Total Cost
Part of Ecommerce platform costs
Comparing platform cost at different order volumes
Model quiet, expected and peak order volumes, then compare plan fees, payment charges and sales thresholds.
Compare platform charges at 50, 500 and 1,000 orders a month, with one $100 payment per order. Shopify amounts are A$; BigCommerce and WooCommerce amounts remain in the displayed $, with no currency identified and no conversion.
Define the scenarios
Record orders, average amount charged, payment count and payment-method split for each month. Orders multiplied by average amount charged gives the starting charged value; use payment count to calculate fixed per-payment fees. Keep refunds, international payments and other exceptions as separate assumptions.
Shopify’s examples use one A$100 standard-card payment per order. BigCommerce and WooCommerce use $100 in the displayed sales currency, without converting it to A$.
Add each platform’s subscription, processing charges, applicable platform fees, usage-based apps and volume overages. Keep one-off implementation costs separate in the full budget.
Worked example: Shopify Basic and Grow
Shopify’s Australian pricing lists Basic at A$42 and Grow at A$114 per month when billed yearly. These are monthly equivalents of annual plan charges, not monthly-billed prices. Starting standard-card rates are 1.7% + A$0.30 for Basic and 1.55% + A$0.30 for Grow.
The table assumes Shopify Payments, one A$100 standard-card payment per order and no other fees. It combines the monthly plan equivalent with the stated card fees.
| Orders in a month | Charged value | Basic: plan equivalent plus card fees | Grow: plan equivalent plus card fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | A$5,000 | A$142.00 | A$206.50 |
| 500 | A$50,000 | A$1,042.00 | A$1,039.00 |
| 1,000 | A$100,000 | A$2,042.00 | A$1,964.00 |
Basic costs A$72 less per month, while Grow’s percentage rate is 0.15 percentage points lower. With Shopify Payments and these assumptions, the illustrated costs meet at A$48,000 in monthly charged value: A$72 divided by 0.0015, or 480 orders at A$100 each.
The A$0.30 fixed fee is the same on both plans, so it cancels when the payment count is the same. At A$5,000 in charged value, 100 payments of A$50 incur A$30 in fixed fees, compared with A$15 for 50 payments of A$100; the A$15 difference affects both plans equally.
Shopify Basic adds a 2% fee for a third-party payment solution, separate from that provider’s processing charge. On the three charged values, the additional Basic fee is A$100, A$1,000 or A$2,000.
Account for other platform rules
BigCommerce lists Core at $29, Growth at $79 and Scale at $299 per month when billed annually, with a stated 25% saving. Core auto-upgrades above $30,000 in trailing-12-month (TTM) GMV; Growth auto-upgrades above $100,000 TTM GMV. BigCommerce defines GMV as gross order value minus 10%.
At a steady pace of one $100 order per transaction, 50 orders a month produce $4,500 monthly GMV and $54,000 TTM GMV, so Growth applies. At 500 orders, the figures are $45,000 monthly and $540,000 TTM; Scale’s $33,333 monthly GMV allowance produces $105 in overage and a $404 plan-plus-overage charge.
At 1,000 orders, monthly GMV is $90,000 and TTM GMV is $1,080,000, from $1.2 million in annual gross sales. That meets Performance’s $1 million-plus annual-sales threshold: pricing is custom and starts at $1,499 per month, billed annually. The Scale-only calculation would be $299 plus $510 overage, or $809, but the scenario meets the stated Performance threshold.
BigCommerce lists zero platform fees with Embedded Payment Providers; the provider’s processing charge remains separate. For non-embedded gateways, the Open Payment Provider Fee is 2% on Core, 1% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale; Performance payment terms are custom.
WooCommerce has no monthly core subscription, core transaction fee or revenue share. Hosting is $25–$350 per month for most stores, and extensions cost $29–$299 per year each. That is about $2.42–$24.92 per month for each extension.
WooCommerce’s listed WooPayments card-processing range is 2.50–2.90% + $0.30 per transaction. At one $100 payment per order, the processing estimates are $140–$160 for 50 orders, $1,400–$1,600 for 500, and $2,800–$3,200 for 1,000.
The comparison below keeps each platform’s currency and cost components separate. Shopify includes plan charges and Shopify Payments card fees; BigCommerce shows its plan and platform fees, with the processor’s charge separate; WooCommerce includes hosting and the listed processing range, before extensions.
| Orders per month | Charged value (Shopify A$ / BigCommerce and WooCommerce displayed $) | Shopify Basic / Grow (A$) | BigCommerce: embedded / non-embedded platform charges ($) | WooCommerce hosting plus processing, before extensions ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | A$5,000 / $5,000 | A$142.00 / A$206.50 | $79 / $129 | $165–$510 |
| 500 | A$50,000 / $50,000 | A$1,042.00 / A$1,039.00 | $404 / $704 | $1,425–$1,950 |
| 1,000 | A$100,000 / $100,000 | A$2,042.00 / A$1,964.00 | Performance from $1,499/month; non-embedded payment terms custom | $2,825–$3,550 |
WooPayments fees vary by business country, customer country, currency and payment method. International payments and currency conversion can add fees, and transaction fees are not refunded when an order is refunded.
