In short. At its leanest the software costs £15 to £75 a month. A growing shop’s apps can cost more than its plan. Card fees cost more than the lean software bill on every platform.
On this page
Every figure here was read on 5 October 2026, from the company’s own page except where we say otherwise, and the sources are listed at the end. We make retail software ourselves, and say where ours fits in a short section near the end.
The example shop
It takes £10,000 a month: £6,000 online from 150 orders of £40, and £4,000 at a counter from 200 sales of £20. Every payment is on a standard UK consumer card. Amex, business and overseas cards cost more, so a real card bill will be a little higher.
How we counted
- Plan prices are the monthly price on yearly billing, because every platform publishes that. Paying month by month costs more, and we say so where we found it.
- Prices in US dollars are turned into pounds at the European Central Bank’s rates for 5 October 2026: $1 = £0.7562.
- Prices are without VAT where the company says so; Squarespace’s pages do not say. The example shop turns over £120,000 a year, above the £90,000 VAT threshold, so it claims the VAT back. A shop that is not VAT registered cannot, so it should add 20% to the software prices. Stripe charges no VAT on its card fees to UK accounts; WooPayments adds 20%, as shown below.
- Lean means the cheapest plan that still sells both online and at a counter, using free tiers. Growing means the paid extras a growing shop adds, and they differ by platform:
- Shopify: a bigger plan, a paid theme, POS Pro for a fuller till, and apps for reviews, email to about 1,500 people, subscriptions, bundles, search and loyalty.
- Wix: a bigger plan, and apps for reviews, email and loyalty. Its templates are all free.
- WooCommerce: a bigger hosting plan, a paid theme, a card reader fee, and paid extras for subscriptions, bundles, search, loyalty, security and email. Reviews are built in.
- Squarespace: a bigger plan, email, and a Square counter that shares the stock. Reviews and subscriptions are built in.
- BigCommerce: SKU IQ Plus in place of Basic for the stock link to Square, and apps for reviews, loyalty and email.
- Square: only Retail Plus, its fuller till.
- Card readers you buy once are left out. A monthly fee for a reader is counted.
The monthly bill, side by side
| Platform | Software, lean | Software, growing | Card fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | £20 | £234 | £203.50 to £225.50 |
| Wix | £17 | about £60 to £83 | £224 |
| WooCommerce | £15 | £126 | £223.50 |
| Squarespace | £18 | £55 | £209.50 to £287.50 |
| BigCommerce | £75 | £155 to £321 | £190 |
| Square Online with Square POS | £21 | £70 | £185.50 to £191.50 |
Card fees are larger than the lean software bill on every platform, and on Shopify they are close to the whole growing bill. The detail for each platform follows.
Shopify
| Item | Lean | Growing |
|---|---|---|
| Plan: Basic £19, Grow £49 (£25 and £65 if billed monthly) | 19.00 | 49.00 |
| Till: POS Lite included; POS Pro £69 per location | 0.00 | 69.00 |
| Theme: $320 once (the most common price), over three years | 0.00 | 6.72 |
| Reviews: Judge.me free; Awesome $15 | 0.00 | 11.34 |
| Email: Klaviyo free to 250 contacts; $45 for 1,500 | 0.00 | 34.03 |
| Subscriptions: Seal free to 50; $9.95 to 250 | 0.00 | 7.52 |
| Bundles: Shopify Bundles free; Fast Bundle $19 | 0.00 | 14.37 |
| Search: Booster free; Pro $39 | 0.00 | 29.49 |
| Loyalty: Smile free to 200 orders; Essential $15 | 0.00 | 11.34 |
| Domain: from $9 a year; we allow £1 a month | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Total a month | £20 | £234 |
The £49 plan is about a fifth of the growing bill; most of the rest is POS Pro and apps. Billed monthly, the growing bill is about £250. Card fees on the example shop: £225.50 on Basic (2% + 25p online, 1.7% in person) and £203.50 on Grow (1.7% + 25p, 1.6%). Not counted: Recharge, the usual choice for larger subscription businesses, at $99 a month plus 1.49% + 19¢ a payment.
Wix
| Item | Lean | Growing |
|---|---|---|
| Plan: Core £16, Business £25 | 16.00 | 25.00 |
| Template: all free | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Till: Wix POS in the Wix app on a phone or tablet, with a £69 card reader (plus VAT) bought once | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Reviews: Judge.me $15 (price assumed from its Shopify listing) | 0.00 | 11.34 |
| Email: Klaviyo, 1,500 contacts | 0.00 | 34.03 |
| Loyalty: Smile $15 (not confirmed on Wix) | 0.00 | 11.34 |
| Domain (free for the first year) | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Total a month | £17 | about £83 |
In the UK, Wix’s till is Wix POS in the Wix app on a phone or tablet, with a card reader; its full register is US-only. Card fees through Wix Payments (2.1% + 20p online, 1.7% in person): £224 a month. Wix also has its own reviews app and its own loyalty programme. Wix says the loyalty programme is free to set up, and customers can use it on a plan that takes payments. With Wix’s own reviews and loyalty in place of Judge.me and Smile, the growing bill is about £60, if neither adds a charge.
