Skip to content
MiddleEastEcomMiddle East Ecommerce
Platforms

Ecommerce platforms

Your own Gulf store can be live this week, with mada, Apple Pay and Arabic ready to switch on. Start with the platform rundown, then go deeper on comparisons, pricing and setup.

22 guides
Start here
Platforms · Getting started

Best Ecommerce Platforms for the Middle East (2026)

Salla and Zid are the cheapest, quickest way to open a store that sells in Saudi Arabia. Shopify is the strongest choice for UAE brands and anyone selling across several countries. WooCommerce suits teams with a developer.

13 min read
Read the guide

Explore by topic

Platforms · Marketplaces

Marketplaces as a sales platform

Marketplaces bring you ready-made traffic from day one. See what Amazon and noon offer as a platform, then pick the one that suits your products.

0 guides

Pick your platform

Answer a few quick questions, or see which platform fits your market.

Tools · Platforms

Which Ecommerce Platform Should You Use? (Quiz)

Seven questions about where you're based, where you sell, your budget and your customers. You get a ranked list of six Gulf sales channels, with the reasons behind your top pick.

4 min read
Platforms · UAE

Best Ecommerce Platform for the UAE (2026): 5 Options Compared

Shopify is the best ecommerce platform for most UAE stores, because Shopify Payments works here and removes Shopify's extra fee on card orders. WooCommerce suits teams with a developer. Salla and Zid make sense only if Saudi Arabia is your main market.

12 min read

Head-to-head comparisons

Costs, payments and Arabic side by side, with a clear winner for each kind of seller.

Platforms · Comparison

Shopify vs Salla vs Zid: Which Platform Should Your Gulf Store Use?

Salla and Zid are the cheapest, most local way to sell in Saudi Arabia. Shopify is the strongest choice for UAE brands and anyone selling across several countries. Here's how to pick yours.

14 min read
Platforms · Comparison

Shopify vs Salla: Which Should Your Saudi or Gulf Store Use?

Salla is cheaper and faster for a store that sells mainly in Saudi Arabia. Shopify is the better home for UAE brands, design-led brands and anyone selling across borders. Here's how to choose, with a full year-one cost.

12 min read
Platforms · Comparison

Shopify vs Zid: Which Is Better for Your Saudi Store?

Zid is the cheaper, more local home for a store that sells mainly in Saudi Arabia, with payments, shipping and marketplace links built in. Shopify is the stronger pick for UAE brands and anyone selling across borders.

10 min read
Platforms · Comparison

Salla vs Zid: Which Saudi Store Platform Should You Pick?

Salla and Zid cost the same on paper and both take no commission. Salla is the bigger, easier ecosystem for most new Saudi stores. Zid wins on payment transparency, marketplace links and shops with branches.

10 min read

Platform guides

What each platform does well, who it suits and how to get started.

Platforms · Salla

Salla Review 2026: The Saudi Store Platform Explained

Salla is Saudi Arabia's biggest store builder: Arabic-first, no commission on sales, with mada, Apple Pay, Tabby, Tamara, COD and ZATCA invoicing built in. For a store selling mainly in Saudi Arabia, it's the easiest and cheapest serious start.

10 min read
Platforms · Zid

Zid Review 2026: Is Zid the Right Store Platform for You?

Zid is Saudi Arabia's second-biggest store builder, with 13,500+ merchants. It's free to start, SAR 99 a month to take card payments, and the best local choice if you also sell in shops, on marketplaces or to other businesses.

11 min read
Platforms · Shopify

Shopify in the Middle East: A Complete Guide for GCC Sellers

Shopify works across the Gulf, and Saudi and UAE stores pay less than US ones. Shopify Payments is live only in the UAE, so stores elsewhere connect a local gateway and pay a small extra fee. Add an RTL theme, a few local apps, and you're ready to sell.

10 min read
Platforms · WooCommerce

WooCommerce in Saudi Arabia & the UAE: Costs, Plugins and Setup

WooCommerce works well for Gulf stores once you add a local payment gateway, a courier plugin and a ZATCA e-invoicing plugin. Expect to spend about SAR 400–700 a month on hosting, a theme and plugins. It suits brands with a developer or an existing WordPress site.

11 min read

Pricing and payments

Every plan and fee explained, plus how to take mada, BNPL and cash on delivery.

Platforms · Salla

Salla Pricing 2026: Every Plan and the Real Yearly Cost

Salla has a free Basic plan, Plus at SAR 99 a month or SAR 990 a year, Pro at SAR 299 a month or SAR 2,990 a year, and a custom Special plan. It takes no commission on sales, so your real bill is the plan plus payment fees and apps.

10 min read
Platforms · Zid

Zid Pricing 2026: Every Plan, Zid Pay Fee and Real Cost

Zid is free to start. Rise costs SAR 99 a month (SAR 990 a year) and unlocks card payments; Growth costs SAR 299 a month (SAR 2,990 a year) and adds VAT invoice settings. Zid Pay charges from 1% + SAR 1 per mada payment, with no commission on sales.

