Shopify alternatives for a small shop, honestly compared

By Povilas, who runs Ginta · 8 November 2026 · 7 min read

The main Shopify alternatives for a small shop are Big Cartel, Square Online, Ecwid, Wix, Squarespace, WooCommerce, Etsy (a marketplace rather than a shop of your own) and Ginta. Which one fits depends on how many products you have, whether you need a free start, and how much of each sale you're willing to give away. Below is one table with the price to start, the free option, the fee per sale and the main catch of each, then a few lines on when Shopify is still the better choice.

We make Ginta, so read our row with that in mind. Every other fact comes from the company's own pages, linked, checked on 8 November 2026. Some of those pages show prices for the visitor's country (ours were opened from Lithuania), and prices change, so check before you sign up.

What Shopify costs, as a reference

Shopify has no free plan for an online store. Its pricing page, opened from Europe, shows a 3-day trial without a card, then €1 a month for 3 months, then Basic at €27 a month, or €19 a month paid yearly. With Shopify Payments an online payment with a standard card costs 1.8% + €0.25 on Basic; with another payment provider, Shopify adds its own 2% on Basic (Shopify pricing). In the UK, Basic is £25 a month or £19 paid yearly (Shopify UK pricing).

That is a fair price for what Shopify gives you. The real question is whether a small shop needs all of it.

The alternatives side by side

Sources, all checked 8 November 2026: Big Cartel pricing, Gold plan, plan comparison (dated 25 February 2025), premium plans and fees; Square pricing and card countries; Ecwid pricing, paid plans and Ecwid for Wix; Wix plans, Is Wix free? and Wix Payments fees; Squarespace pricing; WooCommerce pricing; Etsy fee basics and payment processing fees.

Which one fits which shop

Big Cartel suits makers and artists with a small range. It takes 0% on every plan, imports products from Etsy, Squarespace and Shopify, and its paid plans sell digital products and subscriptions too. The free Gold plan is very small: 5 products and one photo each. More: Ginta vs Big Cartel.

Square Online is strongest when you also sell face to face. The free plan includes Square's point-of-sale app, and its online ordering lets customers schedule pickup orders days ahead (Square help). You pay for that with a higher online card fee on Free, and Square only processes cards in the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, the UK, Ireland, France and Spain.

Ecwid is for adding a shop to a website you already have: its pricing page says the store can go on WordPress, Wix, Squarespace "or any other platform". Starter is cheap but holds 10 products and has no coupons or gift cards.

Wix puts a lot into its first selling plan: Core includes abandoned cart recovery, automatic discounts, pre-orders and back-in-stock notifications (10 a month), and Wix stores can sell digital products. You can build the shop for free, but it can't take an order until you upgrade.

Squarespace has unlimited products, gift cards and abandoned cart recovery on every plan, and sells digital content and subscriptions. Its local pickup is free for customers, but its help centre says plainly that customers can't choose a pickup time (Squarespace help).

WooCommerce gives the most control: open source, any host, no revenue share. It also gives you the most to look after, and the extras (subscriptions, gift cards, bundles) are paid extensions.

Etsy is different from all the others: people already search there. You give up a larger share of each sale and the customer relationship stays with Etsy. You don't have to choose: you can keep Etsy and add a shop of your own next to it (Ginta vs Etsy).

Ginta is a website with a shop built in, made from a description by Ginta's AI or by your own Claude or ChatGPT. Every plan, Free too, has the whole Shop: discount codes, gift cards, volume prices, sets, delivery by weight, pickup with time slots, PDF receipts with VAT and a Sales view. Buyers pay on Stripe's checkout and the money goes to your own Stripe account; Ginta takes 0% (how Stripe works on Ginta). The catches: no digital downloads, subscriptions, multi-currency, PayPal, point of sale, shipping labels or customer logins, at most 500 products per website, and no buyers come to you "from Ginta". The overview is on Ginta Commerce.

When Shopify is still the right choice

Shopify is the better pick if one of these is true for you (all from Shopify's pricing page unless linked):

• A big catalogue. Every Shopify plan sells unlimited products.
• Selling in person. Every plan takes payments with a phone or card reader; POS Pro adds staff roles and in-store stock.
• Digital products or subscriptions. Shopify sells digital products with no extra fee (help) and has its own free subscriptions app (Shopify Subscriptions).
• Shipping at volume. Shopify Shipping prints discounted labels, and live carrier rates come from Advanced.
• Apps and a team. Thousands of apps, and staff accounts from Grow.

There is also a sound middle path: start small somewhere cheaper, and move when the shop outgrows it. Ginta exports your products as a CSV in Shopify's format, so leaving is a file, not a project (CSV import and export). For the other direction, see Ginta vs Shopify.

Choosing in five minutes

1. Count your products. Up to 5: Big Cartel's free plan works. Up to 25: Ginta's free plan works. Hundreds or thousands: Shopify, Wix or Squarespace.
2. Do you sell in person? Then look at Square or Shopify first.
3. Do you sell downloads or subscriptions? Then not Ginta.
4. Do your buyers already search a marketplace? Keep Etsy and add your own shop next to it.
5. Work out a normal month. Plan fee plus the fee on each sale. Our no-monthly-fee guide does the sums for 20 orders of €30.

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.