9 Shopify Alternatives for Building Your Online Store

Shopify makes it easy to launch an online store, but its true cost can grow quickly.

Transaction fees, paid apps, premium themes, and development work can add up, while template and platform limits may leave sellers wanting more control over their storefront, code, and data.

This guide compares nine genuine Shopify alternatives, from cheaper hosted platforms to open-source and build-your-own options.

We’ll look at their costs, limitations, technical requirements, ownership models, and best use cases to help you find the right fit for your store.

Why Sellers Look for a Shopify Alternative

Shopify works well for sellers who want to launch quickly without managing hosting, security, or checkout infrastructure themselves. The reasons people start looking for cheaper alternatives to Shopify usually become clearer as sales, app requirements, and customization needs grow.

The most common cost concerns are:

• Transaction fees: On the US Basic plan, standard online card rates start at 2.9% plus 30¢. Sellers using an outside payment provider can also pay a 2% Shopify transaction fee on top of that provider’s processing charges.
• Paid apps: Reviews, subscriptions, upsells, advanced shipping, and other functions may require separate tools. For example, Recharge Starter costs $99 per month plus 1.49% and 19¢ per transaction, while Loox Convert costs $49.99 per month. Those two plans alone total nearly $150 per month before other apps are added.

Shopify’s current pricing confirms the additional third-party transaction fee, while its App Store shows how quickly individual subscriptions can stack up.

Merchants raise the same concern in public discussions. In a Shopify Community thread about app dependence, one seller described repeatedly paying “$5 to $15 a month” for small functions they believed should be built in.

An app developer offered the other side: apps can be more practical than hiring a developer, although managing too many can become a “maintenance nightmare.”

Control is the other major issue. Sellers may eventually want more freedom over:

• Storefront layouts and branding
• Checkout and custom product workflows
• Backend functionality and integrations
• Their code, hosting, and ability to move providers

Shopify themes can be customized, but more specialized functionality may require Liquid development, an app, or custom development. Shopify’s plan comparison currently lists checkout customization as limited on Basic, Grow, and Advanced, with full checkout customization offered on Plus.

The r/ecommerce thread on Shopify alternatives reflects both sides of the decision.

Some merchants favor WooCommerce for deeper customization, control over hosting, and the ability to move their data between providers. Others argue that Shopify remains cost-effective because its simplicity lets new sellers focus on making sales rather than maintaining a website.

Migration can still create friction.

Shopify lets merchants export products and orders and download theme files, but a theme download does not include products, pages, blog posts, images, or other store content. Moving platforms may therefore require transferring several datasets, replacing apps, and rebuilding parts of the storefront.

None of this makes Shopify a poor choice, but alternatives become more appealing when lower recurring costs, custom functionality, or greater ownership matter more than the convenience of a managed platform.

How We Evaluated These Shopify Alternatives

We compared each platform using the factors that matter most once a store moves beyond the launch stage:

• Real cost: Monthly plans, platform transaction fees, required apps, hosting, and other add-ons
• Ownership: How much control sellers have over their store, code, and data
• Customization: How far the storefront, checkout, and backend workflows can be changed
• Ease of use: The technical skill and setup time required
• Scalability: How well the platform handles more traffic, products, integrations, and operational complexity
• Support: The quality of documentation, customer service, and available developer help

There is no single best choice among Shopify competitors.

A hosted builder may be the right fit for a seller who values speed and simplicity, while an open-source or build-your-own platform may suit a business that needs greater flexibility and ownership.

The best alternative depends on the store’s current size, technical resources, budget, and long-term goals.

The 9 Best Shopify Alternatives

The best alternatives to Shopify range from simple hosted builders to open-source platforms with much more flexibility.

Some are designed for sellers who want a faster or cheaper setup, while others are better suited to businesses that need custom functionality, stronger design control, or greater ownership.

The options below are reviewed using the same criteria: features, ease of use, pricing, transaction fees, ownership, scalability, and overall fit.

