Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/month — $27,600/year. At $800,000 monthly GMV ($9.6M/year), it scales to 0.25% of GMV, which is $24,000/year above the base fee. Add transaction fees at 0.15%–0.30% on all orders if you use a non-Shopify payment processor, and a $10M GMV business can pay $50,000–$75,000/year in platform costs alone. Medusa.js has no licensing fee. Here’s the complete cost breakdown — and the honest answer on when each platform is actually the right choice.
Shopify Plus Pricing: What You Actually Pay
Shopify Plus pricing has two tiers based on GMV:
- Under $800,000/month GMV: $2,300/month flat ($27,600/year)
- Over $800,000/month GMV: 0.25% of monthly GMV, minimum $2,300/month
Transaction fees apply when you don’t use Shopify Payments:
- Basic merchants on Plus: 0.15% per transaction
- Some Plus merchants negotiate lower rates, but 0.15% is the published rate
If you use Shopify Payments, you avoid the Shopify transaction fee — but Shopify Payments has geographic limitations and you’re still paying Stripe’s underlying processing fees (2.9% + $0.30, or lower with volume negotiation).
Shopify Plus Annual Cost at Different GMV Levels
| GMV | Platform Fee | Transaction Fee (0.15%, non-Shopify Payments) | Total Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1M | $27,600 | $1,500 | $29,100 |
| $5M | $27,600 | $7,500 | $35,100 |
| $10M | $30,000 | $15,000 | $45,000 |
| $20M | $60,000 | $30,000 | $90,000 |
Note: The $10M row assumes the 0.25% GMV fee kicks in at approximately $800K/month, which it does. The $20M row is 0.25% of $20M ($50,000/year) plus $30,000 in transaction fees.
These numbers exclude app costs. The average Shopify Plus store runs 6–12 paid apps at $50–$500/month each. Subscription apps (Recharge, Skio), review platforms, loyalty programs, advanced analytics, and B2B tools add up fast — typically $1,000–$3,000/month in app spend for a mature store.
Medusa.js Cost Structure
Medusa.js is open source with no licensing fee. Your costs are:
Build cost — one-time development cost to create your store. A standard Medusa storefront with custom design, payment integration, and basic customizations: $40,000–$80,000. More complex builds (B2B, subscriptions, marketplace features): $80,000–$200,000.
Infrastructure — ongoing monthly cost for hosting and services:
- Medusa API server: $50–$200/month (Railway, Render, or AWS EC2)
- PostgreSQL database: $25–$100/month
- Redis: $15–$50/month
- File storage (S3): $10–$50/month
- CDN (Cloudflare): $0–$200/month depending on plan
- Total infrastructure: $100–$600/month for most stores ($1,200–$7,200/year)
Payment processing — Stripe, PayPal, and others charge the same rates regardless of whether you’re on Shopify or Medusa. Processing fees are not a platform cost difference.
Developer maintenance — unlike Shopify, Medusa requires developer time for updates, security patches, and infrastructure management. Budget $5,000–$15,000/year for a retainer or $200–$500/hour for ad-hoc work.
Medusa.js Annual Total Cost at Different GMV Levels
| GMV | Infrastructure | Developer Maintenance | Total Ongoing/Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1M | $3,600 | $7,500 | $11,100 |
| $5M | $6,000 | $10,000 | $16,000 |
| $10M | $9,600 | $15,000 | $24,600 |
| $20M | $14,400 | $20,000 | $34,400 |
These ongoing costs exclude the initial build cost (one-time) and any major feature development. They represent a steady-state operation.
The Real Comparison: Total 3-Year Cost of Ownership
The honest comparison includes the Medusa build cost amortized over time.
At $5M GMV:
- Shopify Plus 3-year cost: $35,100/year × 3 = $105,300 (plus $36,000 in average app costs = $141,300)
- Medusa 3-year cost: $60,000 build + ($16,000/year × 3) = $108,000
Medusa is cheaper by year 3 at $5M GMV, and significantly cheaper as GMV grows. The Shopify Plus number gets worse every year because platform fees are recurring and scale with GMV.
At $10M GMV:
- Shopify Plus 3-year cost: $45,000/year × 3 = $135,000 (plus app costs = ~$171,000)
- Medusa 3-year cost: $80,000 build + ($24,600/year × 3) = $153,800
Shopify Plus is still ahead at 3 years for a $10M GMV business, but by year 4 the lines cross. And this doesn’t account for Shopify Plus feature limitations that force custom development anyway.
