Do I need Shopify for my small shop in 2027?

Do I need Shopify to start selling online?

No. You can take card payments from a link or a free Square account with no monthly fee, and ask people to buy before you build anything. I do not build online shops. I have no interest in which platform you pick, and I have not tested any of them, so the figures here come from each company’s UK pricing page, read on 2 November 2026.

A catalogue, stock counts, discount codes and shipping rules are what a full platform adds. If you need those, Shopify Basic is the simple default. I did not check whether Stripe Payment Links or Square’s free plan handle baskets, stock or shipping rules, so check that before relying on either.

How much will each option cost me a month?

Enter your monthly sales and your average order below. The cost for each option is its monthly fee, plus its percentage of your sales, plus its fixed fee on every order. The figures assume UK cards, each platform’s own card payments, no apps, no domain and no VAT on fees. Whether the vendors’ listed prices include VAT is not stated on their pages.

At £30 an order, Shopify Grow costs less than Basic once sales pass £10,000 a month. Below that, Basic is cheaper. Fees rise for cards from abroad: Shopify Basic charges 3.1% + 25p and Stripe 3.15% + 20p on international cards. Shopify’s trial is 3 days, then £1 a month for 3 months.

Is Etsy cheaper than Shopify?

Etsy’s 6.5% transaction fee is higher than the card fees in the calculator, which run from 1.4% to 2%, but Etsy brings its own buyers. The 6.5% applies to the sale price, postage and gift wrap included. Etsy also charges a listing fee, $0.20 on its page. I could not verify its payment processing fee, so I left Etsy out of the calculator and the real total is likely higher than 6.5%.

A standalone shop does not bring buyers with it. You have to send them yourself.

What rules apply when I sell online?

Buyers can cancel within 14 days of receiving the goods and have another 14 days to send them back, and you must refund within 14 days of getting them. If you do not tell buyers about this right, they can cancel up to 12 months later, according to GOV.UK.

You must register for VAT when your taxable turnover passes £90,000, and the trading allowance lets you earn up to £1,000 from trading without reporting it. If you ship to the EU or Northern Ireland, check the rules there before you start.

Which should I choose?

Start on Stripe Payment Links, Square or Etsy while you are under about 50 orders a month, and move to a full platform when you need one. The 50 is my rule of thumb, not a break-even point: on fees alone, Stripe stays cheaper than Shopify Basic at every level above.