By: Chris Wagner
As time passes, Ecommerce is increasingly relevant.
Regardless of how you feel about Shopify, it’s pretty undeniable it’s the reigning ecommerce software. It’s an earned title, as Shopify packs in a very powerful set of services with its platform.
However, just because it’s the most popular doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. Maybe Breitbart’s ties to Shopify are turning you off, or maybe Shopify just isn’t doing one thing you really need well enough. Maybe the feel isn’t right.
Well, don’t worry, there is a diversity of alternatives to Shopify. Their pricing varies and you can look it up easily, so I won’t be too detailed here, but they can all be worth it depending on what you want.
Each of these provides all the basics you need to have a good experience running your shop, but provide some benefits that may be far more suited to you, things that Shopify just doesn’t do as well. And of course, some of them may just click with you more.
4 Shopify Alternatives
1. LemonStand
2. BigCommerce (My Favorite)
3. Wix Ecommerce
4. 3dcart
Shopify alternatives comparison at glance
Now take a thorough look at the Top 4 Shopify Alternatives:
Alternative No 1: LemonStand
LemonStand’s big selling point is how customizable its shops are, and that should mostly set the tone for the rest of this section.
One of BigCommerce’s main downsides is also one of LemonStand’s: the sales ceiling that come with each price plan. Except, with BigCommerce, it’s the amount of revenue earned in a year, and with LemonStand, it’s the number of sales per month.
For example, instead of $50,000 a year for BigCommerce’s Standard plan ($29.95 a month) you’re capped at 75 sales a month for LemonStand’s Starter plan ($19 a month) and so on. Luckily, you get a free trial to see how you like it.
Also similarly, each pricing plan comes with unlimited storage and bandwidth, unlimited staff accounts, and unlimited products and variants. And, the core features are available from the Starter plan up.
Frankly, I’d say that LemonStand has a fundamental difference from Shopify: Shopify is made to be a lot more accessible to just about every entrepreneur, whereas LemonStand is geared towards a more specific type.
More clearly, LemonStand’s biggest con in ease of use is also its biggest pro in customization—it really depends on your own situation whether this will make LemonStand good for you or not.
It’s geared towards those who want to take design into their own hands. It’s highly customizable, but you’ll need to know coding.
Of course, it’s still a great service, don’t get me wrong, you just need a little know-how to really make best use of it. But if you can really use it the way it’s meant to be, you’ll really get your money’s worth.
Having said all that, it’s otherwise mostly straightforward in terms of the UI, and the customer service is pretty solid.
Relative to Shopify, I’d say it offers its users a much greater degree of control. It has a solid package of features bundled in even from the Starter plan (albeit there’s some stuff it could add), and the themes are totally open source, allowing you probably the best customization options of the foremost ecommerce platforms.
Ultimately, it depends on your business needs: if you’re looking for simplicity and a quick shop of smaller scale, Shopify is okay. But if you want outstanding control over your shop, LemonStand is a great platform for minor tradeoffs.
Feature wise comparison: Lemonstand vs. Shopify
Alternative No 2: BigCommerce (My Favorite)
Ah, BigCommerce. You may have recently heard the news that the CEO has said the company will go public. It’s definitely a fine service that has grown in popularity over the years to be probably Shopify’s top contender.
To be honest, I would characterize BigCommerce, in this context, by its size. It’s a big service at a larger starting price than some people would like, but it is undeniably comprehensive in what it offers its users.
The main con of BigCommerce is the cost. If you found Shopify too expensive, you’ll probably find BigCommerce too expensive too.
The pricing plans range from $29.95 a month at the lowest (Standard) to $249.95 a month (Pro), with the fourth tier, Enterprise, being custom.
It’s true the prices aren’t different: from Basic Shopify upwards it’s practically identical to BigCommerce’s pricing plan, except the third tier of BigCommerce is actually cheaper than Shopify’s.
In addition, there’s an annual sales revenue ceiling for each price plan—if you make more than $50,000 in online sales on a Standard pricing plan, you’ll have to upgrade to Plus, where your limit will be $150,000.
It’s not the end of the world, but it can feel a bit unnecessary. It’s not uncommon for major ecommerce software services to do this though, to account for your increased bandwidth usage.
Aside from the overall price though, I’d say the other flaws are more minor. There is a limited number of free themes, especially compared to Shopify—only 7, in fact. There are a lot more options, but they’re going to cost you, and the even the free themes feel pretty similar.
Lastly, the customer service is 24/7 but could use more person-to-person communication, and there’s no official mobile app (but there are some third party apps that seem decent).
Great, the pleasant stuff! BigCommerce’s pluses are basically…everything else.
If you’re only looking to pay less, BigCommerce may not quite help you out unless you’re looking at its third tier account. But if you’re looking to get more out of the same amount, BigCommerce is good.
In fact, when you upgrade an account, you don’t get many more features—you do get some, but the bulk of them are available from a Standard account onwards—just a higher sales ceiling.
Of the few extra features you do get when you upgrade though, they’re pretty sweet—like Abandoned Cart Saver, which automatically emails users who made it to the checkout page but didn’t complete their purchase, or Google customer reviews.
Other positives: there are no transaction fees, the security is killer, and there are a lot of resources provided not just to help with onboarding but also to help you stay knowledgeable and competitive even when you’re well-oriented.
Importantly, BigCommerce integrates very well with other channels, like Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping, etc, even from a Standard account.
It’s easy to use too, with a pretty slick interface that actually resembles Shopify’s—so if you’re transitioning out of Shopify, it’ll be easy to work with BigCommerce.
Look, the main cons BigCommerce has are roughly similar to Shopify’s. The sales caps per pricing plan still exist, and the pricing is very similar. However, BigCommerce doesn’t have transaction fees.
What makes the difference is that BigCommerce is overall more feature-packed, and it provides more resources to its users. If you feel you’re paying too much for Shopify, it’s unlikely you’ll feel that way with BigCommerce.
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