Compare your eCommerce options
Choose the right eCommerce platform to start and grow your business
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Business Catalyst offers only one eCommerce plan for $38.88/month, and limits its users in just about every way: storage, email, eCommerce tools, support channels, and even the number of admin users. Of course, you can always increase a few of these services by paying an extra fee each month. But in case you're not aware, Business Catalyst has also announced that it's shutting down on September 26, 2021, so if you're currently using it (or planning to use it), you'll need to find an alternative for your eCommerce website.
Shift4Shop is everything you need to sell online, with unlimited email accounts, storage, admin users, and 24/7/365 support. We want you to have all the tools you need to succeed, and we’re not about to nickel-and-dime you by enforcing unnecessary caps and limitations. In fact, we can offer something unprecedented in the eCommerce industry: a completely free, unlimited plan that includes all our enterprise-grade features. If you're looking for a perfect Business Catalyst alternative, you've found it in Shift4Shop.
Theme selectionBusiness Catalyst uses tables for their website designs, which not only means their users have a difficult time customizing their themes, but more importantly, that websites aren’t mobile-friendly. Shift4Shop offers more than 100+ gorgeous responsive themes, so that desktop, tablet and smartphone visitors all have an equally excellent shopping experience.
Learning curveBusiness Catalyst’s difficult-to-use platform features a steep learning curve that results in customers abandoning ship after only days. Shift4Shop’s platform is built for user-friendliness, without compromising your ability to customize the front and backend experience, or the number of advanced features and tools available.
“Just an absolute nightmare. I found myself constantly referencing their forums because I was so lost. Shift4Shop is a million times better in every way.”
– Ex-Business Catalyst customer
Exporting dataBusiness Catalyst holds their customers hostage by not supporting any method for exporting or extracting data. Shift4Shop easily allows customers to export important information such as customers, orders, products, categories, checkout questions, and much more.
Shift4Shop lets you take payments in minutes with a built-in Shift4 integration and also supports more payment solutions than any other eCommerce platform. See a full list of payment providers here.
Business Catalyst supports fewer than 30 payment gateways, less than 1/4 of those supported by Shift4Shop.
Business Catalyst’s unresponsive templates means their customers aren’t able to target the multi-billion dollar mobile shopping market. With Shift4Shop, you’ll have access to a growing selection of over 100 stunning responsive themes, all for free, allowing you to easily create a beautiful, customizable online store. Whether you’re looking for something bold, minimalist, classic, edgy, rustic, or elegant, Shift4Shop’s theme store has what you’re looking for. And with full access to your store’s HTML and CSS, you can customize every facet of your storefront for a truly unique shopping experience.
Shift4Shop offers the most advanced features in SaaS eCommerce, even to merchants using our free, unlimited End-to-End eCommerce plan. Our fully scalable solution includes everything you need to run a successful online store and adapt to complex business needs, without the needless complications and issues of Business Catalyst.