Ecwid alternatives
Ecwid alternatives for sellers with a developer.
Ecwid’s pricing page lists four paid plans and no free plan: Starter at $5 a month for up to 10 products, Venture at $35 for discount coupons and automated tax, Business at $65 for subscriptions, and Unlimited at $149. Ecwid adds no transaction fee, but your payment provider charges its own, and Ecwid’s API is open only to stores on paid plans. For a US business with a developer, Flint Pay is the alternative with no monthly plan: one API with Stripe processing, products and variants, inventory, coupons and promotions, automatic US sales tax, subscriptions, and hosted checkout, at 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment, plus 0.50% on payments that carry automatic tax and 0.40% on subscription payments.
3.79% + 35¢ on cards · no monthly fee · free sandbox · no credit card
last reviewed 2026-10-15 · sources
01The alternatives
Ecwid alternatives for sellers with a developer.
Ranked for a US business whose developer builds or runs its website. Each price is from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on the date under Sources.
- 01
Flint Pay
US businesses with a developer, or selling through payment links, that want payments, orders, inventory, coupons, US sales tax, and subscriptions in one API with no plan.
- Cards
- 3.79% + 35¢, Stripe's fees included
- Monthly
- No monthly fee
- Sales tax
- automatic US, 0.50% on taxed payments
- 02
Shopify
A hosted store and theme, with a headless API, on a monthly plan.
- Basic
- $39/mo, $29 billed yearly
- Shopify Payments
- 2.9% + 30¢ online
- Other gateways
- +2% on Basic
- 03
BigCommerce
A hosted store on a monthly plan that upgrades as trailing 12-month sales grow.
- Core
- $39/mo, $29 billed yearly
- Sales cap
- $30K trailing 12 months
- Open payment providers
- +2% on Core
- 04
Snipcart
A cart added to your own HTML, priced as a share of sales on top of your gateway.
- Fee
- 2% of sales
- Under $1,000/mo
- $20 minimum
- Gateway fees
- extra
02Side by side
Flint vs Ecwid, need by need.
The Ecwid column is what Ecwid's own pricing page, payments pages, and developer docs say today, each linked under Sources. The Flint column is what a Flint account does, with the API name behind it.
| What you need | Ecwid plans | Flint |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | Ecwid plans: Starter $5, Venture $35, Business $65, Unlimited $149 a month, or $5, $29, $49, and $119 a month billed annually. No free plan is listed. | Flint: No monthly fee. 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment, which covers Stripe's processing fees. |
| Card payments | Ecwid plans: No Ecwid transaction fee. You connect one of 70+ payment providers, such as Stripe, and pay that provider's rates. | Flint: Stripe, on a processing account Flint sets up and runs for you: cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH debit, and Affirm.POST /v1/checkout-sessions |
| Products | Ecwid plans: Up to 10 on Starter, 100 on Venture, 2,500 on Business, unlimited on Unlimited. | Flint: Products with options and variants, categories, and bundles in every account, with no plan to upgrade.POST /v1/products |
| Discount coupons | Ecwid plans: From Venture, $35 a month. | Flint: Codes and automatic promotions that stack by rules you set, including buy X get Y, in every account.POST /v1/promotions |
| Sales tax | Ecwid plans: Automated tax calculations from Venture, $35 a month. | Flint: Automatic US sales tax computed after discounts and recorded on each line, at 0.50% only on payments that carry tax.tax_money |
| Subscriptions | Ecwid plans: Selling subscriptions from Business, $65 a month. | Flint: Subscriptions at 0.40% of subscription payments, with trials, setup fees, retries, and buyer pause and skip.POST /v1/subscriptions |
| API access | Ecwid plans: “Only stores on paid plans can access API,” through a custom app’s access tokens. | Flint: The API is the product: every account and every sandbox, with a public OpenAPI spec you can read without a key.POST /v1/orders |
03The Ecwid API
What is the Ecwid API, and how is Flint's different?
Ecwid’s REST API works on a store you already run on Ecwid. Its developer docs describe a custom app, created in the store’s admin, whose access tokens read and change products, categories, the store profile, and orders. The docs open the API to stores on paid plans, starting with Starter at $5 a month, and the plan still sets the product limit and which features exist.
Flint is built the other way round: the API is the store. Your developer creates products and variants, sends a cart as an order, and opens a hosted checkout, and Flint prices each line, applies promotions, computes US sales tax, holds the stock, and processes the card on Stripe. There is no plan, so coupons, tax, and subscriptions are in every account from the first test key.
