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ClickFunnels vs Shopify (2026): Where the Money Actually Goes
Every comparison of these two stops at the plan price. That is the least important number. Shopify’s card rate improves as you grow and ClickFunnels’ never does — which means above roughly $12,750 a month in sales, the dearer Shopify plan is the cheaper option overall.
- Cheapest entry
- Shopify Basic — $29/mo yearly
- ClickFunnels entry
- Launch — $81/mo yearly
- The real variable
- Card processing rate
- First question
- Catalogue, or funnel?
The finding that matters
Shopify charges a lower card processing rate the higher your plan: 2.9% on Basic, 2.7% on Grow, 2.5% on Advanced. ClickFunnels takes no cut at all — but you still pay your own processor, and that rate does not improve no matter which ClickFunnels plan you buy.
So Shopify’s pricing rewards volume and ClickFunnels’ does not. Run the sum and the plan prices invert.
- Below ~$12,750 a month
- ClickFunnels Optimize at $248 costs less in total than Shopify Advanced at $299.
- Above ~$12,750 a month
- Shopify Advanced costs less, despite the plan being $51 a month dearer. The 0.4-point rate difference overtakes it.
Affiliate link. See disclosure.
First: they are not the same product
It is worth saying this before any arithmetic, because the cost comparison only means something if both tools could actually do your job.
Shopify is a shop. A product catalogue, inventory, variants, shipping rates, tax handling, discount codes, abandoned carts, point of sale. It is built for someone with a range of things to sell and stock to keep track of.
ClickFunnels is a funnel builder. Landing pages, order bumps, upsell and downsell steps, email and contact management, courses and membership areas. It is built for someone with one offer and a sequence designed to convert it.
If you have forty products and need to tell a customer whether the blue one is in stock, Shopify wins on capability and the price is irrelevant. If you sell one course through a webinar and a three-step upsell path, ClickFunnels wins the same way. The interesting cases are the ones in the middle — a handful of products, sold through a promotion rather than a catalogue — and that is where the numbers below decide it.
What each one charges
| Plan | Monthly | Paid yearly | Card rate | Staff / team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic | $39 | $29 | 2.9% + 30¢ | None included |
| Shopify Grow | $105 | $79 | 2.7% + 30¢ | Up to 5 |
| Shopify Advanced | $399 | $299 | 2.5% + 30¢ | Up to 15 |
| ClickFunnels Launch | $97 | $81 | No platform fee | 2 members |
| ClickFunnels Scale | $197 | $164 | No platform fee | 5 members |
| ClickFunnels Optimize | $297 | $248 | No platform fee | 10 members |
Read from both vendors’ own pricing pages on 17 September 2026. Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 a month and ClickFunnels Dominate is $5,997 a year; both are outside the range this page compares. “No platform fee” is ClickFunnels’ own answer on transaction fees — “you’ll keep every penny you make” — and it does not mean payments are free, as the next section explains.
The crossover nobody computes
Here is the part every comparison on this subject leaves out.
ClickFunnels does not take a percentage of your sales. But it does not process payments either — you connect your own processor, and for standard online card payments the published US rate at Stripe is 2.9% + 30¢. Shopify’s Basic rate through Shopify Payments is also 2.9% + 30¢.
Which means that at the entry level the processing cost is identical, the 30¢ per order cancels out on both sides, and the comparison collapses to the plan price alone:
Shopify Basic $29 a month against ClickFunnels Launch $81 a month. A difference of $52 a month, or $624 a year, at every level of sales. Shopify Grow at $79 is cheaper than ClickFunnels Launch on both the plan and the rate.
Now move up the range, where Shopify’s rate starts falling and ClickFunnels’ stays put. Compare Shopify Advanced against ClickFunnels Optimize, both paid yearly:
| Monthly card sales | ClickFunnels Optimize $248 + 2.9% |
Shopify Advanced $299 + 2.5% |
Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $393 | $424 | ClickFunnels |
| $10,000 | $538 | $549 | ClickFunnels |
| $12,750 | $618 | $618 | Level |
| $25,000 | $973 | $924 | Shopify |
| $50,000 | $1,698 | $1,549 | Shopify by $149/mo |
The crossover sits at $12,750 a month in online card sales. Below it the cheaper plan wins; above it the cheaper rate wins, and the gap widens every month you grow. At $50,000 a month the platform with the $51-dearer plan is $1,788 a year cheaper.
Our arithmetic on the published figures, excluding the 30¢ per-order component because both platforms charge it identically and it therefore cannot change which side wins. The Stripe rate is the standard published US online card rate and is an assumption about your setup, not a ClickFunnels charge — negotiated or non-US rates will move the crossover.
