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Let's face it: the costs of the various e-commerce solutions on the market cannot be ignored. It makes sense to see people looking for the cheapest option, and it's on this premise that some platforms have structured their pricing.
Prestashop is one of those platforms. Our goal is not to say that their pricing is dishonest, because it absolutely is not. Today, we simply want to answer this very relevant question: " why choose Shopify when Prestashop is free ?" "
In this article, we will explain to you how Shopify costs you significantly less than Prestashop , despite the seemingly free latter.
Prestashop is presented as a 100% free solution, which necessarily makes it very attractive. The use of their e-commerce software is indeed free. Prestashop's turnover is achieved in part through the sale of modules that allow you to add features to your store. A large number of these modules cost more than 100 € (notwithstanding their importance for the proper functioning of a basic e-commerce store). Here are some examples of paid modules:
- The referencing of your pages on search engines
- Import of products via CSV / Excel table
- Synchronization of your customer file to your newsletter system
These three essential modules cost about € 450 in total, and l will usually provide between 1,000 € and 1,500 € at least to buy the remaining functionality needed to launch a proper shop.
The high price of these modules is a real handicap for entrepreneurs who throw themselves into e-commerce on a small budget. In addition, there is no trial period for the modules; you therefore run the risk of incurring a considerable loss of money in the event that a module does not suit you.
It should also be noted that these modules can take time to install and configure, and are often subject to bugs given the open source nature of Prestashop and the compatibility with different versions of the software.
Shopify employs completely different pricing by offering monthly plans starting at $ 29 per month. This first subscription is often more than enough to manage your online store. The higher subscriptions, on the other hand, offer you more features and have decreasing commission percentages (which reach 0% for Shopify Plus subscriptions, the solution for large companies).
This pricing is much more transparent, logical and affordable. In theory, you can start selling online even before you've paid your 1st monthly payment - because the trial period allows you to take 50 orders. If you don't like the idea of commission fees, just put it into perspective: you might find yourself paying € 1,500 in modules before you can launch a Prestashop store; You would need to make € 75,000 in sales on Shopify before being charged € 1,500 in commission, and this only on a basic subscription.
The Shopify platform also has its App Store with free and paid apps; these are billed to you in the form of very affordable subscriptions. Often, an app on Shopify will take months (or even more than a year) before costing you the price of its equivalent module on Prestashop. All apps also have a free trial period , so you can try them out risk-free - while purchasing a module on Prestashop is non-refundable.
As compared to Shopify support, the Prestashop sells technical assistance services for e-merchants who have difficulties with the IT part of their store. These subscriptions are very expensive; the cheapest costs € 399 per year (to be paid at once) and provides only six hours of support for the year.
Although in English, all the services offered by Prestashop technical support are free as compared to Shopify Transaction fee. Their technical team (the Shopify Gurus) is very friendly and remains there to answer all your questions 24/7 via email, chat or phone . Shopify provides you with extensive, user-friendly documentation to guide you, should you be looking to better understand certain parts of the platform. Theme and app developers are also responsive and very often provide product documentation as well.
In terms of prices, the themes on Prestashop are often a little cheaper than those available on Shopify. That said, there is one important nuance to remember: given the open source nature of Prestashop, anyone can post a theme on the platform. It will therefore be necessary to take into account the fact that some themes sold on Prestashop may be subject to bugs, which could consequently cost you time and money in corrections.
We can also note that the only free Prestashop theme is the one offered to you from the start.
Of course, there are Shopify themes created by third-party developers across the web - but the ones offered on the official Shopify Theme Store go through extremely rigorous quality testing. This guarantees you can easily customize your theme, without going through the correction of bugs (and in addition, there are more than ten free themes)!
Even if the Cloud version of Prestashop saves you time and money in terms of hosting, it limits you on several levels. First of all, you are restricted in the choice of themes sold by Prestashop and cannot access their codes. This means that you can only change the colors, images, font, and layout of your site. In addition, it is impossible to create your own theme and import it to your store. The same goes for modules, because they must necessarily be purchased on the Prestashop site.
Another disadvantage of the Cloud version: it does not allow you to obtain an SSL certificate on your site ; you will be forced to go through a bank's system to accept payments securely, which often deteriorates the customer experience in terms of design and ease.
To sum up, the only way to overcome these constraints would be to host your Prestashop store yourself, which will considerably increase your costs.
Your store is still hosted on Shopify - yet you will still be able to access what is restricted to you on the hosted version of Prestashop! Regardless of the package chosen, you will always have the possibility to modify the code of your theme. And if you want to work with a developer to create a custom theme or feature, you won't have any restrictions either. In addition, all Shopify stores have an SSL certificate included, at no additional cost!
Prestashop is therefore not a free platform as one might think. On the contrary, it is not uncommon to see some e-merchants spend more than € 2,000 before having even made a sale on their Prestashop store. On Shopify, you can start selling your products very well, without taking a dime out of your pocket. This allows you to test the waters - and that without any initial financial regret.