This article will answer the frequently asked question, “What’s the best way to start my dropshipping business?” AliDropship or Shopify with Oberlo? We’ll answer this question both objectively and subjectively, with a discussion of our verdict at the end.
So, without further ado, let’s compare Shopify and AliDropship.
What is AliDropship?
AliDropship is a dropshipping plugin created by Yaros that is designed to be connected with WordPress. Its major role is to convert your site into an effective dropshipping website.
What precisely does it do?
Well, AliDropship aims to aid and automate the majority of the time-consuming activities associated with running an online dropshipping company, particularly one that sources its products from AliExpress.
These tasks include assisting with product selection and importation, automating order fulfilment, reputation management, etc.
We’ll go over these exact features below, but you may want to read our full AliDropship Review, which goes over this info in greater depth.
It should be mentioned that AliDropship also offers custom dropshipping stores (custom-made) and premium dropshipping store (choose from a variety of existing stores) services, in which you essentially buy a done-for-you eCommerce site, complete with products, ready for you to sell and advertise. We bought one and they’re excellent; you can read about it in our case study.
Core AliDropship Features
- Simple setup with no coding necessary – Although initial hosting setup might be difficult, we recommend getting hosting from AliDropship since it is relatively cheap.
- AliExpress product import with a single click
- WooCommerce themes are supported (AliDropship Woo Version)
- Filters for finding desirable products on AliExpress
- Free SEO & CRO optimized themes are included with the plugin
- Automation of pricing – Apply specific restrictions to current and new products using a pricing formula.
- Automatic price updates – As AliExpress prices change, your store’s pricing will adjust.
- Integration with WooCommerce – Using the AliDropship Woo plugin version (Both the Original and Woo version are included when purchasing)
- Automatic order placement – If there are two or thirty current orders, simply click the ‘order’ button, and AliDropship will automatically place all orders.
- Live Chat and Email Support – Emails are usually returned within a few hours to a day.
- AliDropship Discussion Forum – Customers can talk about their experiences, problems, and success stories.
- Fantastic learning tools – given that the firm runs its own incredibly successful AliDropship stores, they know what works right now.
Find out more about AliDropship’s features.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is a prominent e-commerce system for creating, hosting, and managing an e-commerce store’s inventory, marketing, and product delivery.
Shopify can meet the demands of your business, whether you’re dropshipping or holding stock yourself.
The platform enables the installation of unique apps, which expands the features of the store. Oberlo is a popular service for transitioning your new business into a fully functional dropshipping store.
Key elements are discussed more below.
Core Shopify Features
- All-in-one e-commerce system with the option of buying a domain, hosting, and CMS access.
- There are several E-commerce themes available.
- Simple to use for people without coding skills
- Customers will get a free SSL certificate and access to over 100 payment gateways.
- CRO optimization tools include optimized templates, abandoned checkout recovery, multiple languages, and adjustable delivery costs.
- Metadata, structured data, sitemaps, and other SEO optimization aspects
- Store administration and order fulfilment abilities
- Discounts, email marketing, social media integration, and Google AdWords credit are all marketing optimization features.
- Unlimited bandwidth, SSL certificate, email forwarding, and fast upgrades and updates are all features of web hosting.
- Analytics consists of traffic, conversions, and product-specific reports.
- Customer service is available 24/7.
Customer service is open 24/7. Read more about Shopify’s features.
What Are the Key Similarities?
The following are some important similarities between these two service providers:
Highly popular and successful
Both Shopify and AliDropship are market leaders in their respective areas, and they compete by using various Content Management Systems.
Shopify runs over one million online businesses, including Tesla, Nestle, Red Bull, Kylie Cosmetics, and many more.
AliDropship is a method for dropshipping from AliExpress that works in conjunction with WordPress (which is free). It is currently used by over 50,000 clients globally and has a Trustpilot rating of 4.7*.
Everything you’ll need to manage your store are included.
Both of these services provide all-in-one solutions for running your own dropshipping store, including site hosting, product importation, and marketing tools.
It becomes a bit trickier now because Shopify wants consumers to download the Oberlo app (which is as easy as a 1-click installation) within their Shopify dashboard to import products and manage your dropshipping business, which is an extra expense.
In contrast, AliDropship would not provide web hosting unless you purchase it as an add-on, which is relatively inexpensive when compared to other web hosting options.
We’ll go over these variances in further detail in the next section.
What Are the Key Differences Between Shopify and Alidropship?
