Shopify B2B App: When Native B2B Is Enough and When to Pay
A Shopify B2B app is often unnecessary now: since April 2, 2026, Shopify’s built-in B2B features run on the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans, not only on Plus. An app pays off when you need more than three wholesale price lists below Plus, want to hide prices or the whole store from retail visitors in a mixed store, or need registration rules, quotes or PDF invoices that Shopify does not provide.
Plan limits are from Shopify’s B2B features by plan and store type pages (read October 23, 2026) and the “B2B for all” announcement of April 2, 2026; app prices and ratings are as their Shopify App Store listings showed them on October 23, 2026.
What Shopify B2B includes from the Basic plan
Several agency guides still say B2B needs Shopify Plus. Shopify’s plan table lists B2B on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus (not on Starter or Retail), and most of the feature set is the same on all four:
- Companies and locations. A company is the buyer organization; each location can have its own tax ID, tax exemptions, addresses, prices and payment terms. Customers are added to companies, with location-level permissions.
- Catalogs that set which products and prices B2B buyers see, with quantity rules (minimum, maximum, increment) and quantity price breaks.
- Payment terms: net 7, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 days, or due on fulfillment, set per company location or per draft order. Payment reminders, vaulted cards and ACH in the United States are included.
- Ordering: checkout to draft (orders submitted for your review), draft order to invoice, PO numbers, easy reorders, and a quick order list block for the theme.
- Account requests: with the free Shopify Forms app, a wholesale form creates a company, a location and a customer for you to approve or deny.
- Sales staff permissions and B2B objects in Shopify Flow.
Tiered prices for trade buyers, minimum quantities and net-30 invoices are all in that list, and they are also the headline features of the wholesale apps compared below.
Native B2B limits by plan
The differences between plans are narrow, and they are where a store on Basic to Advanced runs out of native options.
| Feature | Basic, Grow | Advanced | Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active B2B market catalogs | 3 in total | 3 in total | Unlimited |
| Catalogs assigned directly to one company or location | No | No | Yes |
| Deposits, partial payments, payment requests per fulfillment | No | No | Yes |
| Contextual checkout and storefront through Markets | No | Yes | Yes |
On Basic, Grow and Advanced, catalogs also require the new Shopify Markets. The three catalogs are counted across all your B2B markets, so three catalogs in one market use the whole allowance. And below Plus you cannot give one company its own price list: pricing is set per B2B market, which groups companies. If every distributor negotiates its own prices, Basic to Advanced will not hold that without an app or a move to Plus.
Store type matters as much as plan. In a blended store (retail and wholesale in one store) Shopify cannot gate the whole store to B2B customers, because retail shoppers still need to buy; only logged-in B2B customers see B2B prices. Gating the entire storefront is a dedicated-store feature, and Shopify’s own checklist points blended stores to third-party apps for locking pages. Store type is hard to change later, so decide it first.
Signs you need a B2B app
- You need a fourth price group on Basic, Grow or Advanced, or one price list per customer.
- You run a blended store and want to hide prices, add-to-cart or whole collections from visitors who are not approved wholesale buyers.
- Your registration form needs approval rules or tax ID checks (EU VAT, ABN, GST, US EIN) before a buyer sees prices.
- Sales reps take orders and need quotes, PDF invoices or order upload by CSV.
- Orders must sync to QuickBooks, Xero or an ERP.
If none of these is true, use native B2B and skip the monthly fee.
Shopify B2B apps compared
Four apps with large review counts in the App Store wholesale category, as their listings read on October 23, 2026. Feature cells use the listing’s own wording.
| SparkLayer B2B & Wholesale | Wholesale Gorilla | BSS B2B Wholesale Pricing | Wholesale Pricing Discount B2B | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: 3 price lists, 5 orders/month | No (21-day trial) | Yes: 1 pricing rule, 1 registration form on live stores | No (10-day trial) |
| First paid plan | Starter $49/month: unlimited price lists, 50 orders/month, 1 sales agent | Lite $34.95/month: unlimited price rules and groups, basic registration form | Essential $29/month: unlimited pricing rules, application approval, VAT/ABN/GST checks | Basic $24.99/month: unlimited customer groups, up to 3 volume discount rules |
| Higher plans | $149 and $299 (more orders and agents, PDF invoicing, quoting, Xero/QuickBooks) | $69.95 and $149.95 (quick order form, net terms, hide products, store locks) | $49 and $99 (customer-specific pricing, order limits, ERP API, POS pricing) | $44.99, $49.99, $64.99 (net terms, CSV import, Markets, POS) |
| Price grows with | B2B orders per month and sales agents | Feature tier | Feature tier | Feature tier |
| App Store rating | 4.8 (391 reviews) | 4.8 (318) | 4.9 (1,194) | 4.9 (751) |
SparkLayer is the one to price carefully: its plans are capped by B2B orders per month, so a store that grows from 40 to 120 wholesale orders a month moves from $49 to $299. The other three charge by feature set, so the bill stays flat as order volume grows.
Notice what overlaps with native B2B. Net terms, quantity breaks and volume pricing appear in every app’s paid tiers, and you already have them from Basic. Read each listing for the gap you actually have (a fourth price list, price hiding, tax ID checks, quotes) and pick the cheapest tier that covers it.
Test native B2B before you install anything
A short test in your own admin shows whether native B2B fits:
- Turn on customer accounts (B2B requires them; legacy accounts can stay for retail).
- Create one company with one location under Customers > Companies.
- Build a catalog with a few products, a wholesale price and a quantity price break, and assign it to a B2B market.
- Set net 30 payment terms on the location.
- Log in as that buyer and place a test order.
If that order looks right, you have your answer. The full setup order is in our guide on how to sell wholesale on Shopify, and price list design is covered in Shopify wholesale pricing.
Mistakes to avoid
- Running app price rules based on customer tags alongside native catalogs. Two pricing systems on one store make it hard to know which price a buyer will see.
- Leaving retail discounts set to All customers in a blended store. Shopify applies them to B2B buyers as well unless you restrict eligibility to a market.
- Choosing blended or dedicated after the setup is done. Switching means redoing companies, catalogs and theme work.
For quantity limits per order, see minimum order quantities; the Shopify B2B and wholesale hub collects the rest.
FAQ
Do I need Shopify Plus for B2B? Shopify B2B has been available on Basic, Grow and Advanced since April 2, 2026, as well as Plus. What still needs Plus is listed in the limits table above.
Is there a free Shopify B2B app? SparkLayer and BSS B2B Wholesale Pricing both list free plans with tight limits (5 orders a month, or one pricing rule). Shopify’s built-in B2B costs nothing extra on Basic and higher plans.
Can I hide prices from retail visitors? In a blended store, only logged-in B2B customers see B2B prices, but retail prices stay visible. To hide prices or lock the whole store, use a dedicated B2B store or a third-party app.
Does Shopify B2B work with my theme?
Free Shopify themes from version 11.0 show quantity rules and volume pricing automatically, and the quick order list is a theme block. Custom themes need Liquid changes, using the customer.b2b variable.