Free ecommerce website builders? Check online store platform with no fees!
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13 minutes 22 seconds
There's a moment every new entrepreneur remembers. You've found the product. You've nailed the pricing. You've made your first sale — and then you check the payout. The platform took its cut. The payment processor took its cut. And suddenly, that $50 sale netted you $44.
Welcome to the hidden tax of selling online.
In a U.S. e-commerce market projected to surpass $1.3 trillion in 2025 — with nearly 288 million Americans shopping online by 2026 — the opportunity to build a business online has never been bigger. But the platforms built to help you sell online are quietly siphoning your margins through layers of transaction fees, platform commissions, and ongoing fees that compound with every order.
This guide is for the entrepreneur who's done with that math. We'll break down exactly what those fees look like across every major ecommerce platform, compare the best free e-commerce website builders on the market, and show you how to launch a store that actually lets you keep what you earn — starting with a free plan and scaling without paying extra for the privilege of making a sale.
The Fee Problem: Why Transaction Fees Are Quietly Killing Small Ecommerce Businesses
Let's start with a number that should make every store owner uncomfortable.
If you run an online store doing $10,000 per month in revenue — a realistic milestone for a growing ecommerce store — here's what different platforms will cost you on top of standard credit card processing:
On Shopify's Basic plan, you'll pay a 2% platform fee on every transaction processed outside of Shopify Payments. That's $200 per month — $2,400 per year — gone before you even count your credit card processing costs of 2.9% + 30¢ per sale. On Square Online's free plan, you'll pay 3.3% + 30¢ per online transaction. On Squarespace's entry-level Business plan, there's a 3% fee on every order.
These aren't payment processing fees. Those are separate. These are extra transaction fees the platform charges you simply for using their software to sell. It's a commission on your success, baked into the fine print.
And here's the thing about commissions: they scale with your revenue. The more successful you become, the more you pay. A store doing $100,000 a year on Shopify Basic with a third-party gateway loses $2,000 annually just in platform commissions — money that could fund an entire year of ad spend, a product photoshoot, or a serious email marketing campaign.
For small businesses and side hustlers just starting out, this math is even more painful. When your margins are thin and every dollar matters, watching a percentage disappear from each sale isn't just frustrating — it can be the difference between a sustainable online business and an expensive hobby.
What "No Transaction Fees" Actually Means (And What It Doesn't)
Before we go further, let's clear up a confusion that trips up nearly every first-time ecommerce entrepreneur.
There are two completely different types of fees in online selling, and the industry loves to blur the line between them.
Payment processing fees are what companies like Stripe (2.9% + 30¢ per transaction in the U.S.) or PayPal charge to move money from your customer's credit card to your bank account. These are the cost of accepting payments, the same way a card terminal in a physical store costs money. Every business pays them. They're unavoidable, industry-standard, and completely separate from your website builder or ecommerce platform.
Platform transaction fees (or commissions) are a separate percentage your ecommerce platform charges on top of payment processing, simply for hosting your store. This is the fee that varies wildly across platforms — and the one you can absolutely eliminate by choosing the right ecommerce solution.
When we talk about an "online store without transaction fees," we mean the second kind. No platform taking a cut from your sales. You pay your payment processor, you pay your monthly fee for hosting, and the rest is yours.
Think of it this way: payment processing is like paying rent for your retail space. A platform commission is like giving your landlord a percentage of every sale at the register. The first is a normal business cost. The second is a deal-breaker.
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The Real Cost of Every Major Ecommerce Platform in 2026
Now let's put actual numbers side by side — because the pricing pages of most ecommerce website builders are designed to make comparison as difficult as possible. We tested each of these platforms as of early 2026.
Shopify: The Market Leader With the Biggest Fine Print
Shopify is the default recommendation in nearly every "best ecommerce platform" list, and for good reason — its app ecosystem is enormous, its checkout is rock-solid, and its brand recognition gives customers confidence. But the cost structure is layered.
Plans start at $39 per month for Basic. If you use Shopify Payments (their built-in processor), you'll pay 2.9% + 30¢ per online sale with no additional platform fee. But if you prefer Stripe, PayPal, or any third-party gateway, Shopify adds a 2% surcharge on the Basic plan (1% on Grow at $105/month, 0.6% on Advanced at $399/month). Paid themes run $100–$500. Most stores need 3–5 paid apps at $10–$50 each per month for functionality that competitors include natively.
There is no free plan — only a 3-day trial.
