Cross $30,000 in trailing sales on BigCommerce, and your plan gets upgraded automatically, whether you asked for it or not. Skip Shopify’s own payment processor, and you pay an extra fee just for that privilege on every single order. Squarespace can’t display a second currency at any price, on any plan.
These aren’t edge cases; they’re standard features of how ecommerce platforms are priced, and most “Shopify alternatives” roundups never get past the number on the pricing page to tell you that.
This one does. We pulled pricing and plan details directly from each platform’s own live pages, not recycled blog summaries, and broke down what’s actually included at each tier, what needs a paid app, and what a real store costs to launch, to grow, and to scale.
Six platforms: SureCart, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify itself, since you can’t evaluate an alternative without a clear-eyed look at what it’s an alternative to.
Key takeaways
- No permanent free tier on Shopify, BigCommerce, or Squarespace. SureCart’s Launch plan is $0, forever, not a trial.
- The real cost isn’t the sticker price. It’s whether features are locked behind a plan upgrade.
- SureCart includes native upsells and order bumps. WooCommerce offers them through a paid $79/yr extension, while Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and Wix need apps or lack a native option.
- The startup cost gap is smallest for a simple physical product store and widest for course creators and subscription sellers.
- Cost gaps don’t shrink as you scale. They widen. See the cost-at-scale table below.
- There’s no single best platform. There’s a best fit for what you’re building.
The quick answer
| Platform | Best for | Starting cost | The catch |
| SureCart | Sellers who don’t want to pay again every time they add a feature | $0/mo (Launch) or $179/yr intro (Pro), plus hosting ($30–$100/yr) | No native point-of-sale for physical retail |
| Shopify | Sellers who want the biggest app ecosystem and don’t mind paying for it | $29/mo (billed yearly) | Upsells and order bumps need apps; fixed bundles and multipacks have a free first-party app |
| WooCommerce | Sellers who want full control and are comfortable managing their own site and multiple plugins with addon cost | $0 core, ~$120 to $300/yr in hosting | Every serious feature (subscriptions, bundles, multi-currency) is a separate paid extension |
| BigCommerce | Mid-size and larger stores that need built-in B2B tools | $29/mo (billed yearly) | Automatically upgrades your plan once you cross set revenue thresholds |
| Squarespace | Design-first brands, content creators branching into a few products | $16/mo (Basic) | One store currency at a time, plus digital-product fees of 7% on Basic |
| Wix | Simple stores with basic e-commerce features to build hobby projects or just test ideas | $29/mo (Core) | No native upsells or order bumps, and POS is US/Canada/UK only |
Methodology: how we actually did this comparison
Most “alternatives” posts are written from memory or from other blog posts about the same platforms. We didn’t do that. Every pricing figure and feature claim below was checked directly against each platform’s own current pricing and plan-comparison pages, fetched live while writing this.
Where a platform’s own pages didn’t state something clearly, for example, an exact staff-account cap or a third-party app’s current price, we say so directly instead of filling the gap with a plausible-sounding guess.
You’ll see a handful of lines flagged as “not independently confirmed”; that’s intentional, and it’s rarer in this piece than in most comparisons you’ll find on this topic.
Cost comparison table
| Platform | Free tier for real selling? | Cheapest paid plan | Platform transaction fee | Fee on a different processor |
| SureCart | Yes, $0 (Launch), permanent | $179/yr intro, $199/yr renewal (Pro), or $599 one-time (Lifetime), plus hosting (~$70–$150/yr) | 2.9% on Launch only, 0% on paid plans | No penalty, works directly with Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, Mollie |
| Shopify | No (3-day trial, then $1/mo for 3 months, then standard pricing) | Basic $29/mo (yearly) / $39/mo (monthly) | 2.9% + 30 cents (Shopify Payments), improving by tier to 2.5%+30¢ on Advanced | 2% (Basic) down to 0.2% (Plus) |
| WooCommerce | Plugin is free, hosting and most real features aren’t | $0 core, realistic total is hosting (~$120 to $300/yr) plus paid extensions per feature | 0% platform fee | Whatever your gateway charges |
| BigCommerce | No | Core $29/mo (yearly) / $39/mo (monthly) | Card processing from 2.89%+29¢; 21 Embedded providers fee-free | Open Payment Provider Fee (from June 2026): 2.0% Core, 1.0% Growth, 0.6% Scale, 0% Performance under contract |
| Squarespace Commerce | No | Basic ~$16/mo | 2.9%+30¢ down to 2.5%+30¢ by tier | Supports Squarespace Payments, Stripe, and PayPal; Square is available for POS |
| Wix eCommerce | No (Lower tier has zero e-commerce capability) | Core $29/mo is the real entry ecommerce tier | Wix Payments ~2.9%+30¢ | Wix’s own subscription-feature fee: 4% Core down to 0% Business Elite |
One structural note worth sitting with: BigCommerce calculates its revenue-based forced upgrades on “Inclusive GMV,” gross order value minus a reduction factor BigCommerce just changed from 3% to 10% as part of the same June 2026 pricing update.
