Why Switch From Shopify? The True Cost of Shopify in India
If you are running a business in India or planning to launch an online store, Shopify's pricing model has a serious hidden cost problem:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
QIs Bagisto really free? What are the actual costs?
Bagisto itself is 100% free and open-source under the MIT/OSL license — there are no monthly platform fees, no per-transaction fees, and no seat limits. Your real costs are hosting (which can be as low as ₹0 on Oracle Cloud's Always Free tier or ₹500–₹1,500/month on a shared VPS), a domain name (₹700–₹1,500/year), and an SSL certificate (free via Let's Encrypt). Compare this to Shopify's ₹1,994–₹22,680/month — Bagisto can save an Indian business ₹2–25 lakh over five years.
QCan Bagisto handle GST billing and Indian tax compliance?
Yes. Bagisto has native support for Indian tax configurations including CGST, SGST, IGST, and cess. You can configure tax rates per product category, apply them based on customer state (inter-state vs intra-state), and generate GST-compliant invoices. This is built into the core platform — no additional plugins required for basic GST billing.
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Shopify Plan
Monthly Cost (INR)
Transaction Fee (non-Shopify Payments)
Annual Cost Estimate
Basic
₹1,994/mo
2.0% per transaction
~₹24,000/year
Shopify
₹7,447/mo
1.0% per transaction
~₹89,000/year
Advanced
₹22,680/mo
0.5% per transaction
~₹2,72,000/year
Bagisto (Self-Hosted)
₹0/month
0% platform fee
₹0/year
Important: Shopify Payments is not available in India. Indian merchants must use a third-party payment gateway (like Razorpay), which triggers the transaction fee surcharge on top of the Razorpay processing fee. That means you pay twice per sale.
Beyond the cost, Shopify owns your store data, limits your server-side customization, and locks you into their ecosystem. Bagisto gives you 100% ownership — your data, your server, your rules.
What Is Bagisto?
Bagisto is a free, open-source eCommerce platform built on Laravel (PHP) and Vue.js, maintained by the Webkul Software team. It is the most actively developed Laravel eCommerce framework in the world, with over 15,000 GitHub stars and a thriving global contributor community.
Why Bagisto Is the Best Free Shopify Alternative for India
Feature
Shopify
Bagisto (Open Source)
Platform Cost
₹1,994–₹22,680/month
₹0 forever
Transaction Fee
0.5%–2.0% (3rd party gateway)
0%
Data Ownership
Shopify's servers
Your server — 100%
GST / Indian Tax
Manual config / apps
Native INR + GST support
Payment Gateway
Limited (Shopify Payments N/A India)
Razorpay: UPI, Cards, Net Banking
Shipping / Logistics
3rd-party apps (paid)
Shiprocket integration built-in
POS System
Shopify POS (paid hardware)
Custom POS counter (built-in)
Mobile App
Shopify Mobile (admin only)
Full Flutter app (iOS + Android)
Source Code Access
None
Full Laravel + Vue.js source
Self-Hosted
No
Yes — any PHP host
Multi-Currency
Yes
Yes — native
Multi-Language
Yes
Yes — native
REST + GraphQL API
Limited
Full GraphQL API
Monthly Fee
₹1,994+
₹0
Author Experience & Credentials
Paban Bhuyan — Founder, Webotapp Academy (Est. 2009) 17+ years building and deploying PHP/Laravel eCommerce applications for clients across 50+ countries. Has set up and customized Bagisto stores for D2C brands, wholesalers, and pharmacy chains. Has migrated clients from Shopify to Bagisto and documented measurable cost savings exceeding ₹3–12 lakh per year per client.
The insights in this guide come from real production deployments — not documentation alone. Every command block has been tested on Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04 LTS servers with PHP 8.3 and MariaDB.
