E-Commerce Platforms & Shop Systems
Shopify
Rest of world Report an errorPanel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars
Category median
Sovereignty: 1 of 4 dimensions proven
0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.
by Shopify Inc. · www.shopify.com
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Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The panel's verdict
Shopify is a hosted commerce platform from a Canadian vendor, and the bench's scoring splits between what its pages show and what they do not. The steadiest strong scores are extensibility at 6 with no spread — more than 21,000 apps, the Hydrogen headless toolkit, API rate limits published per plan — and pricing transparency at 6-7, with tiers of 27 €, 79 € and 289 € per month on annual billing public alongside per-plan card fees, though the top tier's own price and the VAT treatment of listed prices are not. The lowest scores land in tax and legal at 1-2 and sovereignty at 0-3: the captured pages give no public information on VAT determination, OSS, reverse charge, VAT-ID validation or the German checkout texts. On data control and exit, scores 1 to 4, judges divide over how far documented deletion and cancellation terms offset no evidenced export; on sovereignty, scores 0 to 3, over how much the Irish recipient entity and approved binding corporate rules offset Canadian ownership and the policy's stated transfers to Canada and the USA.
Speaks for it
- Extensibility scored 6-6 on an app store of more than 21,000 apps, the Hydrogen headless toolkit, and API rate limits published as a plan feature
- Pricing transparency scored 6-7, with tiers at 27 €, 79 € and 289 € per month on annual billing, per-plan card fees from 2,1 % + 0,30 € down to 1,3 % + 0,30 €, and no setup fees
- Operations scored 4-6 on multi-channel intake — fifty free synced marketplace orders a month before a 1 % fee capped at 99 $ USD a month, ten inventory locations rising to 200 on the top plan, online-offline POS sync, and over 200 real-time reports
- Checkout is the showcased capability, with Shop Pay claimed to convert up to 50 % better than guest checkout and checkout available inside AI chat channels
- Cancellation is advertised as possible at any time, with deletion or anonymisation on closure documented, a privacy portal for data-subject requests, and PCI-DSS Level 1 certification named for payment security
Held against it
- Tax and legal scored 1-2 because the captured pages give no public information on VAT determination, OSS, reverse charge, VAT-ID validation, e-invoicing or the German checkout legal texts
- The captured pages give no public information on returns and refunds, partial shipments, carrier label printing with named carriers, or maintained interfaces to ERP and accounting systems
- The captured pages give no public information on export of catalogue, customer records or order history, on a self-hosting option, or on a documented migration path, and store information is retained for two years after closure before deletion begins
- Checkout customisation is shown as limited on every plan except the top tier, and the pages give no public information on invoice or direct debit payment methods
- Sovereignty scored 0-3, with the privacy policy stating that EEA users' data is received by Shopify International Ltd. in Ireland and then transferred to other Shopify locations including Canada and the USA, subprocessors published only as categories, and data residency not confirmed on the vendor's own pages
Best for
- You sell across web, marketplaces and in person and want the overage terms priced up front — operations scored 4-6 on multi-channel intake
- You have developers who can work a large app ecosystem and the Hydrogen headless toolkit — extensibility scored 6-6
- You want to price both payment routes from published numbers — per-plan card fees, Amex rates and external-provider transaction fees from 2 % down to 0,2 % — pricing transparency scored 6-7
- You want trial terms before committing — 3 days free, then 1 €/Monat für 3 Monate, with cancellation any time below the top tier
Avoid if
- You must evidence German VAT and checkout-law handling before signing — tax and legal scored 1 to 2
- Your fulfilment depends on in-system returns, partial shipments, carrier label printing or ERP and accounting interfaces — ask the vendor: the public pages we read do not show it
- You need an evidenced exit — export of catalogue, customers and order history or a documented migration path — data control and exit scored 1 to 4
- Your data-protection framework cannot accept the policy's stated onward flow of EEA users' data to locations including Canada and the USA — sovereignty scored 0 to 3
The scores
Catalogue & checkout
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How this is scored
Products, variants, pricing rules and the path to payment — the part that either converts or does not.
