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  1. #1
    Administrator Justin's Avatar
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    Shopify vs OpenCart...pros and cons

    I'm inheriting a website that was created using Shopify. Personally I prefer OpenCart, the overall design etc. plus Shopify charge a monthly fee.

    I could recreate the site in OC but existing site has excellent SEO ratings so would seem a shame. Not sure on exact costs yet but I don't think it's too bad.

    So questions......anyone use Shopify and get on ok? Any good reasons to make the move back to OC?

    Does anyone use a developer to work on their OC site for tweeks etc? I see such services on offer but if I need someone I'd sooner use someone I can trust.
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  2. #2
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    Shopify Advantages: Shopify will help you to concentrate on your business and avoid any technical issues. That is why the platform makes a strong emphasis on marketing and SEO tools -- everything you need to boost your sales.


    • Marketing tools include coupon codes and discount system, email marketing system, free advertise credits and social media integration
    • Built-in CMS that allows to utilize content marketing strategy by establishing a blog
    • Default possibility to set up a mobile version of your Shopify shop
    • SEO friendly URLs, meta descriptions and automatically generated sitemap
    • Multiple shipping and payment gateways right out of the box
    • Painless checkout
    • Built-in business reports
    • Multiple currencies, languages and taxes


    Shopify Disadvantages: Unfortunately, monthly plan fee makes just a part of the money you pay Shopify for its service. Except that, Shopify users are also obliged to pay 1-2% fee for every transaction. Also, the cheaper the plan, the lesser functionality you get. While OpenCart offers everything at once, you’ll have to pay extra for additional functionality when using Shopify. So, the magic may be a bit pricey.


    OpenCart Advantages: Straight out-of-the-box, OpenCart can offer you almost all the same features as Shopify does and even a bit more.


    • Multiple-store functionality
    • SEO meta tags per product and category
    • 6 000+ extensions
    • The fullest freedom of customization


    OpenCart Disadvantages: Even though it remains one of the easiest solutions among open source platforms, OpenCart still loses in usability if compared to Shopify. Moreover, an extensive shopping cart customization requires some sufficient programming skills. Another important thing is that there’s no official OpenCart support, meaning that if you run into some troubles you can rely on a community help only.

    Hope, it help.
    Last edited by aldorabancroft; 23-06-2017 at 01:17 PM. Reason: Formatting

  3. #3
    Member daviddeer's Avatar
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    To be honest the only real argument for moving back to OC is cost.
    I have used OC seo to good effect and if you are competent at rudimentary coding, then the free tutorials and code snippets available al over the web are immensely valuable.
    If you have the time then you can easily change and develop your own theme.
    Many people go on about the 'free' nature of OC but in reality the best plugins and modules are the ones you pay for. For example the mals ecommerce plugin, OpenCart Mobile Framework and the paypal plugin. However once you have bought them there is no further cost, and your seller fees are only the ones from the card processor.
    SO if you pay £3 a month for hosting and £150 for plugins and modules the 1st year cost is £186 after that £36 a year
    Shopify will cost you £272 for the basic $29 a month package every year.
    Over 5 years that is a saving of £994. If you paid half of that to a web developer you would still be quids in.
    I found very little difficulty developing my own site using community support files and the catalogue backend stuff was also a breeze.
    I can't really recommend a developer as I did it all myself. The friend I did it for has retired now so he only sells a few bits to friends but the shell of the site is here so you can look if you like.
    The seo placed the site as #1 on google for around 5 years for the search 'richard chorley golf art' but has slipped to #5 as I haven't really done anything with it for 4 or five years now.
    The real secret is to wisdom is to listen to the wise and follow their advice

  4. #4
    Administrator Justin's Avatar
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    Appreciate the input so far folks.
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  5. #5
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    I've not looked into shopify due to their pricing structure but I have looked at EKM which is a similar thing with a monthly fee and while I like the idea of someone else worrying about the servers, etc, I found it too restrictive (coming from a web developer background). I'm aware you can develop completely custom themes in shopify which you can't in EKM but I prefer the freedom of adding whatever functionality I like in opencart.

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