Are you looking for Shopify alternatives? The cloud-based ecommerce and content management platform enable store owners to build an online store with just a few steps. It includes payment gateways, shipping services, marketing tools, and office management features. Howver, Shopify isn't the only option available, you can find similar solutions nowadays.
Why Businesses Look for Shopify Alternatives
Shopify is one of the most popuplar commerce platforms in the world, along with Squarespace and WooCommerce.
Shopify is popular because it makes setting up an online store so easy. It’s a no-code all-in-one platform that is a good option for many, but it’s not without its issues. Businesses might consider Shopify alternatives for the following reasons.
Fees
Along with Shopify monthly fee, users also need to pay in-person and online credit card rates of at least 2.7% per transaction, a transaction fee ranging from 0.5% to 2% (depending on your plan) if you’re not using Shopify’s payment gateway, and extra money for many of the third-party apps that are required for added functionality.
High Dependency on Third-Party Apps
Shopify offers a wide variety of third party apps, but this has become its Achilles Heel. The best Shopify stores rely on third-party apps to provide more functionality, usability, and improved customer experience. Paid apps can incur a one-time fee or monthly fees which can add up quickly.
Complexity
It’s all well and good to say something is ready to use right out of the box, but the reality is that Shopify involves a learning curve, particularly for users who want access to a wide variety of templates or plan to integrate apps that many shop owners feel are essential to running their business (inventory management, discount codes, etc.)
Some of the most common customer complaints on review websites like G2 and TrustRadius are about the lack of free templates and the cost and complexity of add-on apps.
Lack of Robust SEO Features
While most users rave about Shopify when it comes to ease of uploading products and setting up their online store, it’s clear that SEO functionality is lacking. The key complaints include a lack of flexibility with URL structures, an inability to tag pages, an issue with duplicate content connected to the way Shopify classifies products and collections, and no control over your website’s robot.txt file.
You Have Lots of Product Variants
Retailers with complex catalogs that offer a large number of product variants may find that Shopify isn’t robust enough for their needs. Shopify caps SKUs at 3 options per product and allows up to 100 variants with unique SKUs for each product.
Let’s say you sell bar soap in four different sizes, but users can customize their soap from a selection of 30 different scents—that’s a total of 120 options to purchase the product, so you’ll run into the Shopify SKU limitation. This is a common issue for clothing retailers who offer a wide range of sizes and colors for a single style.
Key Features to Look for in Shopify alternatives
Now that you have a better understanding of Shopify’s issues and limitations, we can take a deep dive into commerce platform alternatives. There are many ecommerce platforms on the market today, ranging from free, open-source solutions to robust, enterprise-level platforms. When shopping around for a new solution, here are some important features to consider.
Functionality
Sometimes you want something to work the minute you take it out of its (virtual) box without having to worry about addon apps for more complex or advanced functionality. When looking at Shopify alternatives, consider tools like BigCommerce and Squarespace.
These solutions fall at the high and low end of commerce platforms in terms of the size of your storefront, but both have some great out-of-the box features and functionality versus Shopify.
Design Options
One of the main complaints Shopify users have is the lack of free template designs combined with the expense of paying for custom templates. Yet, if you want your ecommerce website to stand out, you need a unique design.
Alternatives like WooCommerce, an open-source free platform, include dozens of built-in templates that can help you customize the your online storefront so that it stands out.
Affordability
Artists, creators, sole proprietors, and other microbusinesses tend to have tight development budgets that can be stretched thin by Shopify’s transaction, template, and app fees. Alternatives like WooCommerce (a Wordpress plugin) and PrestaShop are open-source and have no transaction fees, making them more affordable for small businesses with tight budgets.
Flexibility
If you’re comfortable coding (or know someone who is), then you might consider venturing beyond Shopify to a platform like OpenCart that’s highly customizable, offers more SEO flexibility and control, and provides a wide selection of customizable themes to help you differentiate your storefront.
Mobile-Friendly
Mobile shopping is no longer a trend—it’s an inevitability. It is, therefore, incredibly important to have a mobile-friendly ecommerce website, but also a platform that enables store owners to manage their shop from a mobile app.
