Merchants who go looking past Shopify are usually not unhappy with the storefront. They have added up the app subscriptions and payment fees, or they sell to business customers on pricing rules the platform resists. They tend to move either to a hosted rival with more built in, or to open-source software they run themselves.
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Shopify publishes its monthly plans, but our data puts the real bill elsewhere: the four or five apps that fill functional gaps, each with its own subscription, plus payment fees whenever you take money through anything other than Shopify Payments. Those fees are a percentage, so they grow with turnover while the plan stays flat.
A seller with price lists per customer, negotiated terms or a deeply structured catalogue finds that Shopify's data model pushes back. Larger merchants commonly answer this by putting a headless front end in front of it, which is a development project and removes much of the speed that made the platform attractive.
Shopify is a service, so upgrades arrive without effort from you, and so do deprecations. Teams that want the source code, control over hosting or full ownership of the store data cannot get those here, and that is a structural reason to leave, not a complaint about quality.
| Alternative | Country | Pricing | Our rank | Switch if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BigCommerce | United States | Per month by plan, published; 0.6% to 2% fee outside embedded payment providers | #2 | your app stack has become a second subscription and you would still prefer a hosted service |
| WooCommerce | United States | Free plugin; you pay for hosting and extensions | #1 | you already run WordPress and have someone technical to maintain it |
| Shopware | Germany | Free community edition; commercial plans quoted | #3 | complex B2B and tax rules are the reason Shopify stopped fitting |
| PrestaShop | France | Free download; modules and hosting paid | #4 | you want to own the software and have someone to maintain a server |
| Saleor | Poland | Free open source; cloud plans quoted | #6 | you were heading for a headless build on Shopify anyway and have a development team |
| Squarespace Commerce | United States | Per month by plan, published; 2% store fee on the Basic plan; 14-day trial only | #12 | you sell around fifty products and the look of the brand matters more than tooling |
| Wix eCommerce | Israel | Per month by plan, published; selling starts at the Core plan | #11 | the catalogue is small, will stay small and sits beside a marketing site |
| Ecwid by Lightspeed | United States | Free tier; paid per month by plan, published | #5 | the existing site is fine and rebuilding it was your objection to Shopify |
United States · Per month by plan, published; 0.6% to 2% fee outside embedded payment providers
Also hosted with published monthly plans, but it includes faceted search, customer groups and B2B pricing that Shopify leaves to apps, and charges no platform transaction fee. Its theme and agency ecosystem is thinner, and plans step up with trailing annual sales.
Switch from Shopify if your app stack has become a second subscription and you would still prefer a hosted service.
United States · Free plugin; you pay for hosting and extensions
Where Shopify rents you a store, WooCommerce is a free plugin inside WordPress: no platform fee on revenue and complete control of the data. Hosting, updates and security become your job, and extensions add up much as Shopify apps do.
Switch from Shopify if you already run WordPress and have someone technical to maintain it.
Germany · Free community edition; commercial plans quoted
Open-core software from Germany whose rule builder and B2B suite model the customer-specific pricing and tax handling that Shopify's data model resists. It is not self-service: expect an implementation partner and a budget closer to an ERP project than a Shopify launch.
Switch from Shopify if complex B2B and tax rules are the reason Shopify stopped fitting.
France · Free download; modules and hosting paid
Self-hosted open source from France, with commerce as the core of the system and a market of European payment and invoicing modules. Unlike Shopify, nobody upgrades it for you; module quality varies widely and major version upgrades can hurt.
Switch from Shopify if you want to own the software and have someone to maintain a server.
Poland · Free open source; cloud plans quoted
Shopify gives you a storefront and an app for each gap; Saleor gives you a GraphQL commerce back end and a dashboard, and leaves the customer-facing side entirely to your developers. Payments, tax and search become integration work you own.
Switch from Shopify if you were heading for a headless build on Shopify anyway and have a development team.
United States · Per month by plan, published; 2% store fee on the Basic plan; 14-day trial only
A hosted store like Shopify, but built around appearance: content and commerce share one editor, and a small catalogue looks polished with little effort. Reporting, apps and catalogue tooling are thin, where Shopify's app store is its strength.
Switch from Shopify if you sell around fifty products and the look of the brand matters more than tooling.
Squarespace Commerce, #12 of 14 in our ecommerce platform ranking →
Israel · Per month by plan, published; selling starts at the Core plan
A store attached to a drag-and-drop site builder, at a low entry price, that a non-technical owner can run alone. It trades Shopify's depth for ease: inventory logic, multi-currency and serious integrations reach ceilings quickly.
Switch from Shopify if the catalogue is small, will stay small and sits beside a marketing site.
Wix eCommerce, #11 of 14 in our ecommerce platform ranking →
United States · Free tier; paid per month by plan, published
Instead of replacing your website as a Shopify build would, Ecwid drops a catalogue and checkout into pages you already have and keeps the URLs, with a free tier to start. Catalogue depth, merchandising and reporting stop short of the dedicated platforms.
Switch from Shopify if the existing site is fine and rebuilding it was your objection to Shopify.
Ecwid by Lightspeed, #5 of 14 in our ecommerce platform ranking →
Stay on Shopify if the priority is selling this month instead of building all quarter. Nothing in our data gets a store live faster, and the checkout converts better than almost anything you would build yourself. For a consumer catalogue without customer-specific pricing, where payments run through Shopify Payments and the app list is short, the alternatives mostly add work or remove capability.
On Shopify a good part of the shop lives in apps. Write down what each one does and find where that function sits in the new platform: built in, as an extension, or as development work. That list, not the product export, determines how long the move takes.
Leaving for WooCommerce, PrestaShop or Shopware means upgrades stop happening on their own. Name the person or agency that applies security patches and runs major version upgrades, and price that retainer next to the Shopify invoices you are cancelling.
Shopify's checkout is one of the reasons to stay, so treat its replacement as the riskiest part. Compare payment and platform fees under the new arrangement at current turnover and at three times that, and watch conversion closely after the switch instead of assuming it carries over.
It depends on the app stack. BigCommerce charges no platform transaction fee and includes features Shopify sells as apps, which changes the sum once those apps cost real money each month.
Its plans step up with trailing annual sales, though, so a strong year moves you to a dearer bracket automatically.
WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Saleor and Medusa are free to download, and Shopware has a free community edition.
None is free to run: you pay for hosting, extensions or modules and the developer time to maintain them. Ecwid has a free hosted tier, suited to adding a shop to an existing site.
Shopware, for complicated cases: its rule builder and B2B suite model pricing and tax rules that Shopify resists, at the cost of an implementation partner. BigCommerce is the lighter option, with customer groups and B2B pricing as standard on a hosted platform.
Not for that reason alone. WooCommerce has no licence cost or platform fee, but you take on hosting, updates and security, and its extensions add up to a subscription anyway. It suits a team that already runs WordPress and has someone technical.
