Shopify alternatives in 2026: an honest comparison for small stores
Shopify is excellent, but it isn’t the only way to sell online. Here’s how five alternatives compare on monthly price, fees on your sales and day-to-day effort, and who each one fits.
Shopping Master team · · 8 min read
If you’re looking for a Shopify alternative, the right pick depends on what you want to change: the monthly bill, the extra fees on your sales, or the amount of setup and maintenance. In short: WooCommerce gives you the most control if you’re comfortable running WordPress; Wix and Squarespace suit businesses whose website matters as much as the store; BigCommerce packs many built-in features for growing catalogs; and Shopping Master is the low-fixed-cost option, with a free plan and no commission on your sales. Below we compare all five fairly, including where Shopify is still the better choice.
What Shopify does well, and why people look elsewhere
Shopify earned its reputation. Its checkout is fast and familiar to shoppers, its app store covers almost any need you can think of, and it scales from a first sale to very large brands. It also has a mature point-of-sale system and a big community of designers and developers you can hire. If you need a niche integration on day one, Shopify is usually the safest bet.
The reasons people look for alternatives are mostly about cost and complexity:
- Price. Shopify’s Basic plan lists at $39 a month, or $29 a month billed yearly, and Grow at $105, or $89 billed yearly (US list prices as of November 2026; they may change).
- Fees on your sales. If you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Basic adds a 2% fee on each sale, on top of what the payment provider charges.
- Apps add up. Many stores pay monthly for several apps (reviews, bundles, upsells, subscriptions), and together they can cost more than the plan itself.
- More than you need. A small store selling 30 products to local customers may never use most of what it pays for.
How to compare ecommerce platforms
Before looking at names, decide what matters for your store. These six questions cover most of the decision:
- What is the real monthly cost? The plan price plus the apps, themes or hosting you’ll need on top.
- Does the platform take a cut of each sale? That’s different from payment processing, which every online store pays. See our guide to transaction fees.
- Who handles hosting, security and updates? Hosted platforms do it for you; self-hosted software makes it your job.
- How easy is it day to day? Adding a product, shipping an order and changing a banner should take minutes, not a tutorial.
- What’s included and what’s an add-on? Reviews, discount codes, gift cards and abandoned-cart emails are built in on some platforms and paid extras on others.
- Can you leave? Check that you can export your products and import them somewhere else before you commit.
The alternatives at a glance
| Platform | Entry price (list) | Platform fee on sales | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Basic: $39/mo, or $29/mo billed yearly | 2% on Basic if you don’t use Shopify Payments | Stores that want the largest app ecosystem |
| WooCommerce | Free plugin; you pay for hosting and extensions | None from WooCommerce itself | WordPress users who want full control |
| Wix | Core: $36/mo, or $29/mo billed yearly | No added commission on plans that sell | Small businesses whose website comes first |
| Squarespace | Basic: $25/mo, or $19/mo billed yearly | 2% on Basic; 0% from Core ($39/mo, or $29/mo billed yearly) | Design-led brands and creators |
| BigCommerce | Core: $39/mo, or $29/mo billed yearly | None with its embedded payment providers; 2% on Core with others | Growing catalogs that want features built in |
| Shopping Master | Free; Pro $15/mo; Business $35/mo | None, on any plan | Small stores that want low fixed costs |
Prices are list prices published by each provider as of October–November 2026, monthly billing unless noted, and they change often. Payment processing (for example, Stripe’s fee on each card payment) applies on every platform and isn’t included in this table.
The alternatives, one by one
WooCommerce: maximum control, maximum responsibility
WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin that turns a WordPress site into a store. You can change nearly anything, choose any host and add thousands of extensions. The trade-off is that you run the whole thing: hosting, backups, security patches, plugin updates and the occasional conflict between two plugins. Its own payment service, WooPayments, lists 2.9% + $0.30 for US cards with no monthly fee (WooPayments fees). Choose it if you already live in WordPress or have a developer; skip it if you’d rather spend your time selling than maintaining. We compare it in detail on our WooCommerce alternative page.
Wix: a website builder that also sells
Wix is first a drag-and-drop website builder, and a very approachable one. Its paid plans that accept payments (Core and above) let you sell products alongside a full business website, with bookings, a blog and forms on the same site, and Wix doesn’t add a commission on top of payment processing. It’s a good fit when the store is one part of a bigger site. Stores that live and breathe inventory, variants and order volume may find a dedicated ecommerce tool faster to run.
