What's cheaper than Shopify?

That "$25/month" on Shopify's pricing page is the beginning of the conversation, not the end of it. According to platform cost analysis, a Shopify Basic subscription can quickly become $200–400/month once you factor in card processing fees, essential apps, and developer support — and total cost of ownership is almost always 2–4x the base platform price.

Here's how the gap opens. First come the apps: the average Shopify store runs 3–5 paid apps at $10–50/month each, adding roughly $85/month to the bill. Then there's processing — Stripe's standard 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction applies whether Shopify advertises it or not. And when something breaks, developer support enters the picture. As one practitioner puts it, "Most merchants budget for the subscription and miss everything else, and 'everything else' is where the real cost lives."

The line items stack up faster than most owners expect:

• Card processing: 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction, ~$1,450/month on $50K GMV
• Apps: 3–5 paid apps averaging ~$85/month
• Themes: $80–$5,000 one-time, often recurring for updates
• Developer support: unpredictable, but recurring for anything custom

The biggest cost difference, though, isn't the subscription or even the apps — it's transaction fees at scale. Shopify charges an extra 2% per order on the Basic plan if you use a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments. At $100,000 monthly GMV, that single fee adds $2,000/month: roughly $2,900/month in processing with Shopify Payments versus $4,900/month with an external gateway, per the same cost calculator. Transaction fees are often the biggest cost difference between platforms at scale.

This is why the "included versus add-on" question matters more than the sticker price. A platform that bundles features — like Shopify's AI tools, which one analysis values at $100–200/month in eliminated third-party subscriptions — changes the math entirely. BigCommerce makes the same argument: built-in features reduce the need for costly third-party apps.

The principle applies beyond Shopify. When we build selling tools at AI Business Sites — store, bookings, invoicing, payments through the client's own Stripe account — the question is always what's bundled versus what gets billed separately later. A useful benchmark from TCO research: aim to keep total platform cost below 1% of GMV, and evaluate on a 3–5 year horizon, not the first invoice.

Yes, cheaper alternatives to Shopify exist — but each one trades something away to hit that lower number. Here's what the real options cost, and where the savings can quietly disappear.

Squarespace Basic carries the lowest hosted list price at $19/month — but it adds a 2% online-store fee on top of standard card processing. At $100,000 in monthly GMV, that fee pushes Squarespace Basic to roughly $4,900/month in combined costs, according to one platform cost analysis — the same as Shopify Basic on an external gateway. Its Core plan at $27/month drops the fee entirely, which tells you how much that "cheap" tier is really worth.

WooCommerce is the most debated option. The software itself is free, and WebsiteBuilderExpert names it "Best for Pricing" with a realistic total range of $4–$480/month once you add hosting ($15–200/month), a domain, themes, and plugins. At low volume — under 200 orders a month — it genuinely wins, running $50–80/month all-in.

But there's a real counterargument. Shero Commerce's Altin Gjoni puts it bluntly: "WooCommerce looks cheaper on day one. It usually isn't by month twelve." The hidden drivers are developer time when things break, CDN configuration, and maintenance — plus a fragmented AI ecosystem where Shopify's bundled tools save the average merchant $100–200/month. Both things can be true: WooCommerce can be cheaper, but its costs are variable and labor-dependent.

BigCommerce takes a different angle: it never charges extra fees on any of its 20+ embedded payment providers, eliminating the platform transaction fee entirely. The catch is forced upgrades — its Core plan ($39/month) caps you at $30K in trailing-12-month sales, and Growth ($105/month) caps at $100K, so success itself triggers a price jump.

Odoo goes furthest on bundling: $31.10/user/month includes all 50+ business apps — CRM, accounting, inventory, POS — with $0 in additional app costs, per ECOSIRE's platform comparison.

The pattern across all four:

• Low sticker prices hide percentage fees (Squarespace's 2% store fee)
• "Free" software shifts costs into hosting, plugins, and labor (WooCommerce)
• No-fee platforms recoup through forced tier upgrades (BigCommerce)
• The real savings come from what's bundled, not what's advertised

That last point matters most. The average Shopify store spends ~$85/month on 3–5 paid apps, and total cost of ownership runs 2–4x the base price across platforms. Centra's benchmark is that total platform costs should stay below 1% of GMV — a number most per-app, per-seat stacks blow past.

It's the same math behind how we price AI Business Sites: one flat monthly fee with hosting, content, SEO, CRM, automations, and selling tools included — because the "everything else" is where the real cost always lives.

Most merchants compare platform sticker prices and miss the real cost driver: what you have to bolt on afterward. The average Shopify store runs 3–5 paid apps at roughly $85/month, and that's before accounting for the developer hours spent stitching them together.

