The 5 best Shopify alternatives for small business online stores

According to our research, the best ecommerce alternative to Shopify is Wix, closely followed by Squarespace and Square Online.

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BEST FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Wix	Squarespace	Square Online	BigCommerce	GoDaddy
BEST FOR All-round ecommerce platform for small businesses	BEST FOR Best for ease of use and great design	BEST FOR Best value – start selling for free	BEST FOR Best sales features	BEST FOR Creating a simple online store
Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.8	Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.7	Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 3.7	Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 3.7	Overall Score Based on our in-depth research and user testing 4.2
Pricing £16-119 per month, billed annually £14.40-£107.10 with code “TAKE10”	Pricing £17-£35 per month, billed annually Use code “SU10” to receive a 10% discount on all Squarespace plans	Pricing £0-£64 per month, billed annually	Pricing $29-$299 (around £23-£240) per month, billed annually	Pricing £13.99 per month (first term savings available)
Key features Easy to use drag-and-drop builder Extensive app market Inbuilt SEO and CRM products	Key features Stunning ecommerce templates Superb non commerce features Great value for money	Key features Start selling for no monthly fee Automatically sync with Square POS	Key features Top of the range sales features Mulitchannel integration Sell unlimited products	Key features Flexible payments Flexible shipping options Discounts and promotions
Try Wix	Try Squarespace	Try Square	Try BigCommerce	Try GoDaddy

There are plenty of advantages to Shopify as an ecommerce web builder, including some solid value pricing plans. But – particularly if you’re based entirely online – you want to know you have the best application out there so that there’s no obstacles when it comes to making sales.

Maybe you’re looking to learn more about the market before committing to Shopify. Or perhaps you’re an experienced user, and dissatisfied with what the platform is currently giving you.

Whatever your reason, it can be hard to navigate the competitive online store builder market and find answers. Luckily, you’ve come to the right place.

Startups.co.uk is home to all things small business related, and our experts know all about the benefits, deals and discounts the top ecommerce platforms can give you – as well as which to avoid. Read the below guide to find the best alternative tool to Shopify, and the one that matches your business’s specific requirements.

Wix

Best for website features

Wix

4.8

Number one website builder for features, design, and support.

Visit Wix

Full review of Wix

• Free plan Yes
• Price from £9 per month

• Good balance of usability and complex features
• Customisable 'drag-and-drop' templates
• 24/7 customer support is available

Summary Wix has undoubtedly earned its place as our best website builder, offering an unparalleled list of features and wide-ranging payment options for small businesses. Because of this, Wix is an excellent choice for a variety of users, whether you’re new to website building or a seasoned expert looking for endless customisability.

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Wix and Shopify are two heavyweights in the ecommerce website builder division. It’s Wix that comes out on top in our ranking, scoring an unbeatable 4.8 out of 5, compared to runner up Shopify’s 4.6.

According to our research, Wix outranks Shopify in four key areas. These are: website features, design functionality, ease of use and value for money.

Wix is definitely the winner when it comes to website features. Unlike Shopify, it allows you to edit offline so you can edit your platform design easily and without any code. Both platforms offer a similar number of app and third-party integrations for advanced functions, but Wix outstrips Shopify for features in areas that will generate customer interest like blogging, SEO and marketing. It comes equipped with an SEO dashboard that allows you to track your site’s performance on Google.

There are two areas where you’ll be better off buying from Shopify. These are sales features and customer score. Both perform well in the former – and both also offer accounting features, which is a big plus for ecommerce website builders – but Shopify gives you access to a few more crucial tools like added security features and discount code capabilities.

That being said, Wix’s sales features have seen significant improvement in the past, which is why we recently boosted its score to push the platform from third place to second.

Read our full review of Wix to learn more about its new ranking.

Wix Pricing vs Shopify Pricing

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Core	Business	Business Elite
Price £16 per month £14.40 with code ‘TAKE10’	Price £25 per month £22.50 with code ‘TAKE10’	Price £119 per month £107.10 with code ‘TAKE10’
Features Basic ecommerce Accept payments Basic site analytics Abandoned cart recovery	Features Standard site analytics Standard eCommerce Automated sales tax for 100 transactions per month Accept pre-orders	Features Advanced eCommerce Advanced developer platform Advanced site analytics Loyalty program by Smile.io
Free trial?	Free trial?	Free trial?
Try Wix	Try Wix	Try Wix

Wix outperforms Shopify for value for money by more than 20% in our research. That’s thanks to its free plan, cheaper paid-for plans (£16 per month versus Shopify’s £19) and the number of high-quality features included on its paid plans.