10 min read
Platforms · Shopify

Shopify Pricing in the UAE and Saudi Arabia: Plans, Fees and Real Costs

Shopify is cheaper in the Gulf than in the US. On annual billing, Basic costs $24 a month for a UAE store and $19 for a Saudi store, and Grow costs $69 or $54. Advanced ($299) and Plus (from $2,300) cost the same in both. The bigger cost is payments: UAE stores get Shopify Payments, while Saudi stores pay Shopify an extra 0.2–2% on gateway orders.

10 min read
Platforms · Shopify

Is Shopify Payments Available in Saudi Arabia? (2026 Answer)

No. As of October 2026, Shopify Payments isn't available in Saudi Arabia, and the UAE is the only Gulf country it supports. Saudi stores connect a local gateway such as Tap, HyperPay or Amazon Payment Services, and pay Shopify a 0.2–2% fee on top.

7 min read
Platforms · Shopify · Saudi Arabia

Best Shopify Payment Gateways in Saudi Arabia (2026)

Tap Payments is the best all-round Shopify gateway in Saudi Arabia, because it shows mada and Apple Pay inside Shopify's own checkout. Telr and Amazon Payment Services are the picks for published prices and STC Pay, Geidea for built-in BNPL and Checkout.com for large brands. Moyasar has no official Shopify app.

9 min read
Platforms · Shopify

Best Shopify COD and OTP Apps for Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the GCC

For most Gulf Shopify stores, the best setup is a one-page COD form with OTP (EasySell or Releasit COD Form), plus WhatsApp confirmation before dispatch. Both form apps are free up to 60 orders a month. Together with confirmation, they cut COD refusals by 10–15 points for a few dollars a month.

10 min read

Setting up Shopify for the Gulf

Arabic storefronts, local gateways, multi-country selling and moving over from Salla.

Saudi Arabia · Shopify

Shopify in Saudi Arabia: Payments, Arabic, Shipping and Setup

Yes, you can run a Shopify store in Saudi Arabia. Shopify Payments isn't available there, so you connect a local gateway for mada and Apple Pay, and pay Shopify a small extra fee on those orders. Here's how to set it up and keep costs low.

14 min read
Localization · Shopify

How to Build an Arabic Shopify Store (RTL, Checkout & Copy)

An Arabic Shopify store needs an RTL-ready theme, Arabic added in Settings > Languages, a translation app, a manually translated checkout, Western digits, Gulf-friendly copy and VAT-inclusive SAR or AED prices. Most stores can do it in a few weeks with free tools plus a native reviewer.

12 min read
Platforms · Shopify

How to Migrate from Salla to Shopify (Without Losing SEO)

You can move a Salla store to Shopify in about 2–4 weeks for a standard store. Products, customers and orders transfer through CSV files or a migration tool. Your theme, apps, payments, shipping and ZATCA invoicing are rebuilt, and every old URL needs a one-to-one 301 redirect to keep your Google rankings.

13 min read
Platforms · Shopify

How to Set Up a Shopify Store for the GCC: Step-by-Step

Setting up Shopify for the Gulf takes ten steps: local currency with VAT-inclusive prices, Arabic and RTL, the right payment path for your company, COD with OTP, couriers and the National Address, legal pages, ZATCA invoicing in Saudi Arabia, Markets and analytics, then test orders. Start gateway approval and Arabic translation on day one, because they take longest.

12 min read
Platforms · Shopify

Best Shopify Themes for Arabic & RTL Stores (2026)

Since October 2026, Shopify's free Horizon themes display Arabic right to left, so most new stores can start there. If you want a ready-made premium look, pick one of the 24 paid Theme Store themes tagged right-to-left, such as Prestige, Impact or Symmetry. Dawn has no native RTL, so avoid it for Arabic.

10 min read
Platforms · Shopify

How to Translate Your Shopify Checkout into Arabic (2026)

Shopify doesn't pre-translate its checkout into Arabic, so you translate it yourself. Add Arabic in Settings > Languages, open the free Translate & Adapt app, and fill in Default theme content > Checkout and system. Then translate your notifications, rename address and payment labels for Gulf shoppers, and place a test order in Arabic.

7 min read
Platforms · Shopify

Shopify Markets for the GCC: Multi-Country, Multi-Currency Setup

Shopify Markets lets one store sell to all six GCC countries with local prices, Arabic and English URLs and per-market settings. Charging shoppers in their own currency needs Shopify Payments, which in the Gulf means a UAE company. Saudi and other stores on a local gateway charge everyone in the store currency, or split into expansion stores on Plus.

10 min read
Platforms · Shopify

Shopify Plus in the GCC: Cost, Features and When It's Worth It

Shopify Plus costs $2,300 a month on a 3-year term or $2,500 on a 1-year term, the same in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and everywhere billed in USD. For most Gulf brands it pays off when you run stores in more than one country or need large-scale wholesale and checkout control, not for the fee savings alone.

11 min read