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You can open an online shop without a big upfront spend. What you need on day one is a store to sell from, a way to take payment and a way to tell people you exist. Email, support and analytics can wait until orders start coming in.
Start with the three essentials below and add the rest as you grow. Each step links to listings picked for WebTools.directory, where you'll find current plan and deal details.
Start with these
1. Store builders
Why: Your shop or product platform, with checkout built in, so you don't have to build one yourself.
- Shopify: a full online store builder. It starts with a free trial and no card needed, so you can set up your shop before you pay anything.
- Gumroad: if you sell digital products, courses or memberships rather than physical stock. There's no monthly fee, and it's the merchant of record, so it handles sales tax for you.
2. Payments
Why: How customers pay you by card or wallet, online and, if you sell at markets or pop-ups, in person.
- Square: card payments in person, online and by invoice, with no monthly fee on its free plan, just per-transaction rates. Square's listed pricing is for the US, so check the page for your country.
- Stripe: pay-as-you-go online payments and subscriptions, with no setup or monthly fees. You pay per successful card charge. Its listed pricing is for the UK, so check the page for your country.
Shopify and Gumroad both include a checkout, so you may only need a separate payment tool for in-person sales or invoices.
3. Social and ads
Why: Getting your products in front of people. For most small shops that starts with regular social posts, then paid ads once you know what sells.
- AdaptlyPost: schedule posts across many social accounts with AI captions, as a one-payment deal.
- SocialBu: schedule and automate posts with an AI writer, also a one-payment deal.
- Google Ads new-advertiser credit: a limited-time offer for new UK advertisers. Meet a spend requirement in your first 60 days and get double that spend back as ad credit. It's only worth it if you were going to advertise anyway, and the credit expires.
Add these later
4. Email marketing
Why: Email brings customers back for a second order, which costs far less than finding new ones.
- Brevo: email marketing with a free plan and a daily sending limit, fine while your list is small.
- Kit: a newsletter platform with landing pages, forms and digital product sales. Its free plan covers a large list.
5. Customer support
Why: Quick answers to questions about sizes, delivery or returns help turn browsers into buyers.
- tawk.to: free live chat, ticketing and a knowledge base. You only pay for optional add-ons, and the tawk.to badge stays on unless you pay to remove it.
- Crisp: website live chat with a shared inbox and mobile apps.
6. Analytics
Why: See where visitors come from and which pages they leave on, so you know what to fix first.
- Umami: simple, privacy-focused web analytics for one site.
- Visitor Tracking: website and conversion tracking for unlimited sites, as a one-payment deal.
Browse the categories
Compare more options in each category:
- Sell Online, for store builders
- Accept Payments
- Run Marketing, for social scheduling and email marketing
- Create Content
- Support Customers
- Analyse Performance
