- How We Picked These Shopify Plus Agencies
- Why Shopify Plus Certification Actually Matters
- Top Shopify Plus Agencies: Quick Comparison
- The 15 Best Shopify Plus Agencies for 2026
- 1. Domaine
- 2. Elsner Technologies
- 3. Corra
- 4. We Make Websites
- 5. Swanky
- 6. Blend Commerce
- 7. Barrel
- 8. Groove Commerce
- 9. Trellis
- 10. Praella
- 11. craftberry
- 12. Netalico Commerce
- 13. Blue Acorn iCi
- 14. Silk Commerce
- 15. Eastside Co
- How to Choose the Right Shopify Plus Agency
- Common Mistakes Brands Make Hiring a Shopify Plus Partner
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How much does a Shopify Plus agency cost?
- What is the difference between a Shopify agency and a Shopify Plus agency?
- How long does a Shopify Plus migration usually take?
- Should I hire a US based agency or an international one for Shopify Plus?
- Can I switch Shopify Plus agencies without losing my data or rankings?
- Do I need Shopify Plus, or is standard Shopify enough?
- Is Shopify Plus worth it for a growing but not yet massive brand?
- What questions should I ask a Shopify Plus agency before signing?
- Final Take
Shopify Plus isn’t a plugin you install. It’s a commitment, usually a six figure one once you count migration, custom development, and the first year of retainer work. Pick the wrong partner and you’re looking at a stalled launch, a checkout that breaks during your biggest sale, or a rebuild eighteen months later. Pick the right one and Plus starts paying for itself within a quarter or two.
Here’s the part most listicles skip: Plus itself costs $2,300 a month minimum on the platform side alone, before an agency invoice ever shows up. Merchants who upgrade without the right build partner often end up paying for enterprise infrastructure while running a store that performs like a basic theme. The agency you choose determines whether that monthly fee turns into leverage or just a bigger bill.
We looked at agency directories, Shopify’s own partner listings, client reviews, published case studies, and pricing transparency to narrow this down to fifteen agencies genuinely worth a conversation in 2026. A quick disclosure first: Elsner sits at #2 on this list, and yes, that’s us. We’ve earned the spot for a specific reason, which we explain honestly below, not because we wrote the list. The other fourteen are strong, independently vetted picks, and for plenty of brands one of them will be the better fit.
Also worth setting expectations early. This isn’t a ranking based on size. Some agencies here run hundreds of staff. Others run twenty. Size tells you almost nothing about whether an agency will actually understand your product catalog, your customer, or your margins. What matters more is fit, and fit is what the rest of this piece is built around.
How We Picked These Shopify Plus Agencies
No agency made this list on the strength of a nice website alone. Here’s what we actually checked:
- Verified Shopify Plus certification, confirmed against Shopify’s own partner directory, not just a claim on a homepage
- Real client names and outcomes, not anonymized “leading DTC brand” case studies
- Specialization that holds up. Migration, CRO, B2B, headless, whatever the claim is, we checked whether it’s backed by actual project history
- Team stability. Agencies with heavy staff turnover rarely deliver consistent post launch support
- Pricing honesty. Firms that publish at least a range instead of hiding behind “custom quote” for everything
Fifteen agencies cleared that bar. Some well known names didn’t quite make it this year, usually on retention or transparency. A few had strong portfolios but couldn’t point to a single client reference willing to talk, which is a bigger red flag than it sounds.
Why Shopify Plus Certification Actually Matters
Anyone can claim they “build on Shopify.” Plus certification is different. Shopify vets agencies on this tier for their track record with scripts and checkout customization, Shopify Flow automation, multi store and multi currency setups, and B2B functionality like wholesale price lists and custom quoting. That vetting isn’t cosmetic. A developer who’s only worked on standard Shopify stores can genuinely break a Plus checkout without realizing it, because Plus checkout logic behaves differently from the templated version smaller stores use.
That’s also why price alone is a weak signal. A $3,000 quote from a certified Plus specialist and a $3,000 quote from a generalist agency are not the same purchase, even though the invoice looks identical.
