Shopify Starter alternative
A Shopify Starter alternative: sell from any site or link, with no monthly plan.
Shopify’s Help Center says the Starter plan “isn’t available to new stores,” and its pricing page now starts paid stores at Basic, $39 a month. Flint Pay is the alternative for US businesses selling from their own website, a social bio, or a link: payment links and hosted checkout with no monthly fee, a card rate of 3.79% + 35¢ that includes Stripe’s processing, and orders, inventory, shipping, and automatic US sales tax (0.50% on taxed payments) behind one API.
3.79% + 35¢ on cards · no monthly fee · free sandbox · no credit card
last reviewed 2026-10-15 · sources
01The alternatives
Shopify Starter alternatives for selling on your own site.
Ranked for US sellers who want a buy button, a link, or a checkout on a site they already have, without running a full Shopify store. Every price is from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on the date under Sources.
- 01
Flint Pay
US businesses selling from their own site, app, or links, who want payment links, hosted checkout, orders, inventory, shipping, and tax with no monthly plan.
- Monthly
- No monthly fee
- Cards
- 3.79% + 35¢, Stripe's fees included
- Sales tax
- Automatic US, 0.50% on taxed payments
- 02
Shopify Basic with the Buy Button
A full Shopify store whose products you embed on another site through the Buy Button channel.
- Plan
- $39/mo ($29 billed yearly)
- Shopify Payments
- 2.9% + 30¢
- Other gateways
- +2% on Basic
- 03
Shopify Agentic plan
Listed by Shopify as a plan for selling in AI channels through Shopify's Catalog.
- Plan
- $0/mo
- Cards
- From 2.9% + 30¢ online
- 04
Stripe Payment Links
Stripe's hosted payment pages. Stripe's fulfillment guide leaves saving line items and updating stock to code on your server.
- Cards
- 2.9% + 30¢
- Orders and stock
- Your own code
02Side by side
Flint vs Shopify for selling on your own site.
The Shopify column is what Shopify's own Help Center, changelog, and pricing page say today, each linked under Sources. The Flint column is what a Flint account does, with the API name behind it.
| What you need | Shopify Starter, Basic, and Buy Button | Flint |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan for a new store | Shopify Starter, Basic, and Buy Button: Starter “isn’t available to new stores.” Basic is $39 a month, or $29 billed yearly. Starter plan | Flint: No monthly fee and no plan tiers. |
| A buy button on another site | Shopify Starter, Basic, and Buy Button: The Buy Button sales channel, included in all Shopify subscription plans, embeds products from your Shopify store. | Flint: A payment link per product, made in the dashboard or by API, behind any button, bio link, email, or QR code.POST /v1/payment-links |
| A custom cart in code | Shopify Starter, Basic, and Buy Button: The JS Buy SDK was deprecated in January 2025, with a July 1, 2025 migration deadline and support for its final version until January 1, 2026. Shopify recommends the Storefront API Client. Deprecation notice | Flint: A REST API: send the cart as an order by variant, and Flint prices it, applies promotions, computes tax, and opens a hosted checkout.POST /v1/orders |
| Payment processing | Shopify Starter, Basic, and Buy Button: Shopify Payments at 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, or another gateway with a 2% Shopify fee on top. | Flint: Stripe, set up and run by Flint, with its fees included: cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay at 3.79% + 35¢, ACH debit at 1.00%, $1 minimum, no cap, and Affirm at 6.99% + 30¢.POST /v1/checkout-sessions |
| Shipping and pickup | Shopify Starter, Basic, and Buy Button: Starter can't activate third-party carrier-calculated shipping, per Shopify's Help Center. | Flint: Region-priced rates, free shipping over a threshold, in-store pickup, scheduled local delivery, and rate callbacks from your own server.POST /v1/delivery-methods |
03Payment links
How do you sell on your own website without Shopify?
Make a payment link for each product and put its URL behind a button on your site, in your social bio, or in a QR code. Each buyer who opens it gets a hosted checkout and their own order, with shipping, tax, and stock handled. When your site needs a multi-item cart, the same products go into an order through the API.
curl -X POST https://api.withflintpay.com/v1/payment-links \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Idempotency-Key: payment-link-tote-001" \
-d '{
"name": "Canvas tote",
"line_items": [
{
"key": "tote",
"variant_id": "var_1kmn0aTote",
"allow_quantity_adjustment": true,
"min_quantity": 1,
"max_quantity": 5
}
],
"customer_collection": { "require_email": true }
}'
# The response carries the URL to put behind a button, in a bio,
# in an email, or in a QR code. Every buyer gets their own order.
# "url": "https://checkout.withflintpay.com/pay/pl_01K4TOTE"The name and price come from your catalog each time a checkout starts, so a price change applies to the link without editing it. The dashboard builds the same link with no code.
