Five alternatives to Shopify are compared here, including Wix, Squarespace, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Square Online. Entry-level pricing ranges from £0 to £79 a month depending on the platform, with transaction fee policy, rather than the headline monthly price alone, often the bigger factor in total cost for a growing UK store.
TL;DR · LAST REVIEWED 21 July 2026
- BigCommerce charges no additional platform transaction fee on any plan, regardless of which payment processor is used, unlike Shopify's non-Shopify-Payments surcharge.
- WooCommerce itself is free as a WordPress plugin, though real-world running cost, including hosting, a theme and extensions, typically lands between £150 and £500 a year.
- Wix and Squarespace both launch a design-led online store more quickly than Shopify for a small catalogue, with entry ecommerce plans from around £17 to £29 a month.
- Square Online offers a genuine free plan for businesses that already use Square for in-person payments and want to add online selling.
- Shopify itself increased card processing fees from April 2026, which is one of the main reasons UK merchants have been comparing alternatives more actively.
- The right choice depends on catalogue size and technical resource: WooCommerce suits businesses wanting full control, while Wix or Squarespace suit small, design-led stores.
Shopify alternatives compared by entry price and transaction fee policy
| Shopify Basic | From ~£19/month | Extra fee applies unless using Shopify Payments |
| BigCommerce Standard | From ~£29.95/month | No additional platform transaction fee on any plan |
| WooCommerce | Free plugin (~£150 to £500/yr real cost) | Full control, self-hosted on WordPress |
| Wix eCommerce | From ~£17 to £29/month | Design-led, quick launch for small catalogues |
| Square Online | Free plan available | Best for businesses already using Square in person |
KEY FACTS
- BigCommerce Standard: from around £29.95 a month, with zero additional platform transaction fees on any plan
- WooCommerce: free plugin, real-world running cost typically £150 to £500 a year including hosting and extensions
- Wix eCommerce: from around £17 to £29 a month for entry ecommerce plans
- Squarespace Commerce: from around £17 a month for the entry plan
- Square Online: genuine free plan available, paid tiers add more advanced storefront features
Which Shopify alternative has no transaction fees
BigCommerce charges no additional platform transaction fee on any of its plans regardless of which payment processor is used, unlike Shopify, which adds a surcharge unless a merchant uses Shopify Payments as its processor.
Transaction fee policy is one of the most consequential differences between these platforms once a store starts processing meaningful sales volume, since a small percentage fee compounds quickly at scale. Shopify applies an additional transaction fee on top of standard card processing costs whenever a merchant uses a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify's own Shopify Payments, which is not available or preferred in every market or use case. BigCommerce removes this additional layer entirely, charging no extra platform fee no matter which payment gateway a merchant connects, which can produce a meaningful saving for stores using a specific third-party processor for reasons unrelated to fees, such as an existing merchant account or a preferred provider relationship. WooCommerce works similarly in this respect: the plugin itself takes no transaction cut, and merchants pay only their chosen payment processor's standard rates, the same principle that applies on any self-hosted ecommerce setup. Beyond the headline fee structure, it is worth checking each platform's specific payment gateway partnerships, since a business already tied to a particular merchant account may find one platform's supported gateway list a better match than another's, regardless of the underlying transaction fee policy itself.
Is WooCommerce actually free to run
WooCommerce itself is a free WordPress plugin with no licensing cost, but the real-world running cost of a self-hosted store, including web hosting, a theme and any premium extensions, typically lands between around £150 and £500 a year.
WooCommerce's appeal is full ownership and control: since it runs as a plugin on a self-hosted WordPress site rather than a hosted platform, there is no monthly platform fee charged by WooCommerce itself, and a merchant retains complete access to their store's code and data. The trade-off is that WooCommerce is not a single, all-inclusive product the way Shopify or BigCommerce are: a functioning store needs separate web hosting, typically a paid theme for anything beyond a basic design, and often one or more premium extensions to add functionality that comes built in on hosted platforms, such as advanced shipping rules or subscription billing. Once these are added up, a modest WooCommerce store's real annual cost commonly falls somewhere between £150 and £500, considerably less than a comparable Shopify or BigCommerce subscription over a year, but requiring more hands-on technical setup and ongoing maintenance than a fully hosted alternative. Managed WordPress hosting providers that specialise in WooCommerce can reduce some of the technical burden, bundling security updates and performance optimisation into a single monthly hosting fee, which narrows the practical gap in day-to-day maintenance effort between WooCommerce and a fully hosted platform such as Shopify or BigCommerce.
Are Wix and Squarespace good Shopify alternatives for small stores
Wix and Squarespace both let a small, design-led store launch more quickly than Shopify, with entry ecommerce plans from around £17 to £29 a month, though both are generally considered better suited to smaller catalogues than to large, complex product ranges.
