Shopify will take $79/month from you on the Basic plan, then skim another 2% transaction fee if you don't use Shopify Payments — which isn't available in every country. Add a handful of paid apps to cover features that should be native, and you're easily at $200–$300/month before you've shipped a single order. For a store doing $10K/month in revenue, that's 2–3% of gross gone before COGS, ads, or fulfillment.
I ran two stores past $1M ARR on Shopify. I don't regret it — the ecosystem is real, the checkout converts, and the documentation is good. But I also watched the pricing restructure in early 2023 wipe out the $29 Starter tier and push everyone up a plan. That's when I started taking Shopify alternatives for small business seriously, not as a protest, but as a spreadsheet exercise.
This post covers the platforms I'd actually consider if I were starting a store today with under $500K in projected first-year revenue. Not a ranked list — a real comparison with numbers, tradeoffs, and the scenarios where each one makes sense.
Why Shopify's Cost Structure Hurts Small Stores Specifically
Large stores negotiate. If you're doing $5M/year, Shopify's enterprise team will talk to you about Shopify Plus pricing and custom terms. Small stores don't get that. You pay rack rate.
Here's what Basic Shopify actually costs in 2025:
- $79/month base (billed monthly; $69 if annual)
- 2% transaction fee on non-Shopify Payments processors
- Shopify Payments available in ~20 countries — if you're outside that list, you're paying the 2%
- Most stores need at minimum: a review app ($15–$30/mo), a bundle app ($20–$40/mo), a subscription app if relevant ($100+/mo)
A store doing $8K/month in GMV, outside a Shopify Payments country, using two paid apps is paying roughly $230–$280/month in platform costs. That's 2.9–3.5% of revenue. For a 30% gross margin business, that's nearly 10% of gross profit. It compounds fast.
WooCommerce: The Control Freak's Choice
WooCommerce is free software. You pay for hosting, a domain, and whatever plugins you need. That sounds like a trap, but the math often works out.
A decent managed WooCommerce host — I'd look at Cloudways (starting $14/month on DigitalOcean) or Kinsta ($35/month for their WooCommerce starter plan) — gets you a production-ready store for under $50/month in infrastructure. Add WooCommerce Subscriptions ($279/year) if you need recurring billing, and you're still under $80/month all-in for a basic setup.
The real cost is time. WooCommerce requires you to care about PHP versions, plugin conflicts, and update cycles. If you have zero technical tolerance, this isn't your platform. But if you or someone on your team can spend two hours a month on maintenance, you keep 100% of your transaction fees (minus payment processor fees, which are the same everywhere — Stripe is 2.9% + $0.30 regardless of platform).
Where WooCommerce wins: physical product stores with complex tax rules, stores in countries where Shopify Payments doesn't operate, and anyone who needs deep WordPress integration for content-heavy commerce.
Where it loses: out-of-the-box checkout quality isn't as polished, and the plugin ecosystem has quality variance that'll make you want to throw your laptop.
BigCommerce: The Honest Shopify Competitor
BigCommerce is the platform I recommend most often to people who want a Shopify-like experience without the transaction fees. Zero transaction fees on all plans. That alone is worth doing the math on.
BigCommerce Standard is $39/month (as of early 2025, billed annually). It includes:
- Unlimited products and staff accounts
- No transaction fees on any payment gateway
- Built-in multi-currency
- Real-time shipping quotes
The catch: BigCommerce has annual revenue caps per plan. Standard caps at $50K/year GMV. If you exceed it, you're automatically bumped to Plus ($105/month, capped at $180K/year). For a store growing fast, you could find yourself paying more than Shopify within 18 months.
But here's the thing — if you're under $50K/year, BigCommerce Standard at $39/month with no transaction fees is a genuinely better deal than Basic Shopify at $79/month with fees. The checkout is solid, the native feature set is deeper than Shopify's (faceted search, real-time quotes, and gift certificates are all built in), and the app ecosystem, while smaller, covers the essentials.
I'd use BigCommerce for: B2B or wholesale stores, stores doing $30K–$150K/year in GMV where the no-transaction-fee math is favorable, and anyone selling on multiple channels who wants native integrations without paying per-channel app fees.
Medusa.js: For the Technical Founder Who's Done Paying Platform Tax
Medusa is open-source, MIT-licensed, and built on Node.js. Version 2.0 shipped in late 2024 and it's a significant rewrite — modular architecture, better plugin isolation, and a cleaner API surface. It's not a SaaS. You host it yourself or on a service like Railway or Render.
