Every "Shopify alternative" comparison article online has an affiliate link in the footer. This one doesn't. That's not a virtue — it's just context that might make the conclusion more or less useful to you depending on your level of skepticism.

Who This Is For

If you're moving more than $500k in annual revenue, stop reading. Shopify is your answer, the ecosystem is mature, and the cost differential doesn't justify the migration risk. This article is for the seller doing $0 to $100k who is trying to figure out if Shopify's fees are eating margin they can't afford to lose.

The Fee Math

Shopify Basic is $39/month plus 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction. At $50,000 in annual sales, that's roughly $2,000 in transaction fees plus $468 in subscription costs. $2,468 is your baseline cost to use Shopify at that volume. That's before apps — and you'll need apps, because the base Shopify feature set has strategic gaps that are filled by the app ecosystem, which exists partly because Shopify has financial incentives to keep it that way.

SellKit takes a different approach: flat monthly fee, no transaction percentage. At the same $50k volume, you're looking at a fraction of that cost. The tradeoff is a smaller ecosystem and a shorter track record.

Where Shopify Wins

Payment processing integrations: Shopify Payments works in 23 countries and has solved most of the fraud and chargeback infrastructure problems that smaller processors haven't. If you're selling internationally, this matters.

Third-party app ecosystem: there are apps for everything. Too many apps, honestly, but the depth is real. Whatever edge case your business requires, someone has built a Shopify app for it.

Brand trust with buyers: "Powered by Shopify" in a footer is a trust signal for buyers who've been burned by sketchy checkout pages. This is irrational but real.

Where SellKit Wins

The margin math at lower volumes is straightforwardly better once you do it properly. No percentage fee means the cost structure doesn't scale against you as you grow — which is the opposite of Shopify's model.

The admin interface is cleaner for sellers who want to manage a store without hiring someone to manage the store. Shopify has accumulated enough features and menu layers over the years that onboarding a new seller genuinely takes time.

Customer support that responds to humans. This sounds like a low bar. It is not.

The Honest Verdict

For sellers under $30k annually who are cost-conscious and don't need Shopify's specific ecosystem features: SellKit is worth testing. The onboarding is simpler, the fees are lower, and the functionality covers the core cases that most small sellers actually need.

For sellers who've already built their store and workflow on Shopify: switching costs are real and the grass is not always greener. Do the math on your specific fee structure before assuming a cheaper-seeming alternative will actually save you money after migration effort.

The affiliate-funded comparison articles won't tell you to stay on Shopify. I'm telling you to think carefully before leaving it.