Are you wondering if you should choose Shift4Shop or Shopify as your ecommerce platform? On this page we compare these two popular ecommerce solutions and try to help you pick the option that suits your situation the best.
From below you can find our quick summary table of Shift4Shop vs Shopify and after that there is bit more information about each aspect that we compared these two platforms on.
| Aspect | Shift4 Shop | Shopify |
| Ease of use | Quite easy | Quite easy |
| Themes | Decent | Good |
| Pricing | Free or cheap | Cheap |
| Features | Good | Good |
| Apps | OK | Awesome |
| Reliability | High | High |
| For driving sales | Good | Great |
| Customer service | Very good | Very good |
| Open an account: | Go to Shift4Shop | Go to Shopify |
Which platform is easier to use Shopify or Shift4Shop? Both of these platforms are quite easy to use. Not as easy as something like Zyro, but certainly among the easiest ecommerce platforms.
However, if you are new to ecommerce Shopify’s admin panel can be bit overwhelming: there just seems to be too many options. Shift4Shop on the other hand, seems to have eliminated from its admin panel everything that an average store owner likely won’t need.
Which platform has better themes?
Shopify and Shift4Shop are about equally good when it comes to themes that are designed for showcasing lot of products on your store’s home page. However, at least in my Shopify has a better offering when it comes to themes that are particularly stylish and ideal for showcasing a small number of products.
While Shopify might have better themes than Shift4Shop, it is good to note that Shift4Shop has far more free themes than Shopify does. As such Shift4Shop can be a better choice if you are not interested in buying a theme.
Comparison of standard Shopify theme vs standard Shift4Shop theme:
Not much of a difference!
Which one is cheaper Shift4 Shop or Shopify?
Shift4Shop offers U.S.-based store owners a free plan and the cheapest regular Shopify plan costs without a discount $39/month, so if you are from the USA, Shift4Shop is clearly the cheaper option for you.
If you are from outside the U.S., the pricing is a bit closer as Shift4Shop’s cheapest plan costs $19/month and it is possible that they are actually in the process of getting rid of that plan as it is no longer publicly advertised on their website (you can still pick it when choosing your subscription).
Additionally, it is good to note that Shift4Shop’s non-free plans have a sales limit, which means that you have to upgrade to a more expensive plan if you generate more revenue than your current plan allows you to. And that obviously might increase your costs. But then at the same time it is good to note that Shopify tends to charge more transaction fees than Shift4Shop.
Which platform has better features Shift4Shop or Shopify? In terms of the features offered by the platform itself, Shift4Shop and Shopify are very close to each other. And both of them, for example, give you access to reports and the opportunity to offer promo codes to your customers.
Which platform works with more apps? This is the one area in which Shopify clearly beats Shift4Shop: lot of very good apps work with Shopify and then on the other hand very few apps work with Shift4Shop. So, if you are someone who wants to add lot of “extras” to your store with apps/plugins Shopify is for you a better choice than Shift4Shop.
Which platform is more trustworthy Shift4Shop or Shopify? There should be no issues with the safety of either of these platforms. That is as Shopify is itself a large stock exchange listed company and Shift4Shop is owned by Shift4 Payments, which is a quite large stock exchange listed company
Is Shift4Shop or Shopify better for driving sales? Both Shift4 Shop and Shopify appear to have done a good job on making it easy to build a store that customers are likely to enjoy buying from, but it does seem that Shopify makes it bit easier for customers to buy from your store. And as such, you might get some extra sales if you choose Shopify over Shift4Shop.
Does Shift4Shop or Shopify offer better customer service than the other one? In my experience these two platforms offer equally excellent customer service.
Which platform is being improved faster, Shopify or Shift4Shop? It seems that the new owner of Shift4Shop (Shift4 Payments) is putting a lot of resources into improving the platform and they seem to be doing frequent updates. So, if you are looking for an ecommerce platform that is improving rapidly, it is likely a good idea to pick Shift4Shop over Shopify.
Ready to pick your ecommerce platform? Try Shopify for free or go to Shift4Shop.
Looking for more information about these two platforms? See our Shift4Shop review or our 2023 Shopify review.
P.S. You can find more recommended ecommerce platforms from our list of the best ecommerce platforms of 2023.