Pasalos vs Shopify for businesses in Nepal

Shopify is the best-known e-commerce platform in the world, and if you've researched selling online you've been told to use it. Pasalos is built specifically for Nepal. This page compares them honestly for one specific reader: a business selling to customers in Nepal. If that's not you, the verdict changes, and we say so below.

The short version

Shopify is a fantastic product built for markets it officially supports, and Nepal is not one of them. Shopify Payments (its native payment system) is not available for Nepali businesses as of July 2026, so the parts of Shopify that make it so convenient elsewhere need workarounds here. Pasalos is smaller and younger, but everything in it exists because a Nepali merchant needs it.

Pricing: NPR vs USD

• Pasalos plans are priced in Nepali rupees, starting at रु 1,499/month; see current pricing. What you see is what your bank statement shows.
• Shopify is priced in US dollars; its published Basic plan is around US$29/month on annual billing (more if billed monthly) as of July 2026; verify at shopify.com/pricing. At mid-2026 exchange rates that is roughly रु 4,000/month before any paid apps, and the dollar amount moves with the exchange rate. Paying it also requires a dollar-capable card, which is its own hurdle for many Nepali businesses.

Neither platform's subscription is your biggest cost (inventory and delivery are the largest expenses), but a USD subscription plus paid apps adds up fast for a shop earning in rupees.

Payments: the deciding factor for most Nepali sellers

This is usually where the decision gets made.

• Shopify has no built-in eSewa, Khalti, Fonepay, or connectIPS checkout. Shopify Payments doesn't operate in Nepal, so merchants typically fall back on manual methods (bank transfer details in the order notes, wallet screenshots in DMs) or third-party integrations of varying quality and cost. Cash on delivery exists as a basic toggle, without Nepal-style confirmation workflows.
• Pasalos ships with eSewa, Khalti, Fonepay QR, connectIPS, and COD as native checkout options, with COD confirmation flows designed for how deliveries actually work here.

If your customers pay by wallet and COD, which represents most of Nepal, this single row of the table outweighs everything else.

Where Shopify genuinely wins

An honest comparison has to include this list, because it's real:

• Themes: Shopify's theme store has hundreds of polished, battle-tested designs. Pasalos offers a standard storefront theme, which means far fewer choices.
• Apps: Shopify's app ecosystem (thousands of apps) can bolt almost any feature onto your store. Pasalos has an API and custom apps, but nothing near that ecosystem.
• Maturity and community: Shopify has two decades of tutorials, hired-gun developers, and community answers for every problem. Pasalos support is direct but the community is young.
• International selling: for cards, PayPal, multi-currency storefronts and global shipping integrations, Shopify is simply built for it.

Feature comparison

Facts about Shopify checked July 2026 against shopify.com public pages; tell us if something has changed.

The migration question

If you're already on Shopify and it's working (international customers, card payments, an established theme), there is no urgent reason to move. The merchants who switch are the ones fighting the payments problem: losing Nepali customers at checkout because the only options are a bank-transfer note or a DM. That fight doesn't improve with time.

Bottom line

Shopify is the better generic platform; Pasalos is the better platform for selling in Nepal, because the things a Nepali merchant needs first (wallet payments, COD that works, NPR pricing, and local delivery logic) are not add-ons here, they're the foundation. New to selling online entirely? Start with our step-by-step guide to starting an online business in Nepal.