There’s also a growing shift worth watching. Search behavior itself is changing, with more shoppers starting product research inside AI chat tools instead of Google directly. Agencies that only optimize for classic search rankings are already behind. The ones worth hiring in 2026 are thinking about how product pages get parsed and cited by AI systems too, not just how they rank on a results page.
Top Shopify Plus Agencies: Quick Comparison
| Rank | Agency | HQ | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Domaine | New York, USA | Large scale enterprise replatforming |
| 2 | Elsner Technologies | Global, US delivery | Dev plus SEO under one roof, predictable cost |
| 3 | Corra | New York, USA | Complex integrations, composable commerce |
| 4 | We Make Websites | London and New York | Fashion and lifestyle brand storytelling |
| 5 | Swanky | UK, global clients | Long term partnership over one off builds |
| 6 | Blend Commerce | UK, global clients | Conversion rate optimization |
| 7 | Barrel | New York, USA | Omnichannel commerce experiences |
| 8 | Groove Commerce | Pennsylvania, USA | B2B and wholesale ecommerce |
| 9 | Trellis | Boston, USA | Deep systems and ERP integrations |
| 10 | Praella | Chicago, USA | Custom D2C and B2B builds |
| 11 | craftberry | Remote, US clients | Boutique attention with enterprise output |
| 12 | Netalico Commerce | Remote, US clients | Fractional retainer model migrations |
| 13 | Blue Acorn iCi | Multiple US locations | Fortune 500 and large enterprise |
| 14 | Silk Commerce | Irvine, California | Mid market brands wanting a hands on shop |
| 15 | Eastside Co | California, USA | Fashion and lifestyle niche brands |
The 15 Best Shopify Plus Agencies for 2026
1. Domaine
Formed when Tomorrow and Half Helix merged in 2023, Domaine now calls itself the largest independent Shopify design and development practice in the world, and the numbers back that up. This is where you go when you’re migrating off Salesforce Commerce Cloud or running multiple brands under one enterprise umbrella. Not cheap. Not meant to be.
- Headquarters: New York, with hubs in Los Angeles and Amsterdam
- Best For: Large scale enterprise replatforming and multi brand rollouts
- Notable Clients: Timex, Arhaus, Ulla Johnson
- Standout Factor: Over 750 Shopify sites launched and north of five billion dollars in tracked GMV across the portfolio
2. Elsner Technologies
Full disclosure again: this is us, so weigh it accordingly.
Elsner has been building on Shopify, Magento, and WordPress since 2006, and our Shopify Plus practice grew out of that engineering base rather than a marketing pivot. The thing that earns us the second slot, honestly, isn’t scale. It’s that our Shopify Plus development team and our SEO team sit in the same building. When a migration audit turns up a technical SEO issue, it gets fixed by the developer who caused it, not routed through a separate vendor and a two week ticket queue.
Pricing runs roughly $1,500 to $10,000 a month depending on scope, published rather than hidden behind a discovery call. We’re global with dedicated US hours coverage, which means 30 to 50 percent lower cost than the US native agencies on this list for comparable senior level work.
We also lean heavily into the Shopify B2B side, since a lot of our client base runs wholesale alongside DTC and needs both handled by people who understand margin structures, not just theme customization. Where we’re not the right fit: hyper local US SEO, or brands that specifically want a boutique creative studio feel over an engineering led one.
- Headquarters: Global, with dedicated US hours delivery
- Best For: Ecommerce and B2B brands that want development and SEO handled by one team
- Pricing: Roughly $1,500 to $10,000 a month, published rather than quoted after a discovery call
- Standout Factor: Technical SEO issues get fixed by the same developer who caused them, not a separate vendor
3. Corra
Now part of Publicis Sapient, Corra brings more than two decades of enterprise commerce experience to Shopify Plus work. Their specialty is the messy stuff: custom apps, composable architecture, and integrations that touch six or seven different backend systems at once. Expect a formal, process heavy engagement style that suits large organizations with legal and procurement teams involved, less so a scrappy founder led brand moving fast.
