Shopify Alternatives: Which Platform Fits Your Store (and When to Go Custom)

The best Shopify alternatives depend on why you're leaving. If you want a similar hosted platform with lower fees on outside payment providers, look at BigCommerce. If you want to own your store and pay no platform fee, look at WooCommerce (or Magento Open Source for bigger catalogs). If you sell a handful of products next to a portfolio or service site, Squarespace, Wix or Big Cartel are simpler and often cheaper. If you have developers, Medusa is an open-source option you can shape however you like.

Before you switch, work out what you really pay today. A Shopify plan is often the smallest line on the bill: card processing, apps and themes usually cost more. Below you'll find a comparison table with prices checked in October 2026, a worked example of the true monthly cost, a decision guide by store type, and a third route most lists skip: having a store built and run for you.

Why people look for Shopify alternatives

Shopify is a strong, popular platform, and for many stores it's the right choice. The usual reasons people search for alternatives are:

• Fees on outside payment providers. If you don't use Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, on top of what your payment provider charges (Shopify pricing, checked October 2026).
• App costs that add up. Features such as subscriptions, product options, reviews or wholesale pricing often come from apps. Shopify says many apps have free plans, but advanced features or higher usage usually sit on paid tiers, billed every month.
• Limits on how the store works. Unusual ordering (made-to-order products, quotes, B2B price lists, bookings) can mean stacking apps or working around the checkout.
• Ownership. On any hosted platform you rent the store. Moving later means migrating products, customers and URLs.

Shopify alternatives compared (prices as of October 2026)

All prices are in USD from each provider's own pricing page, checked in October 2026. They change often, so confirm before you sign up.

Platform	Monthly price	Extra fees on sales	Best for	Watch out for
Shopify (for reference)	Basic $27 billed monthly ($19 billed yearly); Grow $72 ($54); Advanced $399 ($299)	2% / 1% / 0.6% if you use an outside payment provider	Most new stores that want an all-in-one platform	Apps and outside-gateway fees
BigCommerce	Core $39 billed monthly ($29 yearly); Growth $105 ($79); Scale $399 ($299)	No fee with embedded payment providers; 2% / 1% / 0.6% with open providers	Growing stores with large catalogs or B2B needs	Plans are capped by online sales (Core up to $30K a year, Growth up to $100K; Scale charges an overage above its cap)
WooCommerce	Free plugin; hosting $25 to $350/month for most stores	0% revenue share; WooPayments around 2.5% to 2.9% + 30¢	Owners who want full control on WordPress	You (or someone) must handle hosting, updates and security
Wix	Core from $29.77/month billed yearly; Business $39.77	Payment processing only	Small stores alongside a service or brand site	Less depth for large catalogs
Squarespace	Basic $19 billed monthly ($12 yearly); Core $27 ($17); Advanced $36 ($25)	2% on Basic; 0% on Core and Advanced	Design-led brands with small catalogs	The cheapest plan adds a 2% fee
Big Cartel	Free Gold plan; Platinum $15; Diamond $30	Payment processing only	Artists and makers with a few products	Limited features by design
Medusa	Open source (MIT licence); Medusa Cloud from $29/month	None from Medusa	Teams with developers building a custom store	Needs developers to build and run

Magento Open Source and PrestaShop also appear on most lists. Like WooCommerce, the software is free, and the real cost is hosting, development and upkeep.

What a "cheap" plan really costs per month

The sticker price hides most of the bill. Here's a worked example for a store selling $5,000 a month online across 100 orders, using Shopify's Basic plan billed monthly and Shopify Payments.

Cost	How it's worked out	Monthly
Plan	Basic, billed monthly	$27
Card processing	2.9% + 30¢ per order (NerdWallet): $145 + $30	$175
Apps	Example: three paid apps at $10 to $20 each (your mix will differ)	$30 to $60
Total		about $232 to $262

That's roughly 4.6% to 5.2% of sales, and the plan fee is about a tenth of it. Two things follow:

1. Switching to a cheaper plan elsewhere saves little if processing and apps stay the same. Card fees exist on every platform; compare those rates and the apps you'd no longer need.
2. Using an outside payment provider on Shopify Basic adds 2%, or $100 a month in this example, on top of that provider's own fees.

