10 Best Shopify Alternatives

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1. WooCommerce

Being one of the most popular WordPress-based alternatives, WooCommerce is a force to contend within this space. It has several inbuilt functionalities that make designing an eCommerce website a breeze.
It is aimed at the starters and middle rung businesses trying to get an easy solution for their eCommerce needs. It might not scale well because it requires paid functions to work well on that scope. The fact that it is free is a huge bonus for people and agencies who are starting.
There are several functionalities you can choose from in the market. While they might end up being expensive, it is still an option that you can choose. And since it has been around for a long time now, the app market is streamlined and mostly error-free.
It integrates with many different platforms and is a great bet if you’re looking for a good eCommerce solution.

2. BigCommerce

This platform has been around for a long time and is still going strong. It is the choice of many for building powerful eCommerce solutions for any niche or business. This is a platform that has a lot of customizability, both functionally and aesthetically.
As a platform, this is extremely flexible and powerful, and it all depends on what you want to accomplish. It comes with a drag-drop editor, which makes designing eCommerce websites and funnel an easy thing to do.
You also have access to themes and visual options. But if you’re looking for premium themes with more features, they don’t come free.
It has built-in content marketing features, which make it a breeze to come up with engaging content. And talking about ability, it has several built-in functions that can help get the most out of the software. You won’t need to splurge as much as you did with Shopify on added functionality.

3. Weebly

This is another option if you’re looking for something that works just like Shopify but is better. Weebly is intuitive and has several features that work well for eCommerce brands offering several products. You can even tweak it to focus on specific types of goods as well.
It gives you all the tools you need to create a basic website for your eCommerce business. You’ll appreciate that it is user-friendly and easy to work with. It also comes with several customization options that can help you configure your website.
You get built-in SSL security and powerful SEO tools to get much better results on your searches.
While it has a free package, the storage is limited. If you’re a medium-sized business, you’ll need to go for the paid version. Something that Weebly is found wanting is scalability. If your business is enterprise-level, other tools are better options for you.

4. PrestaShop

PrestaShop is one of the most used eCommerce website building tools, and for a good reason. It has a truly international presence, and people all over the world swear by its performance. It comes with support for more than twenty-five languages. And because it is open source, there is support for it all over the internet.
It comes with a limited number of themes and templates, but you can get much better results out of them.
The interface is quite friendly; even beginners and professionals will get a lot more out of it. Another advantage is that it has no transaction fees, which means lesser overheads for your company. Another advantage of this platform is that you own the content you create.
The platform comes to you free, but you can choose paid addons from the market. It has one of the largest repositories of addons in the industry and talking about modules and themes. You can choose from over 5000 different options.

5. Sellfy

If you are looking out for a simple alternative to Shopify, Sellfy should be on your list. To be as accessible as possible, Sellfy is a solution for people starting on their eCommerce journey.
It is beginner-friendly and meant for people who are into visual products and services like artists, designers, and musicians. It works great for both physical and digital products. It has an easy-to-use interface that is completely based on drag drop. It makes this intuitive and simple.
The created websites also look and feel premium, but it takes very little time to complete it.
People using the platform get a preview pane integrated with several sources such as YouTube, Soundcloud, and many more. It has a lot more options to showcase your work compared to other eCommerce solutions.

6. Wix

Wix is one of the newer entrants to the market but owns a significant share of the space. Available in over 190 different countries, Wix is a truly global eCommerce platform for people at all skill levels.
One of the standout points of the platform has been the ease of use. It has great reviews from its users, all of whom have touched on user-friendliness without sacrificing performance. It has an ADI feature that can help people set up their website in hours rather than days.
With several customization options, Wix can help you make the website you’ve always wanted. It also has an ecosystem of several thousands of apps that you can use to tailor your eCommerce experience.
While free plans have their ads on their website, the premium plans do not cost a lot and work well even when scaled up.

