Open-source alternatives to Shopify

Let me get this out of the way first. Dev Partners is a Shopify Select Partner, so I'm not a neutral observer here. Keep that in mind as you read. It's also why I'd rather be straight with you: for many small shops, Shopify is good value and you shouldn't leave it.

Basic is £19 a month on a yearly plan, or £228 a year. For that you get hosting, updates and a checkout, and you never have to think about a server. People usually look elsewhere for one of three reasons: the app bills creep up, they don't like paying a 2% fee for using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, or they want to own every part of the shop.

Those are fair reasons. Saving the £228 on its own isn't.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free plugin that turns a WordPress site into a shop. That's its big strength, as your products, pages and blog all live in one system.

• Payments with no monthly fee. WooPayments charges 1.5% + 25p on UK cards, against 2% + 25p on Shopify Basic. VAT applies to WooPayments fees, though VAT-registered firms may avoid it by providing a VAT number.
• A big marketplace of extensions and themes, with a verified section for the ones that meet Woo's higher standards.
• Full access to the code, so nearly anything can be changed.

The catch is that free only covers the core. Extensions can be pricey: WooCommerce Subscriptions, for example, is £213 a year. Add a few of those and you've quietly rebuilt the Shopify app bill.

You'll also need decent hosting. WooCommerce asks for WordPress 6.9 or newer, PHP 8.3 or newer, MySQL 8 or MariaDB 10.6 or newer, and a WordPress memory limit of at least 256 MB.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is a shop system in its own right, not a plugin. The core is under the OSL-3.0 licence, modules are under AFL-3.0, and the source code is free to download. The latest version at the time of writing is 9.2.

• Built only for selling, so you aren't bolting a shop onto a website system.
• Its own marketplace for modules and themes.
• A paid hosted version too, for people who want PrestaShop without running a server. That's €24 a month excluding VAT on annual payment, which is close to Shopify's price and rather undercuts the reason for moving.

It needs PHP with at least 512 MB of memory per script, plus MySQL 5.7 or MariaDB 10.2 at a minimum (the docs suggest a recent version). I'd want a developer on hand from the start.

The UK angle

Shopify's terms for UK shops are with Shopify International Limited, an Irish company. Its data agreement says customer data may be processed in any country where Shopify or its providers operate, with the standard UK transfer safeguards in place.

For nearly every small UK shop, that's fine. US and internationally hosted tools are normal, and I wouldn't switch over it. Just list Shopify in your privacy notice.

Self-hosting means customer records can sit on a UK server if you want them to. It also means you're responsible for keeping them safe, including your whole order history. That's a real job, not a free bonus.

On ownership, Shopify's terms say it doesn't take ownership of your materials, though it takes a licence to host them and run the service. You can export your products and customers to CSV, so you aren't locked in.

Honest drawbacks

• Security becomes your problem. A shop handles orders and customer details. Updates to the core, theme and extensions need doing, and testing.
• Peak trading is your problem too. If your Christmas rush takes the site down, no vendor is fixing it for you.
• Costs move rather than vanish. Hosting, extensions and someone's time replace the monthly plan.
• Moving is a project. Products and customers export easily enough. Themes, apps and redirects have to be redone.

Which one?

Honestly, Shopify is great, and my pick for most small shops is to stay on it. If your only reason for leaving is price, definitely stay.

If you want something Shopify can't give you, the team at Dev Partners can hand-roll a custom shop using Stripe Checkout, so you own the whole experience and still get a payment page you don't have to look after.

If it has to be open source, I'd pick WooCommerce, as hosting, extensions and developers are easy to find. PrestaShop is the alternative if you want a dedicated shop system. The main drawback of both is that you take on updates and security yourself, and on a live shop that matters.

Need it built or customised?

If you're staying on Shopify and want it connected to your stock, accounts or couriers, the team at Dev Partners do Shopify integrations.

Sources

• Shopify UK pricing
• Shopify terms of service
• Shopify data processing addendum
• Shopify: exporting products
• WooCommerce on GitHub
• WooCommerce server requirements
• WooPayments fees
• WooCommerce Subscriptions
• WooCommerce marketplace
• PrestaShop on GitHub
• PrestaShop system requirements
• PrestaShop download and hosted offer