eCrate vs Shopify Basic, with the arithmetic shown
Shopify Basic is $39 a month, plus 2% of every order if you use a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, plus whatever your apps cost. eCrate has no monthly price and takes 2% of an order once it is paid. Which of those is cheaper depends entirely on your numbers — so here are both, worked out.
On your own gateway, Basic never gets cheaper than eCrate
Shopify Basic charges 2% on every order when you bring your own payment gateway, and eCrate charges 2% — the same share of the same money. So the plan fee and your app bill are the whole difference, at every revenue, and they only ever point one way. Move to Shopify Payments and the arithmetic changes completely; that case is the second example below.
Two real stores, and eCrate loses one of them
Every line below shows the sum that produced it, so you can check it against your own invoices. Card-processing rates are left out of both columns — you pay your processor either way.
A store doing $8,000/mo on Shopify Basic, with $150/mo of apps, on its own payment gateway
eCrate is cheaper by
$2,254
per year
Shopify, today
- Shopify Basic plan$39/mo × 12
- $468
- Apps$150/mo × 12
- $1,800
- Third-party gateway fee2% of $96,000 yearly revenue
- $1,920
eCrate
- PlatformFree — no plan, no feature gates
- $0
- Apps$0 — the standard stack is built in
- $0
- Order fee2% of $96,000 yearly revenue
- $1,920
- Marketing email2k over the 3k/mo free tier × 12
- $14
- Media storage5 GB is inside the 10 GB free tier
- $0
- Landing pages$0 — you have none published
- $0
- AI store builder$0 — you have not used it
- $0
A store doing $8,000/mo on Shopify Basic, with no apps at all, on Shopify Payments
Shopify is cheaper by
$1,466
per year
Shopify, today
- Shopify Basic plan$39/mo × 12
- $468
- Apps$0/mo × 12
- $0
- Third-party gateway fee (not charged)$0 — you're on Shopify Payments
- $0
eCrate
- PlatformFree — no plan, no feature gates
- $0
- Apps$0 — the standard stack is built in
- $0
- Order fee2% of $96,000 yearly revenue
- $1,920
- Marketing email2k over the 3k/mo free tier × 12
- $14
- Media storage5 GB is inside the 10 GB free tier
- $0
- Landing pages$0 — you have none published
- $0
- AI store builder$0 — you have not used it
- $0
Why the second one goes the other way
A store on Shopify Payments pays no gateway surcharge, and a store running no apps has no app bill for eCrate to save. What is left is Shopify Basic's $39 a month against eCrate's 2% of revenue — and above a fairly modest revenue, the flat fee is the cheaper of the two. If that is your store, stay where you are. We would rather tell you that here than have you find out on your first statement.
The same sum, on your store
Opened on Basic. Change anything — it recalculates as you type, and it will tell you when Shopify comes out ahead.
What are you paying today?
On these numbers, moving to eCrate saves you
$4,054
per year
Shopify, today
- Shopify Basic plan$39/mo × 12
- $468
- Apps$300/mo × 12
- $3,600
- Third-party gateway fee2% of $240,000 yearly revenue
- $4,800
eCrate
- PlatformFree — no plan, no feature gates
- $0
- Apps$0 — the standard stack is built in
- $0
- Order fee2% of $240,000 yearly revenue
- $4,800
- Marketing email2k over the 3k/mo free tier × 12
- $14
- Media storage5 GB is inside the 10 GB free tier
- $0
- Landing pages$0 — you have none published
- $0
- AI store builder$0 — you have not used it
- $0
How this is worked out
- Shopify plan prices and third-party gateway fees are Shopify's published US month-to-month rates, last checked April 2026. Annual prepayment discounts are not applied.
- Card-processing rates are excluded from both columns — you pay your processor either way, whichever platform you are on.
- App spend is whatever you tell us you spend today. On eCrate, reviews, bundles, email, the CRM inbox, affiliate tracking and analytics are built in, so the comparable spend is usually lower.
- eCrate's order fee is charged on paid orders only. Refunded and cancelled orders are not billed.
About Basic, specifically
What does Shopify Basic cost a year?
$39 a month, so $468 a year on the month-to-month price, before apps and before the 2% extra Shopify charges on each order if you use a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments. Annual prepayment discounts are not included in that figure.
Is eCrate always cheaper than Shopify Basic?
No. A store on Shopify Payments that pays for no apps is usually cheaper on Shopify: there is no gateway surcharge to avoid and no app bill to replace, so eCrate's 2% of revenue is competing against a flat $39 a month. The worked examples on this page show both directions.
What does eCrate charge?
Nothing to use it. 2% of an order once it is paid — refunded and cancelled orders are not billed — plus metered marketing email and media storage above free tiers, the AI store builder at cost plus a named fee, and a small monthly charge per published landing page. There is no plan, no feature gate, and no surcharge for using your own payment gateway.
Do I have to leave Shopify Basic to try it?
No. Signing up costs nothing, and the Shopify importer brings your products, collections, customers and URL redirects across so you can see your own catalog running before you move any traffic.
Shopify's published prices on this page were last checked in April 2026. We re-check them at least every 9 months, and this note says so when we have not.
- Shopify plan prices and third-party gateway fees are Shopify's published US month-to-month rates, last checked April 2026. Annual prepayment discounts are not applied.
- Card-processing rates are excluded from both columns — you pay your processor either way, whichever platform you are on.
- App spend is whatever you tell us you spend today. On eCrate, reviews, bundles, email, the CRM inbox, affiliate tracking and analytics are built in, so the comparable spend is usually lower.
- eCrate's order fee is charged on paid orders only. Refunded and cancelled orders are not billed.
Bring the shop, not the bill
Paste a Shopify access token and your catalog, collections, customers and redirects come across. Signing up costs nothing.
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