- Headquarters: New York, USA
- Best For: Complex integrations and composable commerce architecture
- Standout Factor: 20+ years of enterprise commerce experience, originally rooted in Magento before expanding into Shopify
4. We Make Websites
Founded in 2009, We Make Websites keeps its team lean, but the client list punches well above that headcount. Design led, and it shows in how their storefronts photograph. Expect a creative studio feel more than a systems integrator one.
- Headquarters: London and New York
- Best For: Fashion and lifestyle brands that want a design forward storefront
- Notable Clients: Pangaia, Hasbro, David Beckham Eyewear
5. Swanky
Their pitch is straightforward: fewer one off builds, more multi year partnerships where they stay attached to a brand through several growth phases and international rollouts. Worth a look if you want continuity over a project that ends the moment the site goes live.
- Best For: Brands scaling across multiple international markets
- Standout Factor: 5.0 rating from 35 reviews on the Shopify Partner directory
6. Blend Commerce
Blend works exclusively with Shopify and Shopify Plus stores. Good pick if your store already converts fine but you know it could convert better and you want the testing discipline to prove it. Less useful if you still need a full site rebuild, since testing needs a stable base to run against first.
- Best For: Conversion rate optimization on established stores
- Top Industries Served: Fashion, beauty, food and drink, wellness
- Standout Factor: Named CRO Agency of the Year 2026 at the Global Agency Awards, with an average A/B test win rate around 59 percent
7. Barrel
Their whole identity is built around omnichannel commerce rather than pure ecommerce. Barrel designs, builds, and optimizes Shopify Plus experiences with retail, wholesale, and DTC all talking to each other. Better suited to brands with a physical retail footprint than pure online plays.
- Headquarters: New York, USA
- Best For: Omnichannel and retail plus ecommerce brands
- Notable Clients: Black+Decker, Well+Good
8. Groove Commerce
Groove Commerce runs design, development, SEO, PPC, and email under one team rather than farming pieces out to specialists who don’t talk to each other. Particularly strong on B2B and wholesale, which is a gap plenty of Shopify agencies leave unfilled.
- Headquarters: Pennsylvania, USA (founded 2007)
- Best For: B2B and wholesale ecommerce brands wanting dev plus marketing together
- Standout Factor: Published case study showing a 25 percent revenue lift for children’s apparel brand Bonnie Jean
9. Trellis
Trellis, part of Zaelab, leans hard into backend integration work, paired with a marketing team that actually understands what those systems are doing. If your Shopify Plus project is really an integration project wearing a storefront, start here. Not the flashiest portfolio on this list, but flashy was never really the point of their work.
- Headquarters: Boston, USA
- Best For: ERP, CRM, and multi channel inventory integrations
- Serves: Both B2B and B2C brands
10. Praella
Praella doesn’t chase templated themes. Every engagement starts from a revenue goal, which shows in how their proposals read compared to agencies that lead with design mockups first.
- Headquarters: Chicago, USA
- Best For: Custom D2C and B2B builds without templated shortcuts
11. craftberry
craftberry has quietly built a large project count while staying boutique in size. Good middle ground if Domaine or Corra feel too large for your budget but you still want senior level attention. Response times tend to be faster too, simply because there are fewer layers of account management in the way.
- Founded: 2015
- Best For: Boutique agency attention with enterprise level output
- Standout Factor: 700+ completed projects with 30+ in house specialists focused on CRO and complex integrations
12. Netalico Commerce
Netalico runs on a fractional retainer model, essentially a senior Shopify Plus team you rent monthly instead of hiring in house. Makes sense for brands that need ongoing senior capacity but don’t have the volume to justify a full agency retainer.
- Best For: Migrations off Magento, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce onto Plus
- Notable Clients: Audio Advice, Big Green Egg, Oatly
13. Blue Acorn iCi
Blue Acorn iCi works almost exclusively with Fortune 500 and large enterprise accounts, with multiple US office locations to support them. If your Shopify Plus rollout involves legal, procurement, and a security review before anyone writes a line of code, this is the tier of agency built for that process. Smaller brands sometimes find the engagement model too heavy for their needs, and that’s a fair concern worth raising early rather than discovering mid contract.
