Shop Maker guide
A free online store with no monthly fee: what it really costs
Yes: you can sell online with no monthly fee by pairing a free shop page with payment links from a provider such as Stripe or PayPal, so you pay only the provider’s fee on each sale. Shop Maker makes that shop page free with no account and takes nothing from your sales. What you give up compared with a paid platform is a basket, stock syncing and built-in marketing tools.
Where the money goes in an online store
“Free” shop builders often have a cost hidden somewhere. Before you choose one, it helps to know the five things an online store can charge you for:
| Cost | What it is | Can you avoid it? |
|---|---|---|
| Platform plan | A monthly or yearly subscription for the shop software | Yes, with a free shop page |
| Commission or transaction fee | A cut of each sale taken by the platform or marketplace | Yes, if the platform never handles the payment |
| Card processing | The payment provider’s fee on each card payment | No: every way of taking cards has one |
| Domain | An address of your own, paid yearly | Optional: a free host gives you an address |
| Add-ons | Paid themes, apps and plug-ins | Usually, if you keep the shop simple |
Card processing is the one cost nobody escapes: the bank networks charge it whichever way you sell. Everything else depends on the kind of shop you choose.
The free and cheap ways to sell
| Way to sell | Monthly fee | Per sale | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hosted shop platform | Yes, after any trial | Card fee, sometimes a platform fee too | Big ranges, stock control, discount codes |
| Marketplace | Usually none | Listing fees, commission and card fee | Being found by people already searching there |
| Social media and messages | None | Card fee, or bank transfer | A few items to people who follow you |
| Free shop page with payment links | None | Card fee only | Makers and small sellers with up to a hundred products |
A marketplace brings you customers, which is worth paying for when you’re starting from nothing. A shop page of your own brings nobody by itself, but every sale through it is yours, the customer relationship included. Many small sellers use both: a marketplace to be found, and their own page for repeat customers and followers.
Selling with no monthly fee, step by step
- Open a payment account with Stripe, PayPal, Square, SumUp or a similar provider. They charge nothing until you’re paid.
- Make a payment link for each product: a name, a price and a picture. For posted goods, ask for the delivery address. See how to make a Stripe payment link.
- Build the shop in Shop Maker: products with photos, prices, a sale price if you like, categories, and the payment link on each Buy button.
- Answer the questions before they’re asked: delivery costs and times, returns, and how to reach you.
- Share it as a link in your social profiles and messages, or as a QR code on your stall and in your parcels. Or download it and put it on a free host.
A worked example
Worked example
A potter sells 20 mugs a month at £24. On a hosted platform she pays the monthly plan whether she sells one mug or fifty, plus the card fee on each mug. With a free shop page and payment links she pays only the card fee on each mug: no plan, no commission. In a quiet month with three sales, the difference is the whole subscription.
The trade-off: each Buy button pays for one product, so a customer who wants a mug and a bowl pays twice, or she makes a payment link for the pair.
The pattern holds for most small sellers: a monthly plan is a fixed cost that hurts most when sales are slow, and the free route turns your costs into a small slice of each sale instead.
Your own address for free
A shared Shop Maker shop lives inside its own link, so there’s nothing to pay for hosting. When you want a tidy address, download the shop: you get a folder of web pages and pictures. Drag that folder onto a free static host such as Netlify Drop, GitHub Pages or Cloudflare Pages and it’s online at a free address like your-shop.netlify.app. A domain of your own is the only part that costs money, and it’s optional.
When you change the shop, download it again and replace the folder. Your address stays the same.
When a paid platform is worth it
Free isn’t always the best value. Pay for a full shop platform when:
- customers regularly buy several different things at once and need a basket;
- you sell hundreds of products or variants, or need stock to update itself;
- you need discount codes, gift cards, customer accounts, abandoned-cart emails or tax handling built in;
- your sales are steady enough that the plan is a small share of them.
Until then, a free page with payment links lets you start today, test what sells, and move later without having paid for months of software you didn’t need. If you’re selling mainly through Instagram, our guide to selling on Instagram without paying for a website shows the whole set-up.
Questions
Is there a truly free online store?
A shop page can be free: Shop Maker has no monthly fee and takes no commission. Taking card payments always costs a small fee per sale, charged by your payment provider, not by the shop.
Do I need a business account to take payments?
Payment providers decide that. Many, including Stripe and PayPal, let individuals and sole traders sign up; you give them your bank details so they can pay you.
Can customers buy several items at once?
Not in one checkout: each Buy button opens one product’s payment link. A Stripe link can let customers choose a quantity, and you can make a link for a bundle.
Will my shop show up on Google?
Any page can be found by search engines once it’s online at a normal address. For the best chance, download your shop, host it at your own address and link to it from your social profiles.