Shopify vs Shopbase 2024 Comparison: Who’s Better?

Shopify vs Shopbase, which platform should you be using in 2024?

Both solutions are excellent tools for ecommerce, offering businesses the resources they need to build an online store and sell to customers across the globe.

However, the focus of each tool is slightly different. While Shopify supports virtually any kind of business model, Shopbase focuses specifically on things like dropshipping and print on demand.

We experimented with the free trials of both tools, to bring you this behind-the-scenes look at what they can do. This review is based on our own experiences, as well as insights we’ve gained from speaking to and collecting feedback from other online store owners.

Let’s dive in.

Key Takeaways

Before we reach our final verdict and alternatives to both Shopify and Shopbase, here are a few key takeaways from our experiences with both platforms:

• Shopify is a more powerful and versatile platform for an ecommerce store, but Shopbase is ideal for dropshipping beginners, particularly those using AliExpress.
• Shopify is more expensive, but it offers a wider range of features for the price.
• Shopbase does have integrated POD and dropshipping store solutions, but it doesn’t allow you to experiment with different platforms and suppliers.
• Shopbase makes it easy to up-sell and cross-sell without accessing integrations for your ecommerce store.
• Shopbase has a better reputation for customer service, but Shopify has a wider community of existing users.

Shopify vs Shopbase: Pros and Cons

Shopify Pros and Cons

ShopBase Pros and Cons

How We Compared Shopify and Shopbase

To gather comprehensive insights for this comparison, we signed up for a free trial (14 days) for Shopbase, and used our extensive knowledge working with the Shopify platform.

We’ve also built on our own opinions of the software by gathering reviews and testimonials from other business owners.

You can see our other comprehensive reviews of Shopify, as well as competing ecommerce platforms elsewhere on this blog.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is one of the world’s leading ecommerce platforms, and one of our favorite options for online sellers.

Not only does Shopify feature its own website builder, brimming with themes and customization options, but it gives you everything you need to run any kind of business.

You can sell products of any kind, including dropshipping, print-on-demand, and digital products through Shopify.

Plus, you can integrate your store with marketplaces like Ebay and Amazon, sell offline with Shopify POS, and even promote products through social media.

We’ve had a lot of experience working with this platform, offering Shopify migration services, consultancy services, and custom store setup.

What is Shopbase?

Shopbase is a convenient online store builder and ecommerce platform with a focus on print on demand and dropshipping, two of the most popular business models in 2024.

It also allows business owners to sell digital products, such as downloads and courses.

The solution comes with an attractive template, a convenient store customization solution, and out-of-the-box tools for sourcing and selling both dropshipping and POD products.

Like Shopify, Shopbase also supports multi-channel selling. You can integrate your store with social media platforms, and access a range of payment processing tools.

Shopify vs Shopbase: Key Features

Both Shopbase and Shopify have various impressive features to offer business leaders, including website building tools, and excellent integrations with payment processors. Let’s take a closer look at the core features of both options.

Shopify’s Key Features

Shopify is one of the most comprehensive commerce platforms available. We could spend all day raving about the impressive features available to business leaders. You can also find our full review of Shopify here. For now, here are some of the core features you can expect:

• Website building and customization: Shopify has a fantastic website builder, with access to hundreds of premium and free templates to suit any industry. You can customize your store according to your needs, add SEO ready blog sections and more.
• Commerce and payments: Business owners can sell any kind of product with Shopify, including digital, physical, POD, and dropshipping products. There’s a built-in payment processor (Shopify Payments), for credit card payments or you can integrate your own.
• Omnichannel: With Shopify, you can sell through your personal online store, marketplaces like Amazon and Ebay, social media channels, and even in-person using Shopify POS (Point of Sale). There are even international sales tools.
• Business management: Shopify comes packed with tools for business management, such as customer profiles and segmentations, tax and VAT management tools, order, inventory, and shipping management, and even Shopify fulfillment.
• Analytics and reports: We love all of the extensive insights you can get from Shopify, into everything from your most popular products to your cash flow. You can even integrate with third-party analytics, accounting, and reporting tools.

