Shopify Plus vs Advanced are the two most essential versions of Shopify. They provide your business with many solutions and features to build and optimise eCommerce websites quickly.

Each version has advantages, from Advanced’s advanced features and cost-effectiveness to Plus’s flexible customization. Therefore, the question ‘Which is the right choice?’ becomes challenging for many eCommerce businesses. 

In this article, let’s find a reasonable answer so each business can make the most appropriate decision.

Read more: What is Shopify? Pros and Cons of Shopify

What is Shopify Advanced?

Shopify Advanced is a pricing plan offered by Shopify, designed to support medium-sized businesses in developing their eCommerce operations. The Advanced includes all the features of the Basic and Shopify plans while also providing optimized transaction fees and additional advanced features.

These features include custom reporting and analytics, enhanced live chat, optimized checkout, 3rd-party calculated shipping rates, and more.

Pros of Shopify Advanced

Scaling businesses will need many advanced features to optimize their eCommerce operations. Therefore, the Advanced plan offers many outstanding advantages that enhance the ability to manage and grow your business flexibly and efficiently.

• Custom reports and analytics

This version excels in terms of reporting and analytics compared to standard plans. This feature lets you track and evaluate your business performance based on specific criteria, facilitating informed decisions.

•  Attractive transaction fee

The Advanced ensures lower transaction fees than the two standard plans, helping you save costs and enhance profitability. These lower transaction fees optimize profit opportunities and make the transaction process more appealing and sustainable.

• International Sales

The  Advanced also emphasizes its ability to support international sales through Shopify Markets, a tightly integrated platform. This helps you expand your business scope into the global market efficiently and flexibly, leveraging growth potential from diversifying sales revenue.

• 3rd -party calculated shipping rates

The Advanced plan allows you to integrate and manage shipping fees by third-party carriers, providing customers with more options. This integration capability helps optimize the shipping process and reduces any complexity associated with shipping costs, thereby creating the best online shopping experience for customers.

What is Shopify Plus?

This premium version is tailored for large-scale, multinational, and fast-growing businesses. The Plus offers advanced features, superior customization, and scalability. Unlike the regular version, Plus does not have a fixed price; instead, costs are customized based on the business’s specific needs.

Businesses with high sales revenue, large product catalogues, and complex customization needs would be suitable targets for Shopify Plus.

Pros of Shopify Plus

The Plus version brings superior capabilities to help businesses create an optimized eCommerce experience for customers and achieve the expected revenue.

• Customization and Scalability

Shopify Plus offers high customization and flexibility in developing eCommerce websites. You can customize many aspects of the website, integrate applications, and expand functionality. This helps create an optimal online shopping experience and enhances customer interaction.

• B2B on Shopify

The B2B solution set with exclusive features is only available to Shopify Plus merchants. These features are regularly enhanced to optimize the B2B process, from ordering to customer management, providing a unique and efficient experience.

• Headless Commerce

With its flexibility, Shopify Plus can fully support the implementation needs of Headless Commerce. Furthermore, through the exclusive solution Hydrogen, Shopify allows businesses to build custom Headless eCommerce websites to provide the most unique customer experience.

• Omnichannel Commerce

With Shopify POS Pro integrated, Shopify Plus supports omnichannel commerce deployment, helping you create a seamless shopping experience across multiple channels, from eCommerce websites to brick-and-mortar stores. 

Through the Winter ’24 Editions update, Shopify recently added two new features: POS Terminal and Ship From Store. These features optimize customers’ payment processes and simplify merchant experiences

• International Sales

The Plus version supports large-scale expansion and international outreach. The integrated Shopify Market Pro solution allows you to efficiently optimize your eCommerce operations and seize opportunities in the global market.

Shopify Plus vs Advanced: Detailed Comparison

Pricing

• Shopify Advanced

The platform usage fee for the Advanced service package is $299 per month. This pricing is reasonable for medium-scale businesses seeking advanced features to develop their eCommerce websites. Additionally, the transaction fee for the Advanced package is 0.6% per transaction, lower than the Basic and Shopify packages.

