus shares its core with Basic, Grow and Advanced: the same admin, the same Liquid theme system, the same APIs and the same app ecosystem. What changes is the ceiling. Plus opens up features that are limited or unavailable on the other plans, and adds organization tools for teams and companies running several stores.

This has a practical consequence: moving from Advanced to Plus does not require migrating anything. Your products, orders, customers and theme stay where they are. What you do is turn on new capabilities and, from there, decide which ones to use.

Checkout Extensibility: customize checkout without breaking it

On standard plans, checkout customization is limited: colors, logo, a few fields and the apps that add permitted blocks. On Plus you can go much further with Checkout Extensibility, Shopify's current system for modifying checkout safely and in a way that stays compatible with platform updates.

With checkout UI extensions you add your own blocks at different points of the checkout, including the thank you page and the order status page. The old checkout.liquid, which allowed editing the code directly, has been replaced by this system, so any new customization must be built with extensions.

• Additional fields, for example company details or delivery instructions.
• Conditional messages based on the cart, the country or the customer type.
• Offers or complementary products inside the checkout itself.
• Custom validations before payment is allowed.

Shopify Functions in custom apps

Shopify Functions is the way to modify Shopify's internal logic: discounts, shipping methods, payment methods, cart validations or product bundling. It replaces Shopify Scripts, the previous Ruby-based system that only existed on Plus.

Functions included in public apps from the App Store can be used on any plan. The Plus difference lies in custom apps: only on Plus can you deploy your own app with Functions written for your business. That enables rules no generic app covers, such as hiding cash on delivery above a certain order value, tiered discounts that combine collections and customer tags, or blocking product combinations that cannot ship together.

Expansion stores and multi-store management

Plus includes expansion stores: additional stores under the same organization, without taking out a new plan for each one. They are used to separate a wholesale store, open a store per country when the catalog or logistics are very different, or create a staging store to test changes.

From the organization admin you manage users, permissions and stores centrally. The exact number of expansion stores included is set by Shopify and may change, so confirm it in their current terms before planning your structure.

B2B, locations, staff and support

Native B2B features also exist on Basic, Grow and Advanced, but with limits. On Plus there is no catalog limit and you can assign a catalog with its own prices to each company or each company location, instead of sharing prices per market. For a business with prices negotiated customer by customer, this is often the main reason to move to Plus.

The other differences are operational, but they matter as the team grows.

• More inventory locations than on standard plans, useful with several warehouses, physical stores or a 3PL.
• Unlimited staff accounts, with permissions per person.
• Priority Shopify support.
• Access to tools built for large operations, such as scheduling launches and campaigns.

When Shopify Plus is worth it

Plus pays off when one or more of its features solves a real problem that costs you money or time today. It is not about reaching a specific revenue figure, but about what you need to do and cannot do on Advanced.

• You sell to businesses with different prices per customer and need more catalogs than the other plans allow.
• Your checkout needs logic or fields that can only be achieved with extensions or custom Functions.
• You run several stores and paying for a plan for each one no longer makes sense.
• You have a large team, several warehouses or ERP integrations that call for more control.

When it is not worth it

If your store runs well on Advanced and none of the features above solves anything specific for you, Plus is a fixed cost with no clear return. Many stores with solid volume sell perfectly well with public apps, a well built theme and a standard checkout.

Nor does it make sense to move to Plus to fix conversion or speed problems. Those problems usually lie in the theme, the installed apps or the product page, and are solved the same way on any plan. Plus pricing depends on Shopify and on each case; the up to date reference is at shopify.com/plus.

How to approach the move to Plus

Before changing plans, list what you want to achieve with Plus and check that each point truly depends on an exclusive feature. Then prioritize: you usually start with B2B or checkout, and the rest comes when the business calls for it.

At Weblineo we have worked only with Shopify since 2016 and we are a Shopify Plus Partner. If you are weighing the upgrade, our Shopify Plus service reviews your case and tells you which features add something for you and which do not, with a fixed price for the development.