Shopify Pricing in the UAE and Saudi Arabia: Plans, Fees and Real Costs

Good news first: Shopify costs less in the Gulf than in the US.

Shopify sets its prices by country. A store registered in the UAE or Saudi Arabia pays a lower rate for the two plans most sellers start on.

The plan price is only half the bill, though. How your customers pay decides the rest, and that's where the UAE and Saudi Arabia split.

Below you'll find every plan in both markets, the fees on each order, and real monthly totals for small, mid-size and large stores.

How much does Shopify cost in the UAE and Saudi Arabia?

Shopify has four plans you can buy today: Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Each one is cheaper per month if you pay for a year upfront.

Here are the prices side by side, in US dollars and before VAT:

Plan	UAE monthly	UAE annual	Saudi monthly	Saudi annual
Starter (existing stores only)	$5	–	$5	–
Basic	$32	$24	$27	$19
Grow	$92	$69	$72	$54
Advanced	$399	$299	$399	$299
Plus	$2,500 (1-year term)	$2,300 (3-year term)	$2,500 (1-year term)	$2,300 (3-year term)

In local money, Basic on annual billing comes to about AED 88 a month in the UAE. In Saudi Arabia it's about SAR 71, close to the entry plans of Salla and Zid.

Annual billing saves about 25%. That's worth it once you know you're staying, but monthly billing is fine for your first few months.

Before you pay anything, use the free trial. Shopify usually follows it with an intro offer of $1 a month for three months, so you can build the whole store first.

Why Gulf stores pay less than US stores

Shopify sets lower prices for its entry plans in some markets. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are two of them.

Basic: Saudi Arabia

19$

Basic: UAE

24$

Basic: US

29$

Grow: Saudi Arabia

54$

Grow: UAE

69$

Grow: US

79$

Shopify regional pricing pages, Oct 2026

The discount only covers Basic and Grow. Advanced and Plus cost the same everywhere.

Your price follows the country your store is registered in, not where you live. So set up the store under your UAE or Saudi business from day one.

Which Shopify plan fits your store?

Most new Gulf stores need Basic or Grow. Here's what each plan is for:

• Starter. A light plan for selling through social links, with a single simple theme. Shopify no longer offers it to new stores.
• Basic. A full online store with any theme, discount codes and Shopify Markets for selling abroad. It has no staff accounts, so it suits a founder running the store alone.
• Grow. Adds five staff accounts, better reports and a lower transaction fee. Live courier rates at checkout come as an add-on, free on annual billing.
• Advanced. Adds 15 staff accounts, custom reports and carrier-calculated shipping built in. It suits stores with a team and a busy warehouse.
• Plus. For large brands. It adds up to nine expansion stores, full checkout control, unlimited B2B catalogs and the lowest fees.

Since April 2026, native B2B selling (company accounts, price lists and payment terms) works on Basic, Grow and Advanced. Those plans allow up to three active B2B catalogs.

Need a sense of which plan you'll grow into? Our Shopify guide for Gulf sellers walks through the full platform.

Transaction fees and card rates

This is where your two markets differ most.

UAE: Shopify Payments, no extra fee

The UAE is the only Gulf country with Shopify Payments, Shopify's own card processor. Use it and Shopify adds no transaction fee of its own.

You pay the card rate instead:

	Basic	Grow	Advanced	Plus
Local cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay	2.9% + AED 1	2.8% + AED 1	2.7% + AED 1	2.5% + AED 1
Amex and international cards	3.9% + AED 1	3.8% + AED 1	3.7% + AED 1	3.5% + AED 1
Fee on other gateways and BNPL	2%	1%	0.6%	0.2%
Currency conversion when you charge in SAR, KWD etc.	2%	2%	2%	2%

The catch? Tabby and Tamara install as separate apps. So Shopify charges its gateway fee on every buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) order, on top of what the BNPL provider charges you.

Our Shopify UAE guide covers the paperwork to get Shopify Payments approved.

Saudi Arabia: a local gateway plus Shopify's fee

Shopify Payments isn't available in Saudi Arabia. You connect a local payment gateway instead, such as Tap, HyperPay, Geidea or Amazon Payment Services, to accept mada and Apple Pay. Our guide to Shopify Payments in Saudi Arabia explains the options.

Each order then has two fees:

1. The gateway's fee. Published Saudi rates run about 1% for mada and 2.25–3% for credit cards, plus a small fixed fee.
2. Shopify's third-party fee. It runs from 2% on Basic down to 0.2% on Plus.