This makes it easier to compare not just what each platform offers, but which type of seller it is actually built for.

1. BigCommerce

Best for: growing business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) stores that need more commerce features built into the platform.

BigCommerce is a hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that manages hosting, security, checkout, and software updates. It supports standard storefronts, headless builds, B2B selling, and multiple stores from one account, making it suitable for established retailers, wholesalers, and multi-brand businesses.

Key features:

• Customizable themes and a drag-and-drop page builder
• Product, order, and multi-location inventory management
• One-page checkout and support for multiple payment providers
• Marketplace and social-channel integrations
• Multi-Storefront controls for different brands or regions
• B2B tools such as company accounts, price lists, and quotes

Ease of use: A standard store can be launched without coding. Advanced theme changes, unusual product workflows, and headless storefronts generally require technical knowledge or developer support.

What users like: BigCommerce has a 4.2/5 rating from 579 G2 reviews, with users commonly praising its built-in features, integrations, and ability to manage complex catalogs. Its Trustpilot rating is lower at 1.2/5 from 455 reviews, where complaints often focus on billing, price increases, and customer support.

Limitations: The admin interface and page builder can feel less intuitive than simpler hosted platforms. Stores are also moved to higher-priced plans when they cross certain sales thresholds.

Pricing and fees: Core starts at $39 monthly or $29 per month annually. Growth starts at $105 or $79, while Scale starts at $399 or $299. BigCommerce does not add transaction fees when an embedded payment provider is used, but outside providers can trigger fees of 2%, 1%, or 0.6%, depending on the plan.

Ownership and scalability: Merchants can export their data and download theme code, but the commerce backend remains hosted by BigCommerce. The platform can support large catalogs, multiple channels, B2B operations, and regional storefronts.

Best fit: Established sellers that need stronger native B2B, catalog, and multi-store capabilities.

Why it is a good Shopify alternative: BigCommerce can reduce dependence on paid apps by including more advanced commerce functions natively, although its revenue-based pricing remains an important tradeoff.

2. WooCommerce

Best for: sellers who want full control and are comfortable managing WordPress.

WooCommerce is a free, open-source ecommerce plugin for self-hosted WordPress sites. Merchants choose hosting, themes, payment providers, and extensions while retaining control of the store’s code and data.

Key features:

• Product, inventory, order, tax, and shipping management
• Customizable WordPress themes and checkout
• More than 140 payment gateway integrations
• Support for physical products, downloads, subscriptions, and bookings
• Extensions for marketing, analytics, and multichannel selling

Ease of use: Installing WooCommerce on WordPress is straightforward, but setup is more involved than Shopify. Merchants must manage hosting, backups, security, updates, and plugin compatibility or pay someone to do it.

What users like: WooCommerce has a 4.4/5 rating from 1,270 G2 reviews, with users praising its customization, WordPress integration, and extension ecosystem. Its Trustpilot rating is 2.3/5 from 141 reviews, where complaints often concern support, technical issues, and paid extensions.

Limitations: Plugin conflicts, updates, security, and performance require active management. Costs can rise when a store needs premium extensions, stronger hosting, or developer help. Reddit sellers also praise its flexibility while warning about the learning curve.

Pricing and fees: The core plugin is free, making it a free Shopify alternative. Hosting, domains, themes, and extensions cost extra. WooCommerce adds no platform transaction fee; US WooPayments card processing is 2.9% plus 30¢.

Ownership and scalability: Merchants own the code and data and can move between hosts. WooCommerce can support complex stores, but production readiness depends on hosting, optimization, and plugin quality.

Best fit: WordPress users and technical teams that value customization and ownership.

Why it is a good Shopify alternative: WooCommerce removes platform lock-in and per-sale platform fees, but shifts more technical responsibility to the seller.

3. Wix

Best for: small stores that want a fast, flexible no-code launch.

Wix is a hosted SaaS website builder with built-in ecommerce, hosting, security, and business tools. It suits beginners and small businesses that want more design freedom than a rigid storefront template without managing infrastructure.

