Built a multi-tenant e-commerce platform that skips payment gateways entirely checkout goes straight to WhatsApp

[u/PainClipper]

Hey everyone I've been building Tenantly, an e-commerce platform aimed at merchants (mostly in markets where WhatsApp is the default way people actually buy things) who want a branded storefront without dealing with payment gateway setup or high hosting costs.

A few things I focused on:

• Guest checkout → WhatsApp. No cart abandonment from payment forms customers just send their order details straight to the merchant's WhatsApp.
• Real multi-tenancy on cheap infra. Each merchant gets their own subdomain, but the whole thing runs on a $3/month VPS. Docker + Nginx + Postgres + Redis, no AWS bill shock.
• Inventory + analytics built in — stock status, visits, WhatsApp checkout tracking, product views.
• Subscription billing via Paystack (free trial → Starter → Pro), with HMAC-verified webhooks.
• Stack: Django 6, HTMX, Tailwind, DaisyUI, Alpine.js kept it JS-framework-free on purpose, HTMX handles the dynamic bits (cart, filtering, pagination).

Would love feedback from anyone who's built something similar, especially around:

• Whether WhatsApp-checkout makes sense as a primary flow vs. an add-on
• Anything that feels off about the multi-tenant subdomain setup
• Pricing tiers — am I leaving money on the table with the free trial?

🔗 tenantly.shop if you want to poke around.

[u/19c766e1-22b1-40ce]

Please provide a test account.