Plans and billing
Canvas Design Studio pricing: Free, Starter $19, Growth $49, Scale $149 per month, with included custom orders, overage rates, caps, and the feature comparison.
Pricing follows the product's economics: you pay a small monthly base for a quota of completed custom-design orders, then a per-order rate beyond it, capped, so a viral month can never produce a surprise bill. Everything bills through Shopify.
One thing worth saying first, because it shapes every number below: your storefront never blocks a sale. On any plan, including Free, customers can always check out and every order lands in your admin. The quota decides what happens after the sale: usage billing on the paid plans, print-file downloads on Free.
Plan comparison#
| Free | Starter | Growth | Scale | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $19/mo | $49/mo | $149/mo |
| Included custom orders / month | 10 (then print files lock) | 100 | 500 | 2,500 |
| Overage per extra order | None (never charged) | $0.20 | $0.15 | $0.10 |
| Overage cap / month | None | $100 | $300 | $1,000 |
| Free trial | None | 14 days | 14 days | 14 days |
| Published templates | 1 | 10 | 50 | Unlimited |
| Full editor + all text effects | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Production PDF / SVG / cut paths | No | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unsplash photo library | No | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI background removals / month | No | 50 | 500 | Unlimited |
| Custom font upload | No | No | ✓ | ✓ |
| Watermark on cart preview | Yes | No | No | No |
| White-label embed | No | No | No | ✓ |
| Priority support | No | No | No | ✓ |
What counts as a "custom order"?#
An order is counted when it's paid and contains at least one line item with an attached design. Browsing, designing, abandoning a cart, saving drafts: none of that counts. Ten customers can play with the editor all day; you're only billed when one of them actually buys.
Counting is idempotent per order line, so webhook retries and edits never double-count.
The Free plan#
Free is a real plan, not a demo: the complete editor with all effects, one published template, and unlimited custom orders. You can sell as much as the product sells.
What Free limits is production, not revenue. Each calendar month the first 10 custom orders have downloadable print files; orders past that are recorded normally, keep their preview, and show a "Print files locked" badge in the Designs gallery until you upgrade. The lock is evaluated against your current plan, so upgrading unlocks the backlog retroactively. Nothing is lost while you decide.
Its other trade-offs: a "Powered by Design Studio" watermark on the cart preview (never on production files), no production PDF/SVG exports, no Unsplash, no background removal. It's a genuine way to validate a personalised product before spending anything.
Overages, plainly#
On a paid plan, go past your quota and each additional order bills at your plan's rate through Shopify usage billing, until the monthly cap, after which extra orders are effectively free.
Free has no usage charges at all, so there's nothing to cap. Order 11 still ships. It just arrives with its print files locked until you upgrade or the month rolls over.
The math favours upgrading early: 100 overage orders on Starter cost $20, already two-thirds of the jump to Growth, which also brings 5× the published templates and 10× the background removals.
Changing plans#
Upgrade or downgrade any time from Billing in the app; changes flow through Shopify's approval screen and take effect immediately. Cancelling (or a declined charge) drops the shop back to Free automatically, and your templates and designs are kept.
Related guides#
- Getting started to go live on the Free plan
- Production files and preflight for what Starter's production exports unlock
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