System Requirements
Before starting, confirm your development machine or server meets these requirements:
To set Indian Rupee as your store's default currency:
In your .env file:
APP_CURRENCY=INR
In Bagisto Admin:
Go to Settings → Currencies → Confirm INR has Symbol: ₹, Position: Left, Decimal: 2.
Go to Settings → Channels → Edit Default channel → Set Base Currency to Indian Rupee (INR).
Go to Settings → Exchange Rates → Set INR = 1.0000.
Apply the changes:
php artisan optimize:clear
Part 3: Razorpay Payment Gateway (UPI, Cards, Net Banking)
Razorpay is India's leading payment gateway supporting UPI (Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm), Credit/Debit Cards, and Net Banking — fully supported in Bagisto.
Admin → Shiprocket → Settings → Enter your Shiprocket Email and Password.
Admin → Shiprocket → Pickup Menu → Map your pickup location.
Admin → Shiprocket → Channel Menu → Map your Bagisto store channel ID.
After setup, every order under Sales → Orders shows Generate AWB, courier assignment, and a Download Label button.
Part 5: Built-In POS Counter (Physical Shop Checkout)
Bagisto's extensible package architecture lets you build a full Point of Sale system for walk-in customers, barcode product search, and thermal receipt printing — without any third-party plugin costs.
Critical: Never use 127.0.0.1 or localhost as the endpoint when testing on a real phone or Android emulator — use your local Wi-Fi IP (e.g., 192.168.x.x) or an ngrok tunnel (ngrok http 8000).
Step 4 — Run the App
flutter pub get
flutter run
Part 7: Production Server Deployment (Ubuntu + Nginx + HTTPS)
Deploy your Bagisto store on a production Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 LTS server with Nginx, PHP 8.3-FPM, and MariaDB.
Founder, Webotapp Academy | Full-Stack & eCommerce Expert
Founded Webotapp Academy in 2009 with 17+ years of expertise in Laravel/PHP eCommerce development, cloud deployments, and digital store migrations. Has personally migrated multiple Shopify stores to Bagisto, saving clients ₹3–12 lakh per year in platform fees. Author of hands-on installation and integration guides used by 5,000+ students and developers across India.
Founded 2009Pioneering IT Training
50+ CountriesGlobal Client Footprint
17+ YearsPHP & Laravel eCommerce
Q
Does Bagisto support UPI payments like Google Pay and PhonePe?
Yes. Through the Razorpay integration (covered in Part 3 of this guide), Bagisto supports all major UPI apps — Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, BHIM — as well as Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Net Banking, EMI, and Razorpay's Buy Now Pay Later options. Razorpay's processing fee (~2%) is standard and much lower than Shopify's combined gateway + platform fee structure.
QHow does Bagisto compare to WooCommerce as a free Shopify alternative?
Both are free and open-source, but they serve different stacks. WooCommerce runs on WordPress (PHP) and is best suited for content-heavy stores that also sell products. Bagisto is purpose-built for eCommerce on the Laravel framework — it has a cleaner architecture, better performance at scale, native REST + GraphQL APIs for mobile apps, and a dedicated POS system. For Indian developers comfortable with Laravel, Bagisto is the better long-term choice.
QCan I migrate my existing Shopify store to Bagisto?
Yes. Shopify allows you to export your products, customers, and orders as CSV files. Bagisto provides import tools under the Admin panel. For a managed migration, you would typically: (1) export products from Shopify, (2) import into Bagisto via CSV, (3) redirect your domain DNS to the Bagisto server, (4) configure payment and shipping, and (5) run both stores in parallel for a short period to avoid order loss. The process typically takes 1–3 days for a small-to-medium catalogue.
QIs the Bagisto Flutter mobile app production-ready?
The official Bagisto Flutter mobile app is open-source and production-ready for basic store browsing, product search, cart, checkout, and order tracking. It connects via Bagisto's GraphQL API. The app is maintained by the Bagisto team and is suitable for launching a customer-facing iOS and Android app for your store without any app development cost — you only need a developer to customize branding, colors, and any custom features.