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Shopify is built to run a store at scale — inventory, shipping rules, tax, fraud checks. If what you need is a site that looks finished and goes live today, that's store pricing for a page.
No mid-term price increases.*
Shopify's entry plan is roughly $29–39 a month, before transaction fees and paid apps. Figures approximate — check their current pricing.
Shopify is an ecommerce platform first — checkout, inventory across channels, shipping rules, tax, fraud checks and a theme store, all built around running a store at scale. That's a genuinely different job from putting up a website, and it's priced like one.
A large share of Shopify sites never sell anything, though — brochure pages, portfolios and landing pages built there because it was the tool someone already knew. This page is for that comparison: a site paying store prices for an order-management engine it never touches. Shopify's figures below are approximate as of mid-2026 — pricing and fees change, so check Shopify's own pricing page before deciding.
At a glance
Same categories, side by side. Shopify's numbers are approximate and change — confirm current pricing on their site.
| Feature | Lemonade Host | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Time to live | Same day — pick a design, change the words, publish | Same day, if what you're setting up is a store |
| Visual editor and templates | Included on every site | Theme editor and store themes, many of them paid |
| Forms, bookings and a cart | Included and working — no second account | Cart is the core product; forms and bookings via apps |
| Ten landing pages | $9.90/mo — ten sites at 99¢ | ~$290–390/mo — a plan per store |
| Starting price | 99¢/mo, billed $11.88/yr | ~$29–39/mo, entry plan, approx. |
| Renewal price | $11.88/yr — unchanged in year two | Same published tiers; confirm current rates |
| Fees on top of the plan | None — no usage billing, no overage charges | Transaction and payment fees on most plans, plus paid apps |
| Custom domain | +99¢/mo ($1.98/mo all-in) | Not included; bought or connected separately |
| SSL and backups | Both included; backups daily, kept 7 days | SSL included; backups cover store data |
| Ways to publish | Editor, zip upload, Git, CLI, or an AI assistant | Admin and theme editor |
| AI publishing | Yes — MCP server | Not offered |
| Portability | Your files, in a folder, movable anytime | Store data exportable; storefront tied to Shopify's platform |
Shopify figures are approximate as of mid-2026 and change without notice — check their current pricing page before deciding. Ours are exact and won't move under you.
What's in the price
Shopify's price funds an order-management engine a site with nothing to ship never touches.
Tax calculation, shipping rules, inventory across channels, fraud checks and payment processing — real infrastructure, sized for a store shipping thousands of orders.
Thousands of paid themes and apps built to extend a store — inventory sync, upsells, reviews. Each one is another line on the bill, and none of them writes your homepage.
Charges layered on top of the subscription for every sale processed — a cost structure that only starts making sense once you're actually selling.
Where Shopify fits
If you're running a real online store — thousands of orders, inventory across several channels, international tax and shipping — Shopify is the right tool for that job, and this isn't a real comparison. Its checkout is proven at exactly that scale, and its app ecosystem covers commerce problems most sites never meet. Use Shopify for a store. This page is about the sites that were never one.
Our side
$11.88 a year for a site that looks finished and goes live today — with a contact form, bookings and a cart already working, and no fees riding on top.
Every site gets a certificate that renews itself and a daily backup kept for seven days — no add-on screen at checkout.
Connect our MCP server and your assistant deploys straight to your account — alongside Git, a zip upload, or a CLI command.
One plan, one add-on. No paid themes, no app subscriptions creeping the bill up every month.
If you're not running a warehouse: a brochure page, a portfolio, or a landing page built on Shopify is paying for an order-management engine it never uses. That's the comparison this page is about — not stores that actually sell at scale.
Cost over one year and three
Base subscription only — transaction fees and paid apps or themes would push Shopify's real total higher still.
| Year | Lemonade Host | Shopify (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Year one | $23.76 | ~$408 |
| Year two | $23.76 | ~$408 |
| Year three | $23.76 | ~$408 |
| Three-year total | $71.28 | ~$1,224 |
Shopify figures are approximate as of mid-2026, cover the entry plan's subscription only, and exclude transaction fees, paid themes and apps — confirm current pricing on their site. Ours don't move and don't grow.
Questions
Usually not, on price — Shopify's entry plan runs roughly $29 to $39 a month as of mid-2026 for an order-management engine a brochure or landing page never uses. The same page here is 99¢ a month, and ten of them are about $9.90.
Commonly yes — transaction and payment fees apply on top of the plan price on most plans, and many themes and apps are priced separately. Lemonade Host has one price and one add-on, with no usage billing or overage charges.
That's included here. Pick a design, change the words in your browser, publish — forms, bookings and a cart come wired in at 99¢ a month per site, with no second account to open. On Shopify you'd be running an entry store plan, plus its fees, for the same page.
When you're running a store at scale — inventory across several channels, shipping rules, international tax, thousands of orders a month. Shopify is built for exactly that job. This page is about the sites that never reach that point.
Keep comparing
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Or see full pricing and what's included with every site.
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