3dcart vs Shopify Comparison

There are good reasons to consider either 3dcart or Shopify as the potential hosted ecommerce platform of choice. Both services provide a variety of features out of the box as well as 24/7 support, a key factor when selecting a service provider. This is because you want support available whenever you hit a roadblock so that the site doesn’t encounter any interruptions. Still, when you look at either service from up close or start using their respective free trials, this is when you realize which one matches your personal needs.

When it comes to accepting payments, 3dcart offers users a selection of 130+ payment gateways, something that business owners should take into consideration if they plan to go worldwide, for example. Also, 3dcart doesn’t charge an extra fee for not using its own preferred payment gateway, whereas Shopify does. If you aren’t using its payment gateway, Shopify Payments, then Shopify will charge an extra 2% transaction fee on top of credit card fees.

It is worth mentioning that 3dcart’s $19.99 per month Starter plan includes slightly better marketing features than Shopify’s $29 per month plan, as customers can generate coupons and discount codes while higher-priced plans are a requirement for this with the latter.

What makes Shopify appealing to small and medium-sized business owners worldwide is that it provides all the core tools for an online store. To enrich the customer experience, business owners are invited to customize their templates by installing any of the more than one thousand apps from the marketplace. By doing so, they will enable additional benefits, a step that less tech-experienced users will find harder to take as coding is required.

It’s quite exciting to see how the two giant platforms push clients to upgrade to higher-priced plans. 3dcart, for example, has strict thresholds that are measured in annual sales figures. Shopify doesn’t have this limitation, instead it motivates with greater discounts on shipping and transaction fees.

Neither of the two platforms charge setup fees and both offer free trials – Shopify’s is 14 days and 3dcart’s 15 – before being required to commit to a plan. In Shopify’s case, the most basic subscription starts at $9 per month.

If you are looking for a cheap solution to sell a handful of products online or integrate a buy button into your site or social media, Shopify’s entry-level plan Lite will be a good choice. For $9 per month, you get the basic tools to get started. This could serve the purpose of opening an online store up to internet citizens and will service your needs while it is small, but you’ll need more serious tools as the ecommerce side of the business grows. That’s when selecting a platform with the proper features comes into play, like 3dcart, and selecting the appropriate one depends on your personal preference.