Self-Hosted Alternatives to Shopify

Why Replace Shopify?

Shopify’s Basic plan costs $39/month. Standard is $105/month. Advanced is $399/month. On top of that, Shopify charges 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction on Basic (2.6% on Standard, 2.4% on Advanced). If you process $10,000/month in sales on Basic, that’s $39 + $320 = $359/month — $4,308/year.

Shopify also restricts what you can sell, owns your storefront template system, and keeps your customer data on their infrastructure. Moving off Shopify means re-platforming everything — product data, order history, customer accounts.

Self-hosted e-commerce eliminates monthly platform fees and transaction cuts. You keep 100% of your revenue minus payment processor fees (Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ regardless of where you host).

Best Alternatives

PrestaShop — Best Traditional Store

PrestaShop is the closest self-hosted equivalent to the Shopify experience. It ships with a complete admin panel, product management, inventory tracking, order processing, and a customer-facing storefront — all built in. No code required to set up a working store.

PrestaShop’s module marketplace has 5,000+ extensions for payment gateways, shipping integrations, marketing tools, and analytics. The Docker setup auto-installs with a single environment variable (PS_INSTALL_AUTO=1).

Best for: Store owners who want an admin-panel-driven experience similar to Shopify, without writing code.

[Full setup guide: Self-Host PrestaShop]

Saleor — Best Headless Commerce Platform

Saleor is a headless e-commerce platform built with Python (Django) and GraphQL. Instead of a built-in storefront, Saleor provides a powerful API and dashboard for managing products, orders, and payments — you build or choose your own frontend.

This is the right choice if you’re a developer building a custom shopping experience. Saleor’s GraphQL API is flexible, the dashboard is polished, and multi-channel selling (web, mobile, marketplace) is a first-class feature.

Best for: Developers and teams building custom storefronts with React, Next.js, or any framework.

[Full setup guide: Self-Host Saleor]

Medusa — Best for Developers

Medusa is a Node.js/TypeScript headless commerce engine. It takes the same API-first approach as Saleor but in the JavaScript ecosystem. Medusa is highly extensible — plugins for Stripe, PayPal, fulfillment providers, and custom business logic drop in as npm packages.

Medusa provides a React-based admin dashboard and a starter storefront, but the real power is in the API and plugin system. If your team thinks in JavaScript, Medusa is the natural choice over Saleor’s Python/Django stack.

Best for: JavaScript/TypeScript teams who want maximum control over the commerce layer.

[Full setup guide: Self-Host Medusa]

Migration from Shopify

Exporting Your Data

1. Products: Admin → Products → Export → CSV export
2. Customers: Admin → Customers → Export → CSV export
3. Orders: Admin → Orders → Export (limited to current view — use the Shopify API or a migration app for full export)
4. Blog posts: Copy content manually or use the Shopify API
5. Theme: Shopify themes use Liquid templating — they don’t transfer. You’ll build or choose a new theme.

What Transfers

• Product data (names, descriptions, prices, variants, images)
• Customer accounts (names, emails, addresses — but NOT passwords)
• Order history (for reference — active subscriptions need re-setup)

What Doesn’t Transfer

• Theme/design — Shopify’s Liquid templates are proprietary. Rebuild your storefront.
• Apps — Shopify apps don’t translate. Find self-hosted equivalents or use the platform’s built-in features.
• Shopify Payments — Set up Stripe, PayPal, or another processor directly.
• SEO rankings — Set up proper 301 redirects from old Shopify URLs to new URLs. This is critical.
• Customer passwords — Customers will need to reset passwords on the new platform.

Migration Tips

1. Set up the new store fully before switching — test checkout, payments, shipping calculations
2. Configure 301 redirects — map every old Shopify URL to its new equivalent. Losing SEO traffic during migration is the #1 mistake.
3. Keep Shopify running in parallel for 2-4 weeks during transition
4. Import products first, then customers, then point your domain
5. Test on mobile — most e-commerce traffic is mobile

Cost Comparison

	Shopify Basic	Shopify Standard	Self-Hosted
Platform fee/month	$39	$105	$0
Transaction fee	2.9% + 30¢	2.6% + 30¢	0% (platform)
Payment processor	Included	Included	2.9% + 30¢ (Stripe)
At $5K/mo sales	$39 + $175 = $214	$105 + $160 = $265	$20 VPS + $175 = $195
At $20K/mo sales	$39 + $610 = $649	$105 + $550 = $655	$40 VPS + $610 = $650
At $50K/mo sales	$39 + $1,480 = $1,519	$105 + $1,330 = $1,435	$60 VPS + $1,480 = $1,540
Annual ($10K/mo)	$5,748	$5,580	$2,400 (VPS) + $4,200 (Stripe)
Data ownership	Shopify servers	Shopify servers	Your servers
Apps/modules	$200-500/mo common	$200-500/mo common	Free (open source)

The breakeven point varies, but the savings are clearest when you account for Shopify app costs. Most Shopify stores run $200-500/month in paid apps (email marketing, reviews, SEO, inventory management). Self-hosted platforms include these features or have free open-source alternatives.

What You Give Up

• Shopify’s ecosystem — One-click app installs, themes marketplace, and Shopify Capital (lending). The ecosystem is genuinely good.
• Managed hosting — Shopify handles uptime, SSL, CDN, and security. Self-hosted = your responsibility.
• Shopify POS — If you sell in-person too, Shopify’s Point of Sale integration is seamless. Self-hosted POS options are limited.
• Support — Shopify has 24/7 support. Self-hosted = community forums.
• Payment simplicity — Shopify Payments is zero-setup. Self-hosted requires configuring Stripe/PayPal yourself.
• Speed to launch — A Shopify store can be live in hours. Self-hosted takes days to weeks for a polished store.

Self-hosted e-commerce makes sense when: you’re technical (or have a technical team), monthly Shopify costs exceed $200-300, you need custom functionality Shopify restricts, or data sovereignty matters.

Related

• Best Self-Hosted E-Commerce Platforms
• Self-Host PrestaShop
• Self-Host Saleor
• Self-Host Medusa
• Saleor vs Medusa
• Docker Compose Basics