Top 5 Shopify Alternatives for D2C Brands in India

If you are an ecommerce brand looking to build a D2C online store in India, I am sure you came across Shopify.

It’s a popular platform known for its hundreds of apps and easy-to-use interface.

But, does Shopify offer everything you need for smooth business functioning?

If you are not able to say a resounding YES, you certainly have been bothered by one of the many Shopify shortcomings like, limited customisations, complex apps based infrastructure and scalability concerns.

The good news is that there are many Shopify alternatives for D2C brands in the market using which you can create tailored direct-to-consumer stores for your business.

StoreHippo brings a list of the 5 best Shopify alternatives for India to help you choose the right ecommerce platform.

D2C Ecommerce Trends - what Your Brand Needs To Grow Without Limitations

Before we start analyzing different Shopify alternatives, let us look at a few D2C ecommerce trends in India.

• 15 X growth forecasted for the D2C market from 2015 to 2025
• 19% is the CAGR for the D2C market between 2022-2030
• 63% of ecommerce orders come from Tier II and beyond cities and towns
• 73% of customers used multiple channels to make a purchase decision
• 3.5x higher engagement with omnichannel retail
• 60% of ecommerce orders are placed via mobile

Source: Statista, Business Today 

Indian ecommerce is just the right place to begin your brand’s D2C journey. All you need to tap in the trends is the best ecommerce platform for D2C brands, that can build tailored solutions suited for the booming Indian markets.  

For a fair comparison on all aspects, let us first understand Shopify as a D2C solution provider and the best available Shopify alternatives for Indian markets.

What is Shopify 

Shopify is a SaaS-based ecommerce platform that offers tools to build a D2C online store in India and manage and sell products and services seamlessly. Popular primarily with SMEs, it offers the following solutions:

• Shopify: Comes with three pricing plans, Basic, Shopify, and Advanced, each offering features depending upon the size and requirements of small businesses
• Shopify Plus: Offers advanced features for brands with high-volume transactions

7 Shopify Challenges That Hamper D2C Brands’ Growth

Wonder why you should look for Shopify alternatives for D2C brands?

Here are 7 ways Shopify falls short of meeting business requirements:

• Tough to customize the Shopify platform due to restricted flexibility 
• Difficult to handle large product catalogs, high traffic, and multi-channel sales
• Limited m-commerce solutions which are a must to target tier II-III cities in India
• Apps based infrastructure inflates the overall cost to build a D2C online store in India
• Does not offer built-in features for enterprise D2C businesses
• Limitations in customizing meta tags, URL structures, or optimizing site speed 
• Limited integration options with popular Indian payment gateways like Razorpay, UPI, or Paytm

Growing D2C businesses usually have an aggressive growth trajectory and the above limitations of Shopify impede growth.  To tackle these challenges and make the most of the favourable market conditions, brands need ecommerce solutions that are scalable, flexible, and cost-effective. If you are also feeling you need something better than Shopify, it is time to evaluate the best Shopify alternatives for India.

8 Essential Features To Look For In Shopify Alternatives For D2C Brands

To build a successful D2C brand, your business needs to plan not only for the current requirements but also the future requirements. Also, your D2C solution provider should be aligned with your brand’s unique needs.

Here are the 8 essential features you need to consider while choosing the best Shopify alternatives for India:

• Cutting-edge technology to build flexible and scalable D2C online stores
• Omnichannel solutions to engage with customers on multiple touchpoints
• Built-in design tools to help create unique engaging designs and website themes
• Mobile-first technology to seamlessly create mobile apps and build PWA stores 
• Advanced marketing tools to take your D2C brand to new markets 
• Personalization features to engage and convert better 
• Secure and frictionless payment process for customers 
• Seamless integrations with third-party software like marketing, CRM, accounting etc.

The best Shopify alternatives for D2C brands should have all the above features and a gamut of enterprise-grade features that help create conversion-oriented websites. 

