Shopify is the go-to e-commerce solution for hundreds of thousands of small and midsize businesses. But it’s not the only option — far from it.
And, as any merchant who’s used its tools knows, Shopify is definitely not the cheapest e-commerce provider on the block. Satisfied customers would argue that you get what you pay for, but budget-conscious small-business owners can’t afford to ignore lower-cost competitors.
Before you throw in your lot with Shopify, check out this list of the most popular and merchant-friendly Shopify competitors on the market.
Top E-Commerce Alternatives to Shopify
In no particular order, these are the top alternatives to Shopify. Most require merchants to sign up for paid subscriptions, but some stick to the “freemium” pricing plan model and allow smaller shops to get by without a recurring monthly charge.
Bear in mind that not all fees inherent in e-commerce activity, such as shipping rates and import duties, are reflected in eCommerce site fees.
Unless otherwise noted, all of these Shopify alternatives offer basic security features like SSL certificates and basic inventory management capabilities.
However, not all have built-in, middleman-free payment systems a la Shopify Payments or free domain names (though an increasing number do). And customer support can vary widely by platform.
1. Volusion
- Payment Options: All major U.S. credit card networks, PayPal, Stripe, and others; contact Volusion for a complete list
- Transaction Fees: None, but credit card processing fees still apply
- Additional Fees: Various fees for optional one-off services (Quick Wins), such as Google Analytics training ($200) and image ad asset creation ($100)
- Web Hosting: Hosted
- Coding Required: No
- Ideal For: Smaller businesses looking for a professional, customized look and third-party integrations
Plans and Pricing
Volusion has three paid e-commerce plans, plus a customized Prime solution for enterprise customers. All begin with a 14-day free trial and offer unlimited products and storage capacity. A 10% discount applies to plans paid quarterly.
- Personal Plan: $29 per month. Personal supports phone and manual orders and integrates with drop-shipping solutions (direct shipments from the warehouse to the customer).
- Professional Plan: $79 per month. Professional supports bulk ordering and orders processed through fulfillment centers.
- Business Plan: $299 per month. Business customers get a dedicated customer success team, traffic growth consultation, and $150 in monthly Quick Wins credits.
- Prime: Prime pricing is customized. Users enjoy real-time support via Slack and can add multiple administrators to their accounts.
Although Volusion doesn’t have a free plan, its entry-level Personal plan costs about as much as Shopify’s basic plan.
The shop design process is pretty hands-on and requires no coding, so even the most tech-averse, design-blind shop owners have little trouble putting together professional-looking stores. However, anecdotal feedback from Volusion users suggests that this e-commerce website isn’t super user-friendly once shops are up and running.
Like Shopify, Volusion doesn’t charge transaction fees, which is a big advantage over the competition.
And there are no required or hidden fees other than the monthly membership fee, although Volusion pushes its paid Quick Wins services, offering monthly credits against them to merchants in higher-cost plans.
2. SquareSpace
- Payment Options: All major U.S. credit cards, Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, and others; contact SquareSpace for a complete list
- Transaction Fees: 3% for Business plan users; none for Basic Commerce and Advanced Commerce plan users. Credit card processing fees still apply.
- Additional Fees: Additional fees for domains and email accounts purchased through SquareSpace (not required as part of any membership plan)
- Web Hosting: Hosted
- Coding Required: No
- Ideal For: Businesses of all sizes seeking all-in-one website builder and e-commerce solutions
Plans and Pricing
SquareSpace has four online store plans. All come with annual payment discounts — 30% for Business and 13% for Basic and Advanced Commerce.
- Personal: $12 per month when paid annually. Includes a free custom domain, unlimited data and storage, basic performance metrics, and up to two contributors (users).
- Business: $18 per month when paid annually. Includes unlimited products and bandwidth and integrates with specialized third-party apps such as OpenTable.
- Basic Commerce: $26 per month when paid annually. Includes unlimited products and bandwidth and a checkout portal on your own domain (rather than SquareSpace’s).
- Advanced Commerce: $40 per month when paid annually. Includes everything in the basic plan, plus abandoned cart auto-recovery, a subscription sales feature, and more.
SquareSpace isn’t just an e-commerce platform — it’s a full-service website builder that caters to small and midsize business owners. Many businesses use it to design professional-looking websites at low cost, without assistance from pricey developers or designers.
