Decide whether your website implementation is an asset
Choose Snipcart if you want to keep your website’s code and content system and add commerce to it. Choose Setka if you want to stop turning storefront changes into development work. Switching between them changes who builds the product pages, not just which cart opens when someone clicks Buy.
Setka is our product. We recommend it when you want the platform to build and maintain the storefront around your brief and catalog, then let you guide changes without maintaining a theme codebase. It is not a drop-in replacement for Snipcart inside an existing frontend.
Snipcart keeps the website in your hands
The installation documentation describes adding a JavaScript snippet and defining products through HTML attributes or the SDK. The cart runs on your site, while Snipcart provides a hosted dashboard for orders.
Because the snippet and product attributes go into your site’s code, even a basic integration takes web-development skills. More elaborate changes can involve a developer or agency. That can be a good fit when you already maintain a website and want commerce to work within it.
| Decision | Snipcart | Setka |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | A website to integrate with the cart | A brief and catalog for storefront generation |
| Product presentation | Built in the website or content system you control | Generated inside the commerce platform |
| Custom changes | Site code, cart styling, templates, or SDK work as needed | Describe changes, edit wording, preview, and publish |
| Implementation responsibility | Your team owns the site and its integration | Setka owns the storefront implementation |
Snipcart’s customization documentation includes template overrides and custom sections. Its theming guide covers visual controls through CSS. If your team already works in that code, these controls let commerce follow the site you designed. If every change needs a separate developer brief, include that dependency in the decision.
Compare the first change and the one after it
Use your next collection launch as the test. Suppose you sell linen tableware: first ask for a homepage that leads with the collection’s story and a product page that brings material, dimensions, and care information closer to the purchase button. Then change the price of one test product and check that the cart receives the intended value.
For the second change, imagine the same collection is now being promoted as a housewarming gift. Keep the product facts and add the explanation a buyer needs: which table size it suits, what is included, and when it can arrive. A gift buyer may know a lot about linen; someone buying for themselves may need that guidance too. Review the changed page, navigation, cart, and delivery information on mobile and desktop. The test is whether you can maintain a relevant, accurate journey as the selling angle changes.
With Snipcart, the presentation work belongs to your website; the product values must reach its HTML attributes or SDK integration correctly. Ask whoever maintains the site to show where each change happens. Separate edits you can already make in the CMS from layout or integration changes that need development, and record the time and outside help each requires. A well-understood content workflow is a reason to keep this setup. A recurring handoff you no longer want to manage is a reason to change it.
With Setka, the brief and catalog guide the generated homepage, collections, product pages, navigation, and cart. You refine the generated pages inside the platform and publish the approved version. You still provide accurate product information and decide whether the presentation is right. Our case for Setka is strongest when those later presentation changes are work you want to direct inside the platform rather than commission separately.
For the presentation change, open the relevant Setka page and describe the result you want, then review it in preview. Every change saves a version of the whole storefront, and you can return to an earlier one.
Understand Snipcart’s percentage and minimum
Snipcart’s pricing page, checked on 28 September 2026, lists a 2% platform charge plus payment-gateway fees. For monthly sales below $1,000 USD, that charge is replaced by a $20 USD monthly fee. The minimum is not an extra $20 added to the 2%.
For illustration, applying that published rule to $500 in monthly sales produces a $20 Snipcart platform charge. Applying 2% to $5,000 produces $100. These examples exclude gateway charges and website hosting or maintenance; confirm the provider’s billing basis for your actual transactions.
The same page permits free testing and development. That is useful for checking an integration before live use, not a free live-store plan.
Snipcart’s fee is the smaller part of the bill when every presentation change is development work. In Setka the storefront is built into the platform, so that development, and the site hosting around it, never appear; for a product brand that would otherwise commission those changes, Setka usually costs much less over a year. See current pricing. If you want to keep a website you deliberately maintain, count only the development you would stop commissioning.
Keep control when control is the requirement
Choose Snipcart when keeping your chosen frontend and its integration flexibility matters more than having a platform generate the store. If you are comfortable maintaining that implementation, its model can match the job well.
For a product brand that wants to approve the design and move on to selling, we recommend Setka. You keep control over the brand, facts, and final presentation while the platform builds and maintains the storefront. If you depend on a custom payment flow or a connection to another system, tell us at [email protected] before you move: requests go straight to the people building Setka.
Before switching, identify where your product definitions live and which site code passes them to Snipcart. Keep a record of URLs, customer data, and order history that must remain available. If you move to Setka, we run the migration for you: tell us at [email protected] what you have, and we’ll work out the move with you. Redirects from old URLs are not in Setka yet. The embedded-commerce guide can help if keeping the current website is still an open decision.
If the storefront development is the work you want to leave behind, start building your store with Setka. Bring one collection and the changes you expect to make after launch. Use the store brief to make that direction concrete.