The former also offers a completely free plan, though you will have to accept a ‘.wix’ subdomain in your URL if you go this route.

Find out more in our Wix pricing breakdown.

Squarespace

Best for design

Squarespace

4.7

It might not have the best sales features, but Squarespace’s excellent editing tools make it quick and easy to get your online store up and running.

Try Squarespace

Squarespace Ecommerce full review

• FREE TRIAL 14-day free trial
• PRICE FROM £17 per month Use code "SU10" to receive a 10% discount on all Squarespace plans

• Ideal platform for digital sales i.e online events
• Our highest scorer for ease of use
• Use code "SU10" to receive a 10% discount on all Squarespace plans

Summary Squarespace's ecommerce offering has plenty of great selling points to keep its users happy. There have been huge UX improvements since we last tested the platform, moving from 3.4 to a 4.2 ease of use score. The ecommerce platform has also greatly improved its app store and customer support. Although it's the ideal platform for digital sales (where stock is not directly needed) it falls short when it comes to stock monitoring capabilities. It also has very limited ecommerce templates compared to other competitors like Wix, despite charging a higher monthly price of £17 per month on a Business plan.

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Squarespace store creator

If you’re looking for high-quality design and customisation tools, Squarespace is our joint-top pick when it comes to design functionalities, sharing the spotlight only with Wix.

In terms of branding and design, Squarespace’s templates are easier to navigate than Shopify’s, and much more aesthetically pleasing. Squarespace also integrates with Instagram, a favourite amongst creative SMEs, whereas Shopify doesn’t.

Squarespace has shown a huge improvement in its user experience score, jumping from 3.4 out of 5 to 4.2 out of 5. This is thanks to the platform’s updated app store and improved customer support and marketing tools.

That score is also much higher than the more advanced Shopify’s 3.2, confirming that Squarespace is a much simpler tool with fewer sales features, but a more straightforward app layout. We recommend it for small businesses that don’t have a large online stock and want to focus on showcasing their products, as well as selling them.

To find out more about using the Squarespace platform for your ecommerce small business, read our full article.

Squarespace Pricing vs Shopify Pricing

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BEST VALUE
Squarespace Business	Basic Commerce	Advanced Commerce
Price £17 per month	Price £23 per month	Price £35 per month
Features Fully integrated ecommerce 3% transaction fee Sell unlimited products	Features No commerce transaction fees Point of sale integration Customer accounts	Features Abandoned cart recovery Powerful ecommerce analytics Advanced shipping

Use code "SU10" to receive a 10% discount on all Squarespace plans Get deal

Squarespace came joint-third in our ranking for value for money, giving users access to lots of advanced features for a relatively low figure in the website builder world. Squarespace Business is its lowest-priced payment tier at just £17 per month, which is also cheaper than Shopify.

Unfortunately there is no free plan available for Squarespace, but a 14-day free trial is available for users to test out its capabilities before purchasing.

Read our full review of Squarespace pricing to learn more.

Square Online
Best for: Freemium plan

Square Online

3.7

The best platform to use if you want to start selling for free

Try Square Online

• Free plan Yes
• Price from £0 per month

• Start selling for free
• Excellent analytics
• Supports dozens of payment types

Summary Square Online is the only website builder that allows you to start selling products without upgrading to a paid plan. You’ll still have to pay a 1.9% transaction fee for every payment processed, but you won’t find a more cost-effective way of getting an online store up and running anywhere else. It’s a great way to get to grips with things before you upgrade to one of Square's premium plans, which start from £9/month.

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Square Online site builder

Freemium tiers are a great way for startups to save money and Square Online is the only platform on this list to offer one. For zero charge it allows users to:

• Sell unlimited products
• Sell on Instagram & Facebook
• Offer pickup, delivery and shipping
• Get SEO tools
• Sync with Square POS (point-of-sale) system for processing orders and payments

However, there are also some significant flaws in Square’s free plan. You’ll have to host Square ads on your pages, which may be off-putting or even confusing for your customers. You’ll also have to pay more to get access to advanced features.

