The 5 Best Shopify Alternatives

phone on table next to a computer

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We recommend Wix as the best Shopify alternative for small businesses in the UK today thanks to its easy-to-use interface, creative freedom and simple dashboard. It also offers new AI writing and design tools, which are affordable versions of Shopify's.

Using our decade's worth of experience in this sector, we rigorously tested the best online sales platforms to find the most affordable high quality tools available.

Our key metrics were: sales features, design functions, value for money, help and support, and a customer score.

You can check out our comparison tables to see all of these scores – and which of the platforms outperformed or fell below Shopify, and in which areas. Then, read on for the pros and cons of each, to help you decide which one would suit you best.

But first, let's take a glance at the leaderboard:

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0 out of 0

Shopify

Wix

BigCommerce

Square Online

Squarespace

WooCommerce

Score
4.3
Score
4.7
Score
4.4
Score
4.4
Score
4.7
Score
3.8
Best For

Advanced sales features

Best For

Creating a good-looking website with excellent sales features

Best For

Offers you all the functionality you need to scale and succeed

Best For

Payment integrations

Best For

Selling digital products or portfolios

Best For

Those looking to work on their own

Price Range
Paying for one year upfront

£5-£344/month

Deal: First month for £1

(Enterprise pricing available)

Price Range
Paying for one year upfront

£14-£119/month

£12.60-£107.10 with code “TAKE10”

(Enterprise pricing available)

Price Range
Paying for one year upfront

£23-£240/month

(Converted from USD; Enterprise pricing available)

Price Range
Paying for one year upfront

£0-64/month

(Enterprise pricing available)

Price Range
Paying for one year upfront
Price Range
Paying for one year upfront

Plugin is free, but monthly running costs average £30/month

Transaction fees

0.5%-2%

Transaction fees

0%

Transaction fees

0%

Transaction fees

1.4% + 25p (UK cards)

2.5% + 25p (non-UK cards)

(Rates are lower for Premium plan)

Transaction fees

3%-0%

Transaction fees

None

Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Plan
Free Trial
Free Trial
Free Trial
Free Trial
Free Trial
Free Trial
Try Shopify Try Wix Try BigCommerce Try Square Try Squarespace Competitors

The top Shopify alternatives comparison

Here's the breakdown of scores in each category, per ecommerce platform:

Ecommerce platformSales features /5Design functions /5Value for money /5Help & support /5Customer score /5Overall rating /5
Shopify4.73.93.04.44.84.7
Wix3.93.54.24.34.24.6
BigCommerce4.64.23.04.53.64.4
Square3.72.64.74.13.54.4
Squarespace3.13.94.23.94.34.3
WooCommerce4.02.54.35.03.83.8

Next, we'll take a look at a snapshot of each individual platform so you can see its pros and cons, as well as each plan's pricing.


1. Wix

Best Shopify alternative for small businesses

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Wix

Shopify

Score
4.7
Score
4.3
Best For

Creating a good-looking website with excellent sales features

Best For

Advanced sales features

Price Range
Paying for one year upfront

£14-£119/month

£12.60-£107.10 with code “TAKE10”

(Enterprise pricing available)

Price Range
Paying for one year upfront

£5-£344/month

Deal: First month for £1

(Enterprise pricing available)

Key Features
  • Around 900 design templates
  • Loads of website functions
  • Sell on Facebook, eBay, Amazon, and more
  • Tools to boost search engine visibility
Key Features
  • Website design tools
  • Sell products or services
  • Order tracking
  • Inventory management
  • Self-hosts its sites
  • Shipping discounts
Members area?
Members area?
Unlimited storage space?
Unlimited storage space?
Free Trial
Free Trial
Try Wix Try Shopify

Given its creative freedom and simple dashboard, Wix is the Shopify alternative for those who need an easy-to-use interface.