7. Squarespace

Another well-rounded contender in this niche, Squarespace, has a lot of things going for it. It is easy to work with and has global support for its users. You don’t need any code familiarity, but it can offer good results even for novice users.
One of the key talking points of Squarespace is the way design is implemented. You get a lot of choices for your design, and it has smart elements that adjust automatically.
A lot of people say that Squarespace has one of the best storefronts in the business. They are a lot more creative and dynamic than Shopify’s. It can accommodate high-quality visuals and imagery.
It has comprehensive support for content marketing and SEO strategy. Edits on the platforms are easy and intuitive. Everything is clickable, and drag-drop works very well here. The best part about it is that, unlike other platforms, scalability isn’t an issue.

8. Volusion

This is perhaps one of the oldest names in this space, and for a good reason. They have been relevant in the space for more than two decades now. Their obvious strength is their experience in the domain. And this is what they bring to the table for eCommerce websites.
It has several features that Shopify has, but since it has been around longer, it is much better implemented. Another advantage is that people opting for this platform will have many resources to read. You will seldom be found without knowing how you need to do something.
While it might not be as intuitive as a few newer ones, the dashboard is still straightforward and comprehensive. You get a lot of integrations with the software plus support for several applications as well. It also gives users access to several payment methods. They also don’t charge you for using third-party payment systems.

9. Shift4shop

Another new eCommerce platform, shift4shop, is cloud-based and also brings several features to this space.
If you are running an extensive operation that requires high scalability, shift4shop offers your unlimited storage options. This is something that we haven’t seen with many platforms.
The pricing is also flexible and can be customized to your needs. And even with the basic option, you get SEO tools and other eCommerce-related options like drop shipping, coupons, subscriptions, and tracking. These are more than enough to get people started on their eCommerce websites.
It also has robust functionality for enterprise-level eCommerce businesses. It has many more features than Shopify, which makes it a great choice for companies looking to invest in an alternate platform. There are no additional transaction fees that can bring down costs in the long run.

10. Magento

Magento is one of the benchmarks for eCommerce platforms, and it’s easy to see why. It is open-source and feature-rich, which is a combination, not a lot of free platforms have. It is aimed at full-fledged eCommerce solutions that have already been running their own business.
In short, beginners can find themselves overwhelmed with this platform. It caters to advanced requirements normally associated with enterprise-level businesses. In some cases, it might even require a team of experienced programmers to achieve the best results.
Magento is a platform that offers users complete control over their eCommerce business. Though it is free to start, their Enterprise Edition can cost anywhere between 15k to 50k USD a year. This effectively pushes it out of the range of smaller businesses.
If you want specialization in your eCommerce business, Magento is a reliable and full-featured platform.

11. Big Cartel

Unlike other platforms that we’ve reviewed here, Big Cartel is a niche platform that caters to marketing a more visual experience. Aimed at independent contributors, it is a lot more friendly than other platforms on here.
And since many people who are going to use it are not coders, it has many interactive drag-drop elements. The dashboard is minimal but effective and has all the data users could need.
Another advantage of this software is that it is simple and easy to run since it is web-based.
There are no transaction fees, and you can add products easily without any issues. But if your goal is to sell a huge number of different products, you might find this a bit wanting. It can't scale to enterprise businesses. But for a more focused starter business, this is the perfect platform.

12. Selz

This is another eCommerce platform aimed at people looking to start their own online store. Again, this is aimed at people who are also selling intangible services like music and art. Since it is based on WordPress, it is relatively simple to set up.
You can use this to build on top of your WordPress-based website. It has smooth integration and comes with several applications that a beginner might need.
You can add discounts, chat support, and different payment methods to your website. And this comes at no extra cost or added modules. But here, the problem is limited app ecosystem and customizability.
Sure, there are several options that you can use to change the appearance and functioning of your website. But for bigger brands, this platform can be limiting. But it offers a lot of good features at a great price which can appeal to beginners and medium-sized businesses.

