Does Shopify Have a Free Plan? How to Make the Most of the Free Trial
[Quick Summary] The Truth About Shopify's Free Plan
Shopify does not offer a permanently free plan. What it does offer is a 3-day free trial that lets you explore all the core features without entering a credit card. After the trial ends, you can continue on a special promotional rate of ¥150/month for up to three months. Shopify is often compared to BASE — which has no monthly fee at all — but the two are fundamentally different in cost structure and scalability. This article clarifies exactly what you can and can't do during Shopify's free trial, and walks you through a practical roadmap for making the most of those three days.
Shopify Has No Permanently Free Plan — But It Does Have a Free Trial
To be clear: Shopify does not offer a plan you can use indefinitely at no cost. What Shopify provides is a 3-day free trial. All you need to sign up is an email address — no credit card required. Unlike many paid services, Shopify does not automatically charge you when the trial period ends. If you don't select a plan after three days, your store is simply paused. No unexpected charges, no automatic billing. For anyone trying Shopify for the first time, this is a meaningful reassurance.
After the free trial, Shopify frequently offers a promotional rate of ¥150/month for up to three months (90 days) on select plans — giving you a low-cost window of over 90 days to properly evaluate the platform. Note that this promotion is not always available and the terms may vary depending on when you sign up.
What You Can and Can't Do During the Free Trial
What You Can Do
During the free trial, you get full access to the actual admin dashboard — not a demo or sandbox environment. The following tasks are all available:
Product registration is the first thing to tackle. You can add products with names, descriptions, prices, images, and stock levels — exactly as you would in a live store. Bulk importing via CSV is also supported. Theme customization is fully available. Browse over 100 free and paid themes, choose one that fits your brand, and adjust logos, colors, and fonts — all without writing a single line of code. You can also configure shipping rules, create a required legal disclosure page, set up Shopify Payments, and install apps. All settings, product data, and configurations you build during the trial carry over seamlessly once you upgrade to a paid plan.
What You Can't Do
The one major limitation during the trial is that your store is not publicly accessible. By default, a password is applied to the storefront — visitors cannot browse your products, and customers cannot complete a purchase. In other words, actual sales and order processing only become possible after you move to a paid plan. Also worth noting: if you install third-party apps during the trial, those apps may have their own free periods that expire independently of Shopify's trial — check the billing terms for each app you install.
How Shopify Compares to BASE (Which Is Completely Free to Start)
When people search for "free online store," BASE often comes up — it has no setup fee and no monthly charge. Here's how the two platforms actually compare on cost.
BASE's Standard plan has no monthly fee, but the payment processing fee is 3.6% plus a 3% service charge (6.6% total) plus ¥40 per transaction. At monthly sales of ¥1 million, the fees alone amount to roughly ¥70,000. BASE's Growth plan reduces those fees but costs ¥16,580/month.
Shopify's Basic plan runs ¥4,850/month (monthly billing), with a payment processing fee of 3.55% when using Shopify Payments. At monthly sales of ¥3 million, estimates suggest BASE's fees alone reach around ¥200,000 — while Shopify Basic, including the monthly fee, comes to approximately ¥110,000. BASE has the advantage at very low sales volumes, but Shopify's cost efficiency becomes clear as revenue grows.
On extensibility, the gap is even wider. Shopify comes with an ecosystem of over 8,000 apps and built-in support for multiple languages and currencies — making it particularly well-suited for businesses considering cross-border e-commerce down the line.
Shopify's Pricing Plans at a Glance
It's worth understanding where you'll land after the trial. As of 2026, Shopify's main plans are as follows (monthly prices based on annual billing):
The Basic plan is ¥3,650/month — the entry-level option for businesses launching their first online store. It supports unlimited products and up to two staff accounts. The Shopify Payments processing fee is 3.55%.
The Grow plan is ¥10,100/month — recommended once your store has gained traction and monthly sales are growing steadily. It supports up to five staff accounts and includes professional reporting. The processing fee is 3.4%.
The Advanced plan is ¥44,000/month — designed for stores with monthly sales in the tens of millions. It supports 15 staff accounts, custom reports, and automated shipping rate calculation via third-party services. The processing fee is 3.25%.
