ChatGPT answers, unedited

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget, I’d pick WooCommerce.

WooCommerce official site is open source, self-hostable, and free to download/modify. You retain ownership of the store and its data, and you can choose inexpensive hosting rather than paying a platform subscription. woocommerce.com

My ranking for your situation

Why WooCommerce wins: your handmade shop probably needs products/variants, inventory, coupons, shipping, payment processing, good photos, SEO, and perhaps a blog—not a sophisticated headless architecture. WooCommerce's enormous WordPress ecosystem means you can usually find an existing plugin rather than building the feature yourself. woocommerce.comwww.wpbundle.com

PrestaShop would be my second choice. It's a genuine standalone open-source ecommerce application, with catalog, inventory, orders, shipping, payments, themes and modules built around commerce rather than WordPress. prestashop.com

I wouldn't start with Medusa or Saleor for this particular shop unless you're already a developer. They're excellent if you want a custom React/Next.js storefront and API-first architecture, but you'll take on substantially more technical work. www.wpbundle.com

A dirt-cheap setup I'd use

WordPress + WooCommerce + inexpensive VPS/shared hosting + free theme + Stripe/PayPal + automated backups.

You can keep the software cost at $0, with your unavoidable expenses being hosting, domain registration, payment-processing fees, and any premium extensions you actually need. The important catch is that self-hosted doesn't mean maintenance-free: updates, backups, security, and email delivery become your responsibility.

If "full control" is your #1 priority, I'd also avoid building the shop around proprietary page builders or dozens of paid plugins. Keep the stack boring and minimal—you'll own more of it and have fewer things to break.

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget where you want maximum control, I'd choose WooCommerce.

My ranking

Why WooCommerce

woocommerce.com is open source, self-hostable, and free to download and modify. You control the hosting, source code, store data, and payment/shipping integrations. WooCommerce WooCommerce

For handmade goods, its big advantage is that you can start extremely simply:

• Cheap shared/VPS hosting
• WordPress + WooCommerce
• Free theme initially
• Only install plugins you actually need
• Stripe/PayPal or another payment processor
• Your own domain
• Regular automated backups

You don't need a fancy headless architecture for 20–500 handmade products. WooCommerce's enormous WordPress ecosystem also makes it much easier to find themes, shipping integrations, product customization, SEO tools, and help when something breaks. WooCommerce GitHub

The important catch: "open source" doesn't mean zero cost. You'll still pay for hosting, domain registration, payment processing, and potentially premium plugins/themes. But you can keep the software side remarkably inexpensive.

When I'd pick PrestaShop instead

prestashop.com would be my second choice if you expect the shop to become a substantial ecommerce operation. It's a purpose-built ecommerce system rather than ecommerce functionality layered onto WordPress, with catalog, inventory, orders, payments, shipping, multilingual support, and extensive customization built around the store itself. PrestaShop PrestaShop

It is also genuinely self-hostable and open source, with the source available for modification. PrestaShop Project

For a small artisan shop, though, I'd generally rather have WooCommerce's easier setup and broader WordPress ecosystem.

What I wouldn't choose

I'd avoid Medusa, Saleor, or similar headless platforms unless you're comfortable developing software. They're excellent when you want to build your own React/Next.js storefront and commerce backend, but that's unnecessary operational complexity for a small shop. Current comparisons likewise position these more toward developer-led/headless projects. OpenReplay Blog OSSAlt

Bottom line:
WooCommerce + inexpensive VPS/shared hosting is probably the sweet spot for you: low upfront cost, full ownership, huge ecosystem, and enough flexibility that you won't outgrow it quickly.

If you tell me roughly how many products you have, whether you need variants/personalization, and your monthly hosting budget (e.g. $5, $10, $20), I can recommend a specific self-hosting setup and keep the recurring cost as close to zero as practical.

For a small handmade goods shop, a tight budget, and a desire for full control, I’d usually recommend starting with WooCommerce self-hosted on WordPress. It gives you the best balance of ownership, cost, ease of use, and available extensions. WPBundle Open Source Groups

My shortlist

1. WooCommerce — Best overall for your situation

Best if: you want to run the shop yourself without becoming a full-time developer.

