TeraCart vs Shopify for Indian D2C brands

Price and fees side by side

The Shopify figures are from Shopify's India pricing page on 21 October 2026. The TeraCart plan in each row is the closest one by price band and features, not a like-for-like match.

Shopify also lists Plus from ₹1,75,000 a month and advertises 3 days free, then ₹20 a month for 3 months. TeraCart has a Free plan with up to 50 products and no time limit, and every new store starts with 14 days of Pro, no card needed.

The fee column matters more than the subscription as you grow. A store with ₹5,00,000 of online-paid sales in a month pays ₹10,000 in Shopify Basic's fee, and ₹5,000 on Grow. Shopify's help centre says the fee does not apply to cash on delivery, and that it comes on top of your payment provider's own fee. The rupee breakdown shows more sales levels.

Payments in India

Shopify Payments is not available in India, so a Shopify store here takes online payments through a third-party provider and pays Shopify's fee on top. TeraCart connects to your own Razorpay or PayU account, adds UPI, and takes cash on delivery and part-paid COD. If you would rather not open a provider account, Tera Pay is TeraCart's optional built-in payments, at 1.75% per payment.

COD, GST and shipping

TeraCart puts the daily work of an Indian store into the platform on every plan, including Free: a COD fee, an order-value cap for COD, an online deposit with the rest on delivery, OTP confirmation of COD orders, GST invoices with the CGST, SGST and IGST split, and Shiprocket labels, pickups and tracking inside the orders page.

On Pro and Max, Profit Shield turns off COD or asks for an OTP when a buyer has refused deliveries at other TeraCart stores. The COD and RTO guide explains each control, and the GST guide covers invoices.

Shopify can cover the same ground through its settings and apps. We have not tested those line by line, so check that each one you need exists, and what it costs, before you decide.

Built in versus added on

Reviews with photos and video, heatmaps, session replay, live chat, abandoned cart emails, discounts, a blog and a visual theme editor are part of every TeraCart plan. Loyalty and referrals, WhatsApp recovery and Customer DNA come with Pro. On Shopify these are usually separate apps, each with its own monthly bill, which is where a store's real Shopify cost often ends up.

Where Shopify is ahead

• Apps and integrations. Shopify's app store is far larger. TeraCart has few outside integrations, and its first-party apps start with Shiprocket.
• Themes. Shopify's theme library is much bigger. TeraCart has a smaller set of themes and a visual editor to change them.
• Selling in person. Shopify has point-of-sale. TeraCart is built for online selling.
• Selling in many countries from one store. TeraCart lists this as coming soon.
• Track record and hiring. Shopify has years at large scale and a big pool of agencies and developers. TeraCart is young.

Trying TeraCart without leaving Shopify

The Shopify move only reads your store, and Shopify keeps running until you point your domain elsewhere. You can copy your store into a TeraCart trial, set up your gateway and preview the result, and decide after. What moves and what does not lists the details, including the parts that need redoing by hand.

Which to choose

• TeraCart if most of your sales are COD and UPI, you want GST invoices and COD confirmation built in, you would rather not pay a percentage of every online sale, and you can live with a smaller app ecosystem.
• Shopify if your store relies on specific apps, you sell in person, you want the widest choice of themes and developers, or you are already at a scale where its ecosystem is worth the fees.

Questions people ask