Shopify's bundled AI features eliminate an estimated $100–200/month in third-party tools for the typical merchant, while its native email marketing (10,000 free emails/month), POS, SEO tooling, and discounted shipping labels reduce the app stack further. Platforms that absorb maintenance — hosting, security patches, PCI compliance — also save the labor costs that open-source users pay in developer time. BigCommerce, for instance, charges no platform transaction fee across its 20+ embedded payment providers, which at $100,000 monthly GMV avoids the $2,000/month penalty Shopify Basic adds when you use an external gateway.

• Shopify's included AI bundle replaces $100–200/month in separate subscriptions
• Average app spend runs ~$85/month on top of the base plan
• Transaction fees become the largest cost variable at scale
• TCO should ideally stay under 1% of GMV

The practical benchmark: total cost of ownership — platform fees, payment processing, apps, hosting, and maintenance — should stay below 1% of gross merchandise value. At low volume (<200 orders/month), WooCommerce often wins on raw dollars ($50–80/month all-in). Past 500 orders/month, platforms with no gateway fee or all-inclusive subscriptions like Odoo typically deliver better TCO. The decision rule isn't "which plan is cheapest" — it's "which platform bundles the automation you'd otherwise buy piecemeal."

The research reveals a clear pattern: volume dictates which platform is actually cheapest. Under 200 orders per month, WooCommerce typically wins at $50–80/month all-in versus Shopify Basic's $25/month before apps, according to ECOSIRE's platform calculator. Between 500 and 2,000 orders, costs converge — but at 500+ orders, the same analysis shows platforms with no fee on your payment provider (like BigCommerce) or all-inclusive models (like Odoo) often deliver better total cost of ownership. At 5,000+ orders, Shopify Advanced at $399/month and WooCommerce with high-performance hosting land in the same range; the deciding factor shifts to management burden.

• Under 200 orders/month — WooCommerce $50–80/month all-in typically beats Shopify's base-plus-apps model
• 500–2,000 orders/month — Costs comparable; no-transaction-fee platforms or bundled subscriptions pull ahead
• 5,000+ orders/month — Costs converge; technical management burden becomes the real differentiator

This framework only works if you plan on a 3–5 year horizon. Migration costs of $2,000–$5,000+ for simple moves — and $50,000–$200,000+ for complex ERP-integrated replatforms — mean the cheapest choice today can be expensive to undo, as ECOSIRE's data and Centra's TCO guide both warn. We see this with clients who started on a low-sticker-price platform, added six apps to close feature gaps, and now pay more in subscriptions than an all-inclusive model would cost. The monthly expenses that matter aren't just the platform fee — they're transaction fees, app stacks, developer hours, and the automation you're missing because it lives in a separate tool.

The pattern across every platform comparison is the same: the sticker price is the smallest number you'll ever see. What inflates the bill is everything priced around it — per-app, per-seat, and per-transaction. Once you see that structure, the smarter question isn't "what's the cheapest platform?" It's "what's actually bundled into the price?"

Consider the math. The average Shopify store runs 3–5 paid apps at roughly $85 per month on top of the subscription, and per-transaction fees compound as you grow — at $100,000 in monthly sales, using an external payment gateway on Shopify Basic adds about $2,000 a month in platform fees alone. Meanwhile, bundled features carry real dollar value: one analysis estimates Shopify's included AI tools replace $100–200 per month in third-party subscriptions for the average merchant.

Centra's long-term cost framework makes the same point from the other direction: platforms that look affordable upfront often produce higher costs over a 3–5 year horizon through hidden fees, maintenance, and scalability limits. Their benchmark — total platform cost should stay below 1% of gross merchandise value — is nearly impossible to hit when your stack is assembled from six separate subscriptions duct-taped together.

This is exactly the problem the all-inclusive model solves. Instead of a website builder here, a CRM there, an email tool, a booking app, and an SEO plugin, everything lives in one system for one flat price. With AI Business Sites, that's a $1,497 one-time setup and $497 per month — and the monthly covers what most platforms meter out separately:

• Hosting, maintenance, and a custom-built site with 85+ pages at launch
• An online store with Stripe payments flowing directly to your own Stripe account — no platform transaction fee layered on top
• An SEO content engine publishing 14+ keyword-targeted pieces per month
• A built-in CRM, lead capture, and automated follow-up on every enquiry
• Ongoing management and support from a real team

The contrast matters most at the transaction layer. Where some platforms take an extra percentage of every order unless you use their payment processor, this model never touches your revenue — card payments settle straight into your Stripe account. And where app marketplaces charge $10–50 per month for each capability, the store, bookings, automations, and content engine are simply included.

There's also no lock-in propping the price up. You own the code, content, domain, and data, and the agreement is month-to-month with 30 days' notice — the system keeps you by doing the work, not by contract.

If you're currently paying for a platform plus apps plus a CRM plus a content tool, it's worth adding up the real number. A free 30-minute strategy call with AI Business Sites is a low-pressure way to compare your stack's true monthly cost against one flat price — no obligation, no pitch, just a clear-eyed look at what you're actually spending.