The established competitors worth comparing against Shopify — researched and reviewed by our editorial team.
WooCommerce
Open sourceSelf-hostBest for: Teams who want WordPress ecosystem with full ownership
WooCommerce is the open-source WordPress e-commerce plugin — runs ~30% of all online stores. Free core, with paid extensions for shipping, payments, subscriptions. Best fit for teams already on WordPress or wanting maximum control.
Free WordPress plugin; hosting, themes, extensions paid
Pros
- ✓Open source — you fully own the store and data
- ✓Massive plugin and theme ecosystem
- ✓No transaction fees imposed by the platform
Cons
- ×You manage hosting, security, updates
- ×Performance can lag on large stores without optimization
- ×Plugin sprawl can hurt UX
BigCommerce
Best for: Mid-market merchants who want Shopify-shape without transaction fees
BigCommerce is the closest direct Shopify competitor — hosted SaaS, themes, app ecosystem. Key difference: no transaction fees regardless of payment processor, which can save high-volume merchants significantly.
$29/mo Standard, $79/mo Plus, $299/mo Pro, custom Enterprise
Pros
- ✓No platform transaction fees (vs Shopify's 0.5-2%)
- ✓Strong B2B / wholesale features
- ✓Comparable feature scope to Shopify
Cons
- ×Annual revenue caps on each tier
- ×Smaller app ecosystem than Shopify
- ×Less brand recognition
Squarespace Commerce
Best for: Small businesses and creators who want commerce bundled with a content site
Squarespace Commerce bundles e-commerce with the Squarespace site builder. Best fit for creator-economy stores, small brands, and content + commerce sites where the content side matters as much as commerce.
$39/mo Commerce Basic, $99/mo Commerce Advanced
Pros
- ✓Bundled with Squarespace site builder
- ✓Beautiful templates
- ✓Strong for content + commerce sites
Cons
- ×Less mature commerce features than Shopify
- ×Smaller app ecosystem
- ×Transaction fees on the Business tier
Medusa
Open sourceSelf-hostBest for: Engineering teams who want headless commerce with full code ownership
Medusa is the open-source headless commerce platform — Node.js backend, you build the frontend in any framework. Modular plugin system. Best for teams with engineering capacity who want full ownership.
Free (open source) self-hosted; Cloud pricing TBD
Pros
- ✓Open source (MIT) and self-hostable
- ✓Headless — pair with any frontend
- ✓Modular plugin system
Cons
- ×Requires engineering capacity to deploy and customize
- ×Smaller ecosystem than Shopify
- ×No "shop in a box" experience
Shopify's own Lite / Starter tier
Best for: Solo creators who want Shopify's tooling without the full $32/mo tier
Shopify Starter ($5/mo) gives you product management, checkout, and the buy-button without the full store. For creators selling via Instagram or a landing page, this is often the right tier — most "Shopify alternative" searchers don't realize this exists.
$5/mo Starter
Pros
- ✓Dramatically cheaper than Basic Shopify ($32/mo)
- ✓Same Shopify product / checkout infrastructure
- ✓Good for selling via Instagram / external pages
Cons
- ×No full online store with the Starter tier
- ×Limited features compared to Basic Shopify
- ×Still has Shopify Payments incentives
