can i build me shop without subscription?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Building a Shopify store without immediate payment:

Shopify offers a 3-day free trial followed by a promotional period of $1/month for 3 months. During the trial, users can build and design their store but cannot process actual sales or orders without an active paid subscription.

Key limitations raised:

  • The short trial period (3 days) is insufficient for many users, especially those working part-time on their stores who need weeks to complete setup, product listings, branding, and marketing materials
  • Payment gateways and order processing require an active subscription—testing checkout functionality isn’t possible during the free trial
  • Users must begin paying before their store is fully ready to launch

Community feedback:

  • Multiple participants express frustration that the trial period doesn’t accommodate realistic setup timelines
  • Concerns about paying for a subscription while still building the store, before generating any revenue
  • The most popular plan is Basic Shopify at $29/month, recommended for new businesses

Unanswered question: Whether there’s any way to extend the trial period or test payment/shipping functionality without a paid subscription.

Summarized with AI on October 27. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

i want to launch my store in the future - but i need to build it first
do i need sub subscription, to be build it?

2

Hi @kappertherapper Welcome to Shopify Community.

Definitely, you don’t need a subscription to build the store as Shopify offers 14 days free trial and then asks you to subscribe/pay. Shopify is a very user-friendly platform and will take hardly a day or two to set up everything. But you cannot sell products in the free trial period.

You can use this link to subscribe for the free trial.

I hope this answer will help :slightly_smiling_face:

Please feel free to reach out to us at sales@marmeto.com in case you have any more queries.

Thanks and Regards,

Team Marmeto.

3

Hi, @kappertherapper .

As @MarmetoCare mentioned, you can sign up for a Shopify store and start your 14-day free trial to get a feel of the platform and work on building your site. What kind of online business are you looking to start and what types of products will you sell?

During your free trial period you can utilize our Shopify store checklist to ensure you’ve setup important areas of your store like shipping settings, payment settings, your domain and much more. In order to sell your products or services, you’ll need to choose a monthly plan. Our most chosen plan is the Basic Shopify plan for $29/month. This plan is best suited for new businesses just starting out online. You can learn more about our monthly plans and their features here.

I recommend checking out our Shopify blog resource on How to start an online store. It’s a great read and shares 9 helpful tips to help get you started.

4

Setting up a store in 14 days is possible but my bet is 90% of people are not able to achieve this time frame considering the need to evaluate the functionality and then organise a large number of things like stock, logistics, packaging, branding, content, marketing… the list goes on. Shopify wants to bill you regardless which I think is a bit opportunistic and not the greatest start to a relationship with new customers.

8 Likes
5

Thats correct but most people need more than 14 days to finish setting up the store.

I work a full time job and i only have 2 days in a week to work on my store. In that case i got only 4 days to set up my store which is impossible or else i will be paying for a subscription without having a store yet.

This is crazy.

4 Likes
6

Hi, @StudioBlank .

Thank you for reaching out! Our current promotion is 3 days free, then $1 for a month. You can sign up for that here.

7

Thats $1 for 1 month. For people with full time jobs have only 1 week to set up and finish the store completely. And not only the store, don’t forget the products and social media and all that. I think Shopify should lower the price for the basic plan because it’s not fair paying while store is not even ready.

4 Likes
8

Hi Kappertherapper,

To build your store, you will need an active Shopify subscription. Shopify offers 3 day free trial period plus 3 month $1 each, so you can start building your store . This trial allows you to explore the platform, set up your store, and design it the way you want. Once the trial ends, you’ll need to choose a subscription plan to officially launch your store and make it live for customers.

Let me know if you have more questions—I’d be happy to help! :blush:

9

can i order from my website to make sure that the payment getway is right and the shipping is accurate i have made the website but i cannot place the order because of some error is it because i am on the 3 day trial period? can i not order without paying for the subscription?