Free Shopify Alternatives for E-Commerce in 2024 (Tried & Tested)

Starting an e-commerce business is exciting, but the costs can quickly add up, especially when using premium platforms like Shopify. For entrepreneurs seeking a more budget-friendly approach, there are several free Shopify alternatives that offer essential tools for building and managing an online store. These platforms provide various features—from customizable storefronts to payment processing—that empower business owners to create a professional and fully functional e-commerce experience without breaking the bank. In this guide, we’ll explore some of the best free Shopify alternatives, so you can choose the option that aligns with your business goals and budget.

Reasons why Shopify isn’t always the Best Option

Shopify is a dedicated eCommerce platform that meets most of the needs of people who want to open online shops. That doesn’t mean, though, that the site is perfect for all business owners.

Here are some reasons why people who want to start an eCommerce business look for a free alternative to Shopify.

Having to use Third-party apps and Paying Extra

Shopify’s basic plans cost between $29 and $299 a year. Many people can afford the Basic and other Shopify plans, but adding apps is often needed to make an online store more functional.

There are a lot of free Shopify apps, but most of them require a separate membership, which adds to the monthly cost. Also, adding apps makes the page load more slowly, which is bad for SEO.

Some choices, like the Shopify POS Pro, charge an extra $60 a month for extra features like staff permissions and multiple locations.

The business plan, Shopify Plus, costs at least $2,300 a month. So, depending on what the business owner wants, Shopify might not be the cheapest option.

Features Not available in other Countries

• Not more than 20 countries can use Shopify to pay. In other countries, payment methods will be different, and there will be extra fees for each transaction.
• Multi-currency only works with payments made through Shopify.
• Only with the Advanced plan can you define goods for each country. For POD and Shopify dropshipping, where print providers are in different countries, this function is helpful. Shipping costs and times will go down a lot if you only sell certain versions of a product made in a certain country.
• Installing a third-party app is one way to meet GDPR requirements for cookies.

Read more: Top Free & Premium Dropshipping Companies Shopify

About Customisation

Different kinds of products – You can make up to one hundred different versions of a product, based on things like size or colour. Even so, there can only be three choices for each version. One example is a t-shirt that will come in three sizes: S, M, and L. Adding apps is the only way to give people more choices.

It’s hard to add custom fields like text boxes or file upload choices, and you need apps to do it.

Marketing, SEO, and reports on Shopify

Overall, Shopify has good tools for SEO and marketing. The biggest problem with Shopify SEO is that it’s a closed platform that can’t be changed in any way. Once more, apps may make some of the built-in SEO better.

• You can’t change the sitemap, and the organised data function isn’t very useful. Google can see a product’s name, description, and price thanks to data from Shopify. Products that are different in colours, sizes, or other ways won’t stand out.
• The email marketing tools that come with Shopify are pretty simple. Apps will be needed to make that better.

Not much Blogging

Shopify alternatives like WooCommerce and Squarespace make writing a lot easier than it is with Shopify. A lot of the search engine results pages (SERP) come from blog posts, so this will make it harder for people to find the eCommerce shop.

Shopify’s blog doesn’t have any built-in apps that let you add call-to-action buttons or share posts on social media. You also can’t follow tags, leave comments, or share galleries.

Only people with the Advanced plan can get professional results.

Top free Shopify Alternatives

WooCommerce

If you do even a little study on free Shopify alternatives, you’ll find WooCommerce.

Many business owners think that WooCommerce is one of the best free Shopify alternatives. It is open source, free to use, and, best of all, gets good marks for measuring visitor experience. Some users even say it’s in many ways a better free Shopify alternative.

Scalability is a little tricky; to get the more advanced features, you will have to buy the more expensive version. Other than that, WooCommerce has everything you could want. It doesn’t take long to make a site with an expensive cart.

It’s also adaptable, which makes it easy to make websites that work well on phones. Host fees are all you have to pay. You also don’t have to pay a monthly fee like you do with Shopify; you only have to pay once for all of their advanced features. You should know, though, that WooCommerce isn’t very good at fixing problems.

When you pair WooCommerce with a solid e-commerce hosting service, you can make your site much faster. You can even use it with a bunch of abandoned cart apps to make your store run better.

You can set up your website so that customers can add new goods or suggestions with just one click if you want to upsell after a sale.

Pros:

• No fees for transactions
• WordPress feature that works perfectly
• Several features that ensure the most creativity
• One-click upsells after the buy
• Very simple to set up
• You can sell as many items as you want on your store.
• You can use hundreds of free and paid apps.

Cons:

• Hosting is not included.
• You will need to know how to use technology.
• It might not work perfectly.
• Your web host may be slow. To get fast speeds, pick a specific WooCommerce host like Cloudways’ Woocommerce hosting.