The 2% that changes everything
Everything above assumes you can use Shopify Payments. If you cannot, the answer reverses sharply.
Shopify charges an additional transaction fee when you use a third-party payment gateway: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced. That is on top of whatever your gateway charges you. On Basic it takes your effective cost to roughly 4.9% of every sale.
This matters because Shopify Payments is not available everywhere, and it is not available for every kind of product. If either applies to you, run the sum again:
Shopify Basic at $29 plus 4.9% against ClickFunnels Launch at $81 plus 2.9%. The crossover falls to $2,600 a month. Above that, a merchant who cannot use Shopify Payments pays more on Shopify’s cheapest plan than on ClickFunnels’ — and the gap grows fast.
So before comparing anything else, check whether Shopify Payments supports your country and your product category. It is the single input that most changes the answer, and it is the one most comparisons never mention.
How to actually choose
Shopify if
- You have a catalogue, stock to track, variants or shipping to calculate
- Shopify Payments works in your country and for your products
- You are selling more than about $12,750 a month and the rate matters more than the plan
- You want a storefront customers browse rather than a path they follow
ClickFunnels if
- You sell one offer, or a few, through a sequence rather than a shop
- Order bumps, upsells and downsells are central to how you make money
- You are selling courses or memberships — Launch includes 3 courses and 10,000 contacts
- You cannot use Shopify Payments and would be paying the extra 2%
One more thing worth weighing that is not a price. ClickFunnels bundles contacts and email into the plan — 10,000 contacts on Launch, 75,000 on Scale. On Shopify, email marketing at that scale is usually a separate subscription, and it is easy to compare the two platforms and forget you will be adding $30 to $100 a month of tooling to one side. Our ClickFunnels pricing breakdown covers which limit tends to push people up a tier first.
And if the honest answer is that neither fits, that is a legitimate outcome: ClickFunnels alternatives covers the cheaper funnel builders, including the WordPress route for people who already have a site.
Frequently asked questions
Is ClickFunnels cheaper than Shopify?
On the plan alone, no. Shopify Basic is $29 a month paid yearly against ClickFunnels Launch at $81, and both carry the same 2.9% + 30¢ card rate at that level — so Shopify is $624 a year cheaper with identical processing costs. It only reverses at higher volume or if you cannot use Shopify Payments. Figures read from both vendor pricing pages on 17 September 2026.
Does ClickFunnels charge transaction fees?
No. ClickFunnels states plainly that you keep every penny you make. But it does not process payments either, so you connect your own processor and pay that instead — commonly Stripe at a published US rate of 2.9% + 30¢ for online card payments. The practical effect is that ClickFunnels’ cost per sale is the same on every plan, while Shopify’s falls as you move up.
At what revenue does Shopify become cheaper?
Comparing Shopify Advanced at $299 a month and 2.5% against ClickFunnels Optimize at $248 and 2.9%, the crossover is about $12,750 a month in online card sales. Below that ClickFunnels costs less overall; above it Shopify does, and the gap widens — at $50,000 a month Shopify is roughly $149 a month cheaper despite the dearer plan. That is our arithmetic on the published figures.
Can I use ClickFunnels and Shopify together?
Yes, and plenty of people do — ClickFunnels publishes a Shopify integration. The usual pattern is a catalogue and fulfilment on Shopify with ClickFunnels handling a specific promotion or launch funnel. You then pay for both, so it is worth being clear about which one is doing work you could not do on the other alone.
Which has the better free trial?
They are structured differently. ClickFunnels offers a 14-day trial with a 30-day money-back guarantee behind it. Shopify offers 3 days free followed by $1 a month for 3 months, which is a longer but paid evaluation period. Shopify’s is the more generous way to test properly; ClickFunnels’ gets you to a decision faster.
How we compiled this
Plan prices, card processing rates, third-party transaction fees, staff limits and trial terms were read directly from Shopify’s and ClickFunnels’ own pricing pages on 17 September 2026, and are published as a dated snapshot rather than a permanent claim. The crossover points and the cost table are our own arithmetic on those published figures, marked as such, and they rest on one stated assumption — the standard published Stripe rate for a ClickFunnels merchant’s own processing. We have not run a store on either platform, so this page compares what they cost rather than how they feel to use.
Spotted a figure that has changed? Tell us and we will correct it. Read our full methodology →
Is ClickFunnels worth it on its own terms?
Our review covers what the builder does well, where the limits bite, and who should not buy it.