HOD Media vs Bikayi — Which Store Builder for India? (2026)

Choosing a store builder in India is really a question about who controls your money, your shipping and your customer data. Below is an honest, India-native comparison to help you decide whether HOD Media fits better than Bikayi for your D2C or B2B store. Competitor details change often, so treat any Bikayi specifics here as "at the time of writing" and verify on their site before you commit.

The one thing that matters most: who takes a cut

Many Indian sellers only notice the real cost after their first busy month, when a per-order or per-sale fee quietly eats the margin. HOD Media's model is different: you connect your own Razorpay keys, and every payment settles directly into your bank account. HOD Media takes no commission per sale — you simply pay a fixed rupee-priced plan. UPI runs through Razorpay, and native COD is built in. There is even a COD partial-advance option to collect part of the amount online up front and cut RTO losses on cash orders.

Feature-by-feature comparison

Shipping and tracking, built for pin-code India

HOD Media supports multiple couriers per store — Shiprocket, Delhivery, Zippyy ("HOD Shipping") and ShippingXpress, with Shipday for last-mile. You get live rates, printable labels and weight-based pricing that sums per-variant weight in the cart, plus free-shipping thresholds. Every order gets a branded tracking page that stays in sync automatically through a per-tenant webhook, so customers in tier-2 and tier-3 towns can follow their parcel without pinging you on WhatsApp.

GST, invoices and compliance

HOD Media ships GST-style invoices out of the box with HSN codes, place-of-supply and a charge-GST toggle you can switch on when you are registered. Whether you actually need GST registration depends on your turnover and category, so check current rules or your CA — but the tooling is ready when you are.

Discounts, catalog and marketing

You can run percentage, flat and free-shipping offers, plus automatic code-less discounts, combo bundles like "Buy 3 for ₹X", Buy-X-Get-Y, usage-limited and once-per-customer coupons, hidden targeted coupons, and online-payment-only offers. The catalog handles variants with per-variant price, weight and image, compare-at (MRP) pricing, product and per-variant video, a barcode inventory scanner, and bulk CSV import that auto-detects Shopify, Wix and native formats. On the growth side you get product reviews with star rich-snippets, wishlist, abandoned-checkout recovery, Meta Pixel + Conversions API, a Google Merchant Center feed and WhatsApp order updates.

Serious about B2B?

HOD Media has a catalogue / B2B mode that hides prices from the public and reveals them only to approved customers, with per-customer price visibility. You can offer "Price on request" with a WhatsApp enquiry and run wholesale and retail on one store. Note that price visibility is store-wide and per-customer, not per-product or per-collection.

Pricing and getting started

HOD Media uses transparent rupee-priced plans and offers a free 3-month trial with no card, so you can build your catalog, connect Razorpay and test COD before paying anything. Combined with no per-sale commission, that keeps early cash flow in your pocket. If you have outgrown a commission-based tool, moving to hodmedia.in is a straightforward way to own your gateway, your data and your margins.

So which should you pick?

If WhatsApp-first selling is your only need, compare Bikayi's current plan directly. But if you want an India-native store where you keep every rupee of the sale, control your Razorpay keys, print GST invoices, ship across multiple couriers and run real B2B — HOD Media is built for exactly that.