Instagram, WooCommerce or Shopify in Lebanon?

For a shop in Lebanon, there are four common ways to sell online: Instagram DMs alone, a WooCommerce website, a Shopify store, or Mahallat. Instagram costs nothing but does not scale. WooCommerce gives full control if you have someone to run it. Shopify is a strong global platform, best when you sell abroad with cards. Mahallat is built around how Lebanon buys: cash on delivery, Whish, prices in USD with LBP, and addresses without postal codes.

This comparison is written as of October 2026. Platforms change their plans, prices and features often, so check each one's own site before you decide. Facts about other platforms come from their public documentation; we have tried to be fair, including about our own limits.

What a Lebanese shop needs to check

Before comparing tools, list what your customers actually do. For most Lebanese shops, the questions are:

• Cash on delivery: can customers choose it, and can you track the cash drivers bring back?
• Whish: can customers pay by Whish, and how do you confirm the payment?
• Dollars and lira: can you price in USD and show LBP at your own rate?
• Addresses: can customers give an area, a landmark and a location pin, without a postal code?
• Delivery: can you set fees by governorate or district?
• The counter: do you also sell in a shop, and do you need one stock for both?
• Setup and upkeep: who builds it, and who fixes it when something breaks?
• Total cost: the subscription, plus apps, plugins, hosting and transaction fees.

Option 1: Instagram DMs only

Most Lebanese shops start here, and many stay.

• Cost: free.
• Payments: whatever you arrange by hand, usually cash on delivery or Whish.
• Prices: in captions, highlights or replies, one customer at a time.
• Addresses and delivery: typed in chat, voice notes and shared locations.
• Stock: in your head or a notebook.

It works well when you sell a few pieces a week, everything is one of a kind, or you are testing an idea. It breaks down when the messages outnumber your hours: orders get lost in chats, the same questions come back all day, and you sell the last piece twice. Instagram stays your shop window whatever you choose next. We compare it in detail in Instagram DMs or your own store.

Option 2: A WooCommerce website

WooCommerce is a free, open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress. You install it on your own hosting, or a developer does it for you.

• Cost: the plugin is free. You pay for hosting, a domain, often a theme, any paid extensions, and the time of whoever builds and maintains it.
• Cash on delivery: built in, with Whish next to it.
• Whish: not part of WooCommerce itself. You add a plugin if one is available and maintained, or treat Whish as a manual method with your number in the payment instructions.
• Dollars and lira: WooCommerce works in one store currency. Showing a second currency at your own rate takes an extension or custom work.
• Addresses: the checkout fields can be changed, for example to add a landmark field, with an extension or a developer.
• Delivery: shipping zones and flat rates are built in; matching them to Lebanese areas takes setup.
• Upkeep: updates, security, backups and speed are your responsibility, or your developer's.

WooCommerce fits when you have a developer you trust, want full control over every detail, or already run a WordPress site.

Option 3: Shopify

Shopify is a hosted platform used by shops around the world, with a large app store and well-made themes. You pay a monthly subscription; prices vary by plan and country, so check shopify.com for the current ones. Shopify bills its subscription to a credit card or, in some regions, PayPal and other methods; prepaid and virtual cards are not accepted.

• Card payments: Shopify's own payment service, Shopify Payments, is not available in Lebanon as of October 2026, so card payments need a third-party payment provider that works for you.
• Cash on delivery: available as a manual payment method.
• Whish: possible as a custom manual payment method, where the customer pays outside the checkout following your instructions.
• Transaction fees: Shopify charges a fee on orders paid through a third-party provider, but not on manual payments such as cash on delivery.
• Dollars and lira: Shopify's multi-currency features need Shopify Payments for full functionality, so showing LBP at your own rate usually means an app or a theme change.
• Addresses: Shopify's checkout uses its standard address form. A separate landmark field or a map pin needs an app or a customisation, where your plan allows it.
• The counter: in-person selling is included in Shopify's paid plans, and POS Pro is a paid add-on per location.

Shopify fits when you sell mostly abroad and can take card payments through a provider available to you, when you need a specific app, or when you want a large ecosystem of designers and developers. We compare it with Mahallat in Mahallat vs Shopify.

Option 4: Mahallat

Mahallat is the online store and business system built for Lebanon. It is our product, so weigh this section accordingly, and try it before you trust it.

• Cost: plans from $20 to $35 a month, paid by Whish, after a 14-day free trial, no card needed. No transaction fees: customers pay you directly, and Mahallat never holds the money.
• Cash on delivery: built in, with a fee per zone if you want one, and a view of the cash each delivery partner holds for you.
• Whish: built into checkout. The customer sees your Whish number and the amount, pays from their app and uploads the screenshot; you check your Whish account and confirm in one tap. It is not an automatic integration: you confirm each payment yourself.
• Dollars and lira: prices in USD, with LBP at the rate you set, on the product page, the cart, the checkout and the order.
• Addresses: governorate, district and area from a list of Lebanese localities, then street, building, floor, landmark and an optional GPS pin.
• Delivery: zones by governorate and district, each with its fee, delivery time and free delivery amount, plus pickup and time slots.
• The counter: sales made in the shop are logged in seconds, with how they were paid, on the same stock as the website. A full point of sale is coming soon.
• Setup: do it yourself, or choose "Get your store built" and send your Instagram: we build the store for you during the trial.

Its limits, honestly: Mahallat does not take card payments for selling abroad, there is no app store (the features are built in, and that is all there is), and stores are in English only. Order emails send themselves, but WhatsApp messages never do: Mahallat writes them and you send them in one tap from your own number.

Quick answers

• Cheapest to start: Instagram DMs.
• Most control, if you have a developer: WooCommerce.
• Selling abroad with cards, or a specific app: Shopify.
• Cash on delivery, Whish, LBP and Lebanese addresses without add-ons: Mahallat.

Some shops combine them: Instagram for discovery, a Lebanese store for local orders and the counter, and a second platform for card sales abroad.

How to decide in an afternoon

1. Write down how your last 20 orders were paid and delivered.
2. List what you would need to add to each option to handle those 20 orders: apps, plugins, extensions or work by hand.
3. Add up the real monthly cost, including your own time.
4. Try two options with your real products. Most offer a free trial.
5. Place a test order on your phone, on mobile data, exactly as a customer would.

For the wider picture (channels, payments, delivery and trust), read how to sell online in Lebanon. For Mahallat's plans, see pricing.