Ecwid vs Shopify for Selling Online

The case for

• Ecwid bolts a store onto an existing WordPress, Wix or static site instead of forcing a full replatform
• No transaction fee is charged on any plan, and bandwidth and storage are not metered or billed separately
• The pricing page shows rupee figures alongside dollars, so the headline number is not a conversion the buyer has to work out

The catch

• The forever free plan was withdrawn in March 2025, and remaining free stores were closed on 20 November 2025 unless upgraded
• Starter caps you at 10 products, so a catalogue of any real size pushes you to Venture at 35 dollars monthly
• Abandoned cart recovery and staff accounts start only at the Business plan, which is 65 dollars monthly or 49 dollars annually
• Point of sale is held back until the Unlimited plan at 149 dollars monthly, well above the 65 dollar Business tier

The case for

• Basic lists at ₹1,499 per month on annual billing in INR, so there is no forex markup on the platform fee itself.
• Advanced cuts the Shopify third-party gateway surcharge to 0.6 percent from 2 percent on Basic, which pays for itself at high volume.
• Plan prices, staff account limits and even the ₹175,000 per month Plus entry point are published, so total cost can be modelled upfront.

The catch

• Shopify Payments is not available in India, so every Indian merchant pays the third-party gateway surcharge of 2 percent on Basic.
• That surcharge stacks on top of your Razorpay or PayU MDR, and payment gateway fees themselves attract 18 percent GST.
• Grow costs ₹7,447 monthly against ₹5,599 on annual billing, so paying month to month adds roughly a third to the platform fee.
• Basic includes no additional staff accounts, so a second person needing their own login means moving up to the Grow tier.