Pros

• Free and self-hostable
• Huge ecosystem for handmade sellers: product variations, coupons, shipping, taxes, reviews, subscriptions, print-on-demand, etc.
• WordPress gives you blogging, SEO, tutorials, and storytelling pages for your crafts
• Works well on inexpensive shared hosting or a small VPS
• Easy to find help if something breaks WPBundle WPBundle

Cons

• You need to manage updates, backups, and security
• Too many plugins can slow things down
• Some useful extensions cost money

Typical budget

• Hosting: ~$5–20/month
• Domain: ~$10–20/year
• SSL: usually free through your host

For a handmade shop selling candles, jewelry, art, clothing, crafts, etc., this would be my default choice.

2. PrestaShop — Good if you want a dedicated store system

Best if: your store is more product-focused and you don’t care much about blogging/content.

Pros

• Built specifically for ecommerce
• Good catalog management
• Strong international selling features Open Source Groups

Cons

• Smaller ecosystem than WooCommerce
• More technical to customize
• Many useful modules are paid

3. OpenCart — Lightweight and simple

Best if: you want a basic shop with fewer moving parts.

Pros

• Low server requirements
• Straightforward admin panel
• Good for smaller catalogs Velocity

Cons

• Less flexible for content marketing
• Extensions and themes can vary in quality

4. Medusa — Only if you enjoy coding

Best if: you want to build a custom storefront and are comfortable with JavaScript/TypeScript.

Pros

• Modern architecture
• Very customizable
• Great for developers building unique experiences WPBundle

Cons

• You’ll build more yourself
• Requires more technical maintenance
• Not ideal if your priority is making and selling handmade goods

I would avoid for your case

• Magento Open Source — powerful, but usually too heavy and expensive to maintain for a small handmade business.
• Saleor — excellent technology, but generally aimed at teams with developer resources. Open Source Groups WPBundle

A practical low-cost setup

A good self-hosted stack:

1. WordPress + WooCommerce
2. A lightweight theme
3. Managed backups
4. Free SSL
5. Stripe/PayPal payment integration
6. Cloudflare for basic security/performance
7. A small VPS or quality shared host once traffic grows

You’ll keep ownership of your products, customer data, and site while avoiding monthly platform fees.

If you tell me:

• how many products you expect (10 vs 1,000+),
• whether you need shipping calculations,
• your technical comfort level (beginner / comfortable / developer),
• and your monthly hosting budget,

I can narrow it down further.

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget, I’d choose WooCommerce.

WooCommerce is open source, self-hostable, and gives you ownership of your store and data. It runs on WordPress, so you also get a mature CMS for product stories, blog posts, SEO, and landing pages. woocommerce.com

My ranking for your situation

Why WooCommerce wins: you can put it on inexpensive shared hosting or a small VPS, start with essentially no platform licensing cost, and add functionality only when you need it. Its ecosystem is vastly larger than the newer developer-oriented platforms, which matters when you're trying to avoid paying someone to build every little feature. woocommerce.comwww.opensourcegroups.comwww.itechguides.comprestashop.comgithub.com

For handmade goods specifically, I'd start with:

• WordPress + WooCommerce
• A lightweight free theme
• Your own domain
• Cheap shared hosting initially
• Stripe/PayPal or another payment gateway
• Free plugins wherever possible
• Automatic off-site backups
• Cloudflare's free tier for DNS/CDN/security
• No premium plugins unless they solve a problem you actually have

The important caveat: open source isn't literally free to operate. You'll still pay for hosting, domain registration, payment processing, backups, and occasionally premium extensions—and you'll be responsible for updates and security. www.itechguides.com

When I'd pick something else

PrestaShop is worth considering if you expect a significantly larger catalog or more sophisticated ecommerce requirements. Its current open-source release is PrestaShop 9, and the project is freely downloadable and modifiable. prestashop.com

Medusa is excellent if you're a developer and specifically want a modern, headless Node.js/TypeScript architecture. But for a one-person handmade shop, that flexibility usually means more work rather than more value. github.com

Saleor would be overkill for most small handmade shops.

Bottom line: start with WooCommerce. It gives you the best combination of low cost + self-hosting + control + ease of running the actual business. You can always migrate to a more specialized architecture later if the shop grows substantially.

For a small handmade goods shop, a tight budget, and a desire for full control, I’d usually put these at the top:

www.velsof.comopensourceprojects.cc

My recommendation: start with WooCommerce

For handmade goods, I’d pick WooCommerce + WordPress unless you have unusual requirements.

Why:

• Very low startup cost: it can run on inexpensive shared hosting or a small VPS.
• Huge ecosystem: themes, shipping tools, inventory tools, SEO tools, and payment integrations.
• Great for storytelling: handmade brands often need blogs, maker stories, tutorials, galleries, and product pages — WordPress is excellent at this.
• You own everything: database, customer data, product catalog, images, and code. www.velsof.comopensourceprojects.cc

The main downside: you become the person responsible for updates, backups, security, and plugin compatibility.

