Online store:
the question is not which platform is best.

What is the real difference between the platforms?

All of them list products and take payments. The difference is where responsibility sits:

• Managed platform (SaaS) — Salla, Zid, Shopify. They own the server, the updates and the security; you rent. You start fast, pay monthly, and work within what the platform allows.
• Self-hosted — WooCommerce on your own hosting. You own the files and the database and can change anything, and you handle everything that breaks.

Every other comparison follows from that one: speed to launch, limits on customisation, the cost of year two, and what remains yours if you decide to leave.

Salla and Zid: why they get recommended in Saudi Arabia

Not because they are technically better than the global options, but because local integration is half the store. A gateway that accepts mada, a courier that understands Saudi addressing, and invoicing and an admin interface in Arabic rather than awkward translation — those are things that cost you weeks to assemble yourself on a global platform.

We are not going to give you their prices here: their pricing pages did not let us verify them, and we do not publish a figure we cannot stand behind. Open each one's pricing page and apply the four questions in the last section — they work on any platform, including ones we never mention.

Shopify: its strength, and the detail that costs you

Shopify has the widest app and theme ecosystem on the market, and that is a genuine reason to pick it if you need an unusual integration. Its published prices:

And the detail to know before you commit: if you use an external payment gateway instead of Shopify's own, it charges an additional percentage on every transaction — up to 2% on the entry plan, falling on higher plans. That is not a marginal detail in our market, because many merchants need a local gateway. Ask about that percentage specifically before you calculate your costs.

WooCommerce: what exactly does "free" mean?

WooCommerce genuinely is free and open source, and it is installed on more than 7 million sites according to its official page. But "free" describes the plugin, not the store:

• You need WordPress and hosting — its published requirements: PHP 7.4 minimum (8.0 or newer recommended), WordPress 6.9 or newer, 256MB memory, and HTTPS.
• Payment gateway fees — nothing to do with the platform; you pay them either way.
• Paid extensions when you need them — the core is free, some commercial extensions are not.
• Your time — updates, backups and security are yours. That is the largest hidden cost, and it is not money.

That 256MB memory requirement is what makes hosting a decision tied to the store rather than separate from it — we worked out four-year hosting costs in our hosting comparison, and the full cost of a WordPress site in a separate guide.

Payment fees: the line item that flips the maths

A platform subscription is a fixed number; payment fees are a percentage. That is why the comparison inverts as sales grow: 1.8% on small sales is negligible, and on healthy sales it becomes the largest item in your technical costs.

So calculate it this way: annual subscription + (payment rate × expected sales), then run it again at double your expected sales. The platform that wins the first calculation is not always the one that wins the second.

A third option: a store builder with zero platform fees

Between a managed platform that takes a percentage and WooCommerce that asks you to run a website, there is a third option that gets less attention: a managed store builder that takes no cut of your sales. That is what the Business plan of Hostinger's website builder offers:

• Zero transaction fees — its page reads "Keep 100% of your profits with zero transaction fees". That means the platform's commission, not your payment gateway's fees — you pay those to your gateway regardless, on any platform.
• Up to 1000 products and over 100 payment methods, with 50 websites, 50 GB, and five mailboxes per site.
• The price is $3.79/mo on a 48-month term ($181.92), against a regular $18.99, renewing at $16.99/mo.
• And you do not run it — no updates, no backups, no plugins breaking, unlike WooCommerce.

The trade is explicit, and we say it before you buy: you are inside the platform, exactly as with Salla, Zid or Shopify — you do not move the store to another host the way you move a WordPress site. And the 1000-product ceiling is plenty for most stores and not enough for a large catalogue.

The decisive question before you buy: open the payment-methods list and confirm there is a gateway that accepts mada, or whatever your customers actually use in your country. That is what stops stores, not platform fees — which is why it is the first of the four questions in the next section.

The regulatory side in Saudi Arabia: read it from the source

E-commerce in the Kingdom has its own law, and the Ministry of Commerce publishes guidance for online stores. The important point we want to make: the platform you register your store on has changed in recent years, and many Arabic articles still describe the old route.

So we are not going to state the requirement here. Read it from the text of the E-Commerce Law and the Ministry of Commerce page directly, because this is the kind of information that should come from the regulator rather than from an article — including this one. This is general information, not legal advice.

Four questions that judge any platform

1. What is the payment fee, and does it rise if you use a local gateway? Ask for both numbers together.
2. Does it support a gateway that accepts mada, and a local courier? Without those you will not sell easily in the Kingdom.
3. What do I take with me if I leave? Products, customers and orders — in what format, and is the export complete?
4. Who handles updates and security? If the answer is "you", count your time as part of the cost.

So what do we recommend?

For most people in the Gulf: a local managed platform. What will stop you is not the technology but payments and shipping, and local platforms solve both on day one.

If you know WordPress, or have someone who does: WooCommerce on Hostinger Premium is clearly the cheapest over the long run — no platform subscription, no extra charge on your own gateway, and full ownership of your data. The price is that maintenance is yours, so be honest with yourself: will you actually update the store every month?

If you want a managed store that takes no cut of your sales: the Business plan of Hostinger's website builder — zero transaction fees and up to 1000 products, provided you check the payment gateway first and accept that you stay inside the platform.

If you sell outside the region or need an unusual app: Shopify — after you have asked about the external-gateway percentage.