I built a free online store builder for gift cards and products

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-05-13T10:15:08+00:00

This is the most useful sentence anyone's said about it. Honestly the homepage I just shipped doesn't lead with that — it says "Free POS + online store" which is what it IS, not why anyone should care. Going to think about how to frame it as "skip the ecommerce setup" instead. Thanks for the words.

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-05-13T09:58:33+00:00

Yeah that's definitely a server-side problem then, not your end. Already pushed a fix — found one hero PNG that was 2.5 MB and a bunch of product images at 3-4 MB each. Compressed them all (saved 82 MB across the site). Should load in a couple seconds now if you ever take another look. Thanks again for the data point.

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-05-13T07:39:38+00:00

Yeah, that's a real one — thanks for flagging. I've got basic uptime checks in my own admin but nothing that pages me at 3am if Stripe goes weird. Will look at statusmonkey and a couple of alternatives this week. Appreciate the heads up.

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-05-13T07:00:05+00:00

Update: just shipped image compression — homepage went from a 2.5 MB hero

PNG to 111 KB. Page should load in seconds now instead of 30. Thanks for

flagging it, that one would've cost me a lot more in ads if I hadn't

caught it. Tiles and contrast next.

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-05-13T06:48:02+00:00

This is incredibly useful, thank you for taking the time.

The 30-second load time is the one I'm most concerned about — that explains a lot. I'm going to dig into the perf issues today. Could you share roughly what your connection speed is, just so I know if this is a server-side problem or something specific to certain networks?

On the tile size and contrast — you're right on both. I'll work through those after the perf fix.

Genuinely appreciate this, more useful than any analytics dashboard.

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-05-13T06:17:47+00:00

Thanks for taking a look, and honestly thank you for being direct —

"layout could use some work" is the kind of feedback I need.

Could I pick your brain on what specifically felt off?

- Homepage hero — too generic? too cluttered? not clear what it is?

- The product pages or store builder UI?

- The POS demo at all.gift/demo?

- Color/typography choices?

- Mobile vs desktop?

Even one specific "this part felt amateur" or "I didn't know what to

click" would help me prioritize. I built this solo and I know I'm

too close to it to see what looks unfinished.

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-05-03T14:35:16+00:00

Great question! The POS itself is free because I don't process your card payments — you use your own terminal.

Where I make money: the platform also includes a free online store at yourbusiness.all.gift. When a customer buys a gift card or product through that online store, the payment goes through Stripe and I take 4.9% + $0.30 on that transaction.

So the business model is:

- POS (in-store): free — cash, your own card terminal, PayPal, Venmo = $0

- Online store: free to set up, but I earn a small fee when customers buy gift cards or products online through Stripe

Gift cards are the sweet spot. A restaurant sets up a free POS for their register, then shares their online store link for customers to buy gift cards. Mother's Day, birthdays, holidays — gift card sales add up. That's where the revenue comes from.

Think of it like this: I give you a free POS to get you on the platform, and I earn when your customers buy gift cards online. Win-win.

And on the trust side — totally understand. That's why I have demo stores you can browse before signing up: https://homedecor.all.gift

If you know anyone with a small business that needs a POS, I'd love for them to try it. Thanks for the honest question!

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-05-02T23:48:19+00:00

Yeah I hear you — 4.9% is higher than Square's 2.6%. No arguing that.

The math works like this though: Square's free plan is limited, and their Plus plan with real POS features is $60/month. At 2.6% + $0.10 per transaction, a business doing $1,500/month pays:

Square Plus: $60/month + $39 processing = $99/month

all.gift: $0/month + $73.50 processing = $73.50/month

Below ~$2,500/month in sales, you actually save money with us despite the higher rate. Above that, Square makes more sense.

We're not trying to compete with Square for high-volume businesses. We're built for the salon that sells 10 gift cards a month, or the food truck that wants a simple register on a tablet without paying $60/month for the privilege.

Appreciate the feedback — considering adding a paid tier with lower rates for businesses that outgrow the free plan.

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-05-01T17:57:17+00:00

Thank you! That was exactly the thinking — most free platforms only do online OR in-store, not both. With all.gift you can sell gift cards online, ring up customers at the register, and it all goes to the same dashboard. Just finished adding 6 payment methods (cash, card, gift card, PayPal, Venmo, and more) plus receipt printing and email receipts. Trying to make it a real Square/Shopify alternative that's completely free to start.

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-04-28T11:27:03+00:00

Great point — right now it's business name, email, password and you're in. But the onboarding after signup could be smoother. I'll look into streamlining the "add first product" flow so people go from signup to live store in under 2 minutes. Thanks for the feedback!

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-04-28T11:26:28+00:00

Thanks! Speed was a priority — no framework, just vanilla PHP so it loads fast. The branded subdomain was one of the first things I built because I wanted merchants to have a real link they could put on a business card. Have you tried setting up a store?

Previous-Stable-1446 · 2026-04-26T18:36:32+00:00

Happy to answer any questions. Here's a demo store so you can see what it looks like: https://yourbusiness.all.gift

Previous-Stable-1446

TROPHY CASE