Shopify runs a large share of the online stores you shop from, but it is not the only way to sell online. Plenty of platforms do the same core job, giving you a storefront, a checkout, and the tools to manage products and orders. The real question is not whether alternatives exist. It is whether one of them fits your catalog, your budget, and how much control you want better than Shopify does.<\/p>\n
This comparison looks at the Shopify competitors that store owners actually shortlist: WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and Big Cartel for very small sellers. For each one we cover what it costs, how it handles transaction fees and hosting, and the situations where it genuinely beats Shopify. We drop the obscure platforms nobody searches for and give the real contenders room instead.<\/p>\n
We build our tools around detecting what platform and apps a store runs on, so we spend a lot of time looking at how these platforms show up in the wild. Where a rival does something better than Shopify, we say so.<\/p>\n
The table below lines up Shopify against its main rivals on the four things that decide most choices: starting price, transaction fees, hosting model, and who the platform suits. Every price and fee was checked against each platform\u2019s own pricing page as of September 2026. Prices can change, so treat the table as a starting point and confirm the current figure before you commit.<\/p>\n A quick word on how to read it. Theme and app costs are not in the table because they vary by store, and enterprise platforms like Adobe Commerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud do not publish prices at all, so those cells say so plainly rather than guessing. The sections below add the detail behind each row.<\/p>\n WooCommerce is the most widely used alternative, and it works differently from everything else here. It is a free, open-source plugin that turns a WordPress site into a store, so there is no monthly platform fee at all. You supply the hosting, the domain, and any premium extensions you want. That is the trade: you get complete ownership of your store and its data, unlimited customization, and WordPress\u2019s content and SEO tooling, but you also take on updates, security, and performance yourself.<\/p>\n Where it beats Shopify: cost structure and control. There is no platform subscription and no added sales fee, so at higher volumes you keep more of each order. If content marketing sits at the center of your store, WordPress is hard to match. The catch is that free software still needs paid hosting, and a store that grows will eventually need a developer. WooCommerce is free to download from WooCommerce.com, which is the figure worth remembering when you compare it against a hosted monthly plan.<\/p>\n BigCommerce is the closest like-for-like Shopify competitor. It is fully hosted, priced almost identically (Core at $39 a month, Growth at $105, and Scale at $399, as of September 2026 on BigCommerce\u2019s own pricing page), and aimed at stores with larger catalogs. Its headline difference is that it charges no transaction fees on any plan, whatever payment gateway you use, where Shopify adds a fee unless you run Shopify Payments.<\/p>\n Where it beats Shopify: transaction fees and built-in features. A lot of what needs a paid app on Shopify, such as faceted search, product reviews, or more flexible B2B pricing, is native in BigCommerce, which can lower your real monthly cost once apps are counted. The trade-off is a smaller app marketplace and a narrower theme selection than Shopify\u2019s.<\/p>\n Squarespace is a design-first website builder with commerce attached. It is cheaper to start than Shopify (Basic at $19 a month, Core at $27, and Advanced at $36, as of September 2026 on Squarespace\u2019s pricing page) and its templates are widely rated the best-looking out of the box. On the Core and Advanced plans it charges no transaction fees on standard product sales; the entry Basic plan adds a 2% fee.<\/p>\n Where it beats Shopify: design and price for a small store. If you sell a limited range of products and care most about a polished site, or you are a photographer, restaurant, or service business that also sells a few things, Squarespace does more for less. It is not built for large catalogs, complex shipping, or the heavy third-party integration that Shopify handles.<\/p>\n Wix is the easiest full-site builder in this group. Its drag-and-drop editor lets non-technical owners place anything anywhere, and its commerce-capable Core plan starts at $29 a month, with Business at $39 and Business Elite at $159 (as of September 2026 on Wix\u2019s plans page; displayed prices vary by country). Wix does not add its own commission on top of payment processing.<\/p>\n Where it beats Shopify: ease of use and breadth for very small businesses. For a store that is really a website with a shop attached, plus bookings, blogging, or a portfolio, Wix is quicker to stand up and cheaper to run. Shopify pulls ahead as soon as you need serious inventory management, multichannel selling, or a large app stack.<\/p>\n Adobe Commerce, the platform still widely known as Magento, sits at the enterprise end. Adobe does not publish pricing: it is quote-based and scales with your sales volume, which puts it out of reach for most small stores. In return you get near-unlimited customization, multi-store and multi-region support, and deep B2B features, running either self-hosted or on Adobe\u2019s cloud.