WooCommerce alternatives: where to go and how to move your store
Six platforms broken down, one per reason to leave, and an eight-step migration plan.
The short answer: Shopify if you never want to think about hosting or updates again, BigCommerce for a large catalog or B2B without stacking apps, Ecwid if you want to keep your WordPress site and only replace the store, PrestaShop if you want to stay open source on software built for commerce first. Squarespace suits small, design-led shops, and Shopware fits European mid-market B2B with a real budget. One thing to know before you pick: your customers' passwords don't come with you, and every product URL changes. We compared the six destinations in this guide, and their import paths from WooCommerce, in 2026.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a rating.
Why stores leave WooCommerce, and what they give up
WooCommerce gets a lot right: no monthly subscription, no cut of your sales, no extra fee when you use a third-party payment provider, and your data sits on your own server. For a highly custom store, it's still hard to beat. People leave for other reasons: a bill that grows quietly, and hours spent keeping the store alive instead of selling. Six of them come up again and again.
Free to start, not to run
WooCommerce's own pricing page puts hosting for most stores at $25 to $350 a month, and each paid extension at $29 to $299 a year. The useful ones aren't cheap: WooCommerce Subscriptions runs $279 a year, WooCommerce Bookings $249. Stack five or six licenses and you're paying a subscription in all but name.
Updates that break the store
Core, theme and every extension ship on their own schedules. On the official support forum, store owners have watched a major update break their storefront, and support's advice was to wait about two weeks before installing an update so third-party extensions could catch up. Every release makes compatibility checks your job.
Security is your job
Vulnerability databases list dozens of patched flaws in WooCommerce core, including a sensitive data exposure up to version 10.4.2, on top of issues in WooPayments and third-party extensions. Across WordPress, new plugin and theme vulnerabilities are published every week. Outdated plugins remain one of the top reasons WordPress sites get hacked.
Speed depends on your host
Store owners on Reddit keep telling the same story: the $5 host that crawls the moment traffic picks up, and budget-host outages that cost real revenue. Managed WordPress hosting fixes that, starting at $30 a month billed yearly ($35 monthly) on a well-known provider. At that point, the "free" store isn't free anymore.
A plugin stack that turns into debt
One developer on r/ecommerce put it bluntly: WooCommerce becomes "a stack of plugins, workarounds and constant updates", and anything custom "becomes technical debt fast". Every need adds a plugin: sales tax, shipping, reviews, filters, invoices. They collide, slow the admin down, and custom code gets harder to maintain each year.
Support split three ways
When something breaks, your host points at the plugin, the plugin vendor points at WooCommerce, and WooCommerce points at your theme. Public reviews of WooCommerce.com are harsh (2 out of 5, with 61% one-star): yearly licenses seen as pricey, updates that crash sites, and WooPayments funds held with slow support.
You're leaving because… go to…
The right WooCommerce alternative depends on what's pushing you out. Usually one line fits. Each card jumps to the full breakdown below.
Everything is hosted and maintained for you, and a free app imports products, customers and orders.
Your catalog is big or you sell B2BBigCommerceLots of built-in features without stacking apps, but your plan rises with your sales.
You want to keep WordPress and only replace the storeEcwidA WordPress plugin that replaces only the store, from $5 a month.
You want to stay open source, on commerce-first softwarePrestaShopFree self-hosted edition, or hosted for you from €24 a month billed yearly.
You sell a small catalog and design matters mostSquarespaceOne subscription replaces WordPress, theme, hosting and plugins. 0% transaction fee from Core up.
You're a European mid-market B2B seller with budgetShopwareGerman open source, free Community Edition, paid plans from €600 a month.
WooCommerce alternatives, platform by platform
For each platform: why move there, who it's for, its catch, how to migrate from WooCommerce, and what it costs. Prices are what each vendor lists in 2026, in dollars, except for the European vendors that only publish euro pricing (before VAT).
Shopify: never touch a server again
Easiest to live withWhy move to Shopify. It's the exact opposite of WooCommerce: hosting, security, updates and speed stop being your problem. A store owner doing around 20 orders a day summed it up on r/shopify: "you'll spend far less time babysitting plugins". It's also one of the most discussed moves on forums, and the best tooled.
Who it's for. Stores that want to sell across channels (site, social, marketplaces) without a tech team, and owners who count their hours.
Who it's not for. Anyone who wants control of every line of code or fully custom URLs. It's a more closed platform than WordPress.
The catch. Apps are billed monthly and add up just like your WooCommerce extensions, only every month instead of every year. Skip Shopify Payments and Shopify adds its own fee on top of your provider's: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced. URL paths are fixed (/products/, /collections/), so your whole catalog needs redirects. One owner also flagged shipping estimates based on a single box size.
