Omniterra vs Shopify: which costs less for a Romanian store?

Short answer

Shopify and Omniterra are both hosted platforms: on either one, you don't manage servers, software updates or security patches. The difference is in how you pay. Shopify charges a monthly subscription in lei and, if you take card payments through a provider other than Shopify Payments, an extra percentage on every card order. Omniterra charges a flat monthly plan and 0% commission on sales on every plan, including Free.

For a Romanian store where most orders are cash on delivery, the gap on subscription alone is small. It grows when you add a team (staff accounts) or when a real share of payments comes by card through a third-party gateway. If you need a point of sale in a physical shop, or a very specific app, Shopify is often the better fit. More on that below.

At a glance

Shopify's prices come from its Romanian pricing page: Basic is 139 lei/month, Grow 369 lei and Advanced 1,940 lei with monthly billing, or 99, 279 and 1,460 lei per month billed yearly. Plus starts at €2,100/month. New stores get a 3-day free trial, then pay 5 RON/month for 3 months. If you prefer euro, the Irish pricing page lists Basic at €32/month (€24 billed yearly), Grow at €92 and Advanced at €384.

Our plans are on the pricing page. The Free plan includes 50 orders per month and 250 products, with no time limit.

Where the money goes

Subscription and staff accounts

On the monthly price alone, Shopify Basic and our Start plan are close. The first real difference is staff. According to Shopify's pricing page, Basic has no staff accounts besides the owner, Grow allows up to 5 and Advanced up to 15. If two colleagues pack orders and answer customers, on Shopify you move up to Grow at 369 lei/month. On Omniterra, Start includes 2 staff accounts and Grow (€79/month) includes 5.

Transaction fees with a third-party gateway

Shopify adds a fee when you take payments through a provider other than Shopify Payments: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, on top of what the gateway itself charges (source). Many Romanian merchants already have a contract with a local card processor, so check this line before you choose.

Shopify Payments is available in Romania (supported countries). With it, the extra fee disappears and you pay Shopify's online card rates instead: 1.9% + 1.25 lei on Basic, 1.7% + 1.25 lei on Grow and 1.5% + 1.25 lei on Advanced. International and Amex cards cost 3%, 2.8% and 2.6% + 1.25 lei (source).

Cash on delivery

Shopify treats cash on delivery as a manual payment method, and its help center says third-party transaction fees are not charged for manual payments. So a store that sells only with COD pays Shopify the subscription and nothing more. On Omniterra it is the same: no percentage. In both cases, your courier may charge its own COD fee.

Worked example: 30,000 lei in monthly sales

Take a store with 150 orders a month at an average of 200 lei, so 30,000 lei in sales. The owner works with two colleagues. We use monthly billing and look only at the platform side, since courier costs are the same wherever you sell.

Scenario A: 100% cash on delivery. Shopify charges no transaction fee here. Basic costs 139 lei/month but has no staff accounts, so with two colleagues you need Grow at 369 lei/month. On Omniterra, Start at €29/month covers the team, with 0% commission.

Scenario B: 60% COD, 40% card through a third-party gateway. Card sales are 12,000 lei across 60 orders.

The gateway's own processing fee comes on top in every column. Over a year, the 2% on Basic adds up to 2,880 lei on these numbers.

Scenario C: 40% card with Shopify Payments or Stripe. On Shopify Basic with Shopify Payments, 12,000 lei in card sales at the base rate cost 228 lei (1.9%) plus 75 lei in fixed fees (60 × 1.25 lei), so 303 lei. On Omniterra, the same payments go through your own Stripe account. Stripe's Romanian pricing page lists 1.5% + 1.00 lei for standard European cards, which gives 180 + 60 = 240 lei. That money goes to Stripe, not to us.

The cheapest option depends on your payment mix and your team. Run your own numbers with our guide to what an e-commerce platform really costs.

What matters for Romanian stores

• Cash on delivery with rules. Turn COD on or off by rules, add a COD fee, and track "refused at delivery" separately from "delivered". An optional fraud-protection add-on gives each order a risk score and keeps a phone blacklist. See our cash on delivery best practices.
• Romanian couriers. Record the AWB and the courier (Sameday, FAN Courier, Cargus, DPD, GLS, Poșta Română) and send the customer a tracking link.
• Invoices. VAT and company tax ID (CUI) on B2B orders, continuous numbering, printable PDF. For e-Factura, connect an authorized provider such as SmartBill or Oblio through webhooks.
• ANPC links and legal pages. The ANPC SAL link in the footer, plus default pages for terms, 14-day returns, shipping and privacy.
• Admin in Romanian and English, so everyone on the team works in the language they prefer.

On Shopify, several of these needs are usually covered by apps from its app store, and some of those apps have their own monthly price.

Where Shopify is the better choice

Shopify is a strong platform, and in several cases it is the right pick:

• You also sell in a physical shop. Shopify has its own POS. Omniterra does not offer POS.
• You depend on a niche app. Shopify's app ecosystem is far larger than ours. Many tools built for Shopify connect to our compatible API, but not all, so check your must-have integrations first.
• You sell worldwide and want a name buyers already know. Shopify is a global brand, and Shopify Payments works in many markets.
• You need native mobile apps or several stores in one account. We don't have native mobile apps, and multi-store is coming soon.

How to switch from Shopify

Moving is a one-time job, and most of it is automatic:

1. Create a free account.
2. Run the Shopify import: products, variants, collections, customers, orders, discounts, pages, blog, menus, URL redirects and files.
3. Keep your links. Storefront URLs follow the same pattern as Shopify (/products/handle, /collections/handle, /pages/handle, /blogs/blog/handle), so your handles carry over and indexed pages keep their addresses.
4. Reconnect your tools. Our Admin API is compatible with Shopify's GraphQL and REST APIs, so many Shopify tools connect with little or no change.
5. Point your domain to us. SSL is set up automatically.

The full checklist is in how to migrate from Shopify or WooCommerce without losing SEO. Weighing a self-hosted option too? Read Omniterra vs WooCommerce.

Shopify is a trademark of its owner. Omniterra is not affiliated with it.