Search for beginner dropshipping tools and you will still find lists leading with Oberlo. That app does not exist. Shopify removed Oberlo from its App Store in May 2022 and discontinued the service that June, and product data, supplier links and order history stored inside it were deleted for merchants who did not migrate in time. Shopify pointed those users toward DSers, which remains the officially recommended AliExpress connector. A 2026 guide still recommending Oberlo was never fact-checked, and the same carelessness tends to show up in the prices those guides quote.
What follows are the tools a beginner realistically starts with, with plan names and figures pulled from each vendor's own pricing page in July 2026. Vendors change prices, so treat this as a snapshot to verify rather than a permanent record.
DSers: the genuinely free starting point
DSers is the default for AliExpress sourcing, partly because Shopify handed it the Oberlo migration and partly because its free tier does real work. The DSers pricing page lists four tiers: Basic at no cost, Advanced at $19.90 per month, Pro at $49.90 per month, and Enterprise at $499.90 per month.
The detail that matters for beginners is what Basic actually includes. It covers 3 connected stores, a 3,000-product limit, 500 daily imports and one PayPal account, along with bulk order processing and essential pricing rules. The notable omission is staff accounts, where Basic gets zero and Advanced gets five. Paid plans come with a 14-day free trial, and annual billing takes 20% off.
For a first store testing whether a niche sells at all, Basic is enough. The upgrade trigger is usually staff access or the product ceiling, not order volume.
Zendrop: check which pricing table applies to you
Zendrop is the common step up once shipping times start producing refund requests. It is also the tool beginners most often misread, because Zendrop's help center documents two separate pricing structures.
Billed directly through Zendrop, the Pro plan is $49 per month or $399 per year and covers unlimited monthly orders, automated fulfillment, custom branding, product sourcing and US products. Plus is $79 per month or $549 per year, adding live weekly coaching calls, Zendrop Academy, print-on-demand, chargeback management, private product listings and a trending product finder. New subscribers get $40 off the first month.
Usage-based billing through Shopify or Wix works differently: a $0 Free plan, Beginner at $29 per month for 1 to 20 linked products, Pro at $49 for 21 to 100, and Plus at $79 for 101 and up. The Free tier is where beginners get caught. Zendrop's own documentation states you can browse the catalog but cannot import products or process orders on it. It is a preview, not a working plan, and any article describing it as a free way to run a store is wrong.
Spocket: no free tier at all
Spocket sells access to US and EU suppliers, which is the whole reason to consider it over AliExpress sourcing. Its pricing page lists Starter at $39.99 per month, Professional at $59.99, Empire at $99.99 and Unicorn at $299.99, with a 7-day free trial and no permanent free plan.
Annual billing changes the math considerably: Professional drops to an effective $24 per month, Empire to $57 and Unicorn to $79. Starter caps you at 25 unique products, and all paid tiers carry a 0% transaction fee. Seven days is a short window, so decide what you are testing before you start the trial rather than after.
SaleHoo is a directory, not a fulfillment app
This is where recycled articles most often invent plans that were never offered. SaleHoo's pricing page lists Starter at $9 per month billed annually or $299 one-time, Pro at $49 per month billed annually or $1,699 one-time, and Enterprise at $499 per month on a one-year term.
Starter includes access to 8,000-plus vetted suppliers and 2.5 million products, one Shopify store connection, 200 monthly product imports, contact with up to 100 suppliers per month, and a Shopify dropshipping course. Pro raises that to three store connections, 600 monthly imports, unlimited supplier contacts, three sub-user accounts and concierge supplier research. All plans carry a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Note the shape of the product. SaleHoo sells vetted supplier access and training, not an order pipeline. Comparing its price directly against DSers is a category error that shows up constantly in beginner guides.
AutoDS and CJ Dropshipping
AutoDS tiers its plans by product count and renders prices dynamically, so no honest article can quote a fixed monthly figure without checking your own catalog size against the live page. What is verifiable from the AutoDS pricing page is the entry point and the extras: a 3-day trial for $0.99, 25% off annual billing, and add-ons billed separately, including an auto-ordering system at $9.90 per month, VA access at $14.97, a product finding hub at $14.97 and mentorship at $39.97. Those add-ons are the line item beginners underestimate.
CJ Dropshipping charges no subscription to join. You pay product cost, shipping and optional upgrades such as custom packaging or private inventory.
What a beginner stack actually costs
- Cheapest working setup: a Shopify Basic plan at $39 per month, or $29 billed annually, plus DSers Basic and AliExpress or CJ sourcing. Tooling cost beyond the store itself: nothing.
- Faster shipping: add Zendrop Pro at $49 per month or $399 per year.
- US and EU suppliers: add Spocket from $39.99 per month, with no free option to fall back on.
- Supplier vetting: SaleHoo Starter at $299 one-time or $9 per month billed annually.
AliExpress itself charges nothing to source from. It is a marketplace, not a subscription service, and any guide quoting an "AliExpress plan" with a monthly fee has invented it.
Three checks before you subscribe to anything
First, confirm whether a free plan lets you transact or only look. Zendrop and DSers both advertise $0 tiers that behave completely differently, and the difference decides whether you can run a store on it.
Second, check what the tool is actually selling. A supplier directory, an order-automation layer and a US-warehouse fulfillment network solve different problems, and stacking all three before you have made a sale is the most common way beginners spend $150 a month on a store with no orders.
Third, price the annual commitment against your realistic testing window. Spocket's annual Professional rate is genuinely less than half its monthly rate, but it locks you into a niche you may abandon in six weeks. Start monthly, prove the niche, then take the annual discount once you know you are staying.
The practical order for most beginners is unchanged: start on DSers Basic with AliExpress or CJ, keep total software spend at the cost of your Shopify plan, and only pay for Zendrop or Spocket once slow shipping or supplier quality is measurably costing you refunds. Tools do not find winning products. They make fulfillment survivable once you have found one.