Every "best ecommerce platform" list ranks the same names by the same star ratings, and almost none of them answer the only question that matters: what will this platform cost my shop, at my size, per month? So that's the whole article. Seven platforms, three realistic shop sizes, every number from the vendor's own UK pricing page checked on 21 July 2026 — and a disclosure up front: we build Orbit, one of the seven. The arithmetic is reproducible either way.
Why the sticker price is the wrong number
A £5,000-a-month shop pays its platform £19–£35 a month — and pays £85–£100 a month in card processing fees. Once a store is even modestly successful, payment processing dwarfs the subscription, which is why platforms advertise the plan price in 72-point type and publish the card rates in a table three scrolls down. The true monthly cost is four lines, not one:
Plan + card fees + platform fees + the add-ons you'll actually need. Miss any of the last three and the comparison is fiction.
The assumptions, stated plainly
Three shop sizes: £30,000, £100,000 and £300,000 a year in sales (£2,500, £8,333 and £25,000 a month), all at a £40 average order — so roughly 63, 208 and 625 orders a month. Annual-billing plan prices where offered, list prices not promos, each platform's own published UK card rate (or Stripe's 1.5% + 20p where the platform uses third-party processing). ShopWired, Bluepark and Wix quote plans excluding VAT — if you're not VAT-registered, add 20% to their plan line. Your shop will differ; the point is that every number below is one you can recalculate.
£30,000 a year: everything costs about the same
| Platform | Plan | Card fees | Total/mo | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orbit (Solo, yearly) | £19 | ~£66 | ~£85 | 1 staff account on Solo |
| Shopify (Basic, yearly) | £19 | ~£66 | ~£85 | No staff accounts at all on Basic |
| Wix (Core, annual upfront) | £16 + VAT | ~£65 | ~£81 | Year paid in full, up front |
| Squarespace (Core, yearly) | £17 | ~£66 | ~£83 | Basic tier adds 2% platform fee — skip it |
| ShopWired (Essentials, 1-yr) | £31.46 + VAT | ~£60 | ~£92 | £50k/year turnover cap on this plan |
| Bluepark (Retail) | £29.99 + VAT | ~£50 (Stripe) | ~£80 | 500 products, 500MB storage |
| WooCommerce (managed hosting) | £10–£25 | ~£53 | ~£65–£80 | Plus extensions, plus your maintenance hours |
Read that table honestly and the conclusion is: at £30k a year, the platform choice is not a cost decision. Everything lands within £25 of everything else. Choose at this size on fit — the builder, the features you'll grow into, who answers support — not on a £5 note.
£100,000 a year: the traps start charging
This is the size where the four hidden lines diverge. A £100k shop typically has a second person who needs a login, sells something recurring, and wants cart recovery running — so the honest comparison prices those in.
| Platform | Plan | Card fees | Add-ons needed | Total/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orbit (Team, yearly) | £64 | ~£194 | None — subscriptions, carts, gift cards in plan | ~£258 |
| Shopify (Grow, yearly) | £49 | ~£194 | Subscriptions app ~£78/mo + per-order fees | ~£321 |
| Squarespace (Plus, yearly) | £29 | ~£194 | Memberships/digital fee 1% where used | ~£223 |
| Wix (Business, annual upfront) | £25 + VAT | ~£217 | Flat 2.1% + 20p processing at every tier | ~£242 |
| ShopWired (Advanced, 1-yr) | £71.96 + VAT | ~£200 | Forced off Essentials by the £50k cap | ~£272 |
| Bluepark (Business) | £44.99 + VAT | ~£167 (Stripe) | 2,000-product cap; 1GB storage | ~£212 |
| WooCommerce | £25 | ~£177 | Subscriptions £213/yr + maintenance/retainer £50–£200/mo | ~£270–£420 |
Three honest observations. Squarespace Plus and Bluepark Business are the cheapest raw totals here — genuinely, and if their feature sets and caps fit your shop, they're good value. Shopify's line moves most when the app bill arrives: the £49 plan is competitive; the £127 plan-plus-subscriptions-app is not, and that's before other apps. And WooCommerce's range is the widest because the biggest line — maintenance — depends entirely on whether your evenings are free.
£300,000 a year: caps, tiers and the exit doors
| Platform | Plan | Card fees | Total/mo | What forced the tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orbit (Team, yearly) | £64 | ~£581 | ~£645 | Nothing — Team has no turnover or product cap |
| Shopify (Grow, yearly) | £49 | ~£581 | ~£630 + apps | Apps still billed on top; Advanced £259 if you need 15 seats |
| Squarespace (Advanced, yearly) | £79 | ~£531 | ~£610 | Lowest card rate sits on the top tier |
| Wix (Business, annual upfront) | £25 + VAT | ~£650 | ~£675 | Flat 2.1% rate never improves with scale |
| ShopWired (Premium, 1-yr) | £134.96 + VAT | ~£600 | ~£735 | £200k cap pushed you off Advanced |
| Bluepark (Enterprise) | £64.99 + VAT | ~£500 (Stripe) | ~£565 | Product cap pushed you up; 2GB storage now pinching |
| WooCommerce | £25–£42 | ~£531 | ~£560–£760 | Maintenance stakes rise with every order |
At this size the pattern is visible: platforms with percentage-shaped pricing (Wix's flat 2.1%, ShopWired's turnover tiers) get more expensive precisely because you succeeded, while flat-plan platforms pull ahead. It's also the size where a card-rate difference of 0.2 percentage points is worth £50 a month — check the rate table before the feature table.
So which is "best"?
Best if you want everything in the plan and UK pricing: Orbit — the £64 Team plan carries subscriptions, carts, gift cards, 10 staff and no product cap, and the totals above stay flat as you grow. (Our platform; check us against the table like everyone else — the vs Shopify, vs WooCommerce and vs BigCommerce pages go deeper.) Best raw price for a compact catalogue: Bluepark, if the product and storage caps genuinely fit. Best if content is the business and the shop is the sideline: Squarespace Core/Plus. Best app ecosystem, costed honestly: Shopify — just price the apps as part of the plan, because they are. Best for owners who enjoy the stack: WooCommerce, priced with your hours on the invoice. The longer version of that reasoning is in our UK Shopify alternatives guide.
Questions worth asking before you pick
What does an ecommerce platform actually cost per month in the UK?
For a shop doing £30k a year: £65–£92 a month all-in on any mainstream platform. At £100k: £210–£320 depending on apps and caps. At £300k: £560–£735. In every case, card processing is the biggest line — the subscription is the small print.
Which platform has the lowest card fees in the UK?
Published UK online rates cluster tightly: 1.5–2% + 20–25p from Shopify, Orbit, Squarespace and WooPayments, with Wix higher at a flat 2.1% + 20p. The bigger swing is the surcharge for using a third-party gateway (0.6–2% on Shopify) and whether the rate improves as your plan grows (it doesn't on Wix).
Is a free platform ever the cheapest option?
WooCommerce is the only serious "free" contender, and it's the cheapest only when your time is genuinely spare. Hosting, extension renewals and maintenance put a real £65–£420 monthly range on it — the width of that range is your own hourly rate.
Should VAT change which platform I pick?
If you're not VAT-registered, the "+VAT" platforms (ShopWired, Bluepark, Wix, EKM) cost 20% more than their pricing pages suggest, which reorders the tables above. If you are registered, you reclaim it and the tables stand.