Run the same sum for your store: plan + processing + every app and subscription + any developer or agency hours. That number, not the plan price, is what an alternative has to beat.

Shopify vs WooCommerce

This is the most common comparison. Shopify is hosted: you pay monthly and Shopify runs the servers, security and checkout. WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress: there's no monthly subscription or revenue share, but you pay for hosting ($25 to $350 a month for most stores, per WooCommerce) and for extensions ($29 to $299 a year each).

Choose Shopify if you want to launch fast and never think about servers. Choose WooCommerce if you already run WordPress, want full control over the code and data, or need features that would mean several paid apps on Shopify. The trade-off is upkeep: someone has to apply updates, watch security and keep backups.

BigCommerce vs Shopify

The two are the closest like-for-like. BigCommerce's entry plan costs a little more ($39 billed monthly versus $27), but it charges no extra fee when you use one of its embedded payment providers. The catch is sales caps: Core covers up to $30,000 of online sales over the trailing 12 months and Growth up to $100,000, after which you move up a plan. Shopify's pricing page lists no such sales caps on its Basic, Grow and Advanced plans.

Free and open-source Shopify alternatives

"Free" usually means the software is free, not the store:

• WooCommerce and Magento Open Source: free software, paid hosting, domain, extensions and maintenance.
• Big Cartel Gold: genuinely free to start, with limited features, suited to a few products.
• Medusa: open source under the MIT licence and free to self-host. It's a toolkit for developers, not a store builder, so budget for development. Medusa vs Shopify is really "build your own" vs "rent a ready one".

If you have no developer, a free platform can end up the most expensive option once your time is counted.

Which Shopify alternative fits your store?

Your situation	Good fit
A few products next to a service, portfolio or brand site	Squarespace, Wix or Big Cartel
A growing catalog and you want a hosted platform	BigCommerce (or stay on Shopify)
Already on WordPress, want control and no platform fee	WooCommerce
Large catalog, complex pricing, several warehouses	Magento / Adobe Commerce or a custom build
Unusual ordering: quotes, made-to-order, B2B accounts, bookings	A store built around how you sell
You have developers and want a custom front end	Medusa

A quick checklist before you move:

• List every app you pay for and what it does. Check whether the new platform does it natively.
• Compare payment processing rates, not just plan prices.
• Plan the migration: products, customers, order history, and 301 redirects for every product and category URL so you keep your search rankings.
• Check sales caps, staff accounts and API limits on the plan you'd actually need in a year.

The third route: a store built and run for you

Most lists stop at "pick a platform and do it yourself". There's another option: have the store built around your products and how you fulfil orders, then hosted and maintained for you.

That's what Buildly does for online stores, on a monthly subscription instead of a large upfront project fee. We use whatever technology your project needs: custom code in Go, Node.js, Python, or PHP, or a platform such as WordPress, Drupal, WooCommerce, or Magento. We recommend the stack in your written scope, and you can ask for one you prefer.

How it fits different stores:

• Essential ($35/month, $100 setup fee): a website with a buy button for a few products.
• Growth: a small online shop with cart and checkout.
• Business: an online store with customer accounts, stock and shipping, with different staff roles.

See current prices for Growth and Business on the pricing page. The initial build is included on every plan, standard integrations (for example an accounting or shipping tool) are $20 each, once, and you own the source code and database after the plan's commitment period (12 months on Essential and Growth, 24 on Business). Card processing is still charged by your payment provider, as on any platform.

Scoping is free: you send a brief, get a written scope and price, and approve each stage from wireframes to launch (how it works). If you're comparing platforms because your store doesn't fit any of them well, send a brief and compare the scope with your current monthly total.

The bottom line

For most small stores, the choice comes down to three questions: how much you really pay per month today, how much of the store you want to manage yourself, and whether your way of selling fits a standard checkout. BigCommerce is the closest hosted swap, WooCommerce gives you control, Squarespace, Wix and Big Cartel suit small catalogs, and a built store makes sense when you're paying for apps and workarounds to make a platform do what it wasn't made for.