Shopify alternatives for small stores in 2026: real costs and who each one suits

The short answer, by situation

• The store is the business and you can use Shopify Payments: stay on Shopify.
• You want to own the software, the data and the hosting: WooCommerce.
• You want a Shopify-style platform with no extra fee on Stripe or PayPal: BigCommerce.
• Design comes first and the shop is part of a wider site: Squarespace.
• You want a general business website that also sells: Wix.
• You like your current website and only need a shop on it: Ecwid by Lightspeed.
• You sell a handful of products as a side line: Big Cartel.
• You sell a small catalogue alongside a service and want enquiries and buyers in one CRM: WebNewBiz.

Why Shopify is still the default, and when to stay

Shopify does one job, selling online, and does it well. Checkout is quick and familiar, stock, shipping and tax sit in one admin, and you can sell through social channels, marketplaces and a shop counter from the same place. Its app and theme stores are far larger than those of the other hosted builders here.

Stay if Shopify Payments works for your country and business, the store brings in most of your revenue, your apps clearly earn their keep, or the store already ranks and sells. A move costs time, and rankings can wobble while Google recrawls the new site.

Where a small store's Shopify bill really comes from

Each reason below is checked against Shopify's own pages in October 2026. Prices are US prices.

• The plan. Basic is $29 a month billed yearly or $39 monthly. Grow is $79 or $105, and Advanced is $299 or $399.
• An extra fee without Shopify Payments. With a third-party payment provider, Shopify adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced, on top of the provider's own charges.
• Shopify Payments is not everywhere. Shopify's help centre lists around 40 countries and regions; India and Brazil are not among them. If your country or business category is not supported, you must use a third-party provider, so the extra fee is not optional.
• App creep. Reviews, upsells, subscriptions, better search, SMS. Many apps bill monthly on top of your plan, and every $10 app is $120 a year.
• Themes. The free themes are fine, but paid themes are a one-off purchase that commonly costs a few hundred dollars.
• A separate CRM. Shopify Email includes 10,000 emails a month, then $1 per 1,000, which covers newsletters. A pipeline for enquiries, quotes and bookings means an app or another subscription.
• A small catalogue next to a service. Think of a salon selling its own haircare. Shopify is built around orders, so the service side lives elsewhere.
• The $5 option has gone. Shopify Starter, $5 a month with a 5% fee on sales, is no longer available to new stores, according to Shopify's help centre.

What a 50-order month costs on each platform

Assume 50 orders a month at an average of $40, so $2,000 in sales, paid with US cards. Shopify Payments on Basic, Stripe, WooPayments, Wix Payments and Squarespace Payments on Basic and Core all charge 2.9% + 30¢ per US card payment, which makes card fees $58 plus 50 times 30¢: $73 a month. Yearly billing where offered; apps, themes and domains left out.

• Most platforms land near $100. Card fees are the biggest line on every one, and no platform removes them.
• The 2% fee is the real swing: $480 a year at this volume. Squarespace Core beats Basic once you sell over $500 a month, since 2% of $500 is the $10 gap between plans. Moving from Shopify Basic to Grow to halve the fee only pays off above $5,000 a month in sales.
• Apps and the CRM make the difference. Add three $15 apps and Shopify Basic is $147 a month, before any separate CRM.
• Watch for sales caps. BigCommerce Core allows $30,000 in sales over a rolling 12 months. This example is $24,000 a year, so it fits; at a $60 average order you would need Growth at $79.
• International cards cost more. Stripe and WooPayments add 1.5% for cards issued outside the US.

Full ecommerce platforms: WooCommerce and BigCommerce

WooCommerce is a free plugin that turns a WordPress site into a store. You own the software and the data, there is no product limit, and WooCommerce takes nothing from your sales. You pay for hosting, any premium extensions and card processing; WooPayments has no monthly fee and charges 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards. To skip running a server, WordPress.com's Commerce plan includes WooCommerce for $45 a month billed yearly.

Good fit: full control or a large, unusual catalogue. Watch out for: self-hosted updates, security and backups are your job, and paid extensions add up like Shopify apps. See AI website builder vs WordPress.

BigCommerce is the closest like-for-like rival to Shopify. It renamed its plans on 1 June 2026: Core is $29 a month billed yearly ($39 monthly), Growth $79 ($105) and Scale $299 ($399). There is no extra fee with its built-in payment providers, which include Stripe, PayPal, Adyen and Klarna; other providers now cost 2% on Core, 1% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale.

Good fit: a product-led store on Stripe or PayPal. Watch out for: sales caps ($30,000 a year on Core, $100,000 on Growth) and fewer themes and apps than Shopify.

Website builders that sell well enough: Squarespace and Wix

Squarespace suits a business where the look of the site matters as much as the shop. After a July 2026 price rise, US plans are Basic at $19 a month, Core $29, Plus $49 and Advanced $99, billed yearly. Basic adds a 2% fee on store sales, which disappears from Core up.

Good fit: design-led brands and studios with a shop attached. Watch out for: the 2% on Basic and a closed platform with far fewer extensions than Shopify. More in Squarespace alternatives.

Wix is a general business builder with a capable store. Selling starts on Core at $29 a month, then Business at $39 and Business Elite at $159, billed yearly; the $17 Light plan cannot take payments. Wix Payments charges 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards and Wix takes no commission.

Good fit: pages, bookings and a modest store in one place. Watch out for: you cannot switch templates on an existing site, and the site cannot be hosted elsewhere. See Wix alternatives.

