Best Shopify Alternatives: Five Ecommerce Platforms to Consider

The best Shopify alternatives have a daunting task. They must replace the best ecommerce website builder by offering extensive sales tools and an easy-to-use editor. Thousands of online store owners rely on Shopify, but some people don’t seem to like it. What’s the problem with it?

To be frank, there’s not much to complain about.

However, we must mention Shopify’s steep pricing, the lack of AI site-building tools, and higher transaction fees for smaller stores. Add to that the sometimes exorbitant costs of third-party apps that you’ll eventually need, and Shopify quickly becomes a notable, perhaps unattainable investment.

So, what are the best Shopify alternatives in 2026? Our shortlist is below, but we strongly advise reading our in-depth analyses of each pick to ensure you pick the right one.

Best Shopify Alternatives Tested & Reviewed

While Wix is the best overall alternative, we don’t think you should necessarily pursue it. Different needs beg for different website builders, so first explore our comprehensive reviews of the best Shopify alternatives and then decide. We tested all five in 2026:

1. Wix

Wix ticks all the boxes and is an equally good ecommerce platform. In fact, we tested Wix directly against Shopify and the former took the victory! But why do we prefer Wix over Shopify in 2026?

Features

Wix offers pretty much anything you’d get from Shopify. If you spend more on the Core plan, you’ll be able to sell up to 50,000 products and enjoy other ecommerce tools, including:

• Inventory management
• Product variants
• Multi-channel selling
• Access to POS and dropshipping
• Storefront translation
• Wix Payments with 50+ vendors
• Low transaction fees (2.9% + $0.30)
• Extensive third-party apps

Wix is a jack of all trades, but more importantly, it offers hundreds of ecommerce-friendly website templates. Unlike Shopify, Wix’s templates are 100% free, so you just have to pick one and build a website. Speaking of that, Wix’s website editor is far more powerful and versatile.

It’s a drag-and-drop editor with diverse functionalities to fully customize and personalize your online store. Additionally, Wix implements AI to add product descriptions and images or improve your SEO. Another perk is the availability of built-in tools, which Shopify lacks in comparison.

This means you won’t extensively rely on third-party options for email marketing, SEO, multi-channel selling, etc. Wix’s transaction fees make it ideal for small and mid-sized businesses, while an intuitive interface allows effortless inventory management, shipping customization, and product tracking.

Try Wix

Price

As the best Shopify alternative, don’t expect Wix to cost pennies. The Core plan at $29 monthly lets you sell online and enjoy a free domain for a year, five collaborators, and the ability to sell digital and physical products and services. Our favorite is the Business plan at $39 monthly.

It offers larger storage, more ecommerce and marketing features, and ten site collaborators. All plans have a 14-day money-back guarantee and include 24/7 support if you need help. Shopify lacks a free domain, so when you buy one and splurge $20 or so for a year, Wix becomes far less expensive.

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2. Squarespace

Squarespace is a fantastic choice and a notable Shopify alternative in 2026. It has a different approach to site-building, prioritizing stunning templates and simplicity, with comprehensive sales tools only in pricier plans. However, Squarespace is no slouch and is, in many ways, better than Shopify.

Features

To start, it offers 200+ free templates, all of which can be customized in Squarespace’s section-based editor. It’s extremely intuitive, allowing even beginners to build a site from scratch and make it unique. Squarespace’s design options are endless, and you can use its AI for that final polish.

In terms of ecommerce, Squarespace is unbelievably generous.

Its plans allow you to sell unlimited items and enjoy features like:

• Simplified inventory management
• Selling services and products
• Customizable shipping methods
• Product reviews
• Point of sale
• Social media sales (multi-channel selling)
• SEO and marketing features
• Third-party plug-ins, and more.

Shopify’s Commerce Basic, our favorite plan, even has 0% transaction fees, less than Shopify’s priciest plans. This allows you to maximize your revenue with each sale, regardless of your sales volume. Squarespace allows you to schedule appointments and sell all product types without an added fee.

Best of all, this Shopify alternative includes a free domain for a year, allowing you to launch your online store within days. Thanks to the AI site-building tools, you can craft clever product descriptions and add images. Simplified inventory management also lets you keep an eye on your stock.

One thing we like about Squarespace is its mobile-friendliness. All templates are responsive, making every online store mobile-friendly. However, Squarespace also lets you work on the mobile version separately, which is important for driving more sales, given the percentage of mobile traffic worldwide.

