Shopify Advanced vs Shopify Plus: The Key Differences Explained

For scaling UK merchants, the Shopify Advanced versus Shopify Plus decision is one of the most consequential platform choices they'll make. At first glance the gap between £344/month and approximately £2,000/month looks enormous. But at the right revenue level and with the right operational requirements, Plus is not just justifiable. It is materially better for your business. The problem is that 'the right revenue level' and 'the right requirements' are not the same for every brand, and getting this wrong in either direction is costly.

This article covers every meaningful difference between the two plans, with direct guidance on which profile of merchant belongs on each one.

Side-by-Side Feature Comparison

Here is a precise breakdown of what changes between Shopify Advanced and Shopify Plus:

• Checkout extensibility: Advanced — not available. Plus — full access to checkout UI extensions, app blocks, and branded checkout customisation
• Shopify Flow: Advanced — not available. Plus — unlimited no-code automation workflows
• Launchpad: Advanced — not available. Plus — schedule product launches, price changes, and campaign activations
• Multipass: Advanced — not available. Plus — single sign-on integration for external authentication
• Native B2B channel: Advanced — not available. Plus — dedicated wholesale storefront with company accounts and custom pricing
• Expansion stores: Advanced — not available. Plus — up to 9 additional storefronts under one subscription
• Inventory locations: Advanced — 10 locations. Plus — up to 200 locations
• Staff accounts: Advanced — 15. Plus — unlimited
• Third-party transaction fee: Advanced — 0.5%. Plus — 0.15%
• Dedicated Merchant Success Manager: Advanced — no. Plus — yes, a named Shopify contact assigned to your account
• Priority support and faster SLA: Advanced — standard support. Plus — priority routing and dedicated Plus support team

The Checkout Customisation Gap

The most commercially significant difference between Advanced and Plus is checkout extensibility, and it warrants detailed attention. On Shopify Advanced, the checkout is largely fixed. You can change colours, logo, and a few basic settings, but you cannot add custom fields, inject upsell offers between checkout steps, display loyalty point balances, or build any branded trust content into the flow itself.

On Shopify Plus, checkout extensibility gives you full control using Shopify's app block framework. You can build post-purchase upsells that appear after payment is taken but before the confirmation screen, achieving the revenue uplift of a pop-up upsell without the friction of interrupting the checkout. You can add custom input fields for gift messages, delivery instructions, or B2B purchase order numbers. You can display trust signals, loyalty balances, and promotional messaging inline within the checkout steps themselves. For brands with an active CRO programme, this is the single most valuable feature in the entire Plus tier.

Transaction Fee Difference

If you use Shopify Payments as your gateway, this section is largely irrelevant to you. But if you use a third-party processor, the transaction fee difference between Advanced and Plus is worth calculating precisely.

On Advanced, Shopify charges 0.5% on all transactions processed through third-party gateways. On Plus, that rate drops to 0.15%. At £100,000/month GMV processed through a third-party processor, the difference is 0.35% multiplied by £100,000, which is £350/month. That is £4,200/year. At £200,000/month GMV the saving is £700/month, or £8,400/year. At £300,000/month it is £1,050/month, which on its own covers 64% of the Plus premium over Advanced. Run this calculation against your actual payment volumes and processor mix before making the upgrade decision.

Automation Capabilities

Shopify Advanced has no native automation builder. You can use basic Shopify automations for a handful of pre-built triggers, and you can integrate third-party tools like Zapier or Mechanic for some workflow automation needs. But these options are limited in scope and add cost and complexity.

Shopify Plus includes Shopify Flow natively at no additional cost. Flow handles unlimited custom workflows: auto-tagging customers based on purchase behaviour, holding fraud-risk orders for review, sending internal Slack notifications for specific order types, triggering loyalty events, hiding out-of-stock products from collections automatically. Alongside Flow, Plus includes Launchpad for scheduling campaigns: you can programme a flash sale to go live at midnight, apply a sitewide discount, swap hero images, and revert everything 48 hours later, all configured in advance with no manual intervention required.

B2B and Wholesale

Shopify Advanced has no native B2B functionality. If you want to run a wholesale operation alongside your consumer store on Advanced, your options are: use a third-party app like Wholesale Club or Wholesale Gorilla (typically £50-£100/month, with limitations), build a separate password-protected storefront with custom pricing logic, or manage wholesale orders manually.

Shopify Plus includes a native B2B channel that is architecturally separate from your consumer store, sharing inventory but allowing fully independent pricing, payment terms, and storefront experience. Company profiles support multiple locations and contacts. You can assign different price lists to different accounts. Net 30, 60, and 90 payment terms are handled natively with automated invoice generation. For brands doing any meaningful wholesale volume, the native B2B channel alone is frequently the trigger for upgrading from Advanced to Plus.

Support and SLA

Shopify Advanced gives you access to standard Shopify support: 24/7 live chat, email, and phone, which is genuinely good for a SaaS platform of this scale. On Shopify Plus, support is prioritised: tickets from Plus merchants are routed to a dedicated Plus support team with faster response commitments. More significantly, Plus merchants are assigned a Merchant Success Manager, a named Shopify contact who can provide strategic guidance on platform usage, connect you with relevant partners, and act as an escalation path when issues arise.

For most merchants, the practical difference in day-to-day support quality between Advanced and Plus is modest. The MSM relationship becomes more valuable the more complex your operation and the more actively you want to use Shopify's partner ecosystem for growth.

Which One Is Right for You?

Shopify Advanced is the right choice if your annual GMV is below £2M, you sell in a single market, your checkout conversion rate is healthy and not a current focus, you have no B2B channel, and your staff account count is below 15. Advanced is a capable, well-featured plan that supports substantial growth without the Plus overhead.

Shopify Plus is worth the premium if your GMV is consistently above £2M, you have an active CRO programme and the checkout is a conversion lever you want to pull, you run or are planning a B2B or wholesale operation, you need more than 15 staff accounts, you are expanding into multiple international markets with genuinely distinct storefront needs, or you process significant volume through a third-party gateway where the 0.35% transaction fee difference pays for a meaningful portion of the upgrade. Any one of these conditions makes the conversation worth having. Two or more make it straightforward.