Shopify is a great software to create e-commerce website. But if you want to have a full control over your business assets, switching to WordPress is an acceptable reason. There are a bunch of Shopify alternatives available for WordPress. Depending on the product type you want to sell.
WordPress itself has no e-commerce functionality by default. But thanks to its open-source nature, you can add one by installing an e-commerce plugin. WooCommerce is the first name popping up for this context. You can use it to sell both physical and digital products, making it a great option to replace Shopify.
But again, there are a buch of options in WordPress when it comes to e-commerce plugin. While WooCommerce is the most popular one, lesser-known alternatives like SureCart and even Elementor Pro worth considering. We have crafted a list of the best Shopify alternatives to build e-commerce website with WordPress.
Features to Look for in a Shopify Alternative
People use Shopify for one main reason: it’s relatively easy to learn and comes with plenty of features. Including payment feature which is the most vital element on an e-commerce software. Payment feature is the first thing you need to check its availability on the e-commerce plugin you plan to use. Otherwise, you won’t be able to accept any payment.
What’s more imporpant. You also need to make sure that the payment feature offered by an e-commerce plugin is available in the area where you business operates.
In addition to payment feature, another crucial thing you need to check is the product type it supports. If you want to build an e-commerce to sell t-shirts, for instance, you should not use Easy Digital Downloads as the plugin doesn’t support physical products.
Here are some crucial features you need to look for before picking a Shopify alternative for WordPress.
- Payment
- What products you can sell
- Does it support plugin?
- Does it fully customizable?
- Integration support with other WordPress plugins
List of Shopify Alternatives for WordPress
1. SureCart
SureCart is the first option you can consider if you want to build an online store in WordPress. The plugin allows you to sell both physical and digital products just like Shopify. It comes with all the basic features you need to run an e-commerce business, including payment processor. With SureCart, you can accept payments via Stripe, PayPal, Mollie and Paystack.
If you plan to use SureCart to sell physical products, handy features like SKU management and ability to add product variants are available. SureCart itself is a semi-SaaS product. While the product is installed on your WordPress website, some features require settings on the the cloud, including payment. Also, you can’t use the plugin before you connect your SureCart account via a token.
SureCart consists of several pages and templates. They are editable via Gutenberg. So, if you use a Gutenberg-based theme (block theme in particular), you will love the plugin so much. The plugin itself comes with several Gutenberg blocks which you can add to your custom templates and pages. You can use SureCart for free, but upgrading to the pro version is required to unlock some advanced features.
2. WooCommerce
As mentioned on the opening section, WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress. After installing the plugin, you will have a full e-commerce functionality on your WordPress website. You can sell whether physical products or digital products. You can even use it to sell affiliate products in case you are an affiliate marketer.
Unlike SureCart, WooCommerce doesn’t require an account to use. After making some basic setups, you can start to add your products to sell them. By default, the plugin supports three payment methods: Bank transfer, check payment, and COD. You can also accept PayPal and card payments via Stripe, but additional plugins are required.
The main benefits of building an e-commerce website using WooCommerce is that you have a full control over your business asset. Also, you have a full control over the design of your store. You can use a WooCommerce Builder plugin to create custom templates for WooCommerce parts like single product, product achieve pages, cart page, and so on. You can also customize the transactional emails using an email customizer plugin such as YayMail and Decorator.
Being the most popular e-commerce plugin, WooCommerce has a great support in the WordPress community. Some plugins available to add specific functionality to your e-commerce website.
3. Elementor Pro
Do you use Elementor Pro on your WordPress website? If yes, no need to install an extra plugin to add e-commerce functionality to your website. The pro version of Elementor has two widgets which you can use to sell products: the PayPal Button widget and the Stripe Button widget. However, these widgets are not available on all Elementor Pro plans. Instead, they are only available on the Advanced plan and the higher plans. The Essential plan subscribers have no access to these widgets.
You can use the widgets to sell both physical and digital products.
You can incorporate Elementor Pro with custom field plugins like ACF and JetEngine to sell multiple products. You can utilize Elementor’s Theme Builder feature to create a custom template for the products you want to sell.
4. Easy Digital Downloads
Easy Digital Downloads is an e-commerce plugin designed specifically to sell digital products. So, if you plan to create an e-commerce website that sells digital products, it is a plugin you can consider. Easy Digital Downloads itself is widely used by WordPress developers to sell their paid plugins. It supports two popular payment gateways: Stripe and PayPal.
The core functionality of Easy Digital Downloads is free. You don’t need to spend a dime to sell digital products with it unless you want to access more advanced features like requrring payments and Autorize.net payment gateway.
5 Cost Calculator
Another plugin that you can use to replace Shopify if you want to switch to WordPress is Cost Calculator. The plugin is especially a great solution if you plan to offer a certain service on your website and accept payment directly.
As the name suggests, the Cost Calculator plugin is actually a plugin to create a cost calculator. However, since it has a form builder feature, you can also utilize the plugin to sell your products. Be it a physical product or digital product. The plugin even has built-in payment feature which allows you to accept payment via PayPal and cards (via Stripe).
Furthermore, the plugin also comes with an order manager feature to allow you manage the orders. However, the feature is only accessible if you have the pro version installed.
Summary — Which Shopify Alternative You Should Use?
Shopify is a great service to create an e-commerce website. However, given it is an SaaS, you have no control over your business assets. Switching to WordPress is a reasonable move if you want to have a full control over your business assets. Also, thanks to its open-source nature, you can customize your website to your liking.
While WordPress has no native e-commerce functionality, you can easily add-one by installing an e-commerce plugin as mentioned the above list. Most plugins on the list are available in a freemium model so you can start from the free version before upgrading to the pro version to unlock more features.
Before picking one, make sure that the plugin you want to use has all the features you need, payment in particular. Also, make sure that you can sell your product with it. If you want to sell t-shirt for instance, you should not use Easy Digital Downloads as it only supports digital products.