Free Online Store Builders in India: The Hidden Cost of Transaction Fees
A ₹0 plan with a 5% + ₹3 fee costs ₹9,381 a month at ₹1.5 lakh in sales. Here is what each free store builder really charges, and where a flat plan wins.
In this post · 8 sections
You sell Banarasi and georgette sarees from Surat, and you opened your store on a free plan because ₹0 a month felt like the safe choice. Six months later you are doing ₹1.5 lakh a month in sales, and the platform is taking 5% plus ₹3 on every order, plus GST on that fee. On 150 orders of ₹1,000 that is ₹9,381 this month, more than many flat-priced plans cost, and it goes up every time you have a good month.
That is the hidden cost of a free online store builder in India: most of them do not charge you a monthly fee, they charge you a percentage of every sale. The fee is either bundled with payment processing (Instamojo's free plan charges 5% + ₹3 per transaction) or added on top of your payment gateway's own charge (Dukaan's service fee, or Shopify's fee for third-party gateways like Razorpay). Some free plans cannot take online payments at all. Below roughly ₹1 to 1.5 lakh a month in sales, a free or fee-based plan is usually cheaper; above that, a flat plan usually wins.
Key takeaways
- "Free" store builders earn money per order: a transaction or service fee of roughly 2% to 5%, depending on the platform and plan, as of October 2026.
- Check whether the fee includes payment processing. Instamojo's does; Dukaan's service fee and Shopify's third-party fee are charged on top of your gateway's fee.
- Razorpay's standard fee is 2% plus 18% GST on the fee, so budget 2.36% of each online sale for the gateway on any platform that uses it.
- At ₹1.5 lakh of monthly sales, a 5% + ₹3 free plan costs about ₹9,400 a month including GST. A flat ₹5,000 plan with Razorpay costs about ₹8,500.
- Free plans also tend to withhold a custom domain, remove-branding or online payments, which you may need before fees even matter.
How do free online store builders make money?
There are four common models in India. Knowing which one you are on tells you where the cost is.
- Transaction fee with payments bundled. The platform is also your payment gateway and takes one combined fee per order. Instamojo's pricing page lists its Lite online store plan at ₹0 a year with a 5% + ₹3 transaction fee, says the payment gateway comes integrated, and adds 18% GST per transaction. Lite does not include a custom domain or removal of Instamojo branding.
- Service fee on top of your gateway. Dukaan's pricing page plan table, as of October 2026, lists a Free plan at ₹0 with a 4.99% service fee, Starter at ₹2,500 a year with 3.99%, Growth at ₹8,000 a year with 1.99%, and Infinity at ₹50,000 a year with 0.99% (the yearly prices are shown as discounts on much higher struck-through amounts). The table says the service fee applies to sales made through the platform, is capped at ₹200 per order and does not apply to manual orders; its FAQ says the fee is exclusive of payment gateway charges and that every plan supports a custom domain. The FAQ on the same page names the plans and rates differently, so we have used the plan table.
- Subscription plus a fee for using your own gateway. Shopify has no free plan in India. Its India pricing page offers a 3-day trial, then ₹20 a month for three months, then Basic at ₹1,994 a month (₹1,499 a month billed yearly). If you take payments through a third-party provider such as Razorpay, Shopify adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced.
- Free website, paid selling. Wix's plan comparison says free sites do not include online payments, use a wixsite.com address and show Wix ads on every page. You need a paid plan that includes payments before you can sell; Wix's prices vary by country, so check its upgrade page from India.
Free online store builders in India compared
All figures are from each provider's official pricing or help pages as of October 2026. Where we could not confirm a plan price on the official page, the table says so rather than guessing.
| Platform | Entry cost | Fee on each sale | Gateway fee on top? | Custom domain on entry plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instamojo Lite | ₹0 a year | 5% + ₹3, plus 18% GST | No, gateway included | No |
| Instamojo Growth | Yearly or monthly subscription (confirm on the page) | 2% + ₹3, plus 18% GST | No, gateway included | Yes |
| Dukaan Free | ₹0 | 4.99% service fee, capped at ₹200 per order | Yes | Yes (FAQ says all plans) |
| Dukaan Starter | ₹2,500 a year (about ₹208 a month) | 3.99% service fee, capped at ₹200 per order | Yes | Yes |
| Shopify Basic (India) | ₹1,994 a month after the ₹20 introductory months | 2% with Razorpay or another third-party gateway | Yes | Yes |
| Wix Free | ₹0 | Cannot take online payments | Not applicable | No (wixsite.com address) |
| Selzix | 14-day free trial, then one flat plan (current price) | 0% Selzix fee | Yes, your own Razorpay | Yes |
Two notes on reading this. Instamojo's plan cards and its feature comparison table showed different subscription prices for its paid plans when we checked, which is why the table above gives only the fees for those plans. And the percentage that matters is the one you will be on: if you start on a free plan and upgrade to cut the fee, add the new subscription to your comparison.