0 — Flat product list with one price and no variants; checkout is a form and one payment method.
3 — Variants and categories with a standard checkout and two or three payment methods, but no bundles, no tiered pricing and no guest checkout worth the name.
5 — Full variant matrix, product bundles, tiered and customer-group pricing, guest checkout, and the payment methods a German shop needs including invoice and direct debit.
8 — Configurable products, per-channel pricing, promotions and vouchers with rules, a checkout that can be customised without a rebuild, and payment via the major providers plus buy-now-pay-later where offered.
10 — Merchandising and checkout are the product: rule-driven pricing and promotions, A/B-testable checkout, multi-currency and multi-language as standard, and conversion features (abandoned cart, one-page checkout) shipped rather than bolted on.
The Merchant
The pages sell a checkout with a conversion story — Shop Pay converting up to 50 percent better than guest checkout, checkout directly in chat, B2B catalogs — but checkout customization is "Eingeschränkt" on every plan except the top tier, and I found no public information on variants, bundles, tiered or customer-group pricing, or promotions and vouchers with rules. For a German shop, the part that decides me — invoice and direct debit at checkout — has no public information at all. 1 2 2
The B2B Seller
Customer-specific price lists exist as B2B catalogues — capped at three on every standard plan, unlimited only on the top tier — and a guest checkout is referenced in the conversion claims. Beyond card fees I found no public information on payment methods such as invoice or direct debit, nor on variants, bundles, tiered pricing or promotion rules, and checkout customisation is described as limited on all plans except the top one. 1 2 2
The Developer
Checkout is the headline: Shop Pay is claimed to convert up to 50 % better than guest checkout, buyers can check out directly inside AI chats, B2B catalogues run to three on standard plans with unlimited on Plus, and Shopify Markets carries localised selling. Checkout customisation reads 'Eingeschränkt' on every plan except Plus, and we found no public information on variant or bundle mechanics, tiered pricing, or the payment methods a German shop needs such as invoice and direct debit. 1 2 2
The Operations Lead
The checkout is plainly the showpiece — Shop Pay, published conversion figures, and customization running from limited on the standard plans to fully customisable on the top tier — with B2B catalogues and localised selling via Markets sold as tier features. We found no public information on the variant matrix, bundles, pricing rules and promotions, or the payment methods a German shop needs such as invoice and direct debit. 1 2 2
The Data Protection Officer
The captured pages evidence a checkout with conversion claims, Shop Pay, customisation limited on standard plans and full on the top plan, B2B catalogues, localized selling through Shopify Markets, and checkout inside AI chat channels. We found no public information on variant matrices, product bundles, tiered pricing, abandoned-cart tooling, or the payment methods a German shop needs such as invoice and direct debit. 1 2 2
The Skeptic
The pricing pages meter the checkout by tier — customisation is shown as limited on every plan except the top one, and B2B stops at three catalogues until you buy up — while localized selling via Markets, multi-channel sales and POS are evidenced. We found no public information on variants, bundles, tiered or customer-group pricing, or payment methods such as invoice and direct debit, so the conversion story rests on vendor-quoted uplift numbers rather than evidenced checkout capability. 1 2 2
Tax & German legal correctness
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How this is scored
VAT determination, OSS, B2B reverse charge, and the checkout requirements German law actually imposes — judged on what the platform does, not on a plugin someone could buy.
0 — A single VAT rate applied everywhere; no B2B handling, no country logic, no legal-text handling in checkout.
3 — Per-country VAT rates configurable by hand, net prices for B2B possible with effort, and legal texts as free-form pages.
5 — Automatic VAT by destination and customer type, VAT-ID validation with reverse charge, gross and net display per customer group, and the mandatory checkout elements (order button wording, withdrawal policy, price indications) handled.
8 — OSS thresholds tracked and reported, correct invoicing per case including reverse-charge notes, small-business and third-country handling, and e-invoicing (XRechnung/ZUGFeRD) for B2B orders.