How to migrate. Shopify's Store Migration app is free and brings over products, customers, orders, gift cards, blog posts and pages. Import in this order: products, then customers, then orders, so every order finds its customer and its items. To carry reviews, coupons and redirects too, the AppsByB WooCommerce Importer has a free demo (100 products, 50 orders and customers), then a one-time $5 to $99, or $299 for a done-for-you migration.
- Basic
- $29/mo yearly, $39 monthly
- Grow
- $79/mo yearly, $105 monthly
- Migration
- free official app
- Catch
- monthly app fees
BigCommerce: a big catalog without an app pile
Large catalog and B2BWhy move to BigCommerce. Where WooCommerce and Shopify add a plugin or app per need, BigCommerce puts much more into the plan itself. Use one of its built-in payment providers and it charges no transaction fee.
Who it's for. Wide catalogs, stores that also sell wholesale, and anyone who doesn't want to rebuild their WooCommerce setup out of twenty monthly apps.
Who it's not for. A small, fast-growing store that needs a predictable bill.
The catch. Your plan follows your sales: pass $30,000 in trailing 12-month sales and you're moved up a tier automatically, then again past $100,000. With an "open" payment provider, it adds 2%, 1% or 0.6% depending on the plan.
How to migrate. We found no official guide for migrating from WooCommerce. The usual route is a third-party migration tool priced by the number of products, customers and orders. Run its demo on your real catalog first.
- Core
- $29/mo yearly, $39 monthly
- Growth
- $79/mo yearly, $105 monthly
- Plan upgrade
- automatic past $30K in sales
- Catch
- no official WooCommerce importer
Ecwid: keep WordPress, swap out only the store
Stay on WordPressWhy move to Ecwid. Maybe WordPress isn't your problem, WooCommerce is. Ecwid (part of Lightspeed) plugs into your existing WordPress site: cart, checkout and catalog are hosted by Ecwid, while your content and your rankings stay on WordPress.
Who it's for. A blog or content site selling a handful of products that wants to stop managing commerce plugins.
Who it's not for. A real store with thousands of SKUs and specialized needs.
The catch. Every plan caps your product count: 10 on Starter, 100 on Venture, 2,500 on Business, unlimited on Unlimited. You also keep hosting and updating WordPress itself.
How to migrate. Ecwid advertises an import of your WooCommerce products and categories from its WordPress plugin, with no mention of orders or customers. Check it on a few products before deleting anything, and keep your WooCommerce export as an archive.
- Starter
- $5/mo, 10 products
- Venture
- $29/mo yearly, $35 monthly
- Best for
- existing WordPress site
- Catch
- product cap per plan
PrestaShop: open source, built for commerce first
Open sourceWhy move to PrestaShop. You keep what you like about WooCommerce (open code, your data, no commission) on software designed for selling, not for blogging. It has a large module marketplace and a deep bench of agencies, especially in Europe.
Who it's for. Stores with a developer or agency, and owners who want code control without depending on WordPress.
Who it's not for. Anyone leaving WooCommerce precisely to stop maintaining things, if they pick the self-hosted Classic edition.
The catch. Useful modules are often paid, like WooCommerce extensions. Classic is free "excluding associated costs", meaning hosting and domain, so server upkeep stays on you. The Hosted edition removes that, from €24 a month billed yearly (€290 a year) or €29 month to month, before tax, with a 14-day trial and PrestaShop Checkout included. It's priced in euros only.
How to migrate. There's no free official importer from WooCommerce. PrestaShop's migration page points you to paid migration tools priced by the number of products, customers and orders, each with a free demo. Run the demo on a sample and check your variants (sizes, colors) before paying for the full move.
- Classic
- free, self-hosted
- Hosted
- €24/mo yearly, €29 monthly
- Trial
- 14 days (Hosted)
- Catch
- paid modules
Squarespace: a small shop where design comes first
Design firstWhy move to Squarespace. If your WooCommerce store is mostly a good-looking site with a few products, Squarespace swaps WordPress, theme, hosting and plugins for one subscription with polished templates.
Who it's for. Makers, artists and visual brands selling a small catalog.
Who it's not for. A store that lives on filters, complex variants or niche plugins.
The catch. The Basic plan takes a 2% fee on every sale; it drops to 0% from Core up. Commerce features stay lighter than on dedicated platforms.
How to migrate. We found no official import from WooCommerce. Before you commit, ask support how to bring your catalog over.
