10 Best Shopify Alternatives

For a lot of online retailers, Shopify may be considered the best online store platform. However, circumstances may push sellers and companies to explore alternatives to Shopify. Perhaps you've discovered that Shopify simply isn't the right fit for you. While Shopify has received praise for its extensive features, some businesses may find these extras unnecessary, and the abundance of add-ons can become overwhelming over time. If you're currently exploring your e-commerce platform options, you've come to the right article.

We will be going over some of the best Shopify alternatives you should consider. We’ll also be touching on the requirements most companies have when looking for Shopify competitors or online store builders to use. You can still cover all of your online store bases and find the best Shopify substitutes for a fraction of the cost.

Top 10 Shopify substitutes you should know

For a creator like a potter, painter, or commission artist who’s used to selling products and/or services from their living room or garage, venturing out into the online world can be nerve-wracking. If the word Shopify incites a feeling of unease in you, don’t worry. You can gently step into online selling with one of our Shopify alternatives. A few of them may not be as popular or as big, but all of our recommendations give users more bang for their buck.

We’ll be highlighting their best features and why we think these e-commerce platform options or online store builders might be the best for your venture. Whether your business is on the small side, medium category, or large-scale enterprise, we’ve got the best Shopify substitutes for you.

Let the hunt for affordable Shopify alternatives and user-friendly e-commerce platforms begin!

1. Bitrix24

You might have heard of Bitrix24 for your online collaboration, communication, and project management needs. What you might not be aware of is that Bitrix24 also offers one of the best Shopify alternatives. The whole package includes a block-based website builder that boasts a mobile-friendly and responsive design, making it straightforward to use. Bitrix24 also provides free domain and hosting, SEO-ready content, and efficient SKU generation.

With Bitrix24, you can create a professional-looking website for your online store in no time at all. The solution also offers a landing page builder with ready-made templates to choose from. You can customize your static and dynamic pages to represent your brand perfectly and sell your products well. In addition to these features, Bitrix24 also includes robust inventory management tools, ensuring streamlined management of your products and stock levels.

The best part? Bitrix24’s pages are fully integrated with its CRM, as well as its marketing and customer support tools, providing you with comprehensive analytics and reports to track your success and make data-driven decisions.

If you’re unsure about where to start with sales and marketing, there’s no need to worry. Bitrix24 makes it easy. You can add web forms and implement live chat to attract more customers. If social media marketing, content creation, and support seem daunting, Bitrix24 has got you covered. With this software, tasks like email marketing, product catalog creation, and lead generation become straightforward, thanks to the intuitive tools designed to simplify these processes and eliminate guesswork. But don’t just take our word for it. Sign up for Bitrix24 today and start building your online store’s website with ease!

2. Wix

If you’re looking for one of the Shopify alternatives that’s easy to use but packed with good design options and has access to many integrations, try Wix. The crux of Wix’s appeal is its App Market, which gives users access to a long list of app integrations to make their e-commerce solutions look and feel like Shopify. Site visitors won’t even notice the difference.

With Wix, you can incorporate a brand blogroll in your website to introduce your products and/or services to a wider audience. Landing pages are also easier to create with Wix. Recurring payments, label printing, and dropshipping capabilities can also be easily configured. Wix’s themes and website designs are all free, so you can try as many themes as you want until you are happy with the theme of your choosing.

If you’re a new business owner or if you want to build a site for your small venture without much technological know-how, consider Wix as one of the user-friendly e-commerce platforms to try. Since it’s mostly free, switching to Wix as a different option for customizable online store solutions is a breeze.

3. Squarespace

Calling all artists and creatives hoping to sell products online but do not have the budget for a big site, Squarespace is one of the Shopify alternatives for you. You may have heard about it from your favorite YouTuber a while back. With Squarespace, you can have a cool, sleek, and aesthetically pleasing website in half the time, for more than half the price. You can add a comprehensive blogroll with plug-in media to better introduce your masterpieces and showcase your products individually.

