Shopify Competitors: Top Shopify Alternatives In 2021

The need to have the best ecommerce platforms and sites has led to trying the best of the many Shopify competitors that are available in this regard. People due to the need are looking for much simpler and effective ecommerce platforms. In this regard therefore shopify has come up and emerged as the best choice for people seeking to build reliable online ecommerce platforms.

This discussion takes a look at shopify to help you or offer you a much better understanding of shopify and also offer you insights into its alternatives as well. If you intend to use this platform then continue reading below for further guidance on the same. 

Shopify Overview

Among the many ecommerce platforms available online today, shopify stands out among them in terms of popularity. Shopify is and remains one of the most popular ecommerce platforms in both big as well much smaller businesses. 

The shopify company began back in the year 2006 and has since grown over time since then. During this period, shopify has been offering the best and most remarkable services not just to entrepreneurs but the buyers as well. Shopify currently boasts of hosting more than 500, 000 stores with another incredible record of about 1 million users as well. 

For the people interested in the description part of this, shopify is best looked at as an ecommerce platform which offers users an opportunity to come up with online stores. This platform is very ideal for many of the small businesses who are involved in the business of selling both digital as well physical products. 

Shopify comes with so many benefits one of them being the fact that it is a hosted solution. What this means is that you as the user do not need any technical skills for you to come up with an online store if you need one. That is not all, the fact that shopify is a hosted solution also means that you do not need any technical skills again to manage your established online store like the case with some of the shopify competitors.

Shopify other than that also offers many templates and free themes which are all easy to use and can be easily customized to match any brand together with its needs. If by chance you have some technical skills then shopify has or got you covered because of the fact that you can easily customize the HTML together with CSS to match your needs. 

Shopify Pros And Cons

The good thing with Shopify is that it comes with so many Pros that makes its use such a wonderful experience. However, just like any other thing, shopify also comes with its cons as well. Thus, before opting to use shopify, it is very important that you take a look at some of these Pros and cons for you to make a much better-informed decision in this regard. 

For ease of understanding, this section of the discussion takes a look at some of the pros and cons of Shopify and try to compare that with the other shopify competitors. Read through carefully for you to understand exactly what some of the top pros of shopify are.

Shopify Pros

• Generate discount codes 
• Create blogs 
• Make use of accelerated mobile pages with the view of increasing the content delivery speed 
• Get a much-automated generated sitemap 
• Improve SEO through the addition of relevant keywords 
• Sell your products to shopify 

Shopify Cons 

• The process of exporting blog posts is not that easy 
• Using the AMP features is also not so easy 
• Clients might not be able to use multiple discounts 

Shopify Pricing Plan

Pricing is a very important consideration that goes into any ecommerce platform and for any person looking to make a choice, this is something you definitely need to consider. On shopify, there are various pricing plans as you will see below. 

Shopify as a platform offers so many competitive rates as well as pricing plans. You can read through many of these plans to determine for yourself which one of them best fits your needs as a person. Other than these pricing plans, there is also a 14 free day trial which can be used as you look set to make the right decision regarding these plans. 

Shopify comes with three main pricing plans namely the shopify basic, the shopify and lastly the advanced shopify pricing. The charges for these plans are $29 for which is the best plan for new businesses or even the online businesses. The other two plans are the shopify plan which costs $ 79 and with it you get the best plan for growing your business with one retail store. The last plan is the Advanced shopify plan which costs $ 299 and is the best for growing your business with two retail stores. 

Shopify Competitors 

Shopify comes with so many shopify competitors which come in as the best alternatives. These alternatives or rather competitors can just be as good as shopify. In the event that you are not comfortable with shopify then you can make use of these alternatives.

1. Wix
2. Squarespace 
3. Volusion 
4.  3dcart 
5. Big Cartel 
6. WooCommerce 
7. Weebly 
8. BigCommerce 
9. Magneto 
10. PrestaShop

1. Wix Overview

Wix is such a popular website building website which is also a solution hosted similar to shopify. Being a solution hosted website building tool means that as a user, you do not need to manage your backend security compliance issues. Other than that, Wix also comes with a much convenient drag together with drop builder making it one of the best reliable shopify competitors. This feature about Wix makes it such an ideal website builder for creation of the best custom website.

Wix Pros

• Free plan 
• Simple to use 
• Enough space 
• Flexible designs 
• Security 
• Free domain 
• Blog 
• Multilingual languages 
• Search engine optimization 

Wix Cons

• Paid plan tracking 
• A single site for a premium plan 
• No site transfers 

2. Squarespace Overview

Squarespace such a proper web design market leader in the business. There is not much difference between shopify and Squarespace. By opting to use Squarespace, you get an opportunity to use a website builder that is much more convenient even without any in depth technical skills. 

If you need or are looking for a much reliable and sleek way of building your online store then Squarespace is the best choice for you. Using this ecommerce builder, you get an opportunity to make use of the many plugins available that are there to make the use of Squarespace much easier. 

Squarespace Pros

• All in one platform 
• Much easy-to-use backend designs 
• It is offered in a bundled approach
• There is always customer support available when you need it 

Squarespace Cons

• No phone customer support services 
• The pricing is a bit expensive 
• Lack of advanced marketing tools 
• No support for the third-party apps 
• The process of content addition as well editing can in some cases be a bit difficult 

3. Volusion Overview

If you are in need of some of the best or even exceptional service to offer adequate support to your online business but you have not extra money to spend then Volusion is the best choice for you. The shopify product pricing is very much similar to shopify starting at just about $ 15 a month for most of its lower packages. This is one of the best shopify competitors.

