Running a business comes with its highs and lows — and sometimes, you simply need to take a break. That’s where the Shopify Pause and Build plan comes in. If you're wondering how to keep your online store live without continuing to pay full price, this plan might be the ideal solution.
In this post, we’ll explain what the Shopify Pause and Build actually is and whether it’s right for your business.
Short answer: Pause and Build costs £9 a month
But £9 isn't what pausing costs you. Your apps keep charging. Your domain still renews. And the part nobody puts a number on is what happens to your business while the lights are off.
Here's the full picture.
Who Is the Pause and Build Plan For?
The Pause and Build plan is particularly useful for:
- Seasonal businesses that only sell during specific times of the year (e.g. Christmas or summer).
- Businesses undergoing a temporary break, such as rebranding, inventory restocking, or changing suppliers.
- Merchants needing to reduce expenses during slow periods or for personal reasons, without losing all progress.
- Portfolio sites looking to promote their service, with no intension of selling items online.
What Pause and Build actually is
It's a holding plan. Your storefront stays online and people can still browse your products — they just can't buy anything. Checkout is switched off.
You keep full access to your admin. You can edit products, work on your theme, write pages, and look at your reports. Its perfect for a portfolio site, which is why we use Shopify to host our website.
What stops working:
- Online store checkout, across every sales channel
- Point of Sale — so if you've got a physical shop, this isn't for you
- Discounts and gift cards
- Abandoned checkout recovery
- Publishing products to third-party channels like Facebook and Google
You can still send draft order invoices, but customers can't complete them.
What it really costs
| What you're paying for | What happens when you pause |
|---|---|
| Shopify subscription | Drops to £9/month |
| Your apps | Keep billing in full. Every one of them |
| Custom domain | Still renews, usually annually |
| Email marketing tools | Keep billing unless cancelled separately |
| Theme (if you bought one) | Already paid, no ongoing cost |
Apps are the one that stings. They bill through their own systems, not Shopify's subscription, so pausing your plan does nothing to them. If you're running five apps at £15 a month, you've saved on the Shopify fee and you're still paying £75 for tools nobody is using.
So before you pause, go through your apps and uninstall the ones you won't need. Just check first whether any of them hold data you'd want back — some don't return it once removed.
One oddity worth knowing: Shopify's own help page explains Pause and Build in detail but doesn't publish the price anywhere on it. You'll see the exact figure in your admin when you go to switch.
Pause and Build, or close properly?
These are genuinely different decisions and people muddle them.
| Pause and Build | Deactivate the store | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | £9 | Nothing |
| Storefront visible | Yes, browsable | No |
| Admin access | Full | Limited window to reopen |
| Can you keep working on it | Yes | No |
| Best for | A known return date | No return date |
The honest rule: if you know roughly when you're coming back, pause. If you don't, close it properly.
Paying £9 a month for two years because you might restart one day isn't a plan, it's a subscription to indecision. I'd rather you kept the money.
You'll also see guides saying Pause and Build plan can only be activated after, which is not correct. Shopify used to have a 60 day period, which was removed a few years ago.
Who can use it
You need to be the store owner, past your free trial, and on a paid plan. It isn't available on Shopify Plus.
If you're still in your trial, there's nothing to pause — the trial just runs out.
How to switch
- Go to Settings → Plan in your admin
- Choose Deactivate store
- Pick Pause and Build rather than full deactivation
- Confirm
What happens to your search rankings
Your storefront stays online and product pages stay indexed, so you don't vanish from Google overnight.
What you do lose is momentum if you might look to sell your products again down the line. Rankings drift down slowly rather than dropping off a cliff.
That's actually an argument for Pause and Build over closing. Since you keep admin access, you can publish blog posts or tidy your product descriptions while you're paused. A store that's paused and still being worked on comes back in far better shape than one that's been dark for six months.
Common questions
Can customers still see my products?
Yes. They can browse everything, they just can't check out. Some people add a notice explaining when you're back — worth doing, it looks deliberate rather than broken.
Will I lose my products, orders or customer data?
No. Everything stays in your admin.
Can I still take orders another way?
You can send draft order invoices, but they can't be paid through checkout. If you need to keep selling, you need a live plan.
Does it stop my app charges?
No, and this is the most common surprise. Uninstall what you don't need before you pause.
Can I pause a store with a physical shop?
Not really. Pause and Build switches off Point of Sale, so if you're trading in person you'll need a live plan.
How long can I stay paused?
Shopify's documentation doesn't set a limit. But see above — if there's no return date, closing properly is usually the better call.
Final Thoughts
The Shopify Pause and Build plan is a smart solution for merchants looking to save money while keeping their store almost fully operational . Whether you're taking a break, planning a rebrand, or just need a short-term pause, it allows you to keep your progress intact without paying full price.
Need help managing your Shopify store? At Digi Creative, we specialise in building and maintaining Shopify websites — even while they’re paused.
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