Squarespace’s e-commerce integrations are uncomplicated, like the option to offer express checkout so you can sell products a lot quicker. You can put forward products and/or services as monthly subscriptions. For example, you are a candlemaker. You can recommend monthly sampler boxes of bestselling and new scents to customers who save their checkout details and sign up for the service. After the first fulfillment, your site will automatically repeat the process for renewal. Customers can cancel their subscriptions at any time, and you, as the site owner, can easily manage your subscriptions from the Contacts panel of the site.

4. Weebly

Included in our list of free Shopify alternatives is Weebly. Its biggest flex is the ease of use, thanks to the drag-and-drop ability whenever a website is being built. Adding products, editing them, and writing descriptions are effortless, making Weebly perfect for small businesses that sell only a handful of items. They have a great blog to guide users when they’re feeling unsure or even lost, not that page building is ever too challenging with Weebly.

Apart from being user-friendly, you can also enjoy free SSL certificates with Weebly. Whereas you would need to shell out for good security with other alternatives to Shopify for small businesses. Setting up order management, shipping, and payment systems is simple and hassle-free. As for marketing, Weebly will automatically add new leads and customers to your marketing pool so you can just focus on selling more.

5. Ecwid

Clever is the name of the game where Ecwid is concerned. It’s not exactly like one of the other e-commerce solutions like Shopify. Ecwid is a nifty plugin that you can add to any website to connect a shopping cart. Taking the convenience quotient up a notch, Ecwid is also very easy to use. Configuration is straightforward, and if you already have a website featuring your products and/or services, all you need is to incorporate Ecwid to convert it to a store!

As for pricing, Ecwid is free if you plan to sell only up to 10 items. Even from there, the price points are sensible and highly affordable. We say Ecwid is perfect for you if you:

• Create your own products
• Can only produce small batches at a time
• Are selling from your home
• Already have a website and do not want to migrate
• Do not have enough free time to set up an online store

6. Sellfy

An additional choice for Shopify alternatives for small and medium business owners to consider is Sellfy. It’s more than just a catchy, trendy name, though. Sellfy is another of our highly recommended, fuss-free online store builders. It comes with analytics, basic email marketing, and SEO options, and users can try it out by signing up for a free plan and getting a feel for the software before committing to a paid plan. Users can also enjoy 24/7 email support in case they need help with anything while navigating Sellfy.

One good thing about Sellfy is its abandoned cart recovery email option. Let’s say a customer loaded their virtual shopping cart with your products but did not checkout or complete the purchase. The system will send an email reminding them of their abandoned cart, upping the chances of a sale.

Furthermore, the appeal of straightforward payment options and the absence of add-on fees with Sellfy can provide a significant advantage for your business. Take note that banks, credit card companies, and other providers like PayPal may charge transaction fees separately.

7. WooCommerce

Very much like Ecwid, WooCommerce is one of the plugin types of Shopify alternatives. If you already have a WordPress site featuring your products and/or services, you can add WooCommerce and – voila! – you have an online store. With WordPress, you can play around with various templates and customize the design to go well with your brand identity. WooCommerce will take care of everything else, like how you’re able to accept payments.

You have the choice among 140 different payment gateways. The list includes Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, Paypal, and, of course, WooCommerce Payments, among many others. There are no monthly fees with WooCommerces, and business owners can get immediate deposits when they opt to use WooCommerce Payments. You can also have fun trying out a great deal of integrations to see which app works best for you and workflow automations are also possible to make your site more powerful and functional.

8. BigCommerce

Taking a cue from its name, anyone can guess that BigCommerce is for big businesses. Compared to other Shopify alternatives, this one is comparable to the number of product variants you can sell (over 600!), abandoned cart recovery capabilities, and a handful of available payment options. There are no transaction fees attached to each purchase, which means you get every penny from all the sales you make.You can publish product and category pages along with blog and static pages (think: brochure for your business) and make your BigCommerce site as comprehensive as possible.

The appeal of BigCommerce comes from the options to increase your search engine ranking with unique URLs, improved site speed, and automatic URL redirects and renames for updated products. If you don’t know where to start, they have comprehensive guides that will take you from one step to another until you’re all set.

