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Migration guide · E-commerce platforms

The 5 best Shopify alternatives

Shopify is the hosted platform most online shops run on: storefront, checkout, payments, inventory, shipping and an app store covering nearly anything else. It removed the need to assemble a stack, which is exactly why it dominates — and why leaving is harder than the monthly fee suggests.

93
Bottom line

Below meaningful scale, Shopify is the right answer and the fee is cheap. Above it, the percentage becomes an engineering budget — and Medusa or Saleor turn that into infrastructure you own.

Jump to the full comparison →

The cost

Basic runs about $39/month, Shopify $105, Advanced $399, with Plus quoted in the thousands. The subscription is rarely the real cost. Transaction fees are: card rates around 2.9% plus 30 cents on Basic, and an additional 0.5% to 2% on top if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments. Apps add up quickly — a mature store commonly runs $200 to $500 a month in third-party subscriptions. Figures checked 2026-08-07.

Why people consider an alternative

The percentage. A platform fee that scales with revenue means a store doing well pays materially more for the same software, and the extra levy for not using Shopify Payments is a genuine constraint rather than a nudge. The second reason is the app tax — the base product is deliberately minimal and the gaps are filled by paid subscriptions you rent forever. The third is customisation: Liquid and the theme system are capable but bounded, and teams that need the checkout to behave differently hit a wall that only Plus removes.

When Shopify is still the right call

Stay if you are under roughly $500k a year, where the platform fee is small against the engineering you would otherwise fund. Stay if your team has no developer — the open alternatives all assume one. Stay if the app ecosystem is doing real work for you, because reproducing five apps is a project. And stay if checkout conversion is your business: Shopify's checkout is among the best-converting on the internet and that is worth paying for.

The verdict — at a glance

AlternativeLicenseSelf-hostPricingSovereignty
Medusa★MITYesFree and open source. You pay for hosting and the developers who build the storefront.93
SaleorBSD-3-ClauseYesFree and open source. Saleor Cloud is an optional paid hosted tier.91
VendureMIT (core; some enterprise plugins are commercial)YesFree and open source core. Vendure Cloud and certain plugins are paid.89
WooCommerceGPL-3.0YesFree and open source. Many useful extensions are paid, per year.88
BigCommerceProprietary (hosted service)NoPlans from roughly $39/month with no additional platform transaction fee on your chosen gateway. Annual revenue thresholds move you up tiers.32
93
Macrostack's top pick

Medusa

A headless commerce engine in TypeScript, MIT, no revenue share.

Which one fits your situation?

There is no single best answer — it depends on what you are actually trying to do.

Just tell me the best Shopify alternative

Medusa93

Our top pick — the highest Sovereignty Score at 93, and the one we would choose ourselves.

Medusa vs Saleor →

I want to self-host it and own the data

Saleor91

Self-hostable, so your data stays on your own server. Free and open source. Saleor Cloud is an optional paid hosted tier.

Saleor vs Medusa →

It is just me — I do not want to run a server

Vendure89

Offers a hosted option, so you can start without infrastructure. Free and open source core. Vendure Cloud and certain plugins are paid.

Vendure vs Medusa →

Every alternative, compared

#1★ TOP PICK

Medusa

A headless commerce engine in TypeScript, MIT, no revenue share.

93
OPEN SOURCEMITSELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

Medusa is a modular commerce backend built in Node and TypeScript: cart, orders, fulfilment, payments and inventory exposed as APIs, with the storefront entirely your own. There is no transaction fee and no seat count — you pay for hosting. MIT, around 35.6k stars and actively developed. It suits teams that already build in JavaScript and want commerce to be a service inside their own application rather than a platform their application lives inside. The cost is real: you are assembling a stack Shopify hands you complete.

Strengths

  • +MIT with no revenue share — growth does not raise the software bill
  • +TypeScript throughout, which is where most web teams already are
  • +Modular by design: use the commerce parts you need, ignore the rest
  • +Headless, so the storefront is yours entirely

Trade-offs

  • −You build the storefront — Shopify gives you one on day one
  • −No app store; integrations are code you write and maintain
  • −Needs a developer permanently, not just at launch
  • −Checkout conversion is your problem to solve and optimise
Free and open source. You pay for hosting and the developers who build the storefront.
WebsiteSourceDocs
#2

Saleor

GraphQL-native commerce built for complex, multi-region catalogues.

91
OPEN SOURCEBSD-3-ClauseSELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

Saleor is a mature Python and GraphQL commerce platform aimed at the harder end of the market: multi-channel, multi-warehouse, multi-currency, complex tax and permission models. Where Medusa is the lightweight modular option, Saleor is the one that handles genuine enterprise complexity without an enterprise licence. BSD-3-Clause, around 23k stars. The GraphQL-first API is excellent and it is a real commitment — the whole team ends up working that way.

