Best E-Commerce Platforms Under $100 Monthly (2024)
Most "affordable e-commerce" roundups are written by people who've never actually paid a platform bill. They list sticker prices, ignore transaction fees, and conveniently forget that the $29/month plan locks you out of the features you actually need by month three.
I've been there. When I launched my first store in 2019, I picked a platform based on a comparison post just like the ones I'm criticizing. Six months later I was paying $79/month in platform fees plus 0.5% on every transaction because I hadn't upgraded to the plan that waived them. On $40,000 in monthly revenue, that's $200 gone before I touched a single ad dollar.
This post is about the best e-commerce platforms under $100 monthly that are actually worth your money at that price point — not just technically under the cap. I'll show you real plan breakdowns, where the hidden costs live, and which platform I'd pick for different store types.
Why $100/Month Is the Right Ceiling to Think About
A hundred dollars a month is $1,200 a year. For a store doing under $500K ARR, that's a meaningful chunk of fixed overhead. Above $500K, you're probably outgrowing entry-level plans anyway and should be looking at headless commerce setups that give you more control.
Below $100/month, you're not getting enterprise infrastructure — and that's fine. What you should get:
- No transaction fees (or fees low enough to not matter at your volume)
- A checkout that converts on mobile without custom dev work
- Enough native features that you're not paying $20/month per app to fill gaps
- A path to scale without a full platform migration
If a platform can't hit those four criteria at its sub-$100 tier, it doesn't belong on this list.
The Platforms Worth Your Attention
Shopify Basic — $39/month (as of 2024)
Shopify Basic is the obvious starting point, so let's be honest about what it is and isn't.
What you get: Unlimited products, 2 staff accounts, up to 77% shipping discounts, and a 2.0% transaction fee if you don't use Shopify Payments. Use Shopify Payments and the transaction fee drops to zero, but you're locked into their payment processor — which isn't available in every country and has a history of sudden account holds.
The real cost: Shopify's app ecosystem is genuinely good, but the average Shopify store installs 6 apps. At $9-$29/month per app, you can easily hit $150-$200/month total before you've done anything exotic. The platform fee is the loss leader.
Who it's right for: Stores selling physical goods in the US, Canada, UK, or Australia where Shopify Payments is available, doing $10K-$150K/year. If you're outside those markets or need complex B2B pricing, look elsewhere.
WooCommerce (self-hosted) — $0 platform fee, ~$20-$60/month hosting
WooCommerce itself is free. What you're actually paying for is hosting, and the range is wide. A WooCommerce store on Cloudways (starting around $14/month for a DigitalOcean instance) can handle 50,000 monthly visitors without breaking a sweat if you configure caching correctly. A store on WordPress site speed optimization tips like WP Engine's entry plan runs $25/month and handles the server tuning for you.
The real cost: Your time. WooCommerce requires plugin maintenance, security updates, and occasional debugging. If you're not technical — or don't want to be — budget either 2-3 hours/month for upkeep or $50-$100/month for a managed WordPress host that handles it. Extensions for subscriptions, memberships, or advanced shipping rules cost $49-$199/year each from WooCommerce.com.
Transaction fees: Zero, unless your payment gateway charges them. Stripe is 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the US, same as everywhere else.
Who it's right for: Stores that need serious customization, already run WordPress for content, or operate in markets where Shopify Payments isn't available. I ran my second store on WooCommerce + Cloudways for 18 months and the total platform cost never exceeded $55/month.
BigCommerce Essentials — $39/month
BigCommerce doesn't charge transaction fees on any plan. That alone makes it worth a serious look if you're moving volume.
The Essentials plan caps you at $50,000 in annual sales before they push you to the $105/month Plus plan. That's a real ceiling — if you hit $4,200/month in revenue consistently, you'll be forced to upgrade. For stores between $50K-$400K/year, the Plus plan at $105/month is technically over our cap, but the no-transaction-fee model means it often costs less than Shopify Basic once you do the math.
What's genuinely better than Shopify here: Built-in faceted search, native B2B features (customer groups, quote management), and multi-currency without an app. If you're selling wholesale or internationally, these matter.
Who it's right for: Stores with higher AOV, B2B components, or international ambitions that want a hosted solution without Shopify's transaction fee exposure.
Medusa.js (open-source, self-hosted) — $0 platform fee
Medusa is what I'd call the honest headless option for developers who want Shopify-like features without Shopify's pricing model. It's open-source (MIT license), Node.js-based, and as of version 2.0 (released late 2024) it's significantly more stable than the v1 builds I'd caution people away from a year ago.
You're looking at hosting costs of $20-$80/month depending on your setup — a small Medusa instance runs fine on a $20/month Railway or Render deployment for low-traffic stores.
