Most "free" store builders let you build until the moment you want money to change hands. Then checkout is locked behind a plan, or your storefront wears someone else's ads. Kartrocket doesn't work that way. You describe your business in plain language - Hinglish is fine - and a working store builds itself. You publish it free on yourname.kartrocket.ai, with SSL included, and it can take real orders from day one.
The honest part: nothing is truly free once money moves. But the costs you pay are real, pass-through costs - not a made-up subscription. This page tells you exactly what's free, what isn't, and why.
What "free" actually means here
Building your store is free. Publishing it is free. There's no 14-day trial ticking down, no card required to start, and no plugin or app store where every useful feature costs another few hundred rupees a month. Your store lives on a yourname.kartrocket.ai address with SSL, so customers see the padlock and trust the checkout.
Crucially, checkout is not the paywall. COD, UPI and card payments work on the free address. That's the difference that matters - a store you can't take orders on isn't a store, it's a brochure.
- Free to build with the AI, no card needed
- Free to publish on yourname.kartrocket.ai with SSL
- COD, UPI and card checkout work on the free address
- No plugin fees, no app-store rentals, no ads on your store
What does cost money - and why
We'd rather you know upfront. There are exactly three things you might pay for, and none of them go to a monthly Kartrocket plan.
A custom domain (like yourbrand.in) is optional - you buy it from a registrar, usually a few hundred rupees a year, and connect it. Payment-gateway fees apply only on prepaid UPI/card orders, typically in the low single-digit percentage range per transaction - check the current rate with your gateway. Courier charges apply only when you actually ship something, at Shiprocket market rates that depend on weight, distance and mode.
- Your own domain: optional, bought from a registrar (~a few hundred ₹/year)
- Payment-gateway fee: only on prepaid orders, a small % per transaction
- Courier charges: only when you ship, at Shiprocket rates by weight and zone
- COD orders have no gateway fee - you pay the courier to deliver and collect
Why free builders gate checkout (and how to spot it)
A "free" builder has to make money somewhere. The common tricks: checkout is disabled until you upgrade; your products cap out at a handful; the free plan runs ads or a big "built with" banner on your storefront; or the essential features - payments, shipping, discounts - each live behind a separate paid app.
Before you commit to any platform, try to complete a test purchase on the free tier. If you can't reach a working COD or UPI checkout without entering card details for a plan, that's your answer.
- COart and buy on the free version
The safety model behind your free store
Because you build by talking to the AI, you might worry about breaking something important. You can't break the part that matters. Checkout, payments and orders run on a locked commerce core the AI physically cannot edit - so prices are computed on the server and a bad prompt can never break the money path.
Every change you make is saved as a version with one-click undo, and a broken section can never take down the whole site. You experiment freely without risking the orders coming in.
Who this suits, and what you get for free
Whether you sell sarees, run a home kitchen, cut hair, or supply parts B2B, the free store covers the essentials: a product catalog with ₹ pricing, cart and checkout, Shiprocket shipping to 24,000+ serviceable pincodes with tracking, pages, galleries, hours and a location map.
Restaurants get photo menus, table reservations and pickup/prepay. Salons and clinics get service menus, appointment booking and deposits. Services businesses get enquiry forms that route to their own WhatsApp. Pick from storefronts designed from each business's own material - every one is a working storefront, not a mockup.
From Kartrocket to Shiprocket and back
Kartrocket was the original DIY store builder for Indian SMBs from around 2012 to 2017, built by the team that went on to create Shiprocket, India's largest e-commerce shipping platform. It relaunched in 2026 as an chat-native business builder. That lineage is why shipping isn't an afterthought here - it's wired in from the start, so the free store you publish is genuinely ready to fulfil orders.
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free, or is there a hidden trial?
Can customers actually buy on the free version?
Do I need my own domain name?
What are the payment-gateway charges?
How much does shipping cost?
Will there be ads or a banner on my free store?
Build your free store today
Describe your business in plain language and watch a working store appear - publish it free, take real orders, pay only for what actually moves.
Build on Telegram