Key features:

• Drag-and-drop editor, AI builder, and 2,000+ templates
• Product, inventory, order, shipping, and tax management
• Abandoned-cart recovery and back-in-stock alerts
• Selling through Amazon, eBay, Etsy, TikTok, and social channels
• Wix Payments, PayPal, Stripe, and 80+ regional payment providers
• Online and in-person inventory syncing through Wix point-of-sale (POS)

Ease of use: A basic store can be launched without code, although the number of editor options may initially feel overwhelming. Advanced custom functions can be added through Wix’s developer tools.

What users like: Wix has a 4.2/5 rating from 1,871 G2 reviews, where users commonly praise its ease of use and broad feature set. Its Trustpilot score is 3.5/5 from 28,486 reviews, with positive feedback on design tools but recurring complaints about billing and support.

Limitations: Wix can support substantial catalogs, but complex B2B operations and highly customized checkout workflows may outgrow its standard tools. A Wix website also cannot be hosted outside Wix because it relies on proprietary platform technology.

Pricing and fees: Ecommerce begins on the Core plan at roughly $29 per month on annual billing. Business is about $39 and Business Elite about $159, although pricing varies by location. Wix charges no separate platform transaction fee; standard US card processing through Wix Payments is 2.9% plus 30¢.

Ownership and scalability: Merchants own their content and can export store data, but not the complete working website. Wix is production-ready for small and midsize stores, with enterprise options for larger organizations.

Best fit: New or growing sellers that want design flexibility without technical maintenance.

Why it is a good Shopify alternative: Wix offers a simpler design experience and no added platform transaction fee while still providing core ecommerce and multichannel tools.

4. Squarespace

Best for: design-led brands with a focused product catalog.

Squarespace is a hosted SaaS website builder known for polished templates and strong visual presentation. Its ecommerce tools are built into the same system as its website, blogging, scheduling, invoicing, and marketing features.

Key features:

• Professionally designed, mobile-responsive templates
• Drag-and-drop storefront and product-page editing
• Unlimited physical products and services
• Inventory, order, discount, and customer-account tools
• Abandoned-checkout recovery and product subscriptions
• Instagram and Facebook promotion, POS, and Google Shopping support

Ease of use: Squarespace is one of the easier platforms for creating a professional-looking store without code. Its editor is approachable for beginners, although unusual layouts or custom commerce workflows may require Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), code injection, or extensions.

What users like: Squarespace has a 4.4/5 rating from 1,132 G2 reviews, with users praising its templates and ease of use. Its Trustpilot score is 3.3/5 from 4,369 reviews, where experiences with support are mixed and some users report billing or customization frustrations.

Limitations: Squarespace offers less backend flexibility and fewer deep commerce integrations than Shopify. Stores can accept only one currency at a time, and the platform is less suitable for large, operationally complex catalogs.

Pricing and fees: Current US annual pricing starts at $19 per month for Basic, followed by Core at $29, Plus at $49, and Advanced at $99. Basic adds a 2% online-store transaction fee, while Core, Plus, and Advanced charge 0%. Payment-processing fees still apply. Squarespace has no permanent free plan, but it offers a 14-day trial.

Ownership and scalability: Products and orders can be exported, but some product images, reviews, and other details do not transfer through the standard comma-separated values (CSV) file. The storefront and backend remain tied to Squarespace.

Best fit: Creators and lifestyle brands that prioritize presentation over complex commerce operations.

Why it is a good Shopify alternative: Squarespace combines attractive design and commerce tools with less app dependence, making it a strong choice for smaller, brand-focused stores.

5. Webflow

Best for: design-focused teams that want precise control over the storefront experience.

Webflow is a hosted visual-development platform with ecommerce functionality. It lets designers build custom storefronts, carts, and checkout pages without being confined to a conventional theme, while still offering access to custom Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), CSS, and JavaScript.