• Shopify Plus

The usage fee for the Plus package typically starts at $2,300 per month and is not fixed but customized based on deployment needs. At this price point, you’ll gain access to numerous advanced features and exclusive solutions that are regularly fine-tuned and improved to meet the increasing demands of eCommerce development.

Online transaction fees will vary by geographic region. Businesses using Shopify Payments will have this fee waived.

Target Audience

• Shopify Advanced: Targets medium and large businesses seeking to enhance flexibility and customization without requiring colossal investment.
• Shopify Plus: Targets large businesses with extensive product catalogues, high sales volumes, and special needs for features, solutions, and support.

Customization & Scalability

• Shopify Advanced: It provides high customization and scalability capabilities but with limitations compared to the Plus version.
• Shopify Plus: Designed to meet premium customization and scalability needs, with seamless integration and flexibility with other systems.

Resources

• Shopify Advanced: Resources and learning materials are provided to help you operate and manage eCommerce websites more effectively. These include blogs, free online courses, developer documentation, and the “Helps” portal.
• Shopify Plus: Plus merchants can find numerous exclusive resources valuable for eCommerce operations such as the Plus blog, Plus Academy, API documentation, Shopify experts, and Plus partners.

Customer Support

• Shopify Advanced:

With the Advanced plan, you can seek 24/7 support from the Shopify team through in-depth live chat. Additionally, many Shopify merchants’ community groups are on Facebook and Slack.

• Shopify Plus:

Shopify Plus merchants can expect deep customer care services 24/7 through email, hotline, and live chat. They will receive technical support and valuable business advice from Shopify’s top experts. Additionally, businesses can join the Plus merchant community on Facebook to share and learn from each other’s experiences.

Security

• Shopify Advanced

Advanced offers robust security features, including protection for personal information and payment data. However, its security level is lower than that of the Plus plan.

• Shopify Plus

Plus provides a range of security measures and features to protect business data, customer information, and payment transactions as much as possible. This includes:

• Compliance with six types of PCI (Payment Card Industry) standards
• Providing the highest level of data encryption
• Providing specific tools to detect potentially fraudulent transactions
• Automatically matching and adjusting payment information to ensure actual transactions match payment profiles
• Automatic data backups
• Protecting against Bot and DDoS attacks.

When choosing Shopify Advanced?

This is an important question that many businesses are seeking answers to. If your business is on a growth trajectory and has high demands for flexibility and customization, Shopify Advanced is a worthy consideration. 

First and foremost, if you desire more autonomy over the store interface and user experience, Shopify Advanced provides customizable reporting and analytics tools, enabling you to track business performance in the way you want to make informed decisions.

Furthermore, Shopify Advanced could be an ideal companion if you’re looking for a cost-effective solution and don’t want to be constrained by fundamental limitations. With lower usage fees than higher-tier packages, Advanced offers financial benefits while keeping the eCommerce website running smoothly.

When choosing Shopify Plus?

Plus will be the perfect choice for large-scale businesses with high flexibility, performance, and support demands. If the following characteristics apply, Plus is very likely to be the more suitable choice:

• High sales volume and extensive product catalogue: Shopify Plus infrastructure is robust enough to easily customize and scale according to a business’s needs and handle large transaction volumes daily.
• Go Headless: Shopify Plus’s Hydrogen solution offers a significant advantage for businesses that want to deploy a headless commerce model that separates the front and back end.
• Requirement for deep support services: Plus’s flexibility requires specific technical expertise to leverage the platform’s sophisticated infrastructure effectively. Therefore, Plus provides 24/7 technical support to address issues and optimize the user experience promptly.

The Final Words

The decision between Shopify Plus and Advanced is not just about choosing a platform but also about building an eCommerce system that reflects your business’s true values and long-term goals.

Shopify Advanced is a flexible solution for medium to large businesses seeking flexibility and low costs. On the other hand, Shopify Plus is an excellent choice for larger enterprises, where premium features and support are key to strong and efficient growth.

With the development and fluctuations of the market, the choice between Shopify Plus and Shopify Advanced is not only a current decision but also a long-term strategy to shape the future of your business.

Need help to make decisions? Contact SECOMM or call (028) 7108 9908 now!