What are the best alternatives to Shopify, including in India?
In India, Zoho Commerce for a low fixed cost with no transaction fee, WooCommerce if you already run WordPress, and Dukaan or Instamojo to start free; outside India, BigCommerce. Zoho Commerce starts at ₹599 a month billed yearly with a 0% transaction fee and an ONDC sales channel on every plan; WooCommerce is free with no revenue share, but WooCommerce itself puts hosting at about $25 to $350 a month plus $29 to $299 a year per extension; Dukaan has a free plan with a 4.99% fee per order and a Starter plan at ₹1,999 a year with 3.99%; Instamojo's Lite store is free at 5% plus ₹3 a transaction; BigCommerce Core is $29 a month billed yearly for stores up to $30K in annual sales. For comparison, Shopify Basic is ₹1,994 a month (₹1,499 billed yearly) plus 2% on a third-party gateway such as Razorpay, and its app ecosystem is why growing brands stay. The rule: pay a percentage while you are small, a flat fee once you sell steadily, and move to Shopify when apps start earning their cost.
An honest, India-first review of Dukaan that doesn't oversell it - useful precisely because it names where Dukaan is genuinely the right budget-first call and where its limited theme customisation and app depth will start to pinch as you grow.
Dukaan is built specifically for Indian sellers: Hindi support, UPI and Razorpay-native payments, and pricing from roughly ₹300-500/month - numbers change, check current plans.
Zero transaction charges and fast setup make it a strong pick for very early-stage or budget-constrained sellers.
Theme customisation and app-ecosystem depth are limited compared to Shopify once a brand needs to scale marketing and retention tooling.
One of the few pieces that actually maps Shopify, WooCommerce, Dukaan and Zoho Commerce against Indian founder stages - budget-first, ecosystem-locked, or scale-ready - instead of treating every platform as competing for the same buyer.
Zoho's online store builder: Standard ₹599 a month billed yearly (₹999 list), Professional ₹1,799, with 0% transaction fee and an ONDC sales channel on every plan; plugs into Zoho Books and Inventory.
WooCommerce's own cost breakdown: the plugin is free with no revenue share, but you pay for hosting (it estimates $25 to $350 a month for most stores), extensions ($29 to $299 a year each) and payment processing.
Dukaan's plans for Indian sellers: a free store with a 4.99% service fee per order, Starter at ₹1,999 a year (3.99%) and Growth at ₹5,999 a year, at the Diwali prices shown when checked.
Instamojo's store plans for small Indian sellers: a free Lite store at 5% plus ₹3 per transaction, Starter at ₹6,999 a year, with COD and shipping integrations.
BigCommerce's plans for stores selling mainly outside India: Core $29 a month billed yearly up to $30K annual sales, Growth $79 up to $100K, auto-upgrading as sales grow.
Shopify's rupee prices for India: Basic ₹1,994 a month (₹1,499 billed yearly), Grow ₹7,447 (₹5,599 yearly), Advanced ₹30,164 (₹22,680 yearly), plus 2%, 1% or 0.6% on sales through a third-party gateway such as Razorpay.