Key features:

• Visual control over product pages, carts, and checkout
• Product, category, variant, inventory, and order management
• Physical, digital, service, and membership products
• Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, and browser-based payments
• Custom shipping rules and automatic tax calculations
• Content management system (CMS), animations, search engine optimization (SEO) controls, and custom-code support

Ease of use: Webflow provides more design freedom than most no-code builders, but it has a steeper learning curve. Sellers unfamiliar with web layout concepts such as containers, classes, breakpoints, and responsive design may need training or professional help.

What users like: Webflow has a 4.4/5 rating from 984 G2 reviews, with users frequently praising its design flexibility, CMS, and ability to translate design intent into a working site. Its Trustpilot score is 1.5/5 from 228 reviews, where recent complaints focus on pricing, complexity, bugs, and support.

Limitations: Webflow’s native commerce tools are less extensive than Shopify’s for multichannel sales, advanced inventory, and complex retail operations. Product limits also range from 500 to 15,000 items depending on the plan.

Pricing and fees: Standard costs $29 per month annually and adds a 2% Webflow transaction fee. Plus costs $74 and Advanced costs $212, with no platform transaction fee on either. Stripe or PayPal processing charges apply separately.

Ownership and scalability: Paid Workspace users can export HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and assets, but ecommerce databases, products, checkout, and other commerce functions are excluded. Products can be exported separately by CSV, so moving a complete functioning store still requires rebuilding the backend.

Best fit: Design-led brands with relatively straightforward commerce requirements.

Why it is a good Shopify alternative: Webflow offers much deeper visual control than a standard Shopify theme, but trades some operational commerce depth for that freedom.

6. Square Online

Best for: businesses that already use Square for in-person payments.

Square Online is a hosted ecommerce builder connected directly to Square’s payment, POS, inventory, and order-management tools. It works particularly well for retailers, restaurants, and service businesses selling both online and in person.

Key features:

• Website builder with customizable layouts and SEO tools
• Automatic inventory syncing with Square POS
• Shipping, local delivery, and in-store pickup
• Customer accounts and online ordering
• Apple Pay, Google Pay, Cash App Pay, Afterpay, and major cards
• Multiple websites managed from one Square account

Ease of use: Stores can launch quickly without coding, especially when products already exist in Square. G2 reviewers praise the straightforward editor and close payment integration, although customization and SEO controls are more limited than on design-focused builders.

What users like: Square Online has a 4.2/5 rating from 481 G2 reviews, with users frequently highlighting ease of use and seamless Square integration. Square US has a 3.9/5 Trustpilot score from 7,376 reviews; positive reviews mention convenience, while complaints often involve held funds, account closures, and support.

Limitations: Design flexibility and advanced ecommerce workflows are limited. Businesses that do not use Square POS gain less from the platform’s strongest advantage.

Pricing and fees: Square Free has no monthly charge and processes online payments at 3.3% plus 30¢. Square Plus costs $49 per location monthly and lowers online processing to 2.9% plus 30¢; Premium costs $149 per location with the same standard online rate.

Ownership and scalability: Businesses can export reports and move their domain, but the functioning website remains tied to Square. It scales well for omnichannel small businesses, though complex catalogs may need a stronger platform.

Best fit: Sellers already operating through Square POS.

Why it is a good Shopify alternative: Square Online unifies online and physical sales without requiring a separate commerce ecosystem.

7. Big Cartel

Best for: artists, makers, and small brands with limited catalogs.

Big Cartel is a hosted ecommerce platform created for independent creators selling art, apparel, prints, crafts, and similar products. It favors simplicity and affordability over the deeper operational features found in Shopify or BigCommerce.

Key features:

• Mobile-friendly shop templates
• Physical products, digital goods, and services
• Inventory and shipment tracking
• Discount codes and scheduled product drops
• Abandoned-cart recovery on the Diamond plan
• Stripe, PayPal, and Afterpay payments
• Integrations for print-on-demand, reviews, and Zapier

Ease of use: Big Cartel is one of the quickest platforms to set up. Its focused dashboard avoids much of the complexity of larger ecommerce systems, although that simplicity also limits how far sellers can customize their operations.