The value proposition is simple: you own the entire stack. No transaction fees, no app store markups, no plan upgrades when you hit a revenue threshold. The cost is engineering time.
A realistic Medusa setup for a small store:
- Medusa backend on Railway: ~$20–$30/month depending on usage
- Storefront: Next.js on Vercel (free tier covers most small stores)
- Database: PostgreSQL on Railway or Supabase (~$10–$25/month)
- Total infrastructure: $30–$60/month
Here's a minimal Medusa product fetch you'd use in a Next.js storefront:
// lib/medusa.js
import Medusa from "@medusajs/medusa-js";
const medusa = new Medusa({
baseUrl: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_MEDUSA_BACKEND_URL,
maxRetries: 3,
});
export async function getProducts() {
const { products } = await medusa.products.list({ limit: 12 });
return products;
}
That's it. You get a typed SDK, full control over the data layer, and no vendor holding your catalog hostage.
Where Medusa makes sense: technical founders, agencies building for clients who want to own their stack, and stores with genuinely custom commerce logic (rentals, auctions, complex bundles) that SaaS platforms can't handle without expensive workarounds.
Where it doesn't: if you need to launch in two weeks and you're not a developer, Medusa will slow you down, not speed you up. Check out our headless commerce guide for SMBs before committing to this path.
Squarespace Commerce: Underrated for Certain Store Types
I know. Squarespace has a reputation as a portfolio site builder, not a serious commerce platform. That reputation is about three years out of date.
Squarespace Commerce Basic is $28/month (billed annually) with zero transaction fees. Advanced is $52/month. For a store doing under $200K/year in physical goods — especially one where brand presentation matters as much as conversion optimization — Squarespace is worth a look.
What it does well: the design quality is genuinely high, the built-in blogging and SEO tools are solid, and the setup time is measured in hours, not days. What it doesn't do: complex inventory management, B2B pricing, or anything that requires custom checkout logic.
I'd point a ceramics studio, an independent clothing brand, or a specialty food producer toward Squarespace Commerce before I'd push them onto Shopify. The $51/month savings (vs. Basic Shopify) over 12 months is $612 — real money when you're bootstrapping.
Platform Comparison at a Glance
| Platform | Starting Price/mo | Transaction Fee | Best For | Weakest At |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic | $79 | 0–2% | Large app ecosystem, fast setup | Cost at small scale |
| BigCommerce Standard | $39 | 0% | Feature depth, no tx fees | Revenue caps per plan |
| WooCommerce | ~$15–50 (hosting) | 0% | Control, flexibility, content | Maintenance overhead |
| Medusa.js | ~$30–60 (infra) | 0% | Custom logic, ownership | Requires engineering |
| Squarespace Commerce | $28 | 0% | Design-forward brands | Complex inventory/B2B |
All prices as of Q1 2025, billed annually where applicable. Payment processor fees (Stripe, PayPal, etc.) apply on all platforms and are not included — those are the same regardless of what platform you choose.
How to Actually Choose
Stop optimizing for features you don't have yet. Most small stores don't need 200 apps, headless architecture, or enterprise B2B pricing tiers on day one. Here's how I'd think through it:
If you want to launch fast and you're comfortable paying for convenience: BigCommerce Standard at $39/month is the most honest Shopify alternative for small business owners who want a comparable experience without the transaction fee hit. Start there.
If you're technical or have a developer on retainer: WooCommerce or Medusa. WooCommerce if you're content-heavy (blog + store). Medusa if you need custom commerce logic or you're building something that'll eventually need headless architecture. Our WooCommerce vs headless commerce breakdown walks through the decision in more detail.
If your brand is the product: Squarespace Commerce. Seriously. Don't overthink it. The platform won't limit you until you're well past the point where you can afford to migrate.
If you're outside a Shopify Payments country: Almost anything else. The 2% transaction fee on a $20K/month store is $400/month — $4,800/year. That's a part-time contractor.
One thing I'd avoid: switching platforms mid-growth because you got excited about a new tool. Migrations are expensive in time, SEO equity, and developer hours. Pick something you can stay on for 24–36 months and focus on selling.
The Bottom Line
Shopify is a good platform. It's just not always the right platform for a small business watching every dollar of margin. The Shopify alternatives for small business covered here — BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Medusa, and Squarespace Commerce — each solve a real problem at a lower cost, depending on your situation.
Do this tomorrow: pull your last three months of Shopify invoices, add up every app charge, and calculate what percentage of your GMV you're paying in platform costs. If it's over 2%, run the BigCommerce or WooCommerce numbers against your actual usage. The math might surprise you.