# HikaShop review (2026): is the free plan enough?

> Ecommerce extension for Joomla and WordPress sites

Checked Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA.

HikaShop is an ecommerce extension that adds a shop to a Joomla or WordPress site hosted on your own server. A free Starter edition covers products, variants, inventory, taxes, coupons and payment and shipping plugins, and two paid editions add more features and a year of updates and support. Companion extensions for marketplaces, serial numbers and auctions are sold separately.

- **Category:** Online Store Builders
- **Made by:** HIKARI Software (since 2010)
- **Website:** https://www.hikashop.com
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you don't run Joomla or WordPress, as it works only inside them.
- **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026

## Pricing

As of Nov 13, 2026, HikaShop has a free plan, and paid plans start at €60 per year for 1 site.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Starter edition: free, with unlimited products and orders, variants and inventory, payment and shipping plugins, tax rules, currencies and coupons, and forum support.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Starter | $0 | Unlimited products and orders, variants, inventory, payment and shipping plugins, tax rules and coupons, with forum support. |
| Essential | €60 per year for 1 site | Adds custom fields, product options, guest checkout, multicart, wishlist, AI Commerce (UCP and MCP) and personal email support. Priced in euros. |
| Business | €120 per year for 1 site | Adds the REST API, the HikaShop mobile app, an affiliate program, product filters and comparison, and prices per user group and zone. Priced in euros. |

Read from https://www.hikashop.com on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with HikaShop before buying.

## Key features

- **Catalog and inventory:** Categories, characteristics, variants, options and custom fields, with stock tracking, for small or large catalogs.
- **International selling:** Languages, currencies, zones and tax rules, with more than 90 payment gateways listed on the homepage.
- **Marketing tools:** Coupons and discounts, affiliate programs (Business edition) and email-marketing integrations.
- **Built-in statistics:** A dashboard shows revenue, orders, average order value and top products.
- **Customization:** Views, checkout, fields and emails can be overridden without forking the code.
- **Marketplace and auctions:** HikaMarket (multi-vendor), HikaSerial and HikaAuction are sold as separate extensions.

## Good for

- Joomla site owners who want a shop inside their existing site
- Small catalogs that can start on the free edition
- WordPress or Joomla users who want to run the store on their own server

## Worth knowing

- It runs only inside Joomla or WordPress and needs your own hosting; the vendor says it supports MySQL only.
- Paid editions include one year of updates and support for one website; extending costs €40 per year on Essential and €70 per year on Business.
- Prices are listed in euros, and EU buyers without a valid VAT number pay a tax rate added at checkout.
- The REST API, mobile app and affiliate program are limited to the Business edition.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. HikaShop adds a shop to Joomla or WordPress, with a free Starter edition and paid editions at €60 and €120 a year per site. The REST API, mobile app and affiliate program sit on Business, and you need your own hosting.

- **Value for money: A.** Essential is €60 a year for one site, about €5 a month, under 60% of the category's $20 cheap start. Business is €120 a year.
- **Free plan and trial: B.** The Starter edition is free with unlimited products and orders, variants, inventory and tax rules. One site could run on it, with forum support.
- **Features: C.** Catalog, inventory, international selling and marketing tools. Guest checkout and wishlist need Essential, and the API and mobile app need Business.
- **Ease of use: D.** No rating on record. You need your own Joomla or WordPress site on your own hosting, and the vendor says it supports MySQL only.
- **Platforms and integrations: C.** Runs inside Joomla or WordPress only, with Stripe and PayPal links. The mobile app is Business only.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from HikaShop's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among online store builders

- HikaShop's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 60 of the 80 other online store builders we grade, and level with 13.
- It stands best on value for money (A, above 78 of 80) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at about $5.59 a month, against a middle price of $29.25 for the category: 2 of the 44 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 1.7 out of 4. 5 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/online-stores

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace HikaShop you would be making checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.4 is higher than 60 of the 80 other online store builders we grade. It costs $67.03 a year.

- You could make: Inventory and templates: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: Checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Joomla, WordPress and Stripe among them, and has an API.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

Joomla, WordPress, Stripe, PayPal

**Tags:** Online store, Self-hostable, Inventory, Public API, Templates

## Alternatives

- [VirtueMart](https://toolgpa.com/tools/virtuemart): Free open-source ecommerce extension for Joomla. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hikashop-vs-virtuemart)
- [WooCommerce](https://toolgpa.com/tools/woocommerce): Free, open-source store plugin for WordPress that you host yourself. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hikashop-vs-woocommerce)
- [OpenCart](https://toolgpa.com/tools/opencart): Free open-source shopping cart you host yourself. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hikashop-vs-opencart)
- [PrestaShop](https://toolgpa.com/tools/prestashop): Open-source ecommerce software, free to self-host or sold hosted. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hikashop-vs-prestashop)
- [Zen Cart](https://toolgpa.com/tools/zen-cart): Free open-source PHP shopping cart you host yourself. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/hikashop-vs-zen-cart)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026:

- https://www.hikashop.com
- https://www.hikashop.com/hikashop-essential
- https://www.hikashop.com/hikashop-business

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/hikashop
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).