What does a transaction fee cost at real sales volumes?
Here is the total monthly cost of taking orders for the Surat seller at four sales levels. Assumptions: a ₹1,000 average order, every order paid online, Razorpay at 2% + 18% GST on the fee (2.36% in total) wherever the platform does not include its own gateway, and Selzix at its regular ₹5,000 a month. Dukaan Starter's ₹2,500 yearly price is spread as ₹208 a month. Dukaan's ₹200 per-order cap does not come into play at a ₹1,000 order (it starts to bite above about ₹4,008 an order on Free and ₹5,013 on Starter), and Dukaan's page does not say whether GST is added to the service fee, so none is included here.
| Monthly sales | Instamojo Lite (5% + ₹3 + GST) | Dukaan Free (4.99% + gateway) | Dukaan Starter (₹208 + 3.99% + gateway) | Shopify Basic (₹1,994 + 2% + gateway) | Selzix (₹5,000 + gateway) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ₹50,000 (50 orders) | ₹3,127 | ₹3,675 | ₹3,383 | ₹4,174 | ₹6,180 |
| ₹1,50,000 (150 orders) | ₹9,381 | ₹11,025 | ₹9,733 | ₹8,534 | ₹8,540 |
| ₹3,00,000 (300 orders) | ₹18,762 | ₹22,050 | ₹19,258 | ₹15,074 | ₹12,080 |
| ₹5,00,000 (500 orders) | ₹31,270 | ₹36,750 | ₹31,958 | ₹23,794 | ₹16,800 |
How the ₹1,50,000 row is worked out:
- Instamojo Lite: 5% of ₹1,50,000 is ₹7,500, plus ₹3 × 150 orders = ₹450, so ₹7,950. GST at 18% adds ₹1,431. Total ₹9,381.
- Dukaan Free: 4.99% service fee is ₹7,485. Razorpay at 2% is ₹3,000 plus ₹540 GST. Total ₹11,025.
- Dukaan Starter: ₹208 for the month's share of the yearly plan, plus 3.99% service fee of ₹5,985, plus Razorpay's ₹3,000 and ₹540 GST. Total ₹9,733.
- Shopify Basic: ₹1,994 subscription, plus 2% third-party fee of ₹3,000, plus Razorpay's ₹3,000 and ₹540 GST. Total ₹8,534.
- Selzix: ₹5,000 plan, plus Razorpay's ₹3,000 and ₹540 GST. Total ₹8,540.
Subscription figures are as listed by each provider; check whether GST is added at checkout, as it is for most software subscriptions in India.
Where the break-even sits
With these assumptions, Instamojo Lite costs 6.25% of sales (5.3% including the ₹3 per ₹1,000 order, plus GST). Selzix plus Razorpay costs ₹5,000 plus 2.36% of sales. The two meet where 3.89% of sales equals ₹5,000, which is about ₹1.28 lakh a month. Dukaan Free and Selzix both pay Razorpay, so they meet where Dukaan's 4.99% fee reaches ₹5,000: about ₹1 lakh a month. Dukaan Starter's 3.99% has to cover ₹4,792 (₹5,000 less its ₹208), which happens at about ₹1.2 lakh a month. Shopify Basic and Selzix meet where the 2% third-party fee covers the ₹3,006 difference in subscription, at about ₹1.5 lakh a month, which is why that row is a near tie.
Below those levels, the free or cheaper plan genuinely costs less, and you should use it. Above them, every extra rupee of sales costs you a fee a flat plan does not charge. If a lower offer price is live on the Selzix pricing page when you read this, the break-even falls further; the regular price is used here so the arithmetic stays true after any offer ends.
What else do free plans cost you besides fees?
