Payhip

Payhip's free plan does something almost nothing else does: it connects a domain the seller already owns, issues the certificate for it, and lets the vendor's own footer mark be switched off in the store builder. On paper that is a complete store for nothing, and the vendor says outright that it does not gate features on the free plan.

The bill arrives as a share of revenue instead. Five per cent of every sale is taken on the free plan, and no payment method avoids it — the only reductions are paid subscriptions at two per cent and zero per cent respectively.

The thing to weigh is that the price is neither free nor cheap, but conditional. A shop selling very little pays almost nothing and gets a complete store. A shop selling steadily pays more in commission than either subscription would have cost, and works out worse than a flat fee somewhere else. The published number is nothing and the real number depends entirely on how well the shop does.