5 Big Cartel Alternatives + Our Picks for 2024
Are you in search of Big Cartel alternatives? If so, read on.
Big Cartel is a viable option for artists, makers, and creatives getting started with eCommerce.
But as your business grows, you may find it limiting in terms of payment options, the number of products you can have in your store, or some other deciding factor. And when you hit that limitation, it’s time to search for another platform.
Fortunately, there are plenty of Big Cartel alternatives you can choose from, and in this post, we pick the five most exciting ones for you and your business to consider.
01. Squarespace
Squarespace is one of the giants in the online web builder and eCommerce space. It was founded in 2003, and millions of sites have been launched since.
Although the platform may target creatives, anyone can use its comprehensive eCommerce capabilities.
Top Features Include
- Templates created by world-class designers.
- Unlimited products.
- Point of Sale support.
- Sell on Facebook & Instagram.
- Sell subscriptions.
👍 What We Liked
What stands out with Squarespace is its comprehensive, eye-catching template selection. You can choose the layout for your website from tens of available templates.
If any themes don’t match your preference, there is always Squarespace Blueprint. It’s a wizard-based template engine that suggests the right design based on your preferences.
Squarespace provides a vast set of tools to help you to master selling online. Naturally, you can do traditional eCommerce on your Squarespace-based online store, that’s guaranteed.
However, you can use other ways of selling, too.
For instance, you can sell on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram. And if you want to sell in person, you can do that with POS. The platform also supports selling digitally downloadable and subscription-based products.
When you sign up with Squarespace, you have access to plenty of marketing tools.
For instance, you can access their email newsletter tool for sending out effective marketing campaigns or enhance your messaging with a blogging tool. Even a Video Studio app (for iOS) is available.
With an online business, security should always be priority number one.
Fortunately, Squarespace gives plenty of tools to secure your store, like SSL, two-factor authentication (2FA), or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection. All the payment processors are also compliant with PCI-DSS.
👎 What We Didn’t Like
While the available themes give you a stunning layout for your website, think carefully about which theme you choose, as you can’t change your template afterward.
Also, it would have been helpful if Squarespace had offered more payment options. Right now, you only have Stripe, PayPal, and Square.
And unlike competitors like Wix or Shopify, Squarespace has fewer extensions you can use to expand your website.
Pricing
Squarespace has four pricing tiers. However, only three have eCommerce capabilities.
The least expensive eCommerce plan is the Business ($33/month). This plan allows you to sell unlimited products and have email marketing capabilities.
Next, we have the Commerce Basic ($36/month). One of the biggest advantages of upgrading to this plan is the transaction fee: it’s 0%. You can also sell on social media like Facebook or Instagram.
Finally, the Commerce Advanced plan ($65/month) gives you everything the previous plans provide, plus features like abandoned cart recovery or the ability to sell subscriptions.
👉 Read our full Squarespace Review
02. Wix
When we talk about Big Cartel alternatives, you can’t bypass Wix. It’s one of the biggest web builder/eCommerce players and has been around since 2006.
Today, 17 years later, the company serves over 200 million customers and operates worldwide.
So, looking at the numbers, people love this platform, and it’s a potential one for your online business.
Top Features Include
- Subscriptions.
- Up to 50,000 products.
- Multiple currencies support.
- Sell on social media (Facebook & Instagram).
- Automated sales tax calculation.
👍 What We Liked
Wix is a giant platform offering all the essential eCommerce features in one neat package. However, particular strengths pop up.
First, Wix has a huge app market called Wix App Market, where you can find everything from shipping and delivery to dropshipping and pricing.
The platform also has solid SEO capabilities. So URL slugs, title tags, or meta descriptions – you can use them all with your product information. What’s best, you can find all the SEO recommendations under an SEO Checklist that prevents you from forgetting any essential search engine settings.
You can also automate tedious tasks with Wix Automations, like sending automated responses to product purchases. This feature helps you to reduce manual tasks and focus on more critical aspects of your eCommerce store, like marketing.
And talking about marketing, Wix has plenty of tools that make the platform ideal for your online business. Email marketing, video maker, or selling on social media are some examples of these tools.
👎 What We Didn’t Like
Even the eCommerce giant has always room for improvement.
For instance, you can access customer support with callbacks and chat, but it doesn’t support traditional ticketing. Sometimes, this option could be helpful, especially if your matter is not urgent.
Wix also provides their native payment system called Wix Payments. With this system, you can accept payments on your website.
Unfortunately, Wix Payments is only available in selected countries (15) and supports six currencies. So, if you live outside these countries, you must use a third-party payment provider.
Wix App Market is an excellent way to extend your site, but don’t go overboard with the apps. While many of them are free, most of them are paid.