Volusion Pros

• In built education 
• Onboarding as well as customer support 
• Security and speed 
• An intuitive dashboard 

Volusion Cons

• Its expensive in pricing 
• Website’s revisions and rendering 

4. 3dcart Overview

3dcart is one such handy shopify competitor which is specifically designed with the view of appealing to small businesses looking to access add ons as well as additional services. The best thing about 3rdcart is that it comes with a good number of features for a price that is not so different to shopify.

3dcart Pros 

• An intuitive dashboard 
• Built in blog 
• Domain registration 
• 24/7 support 
• Facebook store 
• Checkout process 
• several payment gateways 
• API address 

3dcart Cons 

• Not the most straightforward website builder you will ever find anywhere 
• Comes with additional costs 
• Many of themes are limited with some of them even being outdated 

5. Big Cartel Overview

This is one of the standouts that shopify competitors and this is because of so many reasons. First, the fact that this product is very versatile means that it can be relied upon by all people. Other than that, Big Cartel also offers valuable free plans for any person selling under five products as well as custom plans for those who sell under 300 products. 

If you are a minor business that is so committed to finding a store solution tailored to meet your needs then Big Cartel could just be the solution to your problem. This is one product that is well designed for entrepreneurs, fashion artists and enthusiasts just in case you are out here looking for a reliable shopify competitor.

Big Cartel Pros 

• Customizable CSS and HTML 
• Directly connects to your Facebook account 
• Real time as well as updated inventory handling 
• Premium data encryption 

Big Cartel Cons

• Not so straightforward especially when it comes to installation 
• Very few sets of themes 
• Customer care services only reachable by mail 
• Once a product is selected, you might not be able to change it again 

6. WooCommerce Overview

WooCommerce is without any doubt a leading ecommerce solution for WordPress websites. If you are looking for a way of monetizing your store in a much easier way then there is no better way that you can use to do this other than by the use of WooCommerce. 

The good thing with WooCommerce is that its use does not in any way need any prior knowledge. If you wish to carry out a coding process then you can easily do so even without any prior knowledge in this area. 

WooCommerce Pros

• Get started is free 
• It is very flexible 
• Very professional 
• Very easy customization 
• Secured 
• SEO friendly 

WooCommerce Cons

• It is very overwhelming for new webmasters 
• A steep learning curve 
• The site performance can be somehow hampered 
• There are some hidden costs 

7. Weebly Overview

If you are looking to shopify competitors that you are most comfortable working with, Weebly is what you need to be looking for. Weebly is one of the best and most user-friendly services for any company that is looking to get started with online business. The good thing with Weebly is that it enables you to launch your brand much quickly.

Weebly Pros 

• It is super friendly to use 
• It is mobile responsive 
• There is a pre created page layout 

Weebly Cons 

• Basic elements of Weebly 
• Comes with limited customization 
• Not a good choice for blogging 

8. BigCommerce Overview

If you are looking for an industry leading ecommerce software solution then BigCommerce is all that you need. BigCommerce comes with the best tools and other things that you need to develop a much better and functioning online business. BigCommerce stands out from the many other shopify competitors by offering the best phenomenal as well as out of the box capabilities.

BigCommerce Pros

• Given the aspect of the included university, it is possible for you to start from scratch 
• It offers a solid combination of speed together with security 
• You get marketing features all built into the platform 
• The process of designing your online store is much faster 

BigCommerce Cons 

• It is not a cheap online store platform 
• You do not get so many add ons with its use 
• It is somehow hard to use its inventory management 

9. Magento Overview

If you are looking to build an efficient online store then Magento is the best choice there is for use. In fact, if shopify was not around then Magento could have stood in just as the best option in this regard. This is an open-source platform which stands out as one of the best and reputable in the online selling business. 

If you are looking for a sensational shopping experience with just unlimited product uploads then Magento is the best choice for you. If you find it hard using shopify then it will be a good decision for you to use Magento. 

Magento Pros 

• SEO friendly 
• High flexibility with limitless customization 
• It is most friendly 
• Comes with a large user community 
• Optimal scalability 

Magento Cons 

• High cost 
• Requires the best development skills 
• Needs the best hosting environment 
• It is time consuming 
• Comes with a poor technical support 

10. PrestaShop Overview

This is such a fantastic open-source platform and such a fantastic shopify competitor to shopify and is the best choice for smaller companies. This platform is designed for those people from the background to open or rather come up with their online stores in just a few minutes. If you are looking to tap into the world of ecommerce then PrestaShop is the best way for you to go about this.

PrestaShop Pros 

• It is free to use 
• It is an open source 
• So easy to use by anyone 

PrestaShop Cons 

• Limited scalability 
• Comes with unprofessional designs 
• Comes with a paid functionality 
• Does not come with an official support team 

Conclusion 

If you are looking for the best platform that you can use to build a reliable ecommerce platform then Shopify is the best choice for you. Shopify comes with so many features that makes its use so amazing and also so easy. Other than shopify, there are so many shopify competitors that you can also use for the same purpose like the ones listed above.

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