Bottom line: Shopify is powerful, but it's built for businesses already generating revenue. For someone just starting out, the monthly fee plus apps plus potential transaction fees add up fast.
Square Online: Free to Start, Expensive to Grow
Square Online is one of the few platforms that lets you launch a store for $0. The free plan includes unlimited products, Square POS integration, and basic store setup. It's genuinely impressive for a free tier.
The catch? The free plan charges 3.3% + 30¢ per online transaction — significantly higher than the industry standard 2.9% + 30¢. There's also mandatory Square branding, no custom domain, and very limited store design options. Paid plans ($29/month for Plus, $79/month for Premium) bring the processing rate down to 2.9% + 30¢ and unlock features like abandoned cart recovery and a custom domain.
Square Online shines for brick-and-mortar businesses with an existing Square POS setup. But for online-first sellers, the design limitations and weak SEO tools make it hard to build a brand.
Bottom line: A solid free store for testing an idea, but the higher transaction fees and design constraints mean you'll need to upgrade to a paid plan quickly if you're serious about online selling.
Wix: Beautiful Design, Premium Price Tag for Ecommerce
Wix is a genuinely excellent website builder. Its 900+ templates, AI-powered design tools, and drag-and-drop editor make it one of the easiest platforms to create a full website that looks professional.
But here's what most people miss: Wix's free plan and even its Light plan ($17/month) don't support ecommerce at all. To accept payments and sell products, you need at least the Business plan at $36 per month. Wix doesn't charge platform transaction fees on ecommerce plans — you'll only pay your payment processor (2.9% + 30¢ through Wix Payments). That's fair. But the $36/month minimum for any ecommerce functionality means Wix is one of the more expensive options for someone just starting to sell online.
Advanced features like subscriptions, multi-currency support, and advanced analytics are locked behind Business Elite at $159/month.
Bottom line: Zero platform commissions is great, but the high barrier to entry for ecommerce (no free ecommerce plan, $36/month minimum) makes it less accessible for beginners.
WordPress + WooCommerce: The DIY Powerhouse
WooCommerce deserves its reputation as the most flexible ecommerce solution on the market. It's free, open-source, charges zero transaction fees, and can be extended with thousands of plugins to do practically anything.
The trade-off is complexity. WooCommerce requires WordPress hosting ($6.95+/month on Bluehost or similar), a domain (~$12/year), an SSL certificate (often included with hosting), and hands-on management of updates, security patches, and plugin compatibility. Most WooCommerce stores need 5–10 plugins, many of them paid ($49–$299/year each). And when something breaks — a plugin conflict, a failed update, a security vulnerability — you're the one fixing it.
For a developer or someone with technical skills, WooCommerce is unbeatable. For a first-time store builder who wants to add products and start selling this weekend? It's a steep mountain.
Bottom line: Maximum control, zero commissions, but requires technical skill and ongoing maintenance. Not for the "I just want to sell my products" crowd.
WebWave: The Best Value for a Commission-Free Ecommerce Store
Here's where the comparison gets interesting.
WebWave takes a fundamentally different approach. It starts with a free plan that lets you build and test your store using a pixel-perfect drag-and-drop website builder — think Figma or Photoshop-level design freedom, not rigid section-based grids. You can explore the platform, design your store, and get familiar with the tools before spending a cent.
When you're ready to go live with a custom domain and start selling, the pricing is refreshingly straightforward:
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Starter — $2,5/month: A one-page site with a custom domain. Ideal for a focused landing page or single-product storefront template.
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Pro — $5/month: Multi-page websites with blog functionality. Perfect for building a full website with content marketing and SEO built in.
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Business — $7/month: Full ecommerce functionality — add products, manage inventory, accept payments, and sell online. Zero platform transaction fees. Ever.
All premium plans include hosting and a free domain for the first year, SSL certificate, SEO tools, Google submission, and priority support. Prices are for annual billing; monthly or yearly options are available (month-to-month rates are higher).
Let's put that in perspective. For the same $39/month you'd spend on Shopify's Basic plan, you could run a WebWave Business plan for over three months. And unlike Shopify, WebWave will never charge you a commission on your sales — not at $1,000/month in revenue, not at $100,000.
What makes WebWave particularly compelling for the U.S. and UK market is its AI-powered store setup. The platform can generate a complete, professional-looking ecommerce website in roughly three minutes based on your business description. You can then customize every pixel of it — move elements freely, adjust layouts for desktop and mobile, and make the store look exactly like your brand, not like a cookie-cutter storefront template everyone else is using.