10 — Tax and legal correctness are maintained by the vendor rather than the merchant: rates and thresholds updated as the law moves, OSS reporting produced, every invoice case correct out of the box, and documented conformity a lawyer could review.
The Merchant
I found no public information on VAT determination, OSS, B2B reverse charge, VAT-ID validation, gross and net display per customer group, or the checkout requirements German law imposes like order-button wording and withdrawal policy. Localized selling via Markets and B2B catalogs are the only adjacent signals on the captured pages, and neither is a tax capability. 1 2
The B2B Seller
I found no public information on VAT determination, VAT-ID validation, reverse charge, OSS or the mandatory German checkout elements; B2B catalogues and localised selling via Markets are the only adjacent signals. A shop whose public pages cannot evidence net-price display for business buyers has not met the trade customer. 2 2
The Developer
The only legal material on the captured pages is privacy compliance and PCI DSS Level 1 certification; we found no public information on VAT determination, OSS, reverse charge, e-invoicing (XRechnung/ZUGFeRD) or the checkout texts German law imposes. A merchant would have to verify every one of those pieces elsewhere before signing. 2 3
The Operations Lead
We found no public information on VAT determination by destination, OSS, reverse charge, VAT-ID validation, the checkout legal texts German law imposes, or e-invoicing. The closest item on the captured pages is B2B catalogues capped by tier, which is catalogue scope rather than tax handling. 2 2
The Data Protection Officer
The captured pages are silent on VAT determination by destination, OSS reporting, B2B reverse charge, VAT-ID validation and the mandatory German checkout texts; the closest facts are B2B catalogues limited by plan and PCI-DSS Level 1 certification for payment security. We found no public information on how German tax and checkout legal correctness is handled. 2 2
The Skeptic
Across the captured pricing pages and privacy policies we found no public information on VAT determination, OSS, reverse charge, VAT-ID validation, e-invoicing, or the checkout texts German law requires — not a rate, not a threshold, not a footnote. The only German-law touchpoint evidenced anywhere is the credit-intermediary arrangement behind merchant financing. 3 3 2
Extensibility & developer surface
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How this is scored
Themes, apps, APIs and headless — whether the shop can be shaped to the business, and at what cost in lock-in.
0 — Fixed templates, no app ecosystem, no API.
3 — Theme editing within limits and a small app store; a read-mostly API and no local development story.
5 — Custom themes with a template language, an app or plugin ecosystem, a documented REST API, and webhooks for the core order events.
8 — Full storefront API for headless builds, an extension framework with its own lifecycle, staging environments, version control for themes, and documented rate limits.
10 — A platform a team can own: headless-first APIs, open-source or source-available core, plugin architecture with a real dependency model, local development and CI supported, and upgrade paths that do not orphan customisations.
The Merchant
The app ecosystem is real and large — more than 21,000 apps — and there is a headless toolkit (Hydrogen), a Universal Commerce Protocol with APIs and tools for developers, and published API rate limits per plan. What I miss: headless storefronts are rationed, one on the standard plans and 25 on the top tier, and I found no public information on custom themes, staging environments, version control or local development. 1 2
The B2B Seller
The developer surface is real and visible: a headless toolkit named Hydrogen, headless storefronts granted per plan, API rate limits published per tier, and an app store with more than 21,000 apps. I found no public information on staging environments, theme version control or webhooks, so ownership beyond themes-and-apps is only partly evidenced. 1 2
The Developer
What I can verify as a developer is a store of more than 21,000 apps, the Hydrogen headless toolkit with one headless storefront on standard plans and twenty-five on Plus, and API rate limits published as a plan feature ('Bis zu 10x für ausgewählte APIs' on Plus). What I would live in for five years is unverified: we found no public information on local development, version control for themes, an extension framework with its own dependency model, staging environments, or an upgrade path that preserves customisations — and checkout customisation itself is 'Eingeschränkt' below the Plus tier. 1 2
The Operations Lead
A real developer surface is evidenced: more than 21,000 apps in the store, a named headless toolkit in Hydrogen, a developer protocol, and API rate limits scaling up to ten-fold on the top tier. We found no public information on theme version control, staging environments, or a local development and CI story. 1 2
The Data Protection Officer
The developer surface is evidenced: more than 21,000 apps, Hydrogen for headless builds, the Universal Commerce Protocol with APIs and tools, and documented API rate limits scaled by plan up to ten-fold on the top plan. Headless storefront counts are metered per plan, and we found no public information on staging environments, theme version control, or a source-available core the merchant could run. 1 2
The Skeptic
The developer surface is real and it is priced: more than 21,000 apps, a named headless toolkit in Hydrogen, and API rate limits published as a plan differentiator — standard, up to 2x, up to 10x — with headless storefronts metered at one per shop until twenty-five on the top tier. We found no public information on custom themes and version control, staging environments, or a local development story, so the surface is rented rather than owned. 1 2
Order operations & back office
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How this is scored
What happens after checkout: order management, stock, returns, shipping, and the link to ERP or accounting.
