Shopify vs Dukaan vs ShopDeck for Indian Sellers in 2026

If you are starting an online brand in India, three names come up again and again: Shopify, Dukaan and ShopDeck. They are not three versions of the same product. Shopify is a store platform you run yourself, Dukaan is an Indian store builder with its own apps and delivery service, and ShopDeck is closer to a managed growth service that charges on delivered orders. This guide compares them on the things that decide your first two years: fees, payments and COD, design control, apps, data ownership and when to move.

Pricing and features below are from each company's own website, checked on 9 October 2026: shopify.com/in/pricing and help.shopify.com, mydukaan.io and its plugins page, and shopdeck.com. Where a vendor's public pages do not state something, we say so rather than guess. Prices change, so confirm on the vendor's site before you sign up.

What is the real difference between Shopify, Dukaan and ShopDeck?

The short answer is who does the work. On Shopify you, or a developer you hire, set up and run everything: theme, apps, payment gateway, courier, ads. On ShopDeck, the company says it does a large part of that with you, including ad campaigns and pricing advice, and takes a fee on each delivered order. Dukaan sits in between: a store builder you run yourself, with Indian payment and delivery options bundled in.

That difference matters more than any feature list. A founder with a product, no team and no marketing experience is buying something very different from a founder who already runs Meta ads and wants full control of the store.

How does pricing compare for a new Indian store?

Shopify publishes fixed plan prices; ShopDeck publishes a success based fee; Dukaan's plan amounts were not visible in the public page text when we checked. Here is exactly what each site says.

Shopify. The Shopify India pricing page lists Basic at Rs 1,499 a month billed yearly (Rs 1,994 billed monthly), Grow at Rs 5,599 a month billed yearly (Rs 7,447 monthly), and Advanced at Rs 22,680 a month billed yearly (Rs 30,164 monthly). Because Shopify Payments is not available in India, Indian stores use gateways like Razorpay or Cashfree, and Shopify charges a third party transaction fee on those online payments: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced. The current trial offer on that page is 3 days free, then Rs 20 a month for 3 months.

One detail many founders miss: Shopify's help centre says "You aren't charged third-party transaction fees for manual payments." Cash on delivery is a manual payment method, so the 2% on Basic applies to your prepaid orders, not your COD orders. Our Basic or Grow fee maths walks through when the bigger plan pays for itself.

ShopDeck. The ShopDeck homepage states: Rs 0 subscription fee, Rs 0 website setup and maintenance cost, 0% commission on marketing budget, and "3% + GST, on Delivered Orders". There is no monthly bill, so your platform cost rises and falls with sales.

Dukaan. Dukaan's pricing page offers monthly and yearly billing and advertises a discount on yearly plans, but the plan names and amounts load dynamically and were not readable when we checked. Its FAQ lists a question on transaction fees for paid plans without a visible answer. Ask Dukaan for the plan price and any per order or transaction fee in writing before you choose.

Which is cheaper at your expected sales?

It depends on your sales and your COD share, so do the arithmetic with your own numbers. Here is an illustration only, not a forecast. Say you expect Rs 2 lakh of delivered orders a month, half prepaid and half COD.

• ShopDeck: 3% of Rs 2 lakh is Rs 6,000 a month, plus GST on that fee.
• Shopify Basic, billed yearly: Rs 1,499 plan, plus 2% of the Rs 1 lakh prepaid, which is Rs 2,000. Total Rs 3,499 a month, before any paid apps.

Two things change this picture. First, both stores still pay their payment gateway's own charges and courier costs, which are separate. Second, the comparison is not like for like. ShopDeck's fee includes the consulting and marketing support it describes; on Shopify, paid apps and any agency or freelancer you hire are extra. If you would otherwise pay someone to run your ads, the gap narrows. If you can run the store yourself, a percentage fee grows quickly as sales grow.

How do payments and COD work on each platform?

All three support Indian payment methods, but in different ways.

On Shopify, you connect a third party gateway such as Razorpay, Cashfree or PayU, and add cash on delivery as a manual payment method under Settings, then Payments. COD orders are marked paid by hand once the money arrives, unless an app or courier integration does it for you. Our Razorpay and Cashfree comparison covers gateway choice, and COD apps for verification and partial payment come from the Shopify App Store.

