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We recommend Wix as the best Shopify alternative for small businesses in the UK today thanks to its easy-to-use interface, creative freedom and simple dashboard. It also offers new AI writing and design tools, which are affordable versions of Shopify’s, while at the same time being voted our best all-rounder website builder.
Using our decade’s worth of experience in this sector, we rigorously tested the best online sales platforms to find the most affordable high quality tools available.
Our key metrics were: sales features, design functions, value for money, help and support, and a customer score.
You can check out our comparison tables to see all of these scores – and which of the platforms outperformed or fell below Shopify, and in which areas. Then, read on for the pros and cons of each, to help you decide which one would suit you best.
But first, let’s take a glance at the leaderboard:
| Shopify | Wix | BigCommerce | Square Online | Squarespace | WooCommerce |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Score 4.8 | Score 4.8 | Score 3.8 | Score 3.8 | Score 4.7 | Score 3.8 |
| Best For Selling online | Best For Best all-rounder | Best For Offers you all the functionality you need to scale and succeed | Best For Payment integrations | Best For Design | Best For Those looking to work on their own |
| Price Range Paying for one year upfront £19-$2,300 USD/month | Price Range Paying for one year upfront | Price Range Paying for one year upfront $29-$299 USD + custom | Price Range Paying for one year upfront £0-64/month | Price Range Paying for one year upfront
| Price Range Paying for one year upfront Plugin is free, but monthly running costs average £30/month |
| Transaction fees 0.6%-2% (added on to third-party payment processing fees) | Transaction fees 0% | Transaction fees 0% | Transaction fees 0% | Transaction fees 3%-0% (added on to third-party payment processing fees) | Transaction fees None |
| Free Plan | Free Plan | Free Plan | Free Plan | Free Plan | Free Plan |
| Free Trial | Free Trial | Free Trial | Free Trial | Free Trial | Free Trial |
| Try Shopify | Try Wix | Try BigCommerce | Try Square | Try Squarespace | Competitors |
The top Shopify alternatives comparison
Here’s the breakdown of scores in each category, per ecommerce platform:
| Ecommerce platform | Sales features /5 | Design functions /5 | Value for money /5 | Help & support /5 | Customer score /5 | Overall rating /5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 4.7 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.7 |
| Wix | 3.9 | 3.5 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 4.6 |
| BigCommerce | 4.6 | 4.2 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 3.6 | 4.4 |
| Square | 3.7 | 2.6 | 4.7 | 4.1 | 3.5 | 4.4 |
| Squarespace | 3.1 | 3.9 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 4.3 | 4.3 |
| WooCommerce | 4.0 | 2.5 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 3.8 | 3.8 |
Next, we’ll take a look at a snapshot of each individual platform so you can see its pros and cons, as well as each plan’s pricing.
1. Wix
Best Shopify alternative for small businesses
| Wix | Shopify |
| | |
| Score 4.8 | Score 4.8 |
| Best For Best all-rounder | Best For Selling online |
| Price Range Paying for one year upfront | Price Range Paying for one year upfront £19-$2,300 USD/month |
| Key Features
| Key Features
|
| Members area? | Members area? |
| Unlimited storage space? | Unlimited storage space? |
| Free Trial | Free Trial |
| Try Wix | Try Shopify |
Given its creative freedom and simple dashboard, Wix is the Shopify alternative for those who need an easy-to-use interface.
Wix is far simpler than Shopify when it comes to inventory management, meaning you won’t get lost in mazes of sub menus and product tags. That can save you hours of frustration if you just want to sell some products without navigating a labyrinth filled with riddles.
If you want to scale up with greater product management capabilities, you can always add apps from the Wix App Store down the line. That means you can keep a lid on spending, and save money because you won’t be paying for extra features you’re never going to use.
Outscoring Shopify in our value for money research, Wix has far cheaper price plans, making it one of the very best ecommerce platforms for small businesses.
Wix used to lack the sales-specific tools to match Shopify, but has somewhat remedied this. For instance, Wix now has expanded multichannel integration (allowing for selling on platforms like Facebook and Instagram) and dropshipping.