What users like: Big Cartel has a 4.2/5 rating from 27 G2 reviews, where users praise easy product uploads and a beginner-friendly dashboard. Its Trustpilot score is 4.6/5 from 246 reviews, with frequent positive comments about affordability, support, and ease of use.

Limitations: The free plan supports only five products, while the highest plan caps physical-product listings at 500. Its analytics, multichannel tools, B2B features, and customization are modest, and Big Cartel is a storefront rather than a marketplace that generates traffic.

Pricing and fees: Gold is free for up to five physical products. Platinum costs $15 per month for up to 50 products, while Diamond costs $30 for up to 500. Big Cartel charges no platform transaction fee; Stripe or PayPal processing fees still apply.

Ownership and scalability: Sellers control their brand and business data, but the storefront and backend remain hosted by Big Cartel. The 500-product ceiling makes it better for focused catalogs than large retail operations.

Best fit: Independent creators selling a manageable number of products.

Why it is a good Shopify alternative: Big Cartel offers a cheaper and less complicated way to sell online when Shopify’s broader ecosystem is unnecessary.

8. Medusa

Best for: development teams building highly customized commerce systems.

Medusa is an open-source, headless commerce platform built with TypeScript and Node.js. Instead of providing one fixed storefront, it supplies a commerce backend, admin dashboard, application programming interfaces (APIs), and modules that developers can connect to a custom frontend.

Key features:

• Product, cart, customer, inventory, order, and payment modules
• Multiple regions, currencies, stock locations, and sales channels
• Custom pricing rules, promotions, and workflows
• Integrations with Stripe and custom payment providers
• Headless storefronts and fully custom checkout experiences
• Support for physical goods, digital products, subscriptions, and B2B builds

Ease of use: Medusa is not a conventional drag-and-drop builder. Installing the backend is relatively quick for a developer, but designing the storefront, connecting services, testing workflows, and maintaining a self-hosted deployment require technical skill. Medusa Cloud reduces infrastructure work through managed deployment and scaling.

What users like: Medusa does not currently have a reliable G2 or Trustpilot product rating to report. Its developer community is more visible through GitHub, where the main repository has about 34,000 stars, and through its public Discord and GitHub discussions.

Limitations: Sellers need developers or an experienced technical team. Themes, integrations, and operational workflows may require more setup than on Shopify, and the merchant—not the platform—is responsible for testing customizations.

Pricing and fees: The MIT-licensed core platform is free to self-host. Medusa Cloud starts at $29 per month for Develop, $99 for Launch, and $299 for Scale. It charges no gross merchandise value (GMV) platform fee, although hosting usage and payment-processor charges still apply.

Ownership and scalability: Merchants own and can modify the code, database, workflows, and storefront. Cloud plans add automated deployment, backups, and scaling, while self-hosted performance depends on the infrastructure the team builds.

Best fit: Technical teams with nonstandard products, workflows, or integrations.

Why it is a good Shopify alternative: Medusa removes platform lock-in and allows much deeper backend customization, but requires substantially more technical involvement.

9. Ecwid

Best for: businesses that want to add ecommerce to an existing website.

Ecwid is a hosted SaaS platform that lets sellers embed a store into WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or another existing site. It also includes its own no-code Instant Site builder for businesses starting without a website.

Key features:

• Embeddable storefront for almost any website
• Up to unlimited products, depending on the plan
• Product, inventory, order, tax, and shipping management
• More than 70 supported payment providers
• Facebook, Instagram, marketplace, and POS selling
• Digital products, subscriptions, wholesale pricing, and multilingual catalogs

Ease of use: Ecwid is designed for nontechnical sellers. An existing site can gain a functioning store by adding an integration or code snippet, while products and orders are managed through Ecwid’s dashboard or mobile app.

