VTEX vs Shopify 2024: Which Commerce Platform Do You Need?

VTEX vs Shopify: Which is best? After reviewing both options, I think Shopify is the best solution overall. It’s far more flexible (and easy to use) than VTEX, and offers solutions for businesses from a range of different industries, alongside omnichannel selling capabilities.

VTEX is definitely a robust commerce platform, but it’s designed for larger enterprises with more technical experience. On the plus side it does have excellent omnichannel options, and features powerful AI tools to help boost your sales.

Shopify vs VTEX: The Pros and Cons

Shopify Pros and Cons

Pros 👍

Highly scalable solution for any business size
Easy to use interface for beginners
Fantastic themes and design tools
Omnichannel, and multi-currency selling options
Powerful AI capabilities for content creation
Extensive reporting and analytical tools
Great logistics, fulfillment, and inventory management

Cons 👎

Advanced features can be expensive
Transaction fees for using third-party payment processors

VTEX Pros and Cons

Pros 👍

Advanced omnichannel and multi-currency selling
Extensive reporting and analytics tools
Fantastic B2B business tools
Support for selling physical and digital products
AI-powered tools to help optimize pages
Pre-built components optimized for performance
APIs and robust integrations

Cons 👎

No transparent pricing
High learning curve for beginners
Not intended for smaller companies

Shopify vs Payhip: Overview and Pricing

What is Shopify? Pricing and Fees

Shopify is a versatile commerce platform, combining omnichannel selling capabilities, with a comprehensive website builder, and marketing, logistics, and business management tools. The platform can be scaled to suit any type or size of business, from people selling on social media, to large multi-national enterprises.

If you’re comparing Shopify and VTEX, the “Shopify Plus” plan, designed for enterprises is likely to be the solution you pick. It gives you the comprehensive freedom you’d get from VTEX to create highly customized and even headless commerce experiences.

However, it’s also Shopify’s most expensive plan, starting at $2,300 per month. If you don’t need comprehensive enterprise and B2B tools, I’d recommend starting with one of Shopify’s core plans, which still feature solutions for omnichannel selling, inventory management, analytics and more. Options include:

Shopify Basic: $29 per month (annually)
Shopify: $79 per month (annually)
Shopify Advanced: $299 per month (annually)

Shopify does charge transaction fees, but only if you don’t use Shopify Payments or an approved third-party payment processor. These fees range from 0.15% to 2%, based on the plan you choose.

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What is VTEX and How Much Does it Cost?

VTEX is an enterprise-level commerce platform, designed to give B2B and B2C businesses all the flexible tools they need to create a comprehensive online presence. It’s an extremely flexible platform, offering access to a range of modular capabilities you can mix and match.

Like Shopify, VTEX allows you to sell a range of products, from physical items to subscriptions, and supports omnichannel selling with marketplace and social media integrations.

It also gives you a similar one-page checkout to Shopify, access to templates for building your own website, and various addons, like the “VTEX Live shopping” app.

Unfortunately, VTEX doesn’t list its prices on its website. Instead, you’ll be given a custom quote based on the specific needs of your business. However, from what I can tell the costs are likely to be a lot higher than what you’d pay for Shopify’s core plans.

Shopify vs VTEX: The Core Features

VTEX and Shopify actually have a lot of overlapping features, particularly if you’re comparing VTEX to Shopify Plus.

They can both support headless and omnichannel commerce, and both offer integrations with a wide range of apps. They also both give you the freedom to sell as a B2B or B2C business, and build a fantastic online store experience.

The Main Features of Shopify:

Flexible plans: Unlike VTEX, Shopify offers a range of plans to suit businesses of different sizes, with different needs. You can access most of the same features you’d get from VTEX on the basic plans, without necessarily upgrading to Shopify Plus.
Website builder: Shopify’s website builder is much easier to use than the one you get from VTEX, with a range of themes to choose from. You get an integrated SEO-friendly blog, and access to AI tools to help you create content.
Selling tools: Shopify offers users a world-leading checkout, integrated payment processing, and the opportunity to sell any kind of product across a range of channels, from social media to marketplaces. There’s even a built-in POS system for in-store selling.
Analytics and reporting: Shopify’s reporting tools are fantastic, and can help you track everything from conversions to inventory rates, and even taxes. On more advanced plans, you can even create custom reports.
Marketing features: With Shopify, you can create comprehensive marketing campaigns, and connect with customers through email and chat. You also have the opportunity to link your store to various marketing solutions, and automate workflows with Shopify Flow.
Business management tools: Shopify’s wide range of tools for inventory, order, staff, product, and customer management make it easy to organize your entire business. There are even tools available for shipping and fulfillment.

The Core Features of VTEX

Website builder: VTEX offers a comprehensive website builder, with solutions tuned to B2B and B2C businesses. You can access pre-built store components; buy you’ll need to dive into the headless environment to build unique shopping experiences.
Sales tools: With VTEX, companies can sell digital and physical products, as well as subscriptions, with a one-click checkout, PCI-certified payment gateway, and a range of shipping options. There are even financial reports available.
Marketing solutions: Like Shopify, VTEX offers access to AI tools for creating content, and merchandising campaigns. You can also run promotions with discounts and coupons, integrate with marketing tools and automate campaigns, and publish blogs.
Omnichannel and headless commerce: Similar to Shopify, VTEX supports both omnichannel and headless commerce. You can create multi-language and multi-currency experiences, connect to third-party marketplaces, and integrate POS systems.
Development tools: Alongside accessing APIs and integrations to transform store performance, companies can use the VTEX IO development platform to customize every aspect of their store, although it does require some technical knowledge.

When to Use Shopify and When to Use VTEX

When to Use Shopify

I’d recommend picking Shopify if you want:

A user-friendly website builder and omnichannel commerce solution that can scale to suit your business needs, without the need for comprehensive coding.
Affordable prices for smaller businesses with fewer advanced requirements.
An excellent app marketplace to help you boost the functionality of your store.

When to Use VTEX

Pick VTEX if you want:

A solution that focuses on headless commerce first, allowing companies to build highly customized B2B and B2C experiences.
Powerful AI tools, and marketing solutions to help boost your conversion rates.
A highly flexible ecosystem, with tons of API options and integrations.