Shopify vs Dukaan in 2026: pricing, fees and when to move

Dukaan is cheaper to start and Shopify is cheaper to grow on. Dukaan's plans run from ₹0 to ₹50,000 a year, but it takes a service fee of 0.99% to 4.99% per order. Shopify Basic is ₹1,499/mo billed yearly, and its 2% fee only applies to prepaid orders through a third-party gateway. Past a few lakh a month in sales, or once you need serious apps, SEO control or custom work, Shopify usually wins.

I've written a step-by-step Dukaan to Shopify migration guide already. This post comes before that: should you move at all? People search "Shopify vs Dukaan" and "move Dukaan" in about equal measure, and the honest answer for some of them is "not yet."

For the full Shopify cost breakdown, see my Shopify pricing in India hub.

How much do Shopify and Dukaan cost in 2026?

Both pricing pages, checked in October 2026.

Dukaan (from mydukaan.io/pricing; the page defaults to yearly billing):

The service fee is "capped ₹200 at per order" and "not applicable for manual orders," per the page. The large gap between the shown and struck-through prices suggests a promotion, so check the page on the day you sign up. The page doesn't say whether prices include GST.

Shopify (from shopify.com/in/pricing; prices shown before taxes):

Shopify's current offer is 3 days free, then ₹20/month for 3 months. Shopify Payments isn't available in India, so you'll run Razorpay, PayU, Cashfree or similar, and pay that gateway's own fee on top. On COD, Shopify says manual payments carry no third-party transaction fee.

Which is cheaper once you're actually selling?

Plan prices are the small number. The per-order fee is the big one. A worked example with stated assumptions:

• ₹3,00,000 a month in sales, ₹1,000 average order (300 orders), so Dukaan's ₹200 cap never kicks in
• 60% prepaid, 40% COD
• Gateway fees left out, since you pay a gateway on both platforms
• Dukaan's fee applied to every order (the page doesn't say how COD is treated, so this is the worst case)

At this volume Shopify Basic is the cheapest, even before counting what you'd spend on apps. Grow only overtakes Basic on fees once prepaid sales pass roughly ₹4,10,000 a month on yearly billing (about ₹5,45,300 on monthly billing), so most stores leaving Dukaan should start on Basic and upgrade for features, not fees. At ₹50,000 a month in sales the picture flips: Dukaan Starter's fee is about ₹2,000 and Shopify Basic is still ₹1,499 plus ₹600 in fees on prepaid orders, so they're close, and Dukaan's Free and Starter plans are hard to beat for a store just testing demand.

Two things would change these numbers. If Dukaan doesn't charge its fee on COD orders, its totals drop by 40%. And on Shopify, the paid apps you add (reviews, WhatsApp, COD verification) can add a few thousand rupees a month. Dukaan bundles many of those as built-in plugins. Run your own mix through both.

What does Dukaan include that Shopify charges extra for?

Dukaan's pricing page lists a lot of built-in plugins: abandoned cart recovery sent from Dukaan's own WhatsApp and email "at FREE of cost", Razorpay and PhonePe payment gateway integration, Shiprocket, Dukaan Delivery, product reviews, a WhatsApp chat bubble, Google Merchant Center and Search Console connections, URL redirects, a blog and an SEO plugin. The page doesn't make it easy to see which plugin sits on which plan, so check before you rely on one.

On Shopify, several of those come from the App Store, and many charge monthly. That's the real reason Dukaan feels cheaper early on: fewer bills to stack.

Where does Shopify pull ahead?

Apps and integrations. Dukaan has a fixed set of plugins plus webhooks. Shopify has the App Store, and almost every Indian D2C tool (COD verification, GST invoices, WhatsApp, reviews, subscriptions, loyalty) builds for Shopify first. When a brand asks me for something specific, the Shopify answer is usually "there's an app" or "I can build that." On a closed platform it's often "you can't."