What users like: Ecwid has a 4.7/5 rating from 404 G2 reviews, where users commonly praise its ease of setup and ability to work with existing websites. Its Trustpilot score is 2.7/5 from 432 reviews, with mixed feedback on support, billing, customization, and regional compliance.

Limitations: Important capabilities are divided across plan tiers. The Starter plan permits 10 products, Venture 100, and Business 2,500. Advanced marketplace selling, subscriptions, multilingual catalogs, and abandoned-cart recovery require higher plans.

Pricing and fees: Venture costs $35 monthly or $29 per month annually. Business costs $65 or $49, while Unlimited costs $149 or $119. Ecwid charges no setup or platform transaction fees, although payment providers still charge processing fees.

Ownership and scalability: Merchants can export store data and keep their original website, but Ecwid’s checkout and commerce backend remain hosted by Ecwid. It can support growing catalogs, though businesses needing custom backend logic may eventually reach its limits.

Best fit: Businesses with an established website that need to add selling functionality.

Why it is a good Shopify alternative: Ecwid avoids a full website rebuild and charges no platform transaction fee, making it practical for adding ecommerce to an existing online presence.

How to Choose the Right Shopify Alternative

The best Shopify alternative depends less on the longest feature list and more on why you are considering a switch in the first place.

• If fees are reducing your margins: Look for a platform with no added transaction fee, such as WooCommerce, Big Cartel, Ecwid, or a build-and-own option. Remember to include hosting, extensions, and maintenance when comparing total cost.
• If you want to launch quickly: Wix and Square Online offer straightforward hosted setups with less technical work. Square Online is especially practical if you already use Square POS.
• If design is the priority: Squarespace works well for visually driven brands with simpler catalogs, while Webflow provides more control for teams willing to accept a steeper learning curve.
• If you need stronger B2B or multistore tools: BigCommerce is better suited to complex catalogs, wholesale selling, and multiple storefronts.
• If you only need a simple storefront: Big Cartel may be enough for creators with a small catalog, while Ecwid can add ecommerce to a website you already have.
• If you want full ownership and less lock-in: WooCommerce and Medusa give you more control over the code, data, and infrastructure. Modelence offers another route for businesses that want to build a custom ecommerce application without manually assembling the underlying application infrastructure.

Switching platforms is rarely as simple as exporting one file and importing it elsewhere.

You may need to move products, customer and order data, point your domain to the new store, rebuild the storefront, reconnect payment and shipping tools, and replace apps that do not have direct equivalents.

A small store with a standard catalog may be able to move relatively quickly.

Stores with subscriptions, customer accounts, custom workflows, or large product catalogs should expect more preparation, testing, and possibly developer support.

Before choosing among the best alternatives to Shopify, confirm exactly what can be exported, what must be rebuilt, and what the ongoing cost will be after the move.

Buying a Store vs Building Your Own: The Choice You Should Make

Every option in this guide follows one of two basic approaches:

• Buy a store: Hosted platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, and Square Online give you a ready-made commerce system. You can launch quickly, but you pay recurring subscription costs, may need paid apps, and accept the platform’s rules and limits.
• Build a custom ecommerce application: WooCommerce and Medusa provide ecommerce foundations, while Modelence can be used to build a custom app around a business’s specific commerce workflows. These approaches give you more control over the code and data, but you take on more responsibility for setup, testing, maintenance, and ongoing improvements.

The difference becomes clearer when you compare costs over time.

A Simple Cost Example

Assume a store generates $10,000 in monthly sales. It uses Shopify Basic on monthly billing and a third-party payment gateway.

Shopify currently lists Basic at $39 per month when paid monthly and charges a 2% platform fee when an outside payment provider is used.

Modelence Starter costs $20 per month, while a Small cloud container is estimated at $22 per month. Card-processing charges are excluded because either approach still requires a payment processor.