At $20M GMV:
- Shopify Plus 3-year cost: $90,000/year × 3 = $270,000 (plus apps = ~$342,000)
- Medusa 3-year cost: $100,000 build + ($34,400/year × 3) = $203,200
At $20M GMV, Medusa is decisively cheaper even at year 1 when you factor in the ongoing costs.
What Shopify Plus Actually Does Well
Shopify Plus is not a bad platform. That’s worth stating directly.
Shopify Plus’s managed infrastructure is genuinely excellent. You do not need a developer on call to handle traffic spikes or security patches. The platform handles Black Friday traffic automatically. PCI compliance is managed for you. The admin interface is the best in the industry — your ops team can use it without training.
Shopify Plus also has a mature app ecosystem. For standard ecommerce patterns — loyalty programs, reviews, upsells, email marketing integrations — there’s a Shopify app that already does it. You’re not building from scratch.
For a business that needs to launch quickly, doesn’t have technical resources, and won’t outgrow the platform’s capabilities, Shopify Plus is a legitimate choice. The premium is real, but so is the time savings.
When Medusa.js Is the Right Choice
Medusa makes sense when your requirements exceed what Shopify Plus can deliver without expensive workarounds, or when your GMV makes the platform fees impossible to justify.
Medusa is the stronger choice when:
- Your GMV is above $3M and growing (fee arbitrage favors Medusa within 2–3 years)
- You need custom checkout logic that Shopify’s checkout.liquid limitations block
- You’re building B2B commerce with complex pricing or approval workflows (see our Medusa.js B2B commerce breakdown)
- You need to own your data and infrastructure without being subject to Shopify’s platform decisions
- You’re building a multi-vendor marketplace (Shopify has no native marketplace capability)
- You need to embed commerce into a non-standard frontend — mobile app, kiosk, custom portal
For a broader look at the architectural differences, our Medusa.js vs WooCommerce comparison covers the technical trade-offs in detail.
Migrating from Shopify Plus to Medusa
Migration from Shopify Plus to Medusa is a full rebuild, not a port. You’re not converting Liquid templates — you’re building a new Next.js storefront connected to a Medusa backend. Your Shopify data (products, customers, orders) migrates through Medusa’s import tools and the Shopify API.
A Shopify Plus to Medusa migration typically costs $60,000–$120,000 depending on store complexity and custom feature requirements. Budget 4–6 months minimum for a store with significant catalog depth or custom checkout behavior.
We covered the migration decision criteria in detail in our when to migrate from Shopify to headless post — specifically the signals that indicate you’ve hit the ceiling of what Shopify can do without pain.
Shopify Plus vs. Medusa: Feature Comparison
Some feature comparisons are clear-cut; others are genuinely nuanced.
| Feature | Shopify Plus | Medusa.js |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing cost | $27,600+/year | $0 |
| Infrastructure management | Managed (included) | Self-managed |
| Checkout customization | Limited (Checkout Extensibility) | Full control |
| B2B features | Native (added 2022) | Native v2 module |
| Subscription support | Via Recharge/Skio (third-party) | Via Stripe Billing (custom integration) |
| Admin interface | Best-in-class | Build your own or use Medusa admin |
| Multi-storefront | Expansion stores (additional cost) | Native multi-region |
| Marketplace capability | Not supported | Custom development required |
| Time to launch | 4–12 weeks | 4–6 months |
| Data ownership | Limited (Shopify owns the platform) | Full |
The Hidden Costs That Change the Calculation
Platform fees and transaction fees are the visible costs. The hidden costs are where Shopify Plus surprises businesses at scale.
Checkout customization development: Shopify Plus introduced Checkout Extensibility to replace the old checkout.liquid file. Extensions are more capable than the old system but still have limits — you can add UI components and logic, but you can’t fully replace Shopify’s checkout flow. If your checkout requirements exceed what extensions support, you’re hiring Shopify Plus partners at $150–$250/hour to work within constraints that Medusa simply doesn’t have. Custom checkout builds on Shopify Plus that push limits run $15,000–$40,000 and still deliver a partial result.
App deprecation and price changes: Shopify app developers raise prices and change features. An app you depend on today at $49/month may be $149/month next year — or discontinued. This happened with several major Shopify apps in 2023–2024. With Medusa, you own the custom code. Nobody can change its pricing or discontinue it.
Theme development limitations: Shopify’s Liquid templating language is capable but constrained. Complex custom UI patterns require creative Liquid workarounds or JavaScript injection that creates performance debt. Medusa’s Next.js storefront is a standard React application — you build whatever the browser can render.
