7 Best Shopify Alternatives for Your Online Store

Undoubtedly, Shopify is an excellent eCommerce development platform today. The platform is powering nearly one million online stores, catering to more than 175 countries. However, if you want more control over the SEO of your online sales or want to expand the business, then you may consider a Shopify alternative. Yes, you read that right. There are various new Ecommerce platforms that many consider the best Shopify alternatives or competitors.  In this article, we have prepared a list of the best Shopify alternatives, such as WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and more. You can pick anyone according to the needs of your business. Make sure you go through the features and the website of these platforms before you invest in any of them. With this said, let us get straight into the list of best Shopify alternatives you can consider to kickstart your online store!

Top 7 Shopify Alternatives 

This compilation of some of the best Shopify alternatives will help you explore various options and compare them before you finally execute your online shop. Here are the top ten best Shopify alternatives you can consider-

1- WooCommerce

It is one of the best Shopify alternatives for many business owners. It is an open-source, high-rated, and free Shopify alternative. If you wish to track user activity, WooCommerce is an excellent option. Some users even assert that it is in many ways superior to Shopify.

However, scalability is a little tricky with this eCommerce platform. You can go for the paid version to unlock advanced functionality and more sophisticated features. In addition to this, WooCommerce offers everything you could possibly need. It can help you create an online shop with a costly cart in a flash of time.

Pros:

• Use of the plugin on any WordPress website is totally free.
• Any WordPress site that already exists can be easily integrated.
• You can completely alter the code for your store because it is open source.
• Offers multiple paid and free extensions

Cons:

• Though it offers a free plugin feature, you have to arrange domain hosting costs, email provider service, SSL certificate, and a few other features.
• If you don’t know HTML or CSS, you’ll likely need the assistance of a specialized web development agency to get the most out of your eCommerce store.
• WooCommerce requires plug-ins to provide key functions, which increases complexity and decreases site speed.

Visit – Woocommerce

2- BigCommerce

If you want a simple, basic experience with the adaptability of utilizing a drag-and-drop feature while creating your online shop or website, BigCommerce is one of the best free Shopify alternatives for you.

There are many beautiful themes on BigCommerce, but only seven are available for free in all niches. Others will cost you money because of the subscription charges. It’s still better than Shopify as it allows you to customize your website.  However, the load times on this e-commerce platform are a little slower than those of other sites when you compare them.

Pros:

• Multiple built-in features with drag-and-drop graphics editing
• No transaction fees
• Options for secure payment gateways are more than 55
• Several free features and apps to select from
• Multi-channel selling
• Completely SEO software function and customizable URLs
• Perfect for different types of business models

Cons:

• Price plans can seem a bit complicated if you are a new user
• Only five free themes
• Set-up may be difficult for some
• Speeds are unstable

Visit – Bigcommerce

3- Magento 

Now acquired by Adobe, Magento is a famous eCommerce platform. So if we compare in terms of popularity, Magento is the best Shopify alternative. It even has a wide global community.

Though its costs are comparable to WooCommerce, it remains a top free Shopify alternative in the market. For this content management system, you will only have to pay for the themes, hostings, and plugins. Though it is fundamentally a CMS platform, it lets online business owners sell their products through an open-source ecosystem, making it highly preferable among entrepreneurs willing to expand their businesses.

Pros:

• Scalable
• Flexible
• Excellent functionality
• Benefits of secure payment gateways
• Multiple extensions and add-on features
• Responsive design
• Excellent community support

Cons:

• Technical know-how is required
• Coding is compulsory to use the open-source element completely
• Costly

Visit – Magento

Read More – Best Adobe InDesign Alternatives 

4- Prestashop

Looking for the best Shopify alternative on a budget? Prestashop could be your solution! It’s also a free Shopify alternative, but you only have to stress your purse for a domain name and hosting package expenses. The eCommerce platform has an association with famous companies such as WebHostingHub, Azure, and 1&1.