A lean setup could look like:

• Small VPS or managed WordPress hosting
• WordPress
• WooCommerce
• Free lightweight theme
• Stripe/PayPal for payments
• Automated backups
• Cloudflare for DNS/security

When I’d choose something else

Choose PrestaShop if:

• You want a dedicated ecommerce system rather than a content site.
• You expect hundreds or thousands of products.
• You sell internationally and need stronger built-in catalog/language features. stablecommerce.ai

Choose OpenCart if:

• Your shop is simple: products → cart → checkout.
• You want something lighter than WordPress.

Choose Medusa if:

• You can code (or hire a developer).
• You want a custom storefront, mobile app, or unusual buying experience.
• You’re comfortable maintaining a more technical stack. ossalt.com

Avoid Magento for this use case.
It is powerful, but it’s usually excessive for a small handmade shop. Hosting, maintenance, and development needs are much higher. www.velsof.com

A practical “maximum control, minimum money” stack

My pick would be:

1. WooCommerce
2. Self-host on a $5–15/month VPS (or budget WordPress hosting)
3. Use a free theme first
4. Spend money only on:
   • good product photography
   • email marketing
   • backups/security
   • shipping automation

That gives you ownership without turning your shop into a server administration project.

If you tell me roughly how many products you have, whether you’re comfortable with Linux/server setup, and whether you sell through Etsy/markets alongside your site, I can narrow it down further.

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget, I’d pick WooCommerce.

WooCommerce is open source, self-hostable, and built on WordPress. You own the store and its data, can choose your own host, and the core software has no monthly platform fee or revenue share. woocommerce.com

My ranking for your situation

Why WooCommerce wins: you don't need to build an ecommerce system from scratch. You get products, inventory, carts, checkout, orders, coupons, shipping, taxes, etc., while WordPress handles your pages/blog/content. Its huge extension ecosystem also means you can add functionality instead of programming everything yourself. woocommerce.com

For handmade goods specifically, I'd keep the stack boring:

VPS/shared host → WordPress → WooCommerce → lightweight theme → payment processor → automated backups

You could start with $5–15/month hosting, a domain, and mostly free plugins. Don't spend money on a fancy theme or dozens of extensions initially.

When I'd choose something else

Choose Medusa if you're already comfortable with TypeScript/Node.js and want to build a highly customized storefront. It's much more developer-oriented, but you'll take on substantially more engineering work. www.wpbundle.com

Choose OpenCart if your absolute priority is keeping server resource usage and complexity low.

I would not start with Magento/Adobe Commerce or Saleor for a small handmade shop. They're powerful, but you're paying for that power in infrastructure and maintenance complexity.

Bottom line: If your goal is "I want to own everything, spend as little as possible, and actually spend my time making/selling products rather than maintaining software," self-hosted WooCommerce is the sweet spot.

If you tell me roughly how many products you have, whether you sell physical-only or digital goods too, and your technical comfort level, I can give you a $10–20/month self-hosted stack with specific hosting, theme, payment, backup, and security choices.

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget, I’d choose WooCommerce.

My ranking

Why WooCommerce wins for you: it is open source, free to download/modify, self-hostable, and gives you ownership of the store and data. woocommerce.com You also get WordPress for your shop's pages/blog/SEO, plus a huge ecosystem of extensions and themes.

For handmade goods, that's particularly useful because you can start simple—products, variants, inventory, shipping, coupons, payments—and add functionality only when you actually need it.

When I'd pick something else

• PrestaShop — choose this if you want a dedicated ecommerce application rather than WordPress. It's genuinely open source, self-hostable, highly customizable, and has built-in catalog, inventory, order, shipping, and payment functionality. prestashop.com
• OpenCart — worth considering if minimizing server resources and keeping the installation relatively lightweight matters more than having WordPress's ecosystem.
• Medusa — excellent if you're a developer and want to build a highly customized storefront. It's MIT-licensed and designed as modular commerce infrastructure, but I'd consider it overkill for a small handmade shop. github.com
• Magento/Adobe Commerce — I'd avoid it for your situation. The capabilities are impressive, but the complexity and maintenance burden aren't justified for a small shop.

