Shopify alternative: The Merchant Engine compared
Shopify is the default choice for a merchant who wants to sell online. It is hosted, so there is no server to run, and the merchant pays a monthly plan. The Merchant Engine is a different kind of product: software a developer installs on a server they or their client control, with all of the source in one repository. If you are the merchant and you want to start today, use Shopify. If you build stores for clients and want the backend to be yours, the rows below are written for you.
What Shopify does better
Shopify has things this project will not match for a long time: millions of businesses on it, an app store, its own payment service, and a company whose job is keeping the platform up. A merchant gets all of that for a monthly fee and never touches a server. Where this engine is behind, said plainly because the rows below have no place for it: v1.0.0, released on 2026-10-27, is its first public release. Stripe is its only card provider so far. Its admin interface is in English and is not mirrored for right-to-left languages, so a merchant who works in Arabic reads an English dashboard.
Row by row
Every claim about Shopify was read from its own documentation on 2026-10-29 and carries the page it came from. Every claim about The Merchant Engine links the documentation page that proves it. If a row is wrong, it is a bug: write to badii@badii.studio and it gets corrected.
| Criterion | Shopify | The Merchant Engine |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A hosted commerce platform for selling online and in person, paid for with a monthly plan. “Shopify is a complete commerce platform to sell online or in person” Source: shopify.com | A self-hosted ecommerce platform: a REST API, an admin dashboard and a server-rendered storefront, installed together on your own server with one command. Read the page that proves it |
| Who it is for | Merchants of every size. Developers take part by building themes and apps for those merchants, or custom storefronts on Shopify's APIs. “whether you're running a side hustle, retail shop, or global brand” Source: shopify.com | The developer or agency that builds and runs stores for merchants, free under MIT. The merchant is the person the developer hands the admin to. Badii Boutar, who builds it, also builds and runs stores on it as Badii Studio. Read the page that proves it |
| Code and hosting | Hosted only. Even a headless build keeps the commerce backend on Shopify: you write the frontend and call Shopify's APIs. The developer documentation read on this date offers no self-hosted edition and no platform source. “You build the frontend, and Shopify's APIs handle the commerce underneath.” Source: shopify.dev | You hold the source and run it on your own server or your client’s. Nothing about the store depends on a vendor staying online. Read the page that proves it |
| What a developer can change | A Storefront API, GraphQL only, plus an app platform. The checkout is where the limit sits: the checkout.liquid layout is for Shopify Plus merchants only, and it is no longer supported on the information, shipping and payment steps. “checkout.liquid is now unsupported for the Information, Shipping, and Payment checkout steps.” Source: shopify.dev | Every line. The API, the admin and the storefront are one repository you install from source, with recipes for adding an endpoint, a screen, a settings key, a payment provider or a storefront page. Read the page that proves it |
| Storefront customization | Themes are written in Liquid, Shopify's own template language. A fully custom frontend is possible through the headless route in the row above. “Liquid is a template language created by Shopify.” Source: shopify.dev | Two ways, and both are yours: brand the shipped storefront from the admin (palette, fonts, logo, locales, money), or edit its Angular source, or replace it entirely against the documented REST contract. Read the page that proves it |
| What it costs to run | Monthly plans. Paid yearly, the pricing page showed Basic at $29 a month, Grow at $79, Advanced at $299 and Plus from $2,300, in USD; paying month to month costs more. Using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a third-party transaction fee, from 2% on Basic down to 0.2% on Plus. “Third-party transaction fees may apply when you use a third-party payment provider (instead of Shopify Payments).” Source: shopify.com | Free under MIT, plus your own hosting. No subscription, no transaction fee, no percentage of sales, no license fee. Read the page that proves it |
| Data portability | Products export to a CSV file from the admin, but the product images are left out of that file. “When you export your products, the images associated with each product aren't included in the CSV file.” Source: help.shopify.com | The database is yours: PostgreSQL on your box, dumped nightly by the installer’s own timer, restorable with a documented procedure. There is nothing to export from because nothing left. Read the page that proves it |
| Content languages | A store can publish several languages, each on its own URLs, translated by hand or with AI in the Translate & Adapt app, by CSV, or with third-party apps. The languages page read on this date does not mention right-to-left or Arabic. “Each published language gets its own URLs, and your store displays the translated version when translations exist.” Source: help.shopify.com | French, English and Arabic catalogues ship. A store enables the ones it serves and picks a default; every user-facing field holds one value per locale in one database. Read the page that proves it |
| Payments and cash on delivery | Shopify Payments, or a third-party provider with the fee in the cost row. Cash on delivery is a manual payment method, and the same help page says manual payments carry no third-party transaction fee. “Common types of manual payments include cash on delivery (COD), money orders, and bank transfers.” Source: help.shopify.com | Cash on delivery, manual bank transfer and gift cards ship and work, with no cap and no fee taken by anyone. Card payment goes through Stripe today, and a local provider is written against the payment provider recipe. Read the page that proves it |
| Apps and marketplace | The Shopify App Store. A developer pays a one-time $19 registration fee per Partner account to publish there, keeps all of the first $1,000,000 in lifetime app revenue, and keeps 85% above that. “You keep 100% of your first $1,000,000 USD in lifetime gross app revenue, and 85% of earnings above that.” Source: shopify.dev | None, by design. There is no app store to publish to and no revenue share, because an integration is code you add to a repository you already own. Read the page that proves it |
Which one to pick
Pick Shopify when
- You are the merchant, and you want to start selling without running a server.
- You need a card provider other than Stripe on day one. This engine ships Stripe only so far.
- You would rather install an app than write code when the store needs something new.
- You want someone else to own uptime, security patches and upgrades.
Pick The Merchant Engine when
- You build stores for clients and want one stack you own instead of a plan per store.
- You need to rewrite the checkout flow in code, on a server you own.
- The store's data has to stay on a server you or your client control.
- You want to read and change the backend, not only call it.
Questions
Is The Merchant Engine a free Shopify alternative?
The software is free under the MIT license, with no subscription and no transaction fee. You still pay for the server it runs on, and you spend your own time running it. A Shopify plan includes the hosting and the upkeep, and that is a large part of what the monthly price buys.
Can I move a Shopify store to it?
There is no Shopify import tool in v1.0.0. Products come out of Shopify as a CSV without their images, so a move means writing a script that loads them through the admin API and fetches the images separately. Scope that work before you promise a client a migration.
Does it do cash on delivery like Shopify?
Yes. Cash on delivery ships as a payment method the store owner switches on, and shoppers see its name in their own language. On Shopify, cash on delivery is a manual payment method, and Shopify's help centre says manual payments carry no third-party transaction fee.
Can I use it as a headless backend, the way people use Shopify?
Yes. The storefront that ships with it is one client of the same REST API anyone can call, and the docs list what any other client has to do. The difference is where the backend lives. With Shopify it stays on Shopify. Here it runs on your server, and you can change it.
See it for yourself
The fastest check on any row above is to run the thing: install it locally in one command, or read what an install puts on a box. The other comparisons are on the compare index.
Last updated . Every claim on this page is read from a published source and cited beside it.