Shopify vs nopCommerce: Which is the appropriate choice for your business

Key Takeaways

• Shopify is an excellent eCommerce solution for several types of businesses, like small-to-medium ones or solopreneurs.
• nopCommerce is designed for retail businesses of all sizes, especially with companies that work on an open-source eCommerce platform. 

Shopify vs nopCommerce: Quick Comparison

The key difference when comparing Shopify vs nopCommerce lies in the requirements for coding knowledge from both parties. Shopify is highly user-friendly for newbies since the platform does not require merchants to have coding experience. At the same time, comprehension of IT knowledge is an essential requirement for nopCommerce merchants. 

Shopify vs nopCommerce: Pros and Cons

Shopify vs. nopCommerce: Detailed comparison

Pricing

Shopify

merchants can sign up for any Shopify plan starting at $5/ month. Especially, Shopify allows merchants free trials for newbies who want to experience the platform first. Sometimes, Shopify offers fantastic deals to lower the signing up fees, such as the $1 deal in 3 months or the 25% discount on yearly plans.

nopCommerce

nopCommerce is free to download and use since it is open-source. However, there are specific situations where additional costs may apply, including:

• You need a new feature that doesn’t come out of the box: In this circumstance, you can either buy the latest feature from the nopCommerce marketplace or cooperate with a certified nopCommerce expert.
• There is a $250 fee to remove the copyright key ‘Powered by nopCommerce’. Merchants can purchase the key at half-priced from nopCommerce partners like Nop-Templates.
• You want premium support from the nopCommerce core team: purchasing a support plan can help you in this case.

Although the platform is free, store owners using nopCommerce must pay for hosting fees separately, starting from $2.95/month.

The Verdict

Shopify is a better choice since it does provide a free trial option, while nopCommerce does not. Moreover, Shopify fees are more transparent, while nopCommerce fees are unclear since different types of unknown extra fees are included.

Ease of use

Shopify

Shopify is considered user-friendly with drag-to-drop features that enable quick and precise store design. The Shopify central admin dashboard contains every detail you need to manage your store, like Product Management, Order Tracking, Analytics, and Marketing campaigns. 

Moreover, the collections of more than 150 pre-built, beautiful themes allow merchants to set up the layout of their stores quickly. The marketing analytics integrated inside Shopify is a grand means to help store owners manage the current status of their stores and plans for future marketing campaigns.

nopCommerce

Similar to Shopify, nopCommerce can be set up by a non-technical person. However, for custom modifications, merchants may need to have coding knowledge.

As an open-source, nopCommerce merchants have more authority and flexibility in adjusting their sites. For additional functionality, thousands of extensions and plugins like Paypal Commerce, Web API, and Tracking Code Manager are available on nopCommerce. 

The Verdict

Shopify is the preferred choice for ease of use since merchants are not required to comprehend IT knowledge. In contrast, nopCommerce merchants should have a coding background to add custom modifications.

Store Design

Shopify

With a drag-and-drop interface, merchants can quickly and easily add content (like images, videos, and buttons) to their websites in a few simple clicks.

The design library of more than 150 themes (164 themes as of July 2023) enables store owners to choose layouts that match their business. Also, Shopify aids in improving both the aesthetics and functionality of its online stores.

nopCommerce

With an open-source platform like nopCommerce, merchants can have more editing capabilities by accessing the underlying code to make custom modifications to the design of the online stores. Moreover, the collection of 75 ready-made themes on the nopCommerce theme market provides merchants with additional design ideas for their websites.

The Verdict

In comparing store design, Shopify is the winner since its drag-and-drop features outplay nopCommerce, enabling newbies or experts to change the design of their websites easily. Shopify also beats nopCommerce in the total number of pre-made themes (164>75).

Ecommerce features

Checkout & Payment methods

Shopify

Shopify supports one-page and guest checkout. With built-in SSL certificates enabled, Shopify clients can be confident that the payments are secure. The platform also supports various integrated payment gateways like credit cards/ debit cards, Paypal, and Apple Pay, further ensuring the safety and ease of accepting customer payments.

If you don’t want to use those partnered payment options, Shopify has its own payment gateway – Shopify Payments – to support direct payment on the Shopify platform.

nopCommerce

Similar to Shopify, nopCommerce enables 2 types of checkout: one-page and guest. nopCommerce allows merchants to accept major credit and debit cards and supports refund and void functionality. SSL certificates are also included in the nopCommerce platform (the same as Shopify).  

One unique thing about nopCommerce payment is its customizable feature, meaning merchants can limit online shopping payment methods per country. This enables store owners to set up appropriate payment options in the country where they set up businesses.

The Verdict

nopCommerce is the winner in this comparison since it offers store owners more customizable options for the checkout and payment process (owners can set up payment methods that match the country’s ecommerce preferences).

Inventory management

Shopify

Low stock alert & demand forecasting

Regarding inventory management, Shopify owns the following qualifications:

• User-friendly interface for managing products and inventory: merchants can easily add and organize products, track inventory levels, and generate reports on sales and stock levels.
• Real-time updates: instant updates on the latest news about the current products, items, and delivery.
• Integration with various inventory management apps (like Hextom, Stock Sync, and Appikon) to offer businesses access to advanced tools and resources for inventory management.

nopCommerce

• Stock management: nopCommerce supports a wide range of product management, like physical and digital products.
• Multiple-warehouse, multi-store: nopCommerce supports inventory management through various warehouses and stores across the globe.
• Vendor management: nopCommerce enables vendor management to support businesses with a more flexible and customizable approach to inventory management.

The Verdict

Shopify wins the inventory management battle with more useful features like real-time updates, integrations with reputable inventory apps, and user-friendly features for store owners.

