WooCommerce vs Payly: the real cost of a "free" store
WooCommerce is free to download, and it powers a huge share of the world's online stores. But free software is not the same as a free store: you still pay for hosting, often for paid extensions, and with your time to keep it all updated and secure. Payly includes the store and its hosting for free. Here is how they compare.
The short answer
- WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress. WooCommerce itself puts hosting at $25 to $350 a month for most stores, and its official extensions cost $29 to $299 a year each.
- Payly is free, hosting included: no monthly fee, no transaction fee and no commission. You pay only PayPal's or Stripe's standard processing fee.
- Choose WooCommerce if you want full control of the code and the server, or your business already runs on WordPress.
- Choose Payly if you want the store without the hosting bill, the extensions or the upkeep.
What a WooCommerce store costs
WooCommerce has no plans and no platform fee, and it adds no transaction fee to any payment provider. The costs come from everything around it:
| Cost | Typical price |
|---|---|
| WooCommerce plugin | Free |
| Hosting | $25 to $350 a month for most stores, by WooCommerce's own estimate |
| Subscriptions extension | $279 a year |
| Memberships extension | $199 a year |
| Bookings extension | $249 a year |
| Table Rate Shipping extension | $119 a year |
| Product Add-Ons extension | $79 a year |
| WooPayments card processing | 2.9% + 30¢ per US card |
Extension prices are WooCommerce's own, as listed in its marketplace in October 2026. Many other extensions, free and paid, come from other developers, and most stores add a few. A theme, backups and a security service may add more.
The cost that is not on the invoice
A self-hosted store is yours to look after. WordPress, WooCommerce, the theme and every extension need updates, and an update can occasionally break something on a live store. Backups, security and speed are your responsibility too, or your developer's. For people who enjoy that, it is a strength. For people who would rather spend the time selling, it is a real cost.
What Payly costs
Payly is free, and the hosting is part of it. Your store is published to your own free Cloudflare account, which comfortably covers most stores, about 5,000 visitors a day. If a store ever outgrows that, Cloudflare's paid plan is $5 a month, paid to Cloudflare. Payly stays free either way.
Customers pay your own PayPal or Stripe account directly, and the only fee on a sale is theirs:
- PayPal: 3.49% + 49¢ for a PayPal Checkout payment in the US.
- Stripe: 2.9% + 30¢ for a standard US card, the same rate as WooPayments.
Updates, security and backups are handled for you. You can restore an earlier version of your store's design from a backup at any time.
A year of a subscription store, side by side
Here is a store that sells subscription boxes and a members-only area, at the low end of WooCommerce's hosting estimate:
| WooCommerce | Payly | |
|---|---|---|
| Software | $0 | $0 |
| Hosting at $25 a month | $300 | $0 |
| Subscriptions | $279 | Included |
| Memberships | $199 | Included |
| Total a year | $778 | $0 |
Payment processing is about the same on both, so it is left out.
Features compared
| WooCommerce | Payly | |
|---|---|---|
| Software cost | Free | Free |
| Hosting | You choose and pay a host | Your own free Cloudflare account |
| Updates and security | Yours to manage | Handled for you |
| Payments | Almost any provider, through plugins | PayPal (PayPal, Pay Later and cards) and Stripe (cards) |
| Subscriptions and memberships | Paid extensions | Built in |
| Digital downloads, discount codes, reviews | Yes | Yes |
| Shipping zones and tax rates | Yes | Yes |
| Blog and content pages | Yes, it is WordPress | Pages you design in the editor |
| Custom code and plugins | Unlimited | No |
| Export your products | CSV | WooCommerce or Shopify file |
Where WooCommerce is the better choice
WooCommerce gives you something no hosted platform can: complete control. You can change any line of code, install any plugin, choose any host and any payment provider, and run your store beside a full WordPress site and blog. Businesses with a developer, unusual requirements or a large WordPress site already in place are often best served by it.
We know this world well. The team behind Payly has been building ecommerce software since 2014, and over 70,000 eCommerce sites are powered by our company's software.
Where Payly is the better choice
If you want a store rather than a server, Payly removes the hosting bill, the extension subscriptions and the maintenance, and keeps the features most stores reach for: subscriptions with free trials and sign-up fees, memberships, digital downloads, discount codes, shipping zones, sales tax and reports.
Moving from WooCommerce to Payly
Type your WooCommerce store's address into Payly, or upload WooCommerce's product export file. You see every product and variant before anything is added, your photos are copied into your own store, and nothing changes on your WordPress site. If you ever want to go back, Payly exports your products as a WooCommerce file. See Move from WooCommerce.
Questions
Is WooCommerce really free?
The plugin is free. Running a store with it means paying for hosting, and usually for some extensions, a theme and someone's time to maintain it.
Do I need hosting for Payly?
Your store runs on your own Cloudflare account, which is free to create. Payly sets it up when you first publish.
Does Payly charge a transaction fee?
No. Payly charges no transaction fee and no commission. PayPal and Stripe charge their standard processing fees.
WooCommerce, extension and WooPayments prices as published by WooCommerce in October 2026. The hosting range is WooCommerce's own estimate; real hosting prices vary widely. PayPal and Stripe rates as published by each company for US payments.
