9 Best and Free Shopify Competitors and Alternatives

Shopify has seen some amazing things since its inception in 2006.

Shopify is more than an ecommerce platform. It makes it easy to monitor the performance of your digital marketing campaigns, improve your ecommerce solutions and generate more conversations. Shopify is a SaaS service that has seen rapid growth for online businesses. This has made Shopify a popular choice for many entrepreneurs.

Shopify is a top-ranked ecommerce platform, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be the best solution for everyone. We live in an ever-changing digital world where businesses constantly adapt to meet the needs of customers. Shopify’s simplicity and legacy are sure to appeal to many, but there will always be companies that require something more.

Shopify is not the only choice for an ecommerce store.

In 2018, there were over 1.8 billion digital buyers worldwide. Numerous software companies have entered the market to offer advanced features and open-source technology. This is a sign of the growing demand for digital selling.

This guide will show you the top Shopify competitors in 2022.

Wix

Wix is the last Shopify competitor for small business owners. Wix is a popular website-building tool that’s hosted similar to Shopify. This means you don’t have to worry about maintaining your back-end security or compliance. Wix also offers a drag-and-drop builder that makes it easy to create custom websites.

Wix, unlike Shopify’s competitors, is an affordable alternative with many useful features. There are transaction fees that you should be aware of, such as a 2.9% and 0.3 cents fee for each purchase made in the USA. Wix integrates with many of the most popular payment solutions like Stripe and PayPal.

Wix makes it easy for you to obtain an SSL certificate. You’ll receive one free of charge for being a Wix customer.

Square Online

Square Online is an excellent alternative to Shopify. It’s great for small businesses. This is the powerful store building solution that comes with the Square Point of Sale program. Square Online allows you to create a website completely free of charge. You can choose from a variety of themes and customization options. Square will require you to use their order fulfillment and point-of-sale solutions.

Square’s online shop is an excellent alternative to Shopify, if you want to sell products online and in-person. Square is able to offer a variety of tools for selling in person. Square also automatically syncs all your online orders, inventory, and items.

Square is free to use, but there are costs to be aware of. You will need to pay 2.5% per transaction. Additionally, other expenses such as hosting, specialist services and security strategies will be charged. This could be an excellent tool if you already use the Square portfolio to help with your selling strategy.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a market leader in web design and has a style similar to Shopify. Squarespace is a platform that anyone can use, even those with limited technical skills.

Shopify is a simple and easy way to create an ecommerce store. You also have access to many plugins that will help you improve your performance. Shopify is a popular choice for small business owners. The best part about Shopify is the ease of dragging and dropping your web pages. Anyone can make a stunning website. You can even have access to advanced features like abandoned cart recovery, marketing tools, and analytics.

SquareSpace is a great combination of content management and shopping cart software. SquareSpace offers a free trial, so you can explore all the features before you commit to paying.

Volusion

Volusion is a great option for those who need exceptional support to their online business but don’t have the budget to spend a lot. Volusion’s pricing is similar to Shopify. The lower-level packages start at $15 per month.

Volusion, like Shopify will allow you to access a lot of amazing back-end customizations, including responsive themes for your website store. Volusion has an even longer history of ecommerce than Shopify. It hasn’t been as well-known as Shopify, which is why it is often positioned as the best service provider for small businesses. Shopify, on the other hand, tries to be all things for everyone.

Volusion is a hosted service that will relieve you of a lot the stress involved in building your website. This includes platform maintenance, secure checkout experiences and many other things. Volusion does not have as large a community as Shopify.

Shift4Shop

Shift4Shop, a Shopify competitor, is designed for small businesses who want to have access to additional services such as dropshipping support or affiliate marketing. Shift4Shop is a great option for small businesses because it offers many unique features at a very comparable price to Shopify.

Volusion, like Volusion is an ecommerce platform that’s fully hosted. This means that you do not need to worry about the back-end. Shift4Shop offers a variety of packages that can be tailored to different customers. However, all plans include unlimited product capacity, hundreds of payment methods, and amazing customer support.

Shift4Shop allows you to easily integrate your storefront with sales and marketing strategies. You can connect your store to MailChimp, Amazon, Google Analytics, Facebook, or MailChimp. This makes it easier to find new ways to encourage conversions.

Ecwid

Ecwid is easy to use, has many features and is great for beginners. It allows you to sell all types of products online. Ecwid plugs in to your existing CMS, unlike other Shopify competitors. If you already have a website, you don’t need to create a brand new one. You can instead add sales functionality and start selling right away.

