Shopify vs Snipcart: Which eCommerce Platform is Right for Your Business?

An Overview: Shopify vs Snipcart

In this era, if you want to start a digital business, you will have to go through the daunting task of choosing the perfect eCommerce platform for your business. The number of new and advanced eCommerce solutions is increasing daily, and in this crowd, there are two capable platforms, Snipcart and Shopify, which are quite popular.

Hence, in this blog, we will create a full-fledged comparison of Snipcart vs Shopify. We will also provide you with a better choice for your business in each feature.

• A recent statistical report revealed that online retail sales are expected to increase by 14.6% in the United States and 11.4% globally between 2022 and 2025.
• According to the latest report on Feb 28, 2023, Shopify’s Gross Payment Volume (GMV) hit $34.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022. It’s a record high for the company in that time frame.

In 2022, Shopify plus, an Ottawa-based e-commerce platform, had a brand value of 1.3 billion Canadian dollars, up 68% from 2021 estimates.

Comparative Overview of Snipcart and Shopify

Before moving on to the real comparison, it is important to understand the functionality and process of Snipcart as it is quite different from Shopify. Unlike Shopify, Snipcart focuses on only one function: providing a customized cart and custom checkout solution for your Shopify website. The catch in Snipcart is that it can be implemented on any website.

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Moreover, it also handles your payment processing as well. With Snipcart, you can easily get international and domestic transactions all within this one tool. On the other hand, Shopify is focused more on providing an all-in-one platform with peak customization tools, communities, and options.

Shopify is an enhanced multi-commerce platform, while Snipcart can be summarized as a single-tool platform.

Comparative Analysis

In this section, we will compare the Snipcart vs Shopify advanced functionality and try to find the better option amongst them for your business.

Which has Better Design Options?

Snipcart vs Shopify advanced design comparison will depend on the types of design. There is a huge difference between Snipcart vs Shopify advanced themes as Shopify provides the theme for the whole storefront while Snipcart’s themes are limited to only checkout and cart pages. Here you have to consult with Folio3 Shopify web development team.

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Snipcart provides various premade themes, templates, and design options for the checkout and cart page, which you can easily implement with a single click. On the other hand, the only way to customize checkout in Shopify is to either use some ordinary App or by editing the code.

Hire our expert Shopify theme customization team to explore the themes, templates, and design options at the professional level.

So, if we ignore all the Snipcart vs Shopify advanced features and focus solely on the checkout and cart page design options, Snipcart is a clear winner.

Which Platform has Low Payment Gateway Fees?

Shopify and Snipcart both provide their very own payment solution. While Snipcart vs Shopify advanced payment Gateways and fees varies, they function exactly the same. But Snipcart charges you 2% on monthly transactions while Shopify charges 2.9% plus 30 cents on each transaction which makes Shopify a more expensive option.

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All in all, Snipcart has a cheaper payment solution that can save businesses a good amount of capital; hence Snipcart’s payment solution is better than Shopify’s.

Which is More Affordable?

When it comes to affordability, the Snipcart vs Shopify advanced budget and pricing matter a lot; this includes all kinds of costs such as subscriptions, Shopify themes development, Shopify apps development, and many more. Both platforms have a SaaS model, but Snipcart only costs 2% on all the monthly transactions, but Shopify’s basic plan starts at $29/month.

However, as we described above, cost does not include only the subscription cost but other costs as well associated with running an eCommerce business. If you opt for Snipcart, then there will be a 2% fee monthly, but you will end up spending more than $1000 initially just to start selling products on the Shopify store as you will need a developed website to integrate Snipcart.

On the other hand, you can start selling on Shopify with its free trial for 14 days and then for $29/ month without any more payment for development.

Read Also Shopify Plus vs Shopify Advanced

Shopify got free themes, apps, and a simple subscription structure for you to try, which significantly cuts down the cost and makes it a more affordable option from both platforms.

Hire Folio3 Shopify theme Development Company to explore professional free themes, apps, and a simple subscription structure

Which has Better Marketing Tools?

Snipcart vs Shopify advanced marketing tools include a tonne of options and features.

Starting with Snipcart only has the cart and recover abandoned cart features, but these features are highly optimized and capable. To make things even easier, Snipcart provides a pre-made email template to run an email campaign on abandoned cart customers to get more leads.

However, coming to Shopify. It does not have these marketing features built in, but they are easily available on the App Store. Highly capable apps like Klaviyo and Maichimp can easily be integrated within Shopify to create immensely powerful campaigns with only a click.