That’s not a hypothetical; it’s a live mechanic that can move a growing store into a pricier plan without anyone on the team deciding to upgrade.
Feature comparison table
The table above is pricing. This is the part most “alternatives” posts skip: which features are actually included, and which ones need an app or extension you’ll pay for separately.
| Feature | SureCart | Shopify | WooCommerce | BigCommerce | Squarespace | Wix |
| Abandoned cart recovery | Included, every plan | Included, every plan | Needs an plugins, (~$179-199/yr) | Growth tier and up only | Included, every plan | Core tier and up |
| Upsells / order bumps | Included, every plan | Not native at any tier, needs a paid app | Need an plugins, $79/yr | Not native, needs a paid app | Not available natively | Not native, needs a paid app |
| Product bundles | Included, every plan | Free first-party app for fixed bundles and multipacks; advanced bundle types may need a third-party app | Needs an plugins, $79/yr | Not native, needs a paid app | Not available at any tier | Not core, needs a paid app |
| Multi-currency display | Display conversion included (135+); charges settle in the store’s base currency | Included, every plan | Needs an plugins, $149/yr | Included, every plan | Not available at any tier | Business tier and up only |
| Subscriptions | Included, every plan | Not core, free app exists, Recharge is the common paid upgrade | Need an plugins, $279/yr | Not native, needs a paid app | Included, every plan | Included, every plan |
| Gift cards | Not native; needs a paid app | Included, every plan | Multiple plugins available | Included, every plan | Included, every plan | Tier-gated, Core and up |
| Point of sale | Not available | Included free (casual); Pro is $89/mo per location | No native option, plugins range from ~$179/mo | No native option, third-party partners only | Included, every plan | Included, but US/Canada/UK only |
| Staff accounts | Included, every plan | Hard-capped by tier: 0 extra, 5, 15, unlimited | Effectively unlimited, standard WordPress roles | Included, no published numeric cap | 2 (Basic), unlimited (Core and up) | 2, 5, 10, or 100 by tier |
Read straight down that table and the pattern is hard to miss: SureCart and WooCommerce are the only two platforms with a real “included” column for the features that actually move average order value. Everywhere else, that’s a line item you add later.
Platform-by-platform breakdown
Shopify
Best for: sellers who want the largest app ecosystem and don’t mind paying app-by-app for the features that aren’t built in.
Pros
- Biggest app ecosystem in ecommerce, plus a free first-party Bundles app for fixed bundles and multipacks
- Native POS for casual in-person selling
- Unified analytics across all tiers
- Strong checkout performance at scale
Cons
- No permanent free tier
- No native post-purchase upsells or order bumps at any tier
- Staff accounts hard-capped by plan (0 extra on Basic, unlimited only on Plus)
- Extra fee for not using Shopify Payments
Pricing
- Basic: $29/mo, billed yearly
- Grow: $79/mo
- Advanced: $299/mo
- Plus: from roughly $2,300/mo
Hidden costs
- Upsell and order-bump apps (Zipify, ReConvert, and similar)
- A landing-page/funnel builder for true funnels (PageFly’s useful tier starts at $24/mo)
- POS Pro at $89/mo per location for staff roles or inventory tools beyond casual selling
- Recharge after the 50-customer tier: $99/mo plus 1.25% of processed value and 19¢ per transaction
SureCart
Best for: sellers who want the same feature set on day one and at scale, no plan upgrade required to unlock what you need.
Pros
- Genuine $0 plan for real selling
- No feature-gating by tier
- Native product bundles and subscriptions
- 0% platform fee once on a paid plan
- Built-in agency tools for managing multiple client stores
Cons
- No native point-of-sale for physical retail
- Runs on WordPress, so you’ll still need WordPress hosting
Pricing
- Launch: $0 + 2.9% transaction fee
- Pro: $179/yr intro, $199/yr renewal, 0% fee
- Lifetime: $599 one-time
Hidden costs
- WordPress hosting is the main additional cost (~$30–$120/yr for a small store); larger stores may spend more as traffic and operational needs grow.
WooCommerce
Best for: sellers who want full control over hosting and data and are comfortable managing their own site.
