Dropshipping is a popular way to start an ecommerce business online.
In the past, Oberlo was one of the most popular dropshipping apps on the market. But after it shut down in June 2022, popular Oberlo alternatives like Spocket and DSers are taking over.
With both apps becoming popular over the years, it could be hard to decide which one would be best for your dropshipping store.
The main difference between Oberlo and Spocket is that Oberlo only worked with AliExpress and Shopify stores, while Spocket can be connected to multiple ecommerce platforms, and they have their own suppliers in countries like the US and Europe.
Oberlo was a great app to choose if you would like to dropship with AliExpress or if you had a small budget. Meanwhile, using Spocket is an excellent decision if you would like to dropship with suppliers from the United States or Europe.
Important note: On June 30, 2022, Oberlo shut down completely and officially partnered with DSers to migrate its users. This article will show you the differences between Oberlo and Spocket, but you won’t be able to use Oberlo anymore!
If you are interested in more information about Oberlo alternatives and how to migrate from Oberlo to those alternatives, check out this article here!
In this article, we will discuss some of the differences as well as pros and cons that we could identify between Oberlo and Spocket.
Let's see if Spocket is a good alternative for Oberlo!
Overview: Oberlo vs. Spocket
Searching for a quick overview between Oberlo and Spocket?
Look no further.
In the table below, we will summarize the pros and cons of both dropshipping apps:
| Oberlo | Spocket | ||
| Pros | Cons | Pros | Cons |
| Oberlo is part of Shopify | Only worked with Shopify stores and AliExpress | 80% of suppliers are located in the US or EU | Smaller choice of products |
| More than just a dropshipping app | App reviews could be better | Branded invoicing | It could be expensive for beginners |
| Included a filter for AliExpress | Not all features were included in the free plan | Works with many different ecommerce platforms | |
| Excellent customer service | |||
| Available in multiple languages |
To sum up, let me give you a few examples of which app to choose:
Oberlo was an excellent choice if:
- You wanted a dropshipping app was is tailor-made for dropshipping with AliExpress on a Shopify store.
- English isn’t your strongest point, and you appreciated being able to use an app in languages like French, Spanish, or Italian.
Spocket is an excellent choice if:
- You want a dropshipping app that allows you to dropship with US or EU suppliers and greatly reduce your shipping times, and you don't mind paying a bit extra for it.
- You run a dropshipping store on Shopify or any other popular ecommerce platform.
- You want to give your store a bit more of a "branded" feel by using Spocket's branded invoicing feature.
Exclusive Spocket offer: Enter the coupon code: SpocketTrial during checkout, and you'll instantly unlock a FREE 30-day trial. Click here to redeem your free trial now!
If you want to save it for later – check out our infographic below:
Remember, this was just a quick overview. If you are interested in learning more about Oberlo and Spocket, just continue reading!
Why you might need Oberlo or Spocket for your dropshipping store
Let's take a look at why you might need Oberlo or Spocket for your dropshipping store.
After all, if they are not needed, why waste time and effort to set them up?
To find out whether or not you need software like Oberlo or Spocket, you need to understand what they are for.
Oberlo and Spocket are so-called dropshipping apps.
Remember, as a dropshipper, you sell products you don't have in stock (you don't hold any inventory yourself).
Once a customer places an order, you forward it to your dropshipping supplier, who then ships the product(s) directly to your customer.
Some of the tasks that you will come across when dropshipping include:
- Finding products to sell from dropshipping suppliers
- Uploading these products to your online store
- Buying products from your supplier to fulfill your customer's order (order fulfillment)
- Managing the stock levels of your product to make sure you aren't offering products that are sold out
- Updating the tracking numbers and order statuses for your orders
And guess what?
These are all things that a dropshipping app like Oberlo or Spocket can either automate or make a whole lot easier!
To conclude, you will need to use a dropshipping app like Oberlo or Spocket to connect your online store to a supplier and make it easier to fulfill your orders.
Using Oberlo or Spocket will save you lots of time, which you can then spend on things like making your store more unique or developing the perfect pricing strategy.
If you are now doubting about Oberlo vs. Spocket, let's look at the two in detail:
What is Oberlo?
We will begin with Oberlo, which was a dropshipping app for Shopify stores whose primary function was to connect your store to AliExpress, which is mainly used for dropshipping from China.
