Best Shopify Competitors & Alternatives (2024)

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Updated: Feb 9, 2024, 3:25am

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When it comes to e-commerce platforms, Shopify is one of the most popular options out there. However, it’s not the only choice. If you’re looking for Shopify alternatives, there are several other e-commerce platforms worth considering. We researched platforms with similar features and functionality as well as standout elements worth noting. You may prefer a platform with drag-and-drop capabilities or one with no subscription fee.

Whichever features you prefer, the best Shopify alternatives are easy to use, affordable and feature-rich.

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The Best Shopify Alternatives of 2024


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The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

We reviewed 11 e-commerce platforms using a detailed methodology to help you find these seven Shopify alternatives. Our ratings considered factors, such as the value each provider offers on both free and paid plans; what sort of features each plan comes with, such as inventory management and secure sockets layer (SSL) certificates; and a deep dive by our experts looking at customer experiences with each platform as noted on popular review sites. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.


BEST FOR ESTABLISHED BUSINESSES

BigCommerce

BigCommerce

Starting price

$29 USD ($38.74 CAD) per month

(paid monthly)

Drag-and-drop interface

Yes

SSL certificate included

Yes

BigCommerce
Learn More

On BigCommerce's Website

Starting price

$29 USD ($38.74 CAD) per month

(paid monthly)

Drag-and-drop interface

Yes

SSL certificate included

Yes

Why We Picked It

BigCommerce is a leading Shopify competitor that enables businesses to create an online store, drive traffic to their sites and convert visits into sales. With the platform, get unlimited products, file storage, bandwidth and staff accounts. Sell on multiple sales channels: your online storefront, point-of-sale (POS), Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Facebook, Instagram and Google Shopping.

It’s easy to use, has a mobile app, and each plan allows for multiple currencies and includes a built-in blog to help SEO ranking. Plans start at $29 USD ($38.74 CAD) per month and go up to $299 USD ($399.54 CAD) per month. If your business needs Enterprise-level features, contact its sales team for custom pricing.

Who should use it:

Established businesses that want to expand their online sales.

Learn more: Read our BigCommerce Review

Pros & Cons
  • Sell on multiple sales channels
  • Add a blog to your site with any plan
  • Promo tools such as coupons, discounts and gift cards
  • Must pay for Plus plan or higher for abandoned cart recovery
  • Many of the themes look the same

BEST FOR VISUAL DESIGNERS

Squarespace

Squarespace

Starting price

$16 USD ($21.38 CAD) per month

(paid annually)

Drag-and-drop interface

Yes

SSL certificate included

Yes

Squarespace
Learn More

On Squarespace's Website

Starting price

$16 USD ($21.38 CAD) per month

(paid annually)

Drag-and-drop interface

Yes

SSL certificate included

Yes

Why We Picked It

Squarespace is a website builder and hosting platform that allows users to create beautiful stores with ease. It offers a variety of templates and tools to help users create professional-looking storefronts in a variety of industries, and it also provides users with access to 24/7 customer support, a free custom domain for your first year, unlimited bandwidth and SSL security.

In addition, Squarespace provides a number of upgrades and features for users who want to create more complex websites. While its plans start at $16USD ($21.38 CAD) per month, for e-commerce features, you must pay for a Business plan or higher, which starts at $23 USD ($30.74 CAD) per month.

Who should use it:

Designers and creatives who want to create beautiful online stores without having to learn to code.

Read more:

Read our full Squarespace review.

Pros & Cons
  • Beginner-friendly
  • Free domain and SSL certificates with annual plans
  • Some plans have no transaction fees
  • Award-winning templates are all free
  • Every plan has SEO features
  • Offers dropshipping integrations
  • Video storage limited to 30 minutes
  • Must have a Business plan or higher for e-commerce features

BEST FOR DO-IT-YOURSELF SELLERS

Wix

Wix

Starting price

$25 CAD per month

(per month to sell online)

Drag-and-drop interface

Yes

SSL certificate included

Yes

Wix
Learn More

On Wix's Website

Starting price

$25 CAD per month

(per month to sell online)

Drag-and-drop interface

Yes

SSL certificate included

Yes

Why We Picked It

With Wix, create mobile-responsive stores using a series of drag-and-drop tools. Each e-commerce plan comes with unlimited products, abandoned cart recovery, social selling, an online booking platform for service-based businesses and 24/7 customer support. Higher-tiered plans come with unlimited storage and video hours, customized reports, automated sales tax and a loyalty program by Smile.io.

