SoloStore → Podia alternative
Podia is genuinely pleasant software you will never own. SoloStore is the same job — storefront, courses, community, checkout — as a one-time licence running on your hosting and your Stripe.
Short answer: Podia is the easier product and it needs no hosting at all. But Shaker is $84/mo — $1,008 a year — and it caps you at 500 email subscribers and 150 products. SoloStore is $497 once plus about $7 a month, with no caps on either. You break even against Podia in about seven months.
Shaker stops at 500 email subscribers and 150 products. Earthquaker lifts them for $150/mo — $1,800 a year.
The $42/mo plan takes 5% of every sale. On $50,000 of revenue that is $2,500 gone on top of the subscription.
Everything — pages, members, checkout — lives on Podia. Leaving means rebuilding somewhere else.
Every number below came off the vendor's own pricing page, checked 5 August 2026.
| Podia Shaker | SoloStore | |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | $84/mo (Shaker) | $497 once |
| Year one | $1,008 | $581 |
| Every year after | $1,008 | $84 hosting |
| Platform cut of each sale | 0% on Shaker, 5% on Mover | 0% — always |
| Email subscribers | 500 on Shaker | Unlimited |
| Products | 150 on Shaker | Unlimited |
| Payments run through | Podia's connected account | Your own Stripe account |
| You can host it yourself | No | Yes |
| Built-in email marketing | Yes | connects to Kit |
| Free plan to start on | Yes | No |
| Nothing to set up | Yes | about five minutes |
| Five-year total | $5,040 | $917 |
Podia figures are public list prices from www.podia.com/pricing, checked 5 August 2026. SoloStore's total is the one-time licence plus about $7 a month of self-hosting (Railway and Bunny, paid direct). Stripe's processing fee applies on both sides and is excluded.
A comparison page that only flatters itself is an advert. Here is where Podia wins.
Stay on Podia if you are pre-revenue and the free plan covers you, or if never thinking about hosting is worth $1,008 a year to you. It is a good product — it is just one you rent.
Two services, no markup, nothing paid to us — and a five-minute setup with no code and no terminal.
Not sure what self-hosting means in practice? Watch the five-minute setup video — it is the entire process, start to finish.
Other questions? Shoot me an email — matt@mattgiaro.com