That's right, Oberlo would only work for you if you were running a Shopify store.
Oberlo was acquired by Shopify in 2017, but was completely discontinued in June 2022 by Shopify as it focuses more and more on its own fulfillment network.
Using the Oberlo app, you would be able to directly import products from AliExpress into your store, including the product description, images, and variants.
As a disclaimer for that last part, it definitely isn't recommended to copy everything directly from the AliExpress product page.
For the best results, you should write your own product description and use only the highest-quality photos from the AliExpress seller.
Pricing
You would be able to use Oberlo for free or choose from their paid monthly subscription, which would unlock some additional features.
Oberlo's free plan was called "Explorer" and included essential features like the Oberlo Chrome extension, product imports, and unlimited monthly orders.
To access features like bulk order fulfillment or shipment tracking, you could also opt for the paid "Boss" plan, which costed $29.90 per month.
The pros of Oberlo
What are some reasons why you might want to use Oberlo? Let's check them out!
Oberlo is part of Shopify
Originally, Oberlo was an independent company from Lithuania. In 2017, Shopify acquired the company and transformed it into a part of its business.
At one point, Oberlo was one of the most installed dropshipping apps on the Shopify app store.
Shopify is renowned for being one of the best ecommerce platforms out there. So, if you decided to use Oberlo, you would know that you will be in good hands!
Oberlo was more than just a dropshipping app
Since Shopify acquired Oberlo, they transformed the business into something more than just a dropshipping app.
Besides connecting your store with AliExpress, you could use Oberlo as an information resource about dropshipping and ecommerce.
On Oberlo's website, you will find numerous blogs, success stories, free courses, guides about dropshipping, and even making money online in general. Their website is still online today, even though the Oberlo app is discontinued!
As a side note, you will also find free resources about dropshipping on Spocket's blog. However, their resources are not as extensive as Oberlo's!
Shipping filter for AliExpress
You may know this already, but when you are dropshipping with AliExpress, you will often have to deal with long delivery times.
Luckily, Oberlo built a feature that helped you find the products with the shortest delivery time on AliExpress.
By using Oberlo's Chrome extension, you would be able to filter products on AliExpress based on the shipping methods that they used.
After setting up the filter, you would be able to easily see which products are shipped with fast shipping methods (like AliExpress Standard Shipping or ePacket), and it would even display the total shipping time:
And here is how the settings looked from Oberlo's Chrome extension:
Excellent customer service
Ever tried using Shopify's customer service? If so, you have probably had a great experience.
Remember, Oberlo is part of Shopify, so their customer service was excellent as well!
So, if you ever had questions about running your dropshipping store, tracking your orders, or contacting suppliers, you would be able to contact Oberlo's support 24/7.
Available in multiple languages
Whether English isn't your preferred language or you are targeting a specific market, Oberlo had you covered.
Why?
Oberlo was available in languages like English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. Besides, it worked with multiple currencies and worldwide shipping, which allowed you to start dropshipping from anywhere in the world!
The cons of Oberlo
Nothing is perfect, and the same goes for Oberlo. Let's take a look at the cons!
Oberlo was only compatible with Shopify stores
Shopify owns Oberlo, so the dropshipping app would not work with dropshipping stores on other ecommerce platforms, like WooCommerce or BigCommerce.
To start using Oberlo, you would have to install its Shopify app, which you can find here.
Reviews from app users could be better
Oberlo got an average rating of 4.3 stars based on over 2,400 reviews.
This rating isn't necessarily bad, but it could be better. To give you an idea, Spocket's Shopify app gets an average score of 4.6 stars from over 2,500 reviews!
It looks like most negative Oberlo reviews were concerned about the app's technical difficulties. Some users experienced loading issues, syncing issues, or product importing issues.
Bulk orders and shipment tracking were only available on the paid plan
Another one of Oberlo's cons is that the free plan was somewhat limited in terms of its features.
As said, you would get the essentials like unlimited monthly orders, Oberlo's Chrome extension, and variant mapping.
However, you would miss some awesome features like bulk orders and shipment tracking. This is unfortunate since a feature like bulk orders, which lets you fulfill multiple orders simultaneously, can be a big time saver once you start getting multiple orders per day.
To unlock these features, you would need to get Oberlo's $29.90 per month "Boss" plan. As an extra, you would also unlock features like multiple staff accounts and Oberlo's affiliate program.