Pros
- No platform transaction fee ever
- Full control over hosting and data
- Huge plugin ecosystem
- Effectively unlimited staff accounts, no per-seat cost
Cons
- Every serious feature is a separate paid extension that adds up fast
- You own the hosting and security
- No built-in payment processor, and no built-in payment penalty either
Pricing
- The plugin itself: free
Hidden costs (the real total cost of ownership)
- Hosting: ~$120 to $300/yr
- Order Bump for WooCommerce (upsells, order bumps): $79/yr
- WooCommerce Product Bundles: $79/yr
- Dynamic Pricing: $129/yr
- WooCommerce Subscriptions: $279/yr
- TIV Multi-Currency: $149/yr
- AffiliateWP (affiliate program): from $199.50/yr intro
- Point-of-sale extension: free option up to ~$16.59/mo for the official extension
None of these are required to launch, but most stores need several of them within the first year.
BigCommerce
Best for: mid-market and larger stores that need built-in B2B tooling, multi-currency, and reporting without paying per app for them.
Pros
- Multi-currency included on every tier
- No per-app cost for basic B2B features like customer groups
- Professional reporting included from the entry tier
Cons
- No native upsells, order bumps, subscriptions, or product bundles at any tier
- No native in-house POS, partner-dependent
- Plans auto-upgrade based on revenue, whether you want them to or not
Pricing
- Core: $29/mo, billed yearly
- Growth: $79/mo, billed yearly
- Scale: $299/mo, billed yearly
- Performance: custom
Hidden costs
- New Open Payment Provider Fee: 2% on Core if not using one of BigCommerce’s 20 “Embedded” payment providers
- A subscriptions app (Bold or Recharge), since there’s no native option
- A bundling app, since there’s no built-in kit feature
- The automatic plan upgrade once you cross the GMV threshold for your tier, a cost increase you don’t get to opt out of
Squarespace Commerce
Best for: design-first, content-driven brands (a blog, a portfolio, a small product line) where store design quality matters as much as ecommerce depth.
Pros
- Abandoned cart recovery included on every tier
- Gift cards included on every tier, no restriction
- Subscriptions included natively for both products and memberships
- Best-in-class design templates
Cons
- Only one store currency can be accepted at a time
- No native product bundles at all
- No native post-purchase upsells
Pricing
- Basic: ~$16/mo
- Core: ~$23/mo
- Plus: ~$39/mo, rolling out by country
- Advanced: ~$99/mo
Hidden costs
- Transaction fees are tiered and easy to underestimate: 2% on physical goods at Basic (0% from Core up), but 7% on digital products at Basic, still 5% at Core, dropping to 0% only at Advanced. A digital-product seller on the lowest-priced plan gives up a meaningfully larger cut than the headline price suggests.
Wix eCommerce
Best for: simple, straightforward physical-goods stores that want zero platform fee on standard purchases.
Pros
- No platform transaction fee on standard product sales
- Native subscriptions for both physical products and memberships
- Straightforward tiered pricing
Cons
- The entry-level Light plan has zero ecommerce capability despite being marketed as a website plan
- No native upsells or order bumps
- POS restricted to the US, Canada, and UK
Pricing
- Light: $17/mo, no ecommerce
- Core: $29/mo, the real starting tier
- Business: $39/mo
- Business Elite: $159/mo
Hidden costs
- An upsell/cross-sell app (ReConvert or AppSell), since this isn’t native
- Wix’s own “Pricing Plans transaction fee”: 4% on Core, dropping to 0% on Business Elite, for anything sold through its membership/subscription feature specifically
- Multi-currency requires at minimum the Business tier
The real cost of ownership: startup, growth, and scale
Every table above tells you what a platform costs and includes on paper. This section is the part most comparisons skip entirely: what it actually costs to launch, and what happens to that number as the business grows. The gap between platforms isn’t fixed, it moves, and for most of these platforms it moves in one direction.
