Best Shopify Alternatives in IndiaCompared on price, UPI, COD and GST

There are 12 realistic alternatives for Indian sellers. For a flat, predictable bill: HOD Media (₹299/month, 0% commission, native UPI/COD/GST, free for 3 months). For the lowest price: Dukaan (free plan, or ₹2,500/year — ₹208/month) and StoreMaker (₹222/month). For full ownership: WooCommerce (free plugin, ₹300–₹2,000/month hosting, 0% commission, but self-managed). For an existing Zoho stack: Zoho Commerce from US$19/month. For grocery and delivery-led retail: Zopping, which is ₹4,167/month billed annually rather than the ~₹833 usually quoted. For mid-market and B2B: StoreHippo at ₹15,000/month plus 1% per order. Wix, Squarespace and BigCommerce are viable if you sell mainly outside India, since none support UPI, COD or GST invoicing natively.

Shopify Basic is ₹1,994/month, or ₹1,499/month billed annually — verified on Shopify's India pricing page in August 2026. The India-specific problem is not the subscription but the transaction fee: Shopify waives its own cut when you use Shopify Payments, and Shopify Payments is not available in India. Indian sellers must use Razorpay, Cashfree or PayU, which triggers Shopify's fee of about 2% on Basic on top of what the gateway charges. India essentials such as GST invoicing typically require paid apps as well. At ₹50,000/month in sales that is roughly ₹1,994 in subscription plus about ₹1,000 in Shopify's transaction fee, before apps.

On headline subscription price, Dukaan (free plan, or ₹2,500/year — ₹208/month) and StoreMaker (₹222/month) are cheapest. On total cost at ₹50,000/month in sales, HOD Media's flat ₹299/month with 0% commission is the lowest predictable bill among platforms that include UPI, COD and GST invoicing natively. Platforms that take a percentage of sales start cheaper and cost more as you grow — a 10% revenue share is ₹5,000/month at ₹50,000 in sales before any cap applies.

HOD Media supports UPI and Cash on Delivery natively on all plans with Razorpay, PayU and Cashfree built in — no third-party app required. Dukaan, Instamojo, Zoho Commerce, Zopping, StoreMaker and StoreHippo also support Indian payment methods as India-built platforms. Wix, Squarespace and BigCommerce do not support UPI or COD natively and generally need workarounds, which is the main reason they are a poor fit for selling domestically in India.

Yes. Shopify lets you export products, customers and orders as CSV files from its admin, and most India-built platforms accept a product CSV import. Plan for three things beyond the data itself: reconnecting your payment gateway with your own Razorpay, PayU or Cashfree keys; re-pointing your custom domain, which involves DNS propagation of up to 48 hours; and setting up 301 redirects from old product URLs so you keep the search rankings you have already earned.

HOD Media includes CGST, SGST and IGST invoicing built in on all plans. Zoho Commerce, Zopping, StoreMaker and StoreHippo also handle GST as India-built platforms. Dukaan and Instamojo support it depending on plan — verify on their pricing pages. WooCommerce needs a paid plugin. Wix, Squarespace and BigCommerce have no native GST invoicing. On Shopify itself, GST invoicing generally requires a paid app.

Yes — HOD Media is the only India-first ecommerce platform in this comparison with Meta Ads management built into the dashboard. Managed WhatsApp Lead Ads start from ₹699 and self-serve Lead Plans from ₹400, with AI-generated creatives in Hindi, English and Gujarati. On every other platform here, ad management is a separate tool.