Shopify Free Trial Guide (2026): What's Actually Free, What Costs, and the £1 Offer Explained

The offer, stated plainly

As of 2026, Shopify's new-account offer works in two phases:

1. 3-day free trial — full access to everything, no credit card required to start.
2. £1/month for your first 3 months — starts when you pick a paid plan. Requires a card.

That's 3 months of a real store for £3 total, plus the initial 3 days that cost nothing. After the promotional period ends, you pay the normal monthly rate of the plan you chose.

This is the most generous launch offer among major ecommerce platforms in 2026, and it's genuinely free/near-free to test the platform for nearly a quarter. Here's what it actually includes, and what it doesn't.

What the free trial genuinely covers

During the 3-day free period and through the £1/month months, you get full access to:

• Your full storefront — themes, product pages, checkout, blog, all of it.
• Payment processing through Shopify Payments. You can accept live card payments from real customers. Money flows to your bank account with the normal payout schedule (typically 2-3 business days in the UK).
• All built-in features — abandoned cart email, basic reporting, SEO settings, Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, multi-currency.
• Sales channels — TikTok Shop, Google Shopping, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Amazon. You connect and sell through them at no extra Shopify cost.
• Most free apps in the Shopify App Store. Shopify's own email marketing app, forms app, and basic inventory tools are all free.

You can make real sales during the £1/month period. If you get lucky and a product takes off, you can do £5,000 in revenue for £3 in platform costs. That's legitimately how the offer is designed.

What's not included (the real costs)

This is where people get surprised. The £1/month covers the Shopify platform subscription. It does not cover:

Payment processing fees (always there)

Even on Shopify Payments, every transaction costs 1.5% + 20p (UK cards) or 2.5% + 20p (EU/international cards). These aren't Shopify's fees — they're the card networks' fees that any processor charges. You can't avoid these on any platform.

Your domain name

Shopify gives you a .myshopify.com subdomain for free (e.g., my-shop.myshopify.com). To look like a real business, you'll want a .com or .co.uk domain. Shopify sells these for £10-18/year, or you can buy elsewhere and connect (same price range).

Paid apps (optional but common)

If you install apps beyond the free ones, each adds £5-30/month. Common paid apps new stores add:

• Reviews (Judge.me, Loox) — £15-25/month
• Email/SMS marketing (Klaviyo, Omnisend) — free up to ~250 contacts, then £20-40/month
• Landing page builder (PageFly, Shogun) — £20-35/month
• Upsells (ReConvert, Zipify) — £20-40/month

Our advice: resist adding paid apps during your £1/month period. Start with only free apps and add paid ones only when you can name the specific problem they solve. We've seen new stores with £150/month in app costs before their first sale.

Premium theme (optional)

If you want a paid theme instead of the free ones, budget £150-350 one-time. Don't do this during your trial. The free Dawn theme is fine for months of operation.

Transaction fee on non-Shopify-Payments processors

If you use an alternative processor (e.g., Stripe direct, Worldpay), Shopify adds a 2% transaction fee on Basic, 1% on Shopify, 0.5% on Advanced. This only applies if you're not using Shopify Payments — which you usually will be in the UK/EU.

The realistic all-in monthly cost

For a new store on the promotional offer, after the first 3 months:

| Component | Monthly cost | |---|---| | Shopify Basic plan | £25 | | Domain (amortised) | £1.25 | | Payment fees (on £2k revenue) | £40 | | Free apps only | £0 | | Total | ~£66/month at £2k revenue |

If you add two typical paid apps (reviews + email), add ~£40/month.

Actual all-in for a serious store: budget £100-150/month once you're past the promo period and running apps.

How to get the most out of the £1/month period

Month 1: Set up and soft-launch

• Complete your store: theme, products, legal pages, payment activation.
• Soft-launch to your personal network. Goal: 3-10 sales, 3-5 honest reviews.
• Fix everything customers get confused by. Launch week is when UX gaps are obvious.

Month 2: Push organic traffic

• Post founder-style content on TikTok/Reels daily if you're selling physical products.
• Connect Google Shopping (free listings).
• Write 2-3 blog posts targeting long-tail queries about your product category.

Month 3: Decide whether to continue

• You now have 2 months of sales data. Look at:
  • Conversion rate from each traffic source
  • Revenue per visitor
  • Which products actually sell (vs. which ones you thought would)
• Use this to decide whether to invest further or pivot the product/niche.

If you haven't made 20+ sales by the end of month 3, that's important data. It likely means the product needs to change, not the platform. Don't re-platform your way out of a product-market-fit problem — the next builder won't magically solve it either.

What happens when the £1/month ends

Shopify will email you a warning 2-3 weeks before the promo period ends. On the day it ends, your card is charged the full monthly rate of your current plan (£25 for Basic, £65 for Shopify, £340 for Advanced).

You can:

• Stay on your current plan — no action needed, you'll just be billed at full price next month.
• Downgrade — you can drop from Shopify or Advanced to Basic if you over-bought initially.
• Pause — Shopify has a "Pause and Build" plan at ~£7.50/month. Your store goes into a read-only state (no checkout) but your data is preserved. Useful if you need a break but don't want to lose your setup.
• Close — you can close your store permanently. Your data is exportable via CSV beforehand.

There's no lock-in. You're on a month-to-month contract from the day your promo ends.

Is it worth starting even if you're not sure?

Yes. At £1/month for 3 months, Shopify's trial is a better way to test a business idea than most market research. You'll learn more about your potential customers in week one of operating a real store than in a month of research.

The cost of starting and not succeeding is the £1s you paid plus your time. The cost of not starting, and never testing the idea, is that you'll never know if it would have worked.

How to start

1. Go to shopify.com and click "Start free trial."
2. Answer the onboarding questions honestly — they tailor the first-run experience but don't commit you to anything.
3. Start building. You have 3 full days of unrestricted access before you have to pick a plan.
4. When you pick a plan, start with Basic. You can upgrade later with one click.
5. Enter your card, accept the £1/month for 3 months, and go live.

The hard part is product and marketing. The Shopify side, thanks to the trial, costs you functionally nothing to start.

StealsAndFinds earns a commission if you sign up for Shopify through our link. This doesn't change what you pay. All pricing figures in this guide are Shopify's public 2026 rates at the time of writing; check shopify.com for the current offer, which occasionally changes.