What it costs to launch, by seller type
| Seller type | SureCart | Shopify | WooCommerce |
| Physical product (skincare, coffee, home goods) | $70–$300/yr (hosting plus Launch or Pro). Cart recovery, upsells, and all features are included. | $348/yr (Basic) + 2.9%+30¢ processing. Covers the essentials; no extra app required to launch. | $120 to $300/yr, hosting only. No extension is required for a bare-bones store; as you add plugins, it becomes more expensive to start with. |
| Digital downloads / templates (Notion templates, ebooks, design files) | $70–$329/yr (hosting plus Launch or Pro). Digital delivery is built in. | $348/yr + $0 to $216/yr for a delivery app, since Shopify has no native digital-download support. | $120 to $300/yr, hosting only. Core plugin natively handles downloadable products for free. |
| Course (video lessons, quizzes, student portal) | $329–$409/yr on Launch (hosting + LearnDash), or $508–$588/yr on Pro (hosting + Pro + LearnDash) | $348/yr + roughly $0 to $108/yr for a course app. No native LMS, and app quality varies a lot at the free tier. | $120 to $300/yr (hosting) + $259/yr (LearnDash) = ~$379 to $559/yr |
| Subscription / membership | $70–$300/yr (hosting plus Launch or Pro). Recurring billing and churn tools are included. | $348/yr with Shopify’s free Subscriptions app. With Recharge: $648/yr at 50 or fewer customers, then $1,536/yr base plus 1.25% and 19¢ per transaction. | $120 to $300/yr (hosting) + $279/yr (WooCommerce Subscriptions) = ~$399 to $579/yr |
The pattern: SureCart’s license and feature costs barely move across these four seller types because the relevant features are included; hosting cost is included in every SureCart row for a fair comparison. Shopify and WooCommerce both add a line item per seller type. WooCommerce usually adds an annual extension, while Shopify more often adds a recurring app subscription that scales with volume.
Cost at scale: what happens as the business grows
Startup cost is a Year 1 number. It’s not the number that determines whether a platform gets expensive later. Here’s the same four platforms at three stages: getting started, growing (steady, meaningful revenue), and scaling (high volume).
1. Getting Started (Early Stage)
At the beginning, costs are relatively low and straightforward across all platforms.
- SureCart: $70–$329/yr (Includes hosting plus the Launch or Pro plan).
- WooCommerce: ~$120–$300/yr (Covers basic budget hosting).
- Shopify: $348/yr (Basic plan).
- BigCommerce: $348/yr (Core plan).
2. Growing (Mid-Tier)
As you grow, expenses diverge based on infrastructure upgrades and the addition of premium features like subscriptions.
- SureCart: $269–$349/yr. This includes hosting and the Pro plan, which covers up to 5 stores.
- WooCommerce: ~$360–$1,200/yr. Costs rise as you move to entry- or mid-tier managed hosting (like WP Engine or Kinsta).
- BigCommerce: $948/yr. (Growth plan). Note: You will be auto-upgraded to a higher tier once your trailing Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) crosses $30,000.
- Shopify:$948/yr. (Grow plan).
- Hidden Costs: Adding subscriptions via Recharge costs an extra $99/month. Once you pass 50 customers, Recharge also takes a 1.25% cut plus 19¢ per transaction.
3. Scaling (High-Volume / Enterprise)
At scale, the difference between predictable flat-fee pricing and revenue-based pricing becomes massive.
- SureCart: $469–$649/yr. This covers hosting and the “Pro Unlimited” plan. Key Advantage: No revenue-based license upgrades or per-feature add-ons.
- WooCommerce: ~$2,400–$6,756+/yr. Required for enterprise-grade managed hosting capable of handling high-traffic stores.
- BigCommerce: $3,588/yr. (Scale plan). You are auto-upgraded once trailing GMV crosses $100K. Beyond that, you must negotiate a custom Performance contract.
- Shopify:$3,588/yr (Advanced) up to $27,600+/yr (Plus).
- Hidden Costs: Recharge Plus costs $499/month + 1.34% + 19¢ per transaction.
- Real-World Example: If you do $500,000/month in subscription GMV, Recharge Plus alone costs ~$7,199/month ($499 base fee + $6,700 in percentage fees) before the 19¢ per-transaction fee is even applied.
Two things are worth noting. First, SureCart’s license has no revenue-based upgrade, per-seat cap, or subscription-processing percentage. Hosting is included in the table and can still vary with traffic and provider.
Second, the widest gap appears at scale, especially for subscription businesses on Shopify. Using the cited Recharge Plus formula, $500K/month in subscription GMV costs about $7,199/month before the 19¢ per-transaction charge. That is why a platform should be evaluated on where the business is headed, not only where it starts.
A caveat worth carrying forward: the SureCart and WooCommerce hosting ranges move with traffic and host choice, while Shopify app costs depend heavily on the business model. Treat these as realistic planning ranges, not guaranteed quotes.
How to choose the right one
There’s no single checklist item that decides this for everyone, but working through these questions in order usually gets you to a clear answer faster than reading every feature table twice.
Do you want to manage your own hosting and server?
If the honest answer is no, that used to rule out WooCommerce and SureCart entirely, since both are self-hosted WordPress tools by default. That’s less true now.