Choosing annual billing saves approximately 25% compared to monthly billing across all plans. A practical approach is to start on monthly billing, let your revenue stabilize over three to six months, then switch to an annual plan.
A Three-Day Store-Building Roadmap
The trial is only three days. Going in without a plan often means spending the time clicking around without accomplishing much. Follow this sequence to get a genuine feel for the platform in a short time.
Day 1 — Build the foundation. After registering, add three to five products. Placeholders are fine. Having products in your store makes it much easier to evaluate how your theme looks in practice. For each product, fill in the name, price, description, images, and stock count — and check the SEO preview while you're at it.
Day 2 — Finalize design and settings. Pick a theme, adjust the logo and color palette, and organize the homepage layout. Alongside that, configure your shipping rules, set up your required legal disclosure page, and activate Shopify Payments.
Day 3 — Review and decide. Take a broad look at the admin dashboard and determine which plan fits your business scale and team setup. Run a test order to walk through the purchase flow end to end. If everything looks good, select your plan and prepare to go live.
Real Businesses That Grew Using Shopify
Here are a few examples of businesses — domestic and international — that moved from Shopify's free trial to a full launch and achieved real results.
Kyoto Brewing Co., a craft beer brand based in Kyoto, used Shopify to expand online sales and reach craft beer fans both in Japan and abroad. By combining a multilingual app with Shopify, the brand runs parallel Japanese and English storefronts from a single platform.
COHINA, a Japanese apparel brand focused on petite women, paired Shopify's flexible customization with a sharp SNS-driven customer acquisition strategy. Starting with a small team, the brand scaled efficiently by leveraging Shopify's app ecosystem without sacrificing operational quality.
Francfranc, a home goods brand, has integrated Shopify as part of its domestic EC operations. The platform's extensibility and reliable payment infrastructure support its broad product catalog and growing online business.
FAQ
Q: Is it really true that no credit card is needed for the Shopify free trial? Will I be charged automatically when it ends?
A: Yes — no credit card is required to start the free trial. When the three-day period ends, Shopify does not charge you unless you actively select a plan and enter payment information. Your account is automatically paused, but all your store data, products, and settings are preserved. One caveat: if you installed third-party apps during the trial, those apps may have their own billing timelines that are separate from Shopify's trial period. Be sure to check each app's terms individually.
Q: BASE and STORES are free to start — at what monthly sales level should I consider switching to Shopify?
A: A good rule of thumb is ¥1 million in monthly sales. BASE's Standard plan has no monthly fee, but its payment fees of 6.6% plus ¥40 per transaction add up to roughly ¥70,000 at that sales volume. Shopify Basic, at ¥4,850/month plus a 3.55% processing fee, works out cheaper at the same scale. If you're also thinking about cross-border sales or multilingual operations in the future, switching to Shopify earlier saves you the effort and cost of migrating platforms later.
Q: Will everything I set up during the free trial carry over when I upgrade to a paid plan?
A: Yes, it all carries over. As Shopify's official documentation confirms, any work completed during the free trial is preserved when you select a paid plan. Product data, theme settings, payment configuration, and page content are all retained and go live the moment you upgrade. To make the most of your three days, gather your product information and image assets in advance before you start — so you can build productively from day one.
Conclusion
Shopify doesn't offer a permanently free plan, but its three-day free trial — followed by a low-cost promotional period — gives you ample time to evaluate the platform with virtually no financial risk. If you complete the core setup (product listings, theme, payments, and shipping) before the trial ends, your store can go live the moment you select a plan.
If cross-border sales or multilingual expansion are on your roadmap, Shopify's extensibility is a significant asset. Building your domestic foundation and preparing for overseas markets on the same platform from the start is one of the most effective ways to stay competitive over the long term.
At Leap, we support the full journey — from building multilingual Shopify stores to creating locally adapted content and running international marketing campaigns. Once your domestic store is up and running, consider overseas expansion as your next step.
From Leap
Leap publishes practical resources on global business — covering cross-border e-commerce, multilingual strategy, and localization for businesses ready to go international.