0 — An order list and an email; stock is a number nobody trusts, returns are manual.
3 — Order statuses and basic stock, one shipping integration, and returns handled by hand.
5 — Order workflow with partial shipments, multi-warehouse stock, named carrier integrations with label printing, and a returns process in the system.
8 — Multi-channel order intake, automated fulfilment routing, supplier and dropshipping flows, and maintained interfaces to named ERP and accounting systems.
10 — The shop is the front of an operation: real-time stock across channels and warehouses, returns and refunds fully worked including partials, ERP integration the vendor maintains, and operational reporting a merchant runs the business from.
The Merchant
Inventory locations (10, or 200 on the top tier), 50 free synced marketplace orders a month, in-person POS that syncs with online sales, Shopify Collective for sourcing products and 200-plus real-time reports give me a credible back office. But I found no public information on returns and refunds, partial shipments, named carrier integrations with label printing, or maintained interfaces to ERP and accounting systems. 1 2 2
The B2B Seller
Multi-location inventory is concrete (ten locations standard, two hundred on the top plan), marketplace order synchronisation is free for the first fifty orders a month, Collective covers sourcing, and over two hundred real-time reports are claimed. I found no public information on returns handling, named carrier integrations with label printing, or maintained interfaces to ERP and accounting systems. 1 2 2
The Developer
Multi-channel intake is real and priced: unlimited marketplace imports with fifty synced orders free per month before a 1 % fee, stock across ten locations (two hundred on Plus), POS keeping online and offline sales in sync, Collective for sourcing products, and over 200 real-time reports. We found no public information on returns and refunds, partial shipments, carrier label printing, or maintained interfaces to ERP and accounting systems. 2 2
The Operations Lead
Stock and intake look solid — ten inventory locations standard and 200 on the top tier, online/offline sync through POS, fifty synced marketplace orders a month before the overage fee, sourcing via Collective, and over 200 real-time reports. But we found no public information on partial shipments, named carrier integrations with label printing, returns and partial refunds handled in the system, or maintained interfaces to named ERP and accounting systems — exactly the mechanics that carry a December. 1 2 2
The Data Protection Officer
After checkout the pages evidence multi-location inventory (ten locations on standard plans, 200 on the top plan), synced marketplace orders with a free monthly quota, Shopify Collective for sourcing, online-offline POS sync and over 200 real-time reports. We found no public information on returns and refunds handling, carrier integrations with label printing, or maintained interfaces to named ERP and accounting systems. 1 2 2
The Skeptic
Multi-channel intake is evidenced — fifty synced marketplace orders a month free, Collective for sourcing, POS that syncs online and offline — and inventory runs to ten locations (two hundred on the top plan) with over 200 real-time reports. But we found no public information on partial shipments, named carrier integrations with label printing, a returns process in the system, or interfaces to ERP and accounting systems, which is the half of operations that turns orders into a business. 1 2 2
Data ownership & exit
panel disagrees
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How this is scored
Whether the catalogue, customers and order history remain the merchant's: export completeness, hosting choice, and what leaving actually costs.