Top 5 Shopify Alternatives for D2C Brands in India in 2025

To help you choose the best-fit Shopify competitor for your direct-to-consumer business, we have evaluated the most trusted ecommerce platforms in India. These platforms are evaluated on the basis of their pros, cons, and technology and how they can help Indian D2C enterprises carve a niche in the market.

Let’s dive in and find the right one to build a D2C online store in India for your business:

1. StoreHippo

SaaS-based ecommerce platform, StoreHippo is a flexible, fully hosted, and managed Shopify alternative for D2C brands. StoreHippo offers plug-and-play solutions to medium and large D2C enterprise brands helping them go to the market in record time. You can seamlessly build multi vendor marketplaces, multi store networks, or multilingual D2C ecommerce stores With StoreHippo ecommerce platform. 

With the decoupled headless architecture and enhanced creative flexibility, StoreHippo can be considered as the best Shopify alternatives for India. With extensive customizations, scalability and omnichannel functionalities, StoreHippo gives D2C brands the flexibility to experiment and innovate. Built using MEAN Stack technology and MACH architecture StoreHippo helps to build tailored D2C ecommerce solutions for Indian markets. D2C online stores powered by StoreHippo are also PWA stores that work like apps even with poor internet connectivity. 

Pros:

• Fully hosted D2C ecommerce software with hassle-free automatic updates and upgrades
• Inherent flexibility for easy tweaks to both frontend and backend
• Scalable ecommerce solution that can accommodate business growth and handle traffic peaks without compromising performance
• Easy to build a D2C online store in India with cutting-edge ecommerce solutions
• Built in mobile apps builder to create Android and iOS mobile apps with no coding required and at zero additional costs
• Multilingual support for 100+ languages to connect with customers in their native language
• Easy to use drag and drop design to create new and unique design themes for your D2C online store in India
• White label ecommerce solutions for enterprise D2C brands
• Robust multi level security with free SSL, PCI-DSS compliance
• Omnichannel solutions to easily create multiple customer touchpoints using the same backend logic and APIs
• SEO-friendly ecommerce platform with a host of marketing features makes StoreHippo the best Shopify alternatives for India
• 300+ inbuilt features eliminate the need for paid apps or plugins
• 120+ pre-integrations and seamless API-based integrations with preferred solutions
• 60+ pre-integrated domestic and international payment gateways 
• 30+ logistics partners for seamless shipping across India

Cons: 

• Certain advanced features and customizations are only available with higher tier plans
• Although considered the best ecommerce platform for D2C by high-volume stores, it only  offers POS integration and does not have its own POS system
• Does not offer marketing services which has been requested by many clients
• Due to the huge suite of built-in features has a much smaller apps marketplace than Shopify

2. Magento

Magento ecommerce platform was launched in India in 2007. Aquired by Adobe in 2018, Magento is widely known for its flexibility and scalability.

 Magento has two versions: 

• Magento open source: free and suitable for SMEs
• Magento Commerce: paid version for enterprise brands

Magento not only helps you build a D2C online store in India but also customize your stores to your specific brand needs. If you are well-versed with other Adobe products and have a strong IT team, you will find Magento a good Shopify alternative in India. Built on PHP using the Zend Framework, Magento uses MySQL for database management. The modular architecture of Magento makes it a good fit for direct to consumer brands that need extensive customizations and integration with different third-party services.

Pros:

• Get full backend access for customizations as Magento is open-source
• Get additional platform functionalities with a developer network of over 2,60,000 skilled professionals
• Access to board partner ecosystem for third-party apps and add-ons    
• Help optimize your stores for better ranking with powerful SEO tools

Cons:

•  Considered one of the best Shopify alternatives for India, does not provide hosted solutions. D2C brands have to rely on  third-party web hosting providers or self-hosting
• Need an IT setup to manage the patches and updates
• Pricey as there’s the cost of hosting, development, and management involved
• Becomes slow and buggy as the business scales
• Security becomes a major concern as breaches are common
• Magento often upgrades the platform and D2C enterprises need to bear the cost and hassle of upgrading every few years

3. BigCommerce

A leading D2C ecommerce software, BigCommerce offers well-rounded solutions for building and managing online stores. Catering to both small and large D2C enterprises, BigCommerce comes with a wide range of features, built-in SEO tools, marketing, multi-channel selling features, etc. One of the best Shopify alternatives for India, BigCommerce is built on the SaaS model and uses a combination of modern technologies, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and API integrations.

