The 5 Best Ecommerce Platforms for Dropshipping in 2024

What is the best ecommerce platform to build my dropshipping store on?

If you are currently trying to find a simple answer to this question, you will know that choosing the best ecommerce platform for dropshipping isn't simple.

There are hundreds of ecommerce platforms available worldwide, so it's unrealistic to do thorough research on each one.

The truth is, there are quite some platforms out there that we could call "the best," but that doesn't mean they are the best for you.

Today, we will narrow down all these ecommerce platforms to just five that are best suited for your need; opening and running a successful dropshipping store.

Using this article, you will likely be able to find the best ecommerce platform for your dropshipping store in under ten minutes!

So, if you were getting discouraged from dropshipping, don't be.

An estimated 2.14 billion people will make an online purchase in 2024, and 23% of those sales are fulfilled with dropshipping, worth about 85 billion USD!

Pretty impressive, right?

How do you pick the right ecommerce platform?

Choosing the right ecommerce platform can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.

With a sea of options, how do you know which one will best suit your needs?

Well, the selection process gets much easier if you consider some key factors:

• Ease of use. Is the platform user-friendly? Can you easily set up and manage your online store without a computer science degree? Shopify and Wix are known for their intuitive interfaces.
• Customization. Can you tailor your store to your brand's aesthetic and functionality needs? WooCommerce offers great customization options.
• Pricing. What's your budget? Compare the costs of different platforms, including subscription fees, transaction fees, and any additional charges. Shift4Shop and Ecwid have competitive pricing plans.
• Integrations. Does the platform seamlessly integrate with the tools and services you already use or plan to use, such as payment gateways, shipping providers, or marketing apps? Most platforms, like Shopify and WooCommerce, offer various integrations.
• Scalability. Can the platform grow with your business? As your store gains traction, you'll want a platform to handle increased traffic and sales volume. Shopify and BigCommerce are known for their scalability.
• Support. How reliable is the platform's customer support? You'll want a platform with responsive, helpful support when issues arise. Shopify and BigCommerce offer excellent customer service.

Are you still feeling overwhelmed?

If so, take our ecommerce platform quiz to get a personalized recommendation based on your needs:

Or read on to learn more about the best dropshipping platform based on your needs!

What is the best dropshipping ecommerce platform for me?

The answer is... that only you know the answer.

Ecommerce platforms are all unique. Just like you are unique.

And the reason it's so challenging to choose "the best" platform is because each of the five ecommerce platforms covered today has its own reason(s) why it could be the best.

Today, we will try to identify the best ecommerce platform for dropshipping based on your needs:

• The best platform overall.
• The best SEO performance.
• The platform built specifically for dropshippers.
• The cheapest option.
• The platform that offers the best resources.
• The most flexible and customizable platform.
• The platform with the easiest setup for a dropshipping store.

If you are looking for a quick answer, here is a simple overview of the results:

You need:	The best option(s) for you:
The best platform overall	Shopify or BigCommerce
The best SEO performance	WooCommerce
The platform built specifically for dropshippers	ShopBase
The cheapest option	Shift4Shop (in the US) or ShopBase
The platform that offers the best resources	Shopify
The most flexible and customizable platform	WooCommerce
The platform with the easiest setup for a dropshipping store	ShopBase

Curious to see why we have selected these options? Read about it in more detail below!

Tip: Looking for an in-depth review of each platform? You will find it at the bottom of the article!

What ecommerce platform for dropshipping is the best overall?

Shopify is the best ecommerce platform for dropshipping overall.

It is the third-largest retailer behind Amazon and eBay. Their premium product, Shopify Plus, is used by well-known corporations like Pepsi, Heinz, Tesla, and even celebrities like Lady Gaga.

Most critics consider it one of the top ten ecommerce platforms, and many others think it is the best overall platform for dropshipping.

Shopify is the best platform for dropshipping for the following seven reasons:

• It is really easy to start a Shopify store as a beginner
• It is affordable, and provides value and scalability
• It offers world-class customer support
• It has the speed and security you need
• It offers marketing tools and SEO
• It is mobile friendly
• And lastly, it provides resources and apps specifically for dropshipping stores!

