MerchantFlow Billing and Pricing Overview

MerchantFlow billing supports two payment paths for e-commerce merchants and agencies: Stripe billing for standard web workspaces and Shopify billing for Shopify App Store installs. Your billing path determines where checkout happens, where charges appear, and how plan changes are processed.

What Are the Two Billing Paths?

• Stripe billing for standard web workspaces
• Shopify billing for Shopify App Store installs

Which path your workspace uses determines:

• Where checkout happens
• Where charges appear
• How plan changes are approved
• Whether payment methods and invoices are managed inside MerchantFlow or in Shopify

Who Can Manage Billing

Billing is owner-managed.

Owners can:

• Start the live trial and complete checkout
• Open billing settings
• Review invoices
• Change plans
• Update payment details
• Cancel or reactivate the subscription

Admins can operate the workspace, but they do not have billing:manage access.

How Much Does MerchantFlow Cost?

• Monthly: $249/month
• Annual: $209/month, billed as $2,490/year
• Annual savings: $498/year

See Pricing Plans.

How Billing Starts

Web Signup (Stripe Billing)

For a standard MerchantFlow signup:

1. Create the workspace from /signup
2. Choose real data on /onboarding/choice
3. Complete the merchant onboarding steps
4. Arrive at /onboarding/payment
5. Choose monthly or annual billing
6. Click Start Free Trial to launch Stripe checkout

The current merchant onboarding path is:

/onboarding/choice -> /setup-2fa -> /onboarding/commerce -> /onboarding/fulfillment -> /onboarding/marketing -> /onboarding/balance -> /onboarding/funding -> /onboarding/payment -> /onboarding/complete

Important details:

• Stripe checkout requires a verified email
• The billing step happens before live onboarding is considered complete
• Canceling checkout returns the owner to /onboarding/payment
• Successful checkout returns the owner to /onboarding/complete

Shopify App Store Install

For embedded Shopify installs:

• Billing approval is created through Shopify AppSubscription
• MerchantFlow redirects to Shopify's confirmation page
• Charges appear on the Shopify invoice, not a separate Stripe invoice
• Plan changes stay on the Shopify billing path for that tenant

Agency and Demo Paths

• Agency tenants bypass the normal merchant billing flow and complete onboarding through the agency branch
• Demo mode is a product tour path and does not start live billing by itself

How the MerchantFlow Trial Works

MerchantFlow offers a 7-day trial, but the activation path depends on billing provider.

Web Signup Trial

• The live onboarding flow ends with /onboarding/payment
• Stripe checkout is launched before production onboarding is fully complete
• Stripe checkout requires a verified email
• The workspace is trialing after checkout starts, with no charge on day one
• If the trial expires without valid billing access, product access is blocked until billing is resolved

Shopify App Store Trial

• Billing approval happens through Shopify
• The trial window is attached to the Shopify subscription approval flow
• Charges appear on the Shopify invoice, not a direct Stripe invoice

Demo Mode

Demo mode is separate from production billing and does not activate live workspace billing by itself.

See Trial Period for the full workflow.

What You Can Do in Billing Settings

From Settings > Billing, the owner can usually:

• Review the current plan and subscription status
• See trial end, renewal, or cancelation timing
• Open Stripe-backed payment management for Stripe tenants
• Browse invoice history for Stripe tenants
• Switch between monthly and annual billing
• Cancel immediately or at period end

What you actually see depends on the billing provider and current state.

Understanding Billing States

The billing UI can surface states such as:

• trialing - the workspace is inside the trial window
• active - the subscription is active
• canceling - cancel at period end has been set
• canceled - the subscription is no longer active
• no plan / inactive - billing has not been completed yet

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know which billing provider my MerchantFlow workspace uses?

If you signed up through the MerchantFlow website, your workspace uses Stripe billing. If you installed MerchantFlow through the Shopify App Store, your workspace uses Shopify billing. Check Settings > Billing to confirm.

Can I switch from Shopify billing to Stripe billing?

The billing provider is fixed at the tenant level based on how the workspace was created. Contact [email protected] if you need to discuss billing provider changes.

Does MerchantFlow offer a free plan?

MerchantFlow does not offer a permanent free plan. New workspaces start with a 7-day trial. A demo mode is available for exploring the product without connecting live data.

Can admins access billing settings?

No. Billing is owner-managed. Only the workspace owner has billing:manage permission. See Roles and Permissions.

Related Pages

• Pricing Plans
• Trial Period
• Payment Methods
• Invoices
• Upgrade or Downgrade
• Cancel Subscription
• Shopify Billing

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Last updated: March 14, 2026