While it might boast the better value for money, our research shows Square’s free plan scores lower than Shopify Basic in almost every other category – particularly sales features and design functionality. We recommend SMEs move to Square Professional (which costs just £9 per month) as soon as they have grown enough to enable an upgrade, as it doesn’t have these drawbacks.

Read our full review of the Square platform for small ecommerce businesses to find out more about the benefits available.

Square Online Pricing vs Shopify Pricing

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Free	Plus	Premium
Price £0 per month	Price £20 per month	Price £64 per month
Features Start selling online Sell on Instagram and Facebook SEO tools Sync with Square POS	Features Custom domain 10GB storage Customised font uploads Password-protected pages	Features Professional features Accept PayPal Abandoned basket Advanced reporting Product reviews

Check out Square Online's great ecommerce prices Visit site

Square’s average pricing plan comes out at just £12.58 – a massive drop compared to Shopify, which has an average of £80.

This is also impressive given the number of Square’s pricing plans – with four, it has more than any of its rivals on this list. That means users can rest assured that there is still plenty of opportunity for scalability with Square – although its premium plans are lacking the more sophisticated tools offered by competitors like Shopify.

BigCommerce
Best for: Sales functions

BigCommerce

3.7

With the most comprehensive range of sales features around, BigCommerce gives you everything you need to create a fully-optimised online store

Try BigCommerce

• Free trial 15-day
• Price from $29 per month

• Quality in-built sales features
• Excellent SEO support
• Great for scaling businesses

Summary BigCommerce is the big budget option for small businesses with big ambitions. Its plans range from £23/month to £240/month. Quite pricey, but for that you’re getting access to the most extensive range of high-quality, in-built sales features on the market. The costlier the plan, the more advanced the functionality, of course – you also increase your sales allowance. This ranges from an upper limit of $50,000 on the Standard plan to a maximum of $400,000 on the Pro plan. And if your sales are likely to be higher than that, BigCommerce offers custom enterprise solutions. Just get in touch with its sales team to find out more.

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BigCommerce and Shopify are two online shop builders designed for experienced users. Both platforms require you to do a lot of your editing and design through coding – which is why we’ve given each brand low points for ease of use.

However, according to our research, BigCommerce outscores Shopify in sales features and design functionality. That’s because BigCommerce is the best platform for managing large inventories, making it excellent for clothing businesses. It can also cope with international payments, boasts double the amount of product filters that Shopify has, and offers tons more third-party marketplace integrations, including Google Shopping.

But BigCommerce’s biggest pull factor is that it has zero transaction fees, while Shopify Basic charges at least 0.5% on every purchase. This means you won’t be punished for having customers with large checkouts. Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce also offers transactional (sales confirmation) emails – in fact, it’s the only platform on this list with this feature.

So where does BigCommerce lose to Shopify? The answer is website features as the former doesn’t impress when it comes to areas like marketing and blogging, and it also has poor site speed.

BigCommerce Pricing vs Shopify Pricing

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	Best plan for small businesses
Standard Plan	Plus Plan	Pro Plan	Enterprise Plan
Price $29 per month (around £23)	Price $79 per month (around £64)	Price $299 per month (around £240)	Price Custom
Features Coupons and discounts Reporting tools Multi-channel selling	Features Customer groups and segmentation Abandoned cart recovery Stores credit card details	Features Google customer reviews Product filtering Custom product filtering	Features Express routing, priority support, and customer success management API (application programming interface) support Custom sales limit

See what BigCommerce could offer your small business Try BigCommerce for free

Pricing plans can be confusing to understand, and Shopify definitely wins over BigCommerce in this regard. It’s important to note that each of the latter’s pricing tiers is determined by your annual turnover, which can be frustrating for companies wanting to grow or scale back.

BigCommerce is also the most expensive platform on this list, with its cheapest tier costing $29 (around £23). However, when we compared this price against the quality of its features, BigCommerce achieved the same result as Shopify (7 out of 10).

GoDaddy
Best for: Ease of use

GoDaddy

4.2

A simple way to build an online store.

Try GoDaddy

• Free trial Yes
• Price from £12.99

• Easy to use
• Simple pricing
• Fairly good value

Summary It lacks sophisticated sales and design features, but GoDaddy is still one of the easiest ways to create an online store. It just has one ecommerce plan, for the reasonable price of £12.99 per month.

