Growth & Strategy
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
When a client called me in panic because Shopify was eating 3% of their gross revenue in fees alone, I realized something important: most e-commerce business owners have no idea what they're actually paying for their platform.
This wasn't just about transaction fees. This was about the compound effect of all the costs that add up once you start scaling - subscription costs, app dependencies, payment gateway restrictions, and those sneaky per-transaction charges that seem small until you're processing thousands of orders monthly.
Over the past few years, I've migrated more than a dozen e-commerce stores from high-fee platforms to more cost-effective solutions. The results? Some clients saved over $40,000 annually just by switching platforms. Others discovered they were paying for features they didn't even use.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why the "cheapest" platform often becomes the most expensive
The hidden fee structures that platform comparison charts never show
My systematic approach to calculating total cost of ownership
Which platforms actually deliver the lowest fees for different business models
Real migration case studies with before/after cost breakdowns
Whether you're choosing your first platform or considering a switch, this guide will save you thousands in unnecessary fees and help you make a decision based on actual costs, not marketing promises.
The Conventional View
What every platform comparison tells you
If you've spent any time researching e-commerce platforms, you've probably seen the same advice repeated everywhere: "Choose Shopify for ease of use, WooCommerce for flexibility, BigCommerce for built-in features." Most comparison guides focus on features and monthly subscription costs, treating fees as an afterthought.
The standard wisdom suggests:
Shopify - Easy to use but charges 2.4-2.9% + $0.30 transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments
WooCommerce - Free platform but requires hosting and technical setup
BigCommerce - No transaction fees but higher monthly costs
Squarespace - Beautiful designs but limited e-commerce features
Industry experts typically recommend evaluating platforms based on your "business size" - small businesses should start cheap and upgrade later. They'll show you clean comparison charts with monthly fees and transaction percentages, making it seem like a simple math problem.
The problem? These comparisons ignore the real-world costs that only emerge once you start selling. They don't account for the mandatory apps you'll need, the payment gateway restrictions, or how fee structures change as you scale. Most importantly, they assume all transactions are equal - but a business selling $50 items faces completely different economics than one selling $500 products.
This conventional approach leads to costly mistakes that become expensive to fix later. I've seen too many businesses choose a platform based on a misleading comparison chart, only to discover their true costs months later when switching becomes complicated and expensive.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
Three years ago, I was working with an e-commerce client who had built their entire business on Shopify. They were processing about $2.5 million annually in sales, which sounds like a success story. But when we dug into their numbers, something shocking emerged: they were paying over $65,000 per year just in platform-related fees.
This wasn't a luxury goods business with high margins. They sold outdoor equipment with average order values around $180 and relatively thin margins. Every percentage point mattered, yet their platform costs were eating nearly 3% of their gross revenue.
The breakdown was brutal:
$3,600 annually in Shopify subscription fees (Advanced plan)
$47,000+ in transaction fees (they couldn't use Shopify Payments due to their industry)
$14,400 in essential app subscriptions for inventory management, reviews, and email marketing
When they came to me, they weren't asking about platform costs. They wanted help with conversion optimization. But during my audit, I noticed their fees were higher than their entire marketing budget. They were spending more on platform fees than on acquiring customers.
My first instinct was to optimize what they had - maybe negotiate better rates or find cheaper app alternatives. I spent weeks researching Shopify app alternatives and trying to reduce their monthly costs. We managed to cut about $200 monthly from app subscriptions, which felt like a win.
But then I made a discovery that changed everything. While analyzing their customer data, I realized their business model was perfect for a different platform entirely. They had high repeat purchase rates, needed robust inventory management across multiple locations, and their product catalog was relatively stable. Most importantly, their average order value and transaction volume meant transaction fees were killing them.
That's when I started questioning whether Shopify was the right choice at all.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
I decided to approach this systematically. Instead of just looking for "cheaper" alternatives, I built a comprehensive cost analysis framework that would work for any e-commerce business.