Look for a tool that offers both mobile website readiness and a robust mobile app for store owners who may need to manage inventory and other issues from their smartphone or tablet.
10 Best Shopify Alternatives to Consider
1. Wix
Wix is an easy-to-use ecommerce platform that provides web hosting services and enables you to customize all of your website pages using its editor easily, and also choose pre-built templates. If you are starting to build your brand's identity, you can enjoy the Wix Logo Maker and brand name generator.
You can have more than 50,000 products in your online store and manage your inventory and sources from suppliers using Wix tools. To set payments, you have the option to choose from multiple methods, including major credit card companies, PayPal, and Stripe.
Are you thinking of selling on marketplaces and social media platforms? With Wix, you have the possibility to sell on multiple sales channels and manage everything from a unique dashboard, having a synchronized inventory.
Wix also has SEO tools to help you rank better on search engines like Google and sell more. Besides, it also counts on Marketing solutions, the platform creates optimized ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram for you.
Key features:
- Ecommerce website builder
- More than 500 pre-built templates
- Logo maker
- Business name generator
- Wix Payments
- Automate your taxes
- Sell in multiple channels
- SEO and marketing tools
2. SITE123
Shopify alternatives - SITE123
With SITE123, you can have your online store running with just a few steps. Use its intuitive website editor to create and customize the pages, including the home page, product categories, and each product page.
Remember to add high-quality pictures of your products and to write complete descriptions. SITE123 will help you to have a mobile-friendly website, so customers can have a great experience buying on your ecommerce site regardless of the device they are using. Besides, the platform also offers free hosting, free domain registration, and SEO tools.
Key features:
- Website editor
- Mobile Friendly
- Free hosting
- SEO tools
- Custom Domains
- 24/7 customer support
3. WooCommerce
Shopify alternatives - WooCommerce
Are you looking for an ecommerce builder that works perfectly for WordPress websites? No doubt, WooCommerce is the best ecommerce platform for that, because it was built on WordPress, which means considering all the necessary features to perfectly sync with it.
If you already have a website WordPress, what you are going to do is to add the WooCommerce plugin and customize your store with pre-built templates. But, if you don't have it, you can start by creating your account, and setting the site along with your online store.
One of the greatest advantages of WooCommerce is that you can add several extensions such as TaxJar, Google Ads, Mailchimp, ShipStation, Jetpack, and Facebook. They are going to help you manage your strategies in a more centralized way, and also improve the customer experience.
Key features:
- Built on WordPress
- Customizable, open-source ecommerce platform
- 140 specific payment gateways
- Live shipping rates
- Marketing integrations
- Support forum
- Set prices in multiple currencies
- Create multilingual content
- Scalable platform
- Hundreds of extensions
- Manage the store from your mobile device
- Track your stats
- 30-day money-back guarantee
4. Bluehost
Bluehost enables you to create your online store using an intuitive platform that doesn't demand previous experience with design or coding. You can choose a pre-built template and customize it the way you wish.
You can count on automated security updates, and backup data protections to guarantee your website will function properly and your customer's data will be protected too. Bluehost also offers SEO tools, and analytics to check how your pages perform.
Key features:
- Free domain
- Free SSL
- Free CDN
- Pre-built templates
- Insightful analytics
- Automated security updates
- Backup data protection
- 24/7 support
- SEO tools
- Powerful plugins
5. Webnode
Shopify alternatives - Webnode
Webnode is perfect for companies that are looking for an ecommerce platform that will not only host your website but also take care of the coding part for you. You will find multiple store templates, which were developed to help you sell and make your products stand out. They have a responsive design, which means the images will be adjusted according to the screen size.
You can offer a variety of payment options to your customers, credit cards, PayPal, Stripe, and wire transfer, for example. You also have the flexibility to set shipping options as you prefer and allow customers to track their orders.
To analyze your website performance, Webnode provides store statistics, so you can check what needs to be improved, and identify the most profitable products, and loyal customers.