It is quite difficult to decide which has better marketing capabilities as Snipcart is the best at what it provides, but Shopify can be a marketing beast with third-party integrations. So, according to us, marketing can be highly efficient when the customer is targeted via not only an email but social media campaigns such as Facebook, Instagram, sms marketing, leads marketing, and many more. Hence, Shopify has better marketing tools compared to Snipcart.

Which has Better SEO Features?

Snipcart vs Shopify advanced SEO is a comparison with no competition, as Snipcart has no SEO capabilities. Shopify is a platform that provides inbuilt SEO features to enhance the optimization and ranking of a store because it powers full business. In contrast, Snipcart itself is a part of that business that Shopify powers.

Which is Better for Dropshipping

Deciding the result for Snipcart vs Shopify advanced dropshipping is quite easy. Shopify got the ability to connect to Alibaba, Cj dropshipping, and many other dropshipping companies which can automate the whole dropshipping model. But Snipcart got no integration option with any dropshipping website.

Hence, Shopify is clearly a better choice for dropshipping.

Which has More Scope for Integration

Snipcart vs Shopify advanced Integrations are based on the development of their technologies. Shopify being in this industry for more than 10 years has its own App Store with more than 7000 apps available on it, which provide hundreds of thousands of integrations with third-party apps. While Snipcart is limited to its own environment.

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Snipcart can also be integrated with every app that is available on the market, but the core functionalities of Snipcart can never change. You can integrate Snipcart with an app or website, but the core features, as shown in the image below, will remain the same. In comparison, Shopify will adapt to every integration. If you integrate Klaviyo with Shopify, then Shopify will be able to use Klaviyo’s features within its store.

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Hence, Shopify is again a winner due to its sheer integration supremacy when it comes to easy and functional integration. Snipcart is not an eCommerce platform that is made to be integrated with various third-party apps but rather a tool that itself could be used as a third-party integration.

Which has Better Technical Support

If we talk about Snipcart vs Shopify advanced maintenance support, Shopify provides guides and documentation on every small feature that they have introduced till now and they also make it available for free.

Snipcart also does the same. However, understanding Snipcart’s documentation can be quite difficult for someone who is not a developer. Moreover, Snipcart does not have chat support which makes it, even more, difficult for normal people to understand their tool.

Shopify on the other hand is a user-friendly platform which got a dedicated chat support team that is ready to help you in everything possible Plus they have a call support team and communities as well.

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Finally, when it comes to providing technical support to make things easier for users, then Shopify wins on the basis of being easily available.

Final Verdict – Snipcart vs Shopify

In the end, we would suggest you create your list of needs before selecting any of the platforms. Once your needs are finalized, then you can choose accordingly. Our suggestion will be to opt for Shopify as it is highly customizable and effective. Everything that is possible in Snipcart can easily be enabled in Shopify as well, and that also with a ton of other features that are extremely important for businesses.

FAQs – Snipcart vs Shopify

How do they differ in terms of Ease of Use?

Shopify is a more user-friendly platform with a drag-and-drop interface, while Snipcart requires knowledge of coding to integrate with a website.

Which Platform is better for Long-Term Growth?

Shopify is better suited for scaling growth, as it offers a wider range of features and resources for larger businesses, while Snipcart is better for small to medium-sized businesses.

Can I Use Either Platform for Physical and Digital products?

Yes, both platforms allow for the sale of physical products as well as digital products.

Does Either Platform Integrate with Popular Shipping Carriers?

Yes, both platforms integrate with popular shipping carriers such as USPS, FedEx, and UPS.

Can I Use Either Platform for a Subscription-based Business?

Yes, both platforms offer subscription-based features, with Shopify offering more advanced subscription options.

Which is Overall Better for Small Businesses?

If you are going to start a new business, then Shopify is the perfect choice for you, but if you are a small business already with a website with cart and payment gateway issues, then Snipcart is the perfect solution.

Which is Better for Medium to Large Businesses?

The main needs of medium to small businesses are powerful hosting capabilities, fast response time, and versatility with integration as these businesses use CRM, HRM, and many other tools to manage the whole business.

Shopify vs Snipcart: Which eCommerce Platform is Right for Your Business?

Shopify is extraordinary, with a full list of APIs available for integration. On the other hand, Snipcart is not capable of handling anything mentioned above due to its lack of support for a lot of third-party Shopify apps development such as Dynamic, Kalviyo, and many more.

Hence, Shopify will be the perfect option for medium to large businesses as Shopify is able to handle the tremendous amount of data processed on a daily basis and be efficient at it due to Shopify’s large scale.