SquareSpace sets itself apart with crisp, attractive themes and an intuitive design process that requires no coding whatsoever.
Its Business plan is significantly cheaper than Shopify’s basic business plan, and higher-priced plans include value-added features — such as integrations with third-party cloud services like the OpenTable reservation platform — that many competitors lack.
Its Basic and Advanced Commerce plans also waive transaction fees for customers using third-party payment processors.
If you’re operating on a tight budget, check out SquareSpace’s Personal website builder plan, which starts at $12 per month. SquareSpace doesn’t offer sophisticated e-commerce tools at this price point, but it’s a good starting point for solopreneurs.
3. CoreCommerce
- Payment Options: All major U.S. credit cards, PayPal, Amazon Pay, and others; contact CoreCommerce for a complete list
- Transaction Fees: 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, regardless of plan level. Fees apply to CoreCommerce’s CorePayments Processing solution only — other gateways have different fee structures.
- Additional Fees: 0.5% plus $0.10 per transaction fee for payments not processed through CorePayments
- Web Hosting: Hosted — a semi-dedicated server is available
- Coding Required: Not essential, but CoreCommerce provides coding support for an additional fee
- Ideal For: Larger companies and smaller firms looking for a fully customizable solution
Plans and Pricing
CoreCommerce has five plan levels. We can’t include every detail here, so check the company’s pricing page for the full picture. A 10% discount applies to plans paid annually.
- Entrepreneur: This is a free “teaser” plan that aims to get new CoreCommerce customers in the door. It offers unlimited products and all the features and capabilities of higher-priced plans.
- Basic: $29 per month. Includes 10 products and unlimited storage.
- Pro: $79 per month. Includes 300 products and 30 minutes of onboarding support.
- Business: $229 per month. Includes unlimited products, 60 minutes of onboarding support, and 30 minutes of monthly custom programming support.
- Enterprise: Customized pricing. Includes 90 minutes of onboarding support and 90 minutes of monthly custom programming support.
CoreCommerce is all about scale. While its smallest plan is designed for independent, small-time sellers, its largest plan has the firepower to support enterprise-grade e-commerce platforms. In between, there’s room for just about everyone else.
CoreCommerce has dozens of free custom themes and more than 100 integrations with leading payment gateways, logistics companies, social media platforms, customer relationship management solutions, and more.
It’s also customizable to a greater extent than most other e-commerce solutions, with far more optimization potential as a result. This is a key selling point if you have in-house developer talent or the budget to upgrade to a plan that offers monthly credit for programming support.
CoreCommerce is pricier than most competitors. Your plan level depends in part on how many different products you sell, so if you’re running a full-time operation, you’ll likely need the $79-per-month Pro plan at least.
That said, you get what you pay for — the term “feature rich” doesn’t even begin to describe CoreCommerce.
4. BigCartel
- Payment Options: All major U.S. credit cards, PayPal, Stripe, Square (in-person only), cash (in-person only)
- Transaction Fees: Varies depending on payment processor
- Additional Fees: Possible listing fees for Gold plan users
- Web Hosting: Hosted
- Coding Required: No, but theme codes are customizable
- Ideal For: Lower-volume sellers in creative industries
Plans and Pricing
BigCartel has three reasonably priced plans. Big sellers should take note of the Diamond plan’s 500-product limit.
- Gold: Free. Limit of one image per product.
- Platinum: $9.99 per month. Allows up to five images per product and additional features like bulk product editing.
- Diamond: $19.99 per month. Allows up to 500 products with five images per product, plus all the other features and capabilities of the Platinum plan.
BigCartel is an e-commerce solution by and for creative people. It claims nearly 1 million active makers, designers, musicians, and other artists as customers — an impressive portfolio in a notoriously volatile industry.
BigCartel is explicitly designed for lower-volume sellers — often craftspeople and artists who sell products made by themselves or by people they know.
Because you can’t sell more than 500 distinct products on BigCartel, the platform doesn’t have the scalability factor of most competitors and isn’t appropriate for larger enterprises with lots of goods.
On the bright side, BigCartel has lots of capabilities offered by higher-volume, higher-priced competitors. Custom store themes confer a professional, bespoke look. Paid plans come with custom domains, so you don’t have to direct customers to “yourstore.bigcartel.com.”
There’s more. A seamless Facebook integration lets you sell directly through the world’s largest social media network.