Good to know: At first, Shopify had Oberlo as their own dropshipping app. However, Oberlo has shut down now.

Another great all-around ecommerce platform for dropshipping is BigCommerce:

Compared to Shopify, BigCommerce offers better SEO performance, more built-in features, more support for product options and variants, and has just a single core product; its ecommerce platform.

Meanwhile, Shopify offers many third-party plugins (although sometimes at a cost), is easier to use, and has world-class support.

What ecommerce platform for dropshipping has the best SEO performance?

WooCommerce is the ecommerce platform you should be looking at if you are seeking strong SEO performance.

The reason for this has to do with the way WooCommerce works.

WooCommerce is open-source software and a plug-in for WordPress. To open a dropshipping store using WooCommerce, you need to take care of the hosting part yourself.

The result of this is that you have complete ownership of your store, unlike on other ecommerce platforms. Therefore, you will be able to change any SEO-related specifics for your store and optimize it to rank in the best way possible.

To conclude, not only is WooCommerce very SEO-friendly right out of the box, but it also works on top of WordPress, which is already recognized as an excellent platform for SEO. (For example, you could start a blog next to your dropshipping store!)

What ecommerce platform is built specifically for dropshippers?

ShopBase is the best ecommerce platform if you are looking for an ecommerce solution built for dropshippers.

This ecommerce platform already offers many built-in features that are frequently used by dropshippers.

For instance, it offers:

• A native AliExpress connection
• Free upselling and cross-selling tools
• A monthly list of winning dropshipping products to sell
• Its own fulfillment service
• A dedicated print on demand service

What is the cheapest ecommerce platform for dropshipping?

On the face of it, WooCommerce looks to be the cheapest ecommerce platform as its base is free to use. However, the hosting costs you need for a WordPress website prevent it from being the cheapest.

If you are from the US, the cheapest ecommerce platform for dropshipping is Shift4Shop - and it is entirely free!

If you are located outside the US, Shift4Shop will set you back at least $29 per month, which doesn't make it the cheapest anymore.

Therefore, the cheapest ecommerce platform for dropshipping is ShopBase.

It costs just $19 per month for the basic plan and has many of the features you will need already built-in, which means you will save money on expensive apps as well!

What ecommerce platform offers the most resources about dropshipping?

Shopify is the ecommerce platform that offers the most resources about dropshipping.

It offers all kinds of resources that will help you learn more about dropshipping.

Think about webinars, blogs, guides, step-by-step instructions, and founder stories!

However, don't forget that you can find pretty much everything you need for your dropshipping store on this blog as well.

Just visit our dropshipping checklist for a step-by-step guide towards a successful dropshipping store!

What ecommerce platform is the most flexible and customizable?

WooCommerce is the platform that is the most flexible and customizable.

As you can see from their homepage above, you can build exactly the ecommerce website that you want!

As mentioned before, WooCommerce is so customizable because it is an open-source platform, and you will have complete ownership over your store.

Therefore, WooCommerce is flexible, scalable, and will integrate with pretty much any service!

What ecommerce platform provides the most effortless setup for a dropshipping store?

ShopBase is the best ecommerce platform if your goal is to get a fully functional dropshipping store using the least amount of effort.

That's because it features an automated online store creator!

Using 60+ pre-made templates for dropshipping and print on demand businesses, ShopBase can create a fully functional store for you in just one click.

You won't need any coding or design skills!

The best ecommerce platforms for dropshipping

If you are looking for in-depth reviews about the best ecommerce platforms for dropshipping, you will find them here!

These reviews will further explain why we have previously selected the ecommerce platforms in the way that we did.

In this section, we will cover each of the ecommerce platforms based on the following topics:

• Feature highlights. What are the eye-catching features of this platform?
• User experience and customer service. Is the platform beginner-friendly? And does it offer a good customer service?
• SEO, marketing, and analytics. How well does the platform perform on the SEO and marketing part? Does it offer an satisfactory analytics dashboard?
• Support for mobile devices. Will you be able to work on your store from your mobile devices? And will your store offer a great experience for mobile visitors?
• Pricing. How much does it cost to use the ecommerce platform and build a dropshipping store on it?

