10 Best Shopify Alternatives for Small Businesses

Shopify's Basic plan is $39 a month billed monthly, or $29 a month billed yearly, and Grow is $105 a month ($79 billed yearly). Many stores also pay for apps from the Shopify App Store for features such as reviews, email marketing or advanced shipping rules, each with its own monthly price. Card payments through Shopify Payments start at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on Basic, and paying through another provider adds a Shopify fee on every sale, below.

Shopify uses its proprietary Liquid templating language, which limits the pool of developers who can customize your store and creates vendor lock-in. While Shopify themes are polished, breaking out of their structural constraints requires significant development effort. Stores that need highly custom checkout flows, unique product configurators, or non-standard navigation often find Shopify restrictive.

If you operate outside the countries where Shopify Payments is available, or prefer another payment provider, Shopify adds its own fee to every sale: 2 percent on Basic, 1 percent on Grow, 0.6 percent on Advanced and 0.2 percent on Plus, on top of the provider's card fees. On $10,000 of monthly sales through another provider, that is $200 a month on Basic. Several platforms below charge no fee of their own on sales.

Shopify is optimized for physical product retail. Businesses selling digital products, subscriptions, services, or operating as multi-vendor marketplaces often need workarounds or expensive apps to handle their core business model. A platform purpose-built for your product type can be simpler and more cost-effective than adapting Shopify with plugins.

WooCommerce is a free, open-source store plugin for WordPress, with no platform fee and no share of your sales. You pay for hosting, which WooCommerce puts at $25 to $350 a month for most stores, plus a domain and any paid extensions, at $29 to $299 a year each on its marketplace. If you would rather not run hosting yourself, WordPress.com's Commerce plan includes WooCommerce for $70 a month billed monthly. The WordPress ecosystem gives you thousands of themes and plugins, and because it is open source, you control the store's code. The tradeoff is more technical setup than a hosted platform: on your own hosting, you look after security updates and speed yourself. For owners comfortable with WordPress, it offers the most control for the money.

BigCommerce is the closest hosted rival to Shopify, and its plans follow your sales. Core is $39 a month ($29 billed yearly) for stores with up to $30,000 in sales over the last 12 months; above that, BigCommerce moves you to Growth at $105 ($79 yearly) up to $100,000, and then to Scale at $399 ($299 yearly). It charges no fee on orders paid through its embedded payment providers, a list that includes Stripe, PayPal, Adyen and BigCommerce Payments; any other provider adds 2 percent on Core, 1 percent on Growth and 0.6 percent on Scale. Plans above Core add an abandoned cart saver, and BigCommerce supports headless stores, where developers build their own front end on its API.

Wix pairs a drag-and-drop website builder with a store. Taking payments starts on the Core plan at $29 a month, and Business is $39 a month, both billed yearly: Wix's plans page shows only yearly prices. Its visual editor gives non-technical owners more design control than most store themes, and Wix Payments charges a processing fee on each card payment. It suits small businesses selling a curated range that want one tool for the site and the shop.

Squarespace is known for polished templates, which suits brands whose look sells the product. Basic is $25 a month ($19 billed yearly) and adds a 2 percent transaction fee on online store sales; Core, at $39 a month ($29 yearly), removes that fee. Card rates through Squarespace Payments start at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents, and you can also accept payments with Stripe or PayPal. Every plan includes gift cards and abandoned cart recovery. It is best for small catalogs, artists with a shop, and businesses where the brand's look is the advantage.

Ecwid adds a store to a website you already have, such as a WordPress or Wix site, or gives you one at a free company.site address. Starter is $5 a month for up to 10 products, Venture is $35 a month ($29 billed yearly) for up to 100 products with selling on Instagram and Facebook, and Business, at $65 ($49 yearly), adds marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay and up to 2,500 products. Ecwid charges no setup or transaction fees on any plan. It suits a business that likes its website and only wants a shop added to it.

Sellfy is built for creators selling digital products, subscriptions and print-on-demand merchandise. Starter is $29 a month ($22 billed yearly) for up to $10,000 in sales a year, Business is $79 ($59 yearly) for up to $50,000, and Premium is $159 ($119 yearly) for up to $200,000. Every plan allows unlimited products, and Sellfy takes no transaction fee; PayPal or Stripe charge their own fees. It is not the right choice for a complex physical store, but for YouTubers, musicians, designers and educators it keeps selling simple.

Snipcart adds a cart and checkout to any website through a snippet of JavaScript, so you keep your own site and Snipcart handles the cart, checkout and orders. It charges 2 percent of sales plus your payment gateway's fees; when your monthly sales are under $1,000, a $20 monthly fee replaces the 2 percent. It sells physical products, digital products and subscriptions, and it suits developers and agencies who want full control of the front end.

Gumroad is the simplest way to start selling digital products: there is no monthly fee. It takes 10 percent plus 50 cents of each sale made through your profile or your own links, and 30 percent when a new customer finds you through Gumroad's Discover marketplace. Since January 2025 Gumroad has been the merchant of record, so it collects and pays sales tax for you. The percentage gets expensive as sales grow, but for creators testing an idea it means paying only when something sells.

Fabricate builds a store from a description instead of a theme: describe what you sell, the options each product comes in and how it reaches your customers, and it builds a working web app with product pages, a cart and an order list only you sign in to. On Pro and Max, the app can take card payments through Stripe Checkout, paid into your own Stripe account, which you connect under More > Payments. Fabricate takes no share of what you are paid; Stripe charges its own card fees. Live carrier rates, shipping labels, tax calculation, syncing with Shopify or a marketplace, and files for customers to download are not built in, so it suits a small shop with its own way of selling, such as made-to-order products or local delivery, more than a large catalog. Stores run on Cloudflare, and on Pro and Max you can download the code.

Medusa is an open-source commerce engine for developers who want full control of the stack. It provides the backend, from products and orders to payments and shipping, while you build any front end you like in React, Next.js or another framework. The code is free to host yourself, and Medusa Cloud hosting starts at $29 a month on Develop, with custom storefront domains from Launch at $99 a month; Medusa takes no share of your sales. It is not for non-technical owners, but for a development team building a custom store it offers the most flexibility on this list.

BigCommerce suits dropshipping: it sells across marketplaces and social channels from one catalog and adds no fee of its own on orders through its embedded payment providers. Its plans follow your sales, so a busy store moves up to Growth or Scale.

Sellfy is the best choice for creators selling digital downloads, courses, or subscriptions, with no transaction fee and unlimited products on every plan. For creators just starting out who want zero upfront costs, Gumroad provides the lowest barrier to entry with its pay-per-sale model.

WooCommerce offers the best value for physical product stores that want full control over their shopping experience. For store owners who prefer a hosted solution with strong out-of-the-box features, BigCommerce provides a complete package, though its plan rises with your sales.

Squarespace suits service businesses that want a polished site, with Squarespace's scheduling for appointments. For a booking process of your own, such as deposits, packages or a waiting list, Fabricate builds an app around how you work, and on Pro and Max it takes payment through Stripe Checkout.