Despite offering a free solution to establish online stores, PrestaShop still cannot optimize users’ experiences due to certain drawbacks. Understanding that, we have just prepared for you some outstanding PrestaShop alternatives to increase your chances of success when running an eCommerce site.
In our blog, we will provide detailed reviews about the 11 best alternatives for your PrestaShop store, including:
Right now, let’s start the discovery journey with us below!
What Is PrestaShop? Why Look for PrestaShop Alternatives?
PrestaShop is known as a free and open-source solution that allows users to install and manage online stores. This platform has a strong set of built-in features, including product management, order tracking, multi-language support, inventory control, and customer relationship management (CRM).
Despite its strengths, people want to seek PrestaShop alternatives for a variety of reasons:
- PrestaShop has a steep learning curve, often requiring coding skills or developers.
- Add-ons, hosting, and development can increase costs, despite the platform being free.
- Customizations may slow the site, especially for large stores.
- Larger stores may struggle with scaling, and users must manage security themselves.
- Direct support is limited and often paid.
With certain disadvantages above, you may consider some PrestaShop alternatives to attain the finest results for your business. However, let’s remember that you can select only 1 new option with proper qualities that minimize the PrestaShop’s pitfalls effectively, not completely. Indeed, we think that no platform is perfect enough to build up an online store without releasing any problems.
List of Best Prestashop Alternatives & Competitors
#1. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a SaaS eCommerce platform. Unlike PrestaShop, it does not require installation, making it easier to set up. While PrestaShop is suited for experts, BigCommerce is a great choice for beginners. Its user-friendly tools make customization simple.
Benefits of BigCommerce – Which features are BigCommerce better than PrestaShop?
PrestaShop often requires coding to optimize site performance while in contrast, BigCommerce provides built-in features. You can easily customize your store without worrying about coding or selecting modules. Everything you need is already available.
PrestaShop charges for technical support, starting at €300 per person. BigCommerce, however, offers 24/7 support for free. No matter your pricing plan, you get immediate help whenever needed.
Drawbacks of BigCommerce
One drawback is the limited number of free themes, similar to PrestaShop. If you need more design options, you’ll need to pay for premium themes. This can add to your overall cost. Don’t forget to look at BigCommerce pricing plans (pay monthly) for better preparation.
- Standard plan: $39/month
- Plus plan: $105/month
- Pro plan: $399/month
Who is BigCommerce for?
BigCommerce is ideal for businesses looking to grow quickly. Its powerful features help you scale your store and improve performance. If you’re running a large or fast-growing business, BigCommerce is a strong option.
#2. Shopify
Shopify is also a SaaS, offering a range of useful functions from product discovery to store management. When registering an account on this platform, you can have a free trial and experience the 3 first months of only $1. That’s why Shopify has attracted a lot of merchants’s attention.
Benefits of Shopify – Which features are Shopify better than PrestaShop?
When coming to PrestaShop alternatives, Shopify is a must-try solution due to various outstanding benefits compared to PrestaShop. Unlike PrestaShop, Shopify provides free hosting and subdomains. This makes it easier to build your site quickly. Additionally, Shopify includes a free SSL certificate to enhance your store's security. You can manage everything from a single dashboard, which streamlines the process.
Shopify also offers a built-in Point of Sale (POS) system. This feature, unavailable in PrestaShop, allows for faster checkouts and smoother payment processing. With it, you can handle customer orders more efficiently, making Shopify a strong contender for businesses focused on sales.
Drawbacks of Shopify
While Shopify includes free hosting, its SEO capabilities are limited. Unlike PrestaShop, Shopify does not support Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for faster mobile performance. To improve mobile optimization, you’ll need to pay for additional services.
Also, Shopify’s pricing can be a concern for some users.
- Shopify Starter: $5/month
- Basic Shopify: $39/month
- Shopify: $105/month
- Advanced Shopify: $399/month
- Shopify Plus: from $2,000/month
Who is Shopify for?
We think that Shopify is a good solution for any small business or B2C store to start an eCommerce plan. You can use all supported functions, such as blogging tools, basic reporting, free SSL, or abandoned carts, to optimize your store performance. Let’s discover our PrestaShop vs Shopify comparisons to select a better option for your current business.
#3. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of PrestaShop alternatives open source. You can easily download the WooCommerce plugin from WordPress to turn a blog into an online store. It's ideal for businesses already using WordPress.
Benefits of WooCommerce – Which features are WooCommerce better than PrestaShop?