Wix offers a free plan, but to accept payments online, connect your own domain and remove Wix ads from your site, you must have a premium plan. These premium plans start at $25 CAD per month and a free domain name when paying for one year or more at a time.

Who should use it:

Do-it-yourself sellers who want a platform with a wide range of features and tools to create their store.

Read more:

Read our full Wix review.

Pros & Cons
  • Industry-leading drag-and-drop editor
  • Over 800 templates available for free
  • User-friendly
  • 14-day money-back guarantee
  • Free domain name when paying annually or longer
  • Free plan doesn’t allow for accepting online payments
  • Limited storage for most plans

BEST FOR EXISTING WEBSITES

Ecwid

Ecwid

Starting price

$14.08 USD ($18.82 CAD) per month

(paid annually)

Drag-and-drop interface

Yes

SSL certificate included

Yes

Ecwid

Starting price

$14.08 USD ($18.82 CAD) per month

(paid annually)

Drag-and-drop interface

Yes

SSL certificate included

Yes

Why We Picked It

Ecwid stands for e-commerce widget, which lends to its simple and easy-to-use platform. It’s a Shopify alternative that can be integrated into an existing website with just a few lines of code, and it’s free to use for up to ten products.

Each plan includes unlimited bandwidth, a drag-and-drop site builder and GDPR compliance. It works with many platforms, including WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and Joomla. Upgrade to a paid plan for a store management app, digital products, discount coupons, inventory management and live chat support. Its highest-tiered plan even comes with your own store app, so your customers can shop from your custom shopping app.

Who should use it:

Businesses that want to add Shopify-like features to an existing website without having to learn to code.

Pros & Cons
  • Transform an existing site into an online store
  • Unlimited bandwidth comes standard
  • Industry-leading drag-and-drop editor
  • Paid plans include mobile POS
  • GDPR compliant
  • No support for its free plan
  • Must have a Business plan or higher to create custom orders

BEST FOR WORDPRESS USERS

WooCommerce

WooCommerce

Starting price

Free

Drag-and-drop interface

With a plugin

SSL certificate included

No, but free options exist

WooCommerce

Starting price

Free

Drag-and-drop interface

With a plugin

SSL certificate included

No, but free options exist

Why We Picked It

Similar to Ecwid, WooCommerce is a plugin that can be added to an existing WordPress site. Once installed, you have full control of the design and development of your shop as it’s built on an open-source platform. While WooCommerce is free to use, there are costs associated with keeping your shop running, such as hosting, a domain name and SSL certificate. Most host companies include a free SSL certificate, otherwise, you can install a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate for free manually.

You can choose from 140 different payment gateways, including WooCommerce Payments, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, Square and PayPal. A payment gateway is a service that authorizes payments for online stores. There are no monthly fees for using WooCommerce Payments. Instead, you pay per transaction. These fees start at 2.9% plus 0.30  CAD per transaction for domestic credit or debit cards. And if you need access to your money quickly, get immediate deposits for a 1.5% fee.

Who should use it:

WordPress users who want to add e-commerce functionality to their site without having to learn how to code.

Learn more: Woocommerce Vs. Shopify

Pros & Cons
  • There is no monthly fee
  • Availability of instant deposits if using WooCommerce Payments
  • It’s open source
  • You must use WordPress
  • Not as easy to use as Shopify or other hosted e-commerce platforms

BEST FOR PRINT-ON-DEMAND

Sellfy

Sellfy

Starting price

Free; $19 USD ($25.39 CAD) per month

(with bi-annual billing)

Drag-and-drop interface

Yes

SSL certificate included

Yes

Sellfy

Starting price

Free; $19 USD ($25.39 CAD) per month

(with bi-annual billing)

Drag-and-drop interface

Yes

SSL certificate included

Yes

Why We Picked It

Sellfy is a Shopify alternative that’s best for businesses selling print-on-demand (POD) products, such as T-shirts, mugs, posters and phone cases, because it has a built-in POD feature. It also offers a free plan for you to sell up to ten products, whether physical or print-on-demand products.

If you sell digital and subscription products, you’ll need a paid plan, which starts as low as $19 USD ($25.39 CAD) per month when billed for two years. You can also pay annually or monthly at a higher rate. Paid plans also give you access to email marketing and custom domains. Higher-tiered plans remove Sellfy branding and include cart abandonment, product upselling, priority support and store design and product migration.