Shopbase’s key features

Shopify promises ecommerce business owners everything they need to run a successful store, from a customizable storefront, to upselling and marketing tools, and multi-channel selling options. Key features include:

• Storefront: Shopbase gives customers a comprehensive customizable storefront, which they can adapt with templates and themes. Your Shopbase store will include tools for SEO optimization, as well as fantastic product pages, with support for multiple variants.
• Commerce and sales: Shopbase integrates with a variety of payment processes, has it’s own dedicated shopping cart (with automated SMS for abandoned cart recovery), and the option to sell globally or on multiple channels, like TikTok and Facebook.
• Dropshipping and print on demand: With Shopbase you can instantly find suppliers for your dropshipping and print-on-demand store. There are suppliers located around the world, and they also support your fulfillment processes.
• Analytics and reporting: Most of Shopbase’s analytical features come from an integration with Google analytics, but you can still access valuable tools to help you understand which products are driving the most revenue.
• Business management: Shopbase has fantastic inventory and store management tools, up-selling tools to increase your conversions, and great resources for beginners, but it lacks the automated tax tools on Shopify.

Shopify vs Shopbase: Pricing Plans

From a pricing perspective, Shopify will cost more up-front, but you do get more features and functionality as a result. Let’s take a closer look at the pricing.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify has a Starter plan for $5 per month (and a 5% transaction fee), but it doesn’t come with the store building features of other plans.

There’s also an enterprise plan, Shopify Plus, which starts at $2,000 per month, with access to more customizations and advanced features. The core plans include:

• Basic: $29 per month with an online store builder, omnichannel selling, basic reports, 1,000 inventory locations, 2 staff accounts, and all of the core features for search engine optimization, inventory, and store management.
• Shopify: $105 per month with all the features of Basic, plus more professional reports, 5 staff accounts, additional automation tools and discounted shipping rates.
• Advanced: $399 per month for all the features of Shopify, a custom report builder, 15 staff accounts, and advanced tax automation.

Notably, Shopify does charge transaction fees as well as extra payment processing fees if you use something other than Shopify Payments. There are also fees to consider for premium apps and integrations, as well as premium Shopify themes.

Shopbase pricing

Similar to Shopify, Shopbase offers a discount to customers on annual plans. It also offers a 14-day free trial, compared to Shopify’s 3-day alternative. Core plans include:

• Basic Base: $19 per month for all of the online store building tools, unlimited sales per store, 2 connected domains, dropshipping with AliExpress, POD services, sales and marketing tools, and the app ecosystem.
• Standard Base: $59 per month for all the features of Basic, plus 10 staff accounts, 10 connected domains, and cheaper transaction fees.
• Pro Base: $249 per month for all the features of the Standard plan, plus 100 staff accounts, 20 domains per store, and the lowest transaction fees.

You will need to pay transaction fees on all Shopbase plans. There are also premium apps available which may lead to an additional monthly fee.

Shopify vs Shopbase: Ease of Use

The good news for beginners in the ecommerce space is that both Shopify and Shopbase are very user-friendly. Both will allow you to set up a store in a matter of minutes, with access to various templates and a convenient backend to get you started.

Both solutions allow online business owners to set up an attractive store, with support for secure payments via a custom checkout, and access to valuable integrations that boost your conversion rate.

Shopbase is perhaps the simplest tool for a dropshipping business, as you’ll already have an integration with AliExpress to help you find suppliers and products.

Plus, importing and editing product pages on Shopbase is a breeze, with support for CSV files, and a straightforward toolkit for changing prices, tags, variants, and more.

You can even automatically generate “Terms of Service”, Privacy, Returns, and other similar pages with minimal effort. However, we think Shopbase makes it a little harder to create a truly unique store, as there are fewer integrations available, and not as many templates to choose from.