There are some significant differences between AliDropship and Shopify, which are as follows:
1. Shopify Is A CMS, but AliDropship works with WordPress and WooCommerce (Optional)
Okay, so we receive a lot of questions regarding the differences between Shopify and AliDropship, and here are the big distinctions:
- Shopify is a content management system that offers consumers a domain (+$14 per year) and web hosting (included), as well as the opportunity to use free and paid-for applications, in this case, Oberlo.
- AliDropship is a WordPress plugin that interfaces with the content management system. It does not include a domain name, and site hosting is extra. There are no monthly fees, though.
2. Shopify is a monthly fee (and needs Oberlo), whereas AliDropship is a one-time fee.
The costs associated with running a regular dropshipping store on Shopify or AliDropship are listed below.
- Shopify Monthly Fees: $29 (basic), $79 (standard), $299 (advanced)
- Oberlo’s monthly fees are as follows: free (up to 50 orders per month), $29.90 (basic), and $79.90 (premium) (pro)
- One-Time AliDropship Price: $66.75 (with our 25% discount – see below) for unlimited usage
- Optional Web Hosting: $48 per year (includes free SSL) – Hosts up to 5 websites
3. Shopify offers customer service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. AliDropship offers help within one day.
Both Shopify and Oberlo offer 24/7 customer care, which is wonderful, especially if you run a large business that might lose thousands of dollars if an issue isn’t fixed right away.
4. You will be billed a $30+ monthly subscription.
AliDropship offers lifetime support and updates for its plugins and products, and their support team responds to clients within a few hours a day… There are no ongoing costs for this.
AliDropship offers a 25% discount on the plugin and a 15% discount on a Custom Store.
AliDropship Plugin (Original & Woo): $66.75 (25% Off) Get Discount here
AliDropship Basic Custom Store: $254.15 (15% Off) – Get Discount here
AliDropship Advanced Custom Store: $424.15 (15% Off) – Get Discount here
AliDropship Ultimate Custom Store: $764.15 (15% Off) – Get Discount here
AliDropship Supreme Custom Store: $2464 (15% off) – Get Discount here
AliDropship also offers a comprehensive DFY (done for you) solution.
AliDropship offers a custom-store service, which we carefully reviewed in our AliDropship custom store review.
This is an excellent solution for folks who either have no skills or have limited time to build up a dropshipping business themselves.
Here is some information about the service and what it offers:
- A personal account manager who handles everything (after consultation with you)
- A .com domain
- research, selection, and competitive analysis
- Design, logo, and banners that are excellent
- AliDropship 50+ product plugins (depending on package)
- Social pages for basic on-site SEO
- Video advertisement (depending on the package)
- Promotional tool for social media (depending on package)
Shopify isn’t a great option for SEO purposes (Organic Traffic)
From personal experience, Shopify stores are constrained in terms of SEO, particularly on-page SEO.
In terms of SEO, Shopify has the following limitations:
- Uneditable robots.txt file – This means that specific pages should not be crawled and indexed.
- Uneditable canonical tags – Creating duplicate content problems
- URL structures that are forced – Although not the most serious problem, it is inconvenient.
These are highly technical SEO concerns, yet they can have a significant impact on rankings.
Because we rely largely on Organic Search traffic, we always use WordPress and AliDropship for our e-commerce businesses.
Which Is the Best Between Shopify and Alidropship?
This is a completely subjective issue, with the answer mostly determined by your level of experience, requirements, and budget.
However, we believe AliDropship is the obvious winner here!
It’s not only less expensive to run, but the additional expenditures required by Shopify don’t net you much more than the one-time payment required by AliDropship.
For persons who are absolutely new to even creating a website, the following option is dependent on your budget:
- Small budget: Get the AliDropship plugin and follow this instruction to set up your dropshipping store. Click here to start
- Medium budget: Buy AliDropship hosting and have them set up your server and install the plugin so you can begin adding products. Click here to start
- Large budget: Buy a custom or premium store where everything is taken care of for you – Find out more about AliDropship’s custom stores (custom-made), supreme store package, and premium store package (pre-made) All of these come with a 15% discount if you use our links below.
Don’t forget to take advantage of our discounts here:
AliDropship (Original & Woo) Plugin: $66.75 (25% Off) Get Discount here
AliDropship Basic Custom Store: $254.15 (15% Off) – Get Discount here
AliDropship Advanced Custom Store: $424.15 (15% Off) – Get Discount here
AliDropship Ultimate Custom Store: $764.15 (15% Off) – Get Discount here
AliDropship Supreme Custom Store: $2464 (15% off) – Get Discount here
