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Shopify Lite or the Shopify Basic plan? What’s the difference between the two options, and which is better for your eCommerce business?
In this post, we’ll cover comparisons between the Shopify plans, pricing and costs, and the pros and cons of each.
Here’s a quick comparison table for the key differences between the Shopify Lite vs Basic plans:
| Plan Features | Shopify Lite |
Shopify Basic |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $9/month | $29/month |
| Free Trial | Yes, 14-day free trial | Yes, 14-day free trial |
| Online Store | No | Yes |
| Unlimited products | Yes | Yes |
| Staff accounts | 1 | 2 |
| 24/7 support | Email and live chat | Phone, email, and live chat |
| Manual order creation | Yes | Yes |
| Abandoned cart recovery | Yes | Yes |
| Shopify payments | Yes | Yes |
| Sales Channels | Shopify point of sale (POS)
Shopify Buy Button
|
Shopify online store
Shopify point of sale (POS) Shopify Buy Button
|
Source: Shopify Help Center
Shopify Lite
Shopify Lite is the plan to choose if you want to sell products without an online store. The lite plan may also be a good choice if you want to sell through your blog, personal website, pop up shops, or markets.
The Shopify Lite plan means you won’t have an online store or website for customers to visit. Instead, you can use the Shopify buy button to sell products on an external website outside of Shopify. This includes adding eCommerce to platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, or Weebly.
Using the buy button gives you access to abandoned cart emails to remind customers about products they left without purchasing.
The Shopify Lite plan also comes with access to the standard point of sale options or POS for those selling at pop-up shops or markets.
The Shopify admin in the lite plan still provides you with analytics and sales data for top-performing products and a finances report to track sales and payments.
Shopify Basic
If you want to have an online store, then you’ll want to consider the Shopify Basic plan. This plan is best if you already run a business that’s new to Shopify or if you want to get started.
This plan includes free Shopify themes that you can customize to your liking and preferences that match your brand.
You can track inventory from multiple locations such as a warehouse, office, brick and mortar store, or anywhere else you store products in up to four locations.
The basic plan includes individual staff logins with customizable permissions. In addition to the finance reports, the basic plan offers insights on traffic data to help you expand your business.
To Conclude
Keep in mind that whichever plan you choose, you will not be billed with Shopify until your trial period is over. The Shopify 14-day free trial allows you to get set up and play around with the platform.
Both the Shopify Lite and Basic plans offer you the ability to sell products online through the Shopify platform. However, if you want an online store, you’ll need to go with the Shopify Basic plan.
