Shopify is the default answer to "how do I sell online?" — and often a good one. But defaults deserve scrutiny, especially when you are a small Indian brand counting every rupee. Here is the comparison we would want if we were on the other side of the screen.

The short version

Shopify is a mature global platform with an enormous app ecosystem. You pay for that maturity monthly, in rupees and in transaction fees. CommerceOS is younger and deliberately India-first: UPI and COD built in, no commission on sales, and 0% commission on sales. If you need Shopify's app store today, use Shopify. If you need a fast, honest storefront without a monthly bill, we built CommerceOS for you.

What Shopify costs in India

At the time of writing (July 2026), Shopify's published India pricing starts around ₹1,499–₹1,999 per month for the Basic plan depending on billing cycle, plus 18% GST. Because Shopify Payments is not available in India, you also pay Shopify an additional ~2% transaction fee on Basic for using a third-party gateway — on top of the 1.8–2.5% the gateway itself (Razorpay, PayU, Cashfree) charges. Most working stores add a few paid apps, and independent estimates put a small Basic-plan store at roughly ₹3,500–₹8,000 a month all-in.

None of that makes Shopify a bad product. It makes it a real monthly cost that a new brand should weigh consciously.

Where Shopify is genuinely strong

Honesty first:

  • The app ecosystem is unmatched. Thousands of integrations for every niche workflow.
  • It scales very far. Brands doing crores a month run on it comfortably.
  • The community is huge — agencies, tutorials, hired help everywhere.

If your business depends on a specific Shopify app, that alone can settle the question.

What CommerceOS does differently

  • from ₹699/mo — every feature. Early stores keep founder pricing as plans change.
  • No commission and no platform transaction fee. Your gateway charges its published rate; CommerceOS adds nothing on top.
  • India-first by design. UPI and Cash on Delivery are core order flows, not apps to install.
  • Speed as a contract. Cached storefront pages carry a sub-50ms budget enforced in our build pipeline.
  • One visual editor, 80+ sections, live preview, private preview links — no theme code, no plugin stack to maintain.

The transaction-fee question

On a Basic Shopify store doing ₹2,00,000 a month, the ~2% platform transaction fee alone is about ₹4,000 — before the gateway's own charges and the subscription. On CommerceOS the platform's share of that is zero. Gateways charge what gateways charge either way.

Which should you pick?

Choose Shopify if you rely on its app ecosystem, sell heavily in international markets, or are migrating a large store that already fits it.

Choose CommerceOS if you are launching or running a focused Indian storefront and want honest economics: no subscription, no commission, UPI and COD done properly, and a storefront that is fast by contract.

Related reading: weighing India-first alternatives too? See CommerceOS vs Dukaan and Instamojo.

Either way, put your product photos and your checkout flow first — the platform matters less than what you sell and how easily people can pay you.