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Based on our testing, Shopify received a very low ease of use score of just 3.5 out of 5 – meanwhile, this was where GoDaddy really stood out. While the former has an exciting array of features that are great for experienced users, GoDaddy offers a basic feature set and zero transaction fees. We think it should be the go-to for newly-established startups or very small online shops.

Our latest testing reveals a big improvement in GoDaddy’s design functionality (14% uplift) as well as advancement in other categories. That means it’s a good platform to keep an eye on for future updates.

However, there are still a lot of areas where GoDaddy falls short. It doesn’t support the sale of digital products, which makes it automatically unusable for many startups. Plus, you cannot add more than 5,000 products to your website and you can’t track customer spending, which makes accounting much more difficult.

To sum up, Shopify is for those wanting a complex online store, while GoDaddy is for simple website building if you want to be able to sell a few products as a supplement to your main business goals.

GoDaddy Pricing vs Shopify Pricing

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Ecommerce

Price £12.99 per month, billed annually

Features Product listings Flexible payments Flexible shipping options Discount and promotional features

Check out GoDaddy's ecommerce plan Visit site

Shopify has three main pricing plans whereas GoDaddy has only one, priced simply at £13.99 per month. This is much cheaper than Shopify’s cheapest plan (£19 per month), but is also suitable for companies looking to grow their sales. That’s another reason we think it’s best suited to businesses with a very small online shop.

Should you choose Shopify anyway?

Shopify

4.7

Shopify’s superb features and extensive app market give ambitious ecommerce businesses everything they need to scale rapidly.

Try Shopify for free

• FREE TRIAL 3-day free trial
• PRICE FROM £19 per month

• Preempts and predicts what a merchant might need next in all aspects of creating a website
• Best range of apps and extensions
• Perfect for dropshipping

Summary Shopify is perfect for users looking for that all in one online store solution. Its ability to predict what a merchant will need next when creating a website is a brilliant feature, and its countless apps give you complete control over your business, enabling you to grow through diverse multi channel integration options and automated SMS and email marketing. It is definitely better suited to store owners with complex, larger inventories and because there are fewer built in features, using the platform can get expensive compared to other feature-filled competitors like Squarespace and Wix.

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We’ll be open that we think Shopify is an excellent ecommerce choice for most small businesses.

It ranked second-best in our research into the top online shop builders for SMEs, earning particularly impressive marks for sales features and customer satisfaction. In fact, our research shows that 76% of customers would recommend Shopify – making it second only to Squarespace.

There’s not much Shopify doesn’t have. It’s a complex tool and almost entirely customisable. Should you require a bespoke feature, you can either find it directly within the builder, on the template you choose, or through its huge app market.

In terms of cost, Shopify certainly isn’t a budget ecommerce website builder. But its pricing should be considered in the context of what it offers. Even its lowest payment tier, Shopify Basic (£19 per month) provides a wealth of functionality that can contend with the premium options of many of its rivals. That’s why we think it’s best for growing ecommerce businesses, or those looking to scale.

Read our expert review of Shopify for small businesses to get the full breakdown of the platform’s pros, cons and deals.

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GET FIRST MONTH FOR £1	GET FIRST MONTH FOR £1	GET FIRST MONTH FOR £1
Basic Shopify	Shopify	Advanced
Price £19 per month £1 for first month	Price £49 per month £1 for first month	Price £259 per month £1 for first month
Features Unlimited products 10 inventory locations Customisable checkout Multichannel selling	Features Everything in Basic plan Five staff accounts	Features Everything in Shopify plan 15 staff accounts Improved checkout capacity Custom reports and analytics
Online card processing fees 2% + 25p for online purchases	Online card processing fees 1.7% + 25p for online purchases	Online card processing fees 1.5% + 25p for online purchases

Best free Shopify alternatives

Starting a new business means learning about lots of new software and tools. If you have to purchase a new subscription every time you want to test something, this can quickly become expensive – which is why it’s a good idea to start with a free plan or trial before upgrading, so you’re not risking your budget on a product you end up disliking.

Luckily, there are some brilliant software solutions that offer freemium versions. Amongst them is Square, one of our top-rated ecommerce website builders. We gave it a massive 4.6 out of 5 for value for money in our research, and it also ranks highest for help and support features.