Wix is far simpler than Shopify when it comes to inventory management, meaning you won't get lost in mazes of sub menus and product tags. That can save you hours of frustration if you just want to sell some products without navigating a labyrinth filled with riddles.

three menus in a dashboard with one textbox and two images visible
Wix categories are clear, straightforward and quick to edit.

If you want to scale up with greater product management capabilities, you can always add apps from the Wix App Store down the line. That means you can keep a lid on spending, and save money because you won't be paying for extra features you're never going to use.

Outscoring Shopify in our value for money research, Wix has far cheaper price plans, making it one of the very best ecommerce platforms for small businesses.

Wix used to lack the sales-specific tools to match Shopify, but has somewhat remedied this. For instance, Wix now has expanded multichannel integration (allowing for selling on platforms like Facebook and Instagram) and dropshipping.

Four rows of multiple dropdown fields in three columns
Shopify categories use Boolean logic to automatically sort your products according to certain criteria... Keeping up?

Wix also has a convenient AI text generator tool which you can use on your main website pages and in product descriptions. You can select the type of paragraph you need, such as “About me”, “FAQs” or “Service description” to name a few examples. It will save you time as it crafts appealing (albeit highly generic) phrases to promote your offerings. You can check out a video demo of it in our full Wix review.

Wix's AI writer isn't a serious rival to Shopify Magic, which works in a similar way but gives you a choice of tones of voice. Shopify's version produces more nuanced results, but Wix's equivalent produces a good enough draft for you to edit to your liking.

closeup of AI text generator menu on Wix editor
Wix's AI text generator is a basic version of Shopify Magic.

Pros

  • Much easier to use than Shopify
  • Far cheaper price plans than Shopify
  • Faster to set up than Shopify

Cons

  • Basic inventory and product management
  • Sell up to 50,000 products (limitless on Shopify)
  • Better tax calculation on Shopify

For a more detailed comparison, check out our in-depth Wix vs Shopify article.

Wix pricing

We've already put together a deep dive on Wix pricing, but if you just want a quick glance at its costs, read on:

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Core

Business

Business Elite

Price (billed annually)
Price (billed annually)
Price (billed annually)
Best For

A small online store

Best For

Expanding online sellers

Best For

Fast-moving online stores

Key Features
  • 50GB storage
  • Free domain (1 year)
  • Sell products, video, music
  • 1 auto backup/month
  • Basic gift cards
Key Features
  • 100GB storage
  • Free domain (1 year)
  • Sales tax automation
  • Print shipping labels
  • Sell in 6 currencies
Key Features
  • Unlimited storage
  • Free domain (1 year)
  • Loyalty rewards
  • Priority customer support
  • Custom reports

2. BigCommerce

Best Shopify alternative for medium-to-large businesses

PlatformSales featuresDesign functionsValue for moneyHelp and supportCustomer score /5Overall ratingPrice range /monthFree trial?
Shopify4.73.93.04.44.84.7£22 – £2193 days
BigCommerce4.64.23.04.53.64.4£23 – £24015 days

 

BigCommerce is the most natural Shopify alternative, suitable for small, medium, and large businesses alike. However, it betters Shopify in two key areas: transaction fees and marketing features.

Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce waives its own transaction fees on all of its supported payment processors (of which there are over 65, including Stripe, PayPal, WorldPay, and digital wallets like Apple Pay).

In contrast, Shopify charges an extra 2% per transaction on its Basic plan, going down to 1% on the main Shopify plan. You can find more detail in our guide to Shopify pricing.

Shopify also has fewer email marketing and customer reviews features than BigCommerce. You'd have to pay for extra integrations from the Shopify app store, which can see your monthly costs quickly add up.

In summary, BigCommerce is slightly better value for money than Shopify.