Shipping

Shopify

Many customers are satisfied with Shopify shipping services, with a line of functions that include:

• Set your shipping rates: Shopify allows merchants to set up shipping rates that match the shipping policies of the selling nations.
• Integrate with many shipping carriers like Canada Post, USPS, FedEx, and DHL Express.  
• Appealing discount shipping rate: While some carriers offer discounted prices to all Shopify shops, others let you link your account and leverage personally negotiated discounts.
• Customized schedule: merchants can schedule pickups from their location and have the option to pick up dropshipping from any warehouse or fulfillment center that they use.

nopCommerce

• Customized shipping options: nopCommerce merchants can either define their own shipping methods or use the predefined shipping methods provided by popular carriers, such as UPS.
• Support dropshipping activities (similar to Shopify).

The Verdict

For this shipping comparison, Shopify has won the battle due to its multiple support regarding shipping rates, shipping carriers, discounts, and schedule optimization.

Marketing

Shopify

Here are the marketing features that Shopify distributes to its merchants:

• Cart abandonment recovery: Store owners can notify clients of cart abandonment to help them return and continue the shopping experience.
• Free 10,000 email marketing per month: Support store owners’ email marketing campaigns by sending discounts and emailing updates to clients.
• Inbuilt SEO functionality like customizable H1, title, meta tags, and localizable URLs to improve search optimization. 
• Content support channels: Shopify implements different content and media channels, like blog posts, newsletter subscriptions, etc., to help store owners distribute content or news to merchants quickly.
• Discounts and coupon code providers: merchants can generate coupons and promo codes that help tribute and push sales among clients.
• Thousands of marketing-related apps: support features like email marketing, social media integration, search engine optimization, upselling, and cross-selling tools, creating trustworthy choices for merchants prioritizing marketing.

nopCommerce

nopCommerce also presents numerous marketing features, including: 

• Cart abandonment recovery: This add-on function requires merchants to charge additional costs for usage.
• Discounts and coupon codes providers: nopCommerce distributes promotional code generation out of the box for store visitors.
• Integrate with renowned blogging sites like WordPress, Wix, Blogger, etc., to help merchants update content constantly to customers.
• SEO functionality for search engine optimization: similar to Shopify.
• Additional reward features: reward point system, forums, polls, product reviews, ratings, etc., for additional marketing options.

The Verdict

Shopify is the clear winner due to the size and diversity of the variety of marketing features between Shopify vs nopCommerce, Shopify has a clear advantage. nopCommerce’s app store is relatively smaller and less diverse than that of Shopify, and nopCommerce lacks the advanced marketing tools that the Shopify app store provides.

Point of sale

Shopify

Shopify POS is available for all Shopify plans. This system is designed to fit all sizes and kinds of businesses and is integrated with plenty of functions such as data sync, flexible payment options, and own mobile app. These features support store owners to successfully deploy direct sales to clients through the POS system.

Here are the main features of Shopify POS:

• Integrated payment hardware with Shopify Payments (Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, and the United States only)
• Non-payment retail hardware integrations
• Customizable smart grid
• Add/edit customer profiles
• Customer View app
• Multi-location inventory, orders, and customer management
• Email/SMS receipts
• Discount codes and manual discounts ($, %)
• Sell and redeem gift cards
• Camera barcode scanning
• Custom sales
• Offline cash payments
• Staff PINs (based on Shopify plan)
• Refunds
• Cash tracking
• Email carts

nopCommerce

nopCommerce point-of-sale plugin (NopPOS) is released to help store owners, and their staff simplifies the ordering process and order management. 

Here are the highlighted features of NopPOS:

• Barcode scanner to add the product to the cart.
• Search order by Order Number, Customer Name, or Email ID.
• Add new customers from POS and Guest Customer Orders.
• POS for Multi Store with Sub-domain setup.
• Custom Payment methods to access Cash and save the last 4 Card digits for card swipe payments. Easy checkout process with a single button click. 
• POS Receipt: Print format support (i.e., standard 2.5 inches paper width).
• Cash In/outflow.
• Reports for manager.

The Verdict

Shopify POS is the best choice in terms of POS systems. The collection of POS features that Shopify owns is much more optimized and preferred compared to nopCommerce. 

Customer Support

Shopify

• Various support methods: phone, email, live chat, tickets, training, and tutorials. Merchants can also access additional support like documentaries, community, and faqs pages to find solutions for their problems.
• Multiple languages support: Shopify provides support in different languages like English, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, etc.

nopCommerce

• Primary support channels: through phone, email, and tickets.
• Supported only in the English language.
• Paid support package available for $166.33/month in 3 months (One-time fee $499)m or $83.25/month for 1 year (One-time fee $999)

The Verdict

Shopify wins this round with dominance in its customer support. Shopify accepts more supported languages, materials, and channels than nopCommerce.

Shopify vs nopCommerce: Which One Is The Best Fit For Your Business? 

Shopify is best appropriate for:

• New online merchants who want to experience a user-friendly platform to get started with online businesses.
• Small-to-medium businesses that are looking for a comprehensive, all-in-one solution.

nopCommerce is best appropriate for:

• Businesses need advanced website customization options.
• Enterprises and global businesses looking for flexibility and complete control of their site through coding and advanced IT technical.

Bottom Line

When comparing Shopify vs nopCommerce, each platform has its signature advantages to draw attention from merchants. However, on the whole, Shopify is the better choice when we put it in comparison with nopCommerce. There are several things that Shopify outplays nopCommerce, including pricing plans, POS, marketing features, ease of use, etc. 

However, nopCommerce has some better features than Shopify, like giving merchants more customization options to their store through checkout and payment areas and more opportunities for web design diversification. nopCommerce can use these advantages to target its customer segment. 

Shopify vs nopCommerce: FAQs