Shopping Cart Elite is in no way affiliated with Shopify.
Shopify Alternatives, Competitors and Cheaper Pricing
While we simply cannot deny the fact that Shopify is a decent ecommerce platform for creating and managing an online store, there may be a reason for which you wish to explore its alternatives. Whether you have outgrown your Shopify store or are being limited in one way or another, these Shopify alternatives are great places to start your next project.
Why Shopify Is Not The Best Choice
Everyone is aware that Shopify is great for beginners who want to dabble in selling online but who arent yet willing to invest in a serious ecommerce platform. Thats what makes it one of the most popular hosted ecommerce platforms.
However, just because it is popular it doesnt mean it its the best shopping cart platform available. Even with their continuous updates, there are numerous complaints regarding their limited design features.
So why do we think Shopify sucks? Well, it does not suck for a basic online store, but more complex stores quickly find that the platform lacks the following:
- The platform will charge transaction fees up to 2%, if you do not use their in-house credit card payment gateway.
- Shopifys platform uses a custom markup language called liquid which may take you some time to learn.
- Their cheaper-end packages limit key features such as the ability to use gift cards, real-time shipping rates, and abandoned cart recovery.
With Shopify, you are not going to get effective, reliable Enterprise features and tools to operate a successful ecommerce business. Instead, you are going to get a bad inventory management system, poor and unresponsive customer service and technical support, loss of SEO and ranking when migrating, downtime, a chargeback system that will fail you and more. As you can see from the above testimonials and complaints, Shopify customers are unhappy and dissatisfied with their platform, and rightfully so. In addition, we at Shopping Cart Elite understand that the longevity of an ecommerce platform relies on innovation, listening to the needs of our customers every day, and taking compelling action to meet those needs by releasing updates and new features monthly. Shopify does not maintain the same core values. Shopify also does not support full marketplace integration so you will not be able to sell on eBay, Amazon, and other popular marketplaces.At a time when so many ecommerce businesses are finding spurred growth by expanding through more sales channels, Shopify is letting you down.
Shopping Cart Elite was designed as a multi-marketplace platform and is an alternative competitor to Shopify with cheaper pricing.
Shopify Competitors
A few of the big name Shopify alternatives are BigCommerce and Magento. Choosing the best fit for your needs is difficult, though, so let’s look into each alternative to Shopify a bit deeper. These are definitely big Shopify competitors since they offer more customization options, a larger template library, and more reporting options, just to name a few advantages.
BigCommerce
When it comes to the price and support, the two are quite similar. They are both $79 and they have support available to their customers 24/7. However, that’s where their similarities end. This Shopify competitor never has any transaction fees, and it has an unlimited amount of storage. On top of that, it has a lot more features than Shopify does. Additionally, you don’t need to learn an unnecessary programming language to make edits. Shopify sucks for not using HTML and CSS to edit themes. They also support shipping items to any location in the world.
It would be better, though, if this Shopify alternative had better looking built-in templates, easier customizations, and more third-party app support.
Magento Community Edition
First and foremost, this Shopify alternative is completely free. Additionally, you’ll never have any transaction fees. However, do keep in mind that this alternative to Shopify is not a hosted eCommerce solution, so there’s only the online community for support. This is definitely the eCommerce platform for you, though, if you are code literate since it is open source, and thus flexible. This eCommerce solution is incredibly advanced and customizable. They’ve also got a large library with many third-party templates to choose from. This Shopify competitor has advanced reporting and inventory management options, too.
However, look into other Shopify alternatives if you don’t have extensive knowledge of HTML and CSS, would like more support options, and online documentation.
What about Shopify Plus?
This is an enterprise eCommerce platform meant for bigger and developing online stores and companies. Although it is considered by many as the leading platform, it is just not the best for every company and in fact, can often be ineffective with its unreliable Enterprise features. This could result in your ecommerce business being unsuccessful.
First of all, if you want to add functionality, you most likely will need to add an app. Therefore, you are very reliant on those third-party apps. You also need to be very careful when selecting a template since some functionality is built into them. They’ve got transaction fees as well as content limitations. Additionally, shipping rules are based on the total order price or weight as well as in which country. The checkout also can’t be customized. As a result, it may be worth it to look into Shopify alternatives.
In Conclusion
Shopify is not the only ecommerce platform, and certainly not the best one. It is worth looking into other options like Shopping Cart Elite for your business needs. Our team of experts will carefully study your needs, and make a plan that will solve your labor-intensive, sleep-depriving daily grind in 30 days and watch your sales skyrocket. We control the complete end to end process for setting up your online business and automating everything in it. This includes, Graphic Design, Data Entry, Fine Tuning, Custom Development, Synchronization, and Hosting. We look forward to working with you.