Here is a ranked overview of our top ecommerce platform recommendations:

Let's start!

1. Shopify Review

Shopify is arguably one of the best - if not the best - ecommerce platforms out there. Its goal is to make it easy and affordable for beginner entrepreneurs to enter the booming ecommerce megatrend, so you will want to give this one serious consideration.

Shopify is popular for so many reasons. And if popularity is any measure of a great platform, Shopify can lay claim to that honor based on the fact it currently boasts 2.6 million merchants in over 175 countries!

Quick fact: Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms, with over 5.7 million stores using it. (WooCommerce currently boasts over 6.5 million stores)

While BigCommerce has over 150k, and ShopBase has over 30k stores.

Feature highlights

Shopify offers A LOT of features. You will find all of them listed here.

Let's highlight some great ones:

70+ professional themes

All themes on Shopify are created by world-renowned designers, so you will love how your store looks on Shopify!

There are themes available for every wallet size, as prices range from $0 to $350.

Are you interested in which theme will fit your store? If so, check out our guide for the best Shopify dropshipping themes here.

Plus, you should check out these eight tips here to pick the right theme for your business!

100+ payment gateways

From credit cards to PayPal to Bitcoin, you can integrate your Shopify store with over 100 external payment gateways from around the world.

From bitcoin to PayPal to iDEAL, Shopify integrates with over 100 external payment gateways from around the world.

And if you choose Shopify Payments as your payment provider, you can avoid paying transactions fees because you will only pay the associated credit card fees. For the third-party payment gateways, transactions fees will apply.

Note: The downside of Shopify Payments is that it's only available to stores in certain countries, so if you want to sell cross-border, be sure to check out their list of eligible countries.

You can learn more about Shopify Payments in our complete guide here!

Inventory management

Shopify allows you to manage your entire inventory. You can track your product's stock and automatically stop selling the product when your supplier (or suppliers) has sold out of items.

You can also offer your customers different variations of products, such as multiple sizes, colors, materials, and more. For each variation, you will be able to set its own price, SKU, weight, and inventory.

Tip: Check if your dropshipping supplier can connect to the ecommerce platform that you want to try out (for example, Spocket can connect to Shopify directly via their app — same as Printful).

User experience and customer service

First of all, it is possible to set up your basic Shopify store, including the intuitive admin dashboard, in about an hour.

But that's not to say you won't experience a learning curve during your store's creation.

Shopify is an innovator and has recently improved its storefronts, making it easier for merchants to customize and showcase their brands while also creating an even faster checkout for customers.

Add to that their recent partnering with Google, which helps merchants get products listed in just a few clicks, and you get the idea.

Easy? Yes, but you have to adapt yourself to the constant changes that Shopify makes to improve its platform.

Furthermore, Shopify has an excellent support team that offers a variety of ways to get the 24/7 support you need.

They offer award-winning support via phone, chat, email, or Twitter. But they also have a large Shopify community forum where you can connect with other merchants to learn and get support.

You can also find answers to your questions through the Shopify Blog, tutorials, webinars, and the Shopify Youtube channel.

It is perhaps the best support offered among top ecommerce platforms, and we think it has something to do with the man leading Shopify:

... We love real teams with real friendship forming. None of that is even about product, or market fit, or timing. It's all about people. Treating everyone with dignity."

Tobias Lutke, CEO, Shopify (source)

I guess that if a CEO is responsible for the culture of a company and gets a 95% approval rating from his employees, you are going to get amazing support from this ecommerce platform.

SEO, marketing, and analytics

Shopify offers a whole range of features to help you find and retain your customers.

You can find customers using a range of free and paid apps for SEO optimization. These help to optimize your URLs, edit title tags, meta-descriptions, and product descriptions and maximize your presence online.

Whether you are running a carousel ad in Facebook, building your audience with content marketing on your blog, showcasing your brand to over one million Instagram users, or offering discounts and gift cards to customers, you can feel supported knowing that you have access to some of the best marketing tools out there.

Feeling overwhelmed by the experience?