Step 1: Total Cost of Ownership Analysis
First, I mapped out every single cost associated with their current setup:
Monthly subscription fees
Transaction fees (including payment gateway costs)
Essential app subscriptions
Theme costs and customization
Integration and migration costs
Hidden costs like additional user licenses, API limits, and overage fees
Then I projected these costs over 3 years, factoring in their expected growth. The numbers were eye-opening. At their current growth rate, platform costs would exceed $200,000 over three years.
Step 2: Platform Research with Real-World Testing
I researched every major platform, but instead of relying on marketing materials, I set up test stores on five different platforms: BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento Commerce, and two lesser-known alternatives. I imported a subset of their products and tested the actual workflows their team would use daily.
Step 3: The Migration Strategy
Based on my analysis, BigCommerce emerged as the clear winner for their specific situation. Here's why: no transaction fees (saving $47,000 annually), built-in features that eliminated 60% of their app dependencies, and better bulk pricing for their volume.
The migration process took 6 weeks:
Week 1-2: Data export and cleanup
Week 3-4: Store setup and customization
Week 5: Testing and training
Week 6: Go-live and monitoring
I also built them a custom dashboard to track their true platform costs monthly, including all fees, apps, and third-party services. This became crucial for preventing cost creep over time.
Cost Analysis
A systematic approach to calculating total platform costs beyond monthly fees
Real-World Testing
Setting up test stores to evaluate actual workflow efficiency and hidden limitations
Migration Strategy
6-week process for switching platforms without losing sales or SEO rankings
Ongoing Monitoring
Monthly cost tracking system to prevent fee creep and optimize platform spend
The results exceeded even my optimistic projections. In the first year after migration:
Direct cost savings:
$47,000 saved on transaction fees (BigCommerce has no transaction fees)
$8,400 saved on app subscriptions (built-in features replaced 6 paid apps)
$1,800 saved on monthly subscription costs
Total annual savings: $57,200
But the indirect benefits were just as valuable. The new platform's built-in inventory management improved their operational efficiency. Customer checkout experience improved, leading to a 0.8% increase in conversion rate. Most importantly, they could reinvest those savings into marketing and inventory, fueling faster growth.
Over the following two years, I used this same framework to migrate 11 more e-commerce stores. The average savings was $23,000 annually per store, though results varied significantly based on business model and transaction volume.
The most dramatic case was a subscription box company that saved $78,000 annually by switching from Shopify to a specialized subscription commerce platform. The least dramatic was a low-volume luxury goods store that only saved $3,600 annually - but even that represented a 40% reduction in platform costs.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After conducting dozens of platform evaluations and migrations, here are the key lessons I've learned about e-commerce platform fees:
Transaction volume matters more than business size. A high-volume business selling $20 products faces different economics than a low-volume business selling $2,000 products, even if their revenue is similar.
"Free" platforms are often the most expensive. WooCommerce might be free, but hosting, security, maintenance, and required plugins can cost more than a paid platform's total fees.
App dependency is a hidden cost multiplier. If your platform requires expensive apps for basic functionality, your true costs are much higher than advertised.
Payment gateway restrictions are profit killers. Some platforms force you to use their payment processor or charge extra fees for alternatives.
Migration costs are real but recoverable. Most businesses recover migration costs within 6-12 months through fee savings.
One-size-fits-all advice is dangerous. The "best" platform depends entirely on your specific business model, transaction patterns, and growth projections.
Regular cost audits prevent fee creep. Platform costs tend to increase over time through app additions, plan upgrades, and fee increases.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies offering e-commerce functionality:
Implement transparent fee calculators showing total cost of ownership
Focus on built-in features rather than app marketplace dependency
Offer volume-based pricing that scales with customer success
For your Ecommerce store
For E-commerce store owners:
Calculate 3-year total costs including all fees and apps before choosing a platform
Test payment gateway options and restrictions before committing
Audit platform costs quarterly to prevent unnecessary fee accumulation