Shift4Shop vs Lightspeed Retail

Shopify

WooCommerce

Shopify is a commerce platform that allows anyone to easily sell online, at a retail location, and everywhere in between

Designed for store owners and developers to build & run eCommerce sites, WooCommerce is an extendable, adaptable, open-sourced eCommerce platform for WordPress

Wix is a website-building and business management platform that helps users create any type of website and expand the brand's online presence. Wix offers its users different ways to build sites; for those less tech-savvy, the Wix Editor is the way to go. It boasts a choice of various pre-designed templates that can be personalized with a drag-and-drop editor and various other AI capabilities, such as an automated text generator.

Vice President

Owner

It was confusing at times, but that was offset by the relative ease of obtaining help from technical support when it got difficult.

Updates are done automatically, so you don't need to be a techy to keep up (this was a concern when we previously self hosted and did Woocommerce).

Shift4Shop, formerly 3dcart, is an all-in-one eCommerce platform designed for any business. The scalable platform provides everything you need to build, manage, and grow an online store.

Abandoned Cart Saver

Catalog Management

Channel Management

Credit Card Processing

Customer Accounts

Customer Management

Customizable Branding

Data Security

Data Synchronization

Discount Management

eCommerce Management

Electronic Payments

Email Marketing

For B2B

For Small Businesses

Inventory Control

Inventory Management

Inventory Tracking

Item Management

Kitting

Loyalty Program

Mobile Commerce

Multi-Channel Marketing

Multi-Store

Online Ordering

Online Payments

Online Store Builder

Order Management

Payment Processing

Point of Sale (POS)

Pre-built Templates

Product Catalog

Product Configurator

Promotions Management

Real Time Editing

Refund Management

Retail Inventory Management

Returns Management

Reviews Management

SEO Management

Shipping Labels

Shipping Management

Shopping Cart

Social Media Integration

Tax Management

Templates

Website Management

Some reviewers feel Shift4Shop offers strong value for money due to affordable plans and bundled features. However, some users report costly upgrades, bandwidth restrictions, and price increases without improvements, making it pricey compared to competitors.

Value for money

By industry, Shift4Shop reviewers are most commonly professionals in retail (20%). The most frequent use case for Shift4Shop cited by reviewers is small business eCommerce (54%).

Proprietary

Shift4Shop

Web-based

Windows

Linux

Chromebook

BigCommerce

Square Point of Sale

Squarespace

Basic

After months of not hearing back, they suddenly changed their mind and told me I had to pay a bill for services I didn't receive from them before they would let me back into my site.

I cannot use 2 of their payment providers and was told I could bring in my own option.

You guys will end up with a class action lawsuit for this. When you do, I hope a lawyer contacts me.

What made 3dcart (bought by shift4shop) unique, was that there was a control for even the most minute function, allowing the user to have a tremendous amount of grasp of the overall customer experience.   

Web specialist

Can use "out of the box" without having to add a bunch of paid options.

Payout is faster then other soon as a batch out it’s settled faster then others

They sent an email out saying that if we didn't register for their payment processor, our site would be deleted.

They don’t do payout same day at all they should

From flippant responses to legitimate questions on chat to ticket responses that take 10-14 days, there is simply NO value for the money.   

One price good for established ecomm not good for start ups.

I would get an email from a customer, sent to my email address, but in order to reply, I had to log back into the CRM screen.  

It's a shame, it used to be a good option for a small business owner who was willing to take the time to make a great site, for not as much $$ as the big outfits.     

Director

There are a few head-scratching rough edge items - here's one example:  When you enter your product's name, the default text is "Product Name" and when you click in the box, your curser is at the end of Product Name and you need to backspace those two words away.    But all the other data boxes have the default text disappears when you click in the box.  

VP MARKETING/SALES

We stayed with Shift 4 Shop/3dcartstores due to the functionality of the platform.  

President

Now we have to find a 3rd party to get Orders/Communications via email at additional cost.

Another weirdness - when you start entering a new product, the image upload is right there on the new product page.   But if you edit a product, the image upload is now hidden in a new tab.  

However, over the course of the last year we have been experiencing an uptick in "glitches" on their platform.

In those 15 years have encountered countless glitches but god forbid ever call them glitches as in their mind the software is perfect.  

