Introduction

If you are searching for the best app like shopify to run or scale your online store, this guide gives a practical comparison of the top alternatives, their pricing, and step by step migration timelines. Choosing the right platform is one of the highest-leverage decisions for store performance, conversion rate, and operating cost. A platform mismatch can add months of development, higher fees, and lost traffic.

This article covers what to look for in a Shopify alternative, side by side feature and price comparisons, migration checklists you can follow in 2 to 8 weeks, and real examples of when to pick BigCommerce, WooCommerce (WordPress), Wix, Squarespace, or Square Online. You will get actionable scoring criteria, a tooling list with exact price ranges, common mistakes to avoid, and a concrete next steps checklist to move a store from research to live in 30 days or less. Use this as your decision and implementation playbook.

What to Expect From the Best App Like Shopify

This section defines the key functional areas to compare so you can score platforms objectively. Each criterion links to operational outcomes like conversion rate, cost of ownership, or developer time. Use the scoring table in the next section as a template for decision making.

Key criteria:

• Hosting and uptime responsibility
• Payment processing and transaction fees
• App and extension ecosystem size
• SEO and content capabilities
• Checkout flexibility and customization
• Scalability and cost at $10k, $50k, $250k monthly revenue
• Support and community resources

Use this list to weight decisions based on your store size and growth plan. For example, if you rely on advanced headless setups and custom APIs, prioritize platforms with headless commerce support and strong developer docs. If you sell local and need integrated point of sale, prioritize Square Online or Shopify POS alternatives.

Best App Like Shopify Comparison and When to Use Each

This section compares the most common alternatives to Shopify and recommends when to choose each. The platforms covered: BigCommerce, WooCommerce (WordPress), Wix eCommerce, Squarespace Commerce, Square Online, Magento Open Source (Adobe Commerce for enterprise), and Ecwid.

Bigcommerce

• Best for mid-market sellers who want robust built-in features without relying on many paid apps.
• Pricing: Standard $39/month, Plus $105/month, Pro $399+/month; enterprise custom pricing.
• Strengths: No transaction fees, strong multi-channel selling (Amazon, eBay), flexible product catalogs, native SEO.
• Weaknesses: Less theme marketplace variety than Shopify, steeper learning curve for complex customizations.
• When to use: Stores doing $10k to $200k per month that want built-in APIs and need less reliance on 3rd party apps.

Woocommerce (Wordpress)

• Best for stores that need content-first marketing and maximum customization control.
• Pricing typical: Hosting $10 to $80/month (DigitalOcean, SiteGround, WP Engine), WooCommerce plugin free, paid extensions $0 to $299/yr each; expect $20 to $200/month total for small businesses.
• Strengths: Unlimited customization, giant plugin ecosystem, best SEO control via WordPress.
• Weaknesses: Requires more maintenance (security, updates), hosting and extension costs can add up.
• When to use: Brands with heavy content marketing, large catalogs requiring custom workflows, or teams with WordPress skills.

Wix Ecommerce

• Best for simple stores and boutique brands prioritizing speed to launch.
• Pricing: Business Basic $27/month, Business Unlimited $32/month, Business VIP $59/month.
• Strengths: Easy drag and drop site builder, low setup friction, built-in marketing tools.
• Weaknesses: Less scalable for catalogs above 500 SKUs, checkout customization limited.
• When to use: New stores, local artisans, pop-up shops, or brands that need a fast store with low overhead.

Squarespace Commerce

• Best for visually driven brands and small product catalogs.
• Pricing: Basic Commerce $27/month, Advanced Commerce $49/month.
• Strengths: Premium templates, easy product presentation, built in content and blogging.
• Weaknesses: Limited app ecosystem, fewer payment gateway choices.
• When to use: Photographers, designers, and small lifestyle brands with 10 to 200 SKUs.

Square Online

• Best for businesses that rely on in-person sales and want integrated online ordering.
• Pricing: Free plan with Square branding and transaction fees; Premium $29/month; transaction fees vary by plan.
• Strengths: Deep point of sale (POS) integration, simple inventory sync, local pickup and delivery features.
• Weaknesses: Less robust for enterprise ecommerce or complex shipping rules.
• When to use: Restaurants, cafes, bricks-and-mortar retailers adding ecommerce.