Payment links →Hosted checkout →Links vs checkout sessions vs invoices →
04Included
What does Flint include without a monthly plan?
One account and one rate, 3.79% + 35¢, with no monthly fee. Checkout, payment links, orders, catalog, inventory, discounts, fulfillment, returns, refunds, the buyer account, and reporting are in the rate. Invoices, subscriptions, and automatic tax are priced add-ons.
Payment links for products, donations, event tickets that share one capacity, and subscription signups.
POST /v1/payment-linksA hosted checkout for any order your site builds, with cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH debit, and Affirm.
POST /v1/checkout-sessionsProducts with options and variants, and stock held per location when payment starts.
held_quantityRegion-priced shipping, free shipping over a threshold, in-store pickup, and scheduled local delivery.
POST /v1/delivery-methodsDiscount codes and automatic promotions that stack by rules you set.
POST /v1/promotionsAutomatic US sales tax computed after discounts, on payments that carry tax.
tax_moneyA hosted buyer account where buyers find orders, track parcels, and start returns.
GET /v1/me/ordersSelling physical goods on Flint →The commerce API →Flint vs Shopify →
05Worked example
Is Flint cheaper than Shopify Basic for a small store?
At $50 orders, yes, up to $2,600 a month in sales with Flint's automatic tax on every order (Shopify Tax is free under its threshold), or $3,900 without it: Shopify Basic's $39 plan fee is more than the difference. On another gateway such as Stripe, Basic adds a 2% fee to every order, and Flint costs less at any volume, with or without automatic tax.
| Monthly fees at $50 per order | 20 orders | 35 orders | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly sales | $1,000.00 | $1,750.00 | |
| Shopify Basic, billed monthly | $39.00 | $39.00 | |
| Shopify Payments, 2.9% + 30¢ | $35.00 | $61.25 | |
| Shopify Basic | $74.00 | $100.25 | |
| Flint, 3.79% + 35¢, no plan | $44.90 | $78.58 | |
| Flint with automatic tax on every order (+0.50%) | $49.90 | $87.33 | |
Assumptions
- Every order is $50, paid with a US card, from Shopify's and Flint's published rates.
- Billed yearly, Basic is $29 a month: $64.00 and $90.25 here, still above Flint with automatic tax. On yearly billing Flint costs less up to $1,900 a month in sales with automatic tax on every order, or $2,900 without it.
- Shopify Tax is free until a store reaches $100,000 in sales (lifetime for stores created on or after May 13, 2026), so no tax fee is added on Shopify's side. Flint's automatic tax adds 0.50% on payments that carry tax; passing your own rates adds nothing.
- Break-evens are rounded down to a whole $50 order.
- With Stripe as a third-party gateway on Basic, one $50 order costs $2.75 in Stripe and Shopify fees before the plan fee.
06Who Flint is for
Flint is built for US businesses selling online.
If that describes you, 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.
Your site, or no site
Flint has no store builder. Sell from the site you already run, or share payment links in a bio, an email, or a QR code.
Goods and services
Orders that ship, get picked up, deliver locally, or fulfill as a download or a service, with stock held at payment.
Developers and agents
A public OpenAPI spec, Node and PHP SDKs, a CLI, llms.txt, and MCP servers a coding agent can read.
07Switching
How do you move from Shopify Starter to Flint?
Start with the products you share most. Each Starter product link becomes a Flint payment link.
Recreate the catalog
POST /v1/productsCreate each product with its options and variants, and keep the Shopify product id in metadata so your records line up during the move.
Replace product links
POST /v1/payment-linksCreate a payment link for each product and swap it into your bio, posts, messages, and buttons. Add delivery methods for anything that ships.
Add a cart if your site needs one
POST /v1/checkout-sessionsFor multi-item carts, create an order from the cart's variants and open a hosted checkout for it.
Fulfill from order.paid
order.paidShip from the dashboard's orders, or have your server listen for order.paid and fulfill from there.
Go live
Run each link in a sandbox with Stripe's test cards, then switch to live mode and share the live links.
