Best Shopify Alternatives in 2026: Hosted Platforms and Open-Source Ecommerce Software

The best Shopify alternatives depend on whether you want a hosted store or one you control. WooCommerce suits anyone who already runs WordPress, BigCommerce is the closest hosted rival with built-in B2B and multi-storefront features, and Medusa is an open-source, developer-first option for custom or headless stores. Ecwid, Big Cartel, Shopware and others cover narrower cases.

This guide covers ten platforms: hosted store builders, open-source stores you install yourself, and headless commerce engines for developer teams. Each section says what the platform is, how it differs from Shopify and who it fits. It leaves out fee figures, because transaction and payment costs change and depend on your payment provider.

Why people look for Shopify alternatives

Shopify is a hosted commerce platform for online stores, point of sale, checkout, payments, shipping and taxes, aimed at everyone from solo sellers to large brands. The usual reasons to look elsewhere are specific:

• Subscription-only, no free plan. Shopify's listing shows tiered monthly plans and a short free trial, and its top plan starts at a far higher level than the entry plans. Check the Shopify pricing page against your sales volume.
• Closed source, hosted only. You cannot self-host Shopify or change its core. You customize through themes, apps and its developer tooling, which suits many stores and frustrates some.
• Control of the stack. Merchants who want their own server, database and checkout logic look at open-source platforms, where the code is theirs to run and modify.
• B2B, multi-storefront or headless needs. Some businesses need wholesale ordering, several storefronts or a custom front end, and platforms such as BigCommerce, Medusa and Saleor are built around those cases.
• A store inside an existing site. If the main product is a content site, a WordPress shop or an embedded store may fit better than moving everything onto a store builder.
• Payment and fee structure. Hosted platforms tend to bundle checkout and payment tools into the subscription, while open-source platforms leave payment processing to your own provider and move other costs to hosting, extensions and development. The trade-off is convenience against control.

How we picked

Enlisted looks for platforms that cover the core job Shopify does: running a store with a catalog, cart, checkout and orders. For open-source platforms it checks the licence, whether you can self-host and whether the GitHub repository is still being worked on. For hosted platforms it reads the published pricing model. Claims here trace back to catalogue data, documentation and pricing pages. None comes from building a store on each platform, and the ranking method is explained in how Enlisted ranks tools.

Hosted, self-hosted or headless: the real trade-off

Most Shopify alternatives fall into three camps, and the choice matters more than any single product.

• Hosted store builders such as BigCommerce, Ecwid, Big Cartel and Square Online run on the vendor's servers. You pay a subscription, the vendor handles hosting and upgrades, and you work within its themes, apps and limits.
• Self-hosted open-source stores such as WooCommerce, PrestaShop and Magento Open Source run on hosting you choose. The software can be free, but hosting, extensions, updates, security and backups become your responsibility or your agency's.
• Headless commerce engines such as Medusa, Saleor and Shopware provide the commerce logic through APIs while you build the storefront separately. They give the most flexibility and need developers.

Convenience goes down and control goes up as you move from the first group to the last.

1. WooCommerce: best open-source store for WordPress sites

WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce platform built as a plugin for WordPress, so the shop lives inside a WordPress site you control. Where Shopify is a hosted product you rent, WooCommerce is software you run on your own hosting, with features added through extensions and a large ecosystem of third-party add-ons.

The core platform is free, with no subscription or revenue share, according to its pricing page. You pay separately for hosting and any optional extensions. GitHub lists the licence as "Other", so read the repository if licence terms matter to your project.

• Best for: merchants who already have or want a WordPress site and want to add a shop with full control of the code.
• Watch out for: hosting, updates, backups and security are your job or your agency's, and extension costs add up. See the WooCommerce pricing page.

2. BigCommerce: best hosted alternative for B2B and multi-storefront stores

BigCommerce is a software-as-a-service ecommerce platform for merchants and enterprise brands that includes B2B features, multi-storefront selling and headless options. It is the nearest like-for-like swap for Shopify: you build and run a store without managing servers, with checkout, payments, inventory, shipping and promotions built in.

It supports selling across channels and regions, product feed management for advertising channels, and a headless option for custom front ends on its APIs. The vendor lists migration paths from platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Salesforce and Magento. Its pricing page notes sales caps by plan and extra fees with some payment providers, so check it against your volume. See also BigCommerce alternatives.