Then, you can always take advantage of Shopify's library of guides, videos, and webinars to help you build an SEO plan.

And if you're really stuck and have the budget, you can even hire a Shopify expert who will show you the ropes.

Reporting and analytics are also vital in monitoring your marketing and SEO, and Shopify Basic can provide you with fundamental analytics for the following topics:

• Financial
• Product
• Acquisition
• Inventory
• Behaviour
• Marketing

Once you scale up your store, you will even get access to more in-depth reporting!

Support for mobile devices

Your Shopify mobile app is free with your paid plan (except Lite) and provides benefits to both you and your customer.

Your customer's mobile experience will be as good on their mobile device as it is on their desktop, and they'll be able to browse with ease and buy on the fly with a fast and secure checkout.

For you, because your mobile ecommerce site integrates fully with your dropshipping store, you can manage your business from anywhere with an internet connection.

It has a dynamic dashboard that allows you to add or edit products, cancel orders and give refunds, receive payments and generate reports. You can even set up notifications to know when you've made that all-important sale!

While there are a lot of great mobile app competitors out there, the Shopify mobile app comes highly rated, and since it's included in your plan, it adds a lot of value as well.

Pricing

Shopify's pricing plans range from $39 to $399 per month and are displayed in the image below:

Luckily, the cheapest plan, "Basic Shopify," will be enough for most dropshippers. For some, $39 per month may sound expensive, but there's a lot of hidden value in that number. For example, you won't need to pay for hosting!

Shopify provides very fast, secure, and reliable hosting, with 99.99% uptime, maintenance, and updates, so you won't have to deal with all the technical issues associated with self-hosting. That's a huge plus for most new to ecommerce.

And then there's the stuff like their free trial.

Without having to give out your credit card number, you have two weeks to get your domain name (or bring your domain name with you), set up your store, and begin testing the waters as a dropshipping merchant.

Do you see now why people choose Shopify as the ecommerce platform for their dropshipping store?

If that’s going to be you as well, I suggest clicking here to get a free 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months!

2. WooCommerce Review

WooCommerce evolved from a commercial theme creation business called WooThemes in 2008 to a full-out ecommerce solution in 2015.

Since then, it has become one of the fastest-growing ecommerce platforms that boast over 5 million websites with WooCommerce checkout and about 30% of the ecommerce market.

Sounds like a real competitor, but as you will see, this one is a bit different from the other ecommerce platforms. Still, it provides a powerful product for growing a dropshipping business!

Let's see how.

Feature highlights

You can check out all of WooCommerce's features here!

Freedom and open source

First things first, WooCommerce is open-source software. In other words, you will have complete ownership of your store.

The benefit here is that WooCommerce will be flexible, scalable, and will integrate with pretty much any service.

Your store's data will be accessible anytime, anywhere, and will be 100% secure. Now, you can build your store in your own way!

Content blocks

Using WooCommerce Blocks, you will be able to display your dropshipping products in a modular way.

The feature allows you to select products based on categories like bestsellers, new products, or hand-picked products:

Jetpack

Jetpack is one of WooCommerce's products that secures your site with authenticated customer logins.

It also prevents spam and brute force attacks and increases your website speed.

Last but not least, you also get backups, downtime alerts, and tax and shipping services!

User experience and customer service

You will likely find that WooCommerce is not as easy to set up as Shopify or the other ecommerce platforms on this list.

For example, even though WooCommerce has a guided setup wizard, it will not be as easy as the one-click setups you will find elsewhere.

Although you will experience a bit of a learning curve with WooCommerce, the platform does come with the awesome benefits of versatility and complete control. Also, the more familiar you are with WordPress, the easier your WooCommerce experience will be.

In terms of customer service, WooCommerce provides extensive documentation about its products. You can also check out the public support forum, which may be able to help you out with questions.

For help and troubleshooting, WooCommerce account holders can also chat with a dedicated support team directly!

SEO, marketing, and analytics

With WooCommerce, you can boost your sales by listing products on Google Shopping, promoting your store using Facebook Ads, or emailing customers with a plugin prlike Mailchimp.

Then, you can track and report on your marketing efforts with Google Analytics!