Who should use it:

Businesses that want to sell physical or print-on-demand products and don’t need advanced features.

Pros & Cons
  • 24/7 support
  • Has built-in print-on-demand
  • Discounts for paying for one and two years
  • Uses Stripe or PayPal as a payment gateway
  • 14-day free trial
  • Sellfy branding unless paying for its Business plan
  • Annual sales limits for all paid plans

Compare Shopify Competitors


Platform Starting Price Drag and Drop SSL Certificate Included Best For
Shopify $38 CAD per month Yes Yes E-commerce sellers
BigCommerce $29 USD ($38.74 CAD) per month Yes Yes Established businesses
Squarespace $16 USD ($21.38 CAD) per month Yes Yes Visual designers
Wix $25 CAD per month Yes Yes DIY sellers
Ecwid $14.08 USD ($18.82 CAD) per month Yes Yes Existing websites
WooCommerce Free No, need a separate plugin No WordPress users
Sellfy Free; $19 USD ($25.39 CAD) per month Yes Yes Print-on-demand

Methodology

Choosing the right e-commerce platform is essential for any online business. There are several factors to consider, including cost, ease of use, features and customer support. To help you choose the right Shopify competitor for your business, we’ve evaluated the leading options based on twelve different characteristics.

Here are the categories we used to rank the providers that made the top of the list.

Pricing

Whether a Shopify alternative offered a free version was a key consideration. Additionally, we took a close look at the plans offered by each provider―both in regard to the cost of their plans and what upgrade each higher-tier plan offered. Those providers whose plans we considered to be in an easily affordable range fared better in our rankings. Pricing accounted for 20% of our weighted scoring.

Features

When it comes to features, there are a couple that we considered to be essential for small e-commerce retailers: having a drag-and-drop interface and providing SSL certificates. However, there were additional features we felt also were needed to help retailers succeed, including offering inventory management, social media integration, email tools and an application programming interface (API). We weighted these features at 40% of the total score.

Expert Score

We researched reviews from real users to gauge their opinion of each platform as part of our expert analysis. For this, we reviewed notable third-party review website, focusing on four specific criteria: ease of use, stand-out features, popularity and value for the money. This final analysis made up 40% of the total score.


How To Choose the Best Shopify Alternative

Pricing and Fees

The first thing to consider when choosing a Shopify alternative is price. While many of the platforms we’ve reviewed offer a free plan, they all have paid plans with varying price points. If you’re just getting started with your online store, you may want to start with a free plan to see how the platform works for you. But if you’re serious about growing your business, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan eventually.

Another consideration is fees. Does the platform charge both a monthly fee as well as processing or transaction fees on each purchase? Do you have to use a separate payment gateway, or can you use the platform’s built-in payment processing? These are important questions to ask when evaluating pricing.

Hosting

Another important consideration is hosting. Some platforms, such as Shopify and Wix, include hosting as part of their monthly subscription fee. Others, such as Ecwid and WooCommerce, don’t include hosting but make it easy to set up your store on a hosting platform, such as WordPress.

If you’re not sure which option is right for you, think about how much control you want over your store’s hosting. If you want the platform to handle everything, then a hosted solution such as Shopify or Squarespace might be the right choice. But if you’re comfortable setting up your own hosting, then a self-hosted solution such as WooCommerce might be a better option.

Themes and Design Options

When you’re setting up your online store, you want it to look professional and branded. That means choosing a platform with a wide range of themes and design options. Some platforms, such as Shopify and Wix, offer hundreds of themes to choose from. Others, such as Ecwid and Squarespace, offer a smaller selection of themes but allow you to customize your store’s design more.

Think about how important design is to your business. If you want a wide selection of themes to choose from, then a customizable platform might be the right choice. And if you’re comfortable working with code and want more control over your store’s design, then a platform with open source or API might be the best option. With these types of platforms, you can often find platform-provided themes, hire a web designer or even buy a premade theme from a marketplace such as Etsy.

Ease of Use

Another important consideration is the ease of use. You want a platform that’s easy to set up and use, especially if you’re new to e-commerce. Even if you’re not new to e-commerce, and you’re simply looking to migrate to a new platform, consider if there’s a migration service, or a step-by-step guide to transferring to your new platform. The last thing you want is a platform that’s so complex that it takes weeks or months to learn.

To evaluate ease of use, take advantage of free trials and demos offered by various platforms. Consider how long it takes to set up a basic store, how easy it is to add products and categories and how intuitive the platform’s interface is.