A very cheap setup

I'd do:

WordPress + WooCommerce + inexpensive VPS/shared hosting + free theme + Stripe/PayPal + Cloudflare

You can keep the software cost at essentially $0, with your unavoidable expenses being hosting, domain, payment-processing fees, and any premium extensions you later decide you actually need. WooCommerce itself doesn't charge you a platform subscription or require a particular host. woocommerce.com

One important caveat: self-hosting means you are also responsible for backups, updates, security, and uptime. "Free/open source" doesn't mean zero operating cost.

If you tell me roughly how many products you have, whether you sell one-of-a-kind items or inventory in batches, and your monthly hosting budget (e.g. $5/$10/$20), I can narrow this down to a specific stack and hosting setup.

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget, I’d pick WooCommerce.

WooCommerce is open source, self-hostable, and gives you control over the code, store data, hosting, checkout, and extensions. The core software is free. woocommerce.com

My ranking

Why WooCommerce wins for you: you don't need to build a storefront from scratch. WordPress + WooCommerce gives you the shop, product pages, inventory, orders, coupons, content/blogging, and a huge extension ecosystem. It can run on inexpensive PHP/MySQL hosting rather than requiring a complicated server stack. woocommerce.comwww.wpbundle.com

For handmade goods specifically, I'd keep the stack simple:

• WooCommerce
• inexpensive shared/VPS hosting
• a lightweight free theme
• Stripe/PayPal or another payment processor
• your own domain
• automated backups
• Cloudflare's free tier
• only install plugins you genuinely need

That can keep your software/platform cost near $0, with your unavoidable expenses being hosting, domain registration, payment-processing fees, and optionally premium themes/plugins.

When I'd choose something else

PrestaShop is my second choice if you expect a relatively large catalog or more traditional ecommerce functionality. Its open-source edition is freely downloadable and customizable, and the current PrestaShop 9 stack has been modernized considerably. prestashop.com

Medusa is excellent if you are a developer and want to build a completely custom storefront. It's MIT-licensed and designed as a modular commerce backend, but you'll be taking on considerably more development and infrastructure work. github.com

I would not start with Saleor, Magento, or another heavyweight/headless platform for a small handmade shop. They can give you enormous control, but you're trading away the thing you're short on: time and money.

Bottom line: start with WooCommerce. You can self-host it cheaply today and still have enough flexibility to completely customize the store later without migrating platforms. woocommerce.comwww.wpbundle.com

If you tell me roughly how many products you have and whether you sell one-off/custom items or repeatable products, I can recommend a specific $10–20/month self-hosted stack (hosting + theme + payments + backups) that keeps you in full control.

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget, my first choice would be WooCommerce.

It gives you a very good balance of low cost, self-hosting, control, and ease of use.

Why I'd pick WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce platform built on WordPress, so you can run the entire thing on your own hosting and retain control of your store and data. github.com

For a handmade shop, that's particularly attractive because you can start very small:

• inexpensive shared hosting or a small VPS
• your own domain
• WordPress + WooCommerce
• a free/low-cost theme
• Stripe/PayPal or another payment processor
• inexpensive shipping integration
• no mandatory SaaS subscription to the platform

The main catch is that self-hosting isn't literally free: you'll pay for hosting/domain, and potentially premium themes, plugins, payment processing, backups, etc. github.comwoocommerce.com

When I'd choose PrestaShop instead

PrestaShop would be my second choice if you want the store itself to be more purpose-built around ecommerce rather than having WordPress as the underlying CMS.

It's genuinely open source, can be installed on your own server, and provides catalog, inventory, orders, shipping, payments, and other ecommerce functionality out of the box. prestashop.com

It's a particularly good option if you expect your catalog to become substantially more complicated.

What I wouldn't use

I'd avoid Magento/Adobe Commerce for your situation. It's powerful, but you're taking on substantially more infrastructure and maintenance than a small handmade shop needs.

I'd also avoid Medusa/Saleor/etc. unless you're comfortable developing software. They're excellent if you want a highly customized/headless architecture, but that's usually the opposite of "tight budget + small shop."

My practical recommendation

If I were setting this up for a small handmade business today:

WordPress + WooCommerce + lightweight theme + small VPS/shared host + Cloudflare + automated backups

I'd keep the initial software stack boring and minimize plugins. That gives you ownership without turning running the shop into a second full-time job.

If you tell me roughly how many products you have, whether you need variants (size/color), and your monthly hosting budget (e.g. $5, $10, $20), I can suggest a specific self-hosted stack and estimated monthly cost.

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget, I’d choose WooCommerce and self-host WordPress.

