Stan Store vs Shopify: Pricing, Features, Pros and Cons

Stan Store vs Shopify: Which is the best option for your online selling needs? At a glance, they seem like very different platforms. Stan Store focuses on social selling opportunities for creators, while Shopify offers a comprehensive omnichannel commerce platform.

However, they both offer very similar functionality. I dove behind the scenes to bring you this complete comparison guide of the pricing, features, pros, and cons.

Shopify vs Stan Store Pros and Cons

Shopify Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Excellent website builder
• Omnichannel sales capabilities
• Built-in marketing and SEO
• Integrated point-of-sale solutions
• Lots of business management tools
• In-depth analytics and reporting

Cons:

• More expensive pricing
• Can take more work to set up your store

Stan Store Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Extremely easy to use
• Built-in analytics and newsletter tools
• Course builder for online educators
• Integrations with various third-party tools
• Simple interface and one-tap checkout

Cons:

• Limited scalability
• No included website builder

Stan Store vs Shopify: Pricing

Let’s begin with a quick look at pricing. Although I consider Shopify to offer excellent value for money, Stan Store may offer a slightly cheaper option, depending on what you need. Stan Store offers a 14-day free trial, followed by two plans.

The “Creator” plan, for $29 per month includes access to subscription selling, unlimited courses, an email and newsletter builder, analytics, calendar invites and bookings, and a mobile-optimized creator store with a one-click checkout.

The Creator Pro plan, for $99 per month includes all of those features, as well as unlimited funnels, discount codes, upsell offers, payment plans, affiliate payments, and pixel tracking.

Shopify does offer a $5 per month “Starter” plan, which I recommend for creators.

Read our full Shopify Starter review for more info.

It gives you many of the similar social selling features you get with Stan Store, including analytics, and a mobile-optimized checkout. However it does lack things like a course builder, subscriptions, and email newsletters.

The central plans for Shopify, which include full access to its website builder, start at $39 per month (Basic), with an included POS system, 10 inventory locations and a host of extra features.

The mid-tier plan, Shopify, is $105 per month with 5 additional staff accounts, and the Shopify Advanced plan is $399 per month and includes more staff accounts, and advanced analytics.

There’s also an enterprise-level plan, “Shopify Plus”, starting at $2,300 per month. Shopify also charges transaction fees if you don’t use its native payment processor.

Shopify vs Stan Store: Feature Comparison

Stan Store and Shopify both offer similar feature sets, designed to empower online sellers. However, Shopify focuses on all kinds of online sellers, while Stan Store tunes its solutions to creators and online educators.

Notably, both companies support a range of integrations with external apps and tools. However, Shopify’s app market is much more comprehensive, with thousands of options to choose from.

Stan Store’s Core Features

• Mobile optimized store: Stan Store offers users a mobile-optimized creator store hosted via the link in bio on a user’s social media accounts. It includes a one-click checkout, options for bookings, course hosting, and customization options.
• Course builder: Stan Store’s integrated course builder allows you to create custom courses you can sell online, with support for unlimited courses and subscriptions.
• Email marketing: With Stan Store, you can build an email list with customizable forms, create automated email marketing campaigns, and design newsletters.
• Sales tools: Alongside a one-click checkout, Stan Store also supports subscriptions, affiliate payments, payment plans, discount codes, and upsell offers. There’s even a funnel builder.
• Analytics and reporting: The integrated analytical tools offer insights into your sales and customer behaviors, as well as student progress on courses, and pixel tracking.

Shopify’s Core Features

• Website builder: Shopify’s online store builder gives you everything you need for a standout online presence, with a blog, unique themes, SEO-friendly elements, and a domain name.
• Omnichannel selling: Shopify offers a world-leading checkout, integrated payment processing, and support for selling across multiple channels, including social media.
• Sales tools: Alongside its checkout and payment processor, Shopify also offers access to integrated point of sale tools, as well as promotional offers.
• Business management: I love Shopify’s business management tools, which support everything from order and inventory tracking, to shipping management.
• Marketing tools: Shopify has its own built-in email marketing solutions (though there’s no funnel builder), and supports promotions, upsells, and other campaigns through integrations.
• Reporting and analytics: Shopify makes keeping track of company growth, top-selling products, and customer behavior easy, with built-in analytics.

Shopify vs Stan Store: Ease of Use and Customer Support

After experimenting with both platforms, I can say both Stan Store and Shopify are pretty easy to use. They both offer intuitive interfaces with simple features for beginners, and neither require coding. However, Stan Store may be a little simpler for some creators, because it has fewer features.

With Stan Store, you don’t actually create a full online store. You simply design pages you can use to sell products and courses through your link in bio on social media.

With Shopify, unless you choose the Starter plan, you’ll gain access to a full ecommerce setup, which means spending more time on building pages, and configuring settings.

Still, Shopify does offer a lot of guidance as you move through the platform, with in-app tool tips and guidance. Plus, it has an excellent range of online resources, such as guides, FAQs, blogs, videos, and even webinars business owners can attend.

Stan Store offers a decent help center with a lot of useful guides for beginners.

However, I couldn’t find any easy way to get in touch with the company besides email.

With Shopify, you can get direct support via chat, email, and phone, depending on your needs. However, the level of support you get can vary depending on your chosen plan.

Stan Store vs Shopify: Verdict

Stan Store and Shopify are both excellent tools for new business owners and creators who want to sell products online.

However, I’d generally recommend Stan Store to individuals who want to sell courses online, there doesn’t seem to be an option for selling physical products yet.

Shopify is a far more comprehensive solution that supports every type of business owner. You can sell all kinds of products, and subscriptions through integrations. Plus, you get your own custom website, access to a range of business management tools, and omnichannel selling capabilities.