04Included
What does Flint include without a monthly plan?
Ecwid puts coupons and tax on Venture and subscriptions on Business. On Flint every account has them, with Stripe processing inside the card rate, 3.79% + 35¢. Invoices, subscriptions, and automatic tax are priced add-ons, charged only on the payments that use them.
Card processing on Stripe, set up and run by Flint, with Stripe's fees inside one rate.
POST /v1/checkout-sessionsProducts with options and variants, with no product count tied to a plan.
POST /v1/productsAn order for every checkout and payment link, with totals Flint computes on its server.
POST /v1/ordersStock per location, held when payment starts, committed on success, and released on failure.
held_quantityDiscount codes and automatic promotions that stack by rules you set, with a preview call.
POST /v1/discount-previewsAutomatic US sales tax computed after discounts and recorded on each line.
tax_moneySubscriptions with trials, setup fees, retries, and buyer pause and skip.
POST /v1/subscriptionsReturns from a policy, with exchanges and buyer self-serve, and refunds by line item.
POST /v1/return-policiesPayment links →Hosted checkout →BigCommerce alternatives →Snipcart alternatives →
05Worked example
What does Ecwid cost compared with Flint?
Ecwid's plan fee comes on top of your payment provider's fees, so the comparison is Ecwid Venture plus Stripe against Flint's card rate plus automatic tax. At $50 orders Flint costs less below about $2,300 a month in sales when every order carries tax, and below about $3,500 when none do.
| Monthly fees at $50 per order, Venture billed monthly | 10 orders | 20 orders | 40 orders | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly sales | $500.00 | $1,000.00 | $2,000.00 | |
| Ecwid Venture | $35.00 | $35.00 | $35.00 | |
| Stripe processing, 2.9% + 30¢ | $17.50 | $35.00 | $70.00 | |
| Ecwid and Stripe | $52.50 | $70.00 | $105.00 | |
| Flint, 3.79% + 35¢ with automatic tax (+0.50%) | $24.95 | $49.90 | $99.80 | |
Assumptions
- Every order is $50, paid with a US card, and carries sales tax. International cards add 1.5% on Stripe and on Flint.
- Ecwid Venture at $35 billed monthly, the first plan with discount coupons and automated tax. Ecwid charges no transaction fee.
- Stripe as the payment provider at its standard US rate of 2.9% + 30¢; Ecwid connects Stripe among 70+ providers.
- Against Business at $65 billed monthly, the first plan with subscriptions, Flint costs less below about $4,300 a month with tax on every order and $6,500 without.
- Billed annually, Venture is $29 and Business $49 a month, which moves the breakevens with tax on every order to about $1,900 and $3,200.
06Who Flint is for
Flint is built for US sellers with a developer.
Flint is a commerce API, not a website builder: it doesn't design or host your storefront. If your developer builds the site, or you sell through links, everything above is running the day you create your account.
US businesses
Flint onboards businesses in the US and pays out in USD to your own bank account. Buyers can pay from anywhere with a card.
A developer and a site
Your developer builds the storefront on any stack and sends carts to the API. Flint hosts the checkout, the buyer account, and the dashboard.
Or no site at all
Payment links made in the dashboard sell a product, a ticket, or a subscription from a button, an email, a bio, or a QR code.
Online payments
Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH debit, and Affirm online and in apps. Flint has no card readers for in-person sales.
07Switching
How do you switch from Ecwid to Flint?
Your developer moves the catalog, then points the site's buy buttons at payment links or at a cart that creates Flint orders.
Recreate the catalog
POST /v1/productsCreate each product with its options and variants, and keep the Ecwid product ID in metadata so old links and reports still resolve.
Recreate coupons as promotions
POST /v1/promotionsCreate each Ecwid coupon as a promotion with a code, and set which promotions may stack.
Sell through payment links
POST /v1/payment-linksFor a page that sells one product, create a payment link and point the button at its URL. No cart code is needed.
Or send a cart to the API
POST /v1/ordersFor a multi-item cart, create an order from variant IDs and quantities, then open a hosted checkout for it. Flint computes the discount and the tax.
Fulfill from order.paid
order.paidShip or deliver when the order.paid event arrives, verify Flint's webhook signatures, and switch to live keys after a sandbox run with Stripe's test cards.
08Start
From a sandbox key to a paid test order in ten minutes.
