One of the best things to happen to the internet is e-commerce. Without it, a lot of people would have never been able to start their own businesses. It is one of the cheapest ways to get a business off the ground, which is why many companies now make it easy to set up online stores.
Shopify and Ecwid are two of the most well-known firms that do this. These sites let you start your own online store from scratch, and all you have to do to keep it running is pay a monthly fee.
Now, opening an online store is easy because you don’t have to learn how to write computer code, but it’s still a lot of work. So, before you choose which platform to use, we’ll look at both and help you decide which one is best for you.
Ecwid vs. Shopify: Which E-commerce Platform Is Right for You?
A Look at Shopify
Shopify is a well-known site. It’s so popular that even Kylie Jenner uses it to sell her line of cosmetics. It is a solution for e-commerce that can be used by both beginners and experts.
Here, you can set up a working online store in a matter of seconds, and the monthly fee is worth it.
Blog
You can do more than just build a store with Shopify. You can also make a blog. Even though the blog isn’t as strong as WordPress’s, it’s great for SEO and giving your customers information that can make their lives better.
Still Pages
Shopify gives you the option to make static pages once you have set up your online store. There are pages for Frequently Asked Questions, Terms and Conditions, About Us, and much more.
These pages are important for making your store look professional and for setting customer expectations. Most of the time, you can put links to these pages in the footer of your store.
Apps
There are thousands of apps that can help you add a lot of features to your store. There are hundreds of developers who work with Shopify, and many of them are free.
There are apps that pop up and show a wheel of fortune, for example. You can tell this wheel of fortune what to say so that a customer wins a prize. You choose what the prize is, and you can also choose how often someone wins. Here is a full list of Shopify apps that can help you make your store even better.
Payment Options
Shopify works with a lot of online payment systems as a partner. People also call these “payment processors.” Skill, PayPal, and 2Checkout are all good examples of this. You can use the default Shopify payment gateway if you don’t want to use them.
Ecwid Overview
Ecwid is also an e-commerce platform that lets you set up an online store in less than an hour, just like Shopify. You can still sign up for an account and start using Ecwid even if you already have a website.
Ecwid was made to work with other sites for web developers. People who have already built an online store with WordPress like it a lot because all they have to do is connect the two.
Ecwid works with Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, SITE 123, and a lot of other platforms for building websites.
Ecwid is short for “e-commerce widget.” This tells us that it’s not a platform like Shopify that lets you build a site from scratch. Instead, it’s more of a system that helps you if you already have a site. Because of this, Ecwid can also be used if you want to sell something on Facebook.
In the Free Plan, Ecwid only lets you make one page. This page will be the landing page for your online store, and the other links will take people to your already existing website.
Its main purpose is to have a single system that links together multiple platforms. You can put the widget on your Facebook Page, your WordPress blog or store, FourSquare, and other places where you sell things.
But that’s not all. If you pay $15 per month for the second-highest plan, you can also use Ecwid to build and customize your own online store.
POS systems side by side
Both Shopify and Ecwid have POS, which stands for “point of sale.” Every store with real walls has that machine where cashiers scan or punch your purchases. That stinks. It keeps track of sales, figures out the total price plus tax, lets you print receipts, and lets you use your sales to get information about your stock.
A point-of-sale system (POS) for an online store is one that you have to download to your phone. It gives you the ability to charge your customers in person. If you met someone at a party and sold to them, but they don’t want to buy from your online store, you can charge their credit card from your phone.
Here’s what Shopify POS can do for you:
- Safe method
- Multi-channel selling
- 24/7 support
- You can make and use discount codes and promo codes.
- In-person Selling
- Can be used by more than one employee
- Taking care of inventory
Here are some of Ecwid POS’s benefits:
- Complete sync with your stores
- accepts payments made in person
- Multi-channel selling
- POS systems from Clover, Square, and Vend can work together.
- can accept PayPal as a way to pay.
In the POS system, it’s clear that Shopify has more to offer. It also costs less. Shopify’s POS is only available if you pay $79 per month for a plan. To use the POS on Ecwid, you have to pay $99 per month for the Unlimited Plan.
Shopify is better than Ecwid
To help you decide why Shopify is a better choice than Ecwid, let’s look at the things it does better than Ecwid. Here, we will only compare the plans that cost the most.
Here are some of Shopify’s best features that Ecwid doesn’t have:
Custom Domain
With a Shopify store, you can give your store a name that is unique to you. Customers type a domain’s name into the URL bar of a browser. Most of the time, it ends with.COM,.NET, or something else.
Shopify can do this for you for free, as long as the name you want to use for your website is still available. If a domain registrar is already selling it, you may have to pay for it. You can’t do this in Ecwid.
Ecwid will give you a URL at random. You can’t pick what you want.
The SSL certificate is free
Shopify will give you a certificate that shows your store is safe. You can show potential customers that their personal and financial information is safe and secure by doing this. This is not something that Ecwid gives you. You have to buy it from SSL authorities, which will cost you about $10.
24/7 Support
Shopify’s customer service is available 24/7, no matter what type of account you have. You can only get full priority support from Ecwid if you pay $99 per month for the most expensive plan. With Shopify, you can expect to get help whenever you want through chat or email.
