Shopify alternatives in India (2026): real costs compared

The short answer: Shopify's entry plan costs ₹1,499/month in India (billed yearly; ₹1,994 billed monthly) plus a 2% fee when you use a third-party payment provider like Razorpay. The main alternatives trade off in different directions — Instamojo starts free but charges 5% + ₹3 per transaction, WooCommerce is free software but you supply the hosting and the labour, Wix prices in USD for a global product, and done-for-you services like StoreCrew (yes, that's us — disclosure up front) charge a flat monthly fee to build and run the store for you. All prices in this article were checked on the platforms' official pricing pages on 10 June 2026; where we couldn't verify a current number, we link to the source instead of guessing.

The comparison at a glance

Prices below are exactly as listed on each platform's official pricing page on 10 June 2026. Pricing changes — always confirm on the linked page before deciding.

What Shopify actually costs in India

Shopify's India pricing page lists four plans: Basic at ₹1,499/month billed yearly (₹1,994/month billed monthly), Grow at ₹5,599/month, Advanced at ₹22,680/month, and Shopify Plus from ₹1,75,000/month. There's a 3-day free trial, then ₹20/month for the first 3 months on most plans.

The number that catches Indian sellers out is the third-party payment provider fee. Shopify Payments isn't how most Indian stores take money — they use Razorpay or similar — and Shopify charges 2% of every order on Basic for that privilege (1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus). That's on top of your gateway's own fee. On ₹2,00,000/month of sales, the Basic plan's 2% is ₹4,000/month — more than doubling the effective platform cost.

Beyond that, budget for what the sticker price doesn't include: premium themes are typically one-time purchases, many essential apps (reviews, bundles, WhatsApp notifications) are monthly subscriptions, and if you're not building the store yourself, designer or agency time is yours to arrange and pay for. None of these are fixed numbers we can quote — they vary by store — but no realistic Shopify budget is just the plan fee.

Instamojo: cheapest to start, watch the per-order fee

Instamojo's pricing page lists a Free plan at ₹0/year, a Starter plan at ₹6,999/year, and a Growth plan at ₹14,999/year (₹2,999 if paid monthly). The trade-off is the transaction fee: 5% + ₹3 per order on Free and Starter, dropping to 2% + ₹3 on Growth.

The math matters more than the headline. At ₹50,000/month in sales, the Free plan's 5% costs you ₹2,500/month — more than Shopify Basic's subscription. Instamojo makes sense when you're validating an idea and orders are few; once volume picks up, recompute.

WooCommerce: free software, your labour

WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin for WordPress. Your real costs are hosting, a domain, possibly paid extensions and a paid theme — and your time. There's no platform transaction fee; you pay only your payment gateway's rates.

It's the right choice if you (or someone on your team) are comfortable maintaining a WordPress site: updates, backups, security, plugin conflicts. If reading that sentence felt tiring, it isn't the right choice.

Wix: polished DIY, global pricing

Wix lists its plans in USD as reference prices — Light $17/month, Core $29/month, Business $39/month, Business Elite $159/month on yearly billing — with currency and final pricing varying by location. E-commerce (accepting payments) starts on the Core plan.

Wix's editor is arguably the easiest way to build a beautiful site yourself. For India-specific commerce — UPI flows, COD norms, WhatsApp-first customers — you'll be assembling the pieces yourself, and the dollar pricing makes it one of the pricier DIY options at current exchange rates.

Dukaan and other India-first builders

Dukaan made its name as a fast, mobile-first store builder for Indian sellers. At the time of writing, its current plan structure isn't published in a form we could verify directly from its pricing page, so rather than repeat third-party numbers that may be stale, we'll point you to mydukaan.io/pricing and suggest you evaluate it on the same four questions as everything else: subscription cost, per-order fees, what themes/plugins cost extra, and how much of the work remains yours.

The category most lists skip: done-for-you

Every platform above sells you software. You still do the work: design the store, photograph and upload products, write descriptions, configure payments and shipping, and market the thing week after week. For a lot of business owners — especially those already running a busy offline trade — the software was never the bottleneck. Time was.

That's the category StoreCrew is in, and since this is our blog, judge the framing accordingly. For ₹4,000/month (Starter) or ₹9,000/month (Pro, which adds marketing: Instagram drafts, festive planning, AI product photography), you get a branded web store, native iOS and Android apps, and a team that operates it with you — entirely over WhatsApp. You add a product by sending a photo and a voice note. Payments go through Razorpay and settle to your own bank account; shipping runs on Shiprocket; there's an optional ₹10,000 one-time onboarding for the payments and shipping setup. Go-live is about two weeks from the first call, there are no long-term contracts, and if you leave you can export your product, customer and order data.

The honest comparison: if you enjoy building and have the hours, a DIY platform gives you more direct control per rupee. If you'd rather spend those hours on your products and customers, a flat ₹4,000/month for a team — less than Shopify Grow's software-only fee — is the math to check. See the full side-by-side on our StoreCrew vs Shopify comparison.

How to choose: four questions

1. Who does the work? Be brutally honest about the hours you'll actually put in after the first enthusiastic week. Half-built DIY stores don't sell.

2. What's the total monthly cost at your volume? Subscription + platform transaction fees + gateway fees + apps/themes + any help you hire. Run it at your expected sales, not at zero.

3. Does it fit how Indians buy? UPI, COD expectations, WhatsApp as the default customer channel. A platform built for global checkout flows may need extra work here.

4. Can you leave? Check what data you can export — products, customers, orders — before you sign up, not after.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest Shopify alternative in India?

On subscription price alone, Instamojo's free plan (₹0/year with a 5% + ₹3 per-transaction fee) and WooCommerce (free software; you pay hosting and domain) are the cheapest starts. But cheapest plan ≠ cheapest total cost — compute total monthly cost at your expected order volume.

How much does Shopify cost in India in 2026?

Per Shopify's India pricing page (10 June 2026): Basic ₹1,499/mo billed yearly (₹1,994 monthly), Grow ₹5,599/mo, Advanced ₹22,680/mo, Plus from ₹1,75,000/mo — plus third-party payment fees of 2% / 1% / 0.6% / 0.2% respectively. Apps, themes and agency help are extra.

Is Dukaan cheaper than Shopify?

Dukaan positions itself as a lower-cost, India-first builder, but check its current plans directly at mydukaan.io/pricing — we only publish numbers we can verify from official pages, and Dukaan's weren't verifiable at the time of writing.

What's the difference between a DIY builder and a done-for-you service?

DIY builders sell software; you do (or hire out) the design, setup, and marketing. Done-for-you services like StoreCrew give you a team that builds and operates the store for a flat monthly fee — from ₹4,000/month, run over WhatsApp.

Do Shopify alternatives in India support UPI and Razorpay?

Most platforms serving India support UPI, cards and netbanking via gateways like Razorpay. The difference is the platform's own per-transaction fee charged on top of the gateway fee — check both.

Which alternative is best for a small business in India?

If you have time and technical comfort: WooCommerce or Wix. Lowest upfront with payments built in: Instamojo. Biggest app ecosystem: Shopify. Don't want to do it yourself: a done-for-you service like StoreCrew.