How Pricing Plans Work in Essential Cart Drawer

In this guide we’ll walk you through what happens when you install the app, how the 14-day free trial works, how plans are based on your monthly order volume, how your orders are counted, how automatic plan upgrades work, and how to change your plan yourself. Everything is explained step by step, in plain language. You can explore the app and build your cart drawer before choosing anything — a plan is only needed when you publish.

📌 Important Things to Know Before You Start

• When you install the app, your store starts with no active plan.
• The Free plan requires you to approve a potential app charge from Shopify, even though the Free plan costs nothing. This is only an authorization and does not charge you anything.
• Shopify will show a spending limit of $198.99. That is the ceiling for the largest plan, not your bill. You are charged $0 on Free.
• You can explore every feature and build your cart drawer straight away. Nothing is locked while you set it up, and your work is saved as you go.
• You are asked to choose a plan only when you publish your cart drawer to your storefront. Until then your store stays on “Not subscribed”.
• Every plan includes every feature. Plans differ only by how many orders you get each month.
• Your Free plan includes a 14-day free trial of the paid tiers, so you are never charged during your first 14 days.
• After the trial, your plan adjusts automatically as your monthly order volume grows, so your cart drawer never stops working.
• You’ll get email notifications from info@essentialcartdrawer.com before and when you move to a higher plan.
• You can change your plan at any time from the Plans page inside the app.
• All prices are in USD, and you are covered by our 30-day money-back guarantee.

Let’s walk through everything step by step 👇

1️⃣ App Installation and Getting Started

When you install Essential Cart Drawer from the Shopify App Store, your store starts with no active plan.

To activate the app:

• Open Plans from the left-hand menu inside the app, or press Enable on the Cart Drawer card on the home page.
• Choose Start for FREE.
• Shopify will ask you to approve a potential app charge with a spending limit of $198.99.
• This approval is required by Shopify and is only an authorization. It does not charge you, and on the Free plan your bill is $0.

📌 You don’t have to do this first. Feel free to look around, try the features and build your cart drawer before you pick anything. Everything you set up is saved. Shopify only asks you to choose a plan at the moment you publish the drawer to your storefront, and the app will prompt you then.

2️⃣ How the 14-Day Free Trial Works

Once you subscribe, your store gets a 14-day free trial. During the trial:

• You are not charged anything, on any tier.
• You can publish your cart drawer and use every feature.
• Your orders are still counted, so your plan can still move up. You simply are not billed for it yet.
• Your first charge happens at the end of the trial, for whichever plan you are on at that moment.

Two things worth knowing:

• The trial is one 14-day window per store, ever. If you cancel and re-subscribe while the window is still open, you keep the remaining days. You do not get a second trial later.
• If you uninstall within the trial, you are not charged at all.

3️⃣ The Plans

Pricing is based on your monthly order volume. Every plan includes every feature, so the only thing that changes between plans is how many orders are included.

Order limits are inclusive. On the Free plan, 30 orders is still Free. The 31st order is what moves you up.

💡 You will never be billed more than $198.99 in a month, whatever your order volume. That is what the spending limit Shopify asks you to approve is for.

4️⃣ Which Orders Are Counted

Only orders that your cart drawer was part of count towards your plan. That means an order where the shopper opened the drawer, or bought something the app added to their cart.

These are never counted:

• Point of Sale (POS) orders
• Draft orders and phone orders
• Express checkouts straight from a product page, such as Buy it now or a wallet button like Shop Pay, where the drawer was never opened

This is why the number on your Orders this month card can be lower than your store’s total order count in Shopify. That is expected, and it works in your favour: you are only billed for orders the app was actually involved in.

5️⃣ Reading Your Usage

At the top of the Plans page you’ll see an Orders this month card, for example 24 / 30 · Resets Sep 1.

• The count resets on the 1st of each month.
• Your billing period is separate: it is a rolling 30 days that starts when you subscribe. So your reset date and your billing date usually differ, and that is normal.

6️⃣ Automatic Plan Upgrades

When your order volume passes your plan’s limit, the app moves you up to the next plan automatically, so your cart drawer never pauses or stops working mid-month.

You are told before and when it happens:

• At 80% of your limit you get an email letting you know you’re getting close, so you can choose a plan yourself first.
• When you pass the limit, you get a second email confirming which plan you were moved to.

Both emails come from info@essentialcartdrawer.com. If you don’t see them, check your spam folder.

On the money side, upgrading mid-month only charges you the difference between what you have already paid this period and the new plan’s price. You are never charged twice for the same period.

7️⃣ Changing Your Plan Yourself

You can move to any plan, at any time:

• Open the app and go to Plans.
• Press Show all plans to see the full list.
• Press Select this plan on the one you want.

Moving up takes effect immediately and you pay only the difference for the current period. Moving down also takes effect immediately and costs nothing extra.

📌 One thing to keep in mind when moving down: plans follow your actual order volume. If you have already passed a lower plan’s limit this month, the app will move you back up to match your volume. Downgrading works best at the start of a new month.

8️⃣ Common Billing Questions

Do I need a paid plan to use the app?

No. The Free plan covers up to 30 orders a month and includes every feature. You do need to approve it before you can publish your drawer.

Why did Shopify ask me to approve $198.99?

That is a spending limit, not a bill. Shopify requires it up front so your plan can adjust automatically later without asking you to approve again each time. On Free you are charged $0.

Where do I see what I have been charged?

All charges appear on your regular Shopify bill, under your app subscriptions.

What if I think a charge is wrong?

Contact us at support@essential-apps.com. We’re available 24/7 and you are covered by our 30-day money-back guarantee.

Still have a question about pricing? Write to us at support@essential-apps.com and we’ll help you out.