14. Silk Commerce
Based in Irvine, California and founded in 2007 under the name Silk Software before rebranding in 2023. Mid sized, hands on, and known for staying accessible to clients rather than routing everything through account managers. A solid fit for mid market brands that want a real relationship with the people doing the work.
15. Eastside Co
California based and carved out a specific niche in fashion and lifestyle brands. Smaller than most names on this list, which usually means faster decision making and less internal bureaucracy on the agency side. Worth a call if you’re a fashion brand tired of being one account among hundreds at a bigger shop.
How to Choose the Right Shopify Plus Agency
Fifteen good options doesn’t make the decision easier. It usually makes it harder. A few honest filters before you sign anything.
Match the agency to your actual bottleneck. If your problem is a messy ERP integration, hire for systems work, not design flair. If your problem is a beautiful store that doesn’t convert, hire a CRO focused shop. Most brands hire the wrong specialist because the sales deck was slick, not because the fit was right.
Ask who touches your account after launch. Plenty of agencies staff the pitch with senior people and hand execution to whoever’s available. Ask directly: who’s on my account in month four, after the launch excitement fades and it’s just ongoing maintenance?
Understand the real difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus first. Not every brand actually needs Plus. If you’re unsure whether the upgrade is worth it yet, our breakdown of Shopify versus Shopify Plus is a useful gut check before you start agency conversations at all.
Check for platform bias. Some agencies push Plus because it’s what pays their bills best, not because your revenue justifies it yet. A trustworthy partner will tell you honestly if standard Shopify still fits, even if that means a smaller invoice for them this year.
Get a straight answer on speed and Core Web Vitals. Site speed on Plus stores directly affects both conversion and how Google ranks you. Ask for a recent speed audit example, not just a promise.
Look at how they handle app decisions. A rushed agency stacks apps to hit a deadline. A good one questions every addition, because each app is a monthly cost and a potential speed hit. If a proposal already lists twelve third party apps before they’ve even audited your store, that’s worth asking about directly.
Honestly, the strongest signal often isn’t in the pitch deck at all. It’s in how an agency responds when you ask a question they don’t love. Do they get defensive, or do they just answer it? That single interaction usually predicts the entire working relationship better than any case study.
Common Mistakes Brands Make Hiring a Shopify Plus Partner
A handful of patterns show up again and again in brands who’ve already burned through one agency before finding the right one.
Choosing on price alone. The cheapest quote on a Plus migration usually means junior developers, minimal QA, and a launch date that slips twice. Understanding realistic Shopify development cost ranges before you request quotes helps you spot the lowball proposals early.
Skipping the migration audit. Brands eager to launch often want to skip straight to design. But unmapped redirects, orphaned SEO equity, and broken product data cause more post launch fires than any theme choice ever will.
Treating Plus as a one time project. It isn’t. Plus stores need ongoing app audits, speed monitoring, and feature updates as Shopify ships new releases. An agency relationship that ends at launch usually costs more in year two than a proper retainer would have.
Not asking about app bloat. Every unnecessary app slows your store down and adds a monthly bill. A good agency audits and removes bloat as part of onboarding, not just adds more tools to the stack.
Ignoring cultural fit. This one gets dismissed too often. A fast moving DTC founder and a slow, process heavy enterprise agency can both be excellent at their jobs and still make each other miserable. Sit in on a working session, not just a sales call, before signing anything longer than a three month engagement.
Assuming bigger always means better. A brand doing two million dollars a year rarely needs the same agency as one doing two hundred million. Oversized agencies sometimes park junior staff on smaller accounts because the senior team is busy elsewhere. Ask directly about account size tiers and where your budget lands within them.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Shopify Plus agency cost?
Most Shopify Plus agencies charge between $1,500 and $25,000 a month depending on scope, with one time migration or custom build projects often running $15,000 to $150,000. Boutique and fractional models sit at the lower end. Full enterprise agencies with in house design, dev, and marketing teams sit at the higher end. Anyone quoting a full Plus migration under a few thousand dollars is likely templating the work rather than customizing it.