Boost sales by listing products on Google Shopping, promoting your store on Facebook, or emailing customers with Mailchimp. Track and report on your marketing efforts with Google Analytics.

Support for mobile devices

WooCommerce offers a mobile app for both iOS and Android.

From there, you can manage your store with features like updating products, fulfilling orders, and getting live shipping rates from leading carriers.

Pricing

WooCommerce is completely free to use!

That's because WooCommerce is a plug-in for WordPress, so if you're a blogger, this could be a great platform for you. However, if you're looking for a stand-alone site builder, you will need to look at the other ecommerce platforms.

WooCommerce takes care of the ecommerce part of your site only, and since it's a plug-in, web-hosting will be left up to you.

So while the platform is "free," you should not forget to factor in the budget to pay for the cost of hosting, which is anywhere from $20-$30 for a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or cheaper for a Shared Host.

When using WooCommerce, you will sacrifice a bit in terms of hosting, but you will gain it back in versatility. Rather than having to choose from a limited number of storefront themes, you can up your brand from the get-go by purchasing personalized ones.

Also, you will be self-hosted, so WooCommerce won't charge you transaction fees! You will only have to pay the costs associated with your payment providers or bank.

Furthermore, you should also be well-prepared to pay for any additional plug-ins for increased functionality and versatility (although this is the same for an ecommerce platform like Shopify).

Nonetheless, you will have complete control of your platform and access to 55,000+ WordPress plug-ins! And if you're a blogger on WordPress already, why not consider a dropshipping store?

If you are interested in WooCommerce, simply click here to sign up!

3. BigCommerce Review

BigCommerce is another ecommerce giant like Shopify. It was founded in 2009, has 60,000+ merchants, and is active in over 150 countries.

It is a fully hosted and established platform that is great for both beginners wanting to start small and for those more tech-savvy folks who like to tweak the HTML and CSS of their stores. Its clients include Tommie Copper, Skullcandy, and Ben and Jerry's.

Let's check out the platform in detail!

Feature highlights

Interested in all features that BigCommerce has to offer? If so, check out their features page here!

Checkout customization

Using BigCommerce, you will be able to customize every little part of your customer's checkout experience.

There is also the option to use a server-to-server checkout API and SDK, which you can use for things like subscriptions, recurring orders, and more.

A global solution

BigCommerce claims to think big, and there's nothing more prominent right now than the global online marketplace.

Their robust international focus includes:

• Accepting payments made with over one hundred currencies
• Customizing your storefront in any language with a translation app
• Listing items on international marketplaces
• International options for shipping and taxes
• A multilingual control panel

Site speed

Customers will be able to access your store in a blink of an eye.

BigCommerce uses the Google Cloud Platform infrastructure, Google AMP, and the built-in Akamai Image Manager to minimize loading times and maximize sales.

User experience and customer service

BigCommerce is an ecommerce platform for small, medium, and large businesses.

The setup process is pretty simple, even if you don't have technical experience. And if you do struggle, there are plenty of tutorials that will help you navigate the entire process of adding products, shipping options, credit card providers, and so on.

BigCommerce's customer support scores very well thanks to their 24/7 and in-house US-based phone support for technical issues. You can also get help through live chat or submit tickets for product and billing support via email.

The Help Center is a massive resource with an engaging community forum for articles, guides, and videos.

SEO, marketing, and analytics

Overall, stores on BigCommerce achieve a solid SEO performance. Reasons for this include the built-in analytics, page title and URL modifications, automatic sitemaps, and a built-in blog, all ready to fire up your annual average sales.

While BigCommerce provides a comprehensive list of marketing tools, analytics, and strategies like email campaigns, creating social posts, and content marketing, it's disappointing they don't include the Abandoned Cart, Persistent Cart, Product filtering, Google reviews, Customer segmentation, or stored credit cards with the Standard plan.

Support for mobile devices

Any BigCommerce theme will make your site mobile-responsive from the homepage to the checkout.

BigCommerce themes are optimized to make mobile browsing pleasurable and straightforward. Plus, the accelerated mobile pages (AMP) make instant page loading times possible and increase search engine visibility.