Making a Shopify store where you can show dropshipping products, white label items, and unique offers is simple too. The solution provides a fantastic backend environment to beginners, with a simplified interface that requires no coding knowledge.

You’ll be able to build a fantastic store in seconds, edit your pages however you choose, and even dive into theme files if necessary.

Though there is a slight learning curve if you want to make granular changes to your store, we think it’s the easier tool for creating a truly unique online website.

Apps and Themes: Shopify and Shopbase

While both Shopify and Shopbase are flexible tools, Shopify is definitely the winner in terms of extensibility. There are hundreds of unique themes to choose from, and thousands of apps for everything from marketing, to accounting and analytics.

Shopbase only integrates with a handful of tools, but it does come with key solutions for business owners already built-in, such as features for dropshipping, upselling, and automated SMS marketing. All of these features will require you to install apps on Shopify.

While the built-in functionality on Shopbase is great, it does mean you have fewer options to experiment with different dropshipping and print on demand options.

You can’t access solutions like DSers or Printful for dropshipping and print on demand.

Plus, you’ll be limited on the automated email marketing and business management tools available with Shopbase. With Shopbase, you’re stuck using the apps and tools the company has already created, which include AliExpress dropshipping.

This means if you want to experiment with more local suppliers, you may want to consider using Shopify and an add-on from the Shopify app marketplace.

Plus, it’s worth noting Shopify has some great tools already built-in for marketing and ecommerce automation, calculating shipping rates, and blogging.

Customer Support and Service

The guidance you get from a customer support team can vary with both Shopify and Shopbase. Shopify offers 24/7 support on all plans, with access to phone, email, and live chat options.

There’s also a comprehensive help center, with access to tons of FAQs, guides, tutorials, videos, blog posts, and more.

Additionally, we love Shopify’s massive community of existing users, who can offer answers to questions on forums, social media, and external sites.

However, Shopify doesn’t have the best reputation for responding to business owners quickly, particularly over the phone.

Shopbase doesn’t have the same community for peer-to-peer support. However, it’s reputation for customer service is excellent.

You can connect with Shopbase through social media, phone, email, live chat, and more. There’s a fantastic help center, and you can book one-on-one sessions with experts if you’re struggling with any specific issues.

When to Use Shopify

We recommend using Shopify if you:

• Want a flexible platform to support any kind of business model
• Need complete control over apps and integrations for extensibility
• Are looking for comprehensive omnichannel sales tools
• Need access to a fantastic community of existing users
• Want a wider range of themes and design tools

When to use Shopbase

We’d recommend Shopbase if you:

• Want an easy-to-use dropshipping platform for beginners
• Are happy to access dropshipping capabilities through AliExpress
• Want integrated print on demand solutions
• Need more affordable ecommerce functionality
• Are searching for comprehensive customer support

Alternatives to Shopify and Shopbase

Both Shopify and Shopbase are excellent tools for ecommerce companies, but if you’re looking for an alternative, here are some of our favorites:

• Wix Ecommerce: Wix is one of the easiest platforms for business owners looking to launch a comprehensive website or online store. It features AI tools, access to hundreds of integrations, and affordable plans for beginners with a limited budget.
• BigCommerce: BigCommerce is one of the most versatile tools for ecommerce vendors, similar in functionality to Shopify. The major difference is it comes with most of the tools you need already built-in, so you don’t need as many integrations.
• WooCommerce: WooCommerce and WordPress are excellent solutions for companies in search of comprehensive customization options and user-friendliness. Since WordPress is one of the world’s biggest website builders, there’s also a fantastic community out there.

The Final Verdict

Overall, we think Shopify edges just ahead of Shopbase in terms of overall functionality. Though we were impressed by Shopbase’s out-of-the-box sales tools and dropshipping features, we found the platform to offer limited scalability and flexibility to growing businesses.

Alternative, Shopify gives you more freedom to grow and adapt your store according to your specific needs.

If you’re looking for a platform that supports any kind of business model, Shopify is the best choice. However, beginners will definitely appreciate Shopbase for dropshipping purposes.

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