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
- Products: Admin → Products → Export → CSV export
- Customers: Admin → Customers → Export → CSV export
- Orders: Admin → Orders → Export (limited to current view — use the Shopify API or a migration app for full export)
- Blog posts: Copy content manually or use the Shopify API
- 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
- Set up the new store fully before switching — test checkout, payments, shipping calculations
- Configure 301 redirects — map every old Shopify URL to its new equivalent. Losing SEO traffic during migration is the #1 mistake.
- Keep Shopify running in parallel for 2-4 weeks during transition
- Import products first, then customers, then point your domain
- 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can self-hosted e-commerce handle high traffic?
Yes. PrestaShop, Saleor, and Medusa all scale horizontally. Saleor and Medusa are designed as microservices — add more application containers behind a load balancer as traffic grows. PrestaShop handles most small-to-medium stores on a single $20/month VPS. For Black Friday-level traffic, add a CDN (Cloudflare, free tier) and a beefier database server.
Do self-hosted stores support Stripe and PayPal?
Yes. All three platforms integrate with Stripe and PayPal. PrestaShop has 100+ payment gateway modules. Saleor and Medusa use plugins (Stripe and PayPal are first-party). Payment processor fees (2.9% + 30¢ for Stripe) are the same regardless of hosting — the savings come from eliminating Shopify’s platform fee and transaction cut.
How do I handle shipping calculations?
PrestaShop has built-in shipping zone and weight-based calculation plus modules for carrier APIs (UPS, FedEx, USPS). Saleor and Medusa support custom shipping plugins. For most stores, flat-rate or weight-based rules cover 80% of needs. For real-time carrier rates, integrate the carrier’s API directly.
Can I accept recurring subscription payments?
Saleor and Medusa support subscriptions through plugins. PrestaShop has subscription modules available. For complex subscription billing, pair your self-hosted store with a dedicated subscription engine or use Stripe’s billing features directly.
Is SEO harder with self-hosted e-commerce?
Not inherently. Self-hosted platforms generate the same meta tags, structured data, and sitemaps as Shopify. The critical step during migration is setting up 301 redirects from old Shopify URLs to new URLs. Losing existing rankings during migration is the #1 SEO risk — proper redirects prevent this.
What about PCI compliance for payment processing?
If you use Stripe or PayPal, payment card data never touches your server — the payment processor handles PCI compliance. Your self-hosted store only receives confirmation tokens. This is the same model Shopify uses. You don’t need PCI certification for a standard integration.
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