A shop for the site you already have: Ecwid by Lightspeed

Ecwid adds a store to an existing website, including WordPress, Wix and Squarespace sites, and charges no setup or transaction fees on any plan. Starter is about $5 a month for up to 10 products, Venture $29 a month billed yearly ($35 monthly) for 100, Business $49 ($65) for 2,500 and Unlimited $119 ($149). The free plan has gone, and larger plans rose in price in March 2026.

Good fit: an established site that needs a shop without a rebuild. Watch out for: product caps, and two systems to look after.

Tiny catalogues: Big Cartel, and what happened to Shopify Starter

Big Cartel is built for artists, makers and small brands. Gold is free for up to 5 products, Platinum is $12 a month billed yearly ($15 monthly) for 50, and Diamond is $24 ($30) for 500. Big Cartel charges no transaction fees; you pay only your card processor.

Good fit: a side line or a first test of demand. Watch out for: the 500-product ceiling and basic SEO. Independent reviews note you cannot redirect product addresses, which matters when moving a store that ranks.

With Shopify Starter closed to new stores, the realistic choices for a tiny catalogue are Big Cartel, Ecwid Starter or Shopify Basic at $29.

Store, website and CRM together: WebNewBiz

This is our platform, so weigh this section accordingly. WebNewBiz suits a business that sells a modest catalogue alongside a service and wants the website, store and customer records in one system. You describe your business, the AI drafts the pages, layout and copy, and you change things by chatting with the AI Copilot. The online store has a cart and secure checkout, takes cards through Stripe plus Apple Pay and Google Pay, and runs on WooCommerce, Shopify or WebNewBiz's own engine.

The store starts on Starter at $29 a month. Growth at $79 adds the AI CRM with 3,000 contacts: site enquiries land in it automatically, store buyers become contacts, leads are scored, and deals, tasks, bookings and self-chasing invoices sit alongside. Hosting, SSL and a full WordPress CMS come with every plan, the first month is $1, yearly billing is cheaper and there is no minimum contract. Details are on the pricing page.

Good fit: a salon, studio, clinic or consultancy that sells some products and lives on enquiries and repeat customers. Watch out for: a far smaller app ecosystem than Shopify, and it is not built for large catalogues sold across many channels. The AI draft still needs your own photos and facts, and the $9 Lite plan has no store. New to CRMs? Read your first CRM for a small business.

Shopify alternatives side by side

US dollars per month in October 2026, yearly billing unless noted. Card processing applies everywhere and is not shown.

How to move products, customers and orders without losing rankings

Google ranks page addresses and the content on them, not the platform underneath. Keep both, redirect what has to change, and most of your traffic follows you.

1. Keep Shopify open until the import is done. Shopify's product CSV does not contain image files; Shopify says images only come across while they stay publicly viewable. Download your best images as a backup.
2. Export products, customers and orders as CSV files from the Shopify admin, including customer tags and order transaction history. Ask the new platform how it imports past orders, and keep the CSV as your record either way.
3. Plan for passwords. Customer passwords cannot be moved between platforms, so email imported customers once asking them to set a new one.
4. Build a redirect map. Shopify fixes the start of its addresses: /products/, /collections/, /pages/ and /blogs/news/ for the default blog. Your new platform will differ (WooCommerce uses /product/ by default), so list every old address beside its new one.
5. Add permanent 301 redirects to the closest new page, not all to the homepage. Google advises keeping them "for as long as possible, generally at least 1 year." Check the new platform allows redirects on your plan.
6. Keep the same domain. A domain bought through Shopify can be transferred out, but not within 60 days of buying it, transferring it in or changing its registration details, and the transfer must finish within 30 days of getting the code. See our domains page.
7. Pause rather than close. Shopify's lower-cost Pause and Build plan keeps your admin and data available while shoppers can browse but not buy. Cancel apps you no longer need, as they bill separately.
8. Tell Google and test. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console, try some old product addresses, place a test order, and allow a few weeks for rankings to settle.

Quick answers

What is the cheapest alternative to Shopify for a small store?

For a handful of products, Big Cartel is free for up to 5 and $12 a month billed yearly for up to 50, and Ecwid Starter is about $5 a month for up to 10. For a full store, most rivals start near $29 a month, so the real savings come from avoiding extra sales fees and paid apps.

Which Shopify alternatives charge no transaction fees?

WooCommerce, Wix, Ecwid and Big Cartel add no fee of their own, Squarespace adds none from Core up, and BigCommerce adds none with built-in providers such as Stripe or PayPal. Card processing fees still apply everywhere.

Does Shopify charge extra if I cannot use Shopify Payments?

Yes. With a third-party provider, Shopify adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced, on top of the provider's fees. Shopify Payments covers around 40 countries and regions, so sellers elsewhere pay this on every card order.

Is the $5 Shopify Starter plan still available?

Not for new stores. Shopify's help centre says Starter is not available to new stores, and existing users who change plan cannot switch back. The cheapest option for a new store is Basic at $29 a month billed yearly.

Can I leave Shopify without losing my Google rankings?

Yes, if you keep the same domain, 301 redirect every changed address to its closest new page, and keep those redirects for at least a year. Expect some movement for a few weeks while Google recrawls the site.

Related guides

• Does Shopify have a CRM? What is built in, what is missing and what it costs
• Best AI ecommerce website builders: an honest cost comparison
• How to move from Etsy to your own website

See what your store would look like

If a website, a store and your customer records in one place sounds closer to how your business works, let the AI Website Builder draft a site and see how it handles your products. You can start for $1, keep your Shopify store running while you compare, and only move the domain once you are sure. If Shopify or another option here suits you better, that is a good outcome too.