Have you just recently begun a dropshipping business venture, or are you planning to?
If so, that's awesome!
Having the proper tools to assist you and your dropshipping business makes your life a little easier.
When just starting, you might not quite have the budget to get fancy tools. That's okay!
What's great is that there are plenty of tools out there that you can use for free.
In this article, we've rounded up the ten best tools you can use for free to help delegate specific tasks and assist in scaling your business!
Best free dropshipping tools: An overview
Before we jump into each tool in depth, let's take a quick look at an overview of all the tools covered in this article:
| Tool | Category | Pricing | Read Review |
| WooCommerce | Store Creation | Free | WooCommerce Review |
| Canva | Designing | Free / $13 / $15 per month | Canva Review |
| Hatchful | Designing | Free | Hatchful Review |
| Rytr | Automation | Free / $9 / $29 per month | Rytr Review |
| Grammarly | Automation | Free / $12 / $15 per month | Grammarly Review |
| Google Trends | Product Research | Free | Google Trends Review |
| Shine | Product Research | Free / $99 / $199 / $499 per month | Shine Review |
| DSers | Order Fulfillment | Free / $20 / $50 / $499 per month | DSers Review |
| CJdropshipping | Order Fulfillment | Free / $16 / $20 / $60 per month | CJdropshipping Review |
| Printful | Order Fulfillment | Free | Printful Review |
Now that you have seen the best free tools that we will cover in this article keep reading to learn more about each one of them.
The 5 best free tools for creating a dropshipping store
If you're starting out and you need to create a dropshipping store, these are some of the best tools that you can use for free when just starting out!
1. WooCommerce Review
WooCommerce is an ecommerce platform that integrates with WordPress and allows you to set up and customize your ecommerce website to sell products or services.
Similar to platforms such as Shopify, Woocommerce has many of the same features!
One thing that sets WooCommerce apart from other ecommerce platforms is that it is an open-source software solution.
This means that you have full control over everything regarding your store and have virtually no limits in terms of what you are able to do.
This can also be a downside if you have no previous experience. It all depends on what you're looking for!
Furthermore, since WooCommerce is an open-source software solution, there will be other expenses, such as web hosting, domain, and security, that you will need to consider.
Pros
- Lots of flexibility. Because WooCommerce is open-source software, there are many customization features and theme options for your store's look and how you want it to operate.
- Easy to set up. In order to set up WooCommerce, simply download the plugin from the WordPress store and follow the setup process within the plugin.
Cons
- Needs web hosting. One of the main downsides to WooCommerce is that you need a WordPress site to use the platform, and to set up a WordPress site, you need web hosting.
Pricing
WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin. However, you will need a WordPress site, and for a WordPress site, you will need to pay for web hosting.
You may also have other additional expenses like the domain cost, security, and extensions.
2. Canva
Canva is a popular and free-to-use graphic design tool used among dropshippers and businesses to create social media images, documents, infographics, and all other kinds of designs and visual content.
Canva's popularity stems from the fact that you can create graphic designs for your business without having to hire an expensive graphic designer.
Canva has a great design editor that's easy and intuitive to use, along with hundreds of great templates ready for you to use!
That's amazing, right?
Tip: Did you know that you can connect a Shopify or WooCommerce store to Canva? With DataPocket, you can access your store's information, including product images, descriptions, and pricing, directly from Canva!
Plus, whenever the data changes (like replacing product images), it will automatically sync to your designs on Canva. Learn more about DataPocket here!
Pros
- Easy and intuitive to use. Canva makes the process of designing images and videos smooth sailing through its easy editing interface.
- Ready-to-use templates. Canva sets you up with many different templates right off the bat that you can put your own images or logos into to make great graphics tailored to your brand.
Cons
- Limited photo editor features. One downside to Canva is that there aren't many options when it comes to editing photos with the software, things such as healing tools you don't really get with this tool.
Pricing
Canva's free plan comes with tons of great features, including free templates, photos, and the drag-and-drop editor.
If you want more features, such as brand kits, stock images, and premium templates, consider upgrading to their pro plan for $12.99 a month.