Despite being known as an open-source solution, WooCommerce is still more highly evaluated than PrestaShop to some extent.
While PrestaShop owns basic SEO options, WooCommerce can access all of the powerful WordPress SEO plugins. If you are familiar with WordPress, it is not a challenge to optimize your site’s content with WooCommerce is not a challenge. Additionally, don’t forget to take advantage of the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress to enhance SEO rankings effectively.
As a WordPress plugin, WooCommerce provides access to a large number of extensions. These plugins help with managing posts, blogs, and pages. You can easily add more features from the WordPress plugin store. This makes WooCommerce more versatile than PrestaShop.
Drawbacks of WooCommerce
However, WooCommerce has its downsides. It doesn't offer live chat support. Users must handle technical and security issues themselves or rely on paid extensions, which can become costly.
Similarly to PrestaShop, WooCommerce will also require you to pay operational costs, including:
- Mandatory costs: hosting, domain, shipping, payments, themes, and security.
- Optional costs: developer hiring, customer experience, and marketing tools.
Who is it for?
With outstanding SEO functions, WooCommerce can work well with most eCommerce models. If you want to access more plugins for your store-building process, WooCommerce can be an ideal solution for e-market merchants. For a deeper understanding of the differences between both platforms, let’s refer to our comparisons of PrestaShop vs WooCommerce.
#4. Ecwid
Ecwid is a SaaS solution, which gains popularity with small businesses on their own. It is simply because Ecwid offers a forever-free plan with a broad range of fundamental features to build an eCommerce store. If you want to experience more extensions, let’s upgrade plans for your site.
Benefits of Ecwid – Which features are Ecwid better than PrestaShop?
There are a lot of reasons why we consider Ecwid can be an ideal PrestaShop alternative. Below are some of our evaluations of the outstanding benefits of this platform.
One of the outstanding benefits of SaaS solutions is to bring seamless selling. This is not an exception with Ecwid. With this platform, you can enhance the order exchange’s speed and reliability effectively. Moreover, we also highly evaluate the multiplatform operating ability of Ecwid, which can help you gain sales ranging from website to social networks.
In case you don’t know much about tech skills to run an online store, let’s take the assistance of Ecwid immediately. While PrestaShop requires you to install its source code, you only need to start the Ecwid site by registering with your email. After that, follow all instructions to access the final display of your Ecwid store within a few minutes.
Drawbacks of Ecwid
To fix any problem while managing the Ecwid site, you can only contact the Ecwid team by phone or chat if you have its premium pricing plans. Besides that, the platform customization ability can be limited when compared to other SaaS solutions. That’s why you can find it challenging to modify some features from your Ecwid store.
Who is Ecwid for?
Ecwid is a favorite option of multichannel merchants due to its flexibility. You can embed Ecwid in any existing website, marketplace, or even social media to gain your store’s sales effectively.
#5. Wix
Another option in the list of PrestaShop alternatives is Wix. It is a cloud-based eCommerce platform – offering various powerful tools to build a new website with ease. With the support of Wix, you can manage all things through a web-based drag-and-drop editor, helping you save time in arranging design elements on your site.
Benefits of Wix – Which features are Wix better than PrestaShop?
Wix not only plays an important role in setting up your online store but also gains the site’s eCommerce values. You can choose a lot of templates available on Wix to build their online store. After that, let’s take the assistance of Wix ADI or Wix Editor to customize your site display easily.
- Wix Editor: You can use Wix Editor to modify anything, ranging from page scrolling to web applications. Most Wix elements are easy to use, thus, don’t worry, you can completely control your Wix site in a short time.
- Wix ADI: Wix will ask you some relevant questions to help you build your store properly. Depending on your answers, it’s sure that Wix ADI will create a unique web, which is just for your brand.
Wix provides customer support 24/7, in various languages like English, German, Japanese, French, or Spanish. Additionally, you can receive 1-on-1 support from the Wix support team to tackle unexpected issues quickly.
Drawbacks of Wix
If you prefer making cross-border transactions, Wix is not one of the ideal PrestaShop alternatives to satisfy this demand. Basically, business owners will be restricted from multi-currency selling on Wix.
Additionally, in case you want to change a new template for your current Wix site, you need to build up all relevant features from scratch.
Who is Wix for?
We believe that Wix is a good solution for small businesses to manage their stores from the online public. With various pricing plans, starting from $16/month, you can easily optimize your operational budget.