And a mobile app lets you take orders and process payments in person — a powerful capability for creatives who close lots of sales at trade shows, fairs, festivals, and similar gatherings.
5. Shift4Shop
- Payment Options: All major U.S. credit cards and more than 200 gateway options; contact Shift4Shop for a full list
- Transaction Fees: None, but credit card processing and gateway fees may still apply
- Additional Fees: Nonrequired a la carte services may cost extra, such as dropshipping support ($9.99 per month)
- Web Hosting: Hosted
- Coding Required: No
- Ideal For: High-volume sellers and smaller sellers looking to scale
Plans and Pricing
Shift4Shop has four plans. All plans allow for unlimited products, bandwidth, and file storage, and charge no additional transaction fees for businesses using Shift4Shop’s payment gateway (Shift4 Payments).
- End-to-End Ecommerce: Totally free. Available to U.S. merchants only, this is Shift4Shop’s most generous plan, allowing unlimited users and no transaction limits. The catch: Plan holders must use Shift4 Payments, Shift4Shop’s in-house payment processor.
- Basic: $29 per month. Allows two staff users. Additional features include daily deals, group deals, and an affiliate program.
- Plus: $79 per month. Allows five staff users. Additional features include an abandoned cart saver, store credit, and a rewards program.
- Pro: $229 per month when paid annually. Allows 15 staff users. Additional features include pre-orders and shipment delivery notifications.
Shift4Shop (formerly 3dcart) is a feature-rich, premium e-commerce solution built for ambitious sellers.
The cheapest paid plan is about $30 per month, roughly in line with Shopify, but U.S.-based merchants can (and should) take advantage of an ultra-premium free plan (End-to-End Ecommerce) that offers unlimited users and a vast array of capabilities with no monthly fee.
Whichever Shift4Shop plan you choose, you can count on good value: unlimited products and bandwidth across all plans, professional-grade SEO, dozens of custom themes, comprehensive logistical support, clutch software integrations including eBay and MailChimp, CRM support, customer reviews, tax and accounting support, and much more.
With a dizzying array of payment partners (more than 200) and a slew of useful integrations — not just eBay and MailChimp, but also Facebook, Google Customer Reviews, and others — Shift4Shop is built for savvy sellers serious about maximizing their market reach.
6. Ecwid
- Payment Options: U.S. credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Square, and more; contact Ecwid for a full list
- Transaction Fees: None, but processing fees may apply
- Additional Fees: Nonrequired a la carte services may come with additional fees, such as online store setup ($100 and up)
- Web Hosting: Hosted or self-hosted, depending on which plan you choose
- Coding Required: No, but may be necessary to customize shops
- Ideal For: Smaller businesses looking for a lightweight, turnkey solution
Plans and Pricing
Ecwid has four plans, including a solid free option. All plans, including the free option, include unlimited bandwidth. There’s a roughly 17% discount for plans paid annually:
- Free: The free plan includes simultaneous selling, integrates with any website, and allows 10 products.
- Venture: $12.50 per month when paid annually. Includes an abandoned cart saver, mobile point of sale, built-in discount coupons, and other value-added features. Allows 100 products.
- Business: $29.17 per month when paid annually. Includes staff accounts and other advanced features. Allows 2,500 products.
- Unlimited: $82.50 per month when paid annually. Comes with all Ecwid features and unlimited products.
Ecwid is a lightweight e-commerce platform designed to integrate seamlessly with popular website builders like WordPress, Wix, and Weebly.
You can use Ecwid’s plugin to add a secure cart to an existing website or build a new store with Ecwid’s out-of-the-box Starter Site package, a single-page e-commerce portal with professional themes and a super-intuitive editor.
Ecwid also integrates with Facebook. The Business and Unlimited plans integrate with some other popular online marketplaces, including eBay and Google Shopping, as well.
Ecwid isn’t as easily customized as some competing online store builders. If you want to significantly alter the look and feel of your chosen theme, you need to customize the CSS code. That may involve a learning curve or paying a programmer.
On the bright side, Ecwid has a decent free version with unlimited bandwidth, simultaneous selling on multiple sites, and support for up to 10 products.
The free plan’s biggest drawback is probably the lack of advanced SEO (search engine optimization) tools, which is a problem for business owners relying on organic traffic directly to their stores.
The Venture plan, which costs less than 50% of Shopify’s base plan when paid annually and does include SEO tools, is fine for most small businesses.