Not only that. Cloudways also has the WooCommerce Starter Bundle, which has all the famous plugins you need to start your online store set up with just one click. Plugins like Stripe Gateway, PayPal Checkout, Cart Abandonment Recovery, Kadence Email Designer, and more are in the package.

It’s all you need to get your WooCommerce store up and running right away as a Shopify free alternative.

Explore Now – Click Here to Experience WooCommerce!

BigCartel

Big Cartel is an online free Shopify alternative that has always been best at meeting the needs of artists and creative buyers.

This shouldn’t be a surprise, since it was created in 2005 by an artist named Matt Wigham as a way to sell his band’s gear online.

As a result, Big Cartel has grown to include a wide range of business types. It was originally designed to help “creative” sellers, but it can now be used to sell almost anything.

Pricing is the best reason to use Big Cartel over other e-commerce platforms. It’s very cheap compared to its competitors, and if you only sell a few items, you can even use it for free.

This means that a lot of small businesses, especially those with limited funds, have started to use it as one of the best free Shopify alternatives, even though it has a “artistic” feel to it.

Pros:

• Simple to use.
• Plan and themes for free.
• A reasonable price.
• No fee for transactions.

Cons:

• No more than 500 items.
• Limited ability to grow.
• Not very good SEO.

Unlock Exclusive Features – Try BigCartel Now!

Magento

You may already know about Magento. eBay bought the company in 2011, and Adobe bought it again in 2018. This well-known platform is great for store owners who have been around for a while, and it has a large, active group all over the world.

As soon as you see the prices, you can understand why Magento is so popular. It’s one of the best free Shopify alternatives because the prices are a lot like those of WooCommerce. The content management programme is free, but the hosting, themes, and plugins cost money.

Magento, on the other hand, is a content management system (CMS) that lets you sell all of your goods through an open-source ecosystem. This is great for businesses that want to grow.

Pros:

• It can be changed and expanded easily.
• New features and more than 250K developers to help you build a beautiful and useful online store.
• There are several secure payment gateway choices to choose from.
• Your online store will have responsive design.
• It has a big partner ecosystem with many add-ons and extensions to choose from.
• Great support from the community

Cons:

• To fully use the open-source choice, you need to know how to code and have technical knowledge.
• It can be hard for new users to get the hang of because it’s hard to handle on your own.
• Pretty pricey

Grow with Magneto Now!

Prestashop

A lot of e-commerce business owners who are on a tight budget use Prestashop - websites like shopify for free - instead of Shopify. You can say it’s free, but like the other sites on this list, you need to buy both storage and a domain name. That being said, the business does work with Azure, WebHostingHub, and 1&1.

It’s clear that Prestashop is behind when it comes to styles and templates. The ease of use, on the other hand, is about the same as Shopify.

It works with up to 25 languages and doesn’t charge extra for transactions. It also works with a number of different currencies. You can easily make a great online store without spending a lot of money if you hire a good developer who knows how to use Prestashop.

Pros:

• Free and open source
• No extra fees for transactions
• Support for more than one language
• A lot of different features
• You can run your store on any server or with any hosting company.

Cons:

• There aren’t many themes and styles.
• Not as many tools as others
• Requires a lot of tech know-how

Unlock your Commerce with Pretashop Now!

Dukaan

There are many great free Shopify alternatives like Dukaan that can help both B2C and D2C businesses.

Dukaan lets you open your own online store in less than a minute. It is a powerful SaaS tool. Why should you use this platform? It’s very easy to use and can grow with your needs. This means that you don’t need to know how to code to use the app.

The dashboard for Dukaan makes it easy to access a lot of its strong eCommerce features. There is no learning curve for the app, even though it has a lot of advanced features. This makes it truly unique.

It’s also pretty easy to make changes to a store. All of the themes in the platform’s library can be used for free, are fast to load, and work on all mobile devices. Also, people who are good with computers can change how their store looks by using custom CSS. Any changes you make to your store are also made right away. The website also has business tools and plugins that are already built in.

Pros:

• Very easy to use layout
• Simple to set up
• Sell as many items as you want
• When you connect to your own payment processor, there are no transaction fees.
• No need to know anything about technology
• Highly optimised speed of loading
• Backed by a network of 22 or more data sites around the world

Cons:

• B2B companies shouldn’t use it.
• Few themes to choose from
• Doesn’t work with dropshipping Download Dukaan and See the Difference!

Finding the right e-commerce platform is crucial for long-term business success, and while Shopify is a popular choice, it’s not the only option. With free Shopify alternatives available, entrepreneurs can launch and grow their online stores while keeping expenses low. Each platform highlighted here offers unique benefits, allowing you to choose one that fits your specific needs, whether it’s ease of use, design flexibility, or integrated marketing tools. Selecting a cost-effective platform helps you focus more on growth and customer satisfaction without the burden of high monthly fees.