Canva also has a plan for teams starting at $14.99 a month for the first five people.
3. Hatchful
Hatchful is a free logo creation tool made by Shopify for users to easily create professional logos for their ecommerce stores.
Hatchful is similar to Canva in that they both are graphic design tools; however, where this software is limited is that it can only create logos and nothing else.
However, for logo creation, it's great. Hatchful gives users the perfect starting point with hundreds of templates to choose from to begin creating a logo.
In addition to logo templates, Hatchful is a clean-looking software with a great editing studio to streamline the logo creation process for users of the platform.
Pros
- Lots of great logo templates. The great thing about Hatchful is that you don't have to start from scratch creating a logo because they provide 100+ templates for you to start off with.
Cons
- Can only create logos. Hatchful is limited in that the tool is strictly for creating logos only and not infographics, business cards, or other things like you see with a tool such as Canva.
Pricing
Hatchful is 100% free to use! Simply sign up for an account, and you can begin using the platform.
4. Rytr
Rytr is an AI writing tool that automates content generation for businesses.
Simply choose one of the use cases and give Rytr a little about what content you would like it to generate, and Ryter will generate the content.
Dropshippers can use Rytr to save time by automating the content generation process for ads, website copy, emails, social media posts, and much more!
Rytr has over 35+ different use cases that you can use to produce high-quality content about a desired topic.
Cool, right?
Pros
- Saves time. Rytr automates the content generation process for your dropshipping business giving you more time to do more crucial tasks and helping you get more done.
- Supports over 30+ languages. Rytr can generate content in over 30+ different languages, including English, Spanish, Russian, and more.
- Built-in plagiarism checker. One unique pro to Rytr that you don't get with many other paid AI writing tools is a plagiarism checker, and this can be useful when writing content that needs to be one of a kind.
Cons
- Content needs to be fact-checked. Like with any AI writing tool, the content that Rytr produces can be false or inaccurate due to learning from bad data or interpreting input wrong.
Pricing
Rytr is a tool that certainly doesn't disappoint with its free plan, with features such as a plagiarism checker, 40+ use cases, and more.
With that said, though, if you'd like more than 10,000 characters per month or a couple more features, things such as custom use cases, you might consider upgrading to one of their paid plans from $9 a month.
5. Grammarly
Grammarly is a tool used by dropshippers and entrepreneurs to check writing for spelling, grammar, and plagiarism mistakes.
Grammarly can be great for:
- Emails
- Website text
- Customer service
- Social media posts
- And much more
Grammarly allows you to simply check the text on all devices with a browser extension or an app that you can download on your phone or tablet.
You can also put the text you would like to be checked into the Grammarly site, and it will reveal to you all the mistakes in your writing.
Overall, Grammarly is a super neat tool to ensure you are a more effective and accurate writer.
This will, in turn, give your dropshipping brand a more professional look, and customers will be more likely to trust you.
Pros
- Very accurate. Because Grammarly uses AI tools such as natural-language processing and human linguists, this makes the software accurate.
- A great Chrome extension. If you're on your computer, simply download the browser extension, and with a few clicks inside Grammarly, you're ready to go!
- Easy to understand and use. Grammarly is super simple to understand; when typing on your computer or phone, Grammarly will automatically underline text in red, click on the suggestion and fix the text.
Cons
- It only supports English. One downside to Grammarly is that it currently only supports the English language, which can be a turn-off for people that want to write in other languages.
Pricing
Grammarly offers basic spelling and grammar corrections with its free plan, which can be very useful.
Grammarly has other tiers to choose from, including its Premium tier for $30 and its Business tier for teams at $15 a month per member.
The 2 best free dropshipping tools for product research
The next thing you'll need is a product research tool; let's take a look at a couple of the best ones!
1. Google Trends Review
Google Trends is a free software that you can check to see local and worldwide trends based on what people are searching for.
This is a valuable tool that dropshippers can harness the power of to assess product and niche demand. It can also be used to understand geographical and demographic insights to tailor your offering.