Wix and Squarespace started as general-purpose website builders and added ecommerce functionality afterward, which shows in their strengths: both offer polished, template-driven design tools that make launching an attractive small store straightforward without developer involvement. Wix's ecommerce plans start from around £17 to £29 a month, and Squarespace's Commerce plans start from a similar range, both undercutting Shopify's entry Basic plan on headline price. Where the two builders tend to fall behind Shopify and BigCommerce is at scale: multi-currency support, advanced shipping configuration and third-party app ecosystems are all narrower than on platforms built primarily for commerce first. For a small business selling a limited product range where visual design matters as much as backend commerce features, Wix or Squarespace can be a genuinely simpler and cheaper alternative to Shopify; for a growing catalogue with more complex operational needs, both tend to become limiting sooner than a dedicated ecommerce platform. Both Wix and Squarespace have expanded their app marketplaces in recent years, narrowing the functionality gap with dedicated ecommerce platforms for common needs such as email marketing integration and basic inventory management, though neither yet matches the depth of BigCommerce's native built-in feature set for larger catalogues.
When does Square Online make sense as a Shopify alternative
Square Online offers a genuine free plan and is the most natural alternative for a business already using Square hardware and software for in-person payments, since online and in-store sales, inventory and reporting sync automatically within the same system.
For a retail or hospitality business already running Square's point-of-sale hardware in store, Square Online extends that same system to an online storefront, syncing inventory, sales reporting and customer data across both channels without needing a separate integration. The free plan makes it a low-risk way to add online selling for a business that primarily sells in person and wants an online presence as a secondary channel rather than the main focus of the business. Paid tiers add more advanced storefront customisation and reduced transaction fees on card payments processed through Square itself. Against Shopify, Square Online is a narrower product overall, built around omnichannel retail and hospitality use cases rather than large-scale, purely online-first commerce, so a business planning to scale primarily through online sales alone, without a significant in-person retail presence, is likely to find Shopify or a dedicated online-first platform a better long-term fit. Square Online's paid tiers also reduce card processing fees specifically for payments taken through Square's own hardware, which compounds the benefit for a business processing a meaningful volume of in-person sales alongside its online storefront, rather than operating purely online without any physical retail presence at all.
How should a UK business choose between these platforms
The right choice depends on catalogue size, technical resource and whether transaction fees matter more at scale: BigCommerce and WooCommerce both suit growing or fee-sensitive stores, while Wix, Squarespace and Square Online suit smaller, simpler or omnichannel setups.
Rather than a single winner, the right Shopify alternative for a UK business depends heavily on where the store currently sits and where it is heading. A brand with a modest, well-defined product catalogue that values design flexibility is well served by Wix or Squarespace. A business already running Square in physical retail gains the most from Square Online's integrated approach. A growing store concerned about transaction fees eating into margin as sales volume increases is likely to find BigCommerce's zero-additional-fee policy the strongest long-term fit. And a technically confident team, or one working with a developer, wanting full ownership of code and data without ongoing platform fees is best served by WooCommerce, accepting the additional setup and maintenance work that comes with a self-hosted platform. Total cost at a realistic sales volume, not just the headline monthly price, is the number worth comparing before committing to a migration. Migration effort between platforms is also worth factoring into any decision, since moving an existing product catalogue, customer records and order history to a new platform typically requires dedicated migration tools or manual data export, adding both time and a small direct cost on top of any new subscription.
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DISCLAIMER
This article is editorial information, not financial advice. Kael Tripton Ltd is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Figures were correct at the last review date shown above; verify current rates and rules with the primary sources listed below before acting.
Frequently asked questions
Do you pay extra fees on Shopify if you don't use Shopify Payments
Yes. Shopify applies an additional transaction fee on top of standard card processing costs when a merchant uses a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify's own Shopify Payments, whereas BigCommerce and WooCommerce do not charge this additional platform-level fee.
Can you run WooCommerce without any technical knowledge
It is possible with guided setup tools, but WooCommerce generally requires more hands-on technical involvement than a fully hosted platform like Shopify or BigCommerce, since hosting, security updates and extension management all sit with the store owner rather than the platform provider.
Are Wix and Squarespace good for a large product catalogue
Generally not as strong as Shopify or BigCommerce for this. Both are better suited to smaller, design-led catalogues, and tend to become more limiting than dedicated ecommerce platforms once a store's product range and operational complexity grow significantly.
Do you need Square hardware to use Square Online
No, Square Online can be used on its own, but it is most valuable for a business that already uses Square's point-of-sale hardware in person, since inventory, sales reporting and customer data sync automatically between the online and in-store channels.
Which alternative has the lowest total cost for a small store
WooCommerce typically has the lowest real-world annual cost, commonly between around £150 and £500 a year including hosting and extensions, though it requires more technical setup than a fully hosted alternative such as Wix, Squarespace or Shopify.
SOURCES
- Shopify official pricing – accessed 21 July 2026
- BigCommerce official pricing – accessed 21 July 2026
- WooCommerce official site – accessed 21 July 2026