Try Squarespace

Price

Squarespace allows you to sell online in its Business plan at $23 monthly. However, as it has 3% transaction fees on online store transactions, we’d jump to the Commerce Basic plan at $28 monthly. It’s cheaper than Shopify and has 0% transaction fees with a heap of advanced ecommerce features.

Squarespace’s beefiest, Commerce Advanced plan at $52 monthly, is a monster, with the option for including advanced discounts, abandoned cart recovery, and commerce APIs. All plans have a 14-day free trial, allowing you to test the best Shopify alternative without spending a cent.

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3. Hostinger Website Builder

Let’s discuss the best cheap Shopify competitor. Hostinger Website Builder has everything you need to make a standout website, not spending much, and still get extensive features for the money. To be clear, it’s geared towards small businesses and isn’t as comprehensive as Shopify.

Features

Hostinger prioritizes convenience, offering:

• Over 150 free website templates
• Selling up to 600 products
• Appointment scheduling
• Selling services and physical products
• 100+ payment methods
• 0% transaction fees
• Advanced shipping rules
• Inventory management
• Discount codes
• Email marketing, and more.

We’ll discuss its price in a minute, but we promise you: you’ll be blown away! Hostinger Website Builder leverages AI for all site-building purposes. It can build a website from scratch or help you write SEO-friendly product descriptions. Conversely, you can use it to make a logo for your store!

Hostinger’s ease of use is undeniable, and the drag-and-drop editor allows for stunning designs. Meanwhile, you have built-in email marketing and an AI SEO assistant, helping you push your online store in the right direction. Hostinger prioritizes hosting speed and performance.

It offers unlimited bandwidth and storage, ensuring your online store’s smoothness and availability, thanks to a 99.9% uptime guarantee. With Hostinger, you can even print and sell merch (Printful integration) and do so immediately, thanks to a free domain name for the first year.

Try Hostinger Website Builder

Price

Hostinger’s main appeal is the price. The Business Website Builder plan is only $3.99 monthly for 48 months, but the provider sprinkles in three free months. The entire five-plus-year deal costs just under $192, which you’ll spend in about seven months with Wix or Shopify.

Unlike these two, Hostinger also includes a 30-day money-back guarantee, allowing you to explore its features, test its functionalities, and determine whether you like it. To satisfy your curiosity, we compared Hostinger Website Builder to Wix, and it held up pretty well considering the price.

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4. Weebly

Okay, so Weebly is a very enticing Shopify alternative because it allows you to sell online for free. Even if you snatch its premium plans, Weebly won’t cost much, but it’ll still include outstanding sales tools, a free domain for a year, and low transaction fees to maximize your earnings.

Features

Weebly lacks the design quirk of Wix and offers fairly outdated, uninspiring templates. However, if you aspire to sell online and want to prioritize this aspect, we’re sure you’ll find these features helpful:

• Selling unlimited items
• Item variants and badges
• Shopping cart
• Inventory management
• In-store pickups
• Automatic tax calculation
• Square Gift Cards
• Coupons
• Free SEO tools
• Shipping calculator, and more.

Most of these are available in the free plan, which is surprising! However, the Professional plan is our favorite, as it removes Weebly’s logo from your site and offers a free domain. You’ll also get unlimited storage, advanced site stats, and the ability to sell digital goods.

Other than ecommerce features, Weebly doesn’t offer anything exciting, although it’s very beginner-friendly. Its section-based editor means you can’t go wrong design-wise, and while its templates are ‘okay’ at best, they’re sufficient for making a functional and well-rounded online store.

Weebly’s top-tier plan supports more payment methods, like PayPal, and customers can leave item reviews. It also includes abandoned cart emails and a few more ecommerce insights to help you monitor your performance. We reviewed Weebly recently, in case you need more information.

Price

If you don’t mind Weebly’s logo plastered all over your site, the free plan, which lets you sell unlimited items, sounds good. However, the Professional plan at $12 monthly for a year is even better and our top recommendation. If you want, you can explore Weebly’s Performance plan at $26 monthly.

As the range-topping option, it’s surprisingly inexpensive compared to Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify. Weebly allows monthly payments for those who want them, but we’re against that due to higher costs.

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5. Jimdo

Finally, there’s Jimdo, a renowned Shopify alternative with moderate costs and an intuitive website editor. Jimdo won’t reinvent website builders, but it’s a phenomenal pick because of a free domain, generous storage, reliable customer support, and a mobile-friendly site editor.

Features

Jimdo offers two plan types: Website and Online Store.

