7 Free Shopify Alternatives for eCommerce and Dropshipping in India

While thinking of building an eCommerce platform, Shopify would be the first name that comes to your mind.

But Shopify doesn’t hold a monopoly in the market. In fact, there are multiple Shopify alternatives available out there.

If you are a current Shopify user who wants to migrate from Shopify for some reason like limited design options, product customization options, SEO tools, extra transaction charges, etc. Or a new business that is looking for unconventional eCommerce platforms, then this list of Shopify alternatives is for you.

We have got you the list of the top websites like Shopify competitors that you can compare and choose the best one.

Comparison of Top Shopify Competitors: Websites Like Shopify

Best Free Shopify Alternatives for eCommerce Websites and Dropshipping

• WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open source and customizable eCommerce platform that helps users to sell online. You can sell anything from products to subscriptions to even luxury items. Moreover, WooCommerce, as a Shopify alternative enables you to run your online store from anywhere by allowing you to create and process orders, add new products, and access stats in real time.

WooCommerce Features

• Integrate multiple payment gateways including Stripe, WooCommerce payments, PayPal, and 140 other region-specific gateways
• Scale your store with multiple free & paid extensions
• Secure your website with Jetpack to allow only authentic customer logins and prevent spam & force attacks
• Market your products on Google Shopping, Facebook, and through emails using Mailchimp

WooCommerce Pros & Cons:

WooCommerce Pricing: WooCommerce charges according to different parameters like the setup cost for hosting starts from ₹322.49 per month.

Suggested Read: Top eCommerce Platforms for Building Online Stores

• MyDukaan.io

MyDukaan.io eCommerce platform enables business owners to manage multiple orders, add discount coupons, create discount codes, and do everything else that happens in an ideal online store. The is one of the best Shopify alternatives that allows you to set up a store in just 30 seconds, that includes naming your store, adding products, and start selling.

MyDukaan.io Features

• Personalize your store with themes, custom pages, menus, etc.
• Create staff accounts and give customized permissions to your employees
• Access analytics to track website traffic, sales, products, and more

MyDukaan.io Pros and Cons:

MyDukaan.io Pricing: 7 Day Free Trial Available | ₹375 per month onwards

• SquareSpace

SquareSpace helps businesses to grow by creating a responsive website and selling products and services online. Business owners can choose a design from multiple templates that helps them stand out and showcase their product in the best form.

This Shopify alternative website allows users to manage end to end operations of an eCommerce business that includes browsing through products, adding products to a cart, and conducting a smooth check out.

SquareSpace Features

• Offers flexible shipping and payment options
• Helps service-based businesses to book online appointments such as in case of spas or counselling sessions
• Helps curate and run email campaigns with a responsive design layout
• You can easily calculate tax during the checkout process
• Provides advanced eCommerce SEO tools to maximize your brand visibility

SquareSpace Pros and Cons:

Squarespace Pricing: Free Trial Available | ₹1306.55 per month onwards | You can also look into the best Squarespace Alternatives.

• BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a versatile solution for creating an eCommerce platform with complete security, scalability, and stability. It is one of those websites like Shopify for free that allow businesses to sell on multiple marketplaces such as Google Shopping, Amazon, etc. In fact, businesses can also reach out to more customers through social media channel integration like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

BigCommerce Features

• Access fully customizable themes with in-built CSS, HTML, and JavaScript programming language
• Customize your customers’ checkout experience with API & SDK
• Drive more website traffic with SEO tools like metadata, robots.txt editing, etc.
• Accept payments through multiple digital wallets such as PayPal, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, etc.
• Use BigCommerce control panel to discover, test, and onboard solutions

BigCommerce Pros and Cons:

BigCommerce Pricing: 15 Day Free Trial | ₹2445.70 per month onwards

Suggested Read: What Points to Consider Before Setting Up eCommerce Store?

• PrestaShop

PrestaShop helps businesses to go online by creating a scalable and flexible eCommerce platform that is 100% owned by them. For getting a better understanding of how this Shopify alternative works, users can access a vast library of video tutorials to learn about selling products on PrestaShop, creating an online store, integrating multiple payment gateways, and more.

PrestaShop Features

• Create and launch marketing campaigns to increase your customer reach
• Get flexible shipping options depending on your product, geographical location, and other factors
• Dedicated marketing modules for creating YouTube and display ads, running affiliate marketing, and more
• Customize your eCommerce store with more than 5000 design themes and modules

PrestaShop Pros and Cons:

PrestaShop Pricing: Price on Request

• OpenCart

OpenCart is a free Shopify alternative that is open source and comes with powerful store management, design themes, extensions, and other necessary features to manage your eCommerce store. This free Shopify alternative also helps online retailers to offer coupons and discounts to get ahead of their competitors and boost sales.

OpenCart Features

• Track sales, orders, customers, analytics, and everything else on the administrator dashboard
• Efficiently manage users to provide customized access and user permissions
• Helps manage multiple stores with different themes and products from one admin interface
• Manage affiliate marketing by setting percentages for different affiliates and setting up different payment options for them

OpenCart Pros and Cons:

OpenCart Pricing: Free & Open Source eCommerce Platform

• Weebly

Weebly is a free eCommerce platform that is quite similar to Shopify. It offers customizable webpage designs that help you create a professional looking website. In fact, Weebly offers a step-by-step guide to tell you how to create and launch your own website with starter guides from experts along with planning tools. Moreover, businesses can also find new prospects and customers through automated email campaigns.

Weebly Features

• Create your own photo galleries, backgrounds, and slideshows
• Use mobile responsive website themes
• Use custom domains and advanced SEO tools to widen your customer reach
• Create a blog with drag and drop features, powerful design elements, and an infrastructure that ensures fast loading speed

Weebly Pros and Cons:

Weebly Pricing: Free Plan Available | ₹816.60 per month onwards

Suggested Read: Best eCommerce Website Builders for Small Businesses

Why Should You Opt for Free Shopify Alternatives?

Shopify is a great eCommerce platform, however there a few factors that might encourage you to at least try a Shopify alternative. Some prominent reasons why one might want to opt for a Shopify competitor might be:

• You want options for design templates and customization options
• You are probably frustrated after waiting long for the response from their customer support teams
• Shopify is not able to maintain your complex product catalog with various different options of colors, sizes, designs, and more
• You want more advanced SEO tools, for instance, Shopify doesn’t allow you to edit or even access robot.txt files, which is used to tell Google, how you want to index your website
• Another reason to switch to some other websites like Shopify could be the freedom to choose your preferred payment gateway. Because on Shopify if you don’t use Shopify payments, you will have to pay an extra 2% transaction fee on every sale that you make.

How to Choose Free Shopify Alternatives for Your Website?

There are multiple free Shopify alternatives available in the market like WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Weebly, etc., which are even free and open source. However, while choosing a Shopify competitor, there are a few things you need to take into consideration:

• Ensure that Shopify alternative offers multiple payment options without charging a hefty transaction fee
• You get a lot of customization options in terms of design templates, modules, business model, etc.
• Building an eCommerce website from the scratch will be easy with drag and drop options
• The Shopify competitor must have the capability to support a large product catalog with customization options in terms of variations, colors, sizes, and more
• The eCommerce platform should possess advanced marketing tools like email campaigns, SEO tools, affiliate marketing, and more.

Related Categories: Dropshipping Software | Order Management Software | Shopping Cart Software

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