You can use this tool to find potential winning products to dropship by searching for the trends on products that you are interested in selling.
It's best to start out with the location and time frame as broad as possible. You want to look for a trend that's just starting to go up, or that's been on a slow incline.
That's when it's best to begin dropshipping that particular product.
Of course, there are other ways to use and assess Google Trends. However, this is just one of the easiest ways to begin using the tool to find winning products.
Pros
- Find products to dropship. Google Trends gives users insights into what products or niches are in high demand at a particular time, giving them the data they need to find products and get results.
- Accessible data. Another pro of Google Trends is that the data is super accessible, meaning that you can look up and find the data you're looking for on any device at any time by looking up Google Trends.
Cons
- Doesn't provide exact numbers. The main con to Google Trends is that it doesn't provide exact figures when you search for a trend but rather relative numbers, which can make it difficult when going to assess data.
Pricing
Google Trends is free to use! The great thing is that you don't even need to sign up for an account to use Google Trends.
2. Shine Review
Shine (previously Commerce Inspector) is a product research tool that offers a dedicated store tracking dashboard as well as a Chrome extension.
This tool is mainly for examining other Shopify sites.
You can use Shine to examine competitors in your niche to see what their best-selling products are, the number of visitors they receive each month, what Shopify apps they use, and more:
Shine is great for understanding what steps are required to scale your ecommerce store.
Is Shine the best product research tool for your business? Consider taking our product research tools quiz and find out!
Pros
- Great for scaling your ecommerce site. Shine is a tool that allows you to track and gather information on competitors, making it an excellent tool for finding ways to scale your ecommerce site.
- Find winning products. Another great thing Shine has going for it is that you can see what products are selling well for other dropshipping sites in your niche so you can get an idea of what might sell well on your store.
Cons
- Limited features on the free plan. Shine offers basic features for the free plan; however, if you're looking for more advanced features, such as week-to-week bestsellers, you'll have to upgrade to a paid plan to receive those.
Pricing
With Shine's free plan, you can access their Chrome extension, but the data is limited.
If you want advanced features or want to follow more stores, paid plans start at $99 monthly.
Related article: For more free product research tools, check out our other list here!
The 3 best free dropshipping tools for order fulfillment
Now let's take a look at a few of the best dropshipping suppliers you can use for your dropshipping business.
1. DSers Review
DSers is a tool that simplifies the process of importing products from AliExpress to your dropshipping store.
If you're already dropshipping from AliExpress, DSers is the tool for you to assist with scaling your business.
The thing that sets DSers apart from other dropshipping supplier platforms is that you can pick and choose what supplier to fulfill your orders, so you never run out of stock, and you're able to optimize so you can get the best product price possible.
Furthermore, DSers allows you to import any type of products you'd like, place bulk orders, and offer BOGO and bundle offers within your dropshipping store.
If you want to learn more about DSers, be sure to check out our full review!
Pros
- Lots of features on the free plan. DSers is a tool that certainly doesn't lack features on the free plan; with the free plan, you get access to import 3,000 products from AliExpress, one PayPal account connection, and access to great customer support.
- Simplify the product importing process. If you are already using AliExpress to import products for your dropshipping business, DSers is a great option to simplify importing products to your online store.
Cons
- Longer shipping times. Since most of the suppliers on AliExpress are based in China, and DSers is a tool that imports products from AliExpress, shipping times can be a little longer than other dropshipping fulfillment options.
Pricing
If you'd like to upgrade from the free plan that DSers offers, their tiers start at $19.99 a month.
You get access to import more products and lots of other very helpful features to help you scale your dropshipping business.
2. CJdropshipping Review
CJdropshipping is the next order fulfillment platform on this list. This is an order fulfillment tool that allows you to delegate the order fulfillment process of your dropshipping business.
What makes CJdropshipping different from other dropshipping fulfillment tools is the fast processing time, usually within one to three days for products in warehousing.
In addition to the fast processing times, you can choose from one of the 400,000 products CJdropshipping already has.
CJdropshipping also takes pride in its quality control process. During this process, they inspect each product carefully before packaging and shipping them out.