Themes and design control. Dukaan lists 7 themes on Free and Starter and 14+ on Growth, with a theme editor and a code editor in its feature list. Shopify has its own theme store with free and paid themes, plus full Liquid and Online Store 2.0 sections. For brands that want a custom look, the pool of people who can build on Shopify is far larger. On Mahina, a Gurgaon period care and apparel brand, I took Figma designs to custom Shopify sections, and the store reached 95+ on speed with AOV up 28%. That kind of build depends on the platform giving you the code.

SEO. Both offer custom domains, URL redirects and Search Console. Shopify gives you more control over structured data, metafields, theme code and app-based SEO tooling, and it's the platform most AI shopping and search tools document best. If organic traffic is a growth channel for you, that control matters. I go deeper in Shopify SEO for D2C brands.

Checkout and payments. Both support Indian gateways and COD. Dukaan's feature list names Razorpay and PhonePe as built-in gateways and lists COD charges as a setting. On Shopify you pick any gateway that supports Shopify in India, and you can switch later without rebuilding the store. On Shopify you can add payment customization apps (hide COD by pincode, partial COD, OTP) on Basic and above, and full checkout extensibility on Plus.

Hiring help. This one gets ignored. If you need a developer, there are far more Shopify developers in India than Dukaan specialists. That keeps rates sane and gives you somewhere to go if your first developer disappears.

When is Dukaan enough?

Stay on Dukaan if most of these are true:

• You sell under roughly ₹50,000 to ₹1,00,000 a month
• Most orders come from WhatsApp, Instagram DMs or repeat customers, not paid ads
• Your catalogue is small and doesn't need custom product logic
• You don't plan to hire a developer in the next six months
• The built-in plugins cover what you need

That's a legitimate business, and moving it to Shopify early would add monthly bills without adding sales. I'd rather you spend that money on stock or photography.

When should you move from Dukaan to Shopify?

Move when one or more of these is true:

• The service fee is more than a Shopify plan plus fees would be (run the table above with your numbers)
• You're about to spend real money on Meta or Google ads and need proper pixel, CAPI and analytics control
• You need an app or integration Dukaan doesn't offer
• You want a custom design, custom product options, bundles or subscriptions
• You want to sell internationally with proper multi-currency and markets
• Organic search is a channel you're investing in

On a migration, the platform costs little. The money goes into rebuilding the storefront and getting data and redirects right. In my Dukaan migration guide I put a done-for-you migration at ₹1,25,000 to ₹4,00,000 depending on catalogue size and design scope, and a small catalogue you move yourself costs only the Shopify plan.

What I'd do in your position

If you're on Dukaan today, export your products, customers and orders this week whether or not you move. You should own that data in files on your own machine.

Then do the fee maths with your real last three months: total sales, average order value and prepaid vs COD split. If Shopify Basic comes out cheaper, or within a thousand rupees a month and you need any of the "move" items above, move. If Dukaan is clearly cheaper and you don't need those things, stay, and check again when sales double.

If you're starting from zero, I'd start on Shopify if you plan to run ads within six months, and on Dukaan's Free or Starter plan if you're testing a product idea with friends and followers first. For the bigger picture, see is Shopify worth it in India.

Want help deciding or moving?

I've shipped 62+ Shopify brands, and platform moves are a regular part of that work. If you're weighing a move off Dukaan, tell me about your store on the intake form with your monthly sales, order count and what's frustrating you, and I'll tell you honestly whether it's time. My rates are on the Shopify developer rates page, and migrations are covered on the Shopify migration expert page.

Related reads

• Dukaan to Shopify migration (India): the step-by-step move.
• Is Shopify worth it in India?: the wider value question.
• Shopify transaction fees in India: what the 2% really costs.
• Shopify vs Wix for Indian D2C: another common comparison.

Sources

• Dukaan pricing
• Shopify India pricing
• Shopify Help Center: Manual payment methods
• Shopify Help Center: Shopify Payments supported countries
• Shopify Help Center: Starter plan
• Shopify Help Center: Checkout customization (Functions plan availability)
• Razorpay pricing