Apart from SEO, BigCommerce has another edge over Shopify and other Shopify alternatives, wherein with BigCommerce, e-commerce power players can publish over 600 products at a time online. That makes BigCommerce perfect for big online sellers and larger ventures.

9. Big Cartel

A departure from the usual when it comes to Shopify alternatives, Big Cartel is most sought after by sellers that have a niche audience. This means artists, creators, and craftsmen who want to focus their sales and marketing efforts on no more than 5 products at a time. These specially curated sites can be compared to and also considered an alternative to Etsy but with a more customized look and feel.

Big Cartel’s affinity to artists and creatives might have come from the fact that the company itself employs people with artistic backgrounds. With Big Cartel, sellers can enjoy dropshipping options after getting their work printed through Art of Where or Printful. Automation and integrations are also available to help make online sites more responsive and functional for both makers and buyers.

There are three plans that users can choose from, starting with the Gold Plan, which is $0. This plan is the best for creators who work alone and are only able to market no more than 5 products at one time. The middle range is the platinum plan for those who plan on selling up to 50 product types.

10. Shift4Shop

Formerly known as 3Dcart, Shift4Shop was initially created for private use before it was released to the public in 2001. It has since then evolved to one of the top enterprise Shopify alternatives with an impressive fulfillment service. With Shift4Shop, users will also get to enjoy CRM, automation, product reviews, and the ability to add affiliate programs.

Compared with all the other Shopify alternatives on this list, Shift4Shop is the closest competitor in terms of price, number of products, and access to free users. Shift4Shop happens to be another one of the online store builders packed to the brim with features and functionalities. These are teamed with impeccable product and order management systems, as well as customer service and sales and marketing tools. Along with a number of payment processing options. Shift4Shop also has allowances for connecting your online store with your dropshipping providers and suppliers.

The best Shopify substitutes and e-commerce platform options

Deciding to bring your business venture online is just the tip of the iceberg. Choosing an option from our list of Shopify alternatives can make anyone a little nervous and panicky. We hope we’re able to highlight the wins you can enjoy with each one as effectively as we can. The good news is that Shopify is not the be-all and end-all, if you find it’s too packed with features you won’t use or if it’s too costly. Thanks to innovation and advancements in technology, no shop owner is short of choices when it comes to user-friendly e-commerce platforms and alternatives to Shopify for small businesses (or businesses of any size, for that matter!).

Take the time to conduct thorough research on your own, if you want to delve deeper. A lot of these options, you can try out for free, which is an advantage for anyone who may want a sort of trial run before committing to a long-term partnership. We hope that we’ve been able to shed light on the affordable Shopify alternatives that we believe small and medium-sized businesses can make good use of. Hopefully, bigger business ventures and manufacturers will also be able to find viable e-commerce solutions like Shopify.

FAQs

The key features to look for in a Shopify alternative are:

• User-Friendly interface: Easy to navigate for both the customer and the store manager.
• Site search function: Robust search capabilities for products, categories, etc.
• Mobile responsiveness: Optimized for a seamless shopping experience on mobile devices.
• Payment gateway options: Multiple, secure payment methods for customer convenience.
• SEO capabilities: Tools to improve search engine rankings and visibility.
• Inventory management: Efficient tracking and management of stock levels.
• Shipping and logistics integration: Simplified management of shipping options and rates.
• Analytics and reporting tools: Insights into sales, customer behavior, and other crucial metrics.
• Customer support features: Live chat, contact forms, and other support options for customer inquiries and assistance.
• Customization options: Ability to tailor the look and feel of the store to match the brand identity.

Shopify alternatives compare in terms of pricing and value by offering some of the same features for lower fees. Other Shopify alternatives offer access to the same important functions without costing too much.

The best Shopify alternatives for small to medium-sized businesses are:

• Bitrix24
• Wix
• Squarespace
• Weebly
• Ecwid
• BigCommerce
• WooCommerce
• Adobe Commerce (Magento)
• Big Cartel
• Shift4Shop