• Best for: merchants who want a hosted platform like Shopify but need B2B ordering, several storefronts or headless options.
• Watch out for: it is closed-source and hosted only, and plan tiers cap sales volume, so growth can push you up a tier.

3. Medusa: best open-source commerce engine for custom and headless stores

Medusa is an open-source commerce platform written in TypeScript that supplies building blocks such as carts, orders and payments plus a framework for customizing behavior. Instead of a fixed storefront, developers assemble the commerce application they need, from B2B ordering portals to marketplaces.

The core commerce modules are open source and published on npm, while some Enterprise Edition features are marked separately in the repository. Medusa Cloud is the managed hosting option, and the open-source software itself is free. GitHub lists the licence as "Other".

• Best for: developer teams building custom or headless commerce with unusual workflows.
• Watch out for: it is a toolkit, not a ready-made store, so you need developers, and you should check which features sit in the Enterprise Edition.

4. Saleor: best API-first platform for multi-country, multi-currency commerce

Saleor is an open-source, API-only headless commerce platform written in Python that is GraphQL-native, so storefronts and dashboards talk to the backend only through its API. That makes it a building block for composable commerce rather than a monolithic store application.

Its listing highlights multichannel control over pricing, currencies, stock and products per channel, and extension through webhooks and apps instead of changes to core code. The code is BSD-3-Clause licensed. Cloud sandboxes are free for non-commercial use, and paid cloud plans are on its pricing page.

• Best for: teams selling in several countries and currencies that want a technology-agnostic, API-first backend.
• Watch out for: the core is API-only and the dashboard and storefront are separate projects, so a non-technical merchant should look elsewhere.

5. Shopware: best open-source platform for headless or conventional shops

Shopware is an open-source, API-first ecommerce platform built on PHP and Symfony with a Vue.js administration interface, used by merchants and agencies to run conventional shops or headless storefronts. Catalog, cart and checkout functions can be consumed by custom storefronts, apps or other business systems.

It includes experience-management tools for content teams and an extension store of community and commercial add-ons. The code is MIT licensed, the Community Edition is free, and paid editions and a cloud option exist. Its listing names teams replacing Magento or PrestaShop as a typical use.

• Best for: agencies and merchants moving to a headless storefront, or leaving Magento or PrestaShop.
• Watch out for: some capabilities sit in paid editions, so compare the editions on the Shopware pricing page.

6. PrestaShop: best self-hosted store for multi-language, multi-country shops

PrestaShop is an open-source e-commerce web application written in PHP, with a storefront and back office, support for major payment services and customizable modules and themes. Its listing stresses translation into many languages and localization for many countries, which suits shops selling across borders.

You install it on your own web server with PHP and MySQL or MariaDB, and the repository lists the licence as "Other". The software is free to download.

• Best for: merchants and agencies running multi-language, multi-country shops on hosting they control.
• Watch out for: you manage hosting, upgrades and security yourself, and the licence is listed as "Other", so read its terms.

7. Magento Open Source: best self-managed PHP store with a commercial upgrade path

Magento Open Source is a PHP ecommerce platform for building an online store from the ground up, with Adobe Commerce as its full-featured commercial counterpart. The repository presents the open-source edition as the basic starting point and directs merchants who need more to Adobe Commerce, which adds cloud hosting and extra features.

It has a large contributor community and is licensed under OSL-3.0. It suits agencies and merchants who want to self-manage a shop with a customizable codebase and keep an upgrade path open.

• Best for: agencies and merchants who want a self-managed PHP store and may later move to Adobe Commerce.
• Watch out for: it is the basic edition, a store has to be hosted and maintained by you, and it is more demanding than a hosted builder.

8. Ecwid: best for adding a store to a site you already run

Ecwid is a hosted ecommerce product that lets a seller add an online store to an existing website or create a new store from scratch. It is aimed at small businesses that want to start selling without moving their current site to a different platform and without technical skills.

Beyond the website store, it supports selling through Google, marketplaces, social platforms and in person with point-of-sale tools, with inventory, orders, payments, taxes and shipping managed from one admin. An App Market extends the store. Its pricing page states that Ecwid charges no transaction fees, with taxes extra, so check the current terms on its pricing page.