Wix also has a convenient AI text generator tool which you can use on your main website pages and in product descriptions. You can select the type of paragraph you need, such as “About me”, “FAQs” or “Service description” to name a few examples. It will save you time as it crafts appealing (albeit highly generic) phrases to promote your offerings. You can check out a video demo of it in our full Wix review.
Wix’s AI writer isn’t a serious rival to Shopify Magic, which works in a similar way but gives you a choice of tones of voice. Shopify’s version produces more nuanced results, but Wix’s equivalent produces a good enough draft for you to edit to your liking.
Pros
- Much easier to use than Shopify
- Far cheaper price plans than Shopify
- Faster to set up than Shopify
Cons
- Basic inventory and product management
- Sell up to 50,000 products (limitless on Shopify)
- Better tax calculation on Shopify
For a more detailed comparison, check out our in-depth Wix vs Shopify article.
Wix pricing
We’ve already put together a deep dive on Wix pricing, but if you just want a quick glance at its costs, read on:
 | | |
| Core | Business | Business Elite |
| Price (billed annually)
| Price (billed annually)
| Price (billed annually)
|
| Best For A small online store | Best For Expanding online sellers | Best For Fast-moving online stores |
| Key Features
| Key Features
| Key Features
|
2. BigCommerce
Best Shopify alternative for medium-to-large businesses
| Platform | Sales features | Design functions | Value for money | Help and support | Customer score /5 | Overall rating | Price range /month | Free trial? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 4.7 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.7 | £22 – £219 | 3 days |
| BigCommerce | 4.6 | 4.2 | 3.0 | 4.5 | 3.6 | 4.4 | £23 – £240 | 15 days |
BigCommerce is the most natural Shopify alternative, suitable for small, medium, and large businesses alike. However, it betters Shopify in two key areas: transaction fees and marketing features.
Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce waives its own transaction fees on all of its supported payment processors (of which there are over 65, including Stripe, PayPal, WorldPay, and digital wallets like Apple Pay).
In contrast, Shopify charges an extra 2% per transaction on its Basic plan, going down to 1% on the main Shopify plan. You can find more detail in our guide to Shopify pricing.
Shopify also has fewer email marketing and customer reviews features than BigCommerce. You’d have to pay for extra integrations from the Shopify app store, which can see your monthly costs quickly add up.
In summary, BigCommerce is slightly better value for money than Shopify.
Pros
- Provides far more in-built features than Shopify, which relies on apps
- Imposes zero transaction fees on all payment processors, unlike Shopify
- Offers fantastic multi-channel integration, helping you sell to multiple audiences
Cons
- Doesn’t offer a mobile app to help you manage your store on the go, unlike Shopify
- Interface isn’t as user-friendly as Shopify’s
BigCommerce pricing
 | Recommended: Best Value | |
| Standard | Plus | Pro |
| Price (billed monthly) $39/month | Price (billed monthly) $105/month | Price (billed monthly) $399/month |
| Price (billed annually) $29/month (around £23) | Price (billed annually) $79/month (around £63) | Price (billed annually) $299/month (around £240) |
| Best For Starting a small or medium-sized online store | Best For Growing your online store | Best For Scaling your business to new heights |
| Key Features
| Key Features
| Key Features
|
| Try Now | Try Now | Try Now |
3. Square
Best free Shopify alternative
| Platform | Sales features | Design functions | Value for money | Help and support | Customer score /5 | Overall rating | Price range /month | Free trial? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 4.7 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.7 | £22 – £219 | 3 days |
| Square | 3.7 | 2.6 | 4.7 | 4.1 | 3.5 | 4.4 | £0 – £54 | Free plan |
Offering a generous free plan, which comes with multi-channel integration and the ability to sell unlimited products, Square is one of the best free Shopify alternatives.
You should choose Square over Shopify if you want to use one of the best free ecommerce platforms, you don’t mind having a simple website, and you want to be able to build your online store within a couple of hours.
