As a Shopify Plus store continues to grow, the question inevitably comes up: hire a new employee or bring in outside help to do the work? The decision is more of a staffing and budgetary decision than a purely technical one, and too often it is made hastily with the wrong assumptions about the cost and benefits of each approach. The idea that hiring someone automatically is better than bringing in Shopify Plus development company, for example, is not necessarily incorrect, but it is a decision that should be based on more than just gut instinct after some quick research. Instead, the real cost and benefits of each approach should be laid out and compared in a clear and transparent fashion.
What’s the Real Difference Between an In-House Team and a Shopify Plus Development Company?
When we refer to an in-house hire, we are talking about one or more Shopify Plus developers that you hire as an employee to work exclusively on your online store. Shopify Plus agencies on the other hand are external teams that you hire for your project and typically consist of design, development, QA and project management. The in-house path allows for dedicated attention to your store and slowly but surely builds up a wealth of knowledge over time. The agency path on the other hand first and foremost buys you a team that has already solved most of the problems your store is about to face, without you having to spend money to train up additional staff members for each skill you need.
How Much Does an In-House Shopify Plus Team Actually Cost?
Of course, the base salary is just the starting point. For US-based Shopify developers, salaries can range from $80,000 to over $150,000 per year, depending on level of experience and specific skills. Senior developers will typically fall towards the upper end of this range, $110,000 – $150,000+. Once you’ve added the typical 20-30% or so of additional payroll taxes and benefits to the base salary of your would-be employee, there’s also the value of your time in recruiting them to consider. Then, of course, there’s the onboarding process, and the ongoing training required as Shopify Plus continues to add new features to their platform. It’s a rare store that requires the skills of only one developer to run, so even maintaining a store on an ongoing basis typically requires more than one person. And building or migrating a full Shopify Plus store almost always requires a team. So while hiring one in-house developer to maintain your store on an ongoing basis may work for you, the cost math for hiring a team of developers to build or move your store to Shopify Plus is going to add up in a hurry.
How Do Shopify Plus Development Company Price their Services?
The cost for agencies to complete work on Shopify Plus is generally scoped to the project and not a monthly retainer. Based on eBizTrait’s Guide to Shopify Plus Development, a Shopify Plus migration or a new theme for a store can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars to complete. A full custom build of a store with integrations with an ERP system and B2B commerce and headless architecture can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete. As opposed to an in-house salary which would cost the same whether the team has work to do or not, agencies offer retainer work to stores that need continued work on their store but do not have the staff to complete the work on an ongoing basis.
What Do You Gain by Hiring Shopify Plus Developers In-House?
This is a good case for in-house Shopify Plus developers when there is enough ongoing work of varying types to keep a full-time developer busy, and there is significant value in someone having institutional knowledge of your products, customers and past decisions. This allows for very fast ad hoc work as there is no scoping or project queue for small work. In contrast to external developers, in-house developers do not have the same depth of expertise in all of the advanced specialized features that Shopify Plus stores end up requiring, such as headless architecture, B2B checkout and third-party ERP integrations.
What Are the Advantages of Working With a Shopify Plus Development Company?
A Shopify Plus development company has a whole team of developers to draw from, which means no single point of failure. Even if one developer is away from their desk, the project will continue to move forward. But more than that, a good Shopify Plus development company has pattern recognition. If a company that does Shopify Plus for a living is handling your migration or custom build, they’ve seen edge cases that a first-time hire to your team won’t. What such a company is selling is not hours of development time, but the experience they have gained from completing many similar projects in stores of all sizes and types in many different industries. The main tradeoff is less embeddedness in the day-to-day of your store and a project-based engagement as opposed to having someone on your team on an ongoing basis.
How Do You Choose the Right Shopify Plus Partner Agency?
Just because a store uses Shopify does not mean every Shopify shop is identical. Not every shop calling itself a Shopify Plus agency has actually handled the kind of project you need. Ask for specific case studies of previous work related to your situation (migration, custom checkout, B2B, headless). Look for a Shopify Plus partner agency that can speak concretely to scope, timeline and what they will do after launch for you, and not just speak to the build itself. eBizTrait’s Shopify Plus development team has 13+ years of experience with Shopify and Shopify Plus projects. We offer a free store audit to see how we would approach your store.
The answer for most merchants is not completely in-house or completely an agency. It depends on the scope of work needed to maintain and improve their online store. Stores with consistent and well defined maintenance work can justify a full-time hire. However, a Shopify migration, headless Shopify website build or B2B store rebuild/implementation is best done by a team that has done it before.
FAQs
Is it cheaper to hire an in-house Shopify Plus developer or use an agency?
It depends on the workload. A single in-house salary looks cheaper than a large project quote, but a full build usually needs multiple specializations that one hire can’t cover, which is where in-house costs climb. Agencies price to the scope of work rather than a continuous salary.
How much does a Shopify Plus developer earn?
US salaries commonly range from roughly $80,000 to $150,000+ a year depending on seniority and specialization, with payroll taxes and benefits typically adding another 20–30% on top.
How much do Shopify Plus development services typically cost?
A standard migration or theme build tends to run in the tens of thousands of dollars, while a full custom build with ERP integration, B2B functionality, or headless architecture can run into the hundreds of thousands, depending on scope.
When does it make sense to hire an in-house Shopify Plus team?
When there’s enough ongoing, varied work to keep a full-time hire consistently busy, and when day-to-day institutional knowledge of the store matters more than broad specialized experience.
When does a Shopify Plus agency make more sense than in-house hiring?
For major one-time projects — migrations, custom builds, headless rebuilds, B2B rollouts — where the work needs several specializations at once rather than ongoing day-to-day maintenance.
What should I look for in a Shopify Plus expert agency?
Specific case studies matching your project type, a clear process for scoping and timeline, and a plan for what happens after launch, not just development hours or a large general portfolio.
Can a Shopify Plus development company also provide ongoing support after launch?
Yes, most offer retainer-based support for continued iteration and maintenance after the initial project, which is often more cost-effective than staffing an internal team solely for upkeep.
Do I need a full in-house team to run a Shopify Plus store?
No. Many Shopify Plus merchants run successfully with a lean internal team handling day-to-day operations and an outside agency or freelancer for larger builds and specialized work.
What’s the risk of hiring the wrong Shopify Plus development company?
Beyond wasted budget, an inexperienced agency can leave a store with technical debt, poor checkout customization, or an integration that breaks under real traffic — all of which usually cost more to fix later than getting it right the first time.
Can I switch from an agency to an in-house team later, or the other way around?
Yes, and many stores do exactly that as their needs change — starting with an agency for the initial build, then hiring in-house once there’s enough steady work to justify it, or the reverse when a project outgrows an internal team’s capacity.