However, the platform lags when it comes to themes and templates. Still, when it comes to usability, it is better than Shopify. Apart from the fact that it supports more than twenty languages and currencies, Prestashop charges no translation fee. Thus, to start a cost-effective online shop, all you need to do is hire an experienced developer.

Pros:

• A great free Shopify alternative
• Open source platform
• Supports multiple languages
• No added transaction fees
• Good features
• Hosting is manageable

Cons:

• Templates and themes are limited
• Technical skills are needed
• Does not offer enough features

Visit – Prestshsop

5- Volusion

Voulsion is a cloud-based platform considered one of the best Shopify alternatives for medium to small businesses. The shopping cart is trusted by large online business owners, particularly the ones trying to boost and expand their small online shops. In addition, it provides a one-click checkout feature, making it easy to use for customers. It has other features and plugins as well that help you manage your online store efficiently.

Basic coding skills are a must to use Volusion. However, this will not be much complicated as most of the work will be done by GUI. Another thing you need to consider before signing up for this e-commerce platform is the increase in charges with the bandwidth limit.

Pros:

• Supports various platform processors
• User-friendly
• Free Shopify alternative for accessing multiple themes
• Its mobile application is also great
• Easy SEO analysis and reporting
• Product listings can be unlimited
• A quick calculation of tax and shipping rates
• No transaction fees

Cons:

• Coding skills are required
• Other platforms have more features for hosting
• Bandwidth limit
• It cannot be integrated with Pinterest or PLA
• Weak product search functions

Visit – Volusion

Read Also – How to keep your Customers Loyal to your e-commerce Business

6- Shift4Shop

Previously known as 3DCart, Shift4Shop is another best Shopify alternatives we have on our list. It’s an efficient e-commerce hosting platform for business owners. It provides free end-to-end support to US citizens who sign up for it.

The highlight of Shift4Shop is its incredible versatility, Facebook integration, and great web design service that also offers an SSL certificate at a fair price. However, they do not provide a good variety of themes, and the service may lag sometimes.

Pros:

• Supports payment gateways
• You can customize your store through CSS or HTML
• You can add unlimited listings
• Excellent loading speed
• Nearly free Shopify alternative for new business owners
• No transaction fees
• Much more advanced than Shopify

Cons:

• Not highly preferential support
• Sluggish service
• Upgrading issues may occur
• The app isn’t as good as Shopify
• Shopify has a better UX
• Dropshipping is also better than other platforms
• It could be complex to set up

Visit – Shift4Shop

7- Squarespace

Last on the list, but not least best Shopify alternative, Squarespace, can help you take off your online store high. It offers multiple fantastic website-building tools along with different templates to choose from. If you pick a more advanced package, you get an unlimited number of pages that require little changes to become ready to present your online store.

This eCommerce platform also involves a few excellent marketing features, such as Mailchimp, Adwords, and Amazon tracking affiliates. The only downside or limitation is that Squarespace accepts payments only through Stripe and Paypal.

Pros:

• Easy to use
• Excellent at managing small online shops
• Good themes
• No coding skills are needed
• Website navigator is simple to navigate
• Working on the backend is easy
• Though it has a big library of gorgeous templates, it offers you the freedom to use personally chosen templates and photos.

Cons:

• Limited support
• Integration with code-tracking APIs is not allowed
• Slow website loading speed
• Limited multi-channel features
• Add-ons are fewer compared to Shopify

Visit – Squarespace

Read Also – Clever tactics To Boost eCommerce Store Sales

The Bottom Line

With rapid digitization, it has become pivotal to set up your online store to boost your business. You have to ensure that your online store is equipped with all the services, such as marketing, shipping, taxing, etc. If you have all the basics placed since the beginning, you can save yourself from wasting a lot of time and future headaches. There are multiple online service providers to select from. That is why we curated this list of Shopify alternatives to help you make the right decision for your online business. If any of the above-given options have intrigued you, don’t forget to check out their websites and elaborated features before investing in them.