Shopify vs BASE – fees, design, overseas sales and migration

Shopify vs BASE in one sentence each

BASE lets you open a shop in an afternoon and pay mainly when you sell. Shopify asks for a monthly fee and in return lets you grow features and design as far as you need. The better choice depends on where your shop is today.

• BASE fits shops testing online sales, with few products, unpredictable monthly revenue and an owner who wants the simplest possible admin
• Shopify fits shops with steady monthly sales, a brand that needs room to tell its story, plans for subscriptions or member perks, or customers abroad
• Either can work for domestic shops with a few dozen products that are just starting to grow – then the fee math and your one- to two-year plan decide

If you want to compare a wider set of carts, including Color Me Shop, STORES and WooCommerce, start with our e-commerce platform comparison.

Fees and monthly costs: where the lines cross

The BASE Standard plan has no monthly fee. Each sale carries a payment fee plus a service fee, which together typically come to a little over 6% of the order plus a small fixed amount per order. Once sales grow, the Growth plan swaps that for a fixed monthly fee and lower rates.

Shopify charges a monthly plan fee in US dollars, discounted for annual billing, plus Shopify Payments card fees in the 3% range. Using an outside payment provider adds an extra transaction fee.

• At low monthly sales, BASE is usually lighter because there is no fixed cost
• Once monthly sales pass a few hundred thousand yen, the gap in rates often outweighs Shopify's plan fee
• On Shopify, paid apps add up quickly – decide which features you really need first
• Prices and rates change from time to time, so check both official pricing pages before you calculate

A practical test: take your average monthly sales and order count from the last three months and put the total monthly cost of each platform side by side. Run it once for today and once for the sales you aim for a year from now, and the right moment to switch becomes clear.

Design freedom and room to add features

On BASE you pick a free or paid theme and adjust colors, logo and images. The HTML Edit App allows some customization, but large changes to page structure or product page layout are hard. In return, the admin is very simple.

On Shopify you build pages from theme sections, and with theme code edits you can shape every detail. The App Store adds subscriptions, reviews, gift options, inventory sync, translation and much more, so features can grow with the shop.

• Brand storytelling: long, rich pages about materials and makers are easier on Shopify
• Ease of updates: for a solo owner handling products and news, BASE's simplicity is a real strength
• Where customers come from: BASE shops can also be found through the BASE shopping app; Shopify shops rely on their own search traffic, ads and social media

If BASE already shows your brand well, there is no need to move. See running a BASE online shop for tips.

Overseas selling and growth limits

If you want to sell abroad, the difference is clear. BASE has apps for English display and international shipping, but it is built mainly for domestic sales. Shopify supports multiple currencies and languages, prices and shipping by country and international payment methods through built-in features and apps.

Shopify also keeps working the same way as products and orders multiply, and connects easily with inventory, logistics and accounting tools. BASE is excellent for starting small, and it starts to feel tight once you need wholesale, several warehouses or detailed customer segments.

• You already get inquiries or orders from abroad
• You want subscriptions, member tiers or bulk discounts
• You want to track ad and social traffic in detail in GA4
• BASE fees have started to feel like a heavy fixed cost
• Design limits keep you from showing your brand the way you want

Two or more of these is a good sign that it is time to plan a Shopify move. If only one applies, check whether a BASE app or the Growth plan solves it first.

Moving from BASE to Shopify: steps and pitfalls

A migration works best when the new shop is finished in the background and switched over at the end. For a shop with a few dozen products, one to two months is a typical timeline.

• Export: download your product data as CSV from BASE and organize images and descriptions
• Build: choose a theme and prepare the home page, product pages, the legal notice under the Act on Specified Commercial Transactions and a privacy policy
• Import: convert the CSV to Shopify's format and check variants such as color and size, plus stock
• Payments and shipping: set up Shopify Payments, shipping rates and free-shipping rules, then place test orders
• Domain and redirects: point your own domain to Shopify and redirect old URLs to new ones
• Tell customers: announce the move by email and social media and ask members to register again

Watch the domain closely. If your shop runs on a free BASE address such as a .base.shop subdomain, old URLs cannot be redirected, so search and bookmark traffic will restart from zero. Getting your own domain and using it on BASE before the move makes the switch much smoother. Our e-commerce site migration guide covers customer data and reviews in more detail.

How UNANOBO helps: a free demo on the platform you choose

UNANOBO looks at your products and sales with you and helps you decide whether BASE or Shopify fits. Then we build a free demo on that platform with your real products and brand.

The process is free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, from the first demo to marketing after launch, and everything runs by message in Japanese or English. If you migrate, the domain, payments, ad and analytics accounts are all set up in your name.