0 — Export is a partial CSV; order history and customer records cannot leave intact, and hosting is the vendor's alone.
3 — CSV export of products and customers, order history partial, no self-hosting, no documented migration path.
5 — Complete export of catalogue, customers and orders via API or dump, documented deletion, and a stated data-return commitment.
8 — Full-fidelity export including media and order documents, self-hosting or a choice of hosting partner, and no metering that prices a migration out of reach.
10 — Ownership is structural rather than promised: open-source or source-available platform the merchant can run anywhere, database-level access, documented migration in both directions, and contractual data return.
The Merchant
Hosting is bundled with the subscription and I found no public information on self-hosting or on export completeness for catalogue, customers and order history. The captured pages do commit to deleting or anonymizing data on closure — with store information retained two years before deletion begins — and name transfer to another provider among data-subject rights, which is thin comfort for a real migration. 3 3 2
The B2B Seller
Leaving is priced in retention terms: store information is kept for two years after closure before deletion begins, with deletion or anonymisation promised and a right to transfer data to another provider. I found no public information on export completeness for catalogue, customers and order history; the subscription bundles hosting and I found no public information on self-hosting or a documented migration path. 3 2 3
The Developer
Hosting sits with the vendor in every subscription and we found no public information on a self-hosting option, on export of catalogue, customers or order history, or on a documented migration path. The exit that is documented runs on the vendor's clock — store information is retained for two years after closure before deletion begins — with portability exercised as a privacy right through the privacy portal. 3 2 2
The Operations Lead
Deletion on closure is documented — store information is retained for two years before the deletion process begins — and the privacy terms name a right to transfer data to another provider, with cancellation possible at any time. We found no public information on export completeness for catalogue, customers and order history, and none on a self-hosting option; hosting is bundled with the subscription. 3 2 3 2
The Data Protection Officer
Leaving is documented but slow: a closed store's information is retained for two years before the deletion process begins, deletion or anonymisation on closure is promised, and portability to another provider is listed among the rights with a request portal. The subscription bundles the vendor's own hosting, and we found no public information on export completeness for catalogue, customers and order history, on a self-hosting option, or on a documented migration path. 3 3 2
The Skeptic
The leaving terms are stated plainly — cancel anytime — and store information is retained for two years after closure before deletion begins, with a portability right and a data-subject portal on paper. But we found no public information on export: no evidenced way to take catalogue, customer records or order history out intact and no documented migration path, and hosting comes bundled with the subscription with no self-run alternative evidenced. 3 2 3 2
European sovereignty
panel opinion
panel disagrees
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How this is scored
Where customer and order data live, who the contracting entity is, and which subprocessors sit in the checkout path. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline.
0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated or non-EU, subprocessors unnamed.
3 — EU hosting offered as an option while the contracting entity is non-EU, or the subprocessor list is absent.
5 — EU hosting as standard and an EU contracting entity, but parts of the chain — CDN, analytics, payment routing, support tooling — are non-EU without an explained safeguard.
8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, complete subprocessor list published, any non-EU processing named with its legal basis.
10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: vendor, entity, hosting and every subprocessor European, certification published, and a self-hosted option that puts the shop entirely under the merchant's control.