The built-in SEO tools are another standout. While Square Online's blog and SEO capabilities are basic at best, and Shopify requires apps for advanced SEO, WebWave includes an SEO Analyzer, Keyword Monitoring, and AI-powered SEO Writer natively. For store owners who understand that organic traffic from Google is the most sustainable (and cheapest) way to sell online, this is a significant edge.
Bottom line: The best balance of ease of use, design freedom, and cost on the market. You can try everything for free, upgrade to a paid plan only when ready, and never worry about platform commissions eating into your profit.
The Honest Comparison Table
How to Launch an Online Store With WebWave: Step by Step
Here's what the actual process looks like, start to finish.
Step 1: Sign up and let AI do the heavy lifting. Create a free account — no credit card required. You can either pick from ecommerce-ready templates or describe your business to the AI builder, which will generate a complete, multi-page site with products, navigation, and design in about three minutes. It's a genuine time-saver, especially if you're not a designer.
Step 2: Add your products and set up your store. Switch to the ecommerce dashboard and add products — names, prices, descriptions, images, categories. WebWave supports physical products, digital downloads, and services from the same store. Don't aim for perfection on day one; you can refine descriptions and images as you go.
Step 3: Configure payments and shipping. Connect your payment gateway (Stripe is integrated natively — widely used across the U.S. and UK). Set up your shipping options and rates. If you sell digital products, delivery is automatic — customers get download links immediately after purchase.
Step 4: Set up your legal pages. In the U.S., you'll need a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service at minimum. If you sell to UK/EU customers, GDPR compliance matters. If you sell to California residents, CCPA is relevant. WebWave gives you the framework; consult a legal template or attorney for the specifics.
Step 5: Publish, test, and go live. Preview your site on desktop, tablet, and mobile. Run a test order through the full checkout. Check that confirmation emails fire correctly. Then hit publish. Your online shop is live.
The entire process — from signing up to a publishable store — can be done in an afternoon. If you're using the AI builder and have your product photos ready, you can realistically be set up in under an hour.
Getting Your First Customers: Marketing an Online Store Without a Huge Budget
Having a beautiful ecommerce website means nothing if nobody visits it. Here's where the zero-commission model pays for itself.
SEO is your best long-term investment. In the U.S., 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. Every product description, blog post, and category page is an opportunity to rank for terms your customers are already searching. WebWave's native SEO tools — keyword monitoring, SEO analyzer, and AI-powered content writer — let you optimize without bolting on expensive third-party apps. This is the kind of sustainable, compounding traffic that paid ads can't replicate.
Reinvest your savings into paid acquisition. Without platform commissions eating into your profit, you have more headroom for Facebook Ads, Google Shopping, or TikTok campaigns. A store owner saving $200/month on Shopify platform fees can redirect that into 40–50 additional ad clicks per day at typical e-commerce CPCs — potentially hundreds of extra visitors monthly.
Use email marketing from day one. Build a subscriber list with a pop-up or lead magnet on your site. Email remains the highest-ROI marketing channel in the U.S., averaging $36 returned for every $1 spent. Your email list is an asset you own — unlike followers on social media, which can vanish overnight with an algorithm change.
Leverage social media as a funnel, not a storefront. Post on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest — but always direct people back to your online store. Social platforms are for discovery. Your website is for conversion. When someone lands on your ecommerce website, they see your brand, your story, your products — without marketplace noise or competitor ads in the sidebar.
Build trust signals early. Clear return policies, visible customer reviews, an SSL certificate, and a professional store design matter enormously. U.S. and UK consumers are sophisticated online shoppers. A polished ecommerce store on your own custom domain signals legitimacy in a way that a free Square Online store with branding and a generic URL simply cannot.
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The Costs You Should Plan For (That Aren't Commissions)
Let's be honest about the real costs of running an ecommerce store, even on a zero-commission platform:
Payment processing fees are unavoidable. Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ per online transaction in the U.S. (1.4% + 20p + VAT in the UK for European cards). This is the cost of doing business — every platform, every store, everywhere.
Your domain name runs about $10–$15/year for a .com — though WebWave includes a free domain for the first year on all premium plans, so this cost kicks in from year two.
A monthly fee for your platform is the price of having a professional, hosted ecommerce store. At $7/month for WebWave's Business plan, it's a fraction of what Shopify ($39+) or Wix ($36+) charge monthly, and includes hosting, SSL, SEO tools, and email — all bundled.