For example, a SAR 300 mada order on Basic costs about SAR 3 in gateway fees. Shopify's fee on the same order is SAR 6.

Cash on delivery (COD) is the exception. It counts as a manual payment method, so Shopify charges nothing on it in either country.

To compare Saudi gateways rate by rate, see our payment gateway fees guide.

Apps, themes and other running costs

Your plan and payment fees are the big lines. Apps and a theme fill in the rest.

Here's a typical starter budget for a Gulf store:

Most small stores run happily on SAR or AED 200–400 a month in apps. Add apps one at a time, and remove any you stop using, since app bills keep running.

Shopify also adds VAT to these bills: 15% for Saudi stores and 5% for UAE stores. Add your VAT number in billing settings and it drops off.

A paid Arabic theme is worth it for many brands. Our Arabic Shopify themes guide lists the ones that handle right-to-left text well.

What you'll really pay: three worked examples

Each example uses the cheaper plan for that sales level, on annual billing and before VAT. Dollar prices are converted at SAR 3.75 and AED 3.67 per dollar.

Saudi Arabia

Assumptions: 70% of sales are paid online through a gateway and 30% is cash on delivery. Online payments are a mix of mada at about 1% and credit cards at about 3%, so the gateway takes 2% on average.

Look at the SAR 50,000 column. Grow costs more per month, but it already saves about SAR 200 against Basic, because it halves Shopify's fee.

What about Advanced at SAR 200,000? It costs about SAR 919 a month more than Grow and cuts Shopify's fee from 1% to 0.6%.

On SAR 140,000 of gateway sales, that saves SAR 560. So Advanced still costs about SAR 360 more at this size.

UAE

Assumptions: 70% of sales are paid by local cards through Shopify Payments, at an average order of AED 250. Another 10% is paid with Tabby or Tamara, and 20% is cash on delivery.

The UAE store stays on Basic much longer. With Shopify Payments, Grow only trims the card rate by 0.1%, so BNPL volume is what makes the upgrade pay.

Amex and foreign cards cost 1% more on every plan. If tourists and expats pay with cards from home, budget a little above these totals.

Neither table includes the BNPL provider's own fee. Sellers typically report 3–5% for Tabby and 4–6% for Tamara, and that's the same on every plan.

Want to run your own numbers? Enter your sales, order count and payment mix:

Switch the country to the UAE to see Shopify Payments against Stripe, Telr and Ziina.

When should you upgrade your plan?

Upgrade when the fee you save beats the extra plan price. In practice, that gives you three simple rules:

• Saudi store, Basic to Grow: at about SAR 13,000 a month in gateway sales.
• UAE store, Basic to Grow: at about AED 16,500 a month in Tabby and Tamara sales. High card volume brings that point forward a little, and so does needing staff accounts.
• Grow to Advanced: at about SAR 230,000 a month in Saudi gateway sales. Before that, upgrade only for the bigger team, custom reports or built-in courier rates.

Cash on delivery never counts toward these break-evens, since Shopify doesn't charge on it.

Plus is a different decision. It's about running several country stores and owning your checkout, which our Shopify Plus guide for the GCC covers in depth.

Notes for UAE companies selling into Saudi Arabia

• One store can cover both markets. Shopify Markets shows SAR prices to Saudi shoppers, with a 2% conversion fee on Shopify Payments.
• Mada needs a Saudi gateway. Shopify Payments doesn't take mada, which most Saudi shoppers prefer.
• A second store often pays off. Many brands add a Saudi store on a local gateway once Saudi sales grow. Our Shopify Saudi Arabia guide explains that setup.

Notes for Saudi-registered stores

• Register the store under your Saudi business. That's what unlocks the lower KSA price.
• Push COD and mada. COD carries no Shopify fee, and mada is the cheapest online method.
• Compare the total, not the plan. For a Saudi-only store, Salla and Zid charge no platform fee on payments. Our Shopify vs Salla comparison runs the numbers.

Notes for B2B and wholesale sellers

• You don't need Plus for B2B anymore. Basic, Grow and Advanced include company accounts, price lists and payment terms.
• Three active catalogs is the limit below Plus. That's enough for most distributors with retail, wholesale and VIP pricing.

Notes for larger brands

• Plus costs the same in both markets. It starts at $2,300 a month on a three-year term.
• Agencies report a variable fee of about 0.25–0.40% of sales above roughly $800,000 a month. Shopify quotes it privately.
• Need help building at that size? Our Shopify development service for Saudi Arabia handles multi-store Gulf builds.