Shopify Alternative for B2B: Why Shopify Gets Expensive

€33 per month. That's the number Shopify advertises with, and it's true — for the Basic plan of a D2C shop. Anyone who wants to serve business customers in B2B, run tiered pricing, and write invoices under German law starts at the same number and lands somewhere else entirely: with app subscriptions, an agency setup, and eventually a plan that costs sixty times the entry price.

In demo conversations we hear the same sentence almost weekly: "We've been eyeing Shopify, the subscription is manageable after all." True. The subscription was never the problem.

The short answer

Shopify can do B2B — since spring 2026 even on all plans: company profiles, payment terms, tiered pricing, self-service ordering for business customers. It doesn't get expensive on the subscription but around it: apps for German taxes and E-Rechnungen, the jump to Shopify Plus (~€2,100/month) as soon as you need more than three price catalogs, an agency setup from ~€20,000, and a surcharge of 0.6 to 2% on payments through external providers. Over three years, a serious B2B setup quickly reaches six figures — while the ads keep calculating with €33.

What Shopify can do in B2B in 2026 — and where it gets tight

Fairness first: the B2B gap Shopify had for years is closed. Company profiles for business customers, payment terms instead of prepayment, price catalogs with tiered pricing per company, self-service ordering — all native, on every plan. Anyone who wants to run a simple B2B shop with a handful of price lists gets that today without a Plus subscription.

The limit sits in the same line: up to three active catalogs. A catalog at Shopify is, at its core, a price directory for a group of business customers. Wholesale, specialty retail, export, key accounts — by the fourth pricing structure at the latest, it's over, and the answer is called Shopify Plus. Shopify has closed the B2B gap of recent years. Not the price gap.

Why it still rarely stays at three catalogs in the German Mittelstand — five items that each look small on their own and together write the real bill.

Reason 1: German law runs through the app store

Shopify is a Canadian company with an international focus. German VAT rules, legal texts, GDPR details, and from 2027 the requirement for machine-readable E-Rechnungen — none of that comes natively. It runs through apps from the store, each with its own vendor, its own release cycle, its own subscription.

None of these apps is expensive. €10, €20, €50 per month. But they add up, and each one brings a dependency: one app changes its data model, another isn't tested with the first, and the invoice your tax advisor audits hangs on this interconnection. With the E-Rechnung mandate, a convenience topic becomes a finance topic — and then you don't want to guess whether the tax plugin calculates consistently with the B2B plugin.

Reason 2: More than three catalogs means Shopify Plus

The jump doesn't creep up, it comes as a step: from around €33 (Basic) to around €2,100 per month — the Plus list price, assuming annual billing. Not because you need more servers, but because your pricing structure has four catalogs.

That's the moment when a "manageable subscription" becomes a line item the CEO signs. And the step solves none of the other problems: apps, setup, and operations remain — they just get serviced at a higher rate.

Reason 3: The build belongs to you — or your agency

Shopify delivers the platform, not the finished B2B shop. Theme, workflows, app selection, tax configuration, interfaces to inventory and shipping — someone who knows what they're doing configures that. In the Mittelstand, a B2B-capable Shopify setup rarely costs less than €20,000 at agencies, and with the Plus plan and custom connections quickly far more.

After that, the shop remains your project. Not because Shopify is unfinished, but because a shop system is by definition a structure that someone inhabits and maintains. The only question is whether that should be your job.

Reason 4: Small percentages, large sums

Anyone who doesn't pay with Shopify Payments but uses an external payment provider pays a platform surcharge of 0.6 to 2% on the order. Sounds like a rounding error. At €300,000 annual volume running through external gateways, that's €1,800 to €6,000 per year — for permission to use a different payment provider.

Add the scaling logic from reason 2: any growth that needs more catalogs or deeper B2B processes ends in Plus. Growth punishes you with a plan jump instead of simply absorbing it.

Reason 5: Operations stay your project

App updates, theme maintenance, interfaces, the question "who still knows this system in three years" — with a shop system, operational responsibility sits with you, your agency, or your IT. That's not a Shopify deficit, it's the business model of a platform: it provides the base, you provide the operations.

In practice that means: a maintenance retainer or tied-up working hours from your people, every year. In total-cost calculations this item rarely shows up because it's distributed — across app invoices, agency hours, and evenings when the update didn't go through.

The three-year calculation

Scenario from our consulting conversations: 40 fixed business customers, 3 customer groups with their own price lists, tiered pricing, purchasing on invoice, around 3,000 orders per year.

With Basic and one catalog you run cheaper than any line here — just without multi-layered pricing logic. The calculation flips exactly when B2B gets serious: more customer groups, purchasing on invoice, E-Rechnung, no German law by detour. Anyone who wants to verify the numbers in detail finds the full breakdown of all four paths in What Does a B2B Online Shop Cost?

When Shopify still fits — and when it doesn't

This calculation isn't a verdict. Shopify is a strong choice if your focus is D2C and B2B is an appendix with a maximum of three price lists. If you sell internationally and benefit from the app ecosystem. If you have Shopify Plus in the budget and an agency that knows and maintains the shop. Then that model works, and there's nothing to object to here.

But if your business is German, B2B-first, and mid-sized — business customers with their own prices, invoice instead of PayPal, tiered pricing as the core of your sales logic — you need a system where that is the core, not the add-on. Kontorly is a German B2B e-commerce platform (SaaS) for online shops with tiered pricing, customer groups, and direct ordering by business customers. Made in Germany, from Hamburg. Tiered pricing, customer groups, and E-Rechnungen are natively on board from day one — no app stack, no agency setup, no cut of your revenue.

We've put the complete comparison between shop system and SaaS service — features, operations, dependencies — on one page: The Shopify B2B Alternative in Detail

Whether that model fits your business, you'll see in 30 minutes: Book a demo — costs nothing, commits you to nothing. Unlike Basic in B2B use.

FAQ

Can Shopify handle tiered pricing and customer groups?

Yes, native since spring 2026 and on all plans: company profiles, payment terms, and price catalogs with tiered pricing per company. The limit is three active catalogs — if you need a fourth pricing structure, the path leads to Shopify Plus (~€2,100/month).

What alternatives to Shopify are there for B2B?

Three directions: Shopware from the Evolve tier (€2,400/month plus agency), WooCommerce (€0 license, B2B as a plugin stack), or a German B2B SaaS platform like Kontorly — tiered pricing, customer groups, and E-Rechnungen native, €249 to €1,299/month without an agency. We've put the detailed comparison on the Shopify B2B alternative page.

Can I switch from Shopify to an alternative?

Yes. You export products, customers, and price lists from Shopify as CSV and import them into the new platform — at Kontorly, product import is part of onboarding. You should plan time for the pricing logic per customer group and for open orders at the time of the switch.

---

Prices as of August 2026: Shopify list prices (Basic ~€33, Plus from ~€2,100/month) per shopify.com/de/preise; agency ranges from industry analyses (including Ostend Digital); transaction surcharges per Shopify pricing page. Kontorly: Starter €249, Business €449, Enterprise from €1,299 per month, no revenue share. Check current prices before your decision.