• Best for: small businesses with an existing website that want to add selling without a migration.
• Watch out for: it is a closed-source hosted product built around adding a store, so check whether its design options fit a heavily customized storefront.

9. Big Cartel: best for artists, makers and independent merchants

Big Cartel is a hosted online store builder designed for artists, makers and other independent merchants. A seller picks a customizable template, adds products, sets up shipping and payments, and publishes a store without code. Stores can sell physical goods, digital goods and print-on-demand items.

Merchandising features include discounts, scheduled product drops and exclusive access, with links to Instagram, Facebook and Google Shopping. Products can be imported directly from Shopify, Etsy or Squarespace, which makes moving over simpler. A free limited plan is available.

• Best for: artists, musicians and small makers who want a simple store and a free entry plan.
• Watch out for: it targets small independent merchants, so large catalogs, B2B ordering and headless builds belong on a different platform, and the free plan is limited.

10. Square Online: best for businesses that already use Square in person

Square Online is the website and online store builder in the Square ecosystem, aimed at small businesses that want to sell online and in person from the same set of tools. It connects a branded online store with Square payments, order management and point-of-sale hardware.

Square organizes its tools around business types such as food and beverage, retail, beauty and services. A plan with no monthly fee exists, and card processing fees apply on every plan.

• Best for: restaurants, retailers and service businesses that already take payments with Square and want one system for in-person and online orders.
• Watch out for: it is built around Square's payments and hardware, so it is a poorer fit for merchants who want their own payment stack or a heavily customized store.

Which Shopify alternative should you choose?

If you are not technical and want to launch quickly, start with the hosted options. If you have developers and want to own the stack, start with the open-source and headless ones. Either way, test the full checkout and tax flow for your own country, product mix and payment provider. The ecommerce category and the Shopify alternatives page list more.

Enterprise commerce: Salesforce Commerce Cloud and similar platforms

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is an enterprise platform for B2C and B2B brands with ties to the wider Salesforce family, and pricing is arranged through sales, so alternatives to it are a different shortlist from the small-store options above. If that is your starting point, see the Salesforce Commerce Cloud alternatives page. Other enterprise options in the catalogue include:

• Adobe Commerce: Adobe's platform, formerly Magento Commerce, with B2B and headless options and cloud or service-based deployment. See Adobe Commerce alternatives.
• commercetools: an API-first, cloud-native headless platform for enterprise retailers.
• VTEX: an enterprise commerce suite for D2C, B2C and B2B brands and marketplaces, popular in Latin America.

BigCommerce, Shopware and Medusa also have headless options at the large end of the market.

More open-source and hosted options

Open-source platforms and hosted builders that fit narrower needs:

• OpenCart: a free PHP e-commerce platform that merchants install on their own hosting.
• Bagisto: a Laravel and Vue.js platform for stores, B2B sites and multi-vendor marketplaces.
• Sylius: a headless ecommerce framework on PHP and Symfony with a REST API.
• Vendure: a headless commerce platform in TypeScript on NestJS and GraphQL.
• Spree Commerce: a Ruby commerce platform for marketplaces, B2B and headless stores.
• EverShop: a TypeScript, GraphQL and React platform for developers who want a modular storefront.
• nopCommerce: a free ASP.NET Core shopping cart for Windows, Linux and macOS.
• Zoho Commerce, Shift4Shop and Volusion: hosted store builders for small merchants.

If your store is one part of a brochure or portfolio site, Enlisted's guide to Squarespace, Wix and Webflow alternatives covers website builders with ecommerce built in.

What to check before you migrate a store

Moving a store is a project with a few places where things go wrong:

• Products, customers and orders. Confirm what the new platform can import and in what format, and keep a full export of the old store.
• URLs and redirects. Plan how old product and category links will redirect, so search traffic and bookmarks keep working.
• Payments and tax. Check which payment providers the platform supports in your country and how it handles sales tax, with your accountant if needed. Enlisted's Stripe alternatives guide covers payment providers.
• Apps and plugins. List what you use today and find the equivalent, or confirm you can live without it.
• Inventory and accounting. If stock levels, purchasing or accounting feed the store, check the integrations. Larger operations may need an ERP, and Enlisted's guide to NetSuite alternatives covers that side.
• Total cost. Add the subscription or hosting, extensions, payment processing and developer time before comparing platforms.