Node
CLI
Test keys are prefixed flint_test_ and bound to a sandbox with its own data, so nothing you try there touches live money. Pay with 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future expiry, any CVC.
Then read these
- 01The commerce APIOrders, catalog, tax, and returns in one API
- 02
- 03
- 04
Sources
Where each claim comes from.
Starter $5, Venture $35, Business $65, Unlimited $149 a month; $5, $29, $49, $119 billed annually; no free plan listed; coupons and automated tax from Venture; subscriptions from Business; product limits; no setup or transaction fees. Ecwid: Pricing
www.ecwid.com · checked 2026-10-15Over 70 payment providers; Ecwid does not charge additional transaction fees, and each provider sets its own rates. Ecwid: Payments
www.ecwid.com · checked 2026-10-15Connect Stripe payments to an Ecwid store. Ecwid: Stripe
www.ecwid.com · checked 2026-10-15Only stores on paid plans can access API; a custom app's access tokens read and modify products, categories, the store profile, and orders. Ecwid developer docs: Set up your dev environment
docs.ecwid.com · checked 2026-10-15Third party (updated 2025-12-18): Ecwid stopped offering the free tier to new users in March 2025 and told existing free-plan merchants their stores would close on November 20, 2025 unless they upgraded. FitSmallBusiness: Ecwid review
fitsmallbusiness.com · checked 2026-10-152.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card transaction; international cards +1.5%. Stripe: Pricing
stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15Basic $39 a month or $29 billed yearly; Shopify Payments 2.9% + 30¢ online on Basic; third-party provider fee 2% on Basic. Shopify: Pricing
www.shopify.com · checked 2026-10-15Core $39 a month or $29 billed annually, up to $30K trailing 12-month GMV before an automatic upgrade; Open Payment Provider Fee 2% on Core. BigCommerce: Pricing
www.bigcommerce.com · checked 2026-10-152% per transaction, replaced by a $20 monthly fee under $1,000 of monthly sales, plus payment gateway fees. Snipcart: Pricing
snipcart.com · checked 2026-10-15
last reviewed 2026-10-15 · corrections: Flint Help
FAQ
Questions people ask.
What is the best Ecwid alternative?
For a US business with a developer, Flint Pay. Flint has no monthly fee and one card rate, 3.79% + 35¢, which covers Stripe's processing fees, and every account includes products and variants, inventory held at payment, coupons and stacking promotions, automatic US sales tax, subscriptions, payment links, and hosted checkout. Flint is an API, not a website builder, so your developer builds the storefront or you sell through payment links.
Does Ecwid still have a free plan?
Ecwid's pricing page lists no free plan. Its plans start with Starter at $5 a month for up to 10 products. FitSmallBusiness, a third-party reviewer, reports that Ecwid stopped offering the free plan to new users in March 2025 and told remaining free stores they would close on November 20, 2025 unless they upgraded.
How much does Ecwid cost?
Ecwid's pricing page lists Starter at $5, Venture at $35, Business at $65, and Unlimited at $149 a month, or $5, $29, $49, and $119 a month billed annually. Discount coupons and automated tax start on Venture and subscriptions on Business. Ecwid charges no transaction fee, and your payment provider, such as Stripe at 2.9% + 30¢, charges its own.
Does Ecwid have an API?
Yes. Ecwid's REST API reads and changes a store's products, categories, profile, and orders through a custom app's access tokens, and Ecwid's developer docs say only stores on paid plans can access it. Flint's API is available in every account and sandbox, and its OpenAPI spec is public.
Is Flint a good alternative to Ecwid?
Yes, for a US business with a developer or one that sells through links. At 20 orders of $50 a month, Ecwid Venture with Stripe costs $70.00 in fees and Flint with automatic tax on every order costs $49.90. Flint doesn’t build or host a website and has no in-person card readers. Create an account from the terminal with flint signup.
Can I use Flint without a developer?
For some sales, yes. You can create payment links in the Flint dashboard and put them behind a button, in an email, or in a QR code, and each buyer gets a hosted checkout and an order. A full storefront with a cart on your own site needs a developer to call the API.
Coupons, tax, and subscriptions, with no plan to pick.
Free sandbox, no credit card, no sales call. Create a product with variants, add a promotion code, and take a test payment with US sales tax computed after the discount.
Or run npm install -g @flintpay/cli && flint signup to create your account and a sandbox key from the terminal. CLI guide
More comparisons · last reviewed 2026-10-15