<\/p>\n Where it beats Shopify: customization ceiling and complex catalogs. For a large retailer with unusual requirements and a development team, Adobe Commerce can do things Shopify will not. For everyone else, the cost and the complexity are the reasons to stay on a hosted platform like Shopify.<\/p>\n Salesforce Commerce Cloud is another enterprise platform, sold as part of the wider Salesforce ecosystem. Like Adobe, Salesforce does not publish a price list; deals are quote-based and, according to independent industry analyses, are usually billed as a percentage of the sales you run through the platform. Its pull is tight integration with Salesforce CRM, marketing, and service, along with strong AI-driven personalization.<\/p>\n Where it beats Shopify: enterprise CRM and personalization. If your company already runs on Salesforce and you want commerce, service, and customer data in one system, this is a natural fit. It is not a platform a small or mid-size store would shortlist.<\/p>\n At the opposite end, Big Cartel is built for artists, makers, and anyone selling a handful of products. There is a genuinely free plan, and paid plans are a flat $15 or $30 a month (as of September 2026 on Big Cartel\u2019s pricing page) rather than a percentage of sales. Big Cartel describes its pricing as straightforward with no hidden fees, and it keeps the feature set deliberately small: list your products, take payment, done.<\/p>\n Where it beats Shopify: price and simplicity for tiny stores. If you sell prints, music, or a small line of goods, Big Cartel costs less and asks far less of you than Shopify. It is not designed to grow into a large operation, so most sellers move up to something bigger if the store takes off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shopify runs a large share of the online stores you shop from, but it is not the only way to sell online. Plenty of platforms do the same core job,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_metatitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-shopify-information"],"acf":{"breadcrumbs":null,"conclusion":" For most people building a growing store from scratch, Shopify is still the safe default. It has the largest app ecosystem, a checkout that converts well, strong point-of-sale and multichannel selling, and a shorter path from idea to live store than almost anything else. That is why it lands on so many shortlists, and why it is the platform its competition is measured against.<\/p>\n But a safe default is not the same as the best choice for you, and there are honest reasons to pick a rival. Choose WooCommerce or Adobe Commerce if control and customization matter more than convenience. Choose BigCommerce if Shopify's extra transaction fees or its reliance on paid apps bother you. Choose Squarespace or Wix if you sell a small range and care about design and price. Choose Big Cartel if you just need to sell a few items without a monthly commitment. The single platform that wins every category does not exist, which is the whole point of comparing.<\/p>\n A useful last step before you decide: look at stores already doing what you want to do, and see what they are built on. You can check the theme and apps behind any Shopify store with our free Shopify store detector<\/a>, which is a faster way to judge whether Shopify's setup matches your plans than reading another feature list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n \nPlatform<\/th>\n Starting price (Sept 2026)<\/th>\n Transaction fees<\/th>\n Hosting model<\/th>\n Best for<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Shopify<\/th>\n From $39\/mo (Basic)<\/td>\n 0% with Shopify Payments; 2% to 0.2% with other gateways<\/td>\n Fully hosted<\/td>\n Growing stores that want the largest app ecosystem<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n WooCommerce<\/th>\n Free plugin (you pay for hosting)<\/td>\n None from WooCommerce; payment processor fees apply<\/td>\n Self-hosted (WordPress)<\/td>\n WordPress users who want full control<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n BigCommerce<\/th>\n From $39\/mo (Core)<\/td>\n 0% on every plan and gateway<\/td>\n Fully hosted<\/td>\n Larger catalogs and B2B<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Squarespace<\/th>\n From $19\/mo (Basic)<\/td>\n 2% on Basic; 0% on Core and Advanced<\/td>\n Fully hosted<\/td>\n Design-led small stores and creatives<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Wix<\/th>\n From $29\/mo (Core)<\/td>\n No added platform fee beyond payment processing<\/td>\n Fully hosted<\/td>\n DIY small businesses and service sellers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Adobe Commerce<\/th>\n Custom quote (not public)<\/td>\n None from the platform; you run your own gateways<\/td>\n Self-hosted or Adobe cloud<\/td>\n Enterprises with development teams<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Salesforce Commerce Cloud<\/th>\n Custom quote (not public)<\/td>\n Not published; usually a share of sales<\/td>\n Fully hosted (Salesforce)<\/td>\n Enterprises already on Salesforce<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Big Cartel<\/th>\n Free plan; paid from $15\/mo<\/td>\n No added platform fees<\/td>\n Fully hosted<\/td>\n Artists and makers with a few products<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table> WooCommerce<\/h2>\n
BigCommerce<\/h2>\n
Squarespace<\/h2>\n
Wix<\/h2>\n
Adobe Commerce (Magento)<\/h2>\n
Salesforce Commerce Cloud<\/h2>\n
Big Cartel<\/h2>\n
So should you use something other than Shopify?<\/h2>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n