Ecommerce Hosting UK
Four honest ways to run a store on G7Cloud: WooCommerce for flexibility, Magento for enterprise catalogues, Medusa for headless builds — or describe your shop to the AI Website Builder and get a working store with Stripe checkout. Every one runs in its own container at a fixed monthly price, and we never take a cut of your sales.
Free plan forever — no card needed. Full-stack shops ship on Business.
Pick your platform
Four ways to run a store — all on one account
We are not selling you one platform because it is the only one we run. All four are first-class here, so the recommendation can actually be honest.
AI Shop Builder
The fastest route to a real store
Describe your shop and the AI Website Builder ships a working store: product variants, stock, collections, discount codes, order management and Stripe checkout using your own Stripe keys — with a real Postgres database and an admin panel you log into. You own the code and can export it.
WooCommerce
The most flexible, most supported option
WordPress plus WooCommerce is the UK small-business default for a reason: an enormous ecosystem of themes, plugins and payment integrations, and every freelancer knows it. We run it in a dedicated container with WP-CLI, phpMyAdmin and site cloning for safe changes.
Magento
For enterprise catalogues and B2B
Magento Open Source 2.4 handles complex catalogues, B2B price rules and multi-store setups that outgrow everything else. One-click install in a dedicated container with Magento-tuned PHP, your own MariaDB database and a managed Redis add-on.
Medusa
Headless commerce for developers
Medusa is an open-source, JavaScript-native commerce engine: an API backend you pair with any front-end you like. Deploy it from git with push-to-deploy, PR preview environments and a managed PostgreSQL 15 instance behind it.
Side by side
Which store approach fits you?
The honest trade-offs, in one table. There is no single winner — that is why we host all four.
| AI Shop Builder | WooCommerce | Magento | Medusa | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Setup effort | Minutes — describe it, refine it, publish | An afternoon — one-click WordPress, add WooCommerce | Days — a proper build, usually with a developer | Days — code-first, deployed from your git repo |
| Technical skill needed | None — plain English, visual click-to-edit | Some WordPress familiarity | A developer or agency | JavaScript developers |
| Flexibility | High — real code you own, edit and can export | Huge plugin & theme ecosystem | Deep — complex catalogues, B2B rules, multi-store | Total — headless API, bring any front-end |
| Checkout | Stripe, with your own keys | Any WooCommerce payment gateway | Any Magento payment integration | Any gateway you integrate |
| Database | PostgreSQL, provisioned automatically | MariaDB, one per site | MariaDB, one per site | Managed PostgreSQL 15 |
| Best for | Fastest launch, no developer | Content-led UK small business stores | Enterprise catalogues & B2B | Custom headless storefronts |
| Start on | Business £19/mo | Business £19/mo | Pro £39/mo recommended | Business £19/mo |
Deep dives: AI Shop Builder · WooCommerce hosting · Magento hosting · Medusa hosting
The platform underneath
Whatever you pick, every store gets this
The platform baseline is the same for a Magento catalogue and an AI-built shop — these are live features, not roadmap promises.
A dedicated container
One isolated container per store with resources that are yours alone — a neighbour’s traffic spike cannot slow your checkout.
A database of your own
One database per site, never shared tables. MariaDB for WordPress, PHP and Magento; managed PostgreSQL 15 for Medusa and AI-built shops.
ScaleShield + free TLS
WAF and bot protection in front of every store — card-testing bots filtered at the edge — plus free automatic TLS, wildcard included.
Restore-tested backups
Scheduled and manual backups, restorable down to a single file or the database — and every backup is restore-tested nightly in a real sandbox.
Per-minute monitoring
Independent uptime checks every minute with email, webhook and Slack alerts, plus 90 days of resource metrics for capacity planning.
Email & DNS included
Real mailboxes with webmail, IMAP/SMTP and managed DKIM/SPF, plus full DNS hosting — order confirmations from [email protected], not a gmail address.
The pricing model
Your best sales day shouldn't raise your hosting bill
Most ecommerce platforms are structured to grow their bill with your success: Shopify Basic is £25/mo plus transaction fees on every sale, and each app is another subscription (as of July 2026). Metered hosts charge by visits, so a good marketing month costs you twice.
- Fixed monthly price in GBP — the bill is the same in December as in February
- No transaction fees, ever — card fees go to your payment provider, nothing to us
- No per-visit metering — a traffic spike is good news, not an overage
- You own the code and the data — export it, take it elsewhere, no lock-in
Two models, side by side
Rented platform (e.g. Shopify)
Monthly fee + transaction fees + app subscriptions. The theme, the checkout and your product data live on their platform, on their terms.
G7Cloud — from £19/mo fixed
One fixed GBP price. Your store, your code, your database, your Stripe account — in a container you can inspect over SFTP. Save 20% paying annually.
Pricing
Plans that fit a store
Business is the plan built for ecommerce — full-stack AI shops, managed databases and room for three sites. One ladder, no separate “commerce” pricing.
Starter
One real site on your own domain — with email, DNS and backups.
Business
Up to 3 sites plus full-stack AI apps — shop, bookings, CMS.
Pay annually and save 20% · 30-day money-back guarantee · Compare every plan
FAQ
Ecommerce hosting questions, answered straight
Which ecommerce platform should I choose?
Honest short version: if you want a store live this week without a developer, use the AI Shop Builder. If you want the biggest ecosystem of plugins and people who can work on it, choose WooCommerce. If you have a large or complex catalogue — B2B pricing, multi-store — Magento earns its weight. If you are a JavaScript team building a custom storefront, Medusa. All four run on the same account, so choosing "wrong" is not fatal.
Can AI really build a working shop?
Yes — a real one, not a picture of one. The AI Website Builder ships full-stack stores with a Postgres database, product variants, stock levels, collections, discount codes, order management, image uploads and Stripe checkout connected to your own Stripe account. You get an admin panel to run the store, and you own the code — including the option to export it.
Do you take transaction fees?
No. Your plan is a fixed monthly price in GBP and we take no cut of your sales, on any platform. Card processing fees go to your payment provider (for example Stripe), exactly as they would anywhere. Compare that with Shopify Basic at £25/mo plus transaction fees (as of July 2026).
Which plan do I need for a store?
Business (£19/mo) is the plan built for stores: it unlocks full-stack AI shops, includes managed PostgreSQL and Redis add-ons, and covers up to 3 hosted sites of any type including WooCommerce and Magento. For Magento specifically we recommend Pro (£39/mo) — its containers get 2 GB of dedicated RAM, which matches Magento's own requirements.
Can you move my existing store to G7Cloud?
Yes, and migration is free and assisted on every paid plan: our team copies your files and database, you test the store on a preview URL, and DNS only switches when you approve the cutover. Your old host stays untouched until you are confident.
What happens if I outgrow my platform choice?
You switch without switching hosts. Your plan’s hosted-site slots run any supported app type, so you can build a replacement store on a second slot — say, moving from an AI-built shop to WooCommerce, or WooCommerce to Medusa — test it side by side, and cut over when ready.
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