When it comes to customizing your design, we noticed Square takes a mobile-first view of your website. So when you first start to choose a template, previews and editing spaces are in the narrow mobile screen viewport. This is unique compared to competitors like Shopify, Squarespace and Wix, which tend to start you off editing the desktop view. Yet it’s extremely helpful as Google takes a mobile-first approach to indexing.
Other than that, Square is underwhelming compared to Shopify, especially when you look at the available payment processors. Square only supports one (Square) on the free plan, with PayPal available on the other plans, while Shopify supports over 100 on all plans.
Pros
- Enables you to sell online for free (you only pay 1.9% per transaction)
- Quicker to build a website than on Shopify
- Represents good value for money with its combination of strong features and affordable plans
Cons
- Very limited customisation compared to Shopify
- Large transactions when you don’t use Square’s payment processor
- Lacks the prompts and supports found on Shopify when designing your store
Square pricing
 |  | |
| Free | Plus | Premium |
| Price (billed annually) £0/month | Price (billed annually) £20/month | Price (billed annually) £64/month |
| Best For Smaller businesses | Best For Scaling up a small business | Best For Customer service-focused sales |
| Key Features
| Key Features What’s on Free, plus:
| Key Features What’s on Plus, plus: Free Square order fulfillment (50p/order on other plans) |
| Payment processing fees
| Payment processing fees
| Payment processing fees
|
4. Squarespace
Best Shopify alternative for creating a beautiful website
| Platform | Sales features | Design functions | Value for money | Help and support | Customer score /5 | Overall rating | Price range /month | Free trial? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 4.7 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.7 | £22 – £219 | 3 days |
| Squarespace | 3.1 | 3.9 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 4.3 | 4.3 | £23 – £35 | 14 days |
Squarespace is one of the finest Shopify alternatives for creative and cost- conscious users, offering the most professional-looking templates we’ve ever tested, with affordable price plans to boot.
In fact, Squarespace is the best value for money platform we tested (outside of Square’s free tier), offering price plans ranging from £23 to £35 per month, with the ability to sell digital and service-based products, while offering multi-channel integration via Instagram. This is one of the many reasons why we rate Squarespace as the best platform for selling subscriptions.
We love its new animation features for images and even text highlights (such as a line appearing underneath a word or two) added in June this year. These custom design elements allow you to capture audience attention with subtle, eye-catching movement upon scrolling.
In contrast to Shopify, though, you may find your business outgrowing Squarespace if you plan to scale quickly. In that case, we’d recommend opting for BigCommerce instead, or installing third-party services onto your Squarespace store, such as Zapier – which connects your apps to automate your repetitive tasks – to help bolster your ecommerce and finance capabilities.
Pros
- Enables you to design an ecommerce store that really stands out
- The best value for money platform we tested
- Offers much sleeker templates than Shopify
Cons
- Steeper learning curve than on Shopify
- Supports only two payment processors (Stripe and PayPal) compared to Shopify’s 100+ options
Can’t decide between Wix vs Squarespace? They’re both great options, but see below for an overview of Squarespace price plans:
Squarespace pricing
 | | |
| Business | Commerce Basic | Commerce Advanced |
| Price (billed annually) £17/month | Price (billed annually) £23/month | Price (billed annually) £35/month |
| Best For Small businesses | Best For Growing online stores | Best For Established small online stores |
| Key Features
| Key Features
| Key Features
|
| Transaction Fees
| Transaction Fees
| Transaction Fees 0% for everything sold |
Still unsure about Squarespace? Mosey on over to our Squarespace review for a careful look at its features, pricing, and functionality.
5. WooCommerce
Best Shopify alternative for WordPress users
| Platform | Sales features | Design functions | Value for money | Help and support | Customer score /5 | Overall rating | Price range /month | Free trial? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 4.7 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 4.4 | 4.8 | 4.7 | £22 -– £219 | 3 days |
| WooCommerce | 4.0 | 2.5 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 3.8 | 3.8 | ~£15.99 | Free plan |
Woocommerce is a different platform to both Shopify and the other options we’ve discussed here, as it’s a plugin for WordPress rather than an entire online store builder.
