Core issue: Whether Shopify charges transaction fees when Shopify Payments isn’t available and a third‑party gateway is used (e.g., Qatar, Jamaica), and the fairness of those fees.
Official answer: Yes. Shopify charges a per‑order transaction fee on third‑party gateways to cover integration upkeep, and it appears on your Shopify invoice. Third‑party gateways also charge their own processing or monthly fees.
Fee levels by plan: Basic 2.0%; Shopify ($79) 1.0%; Advanced ($299) 0.5%. Upgrading can lower the fee if order volume justifies the higher monthly cost.
Merchant concerns: A Jamaica merchant highlights local bank fees up to ~4% plus Shopify’s 2% and gateway fees, arguing total costs can be “double or more,” and requests reduced Shopify fees in countries without Shopify Payments.
Shopify response: Acknowledges the concern, shares regional gateway options and learning resources, and says feedback has been submitted to developers. No commitment to change.
New, unresolved point: For products prohibited by Shopify Payments (e.g., CBD/hemp), vendors must use third‑party gateways yet still pay the extra Shopify fee; fairness issue remains unanswered.
Status: No policy change or resolution announced; discussion remains open.
Hello all,
I am currently setting up a new store in Doha, Qatar, where Shopify payments is not supported. Instead I will need to connect to a third party payment provider. Will I still be charged a transaction fee form Shopify - after all I am not even getting the chance to use Shopfy’s own system?!
Thanks and best regards, Ferdinand
Hey @FerdiSchaefer !
Thanks for reaching out to the Shopify Community. I am happy to provide you with some context on this.
You will still be charged transaction fees even if you are using a third - party payment gateway. Transaction fees pay for the cost, maintenance, and upkeep of our integrations with 3rd party payment providers. Transaction fees are calculated per customer order. These fees will be included in your Shopify invoice since you will not be using Shopify Payments. So for every order that you receive for a customer, there will be charges for transaction fees.
If you wish to calculate how much they are, I would recommend checking out the Shopify Fee Calculator - this has been designed to help our merchants calculate transaction fees. Feel free to also look at our help center doc on Charges for some further information on charges and fees.
Have you looked into third -party payment gateways for your region yet? Shopify has a number of payment gateways for Qatar, you can find them by heading over to the Qatar Payment Gateways here. I would highly recommend 2Checkout Convert Plus as using this payment gateway will help you boost conversions on your store! One thing to note if you use third-party payment gateways, they will also have their own transaction fees or monthly usage fees so that is something you can check directly with the provider.
There is a great free course in Shopify Learn which walks you through set up of payments and speaks about third-party payments providers which might be of interest to you as well.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
Hi @Maz . I am writing from Jamaica and I have the same concern as @FerdiSchaefer .
While I can understand the need for some sort of upkeep fee for the integration, 2% for the Basic package is way too high if you have no other option BUT to use a third party provider.
The 2% third party transaction fee is not very far from the Shopify Payments credit card rate of $2.9% + $0.30 so after factoring comparable third party credit card fees we are virtually paying double or more the cost of a transaction. Here in Jamaica for example the banks charge as much as 4% for merchant fees. Add Shopify’s 2% transaction fee + fees payable to the third party that connects Shopify to the merchant bank and the final cost is ridiculously high.
I would like to recommend that in cases where Shopify Payments is not available, consideration be made for a lower transaction fee.
Hi @chalison !
Thanks for reaching out to this thread! I definitely get your frustrations with the fees adding up. I certainly encourage you to browse the available third party payment providers, which I am sure you have already.
For merchants like yourself in Jamaica, Shopify Payments can’t do the payment processing for your store since we haven’t expanded to your area yet. In its place, we do offer a number of options for collecting payments in Jamaica using Shopify that you can review on this page here.
Furthermore, the amount of transaction fees on orders will be depending on your subscription plan. If the goal is lower down your transaction fee rate, then you can consider choosing to subscribe to a higher plan tier.
The transaction fee for Shopify $79 plan per month and $299 Advanced Shopify plan is 1.0% and 0.5% respectively, so it is much lower compared to the Basic plan which is 2%. While this isn’t something I would suggest doing right now, necessarily, there are thresholds at which doing so makes financial sense even if you don’t need the features that those plans offers. (i.e. when you process enough transactions, it might be worth paying the higher monthly fee to save more money on transaction fees).
With all that being said, I want you to know that we appreciate this feedback and want you to know that your voice is being heard, so I have submitted this feedback with our developers for review. While I cannot guarantee this change will be made, we are always looking for ways to improve.
Maz, slightly different question similar topic. What about when what a vendor is selling is prohibited by shopify payments like CBD and hemp products. In this case you are forcing the vendor to go to a 3rd party merchant, while also forcing the 2/1/0.5% fee on the vendor. This is not really fair either.