- Basic
- $19/mo yearly, $25 monthly
- Core
- $29/mo yearly, $39 monthly
- Fees
- 2% on Basic, 0% from Core
- Catch
- lighter commerce features
Shopware: German open source for European B2B
Mid-marketWhy move to Shopware. It's Europe's other major open source commerce platform, strong on B2B: business customer accounts, per-customer catalogs and pricing. The Community Edition is free; paid plans add features and vendor support.
Who it's for. European mid-market companies, often manufacturers or wholesalers, with an agency and a budget.
Who it's not for. A small store leaving WooCommerce to cut costs.
The catch. Paid plans start high: Rise from €600 a month (30 days free), Evolve from €2,400 a month, before tax, euros only. The free Community Edition needs hosting and someone to maintain it, just like WooCommerce.
How to migrate. The official Migration Assistant only moves Shopware 5 stores to Shopware 6. From WooCommerce you need a third-party plugin or a paid migration tool, so get it into your agency's quote from day one.
- Community
- free, self-hosted
- Rise
- from €600/mo
- Best for
- European B2B
- Catch
- no official WooCommerce importer
The 6 alternatives side by side
Our default pick: Shopify if you want out of the technical side, BigCommerce if your catalog is big, Ecwid if you're staying on WordPress. To compare fairly, start from what you pay today: hosting, twelve months of extension licenses, and maintenance time. A store on $30-a-month managed hosting with WooCommerce Subscriptions and three $99 extensions already spends about $940 a year before any developer time. Shopify Basic is $348 a year, before apps. The table gives one row per platform: entry price on the left, fees and migration path on the right.
| Entry price | Fees and migration from WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| WooCommerceWhere you start | Free, plus hosting ($25 to $350/mo per WooCommerce) and extensions ($29 to $299/yr each) | No commission; WooPayments around 2.5% to 2.9% + 30¢ (US rates) |
| ShopifyEasiest | Basic $29/mo yearly, $39 monthly | 2% on Basic without Shopify Payments; free migration app |
| BigCommerceLarge catalog | Core $29/mo yearly, $39 monthly | No fee with built-in payments; third-party migration tool |
| EcwidStay on WordPress | Starter $5/mo (10 products) | Advertised import of products and categories only |
| PrestaShopOpen source | Classic free; Hosted €24/mo yearly | No commission; paid migration tools |
| SquarespaceDesign first | Basic $19/mo yearly, $25 monthly | 2% on Basic, 0% from Core; no official importer found |
| ShopwareEuropean B2B | Community free; Rise from €600/mo | Third-party plugin or paid migration tool |
Entry prices before tax as listed by each vendor in 2026, subject to change. Euro prices are shown where the vendor only publishes euros.
Migrating from WooCommerce in eight steps
Order matters. Each step protects something: your catalog, your customers, your rankings, your sales on switch day.
List every plugin and what it actually does
Day 1Open your active plugins and write down the job each one does: sales tax, shipping, reviews, subscriptions, invoices, filters. Data migrates, features don't. A subscription run by WooCommerce Subscriptions or a booking run by Bookings needs an equivalent on the new platform, or it stops on switch day.
That sheet becomes your checklist: one row per plugin, its job, and the app or setting that replaces it.
- If rushed
- a feature lost at launch
Back up the whole site, not just products
Day 1Take a full backup (files and database) at your host, then export products, customers and orders separately as CSV. Don't rely on WordPress's "all content" XML export for the new platform: on the Shopify community forum, it's one of the most cited reasons imports get stuck.
- Keep it
- at least a year
Export every URL before you touch anything
Day 2Pull the full list of product, category and post URLs that get traffic (your sitemap and Search Console are enough). On Shopify, /product/chair becomes /products/chair, and paths like /products/ or /collections/ can't be changed. Every old URL needs its own 301 redirect to the new one.
- If rushed
- 404s and lost traffic
Import in the right order: products, customers, orders
Week 1Shopify's recommended order works everywhere: products first, then customers, then orders, so every order links to its customer and items. Start with a sample (that's what migration tool demos are for), check variants, sale prices and images, then run the full import.
- Test
- about 100 products first
Rebuild what your plugins used to do
Weeks 1 to 2Go back to your inventory line by line. Install the app or turn on the setting that replaces each plugin, then place a full test order for every case: simple product, variant, coupon, international shipping, subscription. Check shipping rates closely: some owners find out too late that estimates assume a single box size.
- Test
- one order per case
Set up 301 redirects, one by one
Before launchUpload your old URL, new URL file into the destination's redirect tool. On Shopify, the AppsByB WooCommerce Importer carries redirects over. Then spot-check a dozen URLs in your browser: a redirect loop or a redirect to the homepage is as bad as a lost page.
