BetterCommerce vs Shopify — Which Is the better commerce platform in 2024?

BetterCommerce

BetterCommerce positions itself as an commerce platform built for the specific requirements of medium-to-large and enterprise businesses. It caters to businesses that require a high degree of customisation, robust integrations, and the ability to handle complex workflows. While it may also support smaller businesses, its core functionality is geared towards scalability and handling the demands of larger organisations.

Shopify

A comprehensive commerce solution designed for entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses. While their core strength lies in empowering individual sellers and startups, they are actively adding features to cater to the needs of larger, enterprise-level businesses.

BetterCommerce

BetterCommerce offers a robust suite of functionalities designed to streamline complex B2B transactions. These include configurable approval workflows ensuring proper purchase authorisation, line-item quoting (RFQ) for efficient management, user spending limits for maintaining control, and crucially, order-based pricing models that allow for flexible structures like volume discounts. With BetterCommerce, businesses can build stronger relationships with wholesale partners and optimise their B2B sales channels.

Shopify

While Shopify offers basic B2B functionalities, it lacks advanced features commonly required by larger businesses. These include configurable approval workflows, line-item quoting (RFQ), and user spending limits. Additionally, it doesn't support order-based pricing models, which are crucial for many B2B transactions.    

BetterCommerce

While BetterCommerce likely offers its own development tools, it prioritises a headless architecture. This means the storefront presentation layer is decoupled from the backend functionality. This empowers businesses with more flexibility.  For those comfortable with coding, BetterCommerce open API allows for complete control over the storefront design and user experience. But even without extensive coding knowledge, businesses can leverage the headless architecture to integrate third-party front-end development tools  that cater to a wider range of skillsets and potentially require less developer dependence for basic storefront modifications.

Shopify

Shopify's Hydrogen and Oxygen offer a powerful web development framework with a dedicated hosting platform. However, these tools are geared towards developers, and business users may require developer assistance for storefront modifications.    

BetterCommerce

BetterCommerce prioritises extensibility through an open API-first architecture. This allows developers to leverage a wide range of tools and functionalities beyond built-in features.  Unlike platforms with closed ecosystems, BetterCommerce empowers businesses to integrate any necessary third-party applications or create custom solutions without vendor lock-in. This flexibility ensures your store can adapt and evolve alongside your business needs.

Shopify

Shopify primarily offers customisation through its built-in features and a marketplace of third-party apps. However, many of these apps are either exclusive to Shopify or optimised for their platform. This can limit your options and potentially lead to vendor lock-in, where switching to another platform becomes difficult due to the reliance on Shopify-specific functionality.    

BetterCommerce

BetterCommerce offers a more user-friendly approach. Its built-in configuration tools allow for visual adjustments to the checkout process without coding. Additionally, a well-documented API empowers developers to further customise the experience if needed. This flexibility caters to both ease of use and advanced customisation needs. BetterCommerce also streamlines checkout with features like guest checkout, multiple payment options, and a focus on speed and security.

Shopify

Shopify offers built-in features and a marketplace of third-party apps for customisation. However, these apps are often exclusive to Shopify or optimised for their platform, restricting your options and potentially leading to vendor lock-in. Additionally, extending the platform with custom functionality outside of Shopify's defined features is limited.    

BetterCommerce

BetterCommerce architecture ensures efficient handling of high-volume traffic and complex workflows, accommodating your growth without limitations. This eliminates the need for expensive plan upgrades based on transaction volume, unlike platforms where basic plans might restrict your scalability.

Shopify

While Shopify excels for many businesses, its functionality may not efficiently handle the complex needs of companies exceeding $50 million in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). Consider a platform designed to scale alongside your growing business.    

BetterCommerce

High availability, very scalable cloud-native infrastructure that works within Azure.

Shopify

Shopify leverages Google Cloud for its infrastructure, providing a reliable and scalable foundation. However, customers cannot directly manage the underlying infrastructure and are reliant on Shopify's hosted solution and ecosystem.    

BetterCommerce

BetterCommerce believes in helping retailers with their commerce journey. BetterCommerce success lies in retailer success and hence a contract can be broken anytime by giving 30 days’ prior notice.

Shopify

Due to its closed ecosystem, Shopify can create a high degree of vendor lock-in. Many developments and integrations function primarily within the Shopify platform, making it difficult to migrate to another platform in the future.    No vendor lock-ins. 

BetterCommerce

BetterCommerce offers a more user-friendly approach. Its built-in configuration tools allow for visual adjustments to the checkout process without coding. Additionally, a well-documented API empowers developers to further customize the experience if needed. This flexibility caters to both ease of use and advanced customisation needs. BetterCommerce also streamlines checkout with features like guest checkout, multiple payment options, and a focus on speed and security.

Shopify

Shopify utilizes a proprietary checkout system hosted on a separate domain from your main storefront (headless implementation). While this offers security benefits, it can create challenges for cross-domain tracking and integrating analytics tools.

BetterCommerce

While Shopify boasts a fast launch for simple stores, BetterCommerce caters to a different need getting complex businesses up and running efficiently.  Its headless architecture and pre-built components can still deliver a functional storefront in a streamlined timeframe, typically around 4-6 weeks.  However, the true strength of BetterCommerce lies in its scalability.  The initial launch is just the beginning – the platform empowers businesses to customise and adapt their storefront as their needs evolve without sacrificing speed

Shopify

Shopify excels at launching basic online stores quickly due to its predefined features and streamlined deployment process. However, this speed may not translate to complex enterprise needs requiring extensive customisation. For such businesses, a more flexible platform might be necessary.    

BetterCommerce

BetterCommerce offers a transparent tiered pricing structure, allowing you to choose the plan that best suits your business needs and budget. Each plan is packed with a comprehensive set of out-of-the-box features, from marketing automation tools to loyalty programs. This built-in functionality can significantly reduce your development and customisation costs compared to platforms requiring extensive coding or integrations. Transparent subscription approach starting from $36k .

Shopify

Shopify offers a compelling value proposition with a low total cost of ownership (TCO). However, its ease of use comes with limitations in customisation and scalability. This can lead to a lower return on investment (ROI) for complex businesses, and the platform might not accommodate their growth beyond a certain point. Businesses with intricate needs may require a more flexible platform from the start.    

BetterCommerce

Average Cost starts from £150k

Shopify

Shopify boasts very low ongoing costs, typically around $5,000 per month after an initial setup ranging from $50,000 to $100,000. However, exceeding $800,000 in revenue incurs an additional 0.25% transaction fee.