$0/month vs $39/month
Freewebstore Community is genuinely free forever — no credit card, no trial expiry. Shopify Basic starts at $39/month (~$468/year) after a short trial. Our paid plans start well below Shopify’s.
Shopify alternative · free forever
Leave Shopify.
Leave Shopify.
Keep selling.
Same hosting. Same SSL. Same payment gateways. Same AI product copy. Same multi-channel selling. $39/month less. Move your Shopify store to Freewebstore with Smart Import — drop in your Shopify export and you’ll be up and running in about an hour.
A million stores built since 2007. The highest-rated free ecommerce platform on Trustpilot.
Shopify vs Freewebstore.
Two hosted ecommerce platforms. One charges $39/month before you’ve made your first sale. The other doesn’t.
2.5% free / 0.5% paid
Community charges 2.5% per sale to keep the platform free. Paid plans drop to 0.5%. Shopify Basic charges 2% on third-party gateways on top of the monthly fee.
AI included, not upsold
AI product copy, AI SEO, AI-generated business reports — on every plan, including free. Shopify Magic is available only on Shopify’s paid plans.
Multi-channel, out of the box
Facebook Shop, Instagram Shop, TikTok Shop, Google Shopping, Pinterest — free integrations, no per-channel app fees.
Humans, not just docs
Support from the people who built the platform. AI chat 24/7, human tickets on every paid plan (or your first 30 days on Community), dedicated account managers on Ridge.
Since 2007
We’ve outlasted every free ecommerce competitor that’s come and gone. Same platform, refined for 17+ years. Not going anywhere.
The Shopify tax adds up. Fast.
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The subscription eats your margin
$39/month is $468/year. For side-hustle and starter stores, that’s a real chunk of profit before a single order is placed. Freewebstore is $0/month, forever. You pay us when you make sales, not before.
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App fees are the hidden cost
Shopify’s pitch is “there’s an app for that” — but each app is $5–$50/month. Loyalty points, reviews, subscriptions, upsells, translations, SEO. On Freewebstore, most of those are built in. Free.
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Payment lock-in
Use anything other than Shopify Payments and Shopify adds a 2% surcharge. Freewebstore lets you connect Stripe (which powers Apple Pay and Google Pay), PayPal (Wallet plus Advanced Card Payments), plus Ryft in the UK/EU or PayUmoney for India — no surcharge on top.
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You outgrow Basic. Fast.
To unlock advanced reports, gift cards, better shipping, or lower transaction fees you’re pushed to $105/month Shopify or higher. Every one of those features is included on Freewebstore, most of them free.
What Shopify actually costs by year one.
Shopify Basic is advertised at $39/month. But that number is missing several bills. Here’s what a typical merchant actually pays.
The advertised subscription gets you the platform and nothing else. Everything Shopify calls a “feature” — reviews, cart recovery, upsells, loyalty, email — is a separate app subscription, most of which come with their own monthly fee.
| What it does | Typical app | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| Product reviews | Judge.me — Awesome plan | $15 |
| Cart recovery & email | Klaviyo — 500-contact tier | $20 |
| Upsell & cross-sell | ReConvert Upsell | $30 |
| SEO management | SEO Manager | $20 |
| Loyalty & rewards | Smile.io — Starter (after free tier) | $49 |
| Monthly total, 5 essentials | ~$134 | |
| Annual total, 5 essentials | ~$1,608 |
All figures from the Shopify App Store, published mid-2026. App pricing tiers scale with contact list size and order volume — usually up, rarely down.
Freewebstore ships those five as built-in features on the free Community plan. You’d pay $0 to replace $1,608/year of Shopify apps — before you’ve even looked at the subscription itself.
The real bill: a $30k/year store.
Payment processing (~2.9% + 30¢) applies equally on every platform, so it cancels out. This table shows the layers that differ.
| Cost layer | Shopify Basic | Freewebstore Community | Freewebstore StartUp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform subscription | $468/yr | $0 | $180/yr |
| App stack (5 essentials) | $1,608/yr | $0 (built in) | $0 (built in) |
| Premium theme (year 1) | ~$180 | $0 (100+ free themes) | $0 (100+ free themes) |
| Platform sales fee on $30k | $0* | $750 (2.5%) | $150 (0.5%) |
| Year-one total | ~$2,256 | ~$750 | ~$330 |
*If you’re on Shopify Basic and use anything other than Shopify Payments (PayPal, Stripe direct, Klarna, etc.) Shopify adds a 2% surcharge on top — another ~$600/yr on $30k of sales. Freewebstore has no equivalent surcharge on any gateway.
Bottom line. Advertised at $468/year. Actual at $2,256/year once apps and theme land — before any third-party gateway surcharge. Freewebstore’s paid StartUp plan comes in at $330/year for the exact same job. That’s $1,926/year going back into your business instead of onto someone else’s balance sheet.
Move your Shopify store in an hour.
Smart Import reads your Shopify export directly — free on every plan up to 1,000 products, unlimited on Pro and Ridge.
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Sign up (no card)
Create a free Freewebstore account. Pick from 100+ mobile-responsive themes. About a minute.
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Run Smart Import
Drop in your Shopify export — AI maps the columns, products, variants, images and stock come across automatically. Free up to 1,000 products, unlimited on Pro and Ridge. Add orders and customers with a paid plan if you want the full history.
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Point your domain, cancel Shopify
Update your domain’s DNS to Freewebstore — free SSL is applied automatically. Then cancel Shopify. Your URL, your customers, your products, same as before — with $39 back in your pocket every month.
Leaving Shopify — the questions you actually have.
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Is Freewebstore really free — or is there a catch?
Free. No catch. The Community plan is free forever — no credit card to sign up, no trial that expires. We take a small 2.5% fee per sale to keep the lights on. Paid plans drop that to 0.5% but are entirely optional. We’ve been doing this since 2007.
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Can I import my Shopify products?
Yes. Smart Import reads your Shopify export directly — product listings, variants, images and stock all come across, with AI mapping the columns for you. Free on every plan up to 1,000 products, unlimited on Pro and Ridge. Order and customer migration is available on paid plans.
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Will my Shopify apps still work?
Most equivalents are built into Freewebstore free — Instagram Shop, Google Shopping, AI product copy, discount codes, loyalty points, live shipping rates. If you use a very specific Shopify app, check our features page or ask us in chat before you switch.
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Can I keep my custom domain?
Yes. Point your existing domain at Freewebstore in minutes. Free SSL is included automatically. You keep the URL your customers already know.
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How much will I actually save?
Shopify Basic is $39/month = $468/year on the subscription alone before app fees. Freewebstore Community is $0/month with a 2.5% transaction fee. If your annual sales are under ~$18,000, you’ll spend less on us — often much less once app fees are counted. Paid Freewebstore plans (with 0.5% fees) become cheaper than Shopify at almost any volume.
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Will Freewebstore scale if my store gets big?
Yes. Freewebstore hosts stores from first sale to hundreds of thousands. Same infrastructure since 2007 — refined, not rebuilt every quarter.
Leave Shopify.
For free.
Move your store in about an hour. Keep $468 a year.
Start my free storeNo credit card. No trial. Free forever.