Prices and features cross-checked 2026-06. Both products evolve — if something's stale, flag it.
Shopify is world-class ecommerce. Neweb is built for India's service businesses.
Shopify is the undisputed leader in ecommerce platforms. If you sell physical products at scale, ship internationally, need advanced inventory management, and want access to the world's best ecommerce app ecosystem, Shopify is genuinely the right answer. For a clothing brand doing ₹50 lakh a year in online sales, Shopify's power is appropriate for the complexity of the operation.
But the majority of Indian small businesses are not ecommerce-first. They are clinics, coaching centres, restaurants, jewellers, beauty salons, consultancies, and local service providers. These businesses need a website that builds trust, drives Google search traffic, collects enquiries via WhatsApp, and keeps their Google Business profile updated. Shopify's ecommerce architecture is excess weight for these use cases — and at ₹2,420 per month, it's expensive excess weight. Neweb charges ₹249 per month for a product that fits these businesses precisely.
The real cost of Shopify in India
Shopify Basic is $29 per month — approximately ₹2,420. This does not include a domain (add ₹900 per year), does not include email hosting (add ₹300 to ₹600 per month for Google Workspace or similar), and applies a 2% transaction fee on every sale unless you use Shopify Payments. Shopify Payments is not available in India as of 2026, which means Indian merchants pay transaction fees on top of app costs. Many essential features — email marketing, reviews, multilingual, advanced shipping — require apps that cost ₹500 to ₹2,000 per month each.
A typical Indian small business running on Shopify with the minimum viable app stack spends ₹5,000 to ₹12,000 per month all-in. Neweb's Growth plan at ₹1,299 per month includes domain, SEO, GBP, multilingual, WhatsApp, UPI, and newsletter. The 4x to 9x cost difference is not abstract — it compounds to ₹50,000 to ₹1,30,000 per year.
We tried Shopify for six months. The platform is great but we were paying ₹8,000 a month for a clinic website. Neweb does everything we need for ₹1,299.
What Shopify does that Neweb does not
Shopify's ecommerce engine is more powerful than Neweb's. If you need multi-warehouse inventory management, complex discount and coupon logic, international tax compliance, dropshipping integrations, or a large-scale product catalogue with variants, Shopify handles these at a depth Neweb does not match. Shopify's app store has over 8,000 apps; Neweb's integration ecosystem is narrower.
Shopify also has a more mature abandoned cart recovery flow, better native analytics for ecommerce conversion funnels, and a stronger point-of-sale integration for physical retail that synchronises online and offline inventory. For an Indian retailer doing high-volume online sales with a physical store, Shopify's POS synchronisation is a real advantage that Neweb does not yet offer at the same level.
What Neweb does that Shopify does not
Neweb automates Google Business Profile setup and keeps it synced with your website. Shopify has a Google channel for product listings but no GBP automation. Neweb runs weekly SEO tunes. Shopify's SEO is decent but manual — you update meta tags yourself or hire an app. Neweb publishes in 14 Indian languages with correct hreflang. Shopify supports multilingual through a paid app or Shopify Markets, which adds complexity and cost.
Neweb has UPI QR codes, WhatsApp enquiry buttons, and GST invoicing built into every plan. Shopify requires apps for each of these, all with separate costs and separate dashboards. Neweb support runs in IST hours. Shopify support is global and English-first. And crucially: Neweb is priced for Indian small business margins. At ₹249 per month, the ROI calculation for a small clinic or coaching centre is obvious. At ₹2,420 or more per month, Shopify requires significant revenue to justify.
When to choose Shopify and when to choose Neweb
Choose Shopify if you sell physical products at scale, you need advanced inventory and multi-channel selling (Instagram, WhatsApp Commerce, Amazon, Meesho), and your monthly online revenue justifies ₹5,000 or more per month in platform costs. Shopify's ecommerce infrastructure is genuinely best-in-class for product businesses at scale.
Choose Neweb if you run a service business, a local retail store, a restaurant, a clinic, a coaching centre, or any business where your website's job is to build trust, appear in local search, and funnel enquiries to WhatsApp or a booking form. Neweb delivers better local SEO, better GBP management, better Indian language publishing, and a support team that understands Indian business context — all at 90% lower cost than a comparable Shopify setup.
Indian context: Shopify's friction points
Shopify Payments is unavailable in India, which means all Indian merchants route through Razorpay, PayU, or Cashfree via third-party apps. This adds a layer of integration complexity and additional transaction fees. UPI-first checkout — the payment method most Indian customers prefer — requires configuration work that Neweb handles natively. GST-compliant invoicing requires a paid app on Shopify; it's built into Neweb's dashboard.
Shopify's customer support operates from North America and is not tuned for Indian regulatory questions — GST numbers, DPDP compliance, local business verification. Neweb's team is in Ahmedabad and understands these requirements by default. For Indian businesses navigating compliance alongside building their online presence, the local expertise matters.
Related pages.
Neweb pricing
Starter at ₹249, Growth at ₹1299. Free domain and Google Business on every plan.
Full feature list
Everything Neweb does — website, SEO, GBP, multilingual, newsletter, analytics.
Neweb vs Wix
Wix is a website builder. Neweb is the online-presence manager that happens to include a website.
Switching from Shopify?
If you're a service business paying Shopify prices for a website that mostly drives enquiries, we can move you over in a day.