Lightspeed vs Shopify: Cost and Fees Calculator
Enter your volumes to compare estimated monthly costs and fees for Lightspeed and Shopify across the selling types both offer, using published US pricing.
Full POS system
Selling online (eCommerce)
Estimates combine processing fees and monthly subscriptions on the plans noted above. One-time hardware, setup, and add-ons are excluded. Rates are published or typical US pricing as of mid-2026 and may have changed.
How the Lightspeed vs Shopify calculator works, and how the two compare
Lightspeed is a retail and restaurant POS company with the deepest inventory and reporting tools in its class, plus a built-in eCommerce option. Lightspeed plans start around $69 per month (rising to $399 on premium restaurant tiers) with Lightspeed Payments at 2.6% + $0.10 in person and 2.9% + $0.30 online, running on standard iPads. Shopify is the leading dedicated eCommerce platform in the US, which also sells in person through Shopify POS. Shopify Basic is $39 per month at 2.9% + $0.30 online with Shopify Payments (Grow $105 at 2.7% + $0.30); in-person processing is 2.6% + $0.10 with POS Lite included in every plan, and POS Pro adds $89 per month per location.
How they are similar: Where they overlap: both Lightspeed and Shopify cover running a full point-of-sale system and selling online, which is what this calculator compares. In both cases the bill is driven by a percentage of each sale plus any fixed per-transaction fee, which is why your average transaction size changes the effective rate as much as the headline percentage does.
How they differ: Only Shopify offers in-person card readers, so that side of the business is not part of this comparison. Lightspeed operates as a point-of-sale platform where software subscriptions and card processing come as a package, while Shopify operates as a subscription platform where you pay a monthly plan plus payment processing. Lightspeed is the numbers-person's POS: item-level profitability, multi-location reporting, and serious inventory depth, at the cost of higher software tiers as you add capability. Shopify's strength is depth and ecosystem: the largest app store in commerce and true omnichannel selling, but third-party gateways trigger an extra 0.6% to 2% fee and app costs creep up at scale.
Assumptions used in this calculator
- Lightspeed is modeled on: From $69 per month, 2.6% + $0.10 with Lightspeed Payments, iPad hardware; eCommerce included with plans from $69 per month, 2.9% + $0.30 online.
- Shopify is modeled on: POS Pro $89 per month per location (plus your Shopify plan), 2.6% + $0.10, POS Terminal $349; Basic $39 per month, 2.9% + $0.30 online with Shopify Payments.
- Rates are published or typical US pricing as of mid-2026 and change often; quote-based providers are modeled at representative rates. Always confirm current pricing with the provider.
- One-time hardware, setup, add-on apps, keyed-in transactions, international cards, and chargeback fees are excluded from the monthly figures.