Obviously, to replace Shopify, you’ll want the latter, and the Business plan seems to scratch that itch. This plan offers many features, including:

• Social media marketing and selling
• Product variants
• No transaction fees
• 50 GB of storage
• Discount codes
• Many payment methods (including PayPal)
• Advanced SEO tools
• Strikethrough prices, and more.

During our assessment, we found Jimdo incredibly intuitive. The site-creation process is backed by its AI, which aids the design process tremendously. After that, Jimdo allows you to add products, customize shipping, and manage product variants through its easy-to-use interface.

Jimdo’s roster includes helpful add-ons like contact forms and image libraries, making your website professional. We noticed that Jimdo’s hosting performance isn’t great. A bit disappointing is that the Business plan limits you to 50 pages. You can get unlimited in the VIP plan.

Other than that, Jimdo is a decent Shopify alternative for social media selling and ease of use. However, we recommend using it for smaller stores, as its simpler inventory management and the lack of advanced features make it a poor choice even for mid-sized, let alone larger stores.

Try Jimdo

Price

Jimdo offers three Online Store plans: Basic, Business, and VIP.

We’d opt for Business at $22 monthly or the VIP at $45 monthly. However, the latter’s price is a tad higher, and Hostinger Website Builder becomes a more sensible option. Jimdo’s prices are for 12 months, so multiply these by that number and you’ll get your annual price. Jimdo offers a standard 14-day refund policy.

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What’s Wrong With Shopify?

We can’t say Shopify is perfect. To be honest, we can’t even say that about Wix, as you can see in this Wix review. However, there’s nothing too ‘bad’ about Shopify that would classify it as unworthy. Shopify is a robust, feature-rich ecommerce platform that will likely satisfy most of your needs.

On the flip side, the provider isn’t without its problems, and these issues are often mentioned:

• Higher price. Shopify isn’t cheap and requires you to invest at least $29 monthly. While the first three months are priced $1 monthly, the latter recurring costs still stand.
• No free domain. Shopify doesn’t offer a free domain, which ties into the first point. You must invest in a domain, which skyrockets the price, particularly if you splurge on WHOIS privacy.
• Higher transaction fees. Shopify’s transaction fees are plan-dependent, so cheaper plans have higher fees and vice versa. Generally, they’re never 0% and that’s not ideal for stores that don’t sell much. You must sell a lot to generate tangible profit with Shopify.
• Limited customization. Shopify isn’t famous for extensive customization options like Wix, Squarespace, and many others. It’s more about developing online stores and selling, which is completely understandable, but maybe not something you want.

Is WooCommerce a Good Shopify Alternative?

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that allows you to sell online.

Is it better than Shopify? It depends on what you want and whether you want to use WordPress to build your website. If you’re a WordPress user, WooCommerce will come in handy as a free, open-source solution. It offers more control at the cost of a steeper learning curve.

WooCommerce also offers many third-party integrations that can significantly improve its capabilities, allowing you to create an advanced online store. All these cost money, and WooCommerce heavily relies on them. On the other hand, Shopify is simpler, more streamlined, and better for beginners.

It doesn’t offer the same level of control and costs more, but it’s better for building an online store quickly without extensive knowledge. Both options have their merits, and the table below should provide enough information on their most obvious differences.

	WooCommerce	Shopify
📱 Platform	WordPress plugin (requires additional hosting)	Hosted (hosting is included in all plans)
⚙️ Ease of Use	Requires technical knowledge	Beginner-friendly
💵 Price	Free (requires hosting and third-party plugins)	$29 monthly (plus a domain name and third-party apps)
🔧 Maintenance	Your responsibility	Handled by Shopify
🎲 Customization Options	Extensive (nearly unlimited)	Limited by features

But yes, WooCommerce is a good Shopify alternative, depending on what you want from an ecommerce platform.

Best Shopify Alternatives: Final Recommendations

Choosing the best Shopify alternative in 2026 is ultimately up to you.

We provided five amazing options, each offering something unique to spice up your imagination. Wix is the best pick overall, which surpasses Shopify in nearly all aspects. Squarespace is more design-oriented, with impressive ecommerce tools for small and mid-sized stores.

Hostinger Website Builder packs a punch, offering 0% transaction fees at a silly price of under four monthly quid. Meanwhile, we have Weebly, a free website builder with ecommerce tools, and Jimdo, a well-rounded package that doesn’t cost much, with features for small businesses.

Try Wix For Free Here