Is There a Decent Shopify Alternative?

As much snobbery as there is in the eCommerce market regarding the issue, the fact is that Shopify is a decent platform that can cater to the vast majority of business owners looking to sell online. But there are reasons not to use it. Maybe you are fed up with them forcing their payment gateway down your throat, your product offerings are too complex for Shopify’s 100 SKU limit per product or maybe you want better control over your site, possibly for SEO reasons.

Well, to answer the title question, there are actually a few, so let’s take a look…

Wix

If one of the biggest things you like about Shopify is it’s Software-as-a-Service style platform then Wix is worth a look in. It has a similar style drag and drop builder with a vast array of themes which makes it easy to get things looking how you like it, regardless of your technical abilities. It has a variety of cheaper plans and makes it easy to connect with your own domain.

Wix is definitely not as feature full as Shopify but beginners will find it easier to use. Being a website builder first that has eCommerce added to it makes it good for sites that are primarily information/entertainment based but also sell things as well, like blogs or niche specific sites. So if you are thinking of building a website that will then lead into eCommerce sales, this is a good alternative.

SquareSpace

Again, a Software-as-a-Service experience driven by an incredibly simple theme and drag and drop page builder combo, built to make it easy for anyone to get a site looking slick and professional. If you don’t have a domain already then this is a good choice because you can actually get one for free with just the basic package.

It is abound with integration options for things like accounting, shipping, Google Ads, MailChimp and Amazon which makes automating administrative work easy. They don’t throw on transaction fees either which is rare and very much welcome for a service like this.

3dcart

3dcart is another cloud-hosted eCommerce platform, so again, no need to stress about having to organize your own hosting. Unlimited products make this option perfect for those who are starting off but have big plans to scale to the stars!

When it comes to payment gateways, 3dcart supports over 70! This is almost unheard of for SaaS style eCommerce platforms and is a massive boon, especially for those who prefer using more obscure gateways or are maybe limited by the country they are selling in.

There are a ton of plugins as well that let you control aspects of SEO, coupons, personalized products, syncing with facebook and more!!

NopCommerce

For the more technically minded, NopCommerce is a solid, open source platform built upon Microsoft’s robust .NET framework. Though you will have to organize your own hosting, Its open sourceness means that not only is it completely free, but also you have complete control over and can edit every and any aspect of the platform. For those who aren’t comfortable coding though, there is a large range of plugins to bring the functionality you need. Design is handled by their immense library of themes that you can customize either through simple settings, or if you feel comfortable, coding.

One of the biggest advantages of NopCommerce is how streamlined the pages it outputs are, delivering incredible page load speeds that can drastically decrease bounce rates (which affect SEO) and increase conversion rates. Winning!