Thank you for your feedback.
Thought this was a shopping cart plugin,
Well, it is a shopping cart plugin. You’re right, it isn’t the same as other shopping carts plugins, but the web is changing. Several years ago in order to use e-mail the mail server needed to be setup. Nowadays we use Gmail and it is OK.
not a way to integrate some “rely on us now so you can pay us later whatever price we want” scheme.
Currently Ecwid is totally free. Free account will always be available. All features you get with Ecwid now for free will always remain free.