WooCommerce
| Item | Lean | Growing |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting: SiteGround StartUp £13.99, GrowBig £23.99 (prices after the first year) | 13.99 | 23.99 |
| Theme: Storefront free; Flatsome $59 once, plus $17.63 to extend its support to a year, both over three years | 0.00 | 1.61 |
| WooCommerce Subscriptions, £213 a year | 0.00 | 17.75 |
| Product Bundles, £61 a year | 0.00 | 5.08 |
| Points and Rewards, £137 a year | 0.00 | 11.42 |
| Search: Yoast free; Premium £118.80 a year | 0.00 | 9.90 |
| Backups and security: free plugins; Jetpack Security £15.95 | 0.00 | 15.95 |
| Reviews: built into WooCommerce | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Email: Klaviyo, 1,500 contacts | 0.00 | 34.03 |
| Till: Tap to Pay on iPhone; a WisePad 3 reader, bought once, then £5 a month while active | 0.00 | 5.00 |
| Domain | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Total a month | £15 | £126 |
Other hosts we checked: Kinsta $30 a month (about £23), WP Engine from $28 a month in its first year (about £21), and WordPress.com’s Commerce plan £36 (£55 billed monthly). Card fees through WooPayments (1.5% + 25p online, 1.4% + 20p in person): £223.50 a month, and WooPayments adds 20% VAT to its fees unless a reverse charge applies, which makes it £268.20. Stripe instead (1.5% + 20p online; in person, 1.4% + 10p, the rate Stripe’s page gives for EEA cards) comes to about £196, or £256 if UK cards pay its rate for other cards, 2.9% + 10p. Not counted: your own time, or a developer’s, for updates.
Squarespace
| Item | Lean | Growing |
|---|---|---|
| Plan: Core £17, Plus £29 (£24 and £36 if billed monthly) | 17.00 | 29.00 |
| Reviews and subscriptions: built in | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Email Campaigns: 5,000 emails £11 | 0.00 | 11.00 |
| Till: Tap to Pay in its app only; no UK card reader | 0.00 | Not used |
| Counter: Square, with SKU IQ ($19) to share the stock | Not used | 14.37 |
| Domain | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Total a month | £18 | £55 |
Its Basic plan is £12 but takes a 2% fee on every sale. The growing bill includes no bundles or loyalty. Card fees: on Core, 2.0% + 25p online with the in-person rate not published, so £237.50 to £287.50 a month; on Plus, 1.7% + 25p online and Square’s 1.75% at the counter, £209.50.
BigCommerce
| Item | Lean | Growing |
|---|---|---|
| Plan: Growth $79 ($105 if billed monthly), for sales up to $100,000 a year | 59.74 | 59.74 |
| Till: Square POS, with SKU IQ Basic $19 or Plus $49 to share the stock | 14.37 | 37.05 |
| Reviews (Judge.me) and loyalty (Smile), prices assumed | 0.00 | 22.68 |
| Email: Klaviyo, 1,500 contacts | 0.00 | 34.03 |
| Domain | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Total a month | £75 | £155 |
Its cheapest plan, Core at $29, stops at $30,000 of sales a year. If till sales count towards the cap, the shop needs Scale: $299 a month ($399 billed monthly) plus 0.9% on sales above $33,333 a month, which takes the growing bill to £321. Card fees with Stripe online and Square at the counter: £190 a month.
Square Online with Square POS
| Item | Lean | Growing |
|---|---|---|
| Online: Plus £20 (billed yearly), needed for your own domain | 20.00 | 20.00 |
| Till: Square POS free; Retail Plus £49 per location | 0.00 | 49.00 |
| Stock shared by the till and the website: built in | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Domain (a credit covers the first year) | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Total a month | £21 | £70 |
Marketing and loyalty add-ons were not priced. Card fees (1.4% + 25p online, 1.75% in person, 1.6% on Retail Plus): £191.50 a month lean, £185.50 growing.
