Free online store builders: what each free plan really lets you sell

By Povilas, who runs Ginta · 8 November 2026 · 6 min read

Only a few free online store builders let you take real, paid orders without paying a plan: Big Cartel (5 products), Square Online's free plan (in the countries where Square works, with a higher card fee), Payhip (5% of every sale) and Ginta (25 products per website, card payments through your own Stripe). Wix's free plan builds a store that can't sell, Ecwid has no free plan for new accounts, and Shopify and Squarespace only have trials. Etsy and WooCommerce cost nothing a month but charge in other ways. Card fees apply everywhere.

We make Ginta. Every other fact below comes from the builder's own pages, linked, checked on 8 November 2026. Some pages show prices for the visitor's country; ours were opened from Lithuania.

The free plans side by side

Sources (checked 8 November 2026): Big Cartel Gold, Big Cartel plan comparison (25 February 2025), Big Cartel premium plans, Square plans, Payhip pricing and features, Etsy fee basics, WooCommerce pricing, Wix: upgrading Wix Stores, Ecwid pricing, Shopify pricing, Squarespace pricing.

The four that really sell for free

Big Cartel Gold: free, but five products

Big Cartel's free plan needs no card, takes cards and PayPal, allows size and colour variants and takes 0% of each sale. It holds 5 products with one photo each and one template, with no discounts, stock tracking or own domain; those start at Platinum, $15 a month. Good for a first drop or a handful of prints. Side by side with Ginta: Ginta vs Big Cartel.

Square Free: good if you already use Square

Square Free costs $0 a month and includes pickup, local delivery and shipping label printing. Online card payments cost 3.3% + 30¢ on Free (2.9% + 30¢ on paid plans), there's no own domain, and abandoned cart emails, bundles and product reviews start on Plus (Square plans). Square processes cards only in eight countries: the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, the UK, Ireland, France and Spain (Square help). More: Ginta vs Square Online.

Payhip Free Forever: every feature, 5% of every sale

Payhip is best known for digital products, but its features page says it sells physical goods with stock, orders and shipping too. The free plan costs $0 a month plus 5% of each sale, on top of Stripe's or PayPal's own fees; Plus is $29 a month with 2%, Pro $99 with no Payhip fee (Payhip pricing).

Ginta Free: a website with the whole Shop

This is ours. Ginta's free plan includes every Shop feature, not a cut-down version: product pages, sizes and colours (a product with options counts once), discount codes and automatic discounts, gift cards, delivery by weight, pickup with time slots, receipts and a Sales view. Up to 25 products per website, at a name.ginta.page address with a small "Made with Ginta" badge. Buyers pay on Stripe's checkout into your own Stripe account; Ginta takes 0%. More on Ginta Commerce.

What it can't do: digital downloads, subscriptions, PayPal, more than one currency, a point of sale, or an own domain on Free. An own domain and no badge start at €5 a month (Hosting, if you build with your own Claude or ChatGPT) or €19 a month on Light with Ginta's AI (pricing).

Free in name only

• Wix: you can build a whole store on the free plan, but "before customers can place orders, you need to upgrade" to a plan that takes payments, Core or higher (Wix help).
• Ecwid: new accounts choose between four paid plans; the free plan is only for Wix users who add Ecwid from Wix, with up to 5 products (Ecwid help).
• Shopify and Squarespace: trials, then a monthly plan. Shopify's cheap start lasts three months; Squarespace says it "doesn't offer a free plan".

Free, but not cheap per sale

Etsy has no monthly fee, but charges $0.20 per listing (a listing lasts 4 months), 6.5% of each order including shipping, and payment processing on top: 3% + $0.25 in the US, 4% + €0.30 in Lithuania, 4% + £0.20 in the UK (Etsy payment processing fees). What you get for it is buyers who are already searching.

WooCommerce is free software, but you need hosting: Woo's own estimate is "$25 – $350/month for most stores", plus paid extensions for things like gift cards or subscriptions.

What is never free

• Card fees. Whoever takes the payment charges for it. Stripe's standard rates are 1.5% + €0.25 for a standard EEA card in the euro area, 1.5% + 20p for a standard UK card and 2.9% + 30¢ for a US card (Stripe Ireland, Stripe UK, Stripe US).
• Your own domain. None of the free plans above include one.
• Your time and photos. Good photos of your own products matter more than the platform.

How to pick

1. Fewer than 5 products and fine with a Big Cartel address: Big Cartel Gold.
2. You already take payments with Square in person: Square Free.
3. Mostly digital products: Payhip (or Gumroad, which we didn't compare here).
4. A real website for your business with a shop in it, up to 25 products: Ginta Free.
5. You want buyers who are already searching: Etsy, ideally next to a shop of your own.

When you outgrow a free plan, the next step is usually small. Our Shopify alternatives post compares the paid plans.

Written with AI help for Ginta, which Povilas runs; he also teaches a website-building course. The screenshots are from the real Ginta on the date above, and prices come from our pricing page.