Security

When you’re running an online store, security is always a top concern. You want to make sure your customers’ data is safe and secure, and that your store is protected from hackers. To evaluate security, look for a platform that offers features such as SSL encryption and PCI compliance. SSL encryption is important for protecting your customers’ data, while PCI compliance ensures that your store is secure from hackers.

You should also look for a platform that is regularly updated with the latest security patches. This helps to ensure that your store is always protected from the latest threats.

Payment Processing Options

We touched on payment gateways under our pricing and fees section but it’s worth mentioning again. You’ll want to make sure that the platform you choose offers a wide range of payment processing options. This includes credit and debit cards, as well as popular payment providers such as PayPal, Stripe or Apple Pay.

You should also consider whether the platform offers any additional features, such as the ability to set up subscription-based payments or recurring orders. These features can be very valuable for businesses that sell products or services on a recurring basis.

SEO Features

If you want your store to be successful, you need to make sure it’s visible to potential customers. That means optimizing your site for search engines such as Google. To evaluate a platform’s SEO features, look for features such as a built-in blog, customizable URLs, meta tags and social sharing buttons. These features will help you to optimize your site for search engines and drive traffic to your store.

You should also consider whether the platform offers any additional features that can help with SEO, such as the ability to create custom pages or add structured data. These features can help you ‌ improve your site’s ranking in the search results and get more traffic to your store.

Customer Support

Finally, you’ll want to consider customer support when choosing an e-commerce platform. Things will inevitably go wrong from time to time, and you’ll need to be able to rely on your platform’s customer support team to help you resolve any issues.

To evaluate customer support, look for features such as 24/7 support, live chat, community support group, email support and a knowledge base. These features will help you to get the help you need when you need it. You should also consider the quality of the customer support team. Look for reviews from other users to see what their experiences have been like. Do their marketing promises live up to the hype?


Other Online Retail Options

In addition to Shopify, there are other online retail options available. These include:

  • Amazon: Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, and it offers a platform for businesses to sell their products. Amazon has a wide range of features, including a marketplace, fulfillment services and marketing tools.
  • eBay: Another popular online marketplace that offers a platform for businesses to sell their products is eBay. It has a wide range of features, including auction-style listings, buyer protection and payment options.
  • Etsy: This is a popular platform for businesses that sell handmade or vintage items. With Etsy, customize your shop, manage orders and listings and promote your shop with marketing tools.
  • Faire: A platform designed specifically for businesses that sell wholesale products. With Faire, businesses can manage orders, connect with buyers and get access to financing.
  • Walmart: A popular retail store that also offers an online platform for businesses to sell their products. Features include product listings, order management and shipping options.

Canadian specific spelling and research (including pricing) by Anna Rey.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the best e-commerce platform?

The best e-commerce platform is the one that’s best for your business, which may not be the same as what’s best for other businesses. To find the best platform for your business, consider your budget, the size of your inventory and whether you need features such as POS or multichannel selling. Our top-rated e-commerce platforms include Squarespace, Square and Ecwid.

What is the most affordable Shopify alternative?

There are many affordable Shopify alternatives, including Shift4Shop, Sellfy, WooCommerce and Ecwid. Each of these has a completely free option, although there are some limitations such as limited storage space, transaction fees or a lack of certain features.

What is the best Shopify alternative for dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a way for a customer to place an order from a business and have it shipped directly to them from the supplier. This cuts out the go-between, which can save time and money. Both WooCommerce and BigCommerce are viable Shopify alternatives for dropshipping. BigCommerce has a few more features specifically for dropshippers, such as inventory management and order tracking.

Are there any free alternatives to Shopify?

Yes, there are several free alternatives to Shopify, however, some have restrictions you need to consider. For example, Ecwid offers a free plan, but it’s best suited for small stores because you can only have up to ten products. Shift4Shop is another top Shopify competitor with fewer restrictions, provided you use its payment processor.

How do I know which Shopify alternative is right for me?

The best Shopify alternative for you will depend on your unique website needs. The key is to find an alternative that offers the features you need, from e-commerce-specific features, such as unlimited product listings, inventory management or shipping calculators to a user-friendly site builder and a price tag that fits your budget.

Why would I need an alternative to Shopify?

Shopify isn’t the only e-commerce website builder on the market, nor is it the best fit for every online store. For example, it’s not the most beginner-friendly nor is it the most affordable option. Learn more about the best e-commerce platforms.


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