Key features:
- Website builder
- Reliable hosting
- Unlimited number of pages
- SEO tools
- Responsive store templates
- Store statistics
- Simple checkout
- Import products in bulk
6. Shoplazza
Shopify alternatives - Shoplazza
Shoplazza offers you an easy-to-use platform to create your e-commerce. You can choose a pre-built theme, then use the drag-and-drop online store builder to customize the pages as you wish.
You will count on an inventory management system to make it simpler when it comes to organizing the stock and the orders. It stops sales when the inventory reaches zero, avoiding selling out-of-stock items. You can upload an unlimited number of products and customize up to 300 product variants.
You even have the option to add the buy button on other websites and blogs, which weren't created by Shoplazza, so you can sell in more places. Improve the checkout process using the e-commerce platform AI (artificial intelligence) suggestions.
Key features:
- Pre-built templates
- Drag-and-drop online store button
- Inventory management system
- Marketing tools
- SEO tools
- Staff accounts
- Multiple payment options
- Shipping partners
7. BigCommerce
Shopify alternatives - BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a cloud-based ecommerce platform that offers enterprise functionality for established and/or rapidly growing retailers. The platform serves B2B and B2C ecommerce customers including over 2000 mid-market businesses and 30 Fortune 1000 brands. Clients include Ben & Jerry’s, Skullcandy, Black Diamond, and bliss.
Key features:
- Multi-channel selling across ecommerce marketplaces including Amazon, eBay, Facebook, and Pinterest.
- No transaction fees for using third-party payment gateways.
- Gorgeous, mobile-friendly theme designs.
- Simple, user-friendly interface for adding products.
- Supports unlimited product catalogs.
- Robust SEO features (e.g., accessible meta data that extends to category, inventory, pages, and posts).
- Multiple payment methods supported (e.g., credit cards, PayPal, in-store, and check payments.)
- 100s of ecommerce apps and enterprise integrations including Mailchimp, JivoChat, Quickbooks, and many more.
8. OpenCart
Shopify alternatives - OpenCart
OpenCart is another open-source ecommerce platform which means it’s free to download the entire solution. The platform includes many features and users rave about the user-friendly dashboard. OpenCart supports multiple stores, includes reporting tools, and supports a wide range of payment gateways. It is, however, a more complex solution to implement with a few other drawbacks that we’ll get into below.
OpenCart is a good choice for retailers that need to manage multiple stores across different geographic regions, or for retailers with multiple vendors who require individual storefronts.
Key features:
- Easily customized.
- Integrates with many extensions and tools
- Supports multivendor stores
- Easily configurable product catalog
- Lots of support/documentation available.
- Supports a wide selection of payment processors and gateways.
9. PrestaShop
Shopify alternatives - PrestaShop
Another free, open-source ecommerce solution, PrestaShop is a modular ecommerce platform that supports multiple storefronts across different languages and currencies. PrestaShop boasts good usability, doesn’t require vendors to pay additional transaction fees, and is an excellent choice for international vendors operating in multiple countries.
Key features:
- Supports 25 languages and multiple currencies
- Supports unlimited products.
- Free plugins
- Fully customizable
- SEO optimization
- Social media integration
- Dropshipping, and credit card gateways are included.
10. Squarespace Commerce
Shopify alternatives - SquareSpace
Squarespace is a no-code template-based website builder and hosting platform with subscription-based pricing that includes a wide range of features. Their ecommerce package boasts a wide range of attractive, mobile-friendly and customizable templates with an emphasis on elegant, modern, and unique designs that are particularly good at showcasing products.
They offer vendors multiple ways to sell goods and services (subscriptions, bookings/reservations, and sales).
Key features:
- Drag-and-drop interface .
- Lots of built-in integrations including tax tools, discount codes/gift cards, secure checkout across devices, and multiple payment options (e.g,. Afterpay).
- Mobile app allows for mobile store management (track inventory, connect with customers, etc.)
- Basic ecommerce plan includes SSL security, free custom domain, unlimited bandwidth/storage, and SEO features.
- All Squarespace plans come with 24/7 customer support (though phone support isn’t included).