What is Spocket?
Spocket is a platform whose main goal is to let you discover dropshipping suppliers.
With Spocket, you don't go to a global platform like AliExpress to search for dropshipping products.
Instead, you can browse and choose between many high-quality products offered by verified dropshipping suppliers that you won't often come across on other platforms.
So, just like Oberlo, Spocket connects you to a dropshipping supplier. But instead of using a global platform that is accessible to everyone (AliExpress), Spocket connects you to their own verified suppliers.
Spocket also offers products in a variety of niches. Take a look at them here:
Pricing
To start dropshipping with Spocket, you will need to pay anywhere from $25 per month to $99 per month, according to Spocket’s pricing plans.
If you’re interested in Spocket but don’t want to pay anything yet, you can create a free account to browse through the product catalog.
Exclusive Spocket offer: Enter the coupon code: SpocketTrial during checkout, and you'll instantly unlock a FREE 30-day trial. Click here to redeem your free trial now!
The pros of Spocket
Are you excited yet to find out why you should use Spocket? If so, continue reading!
80% of Spocket's suppliers are located in the US or EU
One of Spocket's main benefits is that most of its dropshipping suppliers (80%) are located in the United States or Europe.
This brings along two main advantages.
First, your shipping time will be much better when dropshipping with Spocket instead of dropshipping with Oberlo.
If you target the right markets, your products will already be in the same country as your customer. Therefore, you may cut your delivery time from 2-4 weeks to less than one week!
Secondly, the overall product quality on Spocket will be better than on a platform like AliExpress as the manufacturing standards in Western countries are often much stricter.
Branded invoicing
In our opinion, you should always take the opportunity to brand your dropshipping store if you see one.
Branding allows you to create a long-term ecommerce store and will improve the percentage of customers returning to your store.
With Spocket, you will be able to add a little bit of the "brand" feeling to your packages by inserting branded invoices to them. Take a look at this example:
Looks fantastic, right?
Spocket can be integrated with many different ecommerce platforms
It doesn't matter what ecommerce platform you use; you will likely be able to connect it with Spocket.
That's because Spocket offers integrations for eight ecommerce platforms, which are:
- Shopify
- BigCommerce
- WooCommerce
- Wix.com
- Squarespace
- Ecwid
- Square
- Felex
The cons of Spocket
Wait for a second! Spocket comes with some flaws too; take a look:
A smaller choice of products
The first disadvantage of Spocket is that its product selection is smaller than the one you will see when using Oberlo, which is AliExpress.
The exact number of products offered by Spocket is unknown, but we can almost certainly state that it's less compared to AliExpress.
Therefore, you may experience difficulties finding the exact product you are looking for on Spocket, while the chance of that happening with AliExpress is significantly less.
The pricing plans are not suited for beginners with a small budget
The next con of Spocket will especially hurt dropshipping beginners with a small budget.
Unlike Oberlo, Spocket does not offer a pricing plan that allows you to start dropshipping for free.
Spocket's "Starter" plan costs $25 per month but will still be limited in terms of some handy features.
For example, some of Spocket's "Premium" products will be hidden, as you will need to pay at least $49 per month to access them.
Compare Oberlo to other dropshipping companies
Not sure yet if Spocket is the right fit for your business? Check out our other comparison articles below:
And to compare more companies, visit the comparison hub!
Final thoughts
I hope this article has helped you to understand the differences between using Oberlo or Spocket!
If you are still second-guessing, let me tell you what I think.
Even though Oberlo is no longer available and Spocket is a bit more expensive than Oberlo was, Spocket is still the better choice for most people. The ability to deliver products within a week and use features like branded invoicing will significantly improve your customer's experience.
However, if you really had a limited budget and wanted to start with AliExpress dropshipping, then Oberlo was a great dropshipping app too!
Here is another critical thing; did you know that Oberlo and Spocket aren't the only dropshipping apps?
Spoiler alert; there are many more out there.
So, if you like what Oberlo had to offer, you can check out our article showcasing 15 awesome Oberlo alternatives! One example of an app that is similar to Oberlo is DSers!
And if you won't be using AliExpress anymore, you might be interested in looking at other great suppliers. For example, did you hear about Syncee, SaleHoo, or uDroppy?
Place a comment below if you have any further questions, and have a great rest of your day!