#6. Magento
Like PrestaShop or WooCommerce, Magento is an open-source solution to run your eCommerce store. It is an ideal platform for you to create an attractive digital storefront in the public sight. Besides that, you can use Magento to gain your store’s sales with a wide collection of extensions and apps.
Benefits of Magento – Which features are Magento better than PrestaShop?
To explain why we recommend Magento as one of the PrestaShop alternatives open source for online merchants, let’s review our comparisons below.
With the Magento Enterprise version, your site can easily maintain a stable loading speed in case a lot of customers visit at one time. That’s why large-scale eCommerce businesses consider Magento as one of their favorite options to manage their site. Besides that, Magento can optimize your store with the switching process of thousands of products, and a huge number of sales.
If PrestaShop focuses on eCommerce features, Magento can expand its power to other extents, like SEO or the store’s display. It means that if you want to optimize your site’s SEO rankings, you hardly install additional extensions. All of the strongest tools are available in Magento.
Drawbacks of Magento
While Magento offers robust features, it can be expensive for many businesses. To unlock its full potential, you'll need to choose between two main pricing options: Managed Service and Adobe Commerce Pro. Both packages provide advanced eCommerce tools but come at a high cost.
Additionally, Magento users must cover various operational expenses. These include hosting, implementation, and ongoing maintenance. Over time, these costs can significantly increase, making Magento a pricier option compared to other platforms. Businesses should carefully weigh these costs before committing to Magento.
Who is Magento for?
We highly recommend you adopt the assistance of Magento as an alternative to PrestaShop when running a large-scale business. With outstanding options and its immense scalability, Magento can help enhance your store’s sales.
In case you are still confused about both platforms clearly, let’s read our comprehensive comparisons of PrestaShop vs Magento for clear evaluations.
#7. Squarespace
Regarding PrestaShop alternatives, you should not miss Squarespace. It is a CMS, which is specially designed to promote blogs or portfolios for your online store effectively. This platform also impresses users with its drag-and-drop interface, helping to easily launch professional Squarespace site pages.
Benefits of Squarespace – Which features are Squarespace better than PrestaShop?
Being one of the most popular CMSs, Squarespace can deliver unique features for building your site’s content that you can not find on any platform.
In terms of SEO concerns, Squarespace is better evaluated than PrestaShop. Although both platforms can offer strong SEO optimization tools, PrestaShop takes more effort to attain similar values as Squarespace. With Squarespace, you can easily access built-in features like XML sitemaps, URLs, or even redirects.
Squarespace can support you with 24/7 live chat or email. It is great for you to tackle any unexpected problems during the control time on your Squarespace store. Similarly to Wix, users can use updated documentation from the Squarespace Help Center to get the right solutions if necessary.
Drawbacks of Squarespace
Unfortunately, Squarespace only supports 4 main payment gateways, including Square, PayPal, Squarespace Payments, and Stripe. By contrast, business owners can connect to a lot of gateways to accept customer payments on PrestaShop. Besides that, Squarespace can be a challenge with beginners due to its limits to switching the store’s templates.
Who is Squarespace for?
Among the best PrestaShop alternatives, Squarespace is an optimal option for any merchant having a tight budget. Moreover, if you don’t know more about technical skills, let’s consider Squarespace as a wonderful solution.
#8. Big Cartel
Big Cartel is an ideal solution to run eCommerce sites tailored to creatives, musicians, and influencers. Thus, this platform is specially designed to satisfy these groups’ demands, together with impressive pastel colors.
Benefits of Big Cartel – Which features are Big Cartel better than PrestaShop?
Big Cartel owns special functions, making it one of the wonderful PrestaShop alternatives currently.
First, Big Cartel has a variety of free themes. You can use a broad range of free Big Cartel themes to customize their storefronts. With each design, Big Cartel can bring a distinctive style to your site, ranging from elegant to innovative. Additionally, every feature on Big Cartel can bring you a chilling, but strongly artistic feeling.
Besides, you will not be charged any fee from Big Cartel when completing orders with customers. It is great for you to save the store’s budget effectively. Compared to PrestaShop, this platform is also highly evaluated due to being fairly easy to use. In case you don’t have a good base of technical skills, you can still optimize the Big Cartel store.
Drawbacks of Big Cartel
Big Cartel doesn’t offer you a lot of marketing extensions, or eCommerce apps. This can make you find this platform difficult to gain your store’s sales. Besides that, the lack of deep analytics from Big Cartel is a big downside that you should consider.
Who is Big Cartel for?
