Website Builder Transaction Fees Compared

When you sell on a website builder, you often pay two cuts on every sale, not one. Website builder transaction fees are the part people miss, because they get quoted the low monthly price and never see the per-sale math. Here is what Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace actually take, checked against their own pages in July 2026, and how a custom site avoids the extra cut.

Two fees, not one

Every online sale has a payment processing fee. That is the card rate charged by a processor like Stripe, PayPal, or the platform's own payment tool, usually a percentage plus a flat few cents. Some builders add a second fee on top, their own transaction fee, just for selling on their platform. The processing fee is unavoidable. The platform fee is the one worth shopping.

Shopify

Shopify charges a card rate through its own tool, Shopify Payments. On the Basic plan that rate is 2.9% plus 30 cents per online transaction, dropping to 2.7% and 2.5% on the higher plans, as of July 2026. If you use a different payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top of your processor's rate. Use Shopify Payments and that extra fee is waived. The setup pushes you toward keeping checkout inside Shopify. I cover the ownership side of this in do you actually own your Shopify store.

Squarespace

Squarespace is clearer than most. On its current plans, physical-product sales carry no Squarespace transaction fee. Digital products and memberships do carry one, and it drops as you move up the plans: 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus, and 0% on Advanced, as of July 2026. All of that is separate from the card rate your processor charges on each sale.

Wix

Wix runs on a monthly subscription, and the plan price is the main cost to track. When you sell, your payment processor takes its card rate on each order. Check Wix's current plan page for any plan-specific selling costs before you commit, since the plans change.

The comparison

Platform	Card processing	Extra platform fee	Checked
Shopify	2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, lower on higher plans, via Shopify Payments	Added if you use another gateway, waived with Shopify Payments	Jul 2026
Squarespace	Your processor's rate	0% on physical (current plans), 7% down to 0% on digital by plan	Jul 2026
Wix	Your processor's rate	Mainly the plan fee	Check plan page
Custom site	Your processor's rate (e.g. Stripe)	None	n/a

What this means for a small shop

On low volume the monthly plan hurts more than the per-sale fee. As sales grow, the per-sale cut becomes the bigger line, and a percentage of every order adds up fast. A shop doing real numbers pays attention to both. The platform fee is money leaving on top of the card rate you already owe.

The lower-fee path

A custom site connects straight to a processor like Stripe or Square. You pay that processor's card rate and nothing extra to a platform sitting in the middle. There is no gateway surcharge and no plan tier deciding your cut. For a restaurant, this is the difference between keeping your margin and handing a slice to an app, which I break down in restaurant online ordering without commission fees. You can see a live restaurant build in my Yami Hibachi project.

Want to keep more of each sale? Tell me what you sell and I will show you a setup with no platform markup.

A worked example on 100 orders

Say you take 100 orders at 40 dollars each, so 4,000 dollars in sales. Card processing at about 2.9% plus 30 cents runs roughly 146 dollars across those orders, and you owe that no matter where you sell. Now add a platform layer. A builder gateway surcharge or a digital-goods transaction fee stacks on top of that 146, and on some platforms and plans it is a meaningful second bite. On a custom site connected straight to a processor, there is no second bite. You pay the processing and keep the rest. The exact figures depend on your plan and your product, so read them off the platform's own page, but the shape holds: one fee is unavoidable, the other is a choice.

Common questions

What is the difference between a transaction fee and a processing fee?

The processing fee is the card rate a payment processor charges on every sale, usually a percentage plus a few cents. The transaction fee is an extra cut the platform takes just for selling on it. The first is unavoidable. The second depends on the platform and plan you pick.

Does Shopify charge a fee if I use PayPal?

Shopify adds its own transaction fee when you use a gateway other than Shopify Payments, which includes some outside options. Using Shopify Payments waives that extra fee. You still pay the card processing rate either way.

Can I avoid platform selling fees entirely?

Yes, on a custom site that connects straight to a processor like Stripe or Square. There is no platform sitting in the middle taking a cut, so you pay only the processor's card rate.

Which builder has the lowest selling fees?

It depends on what you sell. Squarespace charges no transaction fee on physical products on its current plans. Shopify waives its extra fee if you use Shopify Payments. The lowest of all is no platform fee, which is what a direct custom setup gives you.

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About the author. I'm Walid Elsayed, a web developer in New Orleans. I build custom sites and stores that connect straight to a payment processor, so the owner keeps more of every sale.

Sources

• Shopify, Pricing plans (card rates by plan, accessed July 2026)
• Shopify Help Center, Third-party transaction fees
• Squarespace Help Center, Transaction fees and payment processing rates