Guide
Is the Shopify Starter Plan Still Available in Australia?
Not for new stores. Shopify's Help Center says the Starter plan isn't available to new stores, and a store that moves off it can't go back. If you already have it, nothing changes until you switch. For a new Australian store, Shopify's pricing now starts at Basic: A$42 a month billed yearly, or A$56 billed monthly.
What we charge: a shop added to the website you already have, A$2,500 setup and A$100 a week
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Where these numbers come from
Everything here was read on 7 November 2026 from Shopify's own pages: the Help Center article on the Starter plan, the Help Center article on the Agentic plan, and the Australian pricing page (shopify.com/au/pricing). The Starter plan's old price isn't on Shopify's Australian pricing page any more, so for that one figure we've quoted the US price Shopify published while the plan was on sale, as recorded by the reviews that still rank for it. Shopify changes plans and prices without much notice, so its pricing page on the day you sign up is the final word.
What the Starter plan was
Shopify built it for people who sell through social media and messaging apps rather than a full website. Per the Help Center, it gave you:
- Product links you could share on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp or SMS, each opening a Shopify checkout.
- A one-page "simplified online store" on one fixed theme (Spotlight), with your logo, a short intro, social links and your own colours. No other themes, no theme customisation, no collections.
- Shopify's reports: analytics, finances and sales.
- No staff accounts, no third-party carrier-calculated shipping, no Shopify B2B, and no upgrade to POS Pro.
- While it was on sale, US$5 a month and a 5% fee on every sale with Shopify Payments. That is the figure the reviews quote from Shopify's old Starter page; Shopify no longer publishes an A$ price for it.
Who still has it, and the one-way door
If your store is on the Starter plan today, you keep it. The Help Center is clear on the catch: once you change to another plan, you can't revert to Starter. So a Starter store that upgrades to Basic to get a proper storefront is on Basic for good, at A$42 a month billed yearly. Worth knowing before you click upgrade to try a theme.
The cheapest ways to sell online in Australia now
| Option | Monthly | Per sale | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Agentic plan | A$0 | Shopify Payments or third-party fees | Your products listed in AI shopping channels and the Shop channel. Your own online store stays password-protected and can't take orders through its checkout. |
| Shopify Basic | A$42 billed yearly, A$56 monthly | 1.7% + A$0.30 with Shopify Payments, plus 2% with another provider | A full online store with themes, collections, checkout and the app store. |
| A shop added to your own website | A$100 a week + GST (about A$433 a month), after a A$2,500 + GST build | 1.65% + A$0.30 to Stripe, nothing to us | Shop, product, cart and checkout pages in your site's design, as code you own, with hosting, backups and support in the weekly plan. |
What the Agentic plan is and isn't
It's the plan Shopify now points new sellers at when they want to pay nothing monthly, and it is genuinely A$0 a month. But it isn't the Starter plan under a new name. The Help Center says you can build an online store on it, but the store stays password-protected and customers can't buy through its checkout; to publish it you move to a paid plan. What you can do is list products in Shopify's catalogue so AI shopping assistants and the Shop app can sell them, paying Shopify Payments or third-party transaction fees on each sale. If what you wanted from Starter was a link you could drop in an Instagram bio or a WhatsApp chat that takes a card payment, Agentic doesn't give you that.
If you only sell through Instagram and messages
The honest cheapest route now is Shopify Basic with the Facebook and Instagram channel switched on, which costs A$42 a month billed yearly before you've sold anything. Whether that stacks up depends on volume: at ten sales a month it's A$4.20 per sale in plan fees before the card rate, at a hundred sales it's 42 cents. If you only sell a handful of things a month through Instagram, that is the plan to take, and we'd tell you so. The other route is to put a checkout on a site you already have. A shop added to your existing website is a A$2,500 build plus A$100 a week for hosting, backups and support, Stripe charges 1.65% + A$0.30 per card payment, and the product links you share in a bio or a message open your own pages instead of Shopify's. It costs more than Basic every month. What you're buying is a store that stays yours and a checkout that never takes a percentage, which only pays off once the shop is a real part of your revenue.
When Shopify Basic is the right call anyway
If you're testing a product idea, want to be live this week, and would rather rent the tools than own them, Basic is fair value: the card rate is close to Stripe's, there's no extra transaction fee if you use Shopify Payments, and the app store covers most of what a new shop needs. Our view is the same as in our Shopify fees guide: the plan bills every month forever and the apps usually bill monthly too, so once the shop is a real part of your revenue, paying once for something you own tends to work out cheaper over three years.
Sources
- Shopify Help Center: Starter planhttps://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/plans-features/shopify-starter-plan
States that the Starter plan isn't available to new stores, what it includes and excludes, and that you can't revert to it after changing plans.
- Shopify Help Center: Agentic planhttps://help.shopify.com/en/manual/intro-to-shopify/pricing-plans/plans-features/shopify-agentic-plan
No monthly subscription fee, selling through AI channels and the Shop channel, and the password-protected online store.
- Shopify pricing (Australia)https://www.shopify.com/au/pricing
Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus prices in A$, Shopify Payments card rates and third-party transaction fees. No Starter plan listed.
- Stripe pricing (Australia)https://stripe.com/au/pricing
1.65% + A$0.30 for Australian cards, with no setup or monthly fees.
Where to next
- Does Shopify take a percentage of every sale?
Every plan's card rate and transaction fee in A$, and the GST rules.
- What a shop added to your site includes
Shop, product, cart and checkout pages coded into the website you already have.
Sell from a site you own
We add shops to existing websites and build new stores as custom code, connected to a Stripe account in your name. We never take a percentage of your sales. Tell us what you sell and we'll quote it as a fixed figure in writing.
Common Questions
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