If you are not careful, adding too many apps can skyrocket your monthly costs. So pay close attention to the pricing terms before you purchase anything through the marketplace.
Pricing
Wix comes with three eCommerce plans to choose from.
First, you have the Core, which costs $34/month and gives you features like abandoned cart recovery, adding up to 50,000 products, and selling on social channels.
Next, we have the Business plan ($38/month), which comes with site analytics and accounts for your loyal customers. You also get a site chat, where you can answer your visitor’s questions immediately.
Finally, the Business Elite ($172/month) plan provides you with essential features, including unlimited storage space, automated sales tax, and 500 automated sales tax transactions monthly.
If you’re unhappy with the Business Elite, you can also jump on to the Enterprise plan. To find out about its pricing, contact the Wix sales team for further information.
03. Sellfy
Sellfy is an eCommerce platform for creators selling products of all sorts, including custom merch or digital downloads.
Sellfy has been around since 2011. According to them, over 60,000 customers have sold at least one product on their platform. The total revenue made so far on this platform is over 100 million USD dollars.
You can sell custom merch or digital downloads in two ways:
1) Selling it on your Sellfy-powered online store or
2) Embedding the Shopping Cart or Buy Now button(s) on your WordPress (self-hosted or hosted) website.
Even more interesting is that you can embed Sellfy to one of its competitor’s sites, like Wix or Squarespace.
Top Features Include
- Sell any products (physical, digital, custom merch, print-on-demand, subscription).
- Coupon codes.
- Email marketing.
- Advanced VAT & Tax Settings.
- Priority email support (on the Premium plan).
👍 What We Liked
Sellfy is built with beginners in mind. The main navigation is intuitive; you don’t have to guess to find a particular functionality.
What’s also nice about them is that an email marketing tool is available on every plan.
You can use four campaign templates to approach your subscribers, and basic list management tools are also available. These include observing the campaign statuses, exporting email lists into CSV format, or integrations with Zapier to other email marketing services.
Sellfy also offers nifty features like limited downloads. With this functionality, you can prevent your creative work from ending up in the hands of pirates.
Video streaming is possible, too, with this platform. With this functionality, you can sell video-on-demand products through your online store.
Finally, Sellfy doesn’t charge any transaction costs.
👎 What We Didn’t Like
If you are serious about starting an online business, you want your website to reflect your brand, not someone else’s.
Unfortunately, this factor rules out the least expensive plan, Starter, as it contains the Sellfy branding on your store page. So, you must pay extra to remove Sellfy branding by upgrading to Business or Premium plans.
You also have to deal with the sales cap on each plan. If you don’t reach it – no worries. Otherwise, the platform will automatically upgrade your plan.
Sellfy’s website extensibility is somewhat limited. Also, you have only a few themes to choose from.
The number of payment options may also let you down. Currently, only Stripe and PayPal are available.
Pricing
You have three options for pricing.
First, the Starter plan is the least expensive, costing $29/month. With this package, you can sell in various ways, including physical, digital, and print-on-demand products.
The Business plan costs $79/month, giving you all the same benefits included in the Starter plan. In addition, you can remove the Sellfy branding and access the abandoned cart management and upselling product features.
The Premium plan is the most expensive, with its $159/month price tag. With it, you can make sales up to $200K/year. You also get priority email support.
💰 Use our Sellfy coupon to get 10% off
04. Shopify
Shopify is a household name in eCommerce. It’s one of the biggest and most well-known platforms and has existed since 2006.
It has millions of merchants worldwide, in over 170 countries and a job for over 10,000 people.
These are impressive numbers, and people are attracted to this platform. Are you next?
Top Features Include
- Up to 1000 inventory locations.
- Abandoned cart recovery (on all plans).
- eCommerce automations.
- Huge app store.
- Comprehensive tools for selling internationally.
👍What We Liked
There is a lot to like when it comes to Shopify.
First, you’ll notice that the user interface is easy to use. Although you have plenty of functionalities at your fingertips, the platform is easy to navigate and comprehend.
You can also sell with multiple sales channels. These channels include POS (Point of Sale) for selling in-person or in social media (including Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter).
What’s also nice about Shopify is its extensibility and design options.
Once you have created your store, you can find over 3,200 apps that can extend your store’s functionality. Shopify also hosts over 130 themes in various categories, from free to paid, so you’ll most likely find the right one for your store.
Finally, you have more than enough payment options available. While Shopify’s native payment processor, Shopify Payments, is the preferred way, over 100 payment methods are available worldwide.
👎 What We Didn’t Like
While Shopify may seem like an ultimate eCommerce solution, it’s not perfect.
First, the plan pricing is expensive compared to its competitors. Shopify may not be your best choice if you are running on a budget.