- No custom domain. Instamojo Lite and Wix Free do not let you connect one. Meta's commerce rules ask for the website domain you sell from, so this matters if you also sell through Instagram. Our guide to turning an Instagram shop into an online store explains why.
- Platform branding. Instamojo lists "Remove Instamojo Branding" as a paid feature; Wix shows ads on every page of a free site.
- No online payments. On Wix Free you cannot take payments at all, so the "free" plan is a brochure, not a store.
- Feature limits. Instamojo Lite allows one image per product, one banner and one theme. One photo per kurta or saree is rarely enough.
- Switching later. The longer you stay, the more product pages, customer records and links you have to move. Check what you can export before you start.
Questions to ask before you pick a store builder
- Is there a fee on every sale? Is it a percentage, a fixed amount, or both?
- Does that fee include payment processing, or does my gateway charge separately?
- Is GST charged on the fee, the subscription, or both?
- Does the fee apply to cash on delivery orders too?
- Can I connect my own domain and remove the platform's branding on the plan I am buying?
- Can I use my own Razorpay account, so money settles straight to my bank?
- What can I export if I leave: products, orders, customers?
For a wider view of payment costs, see our explainer on selling online in India without transaction fees.
When is a free store builder the right choice?
When you are testing demand. If you are doing a few orders a week, under roughly ₹1 lakh a month, a fee-based plan costs less than any flat subscription and lets you find out whether people will buy from a link at all. It also makes sense if you want payments bundled and do not want to apply for your own gateway yet.
The time to compare again is when the monthly fee on your dashboard approaches what a flat plan costs, or when you need a custom domain, more product photos or your own gateway. Run the table above with your real average order value and sales, not ours.
How this works in Selzix
Selzix does not have a free plan. It has a 14-day free trial with no card required, and then one flat plan for the whole store, paid upfront for a month or a year. Nothing renews automatically. The regular India price is ₹5,000 a month or ₹50,000 a year; any current offer is shown on the India pricing page.
Selzix charges no transaction fee. Indian stores connect their own Razorpay account (or Stripe), offer direct UPI to their own UPI ID, or enable cash on delivery with order limits and an optional fee, and payments settle to the seller's account. Custom domains with SSL, eight brand kits, GST tax invoices with HSN codes, Shiprocket and Delhivery integration, coupons, reviews and analytics are included in the same plan.
What it does not remove, and where it is weaker:
- Your gateway still charges its fee. With Razorpay that is 2% plus GST on every online payment, on Selzix as on any other platform.
- Direct UPI has no gateway fee, but Selzix does not verify those payments automatically; you confirm each one.
- Courier charges, domain registration and taxes are separate from the plan.
- There is no app marketplace like Shopify's, and a store sells in one currency at a time.
- If you do not choose a plan by day 14, the store pauses; your products and design are saved.
- Below roughly ₹1 to 1.3 lakh a month in sales at the regular price, a fee-based free or entry plan is likely to cost you less.
Platform-by-platform detail is on the Selzix vs Dukaan and Selzix vs Shopify pages.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a truly free online store builder in India?
There are store builders with ₹0 plans, such as Instamojo Lite and Dukaan Free, but they charge a fee on each sale (as of October 2026, 5% + ₹3 plus GST on Instamojo Lite, and a 4.99% service fee plus your gateway's charges on Dukaan Free). Wix's free plan has no fee but cannot take online payments. Every option costs something once you start selling.
What is the difference between a transaction fee and a payment gateway fee?
A gateway fee is what Razorpay or another processor charges to move the money, 2% plus GST at Razorpay's standard rate. A platform transaction or service fee is what the store builder charges on top. Some platforms bundle both into one fee; others charge the platform fee separately, so you pay both.
Does Shopify charge a transaction fee in India?
If you use a third-party payment provider such as Razorpay, yes. Shopify's India pricing page lists 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced, in addition to your gateway's own fee.
At what sales level does a flat-fee store builder become cheaper?
With a ₹1,000 average order and Razorpay as the gateway, a ₹5,000 flat plan beats Dukaan Free above about ₹1 lakh of monthly sales, Dukaan Starter above about ₹1.2 lakh, Instamojo Lite above about ₹1.28 lakh and Shopify Basic with Razorpay above about ₹1.5 lakh. Redo the calculation with your own order value and fees.
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