Three ecommerce platform candidates for an England shop: Shopify Basic, Square Online Free and WooCommerce

The figures were checked on 6 September 2026 and may change. Treat public prices as excluding VAT unless an invoice says otherwise. Reopen the current Shopify UK pricing, Square UK plan and fee, WooCommerce server recommendation and WooPayments fee pages before budgeting.

This is a non-ranked comparison for an England merchant selling its own physical goods to UK adults through one legal seller. A listing or public feature does not establish that a platform will meet a particular shop's needs; unresolved points below require evidence before commitment.

The criteria used to compare them

These candidates are compared, not ranked, against five criteria: subscription and payment charges, VAT position, how easily data can be exported, how much hosting and maintenance work falls on the merchant, and whether the claim has public evidence. Card rates vary by plan and change, so this article gives subscription prices and leaves the exact card fee to the supplier pages named above.

Shopify Basic: a hosted baseline

Shopify Basic combines a hosted catalogue and order route with a published subscription price of GBP 25 monthly, or GBP 19 monthly when billed yearly.

The temporary promotion is excluded. Published card rates vary by plan, and a third-party transaction fee may also apply, so the subscription alone is not a complete price.

The UK whole-life budget helps frame those recurring amounts, while VAT registration guidance is relevant to confirming the invoice basis. Shopify provides CSV routes for products and orders, but the exports do not establish complete portability: product images are referenced rather than embedded, and order transaction exports omit authorisation data.

Square Online Free: subscription-free, not cost-free

Square Online Free has no monthly subscription, but charges apply to card transactions from UK and non-UK customers. Reopen the current fee schedule before relying on any price.

Public evidence does not settle VAT treatment or every possible dispute, reserve and refund cost, so a zero subscription charge cannot be treated as the full cost.

Square says online orders appear in a central order view with source, fulfilment and status fields. That is evidence of a shared order record, not proof that the intended shop's domain needs, accessibility or configured integrations are covered. These points need testing against the merchant's own requirements rather than assumed from the basic plan description.

WooCommerce: free core, separate obligations

WooCommerce describes its core plugin as free, while its software selection requirements place hosting and software prerequisites with the operator.

Its product CSV tool supports catalogue import, export and bulk updates. Hosting, extensions, payments, maintenance and support remain separate costs or responsibilities, so the core price does not represent the full shop setup.

A pricing-model review is more useful than interpreting configuration freedom as proof of lower cost, security or accessibility. The following figures are illustrative assumptions from the comparison, not a supplier quote: hosting at GBP 20 monthly, support at GBP 500 yearly and maintenance at GBP 300 yearly.

WooPayments is optional and excluded from the core comparison price; its country record lists UK-based merchants as eligible. The GOV.UK VAT rates page gives 20% as the standard rate, which applies to service fees, subject to the supplier's VAT-registration treatment. Gateway choice, international payments, currency conversion, disputes and refunds affect the payable result.

The existing route: control case

Keep the current provider in contention by pricing the existing software with defects repaired. Use a same-scope quote method so that the comparison accounts for equivalent work rather than treating a new platform as the only route forward.

Retain the current route when a candidate still has a critical unknown, or cannot beat the verified baseline without unacceptable switching risk. This is not a cost-free alternative: use the current provider rate and include the relevant repair work. Rechecking the baseline prevents an unverified assumption about either new or existing software from deciding the comparison.

What the figures add up to in a year

Before payment fees and VAT, Shopify Basic costs GBP 300 a year when paid monthly (12 x GBP 25) or GBP 228 when billed yearly (12 x GBP 19). Square Online Free has no subscription, so its annual cost is entirely card charges. WooCommerce costs GBP 1,040 before payment fees on the illustrative assumptions above, and about GBP 2,040 if 1,000 orders of GBP 50 go through WooPayments.

The totals are not like for like. Shopify's price includes hosting, while WooCommerce's does not, and card charges differ for each option. Use the totals only to see which costs you have yet to price.

Which merchant each candidate suits

Choose the candidate whose open questions you can close before the decision date, and keep the rest unresolved rather than assumed.

Apply a common evidence trail

A fair comparison gives each route the same synthetic catalogue and failure cases, then records the configuration, tester, date and result. The review method sets out how to keep evidence and unresolved checks distinct instead of turning an unsupported claim into a pass.

Accessibility, consumer, product safety, privacy, payments, tax, security and contract questions must remain distinct. For example, accessibility demo checks and the UK rule map are useful routes to focused checks, not reasons to assume that one successful feature test resolves every obligation.

Record the decision boundary

None of these candidates becomes a winner on the public records alone. Before committing, compare the dated GBP amounts with current supplier material, confirm the invoice basis for VAT, reopen card-fee schedules and price the existing route on the same basis.

Missing information should remain visible as an unresolved question, not be recorded as a pass.

The comparison is useful when it narrows what needs proof: subscription and payment charges, export limits, operator responsibilities and the current route's repair cost. If a mandatory question remains unanswered at the decision deadline, keep that uncertainty attached to the option rather than allowing an attractive headline price to conceal it.