Marketing is optional but powerful. You can start with zero ad budget by focusing on SEO and organic social media. When you're ready to invest, even $100–$300/month in targeted Google or Meta ads can meaningfully accelerate growth.
The critical distinction: these are all business expenses you control and budget for. A platform commission is a variable cost that grows with your success and is entirely outside your control. That's the difference between running a business and renting one.
Who Should Build Their Ecommerce Website With WebWave?
Not every tool is right for every business. Here's where WebWave offers the best value:
First-time sellers testing an idea. The free plan lets you build and design your entire store before committing a single dollar. This is genuinely rare — most platforms either don't offer free ecommerce (Wix, Shopify) or hobble the free tier with higher processing fees and branding (Square Online).
Digital product creators. Ebooks, courses, templates, printables, design assets — the U.S. digital product market is massive. With no shipping costs and zero platform commission, your margins are as high as they'll ever be.
Small brands escaping marketplace fees. Etsy charges 6.5% per transaction plus listing fees. Amazon takes 8–15% referral fees. If you've built an audience and want to sell your products on your own terms, migrating to your own online store is the single biggest thing you can do for your margins.
Freelancers and creatives who want design control. If you've ever felt trapped by Shopify's rigid theme system or Wix's grid-based editor, WebWave's pixel-perfect canvas is a revelation. Move anything anywhere. Design your store the way you see it in your head — not the way a template dictates.
Budget-conscious entrepreneurs. At $7/month for a full online store with zero commissions, a free domain for the first year, built-in SEO tools, and AI-powered site builder, WebWave is the best value ecommerce solution we've found. You'd spend more on a single Shopify app.
Start Selling. Stop Paying Commissions.
The ecommerce landscape in 2026 is enormous, competitive, and full of platforms eager to take a cut of your revenue. But it doesn't have to work that way.
You can launch an online store that looks professional, ranks in search engines, handles payments securely, and keeps 100% of your sales revenue (minus standard processing). You can do it without writing code, without hiring a developer, and without gambling $39/month on a platform before you've made a single sale.
WebWave lets you start for free, build at your own pace, and upgrade to a paid plan only when your business is ready. No platform commissions. No hidden fees. No surprises.
The only question left is what you're going to sell.
FAQ
What's the cheapest way to start an online store in 2026?
The cheapest way is to start with a platform that offers a free plan with ecommerce capabilities, then upgrade to a paid plan when you're ready to connect a custom domain and go professional. WebWave's Business plan at $7/month is among the most affordable full ecommerce solutions available — significantly less than Shopify ($39/month) or Wix Business ($36/month). You'll also pay standard payment processing fees (around 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction with Stripe), which are the same regardless of which platform you choose.
What's the difference between transaction fees and payment processing fees?
Payment processing fees (charged by Stripe, PayPal, or Square) cover the cost of transferring money from your customer to you — typically 2.9% + 30¢ in the U.S. Platform transaction fees are an additional charge your ecommerce platform levies on each sale. Shopify charges 0.5–2% extra if you use a third-party payment gateway. Square Online's free plan charges 3.3% + 30¢ total. WebWave charges 0% platform commission — you only pay your payment processor.
Is WooCommerce really free to run an online store?
The WooCommerce plugin itself is free, but running it requires WordPress hosting ($6.95–$30+/month), a domain name (~$12/year), SSL certificate (often included with hosting), and typically several paid plugins for essential features like advanced shipping, SEO, and security. Realistically, expect $15–$50+/month in total costs, plus the time investment of managing updates, backups, and troubleshooting. It's powerful but not simple.
Can I switch from Shopify or Etsy to my own online store?
Yes. Many sellers migrate from marketplace platforms to their own ecommerce website to escape escalating fees and gain control over their brand. The key is to bring your audience with you — start building an email list and social media following before you switch, so your customers know where to find you. WebWave's AI builder can help you set up a professional store quickly, minimizing the transition period.
Do I need a business license to sell online in the U.S.?
Requirements vary by state and locality. Many states allow sole proprietors to sell online without a formal business license, but you'll likely need a sales tax permit if your state collects sales tax. Consult your state's Secretary of State website or a local accountant for specifics. No ecommerce platform — including WebWave — requires a specific business structure to get started.
Can I sell both physical and digital products from the same online shop?
Yes. WebWave supports physical products (with customizable shipping options), digital downloads (with automatic delivery after purchase), and services — all from a single store and dashboard. This flexibility means you can start with digital products (low overhead, high margin) and expand to physical goods as your business grows.
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