Magento Open Source (Adobe Commerce for Enterprise)

• Best for enterprise projects needing complete control and custom workflows.
• Pricing: Magento Open Source is free; Adobe Commerce is enterprise priced (typically $40k+ per year including licensing and hosting).
• Strengths: Highly customizable, massive feature set, built for scale.
• Weaknesses: High total cost of ownership, requires teams for maintenance and security.
• When to use: Complex B2B sellers, marketplaces, or stores with custom checkout and multi-store needs.

Ecwid (by Lightspeed)

• Best for adding ecommerce to an existing site or social channels.
• Pricing: Free plan for up to 10 products, Venture $15/month, Business $35/month, Unlimited $99/month.
• Strengths: Lightweight storefronts, easy integration into existing websites and marketplaces.
• Weaknesses: Limited storefront customization.
• When to use: Small catalogs, sellers who want omnichannel presence without moving platforms.

How to pick: Score each platform 1-10 across the key criteria from the previous section, weight by your priorities (for example, 30% on payments and fees, 25% on apps, 20% on SEO, 25% on cost).

• Choose BigCommerce if you want built-in features and fewer apps.
• Choose WooCommerce for content-first brands and maximum control.
• Choose Wix or Squarespace for simple, design-driven stores.
• Choose Square Online when offline sales dominate.
• Choose Magento/Adobe for enterprise customization.

How to Evaluate Alternatives the Right Way

This section gives a concrete scoring model and a sample evaluation you can run in 2 hours. Use it to compare the platforms above in a repeatable way.

1. Define your business profile (10 minutes)

• Monthly revenue range: choose one: <$5k, $5k-50k, $50k-250k, >$250k.
• SKU count and variants: count total SKUs and average variants per SKU.
• Shipping complexity: domestic only, international, rules by product type.
• Integrations required: ERP, CRM, email, POS, marketplaces.

2. Scoring criteria and weightings (5 minutes)

• Monthly costs and transaction fees: 25%
• Built-in features (discounts, coupons, multi-currency): 20%
• App marketplace and developer resources: 20%
• Checkout customization and conversion tools: 15%
• SEO and content capabilities: 10%
• Support and reliability (SLA): 10%

3. Quick research protocol (60 minutes)

• Open each platform pricing page and note base plan and transaction fees.
• Scan the app marketplace and list the top 5 apps you would need.
• Review checkout limitations: can you edit checkout pages, add custom fields, or use a headless checkout?
• Search for “platform name uptime” and “platform name developer docs” to check stability and docs.

4. Scoring template (example for a mid-market store)

• BigCommerce: 8.5/10 for built-in features, 7/10 for cost (Standard plan cheaper than Shopify for comparable features).
• WooCommerce: 9/10 for SEO, 6/10 for maintenance overhead.
• Wix: 6/10 for scalability, 8/10 for speed to launch.

5. Decision rule

• If your weighted score shows a 1.5 point gap in favor of one platform, choose that platform and set a 30-day migration plan.
• If scores are within 0.5, run a 14-day pilot or create a simple proof of concept for checkout and a top-selling product.

Example outcome: A store doing $30k monthly, with 400 SKUs and multiple discounts, will typically score BigCommerce 8.6 and WooCommerce 8.2. Choose BigCommerce for faster time to market and less dev overhead, unless you need very specific WordPress content strategies.

Step by Step Migration and Implementation Timeline

This section gives a concrete timeline you can adapt—two options: a fast 2-4 week launch for simple stores, and a full 6-12 week migration for medium/complex stores. Each phase includes checklists.

Fast launch timeline: 2 to 4 weeks (small catalog, minimal customizations)

Week 0: Decision and account setup

• Select platform and create development account.
• Choose theme and record current analytics baseline.

Week 1: Catalog and content

• Export products from existing store CSV.
• Clean data: ensure SKUs, weights, variants are normalized.
• Import into new platform and verify 20 top SKUs.

Week 2: Checkout, payments, and shipping

• Connect payment gateway and run test transactions.
• Configure shipping zones and shipping rates for top 3 countries.
• Set up tax calculation rules.

Week 3: QA and launch

• QA pages, run 10 sample orders, check email notifications.
• Set up redirects for top 100 product URLs.
• Launch and monitor analytics for first 72 hours.

Full migration timeline: 6 to 12 weeks (500+ SKUs, custom integrations, B2B features)

Weeks 0-1: Discovery

• Map all integrations: ERP, CRM, fulfillment.
• Document custom features required: custom checkout fields, payment terms, B2B pricing.