On top of this, CJdropshipping assigns you your own personal customer service agent for any questions or concerns you might have.
You can read our full review of CJdropshipping here!
Pros
- Fast processing times. For most products held in one of the CJdropshipping warehousing facilities, order processing times will be about one-three days which can be great for the customer experience of your dropshipping brand.
- Great quality control. Another great pro to CJdropshipping is their quality control; each order that is fulfilled with CJdropshipping is carefully looked over before being shipped.
- Helpful customer service. When you begin using the CJdroshipping, you're assigned your own personal customer service agent to help you solve any problems or answer any questions you may have.
Cons
- Saturated market. Because there are a lot of people using CJdropshipping as their dropshipping supplier, some of the products might have high competition; however, there are still a ton of opportunities with CJdropshipping!
Pricing
CJdropshipping is a very useful tool that comes with a lot of features with the free plan.
However, if you're looking for more daily sourcing requests or more features such as VIP products, then you might want to upgrade to one of their paid plans starting at $15.99.
3. Printful Review
Printful is a print on demand fulfillment company that customizes white-labeled products such as clothing, accessories, homeware, and more.
Printful then puts your selected logo and branding onto said products and then ships the products straight to your customer's door.
Printful makes things easy to set up and start your print on demand business with over 150+ various products and fulfillment centers in over five different countries.
In addition, all of Printful's orders are shipped within two-five business days, making it one of the fastest print on demand suppliers out there.
With all of that said, Printful is an excellent option for those who are looking to start a brand that's a little more personalized and customizable than a standard dropshipping brand.
Pros
- Quick shipping times. Printful, with two-five day processing times, has one of the faster shipping and processing times in terms of print on demand suppliers.
- Lots of integrations. Printful integrates with over 20 different ecommerce platforms and marketplaces, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, and more.
- More personalized and customizable. Most of the time, with standard dropshipping, you're selling products with no customization, but that's not the case with print on demand because you're able to customize a product and put your own logo and branding on it.
Cons
- Few categories of products. One of the few downsides to using Printful for print on demand is that they only carry products such as clothing, homeware, and a few other accessories, which could be a turn-off for people who are looking to sell other kinds of products.
Pricing
Printful doesn't have any monthly subscription fees, but there are some paid customization options:
- Digitization. When it comes to embroidery, all files need to be digitized to a format the embroidery machines support. This is a one-time fee of between $2.95 and $6.50 for each new design, which depends on the design's type and placement.
- Extra customization. Printful offers some extra customization options for your items, such as additional large prints ($5.95 per extra print), sleeve prints ($2.49 per short sleeve and $5.95 per long sleeve), and inside and outside apparel labels ($2.49 per label).
- Premium Images. Printful offers you the option to customize your products with premium photos. Premium Images for your designs cost $1 plus tax per image and placement.
For more information about Printful's pricing plan, check out this article here!
Taking action
Reading and absorbing information and knowledge is great (definitely if it’s free!), but do you know what’s even better?
Taking action!
So, to help you with taking action with what you have learned in this article, take a look at the bullet points:
- Set up an ecommerce site. First things first, if you don't already have an ecommerce site, you're going to need to setup up a site with a platform like Shopify.
- Design your store. The next step is to design your store. You can use things like Canva and Hatchful to help you design your store, and tools such as Grammarly and Rytr help with creating website copy.
- Choose a supplier. Choosing a supplier depends on the level of customization you want with your products and the type of products you're looking to sell; if you're wondering what supplier would be the best for your business, check out our dropshipping suppliers quiz.
- Find products to sell. If you want to win with dropshipping, you're going to need to hop on trends. To find these trends, we recommend using a tool like Google Trends.
Conclusion
That's it!
Those are the ten best free dropshipping tools that you can use to help scale your dropshipping business in 2024!
We hope that this has revealed to you that you don't have to spend tons of money on fancy dropshipping tools when you're just starting out.
There are plenty of tools to help you scale for free!
Hopefully, this article has provided value to you and your dropshipping journey.
Happy dropshipping!
Want to learn more about dropshipping?
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