Can You Cancel Shopify Anytime?

Can you cancel Shopify anytime you want, or are they going to lock you in and make you pay for months or years even if you don’t keep using it.

What happens after you stop using Shopify? Are you going to get billed, or does everything end there?

Is it safe to try it for your ecommerce store, or should you try any of the available alternatives?

These questions and more, I will be answering in this short guide in order to help you know what to expect before trying Shopify.

Without further ado, let’s begin!

Can You Cancel Shopify Anytime?

Yes, you can cancel your Shopify subscription plan anytime you want, pause your store, or even close it permanently.

The process is easy to do and there’s no need to worry about having to keep paying if you cancel a Shopify subscription.

If You Close Your Shopify Store Can You Reopen it?

Yes, if you close a Shopify store, you can reopen it anytime you want later as your store’s information will be kept for at least two years.

And if you pause your Shopify store, then you can reactivate it anytime you want by selecting any of the three paid plans.

What Happens if I Close My Shopify Store?

There are three options for closing your Shopify store, and depending on what option you choose, something different will happen.

Here’s a brief of the three options of closing your store and what happens with each option:

1 – Pause and Build Your Store

This is a plan from Shopify that allows you to temporarily stop your store from getting orders so that you keep working on it, build it, edit the different pages, and preview it as you go.

Once you move to this plan, your store remains live and people can browse it, but the checkout process will be deactivated, meaning that you can’t take orders in this case.

If you don’t want people to browse your store in situation, you can protect it with the password option that is available in the Shopify admin dashboard.

After you finish working on building your store through this plan, you can go back to one of the three original plans of Shopify in order to activate the checkout and start receiving orders.

If you temporarily close your Shopify store with the “Pause and Build” plan, you still need to pay a monthly fee of $9/month, until you get back to one of the three original pricing plans of Shopify.

Note that to be eligible for this plan, your store needs to be on one of the three paid plans for at least 60 days after ending the free Shopify trial.

Also, realize that you can use this plan only for once. After you switch from the Pause and Build plan to another paid plan, you cannot go back to use the Pause and Build plan again.

2 – Pause Your Store Completely

With this plan, you can close your Shopify store temporarily (pause it), and step away from working on it during this period.

During the time of using the Pause plan, your store will be kept as it is without any changes on the content or information.

When this plan is active, you cannot work on your Shopify store, and you can’t receive any orders, until you reopen your store with one of the three paid Shopify plans.

However, different from the previous option above, with the Shopify Pause plan, you don’t pay anything to Shopify during this period.

And the main difference is that with the Pause plan, you can use it for only three months for one time.

After the three months pass, if you don’t reopen your store, your subscription will be automatically upgraded to the Pause and Build plan, and you will start getting charged $9/month, until you reopen it or close it completely.

Note that you can use the Pause plan only for once, and for the maximum of three months, and your store will be eligible for this plan only after 60 days pass with your store on one of the three paid plans, after finishing the 14-day Shopify free trial.

If you decide to change to another plan even before the three months end, then you can’t go back and use the Shopify Pause plan again.

3 – Cancel Subscription and Close Your Shopify Store

With this option, you can cancel your Shopify subscription and close your Shopify store completely.

You can use this plan anytime you want and the billing will stop from the moment you close your store.

Your store will be closed, and no one can browse it anymore.

If you close your Shopify store with this option, mostly, the content on your store will be deleted, but the store information and past reports will still be store for at least two years.

But after closing it, you cannot access the admin dashboard, unless you reopen your store, choose one of the paid plans, and reactivate your store.

But you can at least open and download the billing reports.

You can reopen and activate your store anytime during these two years period with any of the paid Shopify plans, or you can open and pause your store.

And you will keep the same myshopify domain name and store name, in addition to the store information and past performance reports, but mostly, you will need to build up the different pages and add content to your store.

Note that you can cancel your Shopify subscription plan and close your store at any time you want, even if you where still on the 14-day Shopify trial period.

If I Close My Shopify Store Will I Still Be Charged?

Depending on which one of the three options in the previous section you choose when closing your store, you might be charged, or you might not be charged.

If you cancel your subscription and close your Shopify store, then you won’t be billed for the next month’s subscription, until you decide to re-open your store.

If you choose the Pause plan, then you won’t be charged until either three months path and your store gets automatically upgraded to the Pause and Build plan, or if you decide to re-open your store.