If you are an artist or pursuing an art field like music or painting, we think that Big Cartel is one of the best PrestaShop alternatives. With unique themes, you can easily create an online store with an attractive display.
#9. Shift4Shop
Shift4Shop is known as a website-building solution rather than eCommerce platform. However, it can offer you all wonderful tools to gain eCommerce value for your online store effectively. That’s why we still mention it as one of the best PrestaShop alternatives in this list.
Benefits of Shift4Shop – Which features are Shift4Shop better than PrestaShop?
To discover why we suggest Shift4Shop in this case, let’s take a look at our evaluations now. With PrestaShop, if you want to edit the robot.txt section, you need to activate the paid modules from PrestaShop Addons. However, Shift4Shop can make it easier by providing full control of the index collection. Moreover, you can use a broad range of marketing tools available on Shift4Shop to optimize SEO rankings for your site.
All Shift4Shop themes have high compatibility with any platform, ranging from website to mobile or tablet display. That’s why business owners can surely deliver their sites’ well-structured performance in the customers’ sight. Besides that, don’t forget to visit a huge library of 100+ professional themes to get the best option for your store.
Drawbacks of Shift4Shop
Some users find the Shift4Shop interface challenging to customize and navigate. This can have a negative influence on their store-building time. Adding to that, some technical instructions from Shift4Shop might not be consistent in some cases.
Who is Shift4Shop for?
If you are looking for a friendly-budget solution but still meet basic eCommerce requirements, we will recommend Shift4Shop. Moreover, this platform is also ideal for anyone preferring a no-code solution.
#10. Weebly
Weebly is the final PrestaShop alternative on our list. It’s a hosted eCommerce solution with many useful features. Users can set up a new site quickly, often within minutes. For first-time users, Weebly offers a Forever Free plan, which helps optimize an online store.
Benefits of Weebly – Which features are Weebly better than PrestaShop?
Compared to PrestaShop, Weebly can bring various benefits, such as:
- A wide range of free templates, easily switchable between various designs.
- Mobile-friendly display for better compatibility with devices.
- A variety of SEO and blogging tools for managing your site.
Drawbacks of Weebly
The Forever Free plan has its limitations. You may face restrictions with customer support. Additionally, Weebly lacks advanced backup systems and design customization options for your store.
Who is Weebly for?
We believe that Weebly is an ideal option for beginners running their online store. Moreover, if you are seeking an affordable solution for your eCommerce business plans, let’s consider the assistance of Weebly.
#11. OpenCart
OpenCart is another strong alternative to PrestaShop. It is an open-source eCommerce platform that offers flexibility and control. With OpenCart, users can create and manage an online store with ease. The platform is free to use, making it a cost-effective solution.
Benefits of OpenCart Compared to PrestaShop
OpenCart allows you to manage multiple online stores from one dashboard. This feature isn’t built into PrestaShop by default and requires third-party modules.
OpenCart comes with a broader range of built-in payment gateways compared to PrestaShop, reducing the need for extra extensions. What's more, OpenCart’s extension marketplace is more streamlined. Modules can often be installed with just one click, making it easier to enhance functionality. PrestaShop’s marketplace can be more complex and may require additional setup.
Drawbacks of OpenCart
While OpenCart has these advantages, it’s important to note that it requires more technical knowledge to set up and maintain. Unlike PrestaShop, which has a large community and more user-friendly documentation, OpenCart may require more developer involvement for advanced customizations.
Who is OpenCart for?
OpenCart is a great choice for businesses needing multi-store management and cloud hosting from the start. It’s also ideal for those looking for a platform with more built-in payment gateway options.
PrestaShop Alternatives: FAQs
Absolutely yes, PrestaShop is being used by more than 200,000 websites all over the world. Some famous brands can be listed such as addidas.co.ma, allzone.es, accitech.es, and so forth.
PrestaShop is free to download and use, but you may need to pay for hosting, themes, and additional modules.
It depends on your needs. WooCommerce is ideal for WordPress users, while PrestaShop offers more flexibility for larger eCommerce sites.
Magento is more powerful and scalable, suited for larger businesses. PrestaShop is simpler and more user-friendly, ideal for small to medium-sized businesses.
Conclusion
Our blog has just reviewed the 11 best PrestaShop alternatives that you can consider to run your eCommerce store. Don’t forget to look at your demands and budget to reach the final decision for this problem.
LitExtension, the #1 Shopping Cart Migration Expert, hopes you find a proper alternative for PrestaShop. Check out our eCommerce Platform Resource or join our Facebook Community Group for more valuable tips.