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
- 01Payment linksProducts, donations, tickets, and subscriptions
- 02
- 03
- 04
Sources
Where each claim comes from.
The Starter plan isn't available to new stores; merchants who switch can't revert; Starter can't activate third-party carrier-calculated shipping. The page states no price. Shopify Starter plan
help.shopify.com · checked 2026-10-15Basic $39 a month or $29 billed yearly; Shopify Payments 2.9% + 30¢ online on Basic; third-party gateway fee 2% on Basic; Agentic plan $0 a month for selling in AI channels. No Starter plan listed. Shopify pricing
www.shopify.com · checked 2026-10-15The Buy Button sales channel is included in all Shopify subscription plans. Shopify Buy Button
help.shopify.com · checked 2026-10-15The JS Buy SDK is deprecated as of January 2025; critical deadline July 1, 2025, or customers will not be able to complete purchases; Storefront API Client recommended. JS Buy SDK deprecation notice
shopify.dev · checked 2026-10-15JS Buy SDK v3.0 will be supported until January 1, 2026. JS Buy SDK repository
github.com · checked 2026-10-15BuyButton.js uses the JS Buy SDK to connect to your Shopify store. BuyButton.js repository
github.com · checked 2026-10-15Shopify Tax is free until a store reaches $100,000 in sales, lifetime for stores created on or after May 13, 2026 and per calendar year before; then 0.35% per order in the US on Basic, Grow, or Advanced, capped at $0.99. Shopify Help Center: Shopify Tax pricing
help.shopify.com · checked 2026-10-152.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for domestic cards. Stripe pricing
stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15Payment Links use Checkout; the fulfillment function may save line items in your own database and update inventory or stock records. Stripe: fulfill orders
docs.stripe.com · checked 2026-10-15
last reviewed 2026-10-15 · corrections: Flint Help
FAQ
Questions people ask.
Is the Shopify Starter plan still available?
Not to new stores. Shopify's Help Center says the Starter plan isn't available to new stores, and current Starter merchants who switch plans can't switch back. Shopify's pricing page lists Basic at $39 a month, or $29 billed yearly, as its first paid store plan.
What is the best Shopify Starter alternative?
For a US business selling from its own site or from links, Flint Pay. Payment links and hosted checkout work from any site, bio, email, or QR code, with no monthly fee and a card rate of 3.79% + 35¢ that covers Stripe's processing. Orders, variants, inventory held at payment, shipping and pickup, promotions, and returns are in the same account, and automatic US sales tax is 0.50% of payments that carry tax.
Is Flint a good alternative to the Shopify Buy Button?
Yes, for a US business that wants to sell on its own site without a Shopify plan. The Buy Button channel is included in all Shopify subscription plans, and Shopify’s pricing page lists Basic, at $39 a month, as its first paid store plan. A Flint payment link sells a product from any site with no monthly fee, and the API takes a full cart when you need one. Sign up on the web or from the terminal with flint signup.
What happened to the Shopify JS Buy SDK?
Shopify deprecated the JS Buy SDK in January 2025. Its notice set a July 1, 2025 deadline, after which stores that had not migrated would leave customers unable to complete purchases, and the SDK's final version was supported until January 1, 2026. Shopify recommends the Storefront API Client instead. BuyButton.js uses the JS Buy SDK to connect to a store.
Can I sell on my own website without Shopify?
Yes. With Flint, create a payment link for a product and link to it from your site, or send your site's cart to the API as an order and open a hosted checkout. Flint computes the totals, discounts, and US sales tax, holds the stock when payment starts, and gives each buyer an order and a hosted account. Flint has no store builder, so your site stays yours.
How much does Flint cost compared with Shopify Basic?
Flint charges 3.79% + 35¢ per card payment with no monthly fee, and the rate covers Stripe’s processing. Shopify Basic is $39 a month ($29 billed yearly) plus 2.9% + 30¢ with Shopify Payments. At $50 orders Flint costs less up to $2,600 a month in sales on monthly billing and $1,900 on yearly billing with Flint’s automatic tax on every order (Shopify Tax is free under its threshold), or $3,900 and $2,900 without it. With a third-party gateway such as Stripe, Basic adds 2% to every order: 100 orders of $50 cost $275.00 in Stripe and Shopify fees before the plan, against $224.50 on Flint. Shopify’s third-party payment fee
Sell from your own site, without a monthly plan.
Free sandbox, no credit card, no sales call. Create a product, make a payment link for it, and pay it with a test card.
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