You even manage your store on the move with the free BigCommerce mobile app. However, the reviews for it are mixed.

Pricing

Like most platforms out there, BigCommerce also offers a 15-day free trial to allow you to test the waters before taking the leap.

Although the plans have associated yearly sales limits of $50K, $180K, and $400K for the Standard, Plus, and Pro, respectively, it's good to know that you will have unlimited bandwidth and staff accounts with all three.

Add to that a multitude of sales channels, including point of sale, single-page checkout, real-time shipping quotes, and professional reporting tools; you will have a lot of power for a reasonable price.

Tip: Ready to try out BigCommerce? Make sure to check out this article here to learn more about the BigCommerce trial — to pick the right one for your business.

You will also have a choice of over 65 payment providers, and in contrast with other platforms, BigCommerce won't take a percentage of your sales -a colossal cost saver! Only the standard transaction fees will apply for credit cards, depending on which gateway you choose.

When you consider the long list of features included with the Standard plan of $29.95 per month, it will probably be enough for most dropshippers.

So, if you want to try out BigCommerce, click here to get your free 15-day trial!

4. ShopBase Review

ShopBase might not be the first name that comes to mind for dropshipping platforms, but it does provide a very affordable and effective entry into dropshipping.

It began in 2008 as a software company dedicated to helping online sellers grow sales and help their businesses become bigger and better.

Their stated mission:

It's not only your work, it's our life. Our mission is to create and support passionate entrepreneurs just like you.

Shopbase.com

The Asian-based business claims to have 78,500+ customers worldwide, generating $500+ million in sales.

Considering that ShopBase specializes in dropshipping, they deserve a spot on this list. Especially since they also own a dropshipping sourcing and fulfillment solution as well as a print on demand service.

Let's check out what ShopBase can offer you.

Feature highlights

Looking to learn all about ShopBase's excellent features? If so, visit this page!

Focus on dropshippers

ShopBase is an ecommerce platform that has been designed with dropshippers as their main clients.

Therefore, each of their pricing plans comes with:

• An automated online store builder (get a fully functional store in a single click).
• A native AliExpress connection.
• Free upselling and cross-selling tools to maximize profits.
• A monthly list of winning dropshipping products to sell.

Although all apps in the ShopBase store are free, some people may be disappointed by the limited number of apps available.

Still, if you're a dropshipper, you will find that most of the essential apps are already built-in. For example, you will be able to use tools like quantity discounts, product bundles, and one-click post-purchase upsells.

We are laser-focused on making Dropshipping
easy & profitable for anyone, from anywhere.

Shopbase.com

An international platform

ShopBase allows you to go global by translating your store into any language and multiple currencies. It can even detect your customer's location, so your store will automatically display prices in their local currency.

Like Shopify, ShopBase has its own fulfillment service, CrossPanda, which helps with sourcing products in China, inventory management, and providing premium packaging and fast shipping.

Print on demand

Besides dropshipping, print on demand is another area that ShopBase focuses on.

ShopBase is partnered with trusted fulfillment services located all over the world.

The goal?

Bringing you the most competitive prices, the highest product quality, and a blazing-fast delivery time.

If you are interested in starting a print on demand business with ShopBase, we recommend looking at their latest print on demand solution, PrintBase!

User experience and customer service

ShopBase is completely user-friendly.

Just choose a niche and your type of business, and the store builder will automatically upload the best layout for your store themes.

By default, ShopBase's store builder will create some of the standard ecommerce store pages like the About You, Contact Us, FAQ's and order tracking pages.

But "easy" isn't just about website building. You can easily import products from AliExpress or via a CSV file. Click on a product to edit the title, description, price, tags, etc., and add up to 250 variants per item (that's more than Shopify).

And to simplify your process even further, all your legal pages (Terms of Service and the Refund, Privacy, and Shipping Policies) are automatically generated. All you have to do is edit them to suit your business.

In terms of support, you will get it 24/7 via:

• Phone
• Email
• Live chat
• Facebook Messenger
• WeChat
• Skype

You can also subscribe to their blog or check out their Help Center that has a lot of super helpful articles and how-tos.

But what's really remarkable is that ShopBase provides you with a 10-minute one-on-one consultation to help set up your store, optimize it for conversion, go towards your first sale in just two days, and even prep you on how to get in the right mindset to achieve success.

SEO, marketing, and analytics

ShopBase's expertise in this area helps to optimize your store in a multitude of ways.

For instance, they provide guidance on building an email list, using that to win over customers, and retaining them with various email marketing campaigns.

Sales channels like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are all integrated, and you will even get directions on how to use social media networks like Reddit and Quora to attract customers.

Reports are readily available in your dashboard to help you manage your business. Examples include reports for total sales, conversion rate, top products by units sold, abandoned cart recovery, and a whole lot more.

Want to analyze your global sales presence?

Then reports like "The Top Countries by Order" are a great tool to help identify the countries where most of your orders are coming from.

If there's a downside to ShopBase's SEO and marketing, it's that they lack a blogging feature.

Support for mobile devices

Shopbase's mobile app gives you access to your dashboard at any time and anywhere.

The ecommerce platform has also maximized its mobility capability to elevate a user's mobile experience. With quick-loading product pages and the secure one-page checkout, there won't be much that stops a customer from making a sale from their mobile phone.

Last but not least, you will love the push notifications that will confirm new orders that are placed, just like on Shopify!

Pricing

The pricing makes ShopBase an excellent choice for a beginner on a tight budget.

With a 14 day free trial and a starter package at $19 per month, what's not to like? All of ShopBase's plans are about 30% lower than Shopify's, which will be the deciding factor for some.

You can choose from 21 free, modern, fully optimizable, and customizable store templates, although some would say the number of themes is disappointing.

Even while those nasty transaction fees of 2% on the Basic Plan may scare some, you're still getting a great package at a great price. Once your store is ready to scale up to the Standard Plan, you'll be rewarded by only having to pay a 1% fee.

Also, all transaction fees will be waived for stores that get less than 50 orders during the trial period. That way, it will be 100% free!

The real value comes into play when you learn that pretty much all apps you will need to start dropshipping are already integrated, including abandoned cart recovery and upsells. Unlike on other platforms, there is no need to purchase third-party apps.

If you want to see their current pricing and features for each plan, you can check out this page.

So, curious to try out ShopBase's free 14-day trial? If so, click here!

5. Shift4Shop Review

In 2000, Gonzalo Gil, now the CEO of Shift4Shop, developed Infomart, which then became 3dcart in 2001.

Shift4payments (a payment processing provider) acquired 3dcart in 2020 and transformed it into Shift4Shop.

With that acquisition, Shift4Shop entered a competitive field and engineered its platform to take on the competition (like Shopify) in a big way.

According to their homepage, Shift4Shop currently has 200,000 customers and processes approximately $200 billion per year.

What's more, they emphatically declare: "The competition can't compete."

So, let's see if that's true!

Feature highlights

Check out all of Shift4Shop's features here!

One-page checkout

Shift4Shop will offer you the option to use a traditional three-page checkout, but you will also be able to opt for a single-page checkout.

This is a great feature that many other ecommerce platforms don't offer at all or charge an extra fee for.

Switching between the options takes just a few clicks, so it will be easy to discover which one suits you and your customers the best!

Dropshipping apps

Shift4Shop declares itself to be the best dropshipping platform, and considering their great features, they are definitely a candidate!

Like Shopify, Shift4Shop offers a variety of dropshipping apps that can extend the functionality of your store.

For example, you will be able to get a real-time shipping app that will visually display shipping costs to your customer - a great feature that lessens your cart abandonment rate. Or, take a look at another cart recovery app like CartStack:

International transactions

Shift4Shop's international selling solution is supported by GlobalShopex, which offers two different global checkout technologies depending on your needs.

With it, your customer will enjoy a seamless checkout experience that's customized to individual countries. They will be able to see their products, shipping, duties, and taxes all in their local currency and pay with various international payment providers.

User experience and customer service

Shift4Shop has designed a platform that is perfect for beginners. It's a seamless process to load themes, add products, and choose payment providers.

Like with most platforms, there is a bit of a learning curve, but in general, it's pretty easy to use!

