Shopify vs Dukaan in India (2026)

Dukaan is the cheaper subscription by a wide margin. As of October 2026 its paid plan works out to roughly ₹552 a month when billed yearly, with gateway charges on each order on top. The company has renamed and repriced plans more than once, and some features that used to be free have moved behind paid tiers, so treat any number you read as a starting point and confirm on the current pricing page. A custom domain is extra, typically ₹699 to ₹999 a year from a registrar, and connecting it is straightforward.

Shopify Basic is roughly ₹1,994 a month billed yearly or about ₹2,420 paid monthly, plus your domain. That is nearly four times Dukaan's subscription, and Shopify also adds a transaction fee on third-party gateways on its lower plans. The difference buys you a mature admin, a theme store, thousands of apps and a checkout that has been optimised on millions of stores. For a seller doing twenty orders a week the gap matters. For one doing twenty orders a day, the Shopify tooling usually pays for itself in saved time and recovered carts.

Both do UPI and cash on delivery, which is the baseline any Indian store needs. Dukaan's advantage is that it is wired for the Indian seller from the first screen: UPI and COD are on by default, GST-ready invoices are built in, and shipping partners are integrated for pin-code-based rates without hunting for an app. Our COD versus prepaid guide explains why offering both matters for conversion in smaller cities.

Shopify gets to the same place through apps: Razorpay, PhonePe, Cashfree or PayU for payments, Shiprocket or Delhivery for shipping, and a GST invoicing app for compliant bills. Each adds a small monthly cost and a setup step, but you get more choice, better abandoned-cart recovery, discount logic, gift cards and multi-currency if you sell abroad. Dukaan covers the Indian basics faster; Shopify covers everything, eventually.

Dukaan's storefronts are deliberately light. They are built mobile-first for buyers on budget Android phones and patchy 4G, and a simple product grid with a UPI button loads quickly almost everywhere in India. There is little you can add that would slow it down, which is both the strength and the limitation.

Shopify's hosting and CDN are excellent, and the checkout is among the fastest in the industry. Storefront speed then depends on your theme and how many apps inject scripts. A store with a clean official theme and three apps will be quick; one with a heavy paid theme and fifteen apps will not. Test on our website speed test after every app you install, and remove what you do not use.

Choose Dukaan if you sell to a local or social audience, run the business from your phone, need UPI and COD working today and want to spend as little as possible while you find out whether the business works. Choose Shopify if you are building a brand with ads, repeat customers, a growing catalogue and ambitions beyond one city; the extra ₹1,400 or so a month buys tooling you will use every day and a platform you will not have to migrate away from.

Both are stores first. If what you actually need is a business website with a few products on the side, see the best website builder in India roundup, and if you are leaving either platform, the Shopify alternatives and Dukaan alternatives pages list what Indian sellers move to.