Alternative to
6 Alternatives to Shopify in 2026
Shopify users start looking around when an outside payment processor adds a surcharge, when growing teams hit the Grow to Advanced price jump, or when they want more control over their stack. Common destinations are BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, PrestaShop and Shopware.
Why people look for an alternative to Shopify
A surcharge on every order from another processor
Using any gateway except Shopify Payments adds a percentage on top of the processor's own rate, falling from 2% at the cheapest plan to 0.2% at Plus. Stores locked into a regional acquirer see it on each sale.
Team size pushes the plan up a steep ladder
The cheapest plan has no extra staff logins, Grow gives five, and fifteen logins or carrier-calculated shipping needs Advanced. Yearly billing there is listed at €289 monthly, roughly five times Grow's €59.
The privacy policy leaves AI questions open
Shopify's policy is silent on training models with merchant data and gives no hosting region. It mentions possible transfers to the United States. Regulated sellers may want those answers in writing first.
The best Shopify alternatives
- 1
BigCommerce
BigCommerce, which its privacy policy now files under Commerce.com, lists Core at 29 dollars monthly on a yearly term. Embedded payment providers carry no fee. Each plan has a trailing sales ceiling, 30K on Core, and B2B account pricing comes built in.
Switch if you Switch if outside processor surcharges bother you most and your yearly revenue stays below the ceiling of the tier you pick.
- 2
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source plugin on top of WordPress, so no subscription or revenue share applies. You pay a host (listed at $25 to $350 monthly) plus extensions priced $29 to $299 yearly, and developer docs describe MCP access for AI clients.
Switch if you Switch if WordPress already runs your content and you will handle servers, security patches and updates yourself.
- 3
Squarespace
Squarespace bundles the shop with scheduling, invoicing and memberships in one subscription. Its cheapest tier adds a 2% store fee that Core removes, and card payments start at 2.0% plus €0.25, with currency conversion also at 2.0%.
Switch if you Switch if design matters more than catalog depth and you also sell services or paid content next to products.
- 4
Wix eCommerce
Wix puts the store in the account that also holds bookings and marketing tools, and Core, Business and Business Elite include abandoned cart recovery. The store page prints neither plan prices nor fees, and caps products at 50,000.
Switch if you Switch if the shop supports a service business and you prefer one dashboard for appointments and orders.
- 5
PrestaShop
PrestaShop distributes a free Classic edition for any host, while the managed Hosted tier is €29 monthly or €24 on an annual term, after a 14-day trial. An MCP server connects outside AI assistants; no built-in writing assistant is listed.
Switch if you sell in Europe, want open source with a managed fallback, and can live without a bundled AI helper.
- 6
Shopware
Shopware ships a free Community Edition with source code, and its Rise edition begins at €600 monthly before VAT. Its Copilot page says processing stays in Europe and personal data is left alone. The Intelligence+ add-on is billed separately.
Switch if you run a mid-sized shop with developers on hand and need European hosting plus access to the code.
Before you switch away from Shopify
Download products, customers and orders as CSV files first, then check which fields the target platform can import. Write down each installed app, because subscriptions, reviews and loyalty programs usually live in the 16,000+ app catalog and rarely carry over. Shopify's privacy policy says closed stores are retained for two years, so there is no rush to delete before the new shop works. Run a real test order through your actual processor, and map every old product URL to a redirect before switching the domain, or organic traffic drops.
The full ranking of this category is in Best AI Ecommerce Platforms in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What does Shopify add when I accept payments through another gateway?
Shopify lists an extra fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus for orders not paid through Shopify Payments, as of November 2026. The outside processor's own rate is separate. Shopify Payments itself ranges from 1.9% plus €0.25 on Basic down to 1.4% plus €0.25 on Plus.
Does Shopify have a plan below Basic?
Basic is the lowest regular plan, €28 per month or €21 monthly on a yearly term. The pricing page also shows an Agentic plan at €0, with charges per sale made in AI channels. New stores get 3 days free, then €1 monthly for the next 3 months.
Where does Shopify keep my store data?
The privacy policy names no region. It states that information may be sent to the United States, that Shopify International Ltd. receives EEA data, and that Binding Corporate Rules cover those transfers. It does not mention ISO 27001 or SOC 2, and the separate security page was not opened for this check.
How hard is leaving a Hydrogen storefront?
Hydrogen is Shopify's headless framework, with Oxygen providing free hosting on every plan except Starter. Such a storefront depends on the Storefront API, so a move means rebuilding the front end as well as exporting products. Confirm your developer or agency owns the storefront code before you give notice.