Platform lock-in risk: Your Shopify store’s data is accessible via the Shopify API, but the platform itself is a closed system. If Shopify changes its pricing, policies, or feature set in ways that hurt your business, your migration path is a full rebuild. Medusa is MIT licensed. You own everything.
These aren’t theoretical concerns. The average Shopify Plus merchant at $10M GMV is spending more than they expect when you include custom development on top of Plus fees, app subscriptions, and the occasional forced rebuild when Shopify deprecates something.
What the Shopify to Medusa Decision Actually Comes Down To
After the cost modeling, what actually decides the question is less financial and more operational.
Do you have technical leadership? Medusa requires someone who can make infrastructure decisions, manage deployments, and oversee developer work. A non-technical founder with no technical co-founder or CTO is not set up for a Medusa build. Shopify Plus is the right choice in that situation — not because it’s better software, but because you need a managed platform.
What’s your launch deadline? A hard launch in 10 weeks is possible on Shopify Plus for a standard store. It’s not possible on Medusa for any store. If your timeline is the primary constraint, Shopify Plus wins regardless of the long-term cost math.
What’s your customization roadmap? If your store today is standard and your roadmap for the next 2 years is also standard — product catalog, standard checkout, email marketing, reviews — Shopify Plus handles all of it. If your roadmap includes complex checkout logic, custom B2B workflows, or marketplace features, you’re going to hit Shopify Plus’s ceiling. Starting on Medusa now is cheaper than migrating later.
The businesses that build on Medusa and wish they’d gone Shopify Plus are usually the ones who underestimated the operational overhead of managing infrastructure. The businesses that go Shopify Plus and wish they’d built on Medusa are usually the ones who hit the platform ceiling at $8M–$15M GMV and face a $100,000+ migration they could have avoided.
FAQ
What does Shopify Plus actually cost at $5M GMV? At $5M GMV, Shopify Plus costs $27,600/year in platform fees plus transaction fees of approximately $7,500/year (at 0.15% if not using Shopify Payments). That’s $35,100/year before apps. A typical app stack for a mid-tier Shopify Plus store adds $1,000–$2,000/month, bringing the annual total to $47,100–$59,100.
Does Medusa.js have transaction fees? No. Medusa charges no transaction fees. You pay Stripe’s (or your chosen payment processor’s) fees directly — typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, the same rate you’d pay through Shopify. The difference is that Shopify adds its own 0.15% transaction fee on top if you don’t use Shopify Payments.
How long does a Medusa build take compared to Shopify Plus? A Shopify Plus store can launch in 4–12 weeks depending on custom development requirements. A Medusa build typically takes 4–6 months for a standard store, and 6–12 months for complex B2B, subscription, or marketplace builds. Medusa’s development timeline is longer — that’s an honest trade-off, not a selling point.
Can Medusa.js handle Shopify Plus-level traffic? Yes, with properly configured infrastructure. Medusa’s Node.js backend is horizontally scalable — you add more instances behind a load balancer as traffic grows. The database (PostgreSQL) can be scaled with read replicas. A Medusa store at $50M GMV with proper infrastructure handles traffic comparably to Shopify Plus. The difference is that you’re managing the infrastructure, not Shopify.
What’s the Shopify Plus contract length? Shopify Plus contracts are typically annual with a 12-month minimum commitment. You can negotiate month-to-month at a higher rate. The standard $2,300/month rate applies to annual contracts.
Is the Medusa admin interface as good as Shopify’s? No. Shopify’s admin is the best in ecommerce — it’s intuitive, fast, and requires no training. Medusa’s admin panel is functional but less polished. If your ops team needs to manage products, orders, and customers daily, the Shopify admin experience is genuinely better. This is a real advantage for Shopify Plus, especially for non-technical teams.
What happens to a Medusa store if the open-source project is abandoned? This is a legitimate concern. Medusa is MIT licensed — if the company behind it disappeared tomorrow, you’d still own your code and could continue running and maintaining it. The risk is the same as any open-source dependency. Medusa has significant commercial backing and an active community, but no managed platform dependency risk exists — you’re not locked in.
Deciding between Medusa and Shopify Plus comes down to GMV trajectory, technical resources, and customization requirements. If you want a direct assessment of which platform fits your business, see our fixed-price packages or review our WooCommerce development options — which for many businesses at the $500K–$3M GMV range is the more practical path than either Shopify Plus or Medusa.