My ranking

Why WooCommerce: it's open source, free to download/modify, lets you choose your own hosting, and gives you ownership of the store and its data. woocommerce.com

For handmade goods, it also gives you plenty of flexibility for things like:

• product variations (size, color, scent, etc.)
• made-to-order products
• inventory tracking
• coupons and sales
• shipping rules
• digital products if you ever add patterns/tutorials
• custom product pages and branding

You can keep the software cost at $0 and spend your money only on hosting, a domain, payment processing, and perhaps a premium theme/plugin when you actually need one.

The runner-up: OpenCart

If you don't want WordPress at all, I'd look seriously at OpenCart. It's specifically designed as a free, open-source ecommerce platform and is relatively lightweight. Its documentation covers catalog, orders, customers, extensions, reports, and administration. docs.opencart.com

I'd pick OpenCart over WooCommerce if your priority is "I want a dedicated shopping-cart application and nothing else."

Where PrestaShop fits

PrestaShop is another excellent genuinely open-source choice. The current 9.x generation uses Symfony and PHP and has a substantial ecosystem. prestashop.com

It's more compelling once your catalog and business processes become complicated, but for a tiny handmade shop, I'd rather have WooCommerce's simpler starting point.

What I'd actually build

$5–15/month VPS/shared hosting → WordPress → WooCommerce → free lightweight theme → Stripe/PayPal → automated backups.

The important caveat with "full control" is that self-hosting means you're responsible for updates, backups, security, and uptime. Open source doesn't make those responsibilities disappear.

If you tell me roughly how many products you have, whether they're made-to-order, and your monthly hosting budget, I can recommend a specific cheap self-hosted setup (including server specs and what software to install).

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget, I’d choose WooCommerce.

It’s not necessarily the most technically elegant open-source platform, but it’s probably the best cost/control/ease-of-use combination for your situation.

Why WooCommerce

• Free and open source — no monthly platform subscription or revenue share. woocommerce.comwoocommerce.com
• Self-hostable — you control the server, database, code, and store data. woocommerce.comwww.prestashop-project.org
• Very inexpensive to start — a basic WordPress/WooCommerce setup can run on inexpensive shared hosting or a small VPS.
• Excellent for handmade products — variations, made-to-order items, inventory, coupons, shipping, local pickup, digital products, etc.
• Huge ecosystem — if you eventually need a particular payment gateway, shipping integration, accounting tool, or marketplace integration, there's a good chance an existing extension exists.
• WordPress gives you a proper content site too — useful if you want blog posts, tutorials, recipes/pattern guides, maker stories, SEO landing pages, etc. A current comparison also identifies WooCommerce as the easiest of the major open-source options to host. www.wpbundle.com

How I'd rank your options

PrestaShop is a legitimate alternative—it is PHP-based, customizable, multilingual, and freely available under its open-source license—but I'd pick WooCommerce for a small shop because the surrounding WordPress ecosystem makes it easier to get started. www.prestashop-project.org

A cheap setup I'd actually use

Domain → ~$10–20/year
Small VPS/shared hosting → ~$5–10/month
WordPress → free
WooCommerce → free
Free theme → $0
Payment processor → pay normal payment-processing fees
Backups → free/cheap
SSL → free via Let's Encrypt

You can therefore get the core store running for roughly $5–10/month plus payment processing, rather than paying a SaaS platform every month. WooCommerce itself says its core platform has no monthly subscription or revenue share. woocommerce.comwoocommerce.com

The important caveat: self-hosting means you become responsible for updates, backups, security, and uptime. Open source doesn't mean zero cost—it shifts some of the cost from software licensing to infrastructure and maintenance. www.wpbundle.com

My recommendation: start with self-hosted WordPress + WooCommerce, keep plugins to a minimum, and don't go headless. For a small handmade shop, the extra complexity of something like Medusa or Saleor buys you very little unless you actually need a custom developer-built storefront.

WooCommerce installation guide is a good place to start. 

For a small handmade-goods shop + tight budget + maximum control, I’d pick WooCommerce.

Why WooCommerce is the sweet spot

• Actually open source and self-hostable — you control the site, database, code, and hosting. woocommerce.comwoocommerce.com
• Very cheap to start — the core software is free, with no WooCommerce platform subscription or revenue share. woocommerce.comwoocommerce.com
• Excellent for physical products — variants, inventory, shipping, coupons, product photos, reviews, etc.
• Huge ecosystem — if you eventually need Etsy integration, shipping labels, email marketing, subscriptions, wholesale pricing, or something unusual, there's a good chance an existing extension exists.
• You don't need to be a programmer. WordPress gives you a conventional storefront/admin interface rather than requiring you to build the customer-facing site yourself.