What is the difference between a Shopify agency and a Shopify Plus agency?
A Shopify Plus agency holds Shopify’s Plus certification, meaning they’ve been vetted specifically for enterprise level features like scripts, flow automation, multi store setups, and B2B functionality. A standard Shopify agency may be excellent at regular stores but hasn’t necessarily been tested on Plus specific tools. Always confirm Plus certification directly in Shopify’s partner directory rather than taking a website claim at face value.
How long does a Shopify Plus migration usually take?
A straightforward migration typically takes 8 to 14 weeks. Complex builds involving custom checkout logic, multi country storefronts, or heavy ERP integration often stretch to 4 to 6 months. Timelines that sound too fast usually mean corners are getting cut on QA or data migration accuracy, both of which tend to surface as problems after launch, not before.
Should I hire a US based agency or an international one for Shopify Plus?
US based agencies offer easier real time collaboration and, for some brands, more comfort with in person meetings. International agencies with dedicated US hours coverage often deliver comparable senior level talent at 30 to 50 percent lower cost, which matters most for technical development and ongoing SEO work. For hyper local marketing or brand storytelling tied closely to US culture, a domestic agency is usually the safer call.
Can I switch Shopify Plus agencies without losing my data or rankings?
Yes, provided the new agency runs a proper handoff audit first. A competent partner will map your existing redirects, review your theme’s code ownership, and confirm access to all connected apps before touching anything. The risk isn’t switching agencies, it’s switching without an audit, which is how SEO rankings and site speed quietly degrade during a transition.
Do I need Shopify Plus, or is standard Shopify enough?
Plus generally makes sense once you’re processing significant monthly order volume, need multiple storefronts under one account, require advanced checkout customization, or run heavy B2B wholesale alongside DTC. Below that threshold, standard Shopify with the right apps often covers the same needs at a fraction of the platform cost. A good agency will tell you this honestly during the first call, not push Plus regardless of fit.
Is Shopify Plus worth it for a growing but not yet massive brand?
Often, yes, but not always for the reasons brands assume. The checkout customization and automation tools tend to pay off faster than the higher order volume ceiling does. A brand doing $1.5 million a year with heavy discount logic or wholesale customers can see real returns from Plus, while a brand doing $5 million a year with a simple catalog might not need it yet. It genuinely depends on operational complexity, not revenue alone. Our guide on whether Shopify is worth it for growing businesses walks through the tradeoffs in more depth.
What questions should I ask a Shopify Plus agency before signing?
Ask who specifically will work on your account, whether that person changes after launch, how they’ve handled a failed migration in the past, what their post launch support actually includes, and how they price scope changes mid project. If you’d rather have a developer answer these directly instead of guessing, you can always hire a Shopify developer for a smaller scoped project first to test the working relationship before committing to a full Plus engagement.
Final Take
There’s no single best Shopify Plus agency. There’s the best one for your specific bottleneck, budget, and industry.
Need enterprise scale replatforming, Domaine or Corra. Want conversion testing discipline, Blend Commerce. Running B2B and wholesale alongside DTC, Groove Commerce or Trellis. Want development and SEO handled by the same team without enterprise pricing, that’s where we come in.
Shortlist three, get on a call with each, and pay attention to who asks about your business before pitching a solution. That usually tells you more than any case study on their site.
One more thing worth saying plainly. The agency you pick today probably isn’t the agency you’ll need in three years. Brands grow, priorities shift, and what felt like the right fit at launch can feel restrictive once you’re running multiple markets or a much larger catalog. That’s fine. Pick the best fit for where you are now, build in a clean handoff clause in the contract, and revisit the decision when your business actually outgrows the relationship rather than out of habit.
Weighing a Shopify Plus partner for your brand? Talk to Elsner’s Shopify Plus team for a free store audit and an honest recommendation, even if that means pointing you toward someone else on this list. Contact Elsner Technologies today.