Pros

  • Provides far more in-built features than Shopify, which relies on apps
  • Imposes zero transaction fees on all payment processors, unlike Shopify
  • Offers fantastic multi-channel integration, helping you sell to multiple audiences

Cons

  • Doesn’t offer a mobile app to help you manage your store on the go, unlike Shopify
  • Interface isn’t as user-friendly as Shopify’s
skullcandy bigcommerce example
Skullcandy - BigCommerce customer

BigCommerce pricing

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Standard

Plus

Pro

Price (billed annually)

$29/month (around £23)

Price (billed annually)

$79/month (around £63)

Price (billed annually)

$299/month (around £240)

Best For

Starting a small or medium-sized online store

Best For

Growing your online store

Best For

Scaling your business to new heights

Key Features

Sell an unlimited number of products

Multichannel selling

Coupon creation

Reporting tools

Key Features

Abandoned cart recovery emails

Customer loyalty programmes

Store credit card payment details

Key Features

Filter products through size and colour variants

Dedicated SSL security

Google reviews

Try Now Try Now Try Now

3. Square

Best free Shopify alternative

PlatformSales featuresDesign functionsValue for moneyHelp and supportCustomer score /5Overall ratingPrice range /monthFree trial?
Shopify4.73.93.04.44.84.7£22 – £2193 days
Square3.72.64.74.13.54.4£0 – £54Free plan

 

Offering a generous free plan, which comes with multi-channel integration and the ability to sell unlimited products, Square is one of the best free Shopify alternatives.

You should choose Square over Shopify if you want to use one of the best free ecommerce platforms, you don’t mind having a simple website, and you want to be able to build your online store within a couple of hours. 

When it comes to customizing your design, we noticed Square takes a mobile-first view of your website. So when you first start to choose a template, previews and editing spaces are in the narrow mobile screen viewport. This is unique compared to competitors like Shopify, Squarespace and Wix, which tend to start you off editing the desktop view. Yet it's extremely helpful as Google takes a mobile-first approach to indexing.

Other than that, Square is underwhelming compared to Shopify, especially when you look at the available payment processors. Square only supports one (Square) on the free plan, with PayPal available on the other plans, while Shopify supports over 100 on all plans.

Pros

  • Enables you to sell online for free (you only pay 1.9% per transaction)
  • Quicker to build a website than on Shopify
  • Represents good value for money with its combination of strong features and affordable plans

Cons

  • Very limited customisation compared to Shopify
  • Large transactions when you don’t use Square’s payment processor
  • Lacks the prompts and supports found on Shopify when designing your store
website editor basic menu view
I couldn't quite position my image as I would have liked it to display.

Square pricing

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Free

Plus

Premium

Price (billed annually)

£0/month

Price (billed annually)

£20/month

Price (billed annually)

£64/month

Best For

Smaller businesses

Best For

Scaling up a small business

Best For

Customer service-focused sales

Key Features

Sell unlimited products

Instagram and Pinterest integration

Key Features

Free domain (one year)

Accept PayPal

No Square adverts on your website

Key Features

Lower card transaction fees

Real time postage pricing

Transaction Fees

2.9% + 30¢

Transaction Fees

1.4% + 25p (UK cards)

2.5% + 25p (non-UK cards)

Transaction Fees

2.9% + 30¢


4. Squarespace

Best Shopify alternative for creating a beautiful website

PlatformSales featuresDesign functionsValue for moneyHelp and supportCustomer score /5Overall ratingPrice range /monthFree trial?
Shopify4.73.93.04.44.84.7£22 – £2193 days
Squarespace3.13.94.23.94.34.3£23 – £3514 days

 

Squarespace is one of the finest Shopify alternatives for creative and cost- conscious users, offering the most professional-looking templates we’ve ever tested, with affordable price plans to boot.

In fact, Squarespace is the best value for money platform we tested (outside of Square's free tier), offering price plans ranging from £23 to £35 per month, with the ability to sell digital and service-based products, while offering multi-channel integration via Instagram. This is one of the many reasons why we rate Squarespace as the best platform for selling subscriptions.

