The true cost of Shopify apps vs owning your stack

Where Shopify app costs come from

A Shopify store's running cost has three layers: the Shopify plan, the apps you install, and fees charged on sales. Apps are often the layer founders underestimate, because each one looks cheap on its own and many price by order volume or take a share of each transaction.

All prices below are list prices from the Shopify App Store and Shopify's pricing page as of October 2026. They change, so check each listing before you budget.

Typical Shopify app costs by category

The table lists common apps for features a DTC brand adds after launch. Prices are monthly unless noted.

Sources: the Recharge, Skio, Judge.me, Yotpo, Smile, Simple Bundles, SparkLayer, and Wholesale Gorilla listings.

As an example only, a store on Recharge Starter, Yotpo Pro, Smile Standard, Simple Bundles at $39, and SparkLayer Growth pays $485 per month in app subscriptions, or $17,460 over three years. That is before Recharge's 1.49% + 19¢ on each subscription transaction.

Transaction and platform fees on Shopify

Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee when you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments. As of October 2026, Shopify's pricing page lists 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus. Shopify's help center says orders processed through Shopify Payments and manual payment methods don't carry this fee.

Plan fees on monthly billing are $27 for Basic, $72 for Grow, $399 for Advanced, and from $2,300 for Plus. Percentage-based app fees, such as subscription transaction fees, stack on top and repeat on every renewal.

What the same features cost when you own the stack

Medusa is an open source commerce platform you host yourself or on Medusa Cloud. Instead of an app per feature, you add the feature to your own backend as a module. You pay developer time once and maintain the code, with no per-order app fee.

Medusa Cloud costs $29, $99, or $299 per month on the Develop, Launch, and Scale plans, with a 0% GMV fee and usage billed beyond each plan's limits (Medusa Cloud pricing). You still pay your payment provider's processing fees.

How to compare the two honestly

Owning the stack replaces app fees with developer time. Put both on the same sheet:

1. List every app you pay for, with its monthly fee and any per-transaction fee at your volume.
2. Add Shopify's plan fee and, if you don't use Shopify Payments, the third-party transaction fee on your sales.
3. On the Medusa side, add the Medusa Cloud plan and expected usage, plus D (build time for each replaced app) and M (yearly maintenance).
4. Compare over three years, since build cost is paid upfront and fees recur.

Shopify apps are the cheaper path when your apps are free or low tier and you have no developer. Owning the stack pays off when percentage-based fees grow with revenue, as they do for subscription brands. Healthletic, a subscription brand, paid $25,000 per month in Shopify Plus platform and transaction fees before moving to Medusa and building subscriptions as its own module, according to Medusa's Healthletic case study.