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How much does a paid Shopify theme cost, and can you reuse it on a second store?
Summary
Paid themes on the Shopify Theme Store home page run from $150 to $420, and the price is shown as a single amount, not a monthly fee. A theme you buy is licensed to the store that bought it, so a second store using the same design needs a second purchase. Shopify treats third-party theme sales as final, which makes the in-admin trial the only real test you get before paying.
Where the money goes
Free themes are built by Shopify. Paid ones come from outside developers, and the prices on the Theme Store home page start at $150 (Vantage) and reach $400 for Prestige and $420 for Enterprise. Hosting and SSL are part of the plan either way, so the theme purchase is the only extra charge a design adds.
The trial, and its blind spot
You can preview up to 19 paid themes at once in the admin, each marked "Theme trial." Anything you customize during the trial carries over if you buy. Two things are off limits until you pay: editing the theme code and using the AI code generator. You also cannot publish a theme you have not bought. If your plan for a theme involves custom code, the trial will not show you how that code behaves.
Refunds
Shopify's help center says purchases of third-party themes from the Theme Store "are considered final sale" and that the developer cannot refund them. The one refund route it describes is a transfer: the same owner closes the original store, buys the theme again for the new one, and asks Shopify Support to refund the original invoice. The refund is based on what you first paid, even if the theme costs more now.
How far one license goes
The license covers the store where you bought it, and a theme "can only be used on one store at a time." On Shopify Plus you need a separate license for each storefront, and each live expansion store needs its own. Here is what that means for a $380 theme:
| Setup | Licenses | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| One store | 1 | $380 |
| A second brand on its own store | 2 | $760 |
| Main store plus two expansion stores on Plus | 3 | $1,140 |
| Moving to a new store and closing the old one | Buy again, then request a refund of the first | $380 net |
Updates and library limits
When a developer ships a new version, adding it to your drafts is free. Not every theme gets updates, and themes bought outside the Theme Store are not covered. Basic, Grow, and Advanced stores can hold up to 20 themes in the library and Plus stores up to 100, with one published at any time.
Sources
- https://themes.shopify.com/
- https://themes.shopify.com/collections/free-themes
- https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/adding-themes
- https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/managing-themes/unlicensed-themes
- https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-store/themes/managing-themes/updating-themes
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