First 200 Mississippi businesses are Founding Merchants
Have a Shopify or Square store?
Your own store has the lowest fees. Good Circles brings the customers.
We'll be straight with you: a self-hosted store (Shopify, Square) has the lowest fees anywhere — roughly 2.9% + $0.30 processing plus a monthly plan. Good Circles isn't a cheaper store builder. It's a customer channel: it brings local customers at no ad cost, your customer saves ~10%, a local nonprofit is funded, and the fee is 1% of profit with no subscription. The catch with your own store isn't the fee — it's that you pay to find every customer.
A $100 sale — it's about traffic, not fees
A $100 sale with $50 of cost, at a 25% tax rate. With free traffic your own store keeps you the most. But the moment you pay to acquire the customer — which is most of the work — the math flips.
| Per $100 sale | Good Circles | Your store (free traffic) | Your store (~15% ad spend) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer pays | $90.00 (saves $10.00) | $100.00 | $100.00 |
| Cost of goods | ($50.00) | ($50.00) | ($50.00) |
| Card processing | $0 (customer pays if card) | ($3.00) | ($3.00) |
| Ad spend to get the customer | $0 (local nonprofits) | $0 | ($15.00) |
| Good Circles fee · donation | ($0.40) · ($4.00) | — | — |
| Pre-tax profit | $35.60 | $47.00 | $32.00 |
| After-tax profit (25%) | $26.70 | $35.25 | $24.00 |
| Customer saves / community funded | $10.00 / $4.00 | $0 / $0 | $0 / $0 |
| Total local value created | $40.70 | $35.25 | $24.00 |
Own-store processing ~2.9% + $0.30 (shown as ~$3.00) plus a monthly plan (~$39/mo Shopify, not shown per-sale — which makes the free-traffic column slightly optimistic). Ad spend varies; ~10–15% of sales is common to drive store traffic. Good Circles has no subscription, no ad spend, and no merchant card cost (the customer pays processing if they use a card). Sources: shopify.com/pricing, squareup.com (verified 2026-06-22). Illustration, not tax advice.
Calculator
Run your store's numbers
Your price, cost, tax rate, and current ad spend. This uses your numbers — not a sales pitch — to show your after-tax profit on each platform and the total local value of every sale.
Your platform
$0.00
after-tax profit / sale
Good Circles
$0.00
after-tax profit / sale
Total local value created per sale
$0.00 on Good Circles vs $0.00 on your platform
your after-tax profit + your customer's savings + community funding
Line-by-line, per sale
| Per sale | Platform | Good Circles |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue (list price) | ||
| Less: customer savings (10%) | ||
| Less: COGS | ||
| Less: platform fee | ||
| Less: ad / marketing | ||
| Less: card processing | ||
| Less: donation (deductible) | ||
| Taxable / pre-tax profit | ||
| Less: income tax | ||
| After-tax profit | ||
| Memo: customer saves | ||
| Memo: community funded | ||
| Memo: your after-tax cost to deliver that value | — |
Illustration only — not tax advice. Deductibility depends on your entity, income, and how the arrangement is characterized; confirm with your CPA. Competitor "fee" is the typical published all-in rate (verified 2026-06-22); set the fee and your ad spend to your real numbers.
The cheapest fees, the hardest part
Owning your store is the right call for your own-brand sales — you keep control and the fees are the lowest around. But a store is a destination, not a crowd: every customer has to be found, and finding them is the expensive part, whether you pay in ad dollars or in hours of marketing. The monthly subscription runs whether you sell or not.
Good Circles is the crowd. Local customers come through nonprofits and their supporters at no ad cost, your customer saves ~10%, and a local cause is funded on every sale — for a 1% fee on profit and no subscription. Keep your store; add Good Circles as your local channel. See the full comparison »
Questions
Your own store vs Good Circles — FAQ
Is Good Circles cheaper than running my own Shopify or Square store?
Not on transaction fees - your own store is the lowest, around 2.9% + $0.30 processing plus a monthly subscription, and Good Circles passes ~10% to your customer. The difference is customers: a self-hosted store needs you to bring all the traffic yourself (ads, SEO, social), while Good Circles brings local customers at no ad cost, with your customer saving ~10% and a local nonprofit funded.
Should I close my store and move to Good Circles?
No - keep your store. Good Circles isn't a store builder; it's a local customer channel. Run your Shopify or Square store for your own-brand sales, and add Good Circles to reach local customers who shop local and fund a cause - with no ad spend, no monthly subscription, and a 1% fee on profit.
What does Good Circles cost compared to Shopify's plans?
Good Circles is free to join with a 1% fee on profit per sale and no monthly subscription. Shopify and Square charge a monthly plan plus payment processing whether you sell or not. Good Circles' per-sale economics include the ~10% your customer saves, but there's no recurring fee and no cost to acquire the customer.
Keep your store. Add the customers.
Free to join. A 1% fee on profit only when you sell. The first 200 Mississippi businesses are Founding Merchants.