13. Square

Square is one of the older platforms in this roundup. They have a suite of platforms that are catered to eCommerce businesses. With Square credit card to Square Register, it brings a lot of different aspects to eCommerce.
When you register with Square, you get access to all this and more from their dashboard. It comes with their powerful Square Online Store that helps people who have no experience with coding build their own website.
All these are available right when you start using the dashboard. So, this makes it convenient for people, and they can find what they want all in one place.
An important consideration is that people will find a lot of value in it because it is free. Yes, it has transactional fees, but they are less than Shopify’s. The processing fees are flat-rate, meaning there are no complex calculations involved in estimating the price.

Downsides of Using Shopify

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1. Lacks Certain Functionalities

As great as Shopify is for eCommerce, there are certain functions that other platforms do much better. As an example, content marketing is an important part of the eCommerce process. You need long-form content to make sure that products or services are ranked.
Shopify’s CMS does not allow users to publish blogs or vlogs. You can get this done through their blogging platform, but it’s not great to use. Also, blog layouts number very few on Shopify, and you may not find ones you like. Especially considering that most other platforms handle this much better.
Being deficient when it comes to content marketing is a huge problem for eCommerce business owners. This comes when search engine algorithms prioritize rich content over other signals, which is all the more reason to switch from Shopify.

2. Limited Free Templates and Themes

This is another point that turns users away from this platform. A lot of people have been complaining about the lack of free templates and themes on Shopify. It only has about ten free templates and seventy themes accessible to its user base. This is a paltry amount, especially when compared to competitors like Squarespace and WordPress.
If you want access to premium themes and templates, you need to buy them. A theme can set you back by about $100, so it isn’t cheap. Even though this is a one-time cost, it can add up pretty quickly over time.
Also, something to note is that Shopify does not support all premium themes. Meaning, most of them are third-party apps that you might have issues with during implementation. And because they aren’t supported, you need to talk to the developer to get it fixed.

3. Apps Can Become Expensive

Most advanced users find Shopify’s app segment limiting. For example, if you want to add a product variation, it isn’t supported right out of the box. This means you need to find an addon or a plug-in to make it happen.
These apps are expensive and not regulated by Shopify. And you need several apps to fill in the lack of functionality on the base platform. Add to that the cost of app fees on Shopify, and it can run into a good amount of money.
Several other apps on here have much better ways of handling app integration. They are also not as dependent on apps as Shopify is.

4. Shopify plus Is Too Pricey

For a lot of people, Shopify Plus can be a lot of money. It comes in at $2000 per month for sales below $800,000. Once it crosses that threshold, it’s calculated at 0.25% sales volume per month.
At this price point, other platforms offer better performance for your dollar. This has resulted in a lot of users abandoning the platform when they reach a specific amount of sales per month.
Platforms like WooCommerce handle this much better with better pricing and functionality.

Shopify Alternatives FAQs

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1. Why Do I Need Shopify Alternatives?

As a platform, Shopify has been losing ground to newer and better competitors. To keep your eCommerce store competitive, you need to switch to other platforms.

2. Does Shopify Have a Good App Ecosystem?

Shopify does have a good choice of apps, but the problem is you need to pay for each and everything you sign up for. This can get expensive and quickly.

3. How Expensive Is Shopify?

The basic package is not very expensive at about 29 USD per month. But the real costs are the money you pay for add-ons and premium themes. They start to rack up because they are vital to your website’s performance.

4. Do I Need to Be an Expert to Use Shopify Effectively?

While you don’t need to be an expert at it, you will get more results from your experience when hiring a Shopify expert for your website.

5. What Products Are Banned by Shopify?

Several products are limited on Shopify. This includes alcohol, tobacco and e-cigarettes, CBD, firearms, pharmaceuticals, and even some games.

6. Can I Use Shopify for Small and Large Businesses?

The starter program can help with smaller brands and people who are starters. Shopify Plus caters to large businesses. But there are several other platforms in the review that can deliver a better experience.
These are the best shopify alternatives that you can use to launch a successful ecommerce business. Get in touch with us if you need more help.