Shopify Pricing, Features, Reviews & Comparison of Alternatives

Pros
I currently use Shopify for my “side hustle” business - selling retro and vintage style dresses online - www.retrovintagedresses.com I previously used Magento for my shopping cart before switching over to Shopify. I like that it’s an easy platform to get set up on and deploy. Also, I love that you can easily create a catalog on business manager to sell products on Facebook and Instagram. Definitely easy to use.

Cons
I don’t have any cons that I can think of with Shopify. I’ve been using it for over 2 years and have not had any major issues or set backs.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I love that we can provide an easy-to-use online store for our customers and seamlessly connect it to everything on the backend. I love the customization that the apps in Shopify provide, and we are utilizing things like shipping & inventory, bundle discounts, upselling, random coupons, email collection, and much more. The number of apps provided makes it easy to find the right one for your store. Our backend support team can easily view and fulfill orders and we can handle customer service right from our site. It's easy to set up and constantly update. I love that Shopify has made running an online store easy for both our management team and customer base.

Cons
Unfortunately since there are so many apps offered, it does take some time to sort through and find the right one for you. Some of them are not as customizable than others, and it can be tough to learn your way around the building platform but luckily Shopify and the app developers have awesome support teams. I'm also not a fan that you can't physically drag and drop widgets on your website like Wix can, and sometimes you need to teach yourself a bit of HTML to edit things (although again, their support team is great for helping with this). However, these are small inconveniences compared to the vast functionality of Shopify.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Shopify allows even a beginner to build a really nice looking, responsive eCommerce site. You offer templates that you know help store owners be more successful. They are already designed really well and someone just needs to switch out elements to make the store their own. You made it easy to buy a domain, a template and hosting all in one place. You also have it easy to setup your sales tax which on platforms like Magento and Wordpress can requires additional plugins that can be a headache. You connect well with distribution channels such as Amazon and eBay and I can manage my inventory quantities all in one place.

Cons
Cons is of course with any DIY software limitations within the software. You also to customize this need to work with developer who really knows Shopify and deep coding experience, versus building a website on Wordpress, millions of developers know wordpress, Shopify has less true experts to choose from.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I love that shopify integrates seamlessly into my inventory program, social media accounts, email marketing platform, etc. They also work really well with google ads so you can add products to google shopping and run really effective retargeting ads. Their live view option is great and gives me an idea of where my customers are coming from. Their shipping discounts are also great!

Cons
The only thing that really annoys me is that I can't pick which shipping option comes first. Because one of my shipping options is "local pickup" and is free, I'd rather that not be the default shipping option (a lot of out of town customers accidentally choose local pickup and then I have to contact them and it looks unprofessional). Apart from that, it's a great platform

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I love many things about Shopify. Honestly, I've not fallen in love with any other alternative as much as I have with Shopify. The pros of Shopify includes: 1. No Hosting required: This is a beautiful part of Shopify. With Shopify, I never had to worry about purchasing a hosting plan. Shopify hosts all merchant accounts on their server. 2. Free SSL: I love this a lot. With some other alternatives, a user may need to purchase an SSL certificate to keep his/her site safe, but not with Shopify. Shopify provides free SSL for all users. 3. Easy to use: With Shopify, I was able to get up and running in about half an hour. No programming skills required. Customising and tweaking everything can be done in about an hour. This is beautiful compared to alternatives. 4. Free trials: Shopify allows a new user to tryout it's services for complete two weeks without paying any money if the user desires. Being curious, I had to try the free service before deciding to make any purchase. 5. Easy to install apps: Shopify have apps to help users add functionalities to their websites. The apps are very easy to install. Their are both free and premium apps on Shopify. 6. Easy payment collection: Shopify has it's own payment system for users. This allows users collect payment for products and services from their customers. The payment processing fee varies from plan to plan. 7. Easy to integrate with drop shipping services: A large chunk of Shopify users are drop shippers. This is a plus.

Cons
Inasmuch as I so much love Shopify, honestly, there are a few turn offs. They include: 1. Expensive: For a starter, Shopify may be very expensive compared to alternatives like woocommerce. With woocommerce, a user can build a free forever ecommerce/ drop shipping site. The user only need to purchase a hosting service and an SSL certificate if need be. 2. Some apps are not available: I opted to using another payment gateway other than Shopify's. The issue I had was that I couldn't find the app for my desired payment processor on the App store. By this, I was compelled to use another payment processor. 3. Premium Apps: Shopify apps helps users add features to their websites. The con here is that many of the apps are premium apps, and should be paid for. This means that apart from the money one have to pay to use Shopify, the one still need to pay some more to have his/her desired apps installed. This can be a turn off for newbies, and others users. Apart from those cons, Shopify is a beautiful app to use.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10