The setup wizard can guide you through the store setup process. Once that is done, you can use your well-organized dashboard to easily access all the main features and manage your store like a boss!

Awesome, right?

Support is also available through email with a one business day response time or through a live chat 24/7.

However, reviews online suggest users are often disappointed with technical support, as they experience long wait times and unknowledgeable agents.

SEO, marketing, and analytics

Shift4Shop claims to have the best SEO in the industry.

It has an extensive list of SEO features to help drive traffic to your website, including a targeted email marketing system, customizable URLs, meta-tags, page titles and headings, loyalty programs, a built-in blogging platform, and more.

Support for mobile devices

Shift4Shop acknowledges that speed and convenience is the name of the game when it comes to mobile devices.

The responsive designs will help your website to adapt to any device. From its optimized themes to instant one-page checkout, this platform is built to ensure mobile satisfaction.

Your customer will enjoy features like plus and minus buttons in the shopping cart and an instant checkout, eliminating the need to enter text, credit card numbers, or shipping information.

Unfortunately, Shift4Shop does not offer a mobile app that allows you to manage your store from your phone.

Still, that won't necessarily disconnect you from your store while you are on the move since you will be able to use your phone's internet browser to make any changes to your store.

Pricing

The pricing is the part where Shift4Shop steals the show.

After 3dcart became Shift4Shop in November of 2020, the newly named platform inherited an amazingly affordable dropshipping plan that is entirely free!

It includes hosting and a long list of features that are usually only available for higher-priced plans elsewhere.

Shift4Shop's pricing plans are innovative because they significantly lessened the barriers to entry for the dropshipping entrepreneur, timid about entering into the world of ecommerce.

The downside?

Well, if you have a sharp eye, you have already seen it in the small letters at the bottom of the pricing page.

The free plan is only available for US customers!

So, if you don't qualify for the free plan, you may end up paying a monthly fee similar to Shopify:

Again, if you're new to dropshipping, the Basic Store plan is a good place to start at $29/month. It offers everything you need to get started.

Shift4Shop also offers some fantastic bonuses when picking any of their plans:

So, looking to try out Shift4Shop? Get your ecommerce store started for free here!

Note: Want to dropship vaping, CBD, wine, or other restricted products? Shift4Shop has a number of high-risk payment providers, making it possible to dropship these products that other platforms may prohibit.

What is an ecommerce platform?

An ecommerce platform is software technology that helps you set up a website to sell products or services online. Many are SaaS (Software-as-a-service), which is software hosted by a third party and delivered to customers over the internet.

Your ecommerce platform will be the backbone of your online store that should provide you with every tool you need to seamlessly build, market, manage, and showcase your dropshipping store.

It will help you create both the forefront of your business and the "brains" of your back office, integrating parts like order, product, and customer management into a comprehensible whole.

If you think of your ecommerce platform as your "business partner," you will understand just how important it is to choose the best one for your store.

For more information about what an ecommerce platform is, check out our other article here!

Final verdict

In the end, we can conclude that it is essential to think about your specific needs before selecting your ecommerce platform.

That's because the best ecommerce platform for you might not be the best platform for someone else.

So, what is our final verdict?

What is the best ecommerce platform for dropshipping in 2024?

In our opinion, if we had to choose a single ecommerce platform to recommend to everyone, the best ecommerce platform for dropshipping in 2024 would be Shopify.

Shopify is simply incredibly easy to use for beginners, offers tons of features (especially when adding all available third-party apps), and offers excellent free support in case of any issues.

Interested in Shopify now? Sign up by clicking this link to get a free 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months!

However, the other four ecommerce platforms are excellent choices as well and may even be the best choice for you if you are looking for something specific!

Just take a look at our overview from earlier:

With that, I hope you were able to find your ecommerce platform match today. And if not, don't hesitate to contact us. We will try to help you out!

Good luck with your dropshipping store!

Want to Learn More?

• Can You Do Dropshipping With the Facebook Marketplace?
• Is Dropshipping Dead in 2024? (And What About AliExpress?)
• How to Choose the Best Dropshipping Supplier (8 Indicators)