This guide is only about selling — not about building a pretty website. Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Ecwid and Wix eCommerce, compared on payments, the fees taken from each sale, inventory, shipping and the channels you can sell through.
Basic plan, billed annually ($39/mo billed monthly). Unlimited products.
The plugin itself is free. Hosting, a domain and any paid extensions are separate.
Standard plan, billed annually ($39/mo billed monthly).
Starter plan, up to 10 products. Selling more means a higher tier.
Core plan, billed annually — the first Wix tier that accepts payments.
| Shopify | WooCommerce | BigCommerce | Ecwid | Wix eCommerce | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hosted, commerce-only platform | Free plugin that turns WordPress into a store | Hosted, commerce-only platform | Store widget you embed into an existing site | Website builder with built-in commerce (Core plan and up) |
| Best for | A first serious store that may grow | WordPress owners; maximum control and ownership | Bigger catalogs, variants, B2B / multi-currency | Adding checkout to a site or social page you already have | Beginners who want site + shop in one simple tool |
| Starting price | Basic $29/mo billed annually ($39 monthly) | $0 for the plugin; hosting & domain paid separately | Standard $29/mo billed annually ($39 monthly) | Starter $5/mo (up to 10 products) | Core $29/mo billed annually |
| Platform transaction fee | None with Shopify Payments. With another gateway, Shopify adds 2% (Basic) / 1% (Grow) / 0.6% (Advanced) | None — you only pay your payment provider | No BigCommerce transaction fee on its standard plans in the pricing we checked; gateway terms can vary, so confirm before you buy | None — you only pay your payment provider | None charged by Wix on top of the payment provider's fee, per its published pricing |
| Card processing (example) | Shopify Payments, US online: 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic; lower on higher tiers. Rates vary by country | Depends on the gateway you connect (e.g. WooPayments, Stripe, PayPal) — rates are the provider's | Depends on the gateway you connect; discounted rates for its preferred provider have been published | Depends on the provider you connect (e.g. Lightspeed Payments, Stripe, PayPal) | Via Wix Payments or connected providers; rates are the provider's and vary by region |
| Products & inventory | Unlimited products; variants, inventory tracking and multiple inventory locations by plan | Unlimited products in principle; stock management built in, depth grows with extensions | Unlimited products; extensive variant/option handling built in | Capped by plan: 10 / 100 / 2,500 / unlimited. Inventory tracking included | Product catalog, variants and inventory tracking included on commerce plans |
| Shipping | Discounted labels through Shopify Shipping, calculated rates, local delivery/pickup options | Shipping zones/methods built in; labels and live carrier rates usually via extensions | Built-in shipping setup, label printing and carrier rates via its shipping tools | Carrier-calculated rates, labels and local delivery/pickup options by plan | Shipping rules, rates and label options through Wix's store settings and apps |
| Other sales channels | Social, marketplaces and POS through its channel/app ecosystem | Marketplace/social integrations available, mostly via extensions | Marketplace and social channel integrations published | Sell on your site, social pages and marketplaces by plan | Social and marketplace selling features on higher commerce tiers |
| Costs beyond the headline price | Paid apps and themes; the third-party gateway fee if you skip Shopify Payments | Hosting, premium themes/extensions, and your time (or a developer) for maintenance | Annual sales thresholds push you to higher plans as you grow; paid themes/apps | Climbing the product-count ladder as your catalog grows | Climbing tiers for more capacity; paid apps |
Prices are USD, before tax, as published by the vendors in November 2026 (information at the time of writing). Plans, fees and country availability change — always confirm the current price and payment rates on the vendor's site before you buy. Card processing fees charged by payment providers are separate from any platform fee listed above.
Shopify is a hosted platform built only for commerce: storefront, checkout, payments, inventory, orders, discounts and shipping live in one admin. Plans run Basic ($29/mo billed annually, $39 monthly), Grow ($79/$105) and Advanced ($299/$399), with unlimited products. The fee detail that matters most: if you take payments with Shopify Payments there is no extra Shopify transaction fee — you pay the card rate for your plan (in the US, 2.9% + 30¢ online on Basic). If you use a different gateway instead, Shopify adds its own fee on every sale (2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced) on top of that gateway's charges.
WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin that turns a WordPress site into a store with products, a cart, checkout, coupons and order management. There is no platform transaction fee: you connect a payment provider (such as WooPayments, Stripe or PayPal) and pay only that provider's rates. The other side of "free" is that the store sits on hosting you choose and pay for, and updates, backups and security are your responsibility — directly, through a managed host, or through a developer.
BigCommerce is a hosted commerce platform positioned a step up in complexity: extensive product options and variants, multi-currency selling and B2B features are part of the platform rather than add-ons. Plans run Standard ($29/mo billed annually, $39 monthly), Plus ($79/$105) and Pro ($299/$399). One structural detail to plan around: each plan is associated with an annual online sales threshold, and stores that pass it are moved to the next plan — so model next year's plan, not just this year's.
Ecwid takes the opposite approach to a platform migration: it embeds a store — product listings, cart and checkout — into a website, blog or social page you already run, and also offers an instant storefront if you have no site. Its ladder is based on catalog size: Starter ($5/mo, up to 10 products), Venture ($29/mo billed annually, up to 100 products, including digital goods), Business ($49/mo billed annually, up to 2,500) and Unlimited ($119/mo billed annually). Ecwid charges no platform transaction fee; you pay your payment provider's rates.
Wix appears in this guide only for its commerce features — for general website building, see a website-builder comparison instead. Selling starts on the Core plan ($29/mo billed annually), which adds payment acceptance, a product catalog, inventory and order management to the Wix editor; Business ($39/mo) and Business Elite ($159/mo) add capacity and more advanced selling and marketing features. Payments run through Wix Payments or connected providers, at the provider's rates.
The monthly plan price — or, for WooCommerce, the hosting bill that replaces it. This is the number ads lead with, and usually the smallest part of the real cost once you are selling.
Every card sale pays a processing fee to whoever handles the payment (for example 2.9% + 30¢ on Shopify's entry plan in the US). This applies on every platform; only the provider and the rate change.
Some platforms add their own percentage on top of processing in some setups (Shopify, when you use a third-party gateway). Others charge none (WooCommerce, Ecwid). This is the fee most first-time sellers miss — check it before your first sale, not after.
Paid apps and extensions, a premium theme, a domain, email tools — and your own time. A "free" or cheap platform that needs hours of maintenance can cost more than a subscription that doesn't.
Already have a WordPress site? WooCommerce. Already have any other site or an audience page? Ecwid adds selling without a rebuild. Starting from zero? A hosted platform (Shopify or BigCommerce) or Wix gets you selling fastest.
Ten products and a hundred products are different decisions. Ecwid's cheap tiers are capped by catalog size; Shopify and BigCommerce list unlimited products; BigCommerce adds annual sales thresholds on top.
Take a realistic month — say 50 orders — and add it up for each candidate: subscription + card processing on those orders + any platform fee + the apps you'd actually install. Compare totals, not headline prices.
Payment availability, card rates, shipping-label deals and tax features all vary by country. Confirm your country is supported for the payment method you plan to use before you build the whole store around it.
Card processing is what the payment provider charges to move the money (a percentage plus a small fixed amount per order) and it applies everywhere. A platform transaction fee is an extra percentage the store platform itself adds in some setups — for example Shopify adds one when you use a gateway other than Shopify Payments, while WooCommerce and Ecwid charge none. Both come out of the same sale, which is why they are worth separating.
The plugin is free and open source. A working store still needs paid hosting and a domain, and many stores add paid extensions or a premium theme. Compare it as "no subscription and no platform fee, but you pay for and maintain the stack" — not as zero cost.
If the store is the whole project, Shopify's Basic plan is the most self-contained starting point in this comparison. If you want a website and a small shop in one simple editor, Wix's Core plan is the gentler tool. If you already have a website, Ecwid lets you skip the rebuild entirely.
Yes, but the entry point differs. Ecwid includes digital goods from its Venture tier rather than Starter; Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Wix all support digital products, in some cases via a built-in feature and in others via an app or extension. Check the specific plan before you rely on it.
Product and customer data can generally be exported (typically CSV) and imported elsewhere, but your storefront design and setup do not transfer — switching means rebuilding the store. That is another reason to run the Step 3 cost calculation for next year's size, not only today's.
Because this guide is compiled from the vendors' published specifications and pricing, not from paid placements or invented testing. Where a judgment appears (for example, "gentlest learning curve"), it reflects widely documented characteristics of the tools, and the underlying facts are always shown next to it so you can judge for yourself.