Big Cartel vs Lightspeed Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
| Big Cartel | Lightspeed | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $15/mo | $89/mo |
| Number of plans | 2 | 3 |
| Free plan | — | |
| Free trial | ||
| Pricing model | flat-rate | flat-rate |
Platinum
Popular- Support for custom domains
- Sell physical and digital products
- Print shipping labels and track orders
- Customize your shop design
- Easy-install apps for print-on-demand & more
Diamond
- Recover abandoned carts
- Schedule product drops
- Password-protect products
- Connect to 7,000+ apps with Zapier
- Priority support from humans
Basic
- Retail POS
- Registers (1 included)
- Integrated Payments
- Inventory Management
- Lightspeed Wholesale
- NuORDER Catalog
- PO Sync
- Built-in Lightspeed eCommerce (Basic)
- Lightspeed Payments Card-present rate (2.6%+ 10c)
- Onboarding and professional service options
- 24/7 Chat Support
- Lightspeed Capital (Flexible repayment terms)
Core
- Retail POS
- Registers (1 included)
- Integrated Payments
- Inventory Management
- Lightspeed Wholesale
- NuORDER Catalog
- PO Sync
- Built-in Lightspeed eCommerce
- In-store and online loyalty
- Advanced sales, staff and inventory reports
- Accounting, ecommerce and marketing integrations
- Mobile Scanner POS App / Mobile Scanner App
- Landed Costs
- Lightspeed Payments Card-present rate (2.6%+ 10c)
- Onboarding and professional service options
- 24/7 Chat Support
- Lightspeed Capital (Flexible repayment terms)
Plus
- Retail POS
- Registers (1 included)
- Integrated Payments
- Inventory Management
- Lightspeed Wholesale
- NuORDER Catalog
- PO Sync
- Built-in Lightspeed eCommerce
- In-store and online loyalty
- Advanced sales, staff and inventory reports
- Accounting, ecommerce and marketing integrations
- Mobile Scanner POS App / Mobile Scanner App
- Landed Costs
- Insights (Forecasting, order recommendations & custom reporting)
- API access
- Workflows
- Custom User Roles
- SSO (Single Sign-ON)
- Lightspeed Payments Card-present rate (2.6%+ 10c)
- Onboarding and professional service options
- 24/7 Chat Support
- 24/7 Phone Support
- Lightspeed Capital (Flexible repayment terms)
Big Cartel vs Lightspeed FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- Big Cartel starts lower at $15/mo, compared to $89/mo for Lightspeed.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Big Cartel has a free plan. Lightspeed doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.
- How do they charge?
- Both use a flat-rate model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Big Cartel: This is budget territory compared to Shopify or BigCommerce — Big Cartel is explicitly courting indie artists and small-batch makers who'd bounce off a $39+/mo Shopify plan. They're not trying to win enterprise or even serious mid-size retail; they're the low-commitment option for someone testing if their craft can be a business. Lightspeed: Sitting mid-to-premium in the retail POS space, Lightspeed costs more than bare-bones tools like Square but less than heavy enterprise retail suites. They're chasing growing independent retailers who've outgrown basic POS but aren't ready for enterprise-grade systems.
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