The Merchant
This is a Canadian company; an Irish subsidiary receives the data for EEA users, but the captured privacy policy states the data then goes to Canada and the USA, including to service providers, and only subprocessor categories — cloud hosting, content delivery, data analysis, logging, fulfillment, email — are published with no named list. Where the shops are hosted is not confirmed on the vendor's own pages; binding corporate rules and standard contractual clauses are the only safeguards named. 3 3
The B2B Seller
The vendor is a Canadian company; for EEA, UK and Swiss users the receiving entity is the Irish subsidiary, but the policy itself places the company in Canada and data is then passed on to locations including Canada and the USA, safeguarded by SCC-equivalent clauses and approved BCRs. Subprocessors appear only as categories — cloud hosting, content delivery, data analysis among others — with no named providers, and I found no public information confirming where customer and order data are hosted. 3 3
The Developer
EEA users contract with the Irish subsidiary Shopify International Ltd. and the binding corporate rules carry European approval, but the company is Canadian, personal data is described as flowing onward 'einschließlich Kanada (wo wir ansässig sind) und der USA', and data residency is not confirmed on the vendor's own pages. We found no public information naming individual subprocessors, only categories such as cloud hosting, content delivery, data analysis, internal logging, fulfilment services and email transmission. 3 3
The Operations Lead
The company is Canadian, and while European users' data is received by the Irish subsidiary, the captured terms state it then flows to other Shopify locations including Canada and the USA. Subprocessors are described only by category — cloud hosting, content delivery, data analysis, internal logging, fulfilment, email — and we found no public information naming them or confirming where customer data is hosted; approved binding corporate rules and SCC-equivalent clauses are the safeguards shown. 3 3
The Data Protection Officer
For EEA, UK and Swiss users the contracting recipient is Shopify International Ltd. in Dublin, but the policy states data then flows to other Shopify locations and service providers including Canada and the USA, covered by SCC-equivalent clauses and approved binding corporate rules. Subprocessors appear only as categories — cloud hosting, content delivery, data analysis, internal logging, fulfilment services, email transmission — and we found no public information on a named subprocessor list, on where hosting sits, or on where the CDN and analytics run. 3 3
The Skeptic
The vendor is a Canadian company; for EEA users the data recipient is the Irish subsidiary, but the captured pages show data then moving to Canada and the USA, and subprocessors appear only as categories — cloud hosting, content delivery, data analysis, logging, fulfillment, email — with no names. Data residency is not confirmed on the vendor's own pages, so a European buyer is leaning on standard contractual clauses and approved binding corporate rules rather than an evidenced European chain. 3 3
Pricing transparency
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How this is scored
Whether a merchant can compute the real annual cost — licence, transaction fees, apps, hosting — from public pages alone. The category where the headline price is least often the invoice.
0 — No public prices at all; every tier is a sales conversation.
3 — A monthly headline exists, but transaction fees, mandatory apps or hosting costs are unstated — the invoice is unknowable from the page.
5 — Tier prices public with billing period stated and transaction fees given, but at least one commonly needed piece (a required app, hosting, payment gateway rate) is unpriced.
8 — Every tier priced publicly including transaction or revenue-share rates, order or GMV limits, and the cost of the extensions most shops need; VAT treatment and minimum term stated.
10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given order volume and GMV including licence, transaction fees, hosting and typical extensions — and for open-source platforms, an honest statement that the licence is free and where the money actually goes.
The Merchant
Tier prices with the billing period stated, per-tier card fees, external-provider transaction fees (2 %, 1 %, 0,6 %, 0,2 % by plan), no setup fees, a priced POS Pro add-on and the Plus commitment terms are all public — I can price both payment routes honestly. What I still cannot compute from the pages: the cost of the apps a real shop needs, order or sales-volume limits on the core plans, and the VAT treatment of the published prices. 2 2
The B2B Seller
Unusually complete: annual prices of 27, 79 and 289 euros per month, card fees per plan down to Amex rates, external-provider transaction fees from 2 to 0.2 per cent, marketplace order fees with a monthly cap, the POS add-on at 79 euros per month per location, no setup fees, and a stated one- or three-year commitment on the top tier with cancellation any time below it. What stays unknowable from the page is the cost of the apps most shops will need and whether the published prices include VAT. 2 2
The Developer
Close to fully computable: annual prices per tier ('27 € EUR/Monat', '79 € EUR/Monat', '289 € EUR/Monat'), card fees per tier and card type ('2,1 % + 0,30 €' on Basic), external-provider transaction fees from 2 % down to 0,2 %, the POS Pro add-on at '+79 €/Mo.', hosting and unlimited bandwidth included, no setup fees, and the Plus commitment stated as one or three years. The gaps: VAT treatment of the listed prices is not stated, and we found no public information on order or GMV limits or on what the commonly needed apps cost. 2 2
