Shopify has a great reputation, and it’s easy to see why. It’s beginner-friendly, affordable, and fast. Plus, it’s got all the features you need to start an ecommerce business—and I do mean all.
But while Shopify does everything from hosting to payment processing out of the box, it isn’t the only option for building an online store. There are plenty of Shopify competitors just waiting for you to give them a try.
In this article, we’re going to share a list of 10 top Shopify competitors that might be suitable for your business. Some of them have platforms targeting small and medium-sized businesses, while others are designed to support enterprise-level operations.
Let’s see what they have to offer.
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Shopify competitors for small and medium-sized businesses
1. Wix: simple drag-and-drop website builder
Wix has a solid reputation for user-friendliness, which explains why it regularly makes the list of top Shopify competitors. Its drag-and-drop website builder lets you create attractive, customized storefronts in minutes.
You can choose from over 100 ecommerce templates and manage different aspects of your website—like order tracking and printing shipping labels—through the Wix dashboard. Plus, Wix has a huge App Market, where you’ll find tools to enhance the functionality of your store. From flexible payments to loyalty programs, there are plenty of useful features on display.
However, there are some downsides to Wix. For instance, it won’t let you add more than 100 pages to your site. There’s also no support for newer sales channels like TikTok, so creating a Wix store could mean missing out on potential sales. As such, these Wix alternatives might appeal to you.
Pros:
- Simple drag-and-drop functionality
- Useful ecommerce apps
- Regularly rolls out new features
Cons:
- No dropshipping support
- Limited storage
Price: $17–$35 per month
2. Squarespace: beautiful online store templates
With Squarespace, the focus is on making your store look modern and attractive. This website builder offers over 100 online store templates, most of which have an elegant and minimalistic style—and they’re all mobile-responsive.
Squarespace boasts an impressive range of ecommerce features. You can sell unlimited digital and physical products, send abandoned cart recovery emails, create shipping zones, get automatic tax calculations, and much more. This website builder is very user-friendly, so you should be able to set up your online store the way you like quite easily.
One of Squarespace’s downsides is that you can’t offer various payment options to your customers. You can accept payments via Stripe, PayPal, and Squarespace, but that’s it. If you’re looking to sell internationally, this could reflect poorly on your customer experience.
Pros:
- Stunning, responsive templates
- Unlimited products on every plan
- Native analytics feature
Cons:
- Limited payment options
- Small app store
Price: $18–$40 per month
3. Big Cartel: an ecommerce solution for small, basic stores
Big Cartel says it’s “built to stay small,” and its platform is best suited to those just starting out and looking for basic sales features. Big Cartel merchants get access to a range of standard ecommerce tools, including discount codes and an option to sell on Facebook.
Creating an online store with Big Cartel is extremely simple, with prompts and reminders to guide you through the process. The downside of choosing this Shopify competitor is that you’ll need to learn code to manage certain elements.
For instance, Big Cartel lets you add your own images to your online store. However, you can only edit images by using code. Also, HTML/CSS editing is only available to users on a paid plan. If you start on the free plan, make sure you can do without customizing in the foreseeable future.
Pros:
- User-friendly onboarding process
- Clean, responsive themes
- Social selling integration
Cons:
- No image editor
- Allows up to 500 products
Price: $0–$19.99 per month
4. Square Online: sync offline and online sales
Convenient, easy-to-use, and brimming with sales tools, Square Online makes it easy to start an ecommerce business. You can sell an unlimited number of products, create gift cards, send abandoned-cart emails, and more.
Where Square Online shines is unifying offline and online sales. If you have a retail store in the physical world, you can sync your inventory and customer data with your online store. There’s even a free version of Square Online for companies making their first steps into digital sales.
Unfortunately, all that cross-channel simplicity comes at the expense of customization. For instance, you don’t get to access a template library, and there are just five style options and 15 color palettes to choose from. While Square Online keeps things quick and simple, it also limits your creative freedom.
Pros:
- Clean and simple dashboard
- Free plan for beginners
- Great for unifying online and offline sales
Cons:
- Minimal customization options
- Limited customer support (specific days and hours)
Price: $0–$72 per month
5. WooCommerce: ecommerce plugin with limitless customization
An online store on a WordPress website with complete design freedom?
Yes, please.
WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that adds ecommerce functionality to your WordPress website. It supports product variations, lets you display ratings and reviews, and offers a wide range of extensions to help you expand your store.
But it’s not just the ecommerce capabilities that make WooCommerce a desirable choice. Like the core WordPress platform, WooCommerce is incredibly customizable. For example, you can add custom widgets like share buttons to make your pages more effective and engaging. You can also customize your WooCommerce theme and even create your own custom theme to personalize your storefront further.
Full comparison: WooCommerce vs. Shopify: Which is Better in 2021
That said, WooCommerce makes store creation more time-consuming by requiring you to set up hosting and install WordPress. If you’re new to ecommerce platforms, WooCommerce’s learning curve may force you to look elsewhere.
Pros:
- Various themes and plugins
- Easily integrates with WordPress
- Active developer community
Cons:
- No built-in hosting
- User responsible for website maintenance
Price: $0 per month + web hosting cost
6. Zyro: create a functional store within minutes
Zyro might not be as well-known as other Shopify competitors, but it’s still worth considering. This Lithuanian website builder offers a number of ecommerce features in some of its more expensive plans, like multilingual setup and abandoned cart recovery.
To create an online store with Zyro, you can use one of the online store templates. Zyro only has a handful of dedicated ecommerce themes, but the ones available are ultra-modern and sleek. It couldn’t be simpler to apply them, and within minutes you’ll have a functional store. Zyro can integrate with Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram shops to help you expand your sales channels.
