A free online store can be a sensible way to start selling. The useful question is what the word “free” covers: a limited plan, a short trial, access to software or an arrangement that earns money from each sale. Understanding the model makes it much easier to compare offers and plan your first year.
Free software and a cost-free business are different things. AWA’s Neocart offer includes the base shop software at A$0. Setup is A$999 once, plus GST. Hosting and domain are separate, as are the fees charged by your payment and delivery providers.
Four models behind “free”
Most free-store offers fit into a few broad categories. This is a guide to business models, not a current price comparison of individual platforms. Features and limits need to be checked against the offer you are actually considering.
| Model | Free component | Check before choosing |
|---|---|---|
| Ongoing free plan | Use within the plan’s limits | Products, variants, domain options and the next paid tier |
| Free trial | Access for a limited period | The normal price, renewal conditions and what happens to your data |
| No fixed platform fee | No monthly base charge | Any commission per sale and how it is calculated |
| Licence-free software | The base shop software | Setup, hosting, domain, maintenance and external services |
The right model depends on your catalogue and the people running it. A small business selling a few products has different requirements from a supplier managing trade accounts, complex variants and several warehouses. Start with your actual workflow rather than the length of a feature list.
A free trial is an evaluation period
A trial gives you time to explore an interface. It does not tell you the ongoing cost of a functioning store. Check the standard price after the trial, which features are included at that level and whether you can use your own domain.
Use real product information during the evaluation. Add a long product name, a variant, a delivery condition and the images you intend to publish. A polished empty template tells you less than one complete product moving through a realistic order.
For an ongoing free plan, ask how its limits are counted. One T-shirt in five sizes may be treated differently from five unrelated products. Find out what happens when you exceed a limit and whether the next plan changes the costs of the whole store.
No platform commission does not remove payment fees
The platform and the payment processor are different services. A platform may charge nothing on each order while your payment provider still charges for processing the transaction. Shipping, packaging and refunds can also affect the economics of a sale.
As a purely hypothetical example, a 2% platform commission on A$5,000 of eligible monthly sales would be A$100. That is an illustration of the calculation, not a statement about any named provider’s current pricing. Check whether a quoted percentage applies to product revenue, shipping, taxes or some other amount.
The Neocart base-shop offer has no platform sales commission. That does not cancel the charges in your own merchant and delivery contracts. Our guide to free online store running costs separates those categories so you can budget for them.
What AWA’s offer includes
AWA offers the Neocart base software with no licence charge and no monthly base software fee. The one-time A$999 setup, plus GST, covers the agreed configuration using your supplied content. Hosting and domain are quoted separately.
- Your supplied brand assets applied to the agreed store layout.
- Initial entry of the first 20 products from your supplied data and images.
- Domain connection and the payment and delivery setup agreed in your scope.
- A complete test order before launch approval.
- A practical introduction to the everyday management tasks.
The first 20 products describe setup work, not the capacity of a hosting plan. Migration, custom features and additional integrations are separately scoped. Existing Shopify, WooCommerce and Medusa projects are different services; this zero-licence offer does not change those platforms’ terms.
Plan with AWA in English and agree the storefront language in your written scope. The optional external Neocart planner currently uses Hungarian, so it is not a required step for an English-speaking business owner.
Six questions worth asking
Before approving any store project, get short written answers to these questions. They are more useful than a broad claim that a platform can “do everything”.
- Which products, variants and selling regions are included at launch?
- Who controls the domain and the merchant accounts?
- Which payment, delivery and accounting connections are included?
- Who handles updates, backups and incidents after launch?
- What data can be exported, in which format and at what cost?
- What changes if the catalogue, traffic or integration requirements grow?
Do not assume that software access automatically includes ongoing support or that hosting automatically includes every maintenance task. Define responsibility and response arrangements in the service agreement.
Choose the model, then prepare the launch
A free online store is a useful starting point when the scope fits your business and the remaining costs are visible. It gives you a concrete way to put products online without treating a software subscription as the first purchase.
Read the full AWA free-store offer, then use the seven-step launch guide to collect the information that makes setup smoother. You do not need to have every answer before making an enquiry; identifying the open questions is part of the scoping work.
Common questions
Does free mean a temporary promotion?
The described Neocart offer is licence-free base software, not a short trial that automatically becomes a monthly software subscription. Your agreed hosting and other service costs remain separate.
Is the setup fee charged every year?
No. A$999 plus GST is the one-time setup for the agreed launch scope. A later rebuild, migration or extra integration may be a separate project.
Can I compare this directly with a custom platform build?
Compare the scope first. A base Neocart launch and a bespoke multi-system platform can involve very different work, even when both are described as an online store.
Your store starts with a clear plan.
A$0 Neocart base software. A$999 one-time setup, plus GST. Hosting, domain and external provider fees are separate.
Explore the free store offer ↗Editorial starting point: CONEN Digital’s guide on this topic (18 October 2026). Independently written for AWA’s English-language audience and offer. Updated 19 October 2026. Your agreed quote defines the final scope and costs.
