Shopify fees in the UAE: plans, gateways and apps

The four fees, in one list

Running a Shopify store costs money in four places. Mix them up and your budget will be wrong, so keep them apart.

1. The plan: a monthly fee to Shopify for the store itself.
2. Payment processing: a percentage plus a fixed fee that your payment provider takes on each card sale.
3. A Shopify transaction fee: an extra percentage that applies only if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments.
4. Apps and extras: monthly fees for things like reviews, email, subscriptions, translation and a custom domain.

Our build price is separate from all four. The build is a one-off, and you can see what it covers on our Shopify agency page for Dubai. These fees are what you pay to keep the store open. If you want a full total for a store, our Shopify store cost guide and the calculator put them side by side with the build.

1. Shopify plans

Shopify's public pricing, as reported by review sites we checked in October 2026, is below. Prices are in US dollars, and the AED figures are our rounded conversion at the usual 3.67 peg, before any VAT on the subscription.

✓ Shopify changes plan prices, trial offers and terms from time to time. Prices above are from review sites summarising Shopify's pricing page, checked October 2026. Confirm on Shopify's own pricing page before you buy.

Annual billing is cheaper than monthly; the sites we checked put the saving at about 25%. Shopify also runs trial offers for new stores, so read the current terms. Plus is for large brands and we explain when you need it in Shopify vs Shopify Plus in the UAE.

Which plan do most small brands start on?

Most new stores start on Basic or Grow. Basic is fine for a first store with one person managing it. Grow adds more staff accounts and better reporting, and it lowers some per-sale rates. Move up when your sales or your team make the extra fee worth it, not before.

2. Payment gateway fees

A payment gateway is the service that takes the card from your customer and sends the money to your bank. It charges a percentage of each sale plus a small fixed amount. These rates are set by the gateway, not Shopify, and they vary by provider, by card type and by your trade licence.

In the UAE you must choose a gateway that accepts your company type. Ask each provider for its fee sheet in writing, including the rate for international cards, the settlement time and any monthly or set-up fee. Our guide to Tabby and Tamara on Shopify covers buy-now-pay-later, which has its own, usually higher, merchant fee.

3. Shopify transaction fees

This is the fee people miss. When you use Shopify Payments, Shopify does not add its own transaction fee. When you use an outside gateway, Shopify adds one on top of what the gateway charges. According to the review sites we checked, the extra fee is about 2.0% on Basic, 1.0% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced.

Here is a worked example using our own numbers. Say your store sells AED 50,000 in a month on Basic using an outside gateway. A 2.0% Shopify fee on that is AED 1,000, on top of the gateway fee and the plan. On Advanced at 0.6%, the same sales would carry AED 300. The right plan can pay for itself once volume rises. This is arithmetic, not a forecast of your sales.

That is why the plan decision and the gateway decision belong together.

Is Shopify Payments available in the UAE?

This is the question that decides your fees, and the evidence is mixed. Older Shopify Community threads, including replies from Shopify staff, said Shopify Payments was not yet available to UAE merchants and pointed to Stripe and other gateways instead. A newer industry article reports that Shopify Payments has opened to some UAE merchants on the Advanced plan, while Plus merchants already had it, and says smaller plans were still waiting. We could not confirm that article against Shopify's own help pages.

✓ Shopify Payments availability in the UAE was checked on October 2026 (10 October 2026) and the sources conflict. Treat it as unverified for your plan. Confirm on Shopify's supported countries page, or with Shopify support, before you design your store around it.

What this means in practice: plan on using a third-party gateway, count the extra Shopify transaction fee in your budget, and treat Shopify Payments as a bonus if it turns out to be open to your plan and company type. If it is open to you, check whether the Shopify transaction fee is waived for your situation.

4. Apps and extras

Apps are where small stores overspend. Many are a few dollars a month each. Ten of them is a real cost, and they also slow the store down.

We aim to use few apps and put needed features in the theme where we can. A leaner store is faster and cheaper to run. This is part of how we approach a Shopify build.

A sample monthly bill

Here is an illustration for a small UAE brand, built from the ranges above. It is an example, not a quote, and your numbers will differ.

Our own prices, excluding 5% VAT, for the one-off build are AED 3,450 for the setup package, from AED 4,950 for a launch store and from AED 14,500 for a custom theme. See Shopify vs Wix in the UAE if you are not sure you need Shopify at all.

Fees that are not Shopify's

Some costs sit outside Shopify but still belong in your budget, because a store cannot run without them.

• Shipping. Courier and last-mile delivery rates depend on weight, zone and volume. Get rate cards before you set your shipping prices.
• Cash on delivery. If you offer it, couriers usually charge a handling fee and you wait for the cash to be remitted.
• Returns. Free returns are a marketing choice that costs real money. Price them in.
• Photography. Good images cost more than almost any app and sell more than any plugin.
• Marketing. Instagram, Google and email all cost money or time. A store with no traffic earns nothing.
• Support time. Someone has to answer WhatsApp messages and ship orders.

Many owners focus on a USD 29 plan and forget these. The platform fee is usually the smallest part of what it costs to run a store.

How to keep Shopify fees low

• Choose annual billing once you are sure the store will run.
• Count the Shopify transaction fee when you compare gateways.
• Review the plan twice a year. Move up when the fee saving beats the plan cost.
• Remove apps you no longer use.
• Ask your accountant how VAT applies to your Shopify subscription and fees.

Is Shopify worth it in Dubai? For stores that sell a lot of products and want to grow, usually yes, because the checkout and app pool are strong. For a small site with a few products, a simpler tool can cost less. We are happy to tell you either way.