Weeks 2-4: Development and theme work

• Build staging environment, configure data model.
• Implement theme and top-level UI flows.
• Integrate apps and custom APIs.

Weeks 5-8: Data migration and testing

• Migrate full catalog and customer database.
• Run payment gateway integration and end-to-end order flow tests.
• Implement redirects and SEO preservation plan.

Weeks 9-12: Training and cutover

• Train support and fulfillment teams on new admin workflows.
• Switch DNS during low-traffic window and monitor for errors.
• Keep legacy site live as read-only for 7 days post-launch for verification.

Migration checklist (useable for both timelines)

• Export and back up orders, customers, product images.
• Inventory freeze window plan for 24-48 hours during final sync.
• 301 redirect map for top 200 pages.
• Payment and test order checklist with refund flow test.
• Staff training checklist and support escalation contacts.

Real numbers to expect

• Typical development cost for mid-market migration: $5,000 to $40,000 depending on customizations.
• Time to migrate 1,000 SKUs: 3 to 6 weeks with automated imports and QA.
• SEO traffic risk: expect a 5% to 15% fluctuation if redirects and sitemap are handled correctly; larger drops usually result from URL structure changes or content migration failures.

Platform Feature Deep Dives and Pricing

This section lists specific platform features and realistic pricing ranges so you can budget. Prices are monthly unless noted and reflect common plan levels for 2026 market averages.

Bigcommerce

• Typical plans: Standard $39, Plus $105, Pro $399.
• Transaction fees: None on BigCommerce.
• Add-ons: Apps usually $5 to $50/month each.
• Good for: multi-currency, B2B features, complex shipping rules.

Woocommerce + Managed Wordpress Hosting

• Hosting: $10 to $80/month for small to medium stores; enterprise hosting $200+/month.
• Extensions: payment gateways, subscriptions, shipping plugins $50 to $300/yr each.
• Developer time: 10 to 80+ hours depending on customizations.
• Good for: content-driven SEO, custom features, low platform fee but higher maintenance.

Wix

• Plans: Business Basic $27, Business Unlimited $32, Business VIP $59.
• Transaction fees: Varies by gateway, often around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
• Good for: fast launches, drag-and-drop design.

Squarespace

• Plans: Commerce Basic $27, Advanced $49.
• Payment fees: No Squarespace transaction fee on Commerce Advanced, card processing fees still apply.
• Good for: design-first branding, photography portfolios with shop integration.

Square Online

• Pricing: Free plan (Square fees apply), Premium $29/month.
• Strengths: POS integration and in-person sales sync.
• Good for: small retailers with high in-person traffic.

Magento / Adobe Commerce

• Open Source: free but requires hosting; expect $50 to $1000+/month hosting depending on scale.
• Adobe Commerce: enterprise license typically $40,000+ per year.
• Good for: large catalogs, B2B workflows, custom checkout.

Ecwid

• Plans: Free (10 products), Venture $15, Business $35, Unlimited $99.
• Strengths: easy social selling and existing site embedding.
• Good for: migrating from marketplaces or adding a store to an existing site.

Pricing notes and budgeting tips

• Always factor in payment processing fees: typical card fees in the US are 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction; some platforms offer lower rates for high volume or integrated payment processors.
• App and plugin costs compound: budget $50 to $400/month for the apps that replace Shopify app store functionality.
• Developer or agency costs: expect $75 to $200+/hour in North America for quality ecommerce development.

Tools and Resources

This short list contains the exact tools and services you will need during evaluation and migration. Each entry includes availability and typical price.

• Cart2Cart (automated migration tool)

• Purpose: automated data migration across platforms.

• Pricing: starts at $69 per migration for small catalogs; varies with number of entities.

• Use it for: migrating products, customers, and orders.

• Rewind or BackupBuddy (backup service)

• Purpose: backups of store data and themes.

• Pricing: Rewind starts around $39/month for small stores; BackupBuddy plans vary.

• Use it for: creating snapshots before final cutover.

• Google Search Console and Screaming Frog

• Purpose: SEO crawl, identify broken links, and verify redirects.

• Pricing: Google Search Console free; Screaming Frog desktop app license about $239/year.

• Use it for: 301 redirect checking, sitemap validation.

• Payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Adyen, Square)

• Purpose: process payments; fees typically 1.9% to 3.5% + fixed cents.

• Use it for: choose gateways with multi-currency support if you sell internationally.

• Hosting providers for WooCommerce and Magento

• Examples: WP Engine, Kinsta, DigitalOcean, AWS.

• Pricing: $30 to $500+/month depending on traffic and scale.

• Development and QA checklist templates

• Purpose: track tasks during migration.

• Where: Many agencies publish templates; adapt one to include items such as redirect mapping, tax rules, and fulfillment tests.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Avoid these high-risk errors that cause delays, lost sales, or higher costs.

1. Underestimating app/plugin costs

• Mistake: Assuming the platform base price is the only cost.
• How to avoid: Inventory required features, list required apps, and add their monthly/annual costs to your budget before deciding.

2. Ignoring checkout and payment compatibility

• Mistake: Picking a platform that restricts checkout customization or adds transaction fees.
• How to avoid: Run a checkout requirements checklist: gift messaging, multi-currency, payment gateways, subscriptions. Test with sandbox accounts.

3. Poor SEO migration planning

• Mistake: Losing organic traffic from 301 redirect failures or URL structure changes.
• How to avoid: Generate a full URL map for top 500 pages, implement 301 redirects before cutover, submit new sitemap to Google Search Console within 24 hours of launch.

4. Rushing data migration without QA

• Mistake: Importing product CSVs without cleaning data, leading to missing SKUs and broken images.
• How to avoid: Clean data in spreadsheets, sample import 100 products and verify images, prices, and variants before full import.

5. Not planning inventory freeze and fulfillment handover

• Mistake: Orders placed during final sync cause duplicates or stock mismatches.
• How to avoid: Schedule a 24-48 hour inventory freeze window, communicate to customers via banner, and let fulfillment team know cutover times.

FAQ

What is the Best App Like Shopify for Small Stores Just Starting Out?

For small stores with simple catalogs, Wix, Squarespace, and Ecwid are good choices due to fast setup and low monthly costs. Choose Wix for drag-and-drop design, Squarespace for visual brands, and Ecwid if embedding into an existing site is needed.

Can I Move My Shopify Store to Bigcommerce Without Losing SEO?

Yes, if you prepare a redirect map for all important URLs, migrate metadata and sitemaps, and monitor Google Search Console after launch. Expect small traffic fluctuations for 1 to 4 weeks; most stores recover with correct 301 redirects and preserved content.

How Much Does Migrating From Shopify to Woocommerce Typically Cost?

A basic migration with hosting and minor customizations can cost $500 to $3,000. For medium or complex stores with custom themes and integrations expect $5,000 to $25,000. Ongoing hosting and extension costs typically range from $20 to $300/month.

Will I Lose Apps or Features If I Leave Shopify?

Some Shopify-specific apps and integrations will not transfer directly. Identify critical apps and find equivalent plugins or plan for custom development. Budget $50 to $300/month for replacements or $1,000+ for custom integrations.

Which Platform Has the Lowest Transaction Fees?

BigCommerce and some hosted platforms avoid platform transaction fees; however, payment processor fees still apply. For lowest processing costs, negotiate rates with processors like Stripe, Adyen, or merchant acquirers as your volume grows.

Is Headless Commerce a Reason to Leave Shopify?

Headless commerce is useful for very custom front-end experiences or high-performance needs. Platforms like BigCommerce, Magento, and WooCommerce can support headless setups. Evaluate headless only if you have developer resources and a clear performance or omnichannel requirement.

Next Steps

1. Run the scoring protocol

• Spend 2 hours applying the scoring template to 3 candidate platforms and pick the top choice based on weighted scores.

2. Pilot checkout and one product

• Create a staging account, publish one top product, and test the full checkout, payment, shipping, and email flow within 7 days.

3. Build your migration checklist and timeline

• Use the migration checklist provided above and set a launch window (low traffic day). Assign owners for redirects, inventory freeze, and customer support.

4. Budget and resource plan

• Allocate a realistic budget for platform fees, app replacements, and development hours. Reserve a 20% contingency for unforeseen issues.

Further Reading

• Best App to Connect Shopify to Amazon
• Best App to Link Shopify to Ebay Guide
• Best Shopify Etsy Integration App Guide
• Best Shopify Inventory Management App Guide