10 best Shopify alternatives 2021

Shopify alternatives are often your second choice for an online store. But what if there is anything better than Shopify? Luckily, there is. There are a lot of Shopify alternatives out there as of 2021. 

Your journey might start with searching for sites like Shopify on Reddit or Quora. However, look no further because this blog will deliver exactly what you need.

In this article, you’ll find out who are Shopify competitors and what can you use instead of Shopify. 

Shopify is not the one-fits-all solution, therefore, exploring alternatives to Shopify is always a good idea. Let’s jump into and examine free Shopify alternatives and also paid competitors. You’ll find the best alternatives for drop shipping, platforms specializing in local markets – Europe, the United States or India, you name it. Bigcommerce vs Shopify? What is your budget and how much customization do you need? Or, maybe you’re looking for a beginner-friendly platform? Let’s find out. 

1. Volusion

Volusion has one of the best features and price ratios. This cloud-based solution is a great Shopify alternative for everyone. Besides, it already empowers 180,000 entrepreneur online stores.

On top of that, you’ll get a 14 free trial with no credit card requirements.

Volusion shopping solution has built-in the newsletter, CRM tools, SEO systems

Pricing: starting from $29, however, the cheapest plans come with limitations. In example, you can only add 100 products, and have $50k in yearly sales. Still, more expensive plans Pro $79/month and Business $299/month has fewer limitations. More ecommerce platform pricing comparison.

Another highlight is their 24h expert availability. At an additional cost, they can help you will set up your analytics, Facebook tracking, homepage optimization.

Highlights:

• 0% transaction fees
• 24h experts help available
• Free, responsive themes and Drag and drop building tools
• Higher plans come with phone support availability

2. Bigcommerce

If Shopify had an evil twin, it would definitely be Bigcommerce. Bigcommerce is another good alternative to Shopify. Not only Bigcommerce has all the necessary tools and apps to run your e-commerce business, but it also has built-in conversion optimization features. Such as one-page checkout, abandoned cart saver and other. Similarly, this Shopify alternative has an industry-standard 15-day free trial. 

Not to mention, Bigcommerce stores have a proved record of good mobile performance.

You’ll also have an option to play around with custom HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

Furthermore, customization will allow you to choose shop themes by industry – apparel, fashion, manufacturing, food, electronics, and others.

Pricing: starting from $29.95/month for the standard plan. More ecommerce platform pricing comparison.

Highlights:

• Store migration feature
• PayPal, Stripe, Apple pay and other popular payment gateways
• Multichannel selling on Facebook, Pinterest, eBay, Amazon and more
• Bigcommerce app store

3. WooCommerce

Contrary, Woocommerce is quite different from other cloud-based alternatives, such as Bigcommerce or Volusion highlighted above. It is technically a plugin for your WordPress website.

WooCommerce is the most customizable solution out there. Countless plugins, custom solutions, and other features make WooCommerce a number one choice for more than 28% of all online stores. 

Pricing: Certainly, WooCommerce is free to use, however, it comes with a downside. 

You will need a stable hosting for your WordPress site. Luckily, services like Siteground offer hosting starting $3.99/month. Which, you must agree is lower than subscription fees for most of eCommerce platforms.

Highlights:

• Free to use
• No transaction fees
• Fully customizable
• Blog, Plugins and other WordPress benefits

4. 3dcart

Meet another great Shopify competitor – 3dcart. Packed with a large selection of payment gateways, which is more than 100 to be precise. Additionally, there are 50+ free themes, and more than 200 built-in features. Such as marketing tools like QR code generator, integrations with MailChimp and SEO tools. 3dcart is fully secure and even provides you with anti-fraud tools to secure your earnings.

Multichannel selling on eBay, Amazon, Google Shopping, Facebook, and more is also available.

Pricing: Starting at $19/month. More expensive plans mostly differ based on the staff accounts you can connect.

Highlights:

• Unlimited traffic, sales, and products for all plans
• No transaction fees
• Built-in blog

5. Magento

When it comes to scaling a business, it’s important to choose the right tools. Favorably, Magento comes as a reliable alternative to Shopify. It is great for enterprises, both B2C and B2B businesses. Similar to Shopify, customization options are almost unlimited because Magento is also open source. Additionally, you can receive regular updates and partner support. 

If you’re just getting started, you’ll enjoy page builder, content staging and preview.

Magento feature set also includes the option to sell globally and provides a secure shopping experience.

Pricing: It’s free, however, similar to WooCommerce you will need hosting. Enterprise plans start at $15,000/year

Highlights:

• Integrated checkout
• Marketing tools, such as customer segmentation
• Inventory management
• Customer service tools

6. Bigcartel

Bigcartel most probably won’t be suitable for large dropshipping stores, however, it has its audience. This eCommerce platform perfectly built for artists to run a creative business. Bigcartel is a digital hipster place. This artsy but minimalistic designed-platform has a standard feature set. In an example, free customizable themes, integration with Google Analytics, Inventory tracking and ability to run discounts.

Pricing: Starting $9.99/month for 25 listings, no listing fees.

Highlights:

• Product bulk editing
• Sell products online or in-person
• Automatic tax calculations

7. Ecwid

One of the most important things when running an online business is making the right decisions. Often, when using an eCommerce platform you’re locked in with the tools they offer. But not with this puppie. Ecwid is all for experiments. You’ll be able to sell on WooCommerce, Facebook and Instagram using Ecwid integrated cart feature. Not to mention, that you can get started with a just few clicks. 

Pricing: free plan available, paid plans start at $15.00/month

Highlights:

• Ecwid app store
• Free plan available
• Easy inventory and order management
• Mobile app

8. WIX

WIX is one of the most popular free website builders. It is currently powering more than 150M websites worldwide. Blog, website, eCommerce – all in one is available with WIX.
Additionally, you’ll get features to optimize your SEO goals, 100s of free HTML templates and handy option to create unlimited landing pages.
This firm Shopify alternative is fully mobile optimized. In fact, you can create both desktop and mobile-friendly website in under 10 minutes vs Shopify, where it would take more time. Unfortunately, free plans will have WIX branding visible for your website, that you can remove after enrolling into a subscription.

Pricing: free plan available, paid plans start at $13.00/month

Highlights:

• WIX app market
• Free, but premium plans available
• Built-in logo maker

9. Squarespace

Squarespace is well known for its sleek design. Best suited for creative entrepreneurs, but will also work for all size businesses. Squarespace vs Shopify has built-in email marketing tools. Moreover, you will get access to widgets like Twitter, Google maps, Foursquare, Zapier and many more. 

Squarespace often hosts live webinars that’ll get you started to sell digital and physical products successfully. 

Pricing: starting from $12.00/month

Highlights:

• Free trial, no card required
• Award-winning templates
• Unlimited products
• Powerful shipping and tax tools

10. Prestashop

Prestashop is most popular among European customers. Opposite to Shopify, you will need to host your Prestashop store yourself. Stacked with free themes, multi-language and multi-currency support, you will sell with no borders. This reliable Shopify alternative already empowers 300,000 merchants. 

Besides, Prestashop has contributors working on its code and agencies helping you to set up your online store.

Prestashop just like Woocommerce is open source and Customizable.  You can have custom 404 pages, organize products into categories, filters, and offer various sorting options.

Pricing: free to use

Also, tools like minimized checkout, integrated social proof, and accounts for your customers will help you increase conversions on your Prestashop store.

Highlights:

• Free to use
• Product bundles
• Inventory management
• Advanced shipping settings