- If rushed
- rankings drop
Warn customers: their passwords don't move
Launch dayWordPress stores passwords as hashes that Shopify doesn't take over, so no customer password moves to Shopify, and the same goes for most platforms. Prepare an account activation email that goes out right after launch and explains, in one sentence, why customers need to set a new password. Without it, they'll assume you've been hacked.
- Send
- same day
Switch the domain in a quiet window, with a rollback plan
LaunchChange DNS on a quiet day, never during a sale. Keep the old WooCommerce site live on a temporary address and your hosting active for at least a month: if a payment or order gets stuck, you can roll back in a few hours. Then cancel extension licenses at their renewal date.
- Old site
- kept a month or more
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What makes a WooCommerce migration fail
The same mistakes show up migration after migration, in vendor import guides and on forums. None is really technical. They're oversights, and each one costs more than the time it would have taken to avoid it.
Assuming plugins follow your data
A migration tool copies products, customers and orders. It doesn't copy a plugin's logic: your tax rules, recurring subscriptions, shipping rules. If it's not on your list, you find out when a customer complains.
Skipping redirects
A store that changes platforms changes URLs. Without a 301 on every product and category, Google hits error pages and years of rankings fade within weeks.
Importing orders before customers
In the wrong order, orders land orphaned: no link to the customer account, empty purchase history, broken loyalty programs. Products, customers, orders isn't a preference.
Not telling customers
A customer who can't log in assumes a breach. A clear activation email on launch day saves you worried support tickets and abandoned carts.
Comparing subscriptions only
Putting Shopify's $29 next to WooCommerce's $0 tells you nothing. Compare everything: monthly apps against yearly licenses, transaction fees, the hosting you stop paying, and maintenance hours you get back.
Killing the old site too soon
Canceling hosting on launch day throws away your safety net and your archive. Keep the old site for at least a month and the full backup for at least a year.
- List of active plugins and what each one does
- Full site backup, plus CSV exports of products, customers, orders
- List of URLs that get traffic
- Test import on about 100 products
- Full import in the order products, customers, orders
- One test order per sales scenario
- 301 redirects in place and spot-checked
- Customer account activation email ready
- DNS switch on a quiet day
- Old site and hosting kept for a month
- Extension licenses canceled at renewal
- New sitemap submitted to Google
WooCommerce alternatives: frequently asked questions
How much does a WooCommerce store really cost per year?
Rarely zero. The plugin is free, but WooCommerce itself puts hosting at $25 to $350 a month for most stores and each paid extension at $29 to $299 a year. The sample budgets on its pricing page show $300 of premium extensions in year one and $300 to $10,000 a year of hosting depending on the store. If you stay, our guide to managed WordPress hosting helps you pick a host.
Can I leave WooCommerce without leaving WordPress?
Yes. Ecwid plugs into your WordPress site and advertises an import of your WooCommerce products and categories (not orders or customers). Your content stays put; only the store changes. Our WordPress review helps you decide whether WordPress itself is worth keeping.
Is Shopify more expensive than WooCommerce?
On paper, yes. In practice, not always. Shopify Basic is $348 a year billed yearly, hosting and security included, but its apps are billed monthly. A WooCommerce store with managed hosting and four or five licenses passes that number quickly. Run the math over twelve months, maintenance time included. If you're weighing the opposite move, our Shopify alternatives page shows what you lose leaving Shopify.
Will my customers have to reset their passwords?
Yes on Shopify, and on most platforms. WordPress stores passwords as hashes that Shopify doesn't take over. Accounts, addresses and order history move; passwords don't. Plan an activation email for launch day.
Will I lose my Google rankings when I migrate?
Not if every old URL gets a 301 redirect to its new home. The risk comes from URLs that change shape, like /product/ turning into /products/ on Shopify. Export the full list before you migrate, and submit your new sitemap to Google right after.
What's the best WooCommerce alternative for B2B?
BigCommerce if you want a hosted platform with lots of built-in features, Shopware if you're a European mid-market company with an agency and a budget of €600 a month or more on its paid plans. Our ranking of B2B ecommerce platforms goes further.
Is there a free WooCommerce alternative?
Yes, if you accept hosting it yourself: PrestaShop Classic and Shopware Community Edition are free open source software, like WooCommerce. Hosted platforms aren't free: the cheapest entry here is Ecwid Starter at $5 a month, capped at 10 products.
Do I need an agency to migrate off WooCommerce?
Not for a small catalog moving to Shopify: the free migration app plus a day of checks will do. Once you have subscriptions, B2B or thousands of variants, a specialist saves weeks of cleanup. If you already automate your store, our n8n integration pages for WooCommerce and Shopify show what you'll need to reconnect.
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