Free trials are another good way to save money if you don’t want to risk your budget on a tool you won’t like. Our top ecommerce website builder, Wix, has a 14-day free trial that lets you test the platform out free of charge.

However, free ecommerce platforms aren’t the best option if you’re looking to grow your shop, as they often have limited features or user allowances. Because of this, they are best thought of as a short-term option.

For example, Square gives you some advanced functions like Instagram integration and SEO tools. However, it doesn’t have as many options for customisation. You’ll need to purchase its lowest-priced tier, Square Professional, to get more personalised choices like fonts and domain names.

What are our top 3 freemium ecommerce website builders?

• Square Online
  The Square Online store builder has all of the essentials needed to get you up and running online, without overwhelming you if you’re new to ecommerce web building. There are no limits on the number of products you can sell, but you will incur a 1.9% transaction fee on every sale made (this is higher than most competitors’ fees).
• Big Cartel
  Perhaps you already have a physical stall or Etsy shop, and you want an ecommerce website that can complement it. Big Cartel is your answer. It offers an easy user experience with plenty of helpful guides and a stripped-back approach to sales. We recommend it for side hustles.
• WooCommerce
  WooCommerce is an ecommerce plugin for WordPress, rather than an all-in-one platform, which means it works best alongside existing software like WordPress. Smaller sites will benefit from WooCommerce the most, as it boasts core ecommerce features like secure payments, order management and shipping, and marketing.

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FULLY FREE	14-DAY TRIAL	3-DAY TRIAL	14-DAY TRIAL	15-DAY TRIAL	30-DAY TRIAL	FULLY FREE	FULLY FREE	FULLY FREE
Square Online	Wix	Shopify	Squarespace	BigCommerce	GoDaddy	Big Cartel	WooCommerce	Magento Open Source
Platform or software? Platform	Platform or software? Platform	Platform or software? Platform	Platform or software? Platform	Platform or software? Platform	Platform or software? Platform	Platform or software? Platform	Platform or software? Software	Platform or software? Software
Best for Best ecommerce store builder that’s free to use	Best for Best all-round ecommerce platform with a free trial period	Best for Best range of apps and extensions	Best for Best for ease of use and great design	Best for Best sales features	Best for Best for simplicity	Best for Best for small creative brands	Best for Best for small retailers using WordPress	Best for Best for the technically confident
Cheapest paid plan £20 per month	Cheapest paid plan £16 per month (billed annually)	Cheapest paid plan £19 per month	Cheapest paid plan £17 per month 10% off with code SU10	Cheapest paid plan $29 (around £23) per month (billed annually)	Cheapest paid plan £13.99 per month	Cheapest paid plan $9.99 per month	Cheapest paid plan N/A – but software does not include hosting costs or domain registration	Cheapest paid plan N/A – but software does not include hosting costs or domain registration
Free trial?	Free trial?	Free trial?	Free trial?	Free trial?	Free trial?	Free trial?	Free trial?	Free trial?
Free plan?	Free plan?	Free plan?	Free plan?	Free plan?	Free plan?	Free plan?	Free plan?	Free plan?

You can find out more about the best freemium ecommerce platforms for small businesses in our comprehensive guide.

Can you do better than Shopify?

Shopify has the second-highest rating of all the online store builders we researched, and the highest when it comes to sales features and functions, which means it is still a high-performing option for small business online stores.

However, there are lots of different tools out there that might be better suited to your business. Maybe you want to design an online store that’s more about showcasing your products than listing them. In that case, you should choose a platform like Wix, which has a similar price point to Shopify but a bigger focus on website aesthetic and layout.

There’s no wrong answer – but we can help you find the right one!

Need a closer comparison? To find the ecommerce website builder that’s the best choice for your business, use our simple online comparison tool and learn more about what the top providers can offer you.

How we test ecommerce website builders for small businesses

We tested eight ecommerce website builders to evaluate them in terms of functionality, usability, accuracy, and aesthetics so we can make the most useful recommendations to small UK-based 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 of our Startups.co.uk readers.

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 builder, e.g. shipping, inventory capacity, and payment options.

Design: the aesthetic appeal and visual layout of a website created using an ecommerce 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 platform – 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 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.

The Startups product testing process