Every platform on this page is genuinely good. The honest differences are in price, what's bundled, what costs extra, and who picks up the phone. We've also listed where the others beat us, because you'll find out anyway.
On price we are no longer in the same bracket. EMPIRE Commerce is $14/month with checkout, dropshipping and your domain handled. The others start around $36–39 before the apps most stores end up adding. That is a real gap and we'd rather point at it than be coy — but price is the easiest thing to change and the worst reason to pick a platform on its own, so the rest of this page is about everything else.
| What you get | EMPIRE Commerce | Shopify Basic | Wix Business | Squarespace Commerce |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $14 | $39 + apps | $36 + upsells | $36 |
| Domain registered for you | ✓ at cost, no markup | Extra, self-managed | Free year 1 | Free year 1 |
| Domain released if you leave | ✓ in writing, 5 business days | Standard transfer | Standard transfer | Standard transfer |
| Drag-and-drop builder | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Store with cart & checkout | ✓ built in | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Print-on-demand | ✓ built in on Dynasty ($25) | Separate app | Separate app | Separate app |
| Custom CSS & head code | ✓ | ✓ Liquid themes | Limited | Premium tiers |
| DNS record control | ✓ full | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Phone support to the builders | ✓ 402-206-4827 | Chat queue | Ticket queue | Email/chat |
| App marketplace | — | ✓ thousands | ✓ hundreds | Limited |
| Point-of-sale hardware | — | ✓ | Limited | ✓ |
| Multi-currency & global tax | — | ✓ | Partial | Partial |
Competitor pricing reflects published annual-billing rates as of mid-2026 and changes often — check their sites for current numbers before deciding.
You're a local business, a first-time seller, or a creator who wants a domain, a real site, and checkout on one bill — without assembling four apps to get there, and with a phone number that reaches whoever wrote the code. At $14/month for the store plan, the cost of finding out is about a third of what it is elsewhere.
You're running serious volume, need a specific integration from a large app ecosystem, sell across many countries and currencies, or want physical point-of-sale hardware in a shop. They're excellent at all of that and we don't compete there.
Wix's pixel-level editor gives you more freeform control over placement than almost anyone. If designing every element by hand is the appeal, that's a real advantage.
Their templates are beautifully art-directed and hard to make ugly. For a portfolio or a brand-led site where the store is secondary, that's a strong fit.
Not sure which fits? Call 402-206-4827. If EMPIRE isn't right for you, we'll say so.