The cheapest SellShop alternative at every sales level in our table is Shopify Basic with Shopify Payments: 39 USD a month and no per-sale platform fee, against SellShop’s 49.97 USD a month plus 2 percent of every sale. At 5,000 USD of monthly sales that is 39 against 149.97 USD before card processing. If Shopify Payments is not available to you, Shopify Basic with another gateway carries the same 2 percent as SellShop and is still 10.97 USD a month cheaper. BigCommerce sits between the two once sales pass its plan caps. SellShop only wins if its bundled tools truly replace apps you would otherwise pay for, or if you want Sell The Trend’s research tool anyway.
Every figure below is a platform fee from the vendor’s own page (or, for Shopify’s USD price, a third-party guide), read on 29 Sept 2026. Card processing is left out because you pay it on every platform.
Platform cost at three sales levels
Monthly platform cost in USD, before card processing, products, apps and ads. Our arithmetic from the published prices.
| Monthly sales | SellShop (49.97 + 2%) | Shopify Basic + Shopify Payments | Shopify Basic + other gateway (39 + 2%) | BigCommerce, plan whose sales cap fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 69.97 | 39.00 | 59.00 | 39 (Core) |
| 5,000 | 149.97 | 39.00 | 139.00 | 105 (Growth) |
| 20,000 | 449.97 | 39.00 | 439.00 | 399 (Scale) |
How the columns were built:
- SellShop: 49.97 USD a month after a 14-day free trial and “2% transaction fee per sale”, per sellshop.ai. The fee is on top of Stripe or PayPal processing.
- Shopify: Basic is 39 USD on monthly billing in a third-party USD guide, because Shopify’s own pricing page showed us euro prices; about 29 USD billed yearly. The same page lists a 2 percent fee on Basic when you use a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments. The Shopify fees guide explains when that applies.
- BigCommerce: Core 39, Growth 105 and Scale 399 USD a month, from its pricing page. Each plan carries an online sales cap: Core 30,000 USD and Growth 100,000 USD over a trailing 12 months, Scale 33,333 USD a month. Steady sales of 5,000 a month are 60,000 a year, past Core’s cap, so we priced Growth; 20,000 a month is 240,000 a year, past Growth’s cap, so Scale. Embedded payment providers carry no extra fee; other (“open”) providers add 2, 1 or 0.6 percent on Core, Growth and Scale.
- Wix is left out of the table: its plans page showed us regional prices including local tax (about 29.77, 39.77 and 159.77 a month for Core, Business and Business Elite on 29 Sept 2026) and did not state transaction fees per plan, so a like-for-like row would be a guess. See the Wix review.
The SellShop bundle inside Sell The Trend
SellShop is also sold inside Sell The Trend: its pricing page on 29 Sept 2026 listed SellShop as included in the Essential plan (49.97 USD a month, about 32.97 billed yearly) and two SellShop stores in Pro (99.97 USD). That is the same monthly price as SellShop on its own, with the product research tool added. If you were going to pay for research too, the bundle is the version to compare. The page did not say whether the 2 percent per-sale fee also applies to bundled stores, so ask before you sign up.
What you give up by leaving SellShop
SellShop’s case is one vendor for store, product import and research, and a fixed set of included tools. On Shopify, our sourced dropshipping starter stack (DSers, ReConvert, Judge.me and GemPages plans) adds 29.89 USD a month (app cost calculator, App Store listings read 28 Sept 2026). Add that to Shopify Basic with Shopify Payments and you get about 69 USD a month, which is still below SellShop once monthly sales pass roughly 950 USD (where 49.97 plus 2 percent reaches 69). The full workings are in the SellShop review.
Two things are not about price:
- Moving later. SellShop is a closed platform. Leaving it means rebuilding the store on another platform; on Shopify or BigCommerce you can swap apps without moving the store.
- App and supplier choice. The dropshipping apps we price, including AutoDS, DSers and Zendrop, are all listed on the Shopify App Store, so on Shopify you can switch supplier tools without changing platform.
Pick by situation
- Pick Shopify Basic if Shopify Payments is available in your country and your account is in good standing; the gap to SellShop grows with every sale. Check payout holds and reserves before you rely on it.
- Pick BigCommerce if you sell through several channels or have a complex catalogue and use one of its embedded payment providers; budget for the plan your yearly sales will need.
- Pick the Sell The Trend Essential bundle over standalone SellShop if you want its product research as well; same monthly price.
- Stay on SellShop if you are testing products for a month or two, want one login for everything, and will decide about platform later.
For a broader ranking of store platforms, see best platforms for dropshipping; for the full monthly bill on Shopify, see what Shopify really costs. If Shopify fits, you can start a Shopify trial.
Common questions
What is the cheapest alternative to SellShop?
On published prices, Shopify Basic with Shopify Payments: 39 USD a month with no per-sale platform fee, against 49.97 USD plus 2 percent per sale on SellShop.
Is SellShop cheaper than Shopify?
Only at low sales and only if its bundled tools replace apps you would buy on Shopify. On platform fees alone, Shopify Basic is cheaper at every sales level in the table above.
Can I use Sell The Trend without SellShop?
Yes. Sell The Trend’s research and import tools also work with a Shopify store; SellShop is the hosted store option inside its Essential and Pro plans.
Method: researched from the vendors’ pricing pages (sellshop.ai, Sell The Trend, Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix) and a third-party USD guide for Shopify, read on 29 Sept 2026; the cost table is our arithmetic. We did not run stores on these platforms.