Ecwid is versatile and flexible. It offers a variety of capabilities such as the ability to customize checkout pages and improve the transaction process. Customers can choose from a wide range of product options. The user-friendly backend integrates with the CMS that you already use, so you don’t have to learn new technology.

Ecwid is simple and effective. Although it may not offer as many features as other top-of-the-line store solutions, you will still receive all the support you need to make your sales experience exciting. You can accept different credit cards and payment options so that you don’t scare away customers with limited opportunities.

Big Cartel

Big Cartel is an exciting Shopify competitor because of a variety of reasons. The product’s versatility is the first and most important benefit. Big Cartel offers a variety of product packages that are relatively common. They also offer free plans for those selling fewer than five products, and customized plans for those selling fewer than 300 products.

Big Cartel is a great option for small businesses that need a custom-tailored store solution. This service is especially well-suited for creative entrepreneurs such as fashion lovers and artists. You can sell almost anything with the custom themes available in the software. You can also customize the appearance and feel of your store.

Big Cartel offers several user-friendly tools that can be used to manage your website. These include the ability to monitor site performance, run promotions and add products. You can also check-in to your store from any device.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a popular WordPress website platform. WooCommerce is the best ecommerce solution available for WordPress websites. It can be used in conjunction with other WordPress add-ons to make it easier to monetize your site without having any coding experience.

WooCommerce is an open-source solution that allows merchants to modify, customize, and even create their own code. You can modify various aspects of your platform’s capabilities if you have developers on your small business team. Shopify and other hosted platforms don’t allow for the same customization. WooCommerce’s open design means you have to be more responsible for website hosting, compliance, and security.

WooCommerce offers a large community that can assist you in building and maintaining your store. WooCommerce can be used with many other WordPress plugins, such as Google Analytics and SEO Management. Add-ons can be purchased for tax and shipping management.

Weebly

Weebly may be the best choice for you if Shopify is not what you want. Weebly is one of the most intuitive services available for businesses looking to start online. It allows you to quickly and easily launch your brand.

WeeblySquarespace vs Weebly vs Wix What to Choose? can be a great option for those with limited budgets. It’s a bit cheaper than Shopify’s basic plan, which will allow you to save some money. Weebly offers a wide range of customization options, which is a big advantage over other low-cost options. You can modify your fonts, themes, background images and many other options. You can also download a free trial, which allows you to play with the drag-and-drop builder.

Weebly may not be the best Shopify alternative, but it does offer a few ecommerce features that Shopify doesn’t. It should still be sufficient to satisfy small business owners.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is an industry-leading solution for ecommerce. It includes everything you need in order to build an online business. $29.95 for the standard plan. This plan includes 24/7 live support, single-page checkouts and discounts, coupons, point-of-sale systems, and much more.

BigCommerce is a market leader in offering an incredible range of capabilities that are out-of-the box. This makes it a great choice for B2B ecommerce. BigCommerce relies less on plugins and apps to provide a seamless experience for customers than Shopify alternatives.

BigCommerce recently released a plug in for WordPress sites. This allows merchants to increase their sales strategies with a content-first mindset and blogging mindset. BigCommerce can be used to checkout. This allows companies to build and maintain their websites using one of the most popular CMS systems in the world. This is commonly known as headless commerce.

You’ll also get more features for BigCommerce the more you spend, such as abandoned cart recovery and saving, back-end marketing tools and unlimited product listings. There are no transaction fees.

Magento

Magento is yet another software solution that competes for the title “Best Shopify Competitor”. Magento was the best choice for creating an online store before Shopify and BigCommerce existed. This SaaS platform is a trusted and respected option for online selling.

Magento’s ecommerce platform allows businesses to create amazing shopping experiences with unrestricted product uploads, high security and great performance. Magento Commerce is part of Adobe Commerce cloud experience. This means you have all the benefits from a global network of developers, partners, merchants and merchants ready to help you grow your business.

Magento is especially beneficial for large businesses in order management, business intelligence and marketplace support. The Magento marketplace is the largest on the market, providing access to all major ERP systems as well as CRM systems such WordPress. It’s important to note that Magento is one of the most expensive Shopify competitors.

Which shopify competitor should you choose?

It may take some research to find the right ecommerce solution. You can test out the drag-and drop functionality and back-end performance of many of the ecommerce solutions listed above before you commit to buying. You can test tools before buying them to help you make an informed decision.

You should also have a plan for narrowing down your options. Do you want something hosted so that you don’t have security concerns or hosting providers? Do you prefer the flexibility that comes with open-source services?

Are you looking for an ecommerce platform that offers a variety of shipping options and payment options, or a simple website builder with some customizations? It will be easier to choose a Shopify alternative that suits your needs if you have more information about your business and what you are selling.