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A Shopify store in Canada in 2026 ranges from CAD 1,500 (DIY with free theme) to CAD 60,000+ (Shopify Plus headless rebuild with custom apps and Checkout extensibility). Most Canadian D2C brands land between CAD 4K-18K for a quality custom theme build. Canadian Shopify Plus partners (Diff, Vaayu, Brik) charge CAD 25K-100K for similar scope; offshore senior Shopify teams deliver the same quality at CAD 6K-40K.
New D2C launches, side-hustle stores, single-product brands
Growing D2C brands doing CAD 200K-3M, scale-ready stores
Brands doing CAD 3M-15M, B2B+B2C hybrid, complex ops
Brands doing CAD 15M+, omnichannel, expanding to US/EU
Free Dawn: free. Premium theme (CAD 250-400) lightly customized: CAD 2K-5K. Custom theme from Figma: CAD 6K-25K.
Each major app integration (Klaviyo, Recharge, Yotpo, Loop): CAD 500-2K configuration. Custom integrations: CAD 2K-8K each.
Private app for one merchant: CAD 5K-25K. Public App Store submission: CAD 12K-50K (includes review prep).
Each Checkout UI extension: CAD 2K-8K. Plus required (USD 2,300+/month). Powerful for upsells, custom fields, age verification.
Magento -> Shopify: CAD 4K-15K. WooCommerce -> Shopify: CAD 3K-10K. BigCommerce -> Shopify: CAD 2K-8K.
Headless adds CAD 20K-50K vs Online Store 2.0 theme. Only worth it for brands needing extreme custom UX, multi-region, or peak performance.
DIY Shopify is genuinely viable — Shopify is built for non-technical owners. Free Dawn theme + Klaviyo free tier + a weekend of YouTube can get you a working store for CAD 51/month. Limits: generic look, no custom logic, hard to optimize for conversion past basic. Canadian Shopify freelancers (CAD 70-130/hr) handle theme tweaks, app config, small features well, but cannot manage full custom theme builds or Plus migrations reliably. Canadian Shopify Plus partners (Diff, Vaayu, Brik) deliver agency-grade work at CAD 25K-100K — fast, polished, but expensive. We deliver Plus-partner quality at CAD 5K-40K with the same Shopify certifications, App Store published apps, and 40+ Canadian D2C builds behind us.
Canadian Shopify Plus partners bill CAD 150-220/hr because they carry agency overhead and senior salaries. We bill CAD 35-55/hr blended for Shopify-certified developers. A custom Online Store 2.0 theme that Diff quotes at CAD 28K-50K, we deliver at CAD 8K-16K. A Shopify Plus migration with custom apps quoted at CAD 65K-120K, we deliver at CAD 22K-45K. Same theme architecture, same Polaris admin, same Checkout extensibility, same App Store submission process. We are Shopify Partners ourselves with 12 public apps live.
Custom Online Store 2.0 theme + Recharge + Klaviyo + bilingual EN/FR
Shopify Plus theme + Checkout extensibility + B2B wholesale catalog
Shopify Plus + Skio subscriptions + bilingual + loyalty + ERP sync
Move to Plus (USD 2,300+/month) when you need: Checkout UI extensions, B2B catalog at scale, Shopify Functions for custom discounts/shipping, Scripts, higher API rate limits, dedicated launch manager, or you are pushing CAD 8M+ GMV. Below that, regular Shopify (CAD 132/month) is great.
DIY-assisted: 1-2 weeks. Standard custom theme: 5-9 weeks. Pro Plus build: 10-16 weeks. Headless Hydrogen: 14-22 weeks. Product photography and copywriting often delays projects more than dev.
Probably not. The Shopify App Store has 8,000+ apps covering 90% of use cases. Build custom only when (1) you cannot find an app that does exactly what you need, (2) you have a unique workflow worth productizing, or (3) you want to sell the app to other merchants.
Klaviyo (email + SMS), Yotpo or Judge.me (reviews), Loop (returns), Recharge or Skio (if subscription), ShipStation or Easyship (Canadian shipping), Shopify Tax (built-in), Privy or Justuno (popups). Roughly CAD 300-1,000/month for a complete growth stack.
Honest answer: yes if your WooCommerce is slow, breaks often, or you spend more time maintaining it than selling. Shopify is dramatically less ops overhead. Stay on WooCommerce if you need deep customization Shopify cannot do, want to avoid Shopify lock-in/fees, or already have a mature WooCommerce setup that just works.