SureCart users aren’t stuck managing their own server either: ZipWP offers AI-assisted site building and managed WordPress hosting, with introductory plans under $10/month billed annually.
If you’d still rather not touch WordPress in any form, Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and Wix remain the fully-hosted, zero-server-management options.
Do you need an in-person, physical POS?
If yes, and it needs to be genuinely native to the platform, Shopify or Squarespace lead here. If you’re fine connecting a third-party POS partner instead, BigCommerce and WooCommerce both work; just budget for that partner separately.
Are you selling internationally in multiple currencies?
If you need to charge in each buyer’s local currency, Shopify and BigCommerce support that natively. SureCart displays converted prices in 135+ currencies on every plan but charges in the store’s base currency. Squarespace accepts only one store currency at a time. If buyers are sensitive to card-statement FX fees, that difference matters.
How many features will you actually need on day one versus a year from now?
If the honest answer is “I’ll keep adding things as I grow,” the tier-gating and per-feature app costs on Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and Wix compound over time in a way that SureCart’s included-everywhere model, and WooCommerce’s pay-once-per-extension model, don’t.
Already narrowed it down to the two biggest WordPress options?
Read our full WooCommerce vs Shopify vs SureCart comparison.
What’s the realistic first-year number for your specific business?
Use the seller-type table above, not the homepage price, since the gap between platforms depends heavily on whether you’re shipping physical goods, selling digital files, running a course, or building a subscription.
Do you want one vendor accountable for everything, or are you comfortable being your own systems integrator?
Self-hosted platforms trade some convenience for control and, usually, lower long-term cost. Fully-hosted platforms trade a higher long-term cost for less to manage yourself. Neither is objectively better; it’s a question of what you’d rather be spending time on.
Why SureCart is worth serious consideration
We’re not neutral here, we built SureCart, so take this section as our case, not the final word, the comparisons above are the same regardless of who’s making them.
Free and feature-complete from day one
SureCart is free to start, and unlike Shopify, BigCommerce, or Squarespace’s free-tier-that-isn’t, that’s a permanent plan, not a trial. Every SureCart feature covered in this piece—cart recovery, order bumps, upsells, bundles, subscriptions, and multi-currency display—is available on that $0 plan. WordPress hosting is still required and is included in the cost tables.
No “add another plugin” tax as you grow
On most other platforms, every new business need—subscriptions, bundles, an affiliate program, dynamic pricing—means a new app, a new bill, and someone to configure it. On SureCart, those features are already available. The startup table includes hosting for SureCart in every row; its license and feature costs remain comparatively stable while Shopify and WooCommerce add business-model-specific costs.
Easy to leave, not just easy to join
SureCart publishes a step-by-step migration guide for moving products, customers, purchases, and subscriptions in, plus an export-data guide for taking store data back out as CSV. Seeing both directions documented before you commit makes platform lock-in easier to evaluate.
Who is this actually built for
If you’re a solo builder or first-time seller with no dev budget, start on Launch, $0, and only pay a transaction fee on what you actually sell. There’s no feature you’re locked out of while you validate the idea.
If you’re an agency or freelancer managing multiple client stores: SureCart’s Agency Suite lets you centrally manage client stores, charge your own service fees on top, and earn a commission if a client store you set up converts to a paid plan, without juggling separate logins or billing per client site.
If you’re a growing store that keeps needing “just one more plugin”: that pattern, add a feature, add a plugin, add a bill, add a person to maintain it, is the exact tax SureCart is built to remove. The features you’ll want at $10K/month in revenue are the same ones included at $0.
If you’re deciding based on total cost of ownership, not the homepage price: both cost tables include SureCart hosting and show its license and feature costs staying comparatively stable, while other platforms add costs by feature or scale tier.
Conclusion
There’s no single best Shopify alternative; there’s a best fit for what you’re selling, how hands-on you want to be with hosting, and how you plan to grow. WooCommerce wins on pure control and zero platform fees if you’re comfortable managing a server, or now, comfortable letting ZipWP manage it for you.
BigCommerce and Squarespace both win on specific built-in depth (B2B and design, respectively) that’s worth paying for if that’s genuinely your priority.
Wix wins on simplicity for straightforward physical-goods stores. Shopify wins on ecosystem size if you’re willing to pay app-by-app for the features it doesn’t include natively, and to watch that cost curve carefully if you’re running a subscription business at scale.
SureCart’s case is different from all of them: the lowest real cost to start, a cost curve that stays flat as you grow instead of compounding, and a straightforward way out if it’s ever not the right fit anymore.
