I would just pay $29/month for Shopify basic plan. Is the $20 difference worth self hosting and tweaking a custom thing? You’ll quickly lose that $20 in time better spent running your business. I’d rather have reliable hosting...
Not to bash a cool side project. Just want to say it’s not a panacea.
I do see a niche for tinystore, but, like you, I also see that anyone making some real money off their store will gladly pay some extra's for more reliability and less fuss.
-- [0] the ones now often reaching to woocommerce or equivalents. A hobby-, bootstrapping, "try this idea, see if it sticks".
They have obviously made the decision that it doesn't make sense for a $134b company to solve this problem. But it probably makes sense for a guy solving his wife's problem to create this solution.
$15/month savings can be spent in FB/Instagram ads or something that can drive more customers. In 3 months, you save $45 or $180/year.
I'm also planning allow users to add multiple stores. The site is hosted in DO and can scale up easily.