We love its new animation features for images and even text highlights (such as a line appearing underneath a word or two) added in June this year. These custom design elements allow you to capture audience attention with subtle, eye-catching movement upon scrolling.

In contrast to Shopify, though, you may find your business outgrowing Squarespace if you plan to scale quickly. In that case, we’d recommend opting for BigCommerce instead, or installing third-party services onto your Squarespace store, such as Zapier – which connects your apps to automate your repetitive tasks – to help bolster your ecommerce and finance capabilities.

Pros

  • Enables you to design an ecommerce store that really stands out
  • The best value for money platform we tested
  • Offers much sleeker templates than Shopify

Cons

  • Steeper learning curve than on Shopify
  • Supports only two payment processors (Stripe and PayPal) compared to Shopify’s 100+ options

Can't decide between Wix vs Squarespace? They're both great options, but see below for an overview of Squarespace price plans:

screenshot closeup of website editor showing menu editing options
Squarespace now has visual animations on text elements.

Squarespace pricing

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Business

Commerce Basic

Commerce Advanced

Price (billed annually)

£17/month

Price (billed annually)

£23/month

Price (billed annually)

£35/month

Best For

Small businesses

Best For

SMBs looking to sell online

Best For

Growing retail businesses

Key Features
  • Sell unlimited number of products
  • Free domain (1 year)
  • Free Gmail (1 year)
  • Pop-ups and banners
Key Features
  • Collect reviews
  • Product waitlists
  • Free Gmail (1 year)
  • Free domain (1 year)
Key Features
  • Abandoned cart recovery
  • Sell subscriptions
  • Local shipping rates
  • APIs for custom integrations
Transaction Fees

3%

Transaction Fees

0%

Transaction Fees

0%

Still unsure about Squarespace? Mosey on over to our Squarespace review for a careful look at its features, pricing, and functionality.


5. WooCommerce

Best Shopify alternative for WordPress users

PlatformSales featuresDesign functionsValue for moneyHelp and supportCustomer score /5Overall ratingPrice range /monthFree trial?
Shopify4.73.93.04.44.84.7£22 -– £2193 days
WooCommerce4.02.54.35.03.83.8~£15.99Free plan

 

Woocommerce is a different platform to both Shopify and the other options we've discussed here, as it's a plugin for WordPress rather than an entire online store builder.

Whether you opt for the free plan or splurge on the paid tier, WooCommerce won't cost you much itself. However, it's worth noting that any costs will be on top of existing WordPress costs, like hosting or other paid plugins you use for your online store.

Obviously if you've already set up a WordPress-based website and are looking to add an ecommerce option, WooCommerce is a great choice. Shopify used to have a WordPress plugin, but has since discontinued it, meaning that WooCommerce is the move for WordPress-based users.

WordPress considerations aside, WooCommerce offers both first and third-party payment options, a well-reviewed mobile app, and the ability to integrate with other well-known software, like MailChimp, Yoast, and Google Analytics.

Pros

  • No surprise fees, unlike Shopify’s transaction fees and third-party app costs
  • Quickest and easiest ecommerce platform we tested
  • First and third-party payment options

Cons

  • No one-on-one expert setup help
  • Hosting is not included in the package
  • Low cost may be offset by additional costs (hosting, maintenance, etc.)
Dineamic WooCommerce
Dynamic - WooCommerce customer

WooCommerce pricing

If you already pay for WordPress hosting and have your own domain then WooCommerce is a free add-on. There are some optional extra charges such as webstore themes (£66 billed annually, with a 30-day back money guarantee). There's a marketplace of additional features to add on, many of which (50+) are free, but others are priced up to £248 each.


How to choose a website builder

When it comes to selecting the right website subscription for your business here are the most important considerations:

  • The quality of sales tools
  • Template and design flexibility
  • Value for money
  • The help and support options
  • Ease of use (whether the tools match your skillset)

The right Shopify alternative for you depends on your budget and skill level, and the amount of time you have spare to build your website. For instance, Wix and Square are easy to use, but you'll lose some subtlety in inventory oversight and design finesse.