The real cost: This is a developer tool. If you don't have a developer or aren't one yourself, Medusa will cost you more in setup time than any hosted platform saves you in fees. But if you have the technical chops, you get a composable backend with no per-transaction fees, no artificial plan limits, and full ownership of your data.
Who it's right for: Technical founders building non-standard commerce experiences — subscriptions with complex logic, marketplaces, or stores that need deep ERP integration. Not for someone who wants to be live in a weekend.
Squarespace Commerce — $36/month (Basic) or $65/month (Advanced)
I'll be brief here because Squarespace Commerce is a specific tool for a specific use case: service businesses, creators, and small physical-goods stores that care more about design than feature depth.
The Basic plan at $36/month has no transaction fees (they dropped them in 2022), includes unlimited products, and the templates are genuinely the best in this price range. The Advanced plan at $65/month adds abandoned cart recovery, subscriptions, and advanced shipping.
Where it falls short: The app ecosystem is thin. If you need dropshipping integrations, complex inventory management, or multi-warehouse fulfillment, you'll hit walls fast. Squarespace is polished but narrow.
Who it's right for: Photographers, designers, small-batch makers, or anyone where brand presentation is the primary conversion driver and SKU count stays under 200.
Side-by-Side: What You Actually Pay
| Platform | Base Plan | Transaction Fee | Est. Monthly w/ Basic Apps | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic | $39/mo | 0% (Shopify Payments) / 2% (other) | $80-$150 | Physical goods, US/CA/UK/AU |
| WooCommerce | ~$20-$60/mo (hosting) | 0% (gateway fees apply) | $40-$80 | Custom needs, technical operators |
| BigCommerce Essentials | $39/mo | 0% | $50-$90 | B2B, international, high AOV |
| Medusa.js | ~$20-$80/mo (hosting) | 0% | $20-$80 | Dev-led, composable builds |
| Squarespace Commerce | $36-$65/mo | 0% | $36-$65 | Design-first, small catalogs |
These estimates assume you're not buying a theme (use a free one to start) and you're selective about apps. The "est. monthly" column is where most comparison posts lie to you.
Hidden Costs Nobody Mentions
Before you pick a platform, run this checklist:
Email marketing integration: Most platforms don't include it. Klaviyo starts at free up to 250 contacts, then $20/month for up to 500. Budget for it.
Fraud protection: Shopify has basic fraud analysis built in. WooCommerce and Medusa don't — you'll need a plugin or a service like Signifyd ($0.20-$0.40 per order).
Theme costs: A quality premium theme runs $150-$350 one-time. Factor this into your year-one cost, not just monthly.
SSL and domain: Usually $10-$15/year for a domain. SSL is free on all hosted platforms and on most managed hosts for WooCommerce.
Payment processing: Every platform in this list still pays Stripe, PayPal, or their equivalent 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. That's not a platform fee — it's a payment network fee. You can't escape it.
If you want a deeper look at how these fees stack up as you scale, I covered the math in detail in the e-commerce platform cost breakdown post.
What I'd Actually Do in Your Shoes
Here's my honest take, without hedging:
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You're just starting out, US-based, selling physical goods: Shopify Basic at $39/month. Accept the app costs as a cost of doing business, and commit to auditing your app stack every quarter. Kill anything you're not actively using.
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You're technical and want to own your stack: WooCommerce on Cloudways or a fresh Medusa.js setup. The $20-$40/month hosting cost is real savings at volume, and you're not beholden to anyone's pricing decisions.
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You're selling B2B or internationally: BigCommerce Essentials. The native features you'd pay $40+/month in Shopify apps to replicate are just... there.
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You're a creator or small-batch maker: Squarespace Advanced at $65/month. Don't overthink it. The platform fits the use case.
For most readers here, WooCommerce or Shopify Basic will be the right call. The choice between them comes down to one question: do you want to own your infrastructure, or do you want someone else to manage it? Neither answer is wrong. But be honest about which operator you actually are before you commit.
The Bottom Line
The best e-commerce platforms under $100 monthly aren't the ones with the lowest sticker price — they're the ones where the total cost of ownership fits your margin structure and the feature set matches your actual needs, not your aspirational ones.
Tomorrow, do this: take your current (or projected) monthly revenue, multiply it by your platform's transaction fee percentage, and add that to your monthly platform + app spend. If that number is over $100, you're already paying more than you think. That's your real baseline — and the number any new platform needs to beat.
If you're shopping for a Shopify alternative specifically, the Shopify alternatives comparison post goes deeper on migration costs and what you actually lose (and gain) in the switch.