If you choose the Pause and Build plan, then you will be charged a monthly fee of $9/month, until you either close your store entirely, or you go back to one of the normal paid Shopify plans.

Note that what I’m referring to here is the monthly subscription of Shopify.

When you close or pause your Shopify store, you will be charged any outstanding fees that might have been accumulated and not paid, like the transaction fees on every order in case that you don’t use Shopify Payments, taxes, …etc.

Also, before you pause or close your store, make sure to cancel any subscription to any paid Shopify app or Shopify theme with recurring payments so that you don’t get billed externally.

What Happens to My Domain Name if I Close My Shopify Store?

The myshopify domain name will be kept for two years after closing your Shopify store, and you can reactivate your store anytime during this period and use the same myshopify domain name on the same store, but not on another store.

And for the custom domain name, if you purchased it outside Shopify on Namecheap or any other registrar, then you keep it as long as you renew it through that registrar.

But if you purchased a custom domain name through Shopify, then you can move it to outside Shopify before closing your store, as it won’t be automatically renewed after you close your Shopify store when the time to renew it is due.

How to Cancel Shopify?

You can cancel a Shopify subscription plan or account from the Shopify admin dashboard by:

1. Clicking the “Settings” tab in the left sidebar.
2. Choosing the “Plan” option.
3. Choose “Cancel subscription” or “Pause or cancel subscription”, whichever is available.
4. Choose “Cancel subscription and close store” if you want to close your store, or choose “Pause and build” or “Pause for 90 days” of you want to pause your store.
5. If you chose to close your store, select a cancellation reason and click “Continue”.
6. Enter your password, and click “Close store”.

Before you cancel your Shopify account and close your store, consider taking a CSV file backup for any information you want to keep like performance reports, billing, content, ….etc.

Also, remember to cancel any third-party app subscription or a Shopify theme with a monthly payment so that you don’t get billed externally, and transfer your custom domain name if you purchased it on Shopify, as you can’t log in to your Shopify’s admin dashboard after canceling your subscription unless you reactivate your store.

How to Pause a Shopify Store?

1. Click “Settings” tab in the left sidebar in your admin dashboard.
2. Choose the “Plan” option.
3. Choose “Pause or cancel subscription”.
4. Choose “Pause and build” or “Pause for 90 days”
5. Review the details and then click the “Switch to Pause and build” or “Pause store”.

How to Cancel a Shopify Free Trial?

From the admin dashboard:

1. Click the “Settings” tab in the left sidebar.
2. Choose the “Plan” option.
3. Click “Pause or cancel subscription”.
4. Choose “Cancel subscription and close store”.
5. Select a cancellation reason and click “Continue”.
6. Enter your password, and click “Close store”.

Note that the above steps are applicable if you have already chosen a pricing plan while still being within the 14-day trial period.

If you haven’t yet chosen a pricing plan and you want to cancel Shopify during the free trial period, then you don’t need to do anything. Your account will automatically be frozen and you won’t be billed anything when the trial ends.

Remember to take a backup of any information or content you want to keep, transfer your custom domain name to outside Shopify, and cancel any app or theme subscription before closing your Shopify store during the free trial.

When you close your Shopify store, whether during the trial period or after being on any of the paid plans, your stores content will mostly be deleted, but the store’s information, reporting and myshopify domain name will be available for two years in case you decide to re-open it, and then your Shopify store will be deleted if you don’t take any action.

Conclusion – It Is Safe to Try Shopify

If you are worried about getting stuck with Shopify after using it to build your store, then don’t worry.

Shopify is a good company, and you can cancel a Shopify subscription plan and close your account and store anytime you want, and stop being billed.

Or, you can pause your store temporarily and keep working on building it while paying a reduced fee during the pause period.

But once you decide not to use Shopify for hosting your online store, you can close your Shopify account and not get billed again, but remember to cancel any third-app or premium theme recurrent subscription plan before you close your Shopify store.

That being said, I can say that it is safe to try Shopify for building your own ecom store without worrying about undesired bills in the future, especially that Shopify offers a 14-day free trial, and you can even close your store while still being on the free Shopify trial if you don’t like the platform.

I hope that was helpful.

If you still have any question on this matter or you need any help, please, tell me in the comments’ section below, and I will do my best to help you out 🙂

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