ShopDeck's site lists "Different payment modes (COD, Online and Partial-COD)" with integrations for Razorpay, Paytm and Easebuzz, plus "Early COD remittance, reconciliation, and automated GST-ready invoice generation". Those are built in rather than added through apps, which is a real convenience for a first-time seller.

Dukaan's plugins page lists Razorpay among its payment plugins, and the site promotes Dukaan Delivery as a "pan-India hassle-free shipping partner". We could not find COD terms on the public pages we were able to read.

How much design and feature control do you get?

Shopify gives the most control, and that is both its strength and its cost. You choose from free and paid themes, and you or a developer can edit the theme code directly. Shopify's help centre explains that theme files contain Liquid, HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and warns that code changes can be removed when you update a theme, which is why custom work should be planned properly. Features you need come from the Shopify App Store or custom development. For a brand that wants a distinctive look, see our take on custom versus premium themes.

Dukaan offers themes from its own curated collection and plugins for extra features. Its plugins page includes tools such as Google Analytics, a WhatsApp chat bubble and live chat. The selection is smaller than the Shopify App Store, and the public pages do not say whether you can edit theme code.

ShopDeck describes "Multiple customizable themes tailored to your brand" and a free Android app for repeat orders. Customisation is through what the platform offers; its public pages do not mention theme code access or third party apps.

Who owns your store data, and can you leave later?

This is the question founders forget to ask, and it matters most when you outgrow a platform.

On Shopify, export is documented. You can export products to CSV, including variants and inventory; Shopify notes images are included as URLs rather than files. You can also export customers and orders as CSV files from the admin. Moving away is work, but the route is clear.

Dukaan's FAQ lists a question about migrating from Shopify or WooCommerce, but we found nothing on its public pages about exporting your data out of Dukaan. ShopDeck's public pages do not mention exports at all. Neither silence means you cannot export; it means you should ask before you sign. Get written answers to these:

• Can I export all products, customers and orders as CSV, at any time, without asking support?
• Is my domain registered in my name, and can I point it elsewhere if I leave?
• Who owns the ad accounts and pixels set up for my brand?
• Are there notice periods, exit fees or minimum terms?

The ad account question is particularly important on a managed model. If someone else sets up your Meta ad account, make sure it is created under your business, so your audience data stays yours.

Which founders suit which platform?

No platform here is right for everyone. Based on what each vendor says it does, this is how we would think about the fit.

ShopDeck may suit you if you are selling online for the first time, you do not want a monthly bill before you have sales, and you want hands on help with ads and RTO. ShopDeck itself says more than 90% of its sellers are selling D2C for the first time and more than 75% are from tier 2 and tier 3 cities, which tells you who it is built for. The trade off is a fee that grows with every delivered order, and less control over the stack.

Dukaan may suit you if you want an Indian store builder you can manage from your phone, with Indian payment and delivery options bundled in. Confirm the plan price and transaction terms first, since we could not read them publicly.

Shopify may suit you if you want full ownership of the store, a distinctive brand experience, and room to add B2B, international selling, marketplaces or custom features later. The trade off is that you, or someone you hire, have to assemble and run it. If you have a team or budget for a developer, that control usually pays back as the brand grows.

When should you move from Dukaan or ShopDeck to Shopify?

Move when the platform starts limiting the business, not because another platform is fashionable. The usual triggers are:

• The percentage fee on delivered orders has become larger than a Shopify plan plus the help you would hire.
• You need a feature or integration the platform does not offer, such as a specific ERP, B2B pricing or a custom product builder.
• Your brand needs a design the available themes cannot deliver.
• You want to run marketing in house and own every account and data point.

If you do move, protect your search rankings with redirects, keep COD and courier integrations working from day one, and plan the switch away from your peak season. Diwali falls on 8 November 2026, so a move this month should finish well before the festive rush, or wait until after it. Our guide to cutting COD RTO is useful once you are on Shopify and running your own logistics.

Not sure which platform fits your brand?

Free platform fit check. Get in touch or email hello@exactwhy.com with the subject "Platform Choice" and your current store URL, if you have one. Tell us what you sell, your expected monthly orders, your COD share and whether you have anyone to run ads. We reply within 4 hours with an honest view of which platform fits, including when it is not Shopify, and the fee maths at your numbers.

If you go ahead. We set up your Shopify store end to end: theme, Indian payment gateways and COD, courier integration, GST settings, tracking and launch testing, or plan and run a clean move from Dukaan or ShopDeck with your data and rankings intact.