Strengths

  • +BSD-3-Clause — the most permissive licence in this comparison
  • +Handles multi-channel and multi-warehouse properly, not as an add-on
  • +GraphQL API is comprehensive and well documented
  • +Proven at large catalogue sizes

Trade-offs

  • −Heavier to run than Medusa — Python, Postgres, Celery, Redis
  • −GraphQL-first is a commitment for the whole team
  • −Smaller plugin ecosystem than Shopify by orders of magnitude
  • −Overkill for a straightforward single-region shop
Free and open source. Saleor Cloud is an optional paid hosted tier.
WebsiteSourceDocs
#3

Vendure

TypeScript commerce with an admin UI you do not have to build.

89
OPEN SOURCEMIT (core; some enterprise plugins are commercial)SELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

Vendure sits between Medusa and Saleor: a headless commerce framework in TypeScript and GraphQL that ships with a genuinely usable admin interface, so you are not building order management from nothing. MIT-licensed core with a plugin architecture for extending it. Smaller community than the others here, which is the honest caveat — but the developer experience is well regarded and the admin UI removes a chunk of work that Medusa leaves to you.

Strengths

  • +Ships with a real admin UI — significant work you do not repeat
  • +TypeScript and GraphQL, cleanly architected
  • +Plugin system makes extension straightforward
  • +MIT core with no revenue share

Trade-offs

  • −Smallest community of the four open options here
  • −Some enterprise plugins are commercial
  • −Still headless — the storefront is yours to build
  • −Fewer worked examples when you get stuck
Free and open source core. Vendure Cloud and certain plugins are paid.
WebsiteSourceDocs
#4

WooCommerce

The most-installed shop software on the internet, and it runs on WordPress.

88
OPEN SOURCEGPL-3.0SELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

WooCommerce turns a WordPress site into a shop, and its reach is the point: an enormous plugin and theme market, a hosting industry built around it, and a supply of people who already know how to work on it. GPL-3.0. For a small business that wants a shop bolted onto a site it already has, this is usually the pragmatic answer and everything else is over-engineering. The trade is WordPress itself — plugin conflicts, update discipline and performance work you will own.

Strengths

  • +Largest ecosystem in commerce — a plugin exists for almost everything
  • +Easy to hire for; a huge pool of people already know it
  • +No transaction fees and no platform revenue share
  • +Cheap and fast to launch if a WordPress site already exists

Trade-offs

  • −Inherits every WordPress problem: plugin conflicts, updates, security
  • −Performance needs real work as the catalogue grows
  • −The useful extensions are paid, and they recur annually
  • −Not headless by default; the frontend is WordPress
Free and open source. Many useful extensions are paid, per year.
WebsiteDocs
#5

BigCommerce

Shopify's closest hosted rival, with no platform transaction fee.

32
SOURCE-AVAILABLEProprietary (hosted service)

BigCommerce is a hosted platform in the same shape as Shopify with one meaningful difference: it charges no additional platform fee for using your own payment provider, which for a store negotiating its own card rates is real money. It also allows deeper API access and headless use on lower tiers than Shopify does. It is proprietary and hosted, so the sovereignty position is no better — but if the driver is the payment levy specifically rather than ownership, it addresses exactly that.

Strengths

  • +No platform fee for using your own payment provider
  • +Strong API and headless support on standard tiers
  • +More built in before you reach for paid apps
  • +Migration from Shopify is comparatively straightforward

Trade-offs

  • −Proprietary and hosted — the ownership problem is unchanged
  • −Revenue thresholds force tier upgrades whether you want them or not
  • −Smaller app ecosystem and theme market than Shopify
  • −Still a platform whose roadmap is not yours
Plans from roughly $39/month with no additional platform transaction fee on your chosen gateway. Annual revenue thresholds move you up tiers.
Website

Questions people ask

▸ What does Shopify really cost?

The subscription is the small part. Card processing runs around 2.9% plus 30 cents, there is an extra 0.5% to 2% if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, and a mature store commonly carries $200 to $500 a month in third-party apps. Model the percentage against your revenue, not the plan price.

▸ What is the best open-source Shopify alternative?

Medusa for most teams — MIT, TypeScript, no revenue share, and modular enough to adopt gradually. Saleor if you have genuine multi-channel or multi-warehouse complexity. WooCommerce if you already run WordPress and want a shop rather than a platform migration.

▸ When is leaving Shopify a mistake?

Below roughly $500k a year, and any time you do not have a developer. Every open alternative assumes someone builds and maintains the storefront. Shopify's checkout also converts extremely well, and losing a point of conversion can cost more than the platform fee saved.

Compare them head-to-head

Medusa vs Saleor→Medusa vs Vendure→Medusa vs WooCommerce→Medusa vs BigCommerce→Saleor vs Vendure→Saleor vs WooCommerce→Saleor vs BigCommerce→Vendure vs WooCommerce→Vendure vs BigCommerce→WooCommerce vs BigCommerce→

Related comparisons

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Entry last verified 2026-08-07. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.

The Macrostack brief

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