Ecommerce platforms — hosted SaaS + open-source self-hosted — Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Medusa
The hosted all-in-one ecommerce platform and the de-facto default for merchants who want everything managed. No forever-free tier — a 3-day free trial (often extended to a $1/month for the first month promotion), then paid Basic from ~$39/mo for unlimited products, 2 staff accounts, standard reports, and a custom domain. Huge app store and themes; Shopify Payments avoids extra transaction fees.
Visit site ↗The open-source (GPLv3) WordPress ecommerce plugin powering more online stores than any other platform. Free to install and self-host with unlimited products, orders, and customers — you bring your own WordPress hosting (any host from ~$5/mo). A huge ecosystem of free + paid themes and extensions; no managed free tier, but the core plugin is fully free and open-source.
Visit site ↗A hosted SaaS ecommerce platform aimed at growing and enterprise merchants. No forever-free tier — a 15-day free trial, then paid Standard from ~$39/mo for unlimited products, bandwidth, and storage with no transaction fees on its native payment gateway. Strong built-in SEO, B2B selling, and multi-channel sales (Amazon, eBay, Google, social).
Visit site ↗An open-source (MIT) headless commerce platform built on Node.js — the modern developer-first alternative to Shopify. Free to self-host with unlimited products, orders, and regions, a customizable data model, and a composable backend (modules for cart, order, payment, fulfillment); you bring your own frontend (Next.js, Remix) and a Postgres database. Medusa Cloud offers a hosted tier (trial, then paid), but the self-hosted core is fully free and open-source.
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