App Market
In the Shopify marketplace, there are a lot of apps. You can use these to make your store look nice, make it work well, and set up automated programs like discounts, promotions, and figuring out how much shipping will cost.
The reason Shopify is better than Ecwid is that it has more apps than Ecwid. Also, most of the apps on Shopify are free, but many of the ones on Ecwid are not.
Recovering abandoned carts automatically
Any Shopify plan comes with this feature. This feature is only available on Ecwid if you pay $35 per month for the third level of subscription.
This feature just gives you information about a customer who was about to buy something but then changed their mind. In it, you will find the customer’s name, shipping address, and email address.
You can use this information to send them an email about the purchase they didn’t finish and try to get them to keep shopping or finish the payment. You can also send them special offers to get them to finish the purchase.
Advanced Report Generator
Shopify has more advanced analytics than Ecwid. Shopify gives you a lot of information that can help you run your business better. For example, Shopify tells you where your traffic is coming from, how many people are looking at your store right now, and a lot more.
All of these are included in the basic Shopify plan, and the most expensive plan, the Advanced Shopify Plan, which costs $299 per month, gives you more data analytics.
Labels and Shipping for Shopify
The Shopify admin page is where you can print your shipping labels. And if you use it, you can ship your products with USPS, UPS, and DHL.
When you use this service, you can save up to 74% on shipping costs. Even with the basic plan, you can use this feature. This kind of shipping discount is not available through Ecwid.
Why Ecwid is better than Shopify
Now, let’s look at why you should choose Ecwid over Shopify.
Fitting together and fitting in
This is where Ecwid really stands out. You can pretty much use the widget on a lot of popular websites. This means you can connect it to your other websites so that they all look the same and have the same prices. You can also use it on social media.
Here are some places where Ecwid can be used:
- Any Website
- Wix
- FourSquare
- Google Shopping
- eBay
But keep in mind that you can’t do this with the free plan. You must be at least at the next level, which is the Venture Plan.
Free Starter Site
This is great for new sellers. There is a plan that is FREE and won’t cost you anything. On the other hand, Shopify only gives you a 14-day free trial. After that, you have to start paying your monthly fees.
You can get the following services with Ecwid’s starter plan:
- You can add up to 10 items.
- Bandwidth with no limits
- Set up an online shop.
- You can connect the store to your other websites, such as WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace, Wix, and many others.
- Forever free
- No fees to do business
- Shopping cart on wheels
During the 14-day free trial, you can try out everything Shopify has to offer. The problem with Ecwid’s FREE Plan is that you can’t take payments with it.
Shopify’s Lite Plan costs only $13 per month and gives you the same services as Ecwid’s Venture Plan.
Free to make your own
Shopify will help you if something goes wrong with your site, but it does not let you change your site for free. You have to pay for the services if you want your store to look different.
If you have the Business or Unlimited Plans on Ecwid, you can ask for your website to be changed. In Business, Ecwid’s staff will make changes to your site that can be done in two hours or less. In the Unlimited Plan, they will make changes to your site that can be done in 12 hours or less. There is no cost.
With the Free Venture plans, you can’t change how your site looks.
No Fees
This is likely the best thing about Ecwid. There are no transaction fees that you have to pay. If you use other payment processors in Shopify, you have to pay between 0.5% and 2%.
If you accept credit card payments online and use Shopify’s payment processor, you will pay between 2.4% + $0.30 and 2.9% + $0.30. If you use the POS system to make sales in person, you will pay between 2.4% and 2.7% of the transaction cost.
You only have to pay for the monthly subscription for Ecwid. You can connect the store to many payment processors, but you should know that these payment processors will still charge you a fee.
In Shopify, you will pay a transaction fee twice: once to Shopify and once to the payment processor.
Plans for Shopify
Shopify has three ways to pay. These are called Basic, Shopify, and Advanced. A Basic plan will work for you if you are just starting out. It lets you set up a fully-functioning online store. Only advanced features, which you probably don’t need, will be missing from a Basic Plan.
The Basic plan costs $29 per month and lets you start selling right away. You can also process payments, design your store, and add staff accounts.
Ecwid Plans
Ecwid’s best feature is that it has a free plan. With this, you can make a store widget, an online store with just one page, and a shopping cart for your phone.
The problem with this free plan is that you don’t get very much juice. Basically, you can set up a store with a lot of restrictions.
If you want to build a store with a lot of features, you have to start with the $15 per month Venture Plan.
Which one should you pick?
As a last bit of advice, here’s how you should choose.
Go with Ecwid if:
- You need a store that can be linked to your other sites.
- You only need a piece of software that you can add to your website.
- You don’t want to pay more each month.
- You don’t want to pay fees for the sales you made.
Shopify is for you if:
- You want an independent online store
- You want a store whose URL or domain name has your brand name in it.
- You don’t mind having to pay a monthly fee
- You want a shop with pages that don’t change.
- You want a lot of free apps that you can add to your store.
Remember that Ecwid has only two main advantages over Shopify: it is free and it can be added to many web developer sites that are already up and running. For everything else, Shopify is still the best. Want to know how we feel about Shopify and Wix? Here is our review.