What I'd choose instead

A particularly cheap setup

I'd aim for:

WordPress + WooCommerce → inexpensive VPS/shared host → Stripe/PayPal → free theme → automated backups

You can start with essentially $0 for the ecommerce software, paying primarily for hosting and payment processing. WooCommerce itself currently advertises no platform revenue share; paid extensions are optional. woocommerce.comwoocommerce.com

One important caveat: self-hosted doesn't mean maintenance-free. You're responsible for updates, backups, security, and keeping payment handling compliant. For a tiny shop, I'd rather spend $5–15/month on reliable hosting and automated backups than save a few dollars and risk losing the store.

Bottom line: unless you specifically want to build software yourself, WooCommerce is the one I'd put on a tight-budget handmade shop. It gives you substantially more control than Shopify while avoiding the engineering burden of something like Medusa. woocommerce.com

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget, I’d pick WooCommerce.

Why WooCommerce is the best fit

• Free and open source: The core software has no monthly subscription or revenue share. woocommerce.com
• Truly self-hostable: You choose the server, database, backups, domain, and payment provider.
• Cheap to start: A small VPS/shared WordPress host can often handle a modest handmade shop; you don't need enterprise infrastructure.
• Excellent for physical products: Variations, inventory, shipping, coupons, taxes, product photos, reviews, and orders are all well-established.
• Huge ecosystem: You can start with almost entirely free plugins and only buy something when you actually need it.
• Easy to customize: Since it's WordPress + WooCommerce, you can change the theme, PHP, CSS, templates, and database rather than being locked into a hosted platform.

WooCommerce itself says the core is free, with unlimited products and orders, and that you choose your own hosting and extensions. woocommerce.com

How I'd rank your options

PrestaShop is probably my second choice. It's genuinely open source, self-hostable, and has strong built-in ecommerce functionality, but its current version has a more substantial technical stack (Symfony/PHP), so I wouldn't choose it over WooCommerce for a tiny shop unless you particularly prefer PrestaShop. prestashop.com

Medusa is excellent if you're a developer and want a modern, highly customized headless store. Its commerce modules are open source under MIT, but you're taking on considerably more development work than with WooCommerce. github.com

The setup I'd use

For your situation, I'd keep it extremely simple:

WordPress + WooCommerce → inexpensive hosting → free lightweight theme → Stripe/PayPal → free backups → Cloudflare

Don't start by buying 15 premium plugins. Get the basic store working first, then add functionality only when the business actually needs it.

One important distinction: open source doesn't mean zero cost. You'll still pay for hosting, your domain, payment processing, and potentially premium extensions. woocommerce.com

If you tell me roughly how many products you have, your monthly budget (e.g. $5/$10/$20), and whether you're comfortable running a Linux server, I can suggest a specific self-hosted stack and hosting setup that keeps the recurring cost very low.

For a small handmade-goods shop on a tight budget, I’d choose WooCommerce.

WooCommerce is open source, self-hostable, free at the core, and gives you ownership of your store and data. You can choose your own host and customize the code, checkout, theme, and integrations. woocommerce.comwoocommerce.com

My ranking for your situation

Why WooCommerce wins: you don't need to build your storefront from scratch. WordPress supplies the CMS, while WooCommerce handles products, inventory, carts, orders, payments, shipping, etc. Its huge plugin ecosystem also means you can add functionality instead of programming everything yourself. www.wpbundle.com

For handmade goods specifically, I'd keep the stack boring:

WordPress + WooCommerce + lightweight theme + your own VPS/shared hosting + Stripe/PayPal + automated backups.

That can keep software costs very low. WooCommerce itself has no monthly subscription or revenue share; your unavoidable costs are primarily hosting, domain, payment processing, and any premium extensions you choose. woocommerce.comwoocommerce.com

When I'd pick something else

• Medusa if you're a developer and want a highly customized React/Next.js storefront. It's much more flexible architecturally, but self-hosting involves more moving pieces, including the commerce server and supporting infrastructure. docs.medusajs.com
• PrestaShop if you expect a substantially larger catalog and want a dedicated ecommerce system rather than WordPress. Its open-source edition can be downloaded and installed on your own server. help-center.prestashop.com
• Saleor would be overkill for a small shop unless you already have serious Python/GraphQL development skills.

Bottom line: If your priority is "I want to own everything without spending much or becoming a full-time DevOps engineer," WooCommerce is the sweet spot.