What about Zyro’s shortcomings? One downside is that you can’t switch your template after you’ve selected one. If you start customizing a template and realize it’s not for you, you’ll have to build a new website from scratch to use a different style. What’s more, Zyro’s drag-and-drop elements offer five styles of content: text, image, button, map, and video. And nothing else.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use site builder
- AI tool to help with content
- Free logo and slogan maker
Cons:
- No template switching
- Complicated domain setup
Price: $9.90–$14.90 per month
Shopify competitors for large/enterprise companies
7. BigCommerce: built to handle high sales volumes
BigCommerce is designed for large online retailers dealing with thousands of products. It has an excellent suite of features to help you manage large product ranges, including options for product categorization and bulk editing. You can also apply changes in product variants to multiple items to save yourself time and speed up the roll out of newer variants.
Apart from product management features, BigCommerce offers plenty of ecommerce tools to help you grow your sales quickly. These include multiple payment solutions, abandoned cart emails, and the ability to sort customers into various groups to sell to them in specific ways.
Despite all these features, BigCommerce isn’t suitable for every retailer. If you’re selling products on both offline and online channels and want to unify your sales through a system, BigCommerce doesn’t really offer anything suitable out of the box.
Pros:
- Great product management features
- Multiple sales channels
- Various templates
Cons:
- No integrated POS
- Limits on annual online sales
Price: $29.99–$299.95 per month; custom pricing for Enterprise plan
8. Volusion: great analytics and data tools
Volusion is an excellent site builder for data fans. Though a little tricky for beginners, this ecommerce platform is brimming with potential. You’ll have access to advanced tools for boosting sales, like abandoned cart recovery and personalized invoices. There’s also plenty of branding opportunities to make your site stand out.
Analytics is where Volusion really excels. An extensive reporting section shows you everything you need to know about customer behavior and purchasing preferences. There are tons of reports to share with stakeholders, and you get practical insights into things like stock levels. Volusion can show you exactly how your business works and how to make it better.
While Volusion is great for in-depth insights, it’s not the easiest product to use. There’s a learning curve to overcome when you want to customize your site, and you’ll miss out on some essential features, like a blog for content marketing.
Pros:
- Great analytics tools
- Mobile app
Cons:
- Lacks a blog feature
- Doesn’t offer free SSL
Price: $29–$299 per month; custom pricing for Prime plan
9. Magento: build a custom storefront (with code)
Magneto offers flexible, open-source website building features to businesses. Its ecommerce platform—now a part of Adobe Commerce Cloud—supports unlimited product uploads, high-level security, and extra-fast loading times for an excellent user experience.
For larger companies with a need for scalability, Magento makes managing your store simple. In-depth business intelligence tools identify your top-selling products, while order management and inventory tracking keep you on top of your daily to-do list.
Though it’s brimming with value and flexibility for growing brands, Magento isn’t intended for the store-building beginner. Open-source solutions require some knowledge of coding for exceptional customization. You won’t have a support team to help you either unless you’re on the Enterprise plan. See a detailed comparison of Magento vs. Shopify to determine whether it’s the right option for your business.
Pros:
- Highly customizable platform
- Excellent community
- Supports international selling
Cons:
- Not suitable for beginners
- Expensive to use
Price: Custom yearly pricing based on sales volume
10. OpenCart: lightweight ecommerce application
As an open-source ecommerce platform, OpenCart can be as flexible and scalable as you like. The tool has an intuitive administrator dashboard for easy insight into sales metrics at a glance. You’ll also be able to boost those sales by listing as many products as you like on your store and linking your site to third-party sales channels, like social media sites and eBay.
OpenCart is ideal for international selling, with multiple languages and currency options to choose from. There are plenty of shipping companies you can partner with to fulfill international orders too. To keep your customers coming back for more, OpenCart offers convenience features like membership accounts and guest checkouts.
However, it isn’t always the easiest platform for managing an online store. That’s because a lot of key functions aren’t built into OpenCart. For things like managing orders and fulfillment, you’ll need to visit the OpenCart marketplace and find the relevant plug-in for the function—not convenient, per se.
Pros:
- Flexible software
- Low running costs
- International commerce
Cons:
- No built-in hosting
- Requires integrations for most features
Price: $0 per month, plus web hosting cost
Summary: 10 top Shopify competitors to consider in 2021
Shopify is unbeatable in many areas, such as dropshipping and being an all-in-one ecommerce platform.
However, many other companies mount a decent challenge for your business. Choosing the right one will mainly depend on the sales and marketing features you want and how complicated a store you’re building.
In summary, these are the 10 best Shopify competitors for SMBs and enterprise companies:
- Wix: Start selling online with ease
- Squarespace: Build a beautiful, elegant storefront
- Big Cartel: Manage a basic online store
- Square Online: Connect offline and online sales
- WooCommerce: Add an online store to WordPress
- Zyro: Create an ecommerce site within minutes
- BigCommerce: Manage large product ranges
- Volusion: See store performance at a glance
- Magento: Customize store with code
- OpenCart: Integrate ecommerce functionality for free
Of course, you should weigh each platform’s features against Shopify’s before making a purchase.
You don’t want to invest your money and time only to discover that your website builder lacks the features you need. Plenty of businesses swear by Shopify, but you might find a home on one of these platforms.
Want to Learn More?
- The Ultimate Ecommerce Checklist for Beginner Store Owners
- Shopify Dropshipping: Get Started With Our Ultimate Guide
- 9 Shopify Tips New Store Owners Need to Know in 2021
- What to Do Once You’ve Made Your First Sale
