No platform beats Shopify for every store, but several beat it for particular businesses. WooCommerce suits stores that want ownership and lots of content, BigCommerce suits growing catalogues that want more features built in, Squarespace and Wix suit small ranges attached to a brand site, and marketplaces suit testing demand before you build anything. Whether something is better than Shopify depends on what you sell, how much you sell and who looks after the site.
So the useful question is not which platform is best. It is which platform is best for your store. Here are the main options and the situations where each one wins.
What Shopify does well
It helps to know the bar before you look for something higher. Shopify is hosted for you, so there is no server to manage. Its checkout is fast and trusted by shoppers. It connects a shopfront, markets, social channels and marketplaces through one system, and its app store covers almost any feature you can think of.
The common complaints are the mirror image: monthly app costs that creep up, an extra transaction fee if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, limited checkout changes on the lower plans, and a store you cannot move to another platform without rebuilding it. If none of those bother you, Shopify may already be the right answer.
The main alternatives and when each wins
WooCommerce on WordPress
WooCommerce is a free plugin that adds a store to a WordPress website. You choose your own hosting and payment gateway, and the platform takes no cut of your sales. It wins when content drives your traffic, when the store is one part of a larger business website, or when you need custom features such as quote requests, made-to-measure products or trade pricing. The trade-off is upkeep: someone has to manage updates, backups and hosting.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a hosted platform like Shopify, but it builds more features into the core product, so you may need fewer paid apps. It is known for strong catalogue tools and wholesale features, and it does not add its own transaction fee on top of payment processing. Its plans are linked to your annual online sales, so check where your revenue sits before you compare prices. It tends to win for growing retailers with large or complicated product ranges.
Squarespace Commerce
Squarespace is a design-led website builder with selling features included on its commerce plans. It wins when the website is mainly about the brand and the store is a small part of it: a photographer selling prints, a café selling merchandise, a studio selling a handful of classes or products. It is less suited to large catalogues or complex stock.
Wix eCommerce
Wix offers a similar all-in-one approach with a drag and drop editor. It suits small product ranges and owners who want to manage the site themselves. As the catalogue and integrations grow, the limits of an all-in-one builder show up sooner than they do on Shopify.
Maropost Commerce Cloud
Maropost Commerce Cloud started in Australia as Neto. It is aimed at established retailers that sell across several channels and need serious inventory and wholesale management behind the website. It wins when stock control and multi-channel operations are the hard part of the business, not the storefront.
Marketplaces and social selling
eBay, Amazon Australia, Etsy and social shops let you sell without building a store at all. They are a sensible way to test whether a product sells. The downside is that you are renting someone else’s customers: the marketplace sets the fees and the rules, and the customer relationship mostly stays with them.
Custom and headless builds
Large retailers sometimes build a custom storefront on top of a commerce engine. This gives full control over speed and design, but it costs far more to build and maintain. Very few Perth small businesses need it.
How to decide what is better for your store
Score each option against the things that will actually shape your day:
- Product range: how many products, how many variants, and how often the range changes.
- Upkeep: who will update the site, fix problems and manage stock.
- Content: how much of your marketing depends on guides, blog posts and service pages.
- Channels: whether you sell in person, at markets, on social media or through marketplaces.
- Integrations: which accounting, shipping and stock systems the store must connect to.
- Growth: what the business looks like in three years, not just at launch.
Whichever platform scores best on the list that matters most to you is the better choice, even if another one wins on paper. Our ecommerce website design work starts with this scoring, before any platform is mentioned.
When staying on Shopify is the smart move
Moving platforms takes time and money, and there is always some risk to your search rankings during a migration. If your frustration is a slow theme, too many apps or a clunky product page, those problems can often be fixed within Shopify. Switch when the platform itself is the constraint, not when a particular setup is.
Frequently asked questions
Are there Australian ecommerce platforms?
Yes. Maropost Commerce Cloud, formerly Neto, began in Australia and is used by many local retailers. Most of the large global platforms also support Australian dollars, GST settings and local payment providers.
Is Shopify Plus an alternative to Shopify?
Not really. Shopify Plus is Shopify’s top plan for high-volume businesses, with more checkout control, automation and support. It is an upgrade path rather than a different platform.
Can I sell online without a website?
Yes, through marketplaces and social shops. It is a low-cost way to test demand, but you have less control over fees, branding and customer data than you would with your own store.
Which Shopify alternative is best for a small catalogue?
For a handful of products attached to a brand site, Squarespace or Wix can be enough. If you already have a WordPress website, adding WooCommerce is often the simplest path.
Find the right fit for your store
If you are unsure whether Shopify or something else suits your business, our ecommerce website design team can compare the options against how you actually sell. Or book a discovery call and bring your product list.
