{"id":61785,"date":"2021-09-23T10:03:42","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T15:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cpanel.com\/?p=61785"},"modified":"2021-09-23T10:03:42","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T15:03:42","slug":"what-are-the-best-shopify-alternatives-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devel.www.cpanel.net\/blog\/business-knowledge\/what-are-the-best-shopify-alternatives-in-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are the Best Shopify\u00ae Alternatives in 2021?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

U.S. ecommerce sales<\/a> rose by over 44% last year, the most significant single-year increase since ecommerce became a serious player in the retail space at the beginning of the century. As COVID-19 closed brick-and-mortar stores and kept customers at home, shopping moved online and retailers rapidly expanded ecommerce operations. Shopify, the cloud ecommerce platform, is one of the biggest beneficiaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shopify aims to lower ecommerce\u2019s technical barriers and simplify store management. That makes it an excellent fit for retailers who want an online store up and running as quickly as possible. The pandemic put many businesses in precisely that position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Shopify isn\u2019t the right solution for every ecommerce retailer. It accelerates store deployment and centralizes ecommerce services on a user-friendly platform. Still, there are technical and financial tradeoffs to entrusting an essential aspect of your business to a closed SaaS platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we explore some of the reasons Shopify might not be the best ecommerce solution for your business and why many retailers prefer Shopify alternatives. Then we\u2019ll take a look at Shopify alternatives that offer greater freedom and flexibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is Shopify?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shopify is a Software as a Service ecommerce cloud platform. On the front-end, it offers an ecommerce storefront and payment system and a point of sale solution for in-person sales. It provides a management interface for adding products, configuring catalogs, and managing product pages on the back-end. It also integrates a variety of marketing and analytics tools to help retailers promote their brands and products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shopify is a premium platform with different pricing tiers depending on the size of your store and the features it needs\u2014there is no free tier. Users pay a flat monthly fee plus a percentage on sales made via Shopify Payments and other payment providers. All tiers include basic ecommerce and POS features, with higher tiers offering reduced payment charges and advanced features such as international pricing, professional reports, and international domains. Shopify Plus is an enterprise ecommerce solution designed for high-volume retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Is Shopify So Popular?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shopify includes all the features most ecommerce retailers could want. It offers tiers suitable for a wide range of businesses, from smaller stores with a handful of products to high-volume multinational businesses. However, the same could be said of its competitors, including free ecommerce solutions like WooCommerce. What really draws retailers to Shopify is its ease of use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a fully managed cloud platform, Shopify drastically simplifies deploying and managing a store. Retailers don\u2019t have to think about the underlying hardware because Shopify handles it for them. Nor do they have to concern themselves with software updates, security, extension compatibility, scaling, or the other technical aspects of running an ecommerce store. Instead, they can focus on managing and promoting the store itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That ease of use attracts retailers of all sizes. Many smaller businesses that want to sell online lack the technical expertise or the time to manage and secure a self-hosted store. Large businesses often want to avoid the hassle and expense of hiring a team to manage their store\u2019s infrastructure, availability, performance, and security. The all-in-one package Shopify offers is an attractive alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Do Ecommerce Retailers Migrate from Shopify?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s easy to see why retail businesses opt for Shopify, but it isn\u2019t the right solution for every company. Many more retailers use Shopify alternatives like WooCommerce. Shopify supports just under 4% of ecommerce stores, whereas WooCommerce supports over 20%. The all-in-one proprietary model imposes several tradeoffs, and some of them are deal-breakers for businesses that value independence and control over their platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reasons many retailers prefer Shopify alternatives include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n