A custom ecommerce application also has an upfront cost. Assume $3,000 for design, custom workflows, migration, testing, and launch support. Under these assumptions:

• The hosted store costs about $2,868 during the first year.
• The build-and-own application costs about $3,504, including the assumed setup cost.
• The custom application recovers its upfront cost after roughly 15 months.

This is only an illustration, not a universal result.

A seller using Shopify Payments would avoid the additional 2% fee. Under that scenario, Shopify would cost about $39 per month before payment processing, compared with about $42 for the Modelence setup. The upfront build cost would therefore not be recovered through these recurring platform costs alone.

Ownership also changes the calculation.

With hosted SaaS, the subscription pays for convenience: managed infrastructure, a mature checkout, integrations, and less technical responsibility.

With a build-and-own approach, you control the code and can move it elsewhere, but someone must build and maintain the commerce functionality and make sure payments, taxes, security, and customer workflows continue to work correctly.

Modelence provides managed deployment, databases, authentication, monitoring, and code ownership, reducing some of the setup work normally associated with a custom application.

Hosted platforms are often the right choice for sellers who need to start quickly and prefer predictable tools over complete control.

Building becomes more compelling when a business has specific workflows, pays substantial transaction fees, or expects to operate long enough for ownership to outweigh the initial setup cost.

Building a Custom Ecommerce Application With Modelence

Modelence offers a build-your-own approach for businesses that need a custom ecommerce application.

You describe the application you want, and its AI App Builder generates a full-stack application with the frontend, backend, database, authentication, and deployment connected from the start.

You can edit the code, export it to GitHub, or deploy it elsewhere.

This approach suits businesses that need custom workflows, pricing rules, customer portals, or other functionality that goes beyond standard ecommerce templates.

It offers more control and ownership, but the application still needs clear requirements, commerce functionality, payment setup, testing, and launch preparation.

What You Get Out of the Box

Modelence provides the application infrastructure needed to build a custom ecommerce application, rather than a prebuilt commerce system.

This includes:

• A managed database that can be configured for products, customers, orders, and other application data
• Authentication, customer accounts, sessions, and user roles
• A connected frontend and backend within the same application
• Separate sandbox and production environments
• One-click deployment, custom domains, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and autoscaling
• Built-in logs, performance metrics, traces, and monitoring
• Full access to the code, with the option to export or deploy it elsewhere

These capabilities are part of the platform rather than separate services that must be connected after the application is built. Ecommerce features such as the product catalog, cart, checkout, payments, and order workflows still need to be built or integrated as part of the custom application.

The main difference from a hosted platform is ownership.

Shopify, Wix, and similar platforms manage the underlying commerce system for you, but the store remains tied to their infrastructure.

With Modelence, you retain access to the application code and can continue developing or hosting it outside the platform.

How the Cost Compares Over Time

Modelence offers a free plan for prototyping.

Its Starter plan costs $20 per month, while a Small cloud container is estimated at about $22 per month. That puts a basic production setup at roughly $42 per month before payment processing, ecommerce integrations, or additional development.

By comparison, Shopify Basic costs $39 per month before payment processing or paid apps.

Based on these recurring platform and hosting costs alone, the upfront cost of building a custom application would not be recovered through monthly savings.

However, a Shopify store using a third-party payment gateway may also pay a 2% platform transaction fee. At $10,000 in monthly sales, that would bring the estimated recurring cost to $239 per month.

Compared with the $42 Modelence setup, an assumed $3,000 upfront build cost would be recovered after roughly 15 months.

The exact crossover depends on transaction fees, infrastructure usage, ecommerce integrations, and ongoing development.

Hosted platforms are often cheaper and faster at the beginning, while Modelence may become more cost-effective over time for businesses that need custom functionality and value code ownership.

Modelence will not be the right choice for every seller.

A hosted builder is often better for a simple store that needs to launch immediately.

But for businesses that want to build a custom ecommerce application, own the code, and create functionality beyond a standard template, Modelence offers a more flexible route.

You can start building with Modelence for free and move to a production plan when your application is ready for customers.