7. BigCommerce Essentials
- Payment Options: U.S. credit cards, PayPal, Stripe, Square, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Adyen, and more than 200 others; contact BigCommerce for a complete list
- Transaction Fees: None, but credit card processing fees may apply
- Additional Fees: PayPal transactions may cost extra — up to 2.9% plus $0.30, depending on the plan
- Web Hosting: Hosted
- Coding Required: No
- Ideal For: Growing businesses and established enterprises looking for a scalable e-commerce solution
Plans and Pricing
BigCommerce Essentials has four plans. All come with unlimited products, file storage, bandwidth, and staff accounts. There’s a 10% discount on Plus and Pro plans paid annually.
- Standard: $29.95 per month. Includes online marketplace and social media integrations, single-page checkout, coupon and discount features, product ratings and reviews, and more. This plan allows up to $50,000 in gross sales on a trailing-12-month (TTM) basis.
- Plus: $79.95 per month when paid annually. Allows up to $180,000 in gross sales (TTM).
- Pro: $299.95 per month when paid annually. Accommodates up to $400,000 in gross sales (TTM).
- Enterprise: Customized pricing and a negotiable gross sales limit — contact BigCommerce for quotes.
BigCommerce Essentials — distinct from BigCommerce, which serves established companies — is built for growing businesses.
With dozens of free themes and an intuitive editor that requires no coding or specialized knowledge, BigCommerce Essentials makes it easy for lean companies to get their e-commerce operations up and running.
It also has an unusually large partner app network — you can download hundreds of useful apps, such as MailChimp and ShipStation, with a single click. Robust backend support sets BigCommerce Essentials apart from less feature-rich e-commerce solutions.
BigCommerce Essentials is pricier than many competitors, but the package speaks for itself. If you’re already an established e-commerce player, look into the fully customizable Enterprise plan option, which BigCommerce Essentials claims is always cheaper than comparable Shopify plans.
8. WooCommerce
- Payment Options: U.S. credit cards, PayPal, Amazon Payments, Stripe, and many more; contact WooCommerce for a complete list
- Transaction Fees: None, but payment processing fees may still apply
- Additional Fees: Variable fees for premium themes and extensions — for instance, the customizable Powerpack bundle costs a one-time $69 fee
- Web Hosting: Self-hosted (requires an existing WordPress website)
- Coding Required: No, but may be necessary to customize out-of-the-box stores
- Ideal For: Growing businesses looking for scalable, fully customizable solutions and comfortable with the effort necessary to create bespoke online stores
Plans and Pricing
WooCommerce’s basic Storefront product is free to download, but pretty much everything else you need to run a functional online store carries recurring or one-time fees.
WooCommerce bills itself as “the most customizable e-commerce platform for building your online business.” Although WooCommerce is not markedly easier to customize than some other flexible competitors, the tagline reveals something about WooCommerce’s approach — namely, that it’s trying to carve out a niche among growing sellers looking for bespoke e-commerce solutions.
With more than 30 million downloads, WooCommerce claims to support some 28% of all online stores. Its basic package is free, which is obviously great news for frugal sellers.
And it’s built on the WordPress site platform, so it’s intuitive to use and boasts a built-in blogging feature — a nice addition to any content marketing arsenal (and one of the best marketing features of any option on this list). All you have to do to get started is download the free WordPress plugin.
WooCommerce’s Achilles’ heel is the relative inflexibility of its out-of-the-box Storefront platform. If you want to customize your Storefront, you need to spend a lot of time downloading and purchasing the right extensions.
Final Word
These aren’t the only viable e-commerce software platforms for small-business owners. In fact, some of the biggest names in e-commerce aren’t on this list. I’m looking at you, Amazon. You too, eBay.
These are intentional omissions. Selling your products on Amazon and eBay — the so-called “Big Two” of online retail — is fundamentally different from hawking goods on any of the platforms listed here. If you think the Big Two are a good fit for your needs, check out our post on 10 eBay selling tips to maximize your profits.
I also failed to mention Etsy, the Internet’s best-known e-commerce platform for independent makers. If you make and sell your own products, an Etsy store can dramatically increase your visibility and reach — even if you continue to supplement it with a general-purpose e-commerce platform.
Ultimately, you know what your customers want. As you narrow down your e-commerce shortlist, keep the customer’s needs front and center.
