Dropshipping software cost calculator: AutoDS, DSers, Zendrop and CJ

Calculate the published charges for your store

Checked September 27, 2026.

For one Shopify store. The amounts below exclude sales tax, Shopify's own subscription, products and shipping. They are software subtotals, not a complete store bill. Free plans remain in the comparison. There are no affiliate links.

What to budget each month at your numbers

Checked September 27, 2026.

Choose your inputs and calculate. Unknown fees are never included as zero.

What can be added after the trial?

Checked September 27, 2026.

AutoDS: subscription, monthly add-on and prepaid actions

AutoDS advertises the auto-ordering add-on at "$9.90 per month". The Orders Processor is preselected at registration, according to its help. The chosen subscription renews after the trial and active add-ons bill separately. Annual subscription billing does not make the add-on annual. AutoDS pricing; AutoDS add-ons; AutoDS signup and billing

Order credits are a running cost at your monthly order volume. The estimate budgets for the lowest published combination of packs covering a month's actions before any existing balance. Unused credits can reduce later purchases, so the amount you pay in a particular month can differ. Credits are prepaid and do not expire while the account is active. AutoDS credit pricing

Published packs: "20 credits" for "$9.90", "100 credits" for "$39.90", "250 credits" for "$79", "500 credits" for "$129", "1,000 credits" for "$219" and "2,500 credits" for "$499". The calculator uses these pack prices, including any surplus, not rounded advertised per-credit rates. AutoDS credit pricing

Automatic placement costs "1" credit without conversion, "1.33" with BlueCare Express or QTrack, or "2" with Tracking Generator. The calculation assumes one supported placement per entered order. Split orders, extra actions and retry behavior can change that requirement; a general failed-attempt tariff is not published in the inspected documentation. Canceled or returned orders do not restore consumed credits. Manual placements do not need these credits. AutoDS credit pricing; AutoDS automatic ordering

For Fulfilled by AutoDS, USD balance loads add "5%" for card or PayPal, or "3%" for Payoneer. The fee therefore needs your actual funded amount. Its terms also permit fees "up to 15% of any order value" without publishing a complete trigger-specific schedule. Neither amount is silently added or treated as zero here. AutoDS fulfillment guide; AutoDS fulfillment terms; AutoDS pricing

DSers: extra products and optional features

DSers documents Auto-Place Orders for Alibaba.com and its Supplier Agent Network. For AliExpress, it directs readers to bulk submission instead. The dedicated feature page does not publish eligible plan tiers or an automatic-placement tariff, and automatic submission does not establish automatic payment. If your supplier is AliExpress, do not treat the base subtotal as an automatic-order solution. Automated Order Placement: Fulfill Faster | DSers

Paid listing cards say: "Extra fee will be needed if the amount of products exceeds the limit based on the usage level. Contact support to apply". The marginal tariff is not published. AI tools also carry add-on labels without a complete monetary tariff in the inspected pricing page. Automatic ordering is not the same as the page's automatic price or stock updates. The calculator identifies any unresolved automatic-order entitlement or charge beside its base subtotal. DSers Shopify listing; DSers pricing

The paid-plan trial is "14-day". DSers says a plan change ends the trial and takes effect immediately; a day-based upgrade-proration formula is not published in the inspected help. Its cancellation guide says to downgrade to Basic inside DSers rather than relying on uninstalling. Shopify-bought subscriptions use Shopify billing; direct subscriptions can use other routes. DSers Shopify listing; DSers plan changes; DSers billing overview; DSers billing and refunds

Zendrop: peak product count, commitment and small-order processing

Usage-based billing uses the cycle's highest linked-product count, not only today's count. A commitment floor can charge even with no linked products. The trial converts automatically; its length depends on the plan or promotion. The linked-product count at trial end locks the first-cycle peak. Zendrop usage-based billing; Zendrop trial-end rules

Zendrop's small-order help says: "A $0.20 fee is automatically added to orders totaling less than $10." The calculator applies it only to the qualifying count you enter. The source does not fully specify grouping or threshold composition. Zendrop small-order fee

The Shopify listing warns: "External charges may be billed by Zendrop separately from your Shopify invoice." Product and shipping costs are separate from the software subscription. Usage-based uninstallation stops future subscription charges, but already-generated invoices can still process. Standard legacy subscriptions require an in-app downgrade instead. Zendrop Shopify listing; Zendrop trial-end rules; Zendrop Standard billing

CJdropshipping: products, shipping and warehouse services

CJ's listing says: "Free to install, but product fees among other service fees will be charged accordingly." Optional memberships currently show Plus "$15.99", Prime "$19.99" and Advanced "$59.99" monthly. None is shown as required by the monthly order counts in this comparison. Membership annual pricing and a universal per-order service tariff are not published in the inspected sources. CJ Shopify listing; CJ membership pricing; CJ possible fees

CJ separately lists processing, storage, custom packaging and other service charges. Warehouse, package and product details decide which tariff applies. IOSS handling is an extra service fee, not the sales tax excluded from this calculation. Order synchronization does not establish automatic supplier payment; the payment guide describes a checkout payment step. CJ possible fees; CJ service-fee table; CJ order-payment guide

Where the vendor's own prices or rules disagree

Checked September 27, 2026.