Card fees for the example shop
| How you are paid | Online | In person | A month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Payments, Basic | 2% + 25p | 1.7% | £225.50 |
| Shopify Payments, Grow | 1.7% + 25p | 1.6% | £203.50 |
| Wix Payments | 2.1% + 20p | 1.7% | £224.00 |
| WooPayments | 1.5% + 25p | 1.4% + 20p | £223.50 |
| Stripe | 1.5% + 20p | 1.4% + 10p (its rate for EEA cards) | £196.00 |
| Squarespace Core | 2.0% + 25p | Not published | £237.50 to £287.50 |
| Squarespace Plus, Square at the counter | 1.7% + 25p | 1.75% | £209.50 |
| Stripe online, Square at the counter | 1.5% + 20p | 1.75% | £190.00 |
| Square | 1.4% + 25p | 1.75% (1.6% on Retail Plus) | £185.50 to £191.50 |
Stripe’s page gives its in-person rate as 1.4% + 10p for EEA cards and 2.9% + 10p for other cards, and does not say which applies to UK cards. At the higher rate, the Stripe line is £256.
Where every rate is published, card fees come to about 1.9% to 2.3% of the shop’s takings, more than the lean software bill on every platform.
Five things worth knowing
- Introductory hosting prices last a year. SiteGround’s StartUp plan is £1.99 a month for the first year, then £13.99, paid 12 months ahead and without VAT. GrowBig goes from £3.99 to £23.99.
- Shopify charges more if you use another payment provider: 2% of sales on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced. On £6,000 a month online, that is £120, six times the £19 plan. Squarespace’s Basic plan also takes 2% of sales.
- BigCommerce’s plans have sales caps. Core covers up to $30,000 of sales over twelve months and moves you up a plan past that; Growth stops at $100,000; Scale charges 0.9% on sales above $33,333 a month.
- The apps can cost more than the plan. Shopify wrote in 2021 that
the average Shopify merchant has six apps installed
. Six common apps and POS Pro turn a £49 plan into about £234 a month. - Card fees cost more than the lean software bill on every platform: about £186 to £226 a month on £10,000 of takings, where every rate is published. WooPayments also adds 20% VAT to its fees unless a reverse charge applies, and charges £5 a month for each active card reader.
What we could not confirm
- Wix: its prices for monthly billing (£19 and £29) come only from a secondary site. We could not confirm which plan its phone till needs, or whether Judge.me and Smile charge the same on Wix as on Shopify. Wix’s own email prices need a log-in to read.
- Squarespace: its in-person card rate in the UK is not published, and its pages do not say whether prices include VAT. We found no prices for bundle or loyalty extensions, and Judge.me has left Squarespace.
- BigCommerce: we could not confirm whether till sales kept in step through Square count towards its sales cap, or whether its Square connection is offered in the UK. Paid theme prices are not published.
- Square: we did not check the UK prices of Square Marketing and Square Loyalty, or Square Online’s price when billed monthly.
- Prices in dollars (Shopify’s apps, Klaviyo, Kinsta) move with the exchange rate. Introductory offers were ignored: Shopify’s three months at £1, Klaviyo’s $1 first month and Jetpack’s half price first year.
Where ours fits
We make Talstok. It runs a till, stock control and an online shop from one stock count. A shop can switch parts such as the till, trade-ins and batches on or off, in Settings. Online card payments go to the shop’s own Stripe account at Stripe’s own rate (1.5% + 20p on standard UK cards), and at the counter you use your own card machine. It does not connect to card readers, print receipts or work offline, and it has no gift cards or loyalty.
Talstok costs from £20 a month for each shop that takes real money, and test shops are free. Plans for each kind of shop, with add-ons on top, are coming, so that a shop pays only for the parts it uses. What each plan includes is being decided, and our pricing page will say when it is. Signing up on this site is not open yet. A shop starts by writing to contact@talstok.com for a free test shop.
Sources
All read on 5 October 2026.
- Shopify UK pricing
- Judge.me on the Shopify App Store
- Klaviyo UK pricing
- Seal Subscriptions
- Recharge
- Fast Bundle
- Shopify Bundles
- Booster SEO
- Smile pricing
- Shopify paid themes
- Shopify domains
- Shopify on how many apps a shop installs (25 February 2021)
- Wix plans
- Wix prices billed monthly, from a secondary site (ExpertSure)
- Wix Payments fees
- Wix card reader
- Wix Reviews app
- Wix loyalty programme: upgrading your site
- WooCommerce Subscriptions
- WooCommerce Product Bundles
- WooCommerce Points and Rewards
- WooPayments fees
- WooCommerce point of sale
- SiteGround WooCommerce hosting
- Kinsta pricing
- WP Engine plans
- WordPress.com pricing
- Yoast SEO
- Jetpack pricing
- Flatsome theme
- Squarespace pricing
- Squarespace transaction fees
- Selling on Squarespace’s Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced plans
- Selling in person with Squarespace
- Squarespace Email Campaigns
- SKU IQ pricing
- BigCommerce UK pricing
- Stripe UK pricing
- Square UK pricing
- Square Online plans
- Square for Retail pricing
- European Central Bank exchange rates
- When to register for VAT (gov.uk)