The Operations Lead
The fee side is unusually public: card fees per tier and card type, external-provider surcharges from 2 % down to 0,2 %, fifty free marketplace orders a month then 1 % bis zu 99 $ USD/Monat, a POS add-on at +79 €/Mo., the vendor stating no setup fees apply, and trial terms stated. But the captured pages give annual-billing figures only, the top tier's subscription price is not among them, and VAT treatment of the listed prices is not stated, so a full year's invoice is not computable from the pages alone. 2 2
The Data Protection Officer
Tier prices are public with the billing period stated — 27 €, 79 € and 289 € per month billed annually — and transaction fees are given per plan for standard cards, Amex and external payment providers, alongside the POS Pro add-on at 79 € per month, marketplace order overage terms, trial terms and a statement that no setup fees apply. We found no public information on VAT treatment of the listed prices, on monthly-term pricing, on order or revenue limits, or on the cost of the apps most shops need. 2 2
The Skeptic
This is the most computable invoice in the field: tiers at 27 €, 79 € and 289 € per month on annual billing, card fees per plan from 2,1 % + 0,30 € down to 1,3 % + 0,30 €, Amex rates published, a 2 % fee falling to 0,2 % when an external payment provider is used, POS Pro at 79 € per location per month, marketplace sync at 1 % capped at 99 $ USD a month after fifty orders, and a stated 1- or 3-year commitment on the top tier. What keeps the annual cost from being fully derivable: monthly-billing prices are not shown, we found no public information on the top tier's own price, on VAT treatment of the listed prices, or on any order or GMV limits. 2 2
European sovereignty — proven facts
1 of 4 dimensions provenBuilt only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.
| Legal entity | Incorporated in CA ⚠ unverified | 0/3 pts | 3 Report an error |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Not determined | — | uncited Report an error |
| Data residency | Not determined ⚠ unverified | — | uncited Report an error |
| Subprocessors | Not determined ⚠ unverified | — | uncited Report an error |
Where this could be wrong
- Evidence ages. The oldest capture behind this page is from 31 Aug 2026. Vendors change pricing and policies without notice; every fact reflects its source as of the capture date shown in the registry.
- Weak sourcing — Legal entity. For EEA, UK and Swiss users the contracting data recipient is the Irish subsidiary Shopify International Ltd., but the policy itself places the company in Canada and no imprint or commercial register is given.
- Weak sourcing — Data residency, Subprocessors. Not confirmed on the vendor’s own pages as captured.
- AI can misread a source. Extraction and judgement are automated; a citation guarantees traceability, not infallibility. If something here is wrong, say so — no account needed, every report is decided within 5 business days, and accepted corrections are published.
What we left out
A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.
- 106 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 73 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 24 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 19 compliance facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 13 support facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 5 integrations facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 3 hosting facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 1 data fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material. Know more? Tell us
- 2 sovereignty dimensions could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and are shown as unknown. Know more? Tell us
- 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement. Know more? Tell us
Sources (13)
The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.
- 1 Vendor homepage www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 +2 earlier captures: 28 Sep 2026, 11 Sep 2026 Details →
- 2 Pricing www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 +4 earlier captures: 28 Sep 2026, 16 Sep 2026, 11 Sep 2026, 31 Aug 2026 Details →
- 3 Privacy policy www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 +1 earlier capture: 16 Sep 2026 Details →
- 4 Terms of service www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
- 5 Catalogue & checkout — found from sitemap www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
- 6 Catalogue & checkout — found from sitemap www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
- 7 Tax & German legal correctness — found from sitemap www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
- 8 Tax & German legal correctness — found from sitemap www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
- 9 Extensibility & developer surface — found from sitemap www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
- 10 Extensibility & developer surface — found from sitemap www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
- 11 Order operations & back office — found from sitemap www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
- 12 Order operations & back office — found from sitemap www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →
- 13 Data ownership & exit — found from sitemap www.shopify.com Checked 5 Oct 2026 Details →