Whether you opt for the free plan or splurge on the paid tier, WooCommerce won’t cost you much itself. However, it’s worth noting that any costs will be on top of existing WordPress costs, like hosting or other paid plugins you use for your online store.
Obviously if you’ve already set up a WordPress-based website and are looking to add an ecommerce option, WooCommerce is a great choice. Shopify used to have a WordPress plugin, but has since discontinued it, meaning that WooCommerce is the move for WordPress-based users.
WordPress considerations aside, WooCommerce offers both first and third-party payment options, a well-reviewed mobile app, and the ability to integrate with other well-known software, like MailChimp, Yoast, and Google Analytics.
Pros
- No surprise fees, unlike Shopify’s transaction fees and third-party app costs
- Quickest and easiest ecommerce platform we tested
- First and third-party payment options
Cons
- No one-on-one expert setup help
- Hosting is not included in the package
- Low cost may be offset by additional costs (hosting, maintenance, etc.)
WooCommerce pricing
If you already pay for WordPress hosting and have your own domain then WooCommerce is a free add-on. There are some optional extra charges such as webstore themes (£66 billed annually, with a 30-day back money guarantee). There’s a marketplace of additional features to add on, many of which (50+) are free, but others are priced up to £248 each.
How to choose a website builder
When it comes to selecting the right website subscription for your business here are the most important considerations:
- The quality of sales tools
- Template and design flexibility
- Value for money
- The help and support options
- Ease of use (whether the tools match your skillset)
The right Shopify alternative for you depends on your budget and skill level, and the amount of time you have spare to build your website. For instance, Wix and Square are easy to use, but you’ll lose some subtlety in inventory oversight and design finesse.
At the steeper end of the learning curve are BigCommerce and Squarespace. The former can help you create an ecommerce empire, while the latter gives you the tools to craft a world class aesthetic.
Expert verdict
We’ve shown you the best Shopify alternatives, backed up by our independent research and participant testing. You might already know which one you should pick, but let’s quickly recap what we’ve discussed.
The best Shopify alternatives are:
- Wix – best for small businesses.
- BigCommerce – best for medium-to-large businesses.
- Square – best free Shopify alternative.
- Squarespace – best for creating a beautiful website.
- WooCommerce – best for WordPress users.
We found you’ll need more technical expertise with WooCommerce or BigCommerce, so neither are the best choice if you lack an interest in complex web set-ups.
On the other hand, we found Wix, Squarespace, and Square are much more beginner-friendly. These tools are easy enough for those with very basics technical skills. So if you’d like to design your website via click-and-drag, you’d get on best with one of those three.
How We Found the Best Shopify Alternatives
We've tested and researched 16 market-leading website builders, evaluating their functionality, usability, integrations and customer support so we can make the most useful recommendations to businesses
Our rigorous testing process means these products have been scored and rated in seven main categories of investigation and 33 subcategories. We then gave each category score a ‘relevance weighting' to ensure the product's final score perfectly reflects the needs and requirements of Expert Market readers.
Our main testing categories for website builders are:
- Sales features: the sales capabilities and sales functionalities offered by an ecommerce platform, including shipping, product capacity, payment options, tools for in-person selling, and more.
- Website features: the capabilities and functionalities offered by a website builder, e.g. blog functionality, SEO capability, marketing capacity, and AI tools.
- Design functionality: the aesthetic appeal and visual layout of a website created using a website builder. It encompasses aspects such as page templates, customisable themes, and content display tools (accordions, tabs, etc.)
- Ease of use: how user-friendly and intuitive a website builder is for people with varying levels of technical expertise.
- Value for money: the balance between the cost of a website builder and the benefits it provides. It considers factors such as pricing plans, subscription models, and available features.
- Reputation: external customer opinion; the feedback and ratings given by customers who have used a particular website builder – the market position and reputation a website builder holds.
- Help and support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using a website builder. This can include tutorials, knowledge bases, and email or chat support.