According to them, it seems to be a "global" issue affecting everyones site on the platforms.

Customer support specialist 

It's similar to 3d cart which is what it took over in our company.

Chief Laborer

I'm planning on taking my site down and finding a better solution that actually is stable and works.

The Shift4Payment fees are virtually the same as the fees rom PayPal or other online processors, so it comes out to be a complete non-issue.

Director of IT

Every time I get on the phone to check the progress of the (now "elevated") ticket, I have to re-explain the issue, and they try to push me to do the same things I have been doing for weeks.

General director

Often the website breaks down and it's not interesting

I called again and they said they had some account info that I had never heard of, nor provided.

I am not a website builder and there are so many features to this, you can get overwhelmed a little.....but customer service through the chat is amazing and I have learned the features and I am enjoying seeing my website come together.  

Shift4shop does provide basic video tutorials for most functions, for new users).

Practice Manager

Consultant 

I like the whole and the concept of the site.

I was not surprised when I was denied, and it further confirmed that I had indeed made the right choice to leave this abysmal service.

I was able to go into the settings and change the "reward points" wording to say "Queen Buck"......OMG.....that just made my day.  

Retail Store Manager

You can select your choice of payments with real-time shipping. If you want to increase your sales conversions then 3dcart is the best option for you.

I was told I received the email by mistake and we were all good and to disregard.

Shift4Shop (previously 3dcart) is a FREE website ecommerce platform.

It was certainly a learning process, and we spent more time understanding the software than we would compared to a competing service, however the end result is acceptable.

For a service that is mostly free to use, we have determined that the amount of work and learning required has been worth it.

No warning, still charging because no admin logged in within 90 days.

We have literally NOT MADE ANY PROGRESS on the issue, and it feels like I'm running in endless circles with their Tech Support team.

I started down the rabbit hole, found a few reviews that mentioned Shift4Shop, and never looked back.

I was a little worried since I read some not so great reviews and I read about all the features that could be confusing.  

I have tried asking and pleading to talk to someone higher up or a developer of some sort, but they tell me that it's impossible.

It's impossible to learn new software without asking questions and their chat feature is great.  

GREAT job shift4shop, keep up the great work and keep supporting your customer service people....

We are personally going on for over a month now with an unresolved issue that is significantly affecting our business.

Customer Support

Bugs and Issues

Payment Options

Email Response

Live Chat

Website Hosting

Site Deletion

Payout Process

Pricing

E-commerce Platform

Small Business

Freelancers

Some reviewers feel Shift4Shop offers strong value for money, highlighting its affordable or even free plans, extensive included features, unlimited products and bandwidth, and bundled services that help businesses get started at low cost. Users think the platform provides a wide range of functionalities and integrations for the price, with some appreciating the free trial and reasonable maintenance fees. However, some users report concerns about higher costs for advanced plans, bandwidth restrictions on lower tiers, and price increases without corresponding improvements. Reviewers indicate that certain features require costly upgrades, and some find the platform pricey compared to competitors.

Epos Now

Epos Now is a leading global cloud-based point-of-sale and payment system that specializes in helping US retail and hospitality businesses trade efficiently.

Thanks to a selection of tools, and an extensive app store, users can create bespoke systems that make running a business simple.

PayPal

PayPal provides an end-to-end suite of tools that can integrate with a business's existing systems and service providers. Its network of shoppers and businesses provides AI-driven data insights to help businesses reach new customers and drive results.

Sales

Customer support is nonexistent. When using the chat, we are only passed along articles that have nothing to do with the questions and or concerns we have.

Owner Operator

Anytime we needed real answers, we were ghosted by not only their support team, but our actual account managers.

Pres

months to get a response from the tech side (I wish I was exaggerating).

Over and above customer service is so very important, and this alone keeps us on-line.

Lightspeed is a unified point of sale and payments platform designed for retail, restaurant, and golf course businesses. The software offers inventory management, omnichannel sales capabilities, real-time reporting, and integrated payment processing. It includes features such as cloud-based operations, API connectivity for third-party integrations, wholesale buying tools, and multilocation support for businesses operating across multiple sites.

Shift4Shop vs Lightspeed Retail Comparison (2026)

Shift4Shop

Lightspeed Retail

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives