Woocommerce can be a slow choice for running an ecommerce for many. The impact of a slow website is especially bad when considering that one of the key metrics for running a long-term ecommerce business, the Total Cost of Ownership(TCO), may get a lot higher, as a slow website converts less.
Woocommerce currently has lower Core Web Vitals metrics compared with its alternatives. Core Web Vitals is now a standard for Google in terms of page experience and speed(perceived load) by the LCP(largest contentful paint) metric.
As Wocommerce is an open-source plugin, it may be hard to compete with private apps that have robust technology on all of their pages. Nonetheless, there are faster Woocommerce alternatives.
If you’re looking for a complete ecommerce solution that includes hosting, and website builder capabilities, take a look at the following list of faster Woocommerce alternatives, in Core Web Vitals terms.
Fastest Woocommerce Alternatives Rank
Core Web Vitals is now a standard for Google regarding page experience. It applies to visual stability, loading, and interactivity experience. Alongside other metrics, they form what Google calls Search Signals for Page Experience, which is to be used as a search ranking algorithm.
Choosing technologies with great Core Web Vitals metrics will make your website have better results in SEO relevance, and the LCP(largest contentful paint) metric offers now a clear way to measure perceived load speed.
Core Web Vitals doesn’t only apply directly to the SEO algorithm but rather a lot of metrics. Speed – represented by the LCP metric – can have a direct impact on the cost of running a website, due to how slow-loading websites may consume more server resources/require more bandwidth, leading to higher hosting costs.
Page speed can also have an impact on the perceived credibility of a website. Users may associate slow-loading websites with low-quality or unreliable content, and fast-loading is perceived as more professional and trustworthy.
For ecommerce websites looking to build trust and credibility with their customers, speed and user experience are modern metrics that need attention.
For this rank, we used Google data, with the following Top Woocommerce alternatives ranked:
Shopify
Shopify can be a Woocommerce alternative.
Shopify has its programming language for developers to build their themes, it’s called Liquid. The Shopify reference theme is called Dawn, built around performance, flexibility, and ease of use. It’s free for unlimited use; click here to see a demo of the Dawn theme.
Shopify also offers other free themes such as Debut and Brooklyn. Shopify has an integrated CDN backed by Fastly and Cloudflare, included in all plans.
If you want to know about Shopify stores’ case studies of success check the BuiltwithShopify website.
Features on all plans:
- Shopify point of sale – Sell physical with the Shopify POS app.
- Gift cards & discount codes.
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage.
Yearly pricing:
- Shopify Basic: $348/year with 2,7% + $0.30 each sell with CC
- Shopify Medium: $948/year with 2,6% + $0.30 each sell with CC
- Shopify Advanced: $3588/year with 2,4% + $0.30 each sell with CC
Duda
Duda is a website builder featuring team collaboration and client management. It can be used as a Woocommerce alternative. Duda offers websites with ready functions such as HTTPS Encryption, hosting, multi-language, and membership.
Pricing (1-year plans):
- 100 products + No transaction fee + 40 payment methods. + Realtime shipping rate(UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc.): $87/year
- 2500 products + No transac. fee + 40 payment method. + Realtime shipping rate(UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc.), sell on Amazon: $231/year
- Unlim. products + No transac. fee + 40 payment method. + Realtime shipping rate(UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc.), sell on Amazon + Square POS: $468/year
Webflow
Webflow is a CMS and ecommerce alternative to Wordpress that allows you to build websites without coding. It offers a free plan for starting up your project on the platform until you launch it as a custom domain. Webflow also has Workspace plans featuring team options.
Yearly pricing:
- 1 site, 1GB/mo bandwidth, webflow.io domain: Free
- 1 site, 50GB/mo bandwidth, domain, no database: $144/year
- 1 site, 200GB/mo bandwidth, domain, 2k items/database, 3 editors: $192/year
- 1 site, 400GB/mo bandwidth, domain, 1k items/database, 10 editors: $432/year
Squarespace
Squarespace is a novice-friendly platform that may require little to no learning to use all of its features.
Squarespace offers a selection of starter templates that will help you kickstart your project. You can use Squarespace to sell, as a Woocommerce alternative.
To build a website you use their block-based builder with drag-n-drop functionality. When building you have a free staging website to test and review any changes, before applying to the live website.
Squarespace ranks in the top 3 with the best TTFB amongst other platforms.
Yearly pricing:
- 1 site, unlimited/bandwidth, domain, 2/members: $168/year
- 1 site ecommerce, unlimited/bandwidth, domain, unlimited/members, custom email: $276/year+ 3% each sell
- 1 site ecomm, unlimited/bandwidth, domain, unlimited/members, custom email, POS app: $324/year+ 0% each sell
- 1 site ecomm, unlimited/bandwidth, domain, unlimited/members, custom email, POS app, advanced e-commerce options: $588/year+ 0% each sell