Squarespace: polished design out of the box
Squarespace is known for templates that look great with little effort, which is why photographers, designers and lifestyle brands like it. Commerce is solid for small catalogs. Watch the plan you pick: according to Squarespace’s pricing page, its Basic plan charges a 2% fee on online store sales, while Core and higher plans don’t. Choose it when brand presentation is the priority and the catalog is modest.
BigCommerce: lots built in, priced by sales
BigCommerce includes many features that are apps elsewhere, and it handles large catalogs and B2B needs well. Two things to know before signing up. Plans are tied to your online sales: Core automatically upgrades to Growth once you pass $30,000 in trailing twelve-month sales. And since its 2026 plan changes, Core adds a 2% fee on orders paid through providers outside its embedded list (BigCommerce pricing, as of November 2026). It’s a strong option for a store that expects to grow fast and wants fewer apps.
Shopping Master: start free, keep every sale
Shopping Master is a hosted platform built for small and medium stores. You can start on the Free plan with no card, list unlimited products and sell right away. Pro ($15 a month) adds your own domain, product reviews, gift cards, digital downloads, abandoned-cart recovery, exportable reports and up to 5 team members; Business ($35 a month) adds the API, webhooks and unlimited staff. Shopping Master takes no commission on your sales on any plan. Customers pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through your own Stripe account, so Stripe’s processing fee still applies to each card payment, and you can also take bank transfers and cash.
It does a few things differently, too: it imports your Shopify catalog from Shopify’s CSV export, variants included, and you can connect an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT to handle day-to-day tasks (how that works). To be fair about the limits: it’s a younger platform with a much smaller ecosystem than Shopify, it doesn’t calculate US sales tax for you (you enter your rates), and it doesn’t buy carrier shipping labels. You can click around a live store at the demo store before signing up.
Which one should you choose?
- You want every integration and expect to scale fast: stay with Shopify, or look at BigCommerce.
- You already run a WordPress site and have technical help: WooCommerce.
- Your website (services, bookings, content) matters as much as the store: Wix or Squarespace.
- You’re starting out, sell a focused catalog and want the lowest fixed cost with no cut of your sales: Shopping Master’s Free or Pro plan.
- You sell mostly through Instagram or in person and need a simple checkout link: any hosted option works, so pick the lowest fixed cost you’re comfortable with.
Whatever you pick, run the numbers with your own volume. A 2% fee on $3,000 of monthly sales is $60 a month; on $30,000 it’s $600. Our cost breakdown walks through a full example.
How to move from Shopify without starting over
Switching platforms is less work than it sounds if you go in order:
- In Shopify, export your products: Products › Export › All products › CSV for Excel.
- In Shopping Master, open Products › Import products › From Shopify and drop the file. A preview shows new products, matches and warnings (for example, products without a price or an image) before anything is saved. Step by step: Import products.
- Check a few products end to end: photos, variants, prices and stock. Photos are copied to your new store, so they don’t depend on the old one.
- Set up payments and shipping, then place a test order.
- Point your domain to the new store (Settings › Domain settings, from the Pro plan), and only then cancel the old plan.
Keep the old store running until the new one has taken real orders. A week of overlap costs little and removes most of the risk.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free alternative to Shopify?
Yes. WooCommerce is free software, though you pay for hosting. Shopping Master has a Free plan with no card required and unlimited products; you only pay Stripe’s processing fee when a customer pays by card. Check what each free option leaves out before you commit.
Which Shopify alternatives have no transaction fees?
Several add no platform fee: WooCommerce, Wix on its plans that accept payments, Squarespace from Core up, BigCommerce with its embedded payment providers, and Shopping Master on every plan. Payment processing fees apply everywhere.
Can I move my products from Shopify to another platform?
Usually, yes, through a CSV export. Shopping Master imports Shopify’s product CSV directly, with variants and photos, and shows a preview before saving anything.
Is Shopify better than its alternatives?
For some stores, yes: if you need a specific app, advanced multichannel selling or a large partner network, it’s hard to beat. For a small store that wants low costs and simple tools, an alternative can do the same core job for less.
See if Shopping Master fits your store: start on the Free plan, import your catalog and place a test order before you pay anything. Create your store for free