Pros:

• Ease of use and user-friendly interface
• Offers a host of built-in tools to run and manage the business minimizing the need for third-party apps and add-ons
• Offers scalable solutions to handle increased traffic and sales volume without having to compromise on the performance
• Supports selling across multiple channels for your D2C ecommerce brand 
• Fully hosted ecommerce platform with robust security features

Cons:

• Tough learning curve that requires experienced developers to handle the ecommerce platform
• The Shopify alternatives for D2C brand has no built-in support to handle enterprise grade features 
• Comes with customizable templates, but does not provide customization features as other Shopify alternatives do
• Advanced features require premium apps or workarounds to build tailored solutions that cost extra 
• Requires mcommerce support and features despite claiming to be built on mobile tech solutions

4. WooCommerce 

WooCommerce is a powerful open-source plugin used by enterprise D2C brands in India and helps brands convert their WordPress websites or blogs into functional D2C stores. Particularly suited for small to medium-sized businesses, WooCommerce is popular as the best Shopify alternatives for India with brands that already use WordPress. WooCommerce is built using PHP and uses MySQL for database management. It offers multiple third-party plugins and extensions for various functionalities. 

Pros: 

• Offers a completely free plugin for any WordPress site 
• Helps seamlessly integrate with existing WordPress setup 
• Can be completely customized in terms of design, functionality, and user experience due to its open-source nature
• Access to a wide range of free and premium extensions
• Scalable solution to build a D2C online store in India without compromising on the site’s performance when the business grows
• Cost-effective solution with multiple free extensions 

Cons:

• Technical knowledge of WordPress is a must to use WooCommerce
• D2C enterprise brands need to bear the cost of domain hosting, SSL certificates, upgrades, etc.  
• Requires multiple plugins to add core features to WooCommerce
• Prone to security issues as businesses need to maintain security, backups, and protection against common threats  
• Does not offer a dedicated customer support

5. Shift4Shop

Shift4Shop is a Shopify alternative for D2C brands offering enterprise solutions since 1997. The fully hosted ecommerce solution offers strong SEO control to D2C brands. Shift4Shop is an all-in-one ecommerce solution that comes with a host of features and tools to help D2C enterprise brands take their businesses to new levels. Offering cloud based, fully-hosted solutions using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for front-end designs, Shift4Shop also enables third-party service and software integrations through APIs.                   

Pros:

• Built-in SEO tools and features like Google AMP support, customizable URLs, and meta tags to help D2C brands rank higher on search engines
• The best ecommerce platform for D2C offers native features to reduce the need for third-party apps or plugins 
• Easy to go omnichannel including on social channels and caters to the multi channel selling needs of enterprise business
• Does not charge transaction fees on any of the plans that leads to significant savings
• Supports over 100 payment gateways offering flexibility to customers to choose their preferred payment option

Cons:

• Feature-rich ecommerce platform that makes it tough to use or build a D2C online store in India for beginners 
• Unable to fulfill extensive theme customizations requirements, however, it offers a variety of themes
• Dated free themes that lack the modern appeal and responsiveness required for D2C enterprises
• Performance issues as businesses grow rapidly, mostly when extensive catalogs or features are added
• Multiple complaints about the quality and responsiveness of support

Conclusion

Choosing the right ecommerce platform can be a game-changer for D2C brands in India. While Shopify has its merits, the dynamic Indian market requires a solution that goes beyond the basics. Shopify alternatives for D2C brands like the homegrown platforms StoreHippo, comes with robust support for localized features and scalability, empowering businesses to thrive in this competitive landscape. For brands aiming to break boundaries and capture the market, exploring these alternatives could be the key to unlocking unparalleled growth.

Experience the difference with StoreHippo, start your journey with a 14-day StoreHippo free trial today.