At the steeper end of the learning curve are BigCommerce and Squarespace. The former can help you create an ecommerce empire, while the latter gives you the tools to craft a world class aesthetic.


Expert verdict

We’ve shown you the best Shopify alternatives, backed up by our independent research and participant testing. You might already know which one you should pick, but let’s quickly recap what we’ve discussed.

The best Shopify alternatives are:

  1. Wix – best for small businesses.
  2. BigCommerce – best for medium-to-large businesses.
  3. Square – best free Shopify alternative.
  4. Squarespace – best for creating a beautiful website.
  5. WooCommerce – best for WordPress users.

We found you'll need more technical expertise with WooCommerce or BigCommerce, so neither are the best choice if you lack an interest in complex web set-ups.

On the other hand, we found Wix, Squarespace, and Square are much more beginner-friendly. These tools are easy enough for those with very basics technical skills. So if you'd like to design your website via click-and-drag, you'd get on best with one of those three.

How We Test Ecommerce Website Builders for Businesses

We tested eight market-leading ecommerce website builders to evaluate them in terms of functionality, usability, accuracy, and aesthetics so we can make the most useful recommendations to UK businesses.

Our rigorous testing process means these products have been scored and rated in seven main categories of investigation and 47 subcategories – in fact, we covered 341 areas of investigation in total. We then gave each category score a ‘relevance weighting' to ensure the product's final score perfectly reflects the needs and requirements of Expert Market readers – and that's our product testing algorithm in a nutshell!

Our main testing categories for ecommerce website builders are:

Website Features: the capabilities and functionalities offered by an ecommerce website builder, e.g. blog functionality, SEO capability, and marketing capacity.

Sales Features: the sales capabilities and sales functionalities offered by an ecommerce website builder, including shipping, inventory capacity, and payment options.

Design: the aesthetic appeal and visual layout of a website created using the website builder. It encompasses aspects such as page templates and customisable themes.

Customer Score: external customer opinion; the feedback and ratings given by customers who have used a particular ecommerce builder – the market position and reputation a builder holds.

Ease of Use: how user-friendly and intuitive an ecommerce website builder is for people with varying levels of technical expertise.

Value for Money: the balance between the cost of an ecommerce website builder and the benefits it provides. It considers factors such as pricing plans, subscription models, and available features.

Help and Support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using an ecommerce website builder. This can include tutorials, knowledge bases, and email or chat support.

 

FAQs

Which platform is better than Shopify?
If you're running a small business and need an affordable and simple way to sell products online, then Wix is a better platform for you than Shopify. It's cheaper, both in terms of subscription pricing and the lack of transaction fees.
Who is Shopify's main competitor?
BigCommerce is the main rival to Shopify, offering arguably better value because it charges no transaction fees (unlike Shopify). It's worth looking into if you're on the fence about Shopify because it links your online shop to web marketplaces including Walmart, Amazon and eBay. You'll be able to sell in multiple currencies, and synch your shop with a physical card reader. These features can equip you to broaden your sales as you enable more customers to purchase from you.
What is a free alternative to Shopify?
If you want to start an online store without paying a monthly fee, you can sign up to Square Online. It's the best online sales platform to use instead of Shopify if you want secure payment features without the hefty price tag. Square is not completely free because you'll pay a transaction fee per sale. But it means you're more likely to make a profit, as you don't pay anything until you sell.
Written by:
Dan’s a Senior Writer at Expert Market, specialising in digital marketing, web design, and photocopiers, amongst other topics.
Reviewed by:
A head shot of Natasha Willett - a blonde woman in a work shirt with a blue background
For over 9 years Natasha has worked as a mixed method researcher working across a range of sectors from insurance and policy development, to business services and software. As a member of the Market Research Society, Natasha is an advocate for high ethical, commercial and methodological best practices.