AutoDS advertises “25% off,” while Shopify says 23% or 24%

The AutoDS annual-pricing page advertises "25% off". Its Shopify listing says "save 23%" for Import and Starter and "save 24%" for Advanced. The annual dollar amounts differ too. The calculator keeps the listing annual charge and the vendor's annual equivalent visible side by side, instead of choosing the lower offer or recomputing the invoice from a marketing percentage. AutoDS pricing; AutoDS Shopify listing

For Import, the pricing table marks Fulfilled by AutoDS as unavailable, but the fulfillment help says it "is available on all AutoDS subscription plans" with "no additional plan-tier requirement". If you request automatic ordering, the pricing-table-supported tier is shown alongside the lower Import alternative when its capacity fits. That lower alternative remains eligibility-dependent. AutoDS pricing; AutoDS fulfillment guide

The fulfillment guide mentions "a limited number of monthly credits", while credit help says credits are "consumed per automated action, not per month". No recurring included quantity is deducted. The Shopify listing says "3-day free trial"; the vendor page says "3 Day Trial For $0.99" and its button says "START NOW FOR $1". The calculator does not invent a common trial offer. AutoDS fulfillment guide; AutoDS credit pricing; AutoDS Shopify listing; AutoDS pricing

The fulfillment guide says "AutoDS takes no commission and keeps no money from your orders"; its terms permit operational fees up to the stated ceiling. The scopes may differ. A complete operational-fee schedule is not published in those documents. AutoDS fulfillment guide; AutoDS fulfillment terms

DSers disagrees about features and Enterprise capacity

The Basic listing includes bulk ordering, while bulk-order help describes the feature as available on paid plans. Pricing and the billing FAQ support Advanced automatic price and inventory updates, but the overview table marks them unavailable. Advanced branded tracking and upsell descriptions also differ. None of those claims establishes hands-off supplier payment. DSers Shopify listing; DSers bulk ordering; DSers pricing; DSers billing overview

The Enterprise pricing page gives "100,000" products, "10" supplier accounts and "50" staff accounts. Custom-plan help instead describes the standard Enterprise plan as "150,000" products and "20" suppliers; the overview gives "999" staff accounts. The calculator uses the pricing-page capacity and displays the disagreement rather than combining the largest limits. DSers pricing; DSers custom plans; DSers billing overview

Manual bulk-price-edit allowances also differ: the pricing page gives Basic "1", Advanced "10", Pro "25" and Enterprise "50" times per month; the overview gives "1", "25", "50" and "50" without the same unit. These are feature allowances, not order quotas. Change-plan help allows refunds for fully unused annual months while general billing help says refunds generally are not offered. No refund is deducted from a calculated price. DSers pricing; DSers billing overview; DSers plan changes; DSers billing and refunds

Zendrop's free-plan conditions and annual saving do not line up

The detailed usage-based guide says remaining free requires no linked products, no commitment and uninstalling before the next billing cycle. Its trial-end guide instead says "No products linked? You drop to the Free Plan" and describes continued catalog access. Do not assume unlinking alone guarantees no next invoice. Zendrop usage-based billing; Zendrop trial-end rules

Standard Pro help quotes "$49/month or $399/year (Save 42% with annual billing)". Those dollar prices imply a calculated 32.14% saving: (1 - 399 / (49 × 12)) × 100. The calculator uses the published dollar prices, not the advertised percentage. Standard and usage-based billing are different cohorts, not interchangeable prices. Zendrop plans and features; Zendrop billing models

CJ's US storage summary conflicts with its detailed row

The service-fee page advertises "90 Days Free Storage Fee in China and US Warehouses". Its detailed table charges US storage at "$0.63/CBM/Day" for more than "60" through "90" days. Both are retained; the free-software subtotal does not promise that storage is free. CJ service-fee table

The published plans behind the calculation

Both columns compare subscriptions only. Add-ons, credit usage and order fees are separate in both. Annual equivalents are calculations, not monthly payment offers. Tax inclusion is not stated by most source pages, so no tax is added or backed out.

Sources

Checked September 27, 2026.

These are documentation claims, not product-use results or checkout quotes.

Prices are shown as published; some vendor pages use only "$", so confirm the currency at checkout before comparing or paying.