The platform has a payment system called Shopify Payments. However, it’s only available in 23 countries. So, if you fall outside of this list, you end up paying third-party transaction fees, and the charge (0.5%-2.0%) depends on your plan.
And when the costs are concerned, take time to understand the Shopify App Store pricing. Adding apps will most likely increase your running costs too.
Pricing
You have four plans with Shopify.
First, you can go with the Basic, which gives you plenty of features to get started. With $39/month, you get unlimited products, abandoned cart management, and marketing automation tools.
Upgrade to the Shopify plan ($105/month), and you can access features like eCommerce automation or higher shipping discounts for carriers like DHL Express, UPS, or USPS.
Finally, there is the Advanced plan, which costs $399/month. Exclusive features of this plan include:
- Third-party calculated shipping rates.
- Lower credit card rates.
- The smallest transaction fee (if using Shopify Payments).
And if you are running a high-volume business, then there is Shopify Plus. The price tag is $2,000/month. You can find more information about it here.
👉 Read our full Squarespace Review
5. BigCommerce
The last Big Cartel alternative on our list is BigCommerce. It has existed since 2009 and has grown into an eCommerce giant with over 1,000 employees and tens of thousands of merchants.
If your business is growing fast and you need more room for scaling, BigCommerce could be your option.
Top Features Include
- Multiple sales channel support (including eBay, Amazon, and POS).
- Up to eight Multi-Storefronts.
- Multi-currency support.
- BigCommerce mobile app.
- Real-time shipping quotes.
👍What We Liked
BigCommerce helps you to sell in multiple ways. On top of using the online store that BigCommerce provides, you can also sell elsewhere, including Amazon, eBay, or Walmart.
If you want to take your business into social media, Facebook and Instagram checkouts are possible. And BigCommerce hasn’t forgotten the in-person world, as POS integration is also in place.
You can also enjoy comprehensive payment provider support across the globe. Currently, BigCommerce supports country-specific providers in over 95 countries.
You can also expand your store’s functionality with BigCommerce apps. While there may not be as many apps available as Shopify, there is still plenty of them to explore, starting from tax and accounting to shopping cart management and product sourcing.
The platform has an exciting feature called Multi-Storefront. With it, you can build variations of your store and manage them from one dashboard without creating multiple accounts. You can then target these storefronts to different audiences or different customer segments.
Big Commerce also has plenty of themes that help you build your brand. The theme marketplace has more than 200 templates, from free to premium.
And unlike some competitors of BigCommerce, you don’t have to worry about transaction fees.
👎 What We Didn’t Like
You must fully understand the pricing structure of BigCommerce apps. Without proper planning, you’ll go overboard and end up paying a lot of recurring fees.
There is also an annual sales cap on each plan. You’ll be automatically upgraded to the higher plan if you reach your current plan’s limit.
Pricing
With the Standard plan ($39/month), you can build three storefronts, accept payments in 100+ currencies, and have a single-page checkout.
Not happy with the Standard plan? Then the Plus plan ($105/month) is your choice.
It gives you tools like customer segmentation and a persistent shopping cart. Customers can save the cart; even when they switch devices, the information stays intact.
The Pro plan ($399/month) gives you more tools to run a successful business. These include custom product filtering and more inventory locations (8).
And if even the Pro plan is insufficient, you can apply for the Enterprise plan by calling BigCommerce’s sales.
👉 Read our full Bigcommerce Review
Which Alternatives Are Our Favorites?
We decided to pick two Big Cartel alternatives, one for the budget-conscious and one for bigger businesses.
First, Sellfy is our choice for smaller businesses. It’s simple to set up and use, and the pricing is reasonable. You can also sell any product through the platform or integrate Sellfy into your website.
For bigger businesses, the choice is Shopify. It’s one of the biggest players in the eCommerce space and contains plenty of features that help you build a thriving online store.
While Shopify’s price tag is high, you get all the essential eCommerce features in one package, knowing the platform can scale well according to your needs.
FAQ
Big Cartel has a free plan that’s ideal for testing the service.
You can have up to five products and get access to features like real-time stats, offer your customers discounts and promos, and shipment tracking. You don’t need a credit card to get started, either.
Big Cartel doesn’t take a cut of your sales, and there is no listing fee.
While Big Cartel helps you to set up an online store easily, it has limitations that make you look for alternatives.
Our article discovered that Sellfy or Shopify are fine candidates if you want to move away from Big Cartel.
With Big Cartel, you don’t have to worry about transaction fees.
The number of products depends on the plan.
You can have up to five products with the Gold plan (the free one). With the Platinum, the limit is 50, and with the Diamond plan, it’s 500.
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