Shopify is the leader in the e-commerce sector. However, there are many alternatives that often offer a better user experience.
In recent years, Shopify has become the king of e-commerce, powering small businesses in over 175 countries. The premise of Shopify is very simple: allow businesses to create their own e-commerce site, full of customization and useful features. Through the Shopify platform, business owners can also monitor the sales, shipping, and popularity of their products.
However, Shopify is far from perfect. Its payment system, for example, forces customers to use Shopify’s proprietary gateway. Business owners who decide against this could be charged up to 2% for every transaction.
Furthermore, Shopify does not do a perfect job when it comes to large catalogs. It limits users to just 100 SKUs (shop-keeping units) per catalog, making it hard for small businesses to expand.
Luckily, many free Shopify alternatives have emerged in recent years, changing the e-commerce landscape completely.
Features to consider for a Shopify alternative
Shopify has many useful features for small and medium business owners. After all, it became the market leader for a reason! Indeed, Shopify is now extremely developed with different tools according to the price level.
In particular, Shopify has three different subscription tiers:
- Basic for €28/month, which includes 2 staff accounts and access to basic reports,
- Shopify for €78/month, which includes 5 staff accounts and access to professional reports,
- Advanced for €384/month, which includes 15 staff accounts and customized reports.
Almost inexplicably, however, different price tiers don’t include the catalog expansion. It should be obvious that advanced accounts have larger catalogs than basic ones, and yet Shopify lacks this feature.
Furthermore, you should be careful with payment gateway options. If, for example, you plan on expanding your business abroad, having easy and accessible payment systems like PayPal could work great for you. Different e-commerce builders have different payment gateways, therefore you should keep this in mind.
Finally, an important part of e-commerce building is customization. Many Shopify alternatives offer greater customization at a lower price.
1) WooCommerce
Now, let’s start looking at the best 5 Shopify alternatives. The first on our list is WooCommerce, a free plugin for WordPress that turns regular sites into e-commerce platforms.
This is the perfect e-commerce builder tool. WooCommerce allows for complete customization (as it uses WordPress as a base), is easy to use, and is completely free! Obviously, businesses will have to pay for the site domain and SSL.
2) Magento
If you are a coding geek, then Magento is the right software for you. Magento was acquired by Adobe in 2018, which should already ring a bell about its complexity. Adobe’s software like Photoshop, Premiere, and Illustrator are famous for their accuracy and intricacy.
Magento is an open-source software, meaning that thousands of developers worldwide continue to improve its features and scope. Obviously, business owners with little to no developing expertise will have to hire an IT expert to use Magento.
3) Prestashop
Prestashop is probably the most ambitious Shopify alternative on this list. Its partnerships with Microsoft Azure, WebHostingHub, and 1&1 ensure very similar usability as Shopify: for example, it supports 25 different languages!
Unfortunately, even though it is open-source, Prestashop has surprisingly low options for themes and templates, which is the reason why it does not rank higher in the list.
4) Opecart
If your e-commerce site is more business-oriented, Opecart is the solution for you. This Shopify alternative is perfect for professional-looking sites and supports thousands of add-ons for additional customization. Opecart also supports many different gateway payments.
Opencart might not be as easy to use as Shopify, but it definitely has the same amount of potential if not more!
5) PinnacleCart
PinnacleCart is the perfect middle ground between the first two Shopify alternatives: WooCommerce and Magento. PinnacleCart allows for large SEO control but is very easy to use.
Unfortunately, PinnacleCart also has many pricing limitations for the free version.
