As we enter a new era of digital ecommerce, there's been a huge increase in the number of entrepreneurs starting online enterprises. With so many platforms offering varied pricing schemes and services, merchants may become overwhelmed when deciding which platform to use.
In this Shoplazza and Shopify comparison, we take an in-depth look at the two most popular store builders and evaluate their setup costs. We will break down all key costs and run the real numbers through a scenario analysis. At the end, recommendations will be provided to help you choose the right platform and start your own online.
Before going into details, Let’s give a quick overview of these two companies to those who are unfamiliar with ecommerce.
Shoplazza, a software as a service (‘SaaS’) technology company with its mission of "leading customers' global business success with excellent product technology". It empowers merchants with easy-to-use themes and templates to build their own online store. Shoplazza also partnered with developers and influencers to help our clients globalize and scale up their online presence.
Shopify
Shopify is a dedicated heavyweight in the ecommerce world, aiming to give business entrepreneurs an opportunity to build the store they want while also offering support in all the little things that pop up in eCommerce. The Shopify platform provides a range of services to online shops, including payment, marketing, shipping, and customer engagement capabilities.
Similarities
So which platform is best for your website or online store? Let’s drill down in some depth before making a decision.
Let’s start with the key pricing comparison - Shoplazza basic vs Shopify basic. Shoplazza is the one-price-for-all platform with prices starting at $28 per month. With this basic plan, you will be able to get full access to all essential built-in tools to quickly build your store. Core features include:
If you are interested in knowing about what you can get from Shoplazza basic plan, please check our previous article for detailed explanation.
Shopify, meanwhile, charges $29 per month for the starter price. If we compare the higher-tier enterprise package, the price $299 offered by Shopify is also brining more financial burdens.
That said, Shoplazza pricing model is more budget-friendly for SMEs than Shopify, which will definitely save more cost to help reach break-even and profitability.
Apps are great resources for scaling up your business. Both Shoplazza and Shopify provide app stores featuring a range of add-ons for your site, allowing you to add or improve both platforms’ functionality considerably. In both stores you’ll find apps that handle key tasks like dropshipping, marketing, product recommendation, tax calculations, etc.
The key difference between Shoplazza and Shopify is that you don’t need to pay any extra money for using apps in Shoplazza, while in Shopify, you have to pay $5 to $250 dollars depending on different apps. For example, after you join the basic plan in Shoplazza, you can utilize all the dropshipping apps for free, such as Skuower, EPROLO, and KakaClo. However, if you use Ali Dropship in Shopify, it’ll cost you $180 for a subscription.
To give you a clear idea of the overall setup cost in Shoplazza and Shopify, let’s do a scenario analysis. Assume you are new to ecommerce and want to build a clothing dropshipping business online. Following your investigation, you reach the last stage to determine whether to use Shoplazza or Shopify. Because you have a restricted budget, the setup cost is your primary concern. You want to choose a platform that will allow you to develop a fully functional store at the lowest possible cost.
Scenario 1
Here is the cost you will encounter if you start your dropshipping business in Shoplazza.
For example, EPROLO is a dropshipping platform that is completely free. It provides services like product sourcing, quality control, warehouse, packing, and shipping to ecommerce business owners.
On top of that, you can also source trending clothes from the app KakaClo, which is an industry-leading apparel supply chain platform that focuses on providing customers with in-stock apparel, customization, production, and dropshipping service.
Now everything is set up, you can start selling your products and harvesting the profit.
During the process, the cost has been sum up as follows:
|
|
Expense |
Price |
|
1 |
Basic plan |
$28 per month |
|
2 |
Domain name |
$9.99 |
|
3 |
Design templates |
free |
|
4 |
Dropshipping Apps |
free |
|
Total |
Monthly cost |
$28.83 |
We can see that the total monthly setup cost of starting an online dropshipping business at Shoplazza is $28.83 per month. With such a low cost, you will be able to break even and make profit quickly.
Scenario 2
Let’s now turn to Shopify and see how much it will cost with the same requirement.
1. You choose the basic plan in Shopify and pay $29 per month.
2. You purchase the domain name through Shopify and pay $14 per year.
3. As mentioned earlier, there are only 8 free templates for store design in Shopify. You need to pay extra money for premium themes. Let’s assume you are not satisfied with those free templates, so you pay $240 on-time fee for the theme “Vantage” for your store building.
4. In order to dropship from AliExpress, you subscribe to AliDropship and pay $19/month, or $180 per year.
Here is the sum-up of the total monthly setup cost:
|
|
Expense |
Price |
|
1 |
Basic plan |
$28 per month |
|
2 |
Domain name |
$9.99 |
|
3 |
Design templates |
$240 |
|
4 |
Dropshipping Apps |
$19 per month |
|
Total |
Monthly cost |
$67.83 |
Scenario 3
Even if you are satisfied with one of the free templates in Shopify, the cost is still not cheap because of the subscription you paid for AliDropship.
Let’s also calculate the case when you choose the free design for your store in order to save the budget.
|
|
Expense |
Price |
|
1 |
Basic plan |
$28 per month |
|
2 |
Domain name |
$9.99 |
|
3 |
Design templates |
$240 |
|
4 |
Dropshipping Apps |
$19 per month |
|
Total |
Monthly cost |
$47.83 |
We can see that the monthly cost is $47,83, still higher than Shoplazza’s $28.83.
Based on our scenario analysis, we can easily tell that there are several advantages of adopting Shoplazza over Shopify:
Although Shopify offers impressive sales tools and a huge app store, it’s less ideal if you need to get up and running quickly with a limited capital. Therefore, we recommend Shoplazza for anyone setting up a new, small business who needs a low-cost entry plan without sacrificing features. It’s easy to use and gives you tons of creative freedom, making it perfect for brand-conscious entrepreneurs.
So far, we have compared the setup cost in Shoplazza and Shopify by looking through important and relevant fees and features. Although both Shoplazza and Shopify have various features designed to help you get started in the wonderful world of website building, Shoplazza is more likely to be your first option if you’re a beginner.
If you want to launch your online store to go global immediately, simply go to the Shoplazza website and click the PRICING button on the main menu to sign up for our Basic Plan. If you’re a small business, our Basic Plan is an excellent place to start when it comes to creating and customizing an online store to showcase your products.