AliDropship vs Shopify: Which Is Better?

AliDropship or Shopify? Which is the better choice for your dropshipping store? There are so many to choose from!

There are plenty of options available for opening your own eCommerce dropshipping store. In this post, we’ll focus on two good choices, Shopify, and the AliDropship WordPress plugin.

Either way, you’re sure to have great features, and each has its fair share of pros and cons.

Here’s what I’ve learned about each of the platforms.

AliDropship vs Shopify Pricing

Dropshipping Tool	AliDropship	Oberlo
Platform	WordPress	Shopify
Platform Pricing	$0 – WordPress.org is free $3.95/month hosting with BlueHost	$29/month – Basic Shopify Plan $79/month – Shopify Plan $299/month – Advanced Plan
Plugin/App Costs	$89 – one-time payment $48 – yearly hosting payment (for hosting with AliDropship)	$0 – Starter $29.90/month – Basic $79.90/month – Pro

Which Is Less Expensive to Operate: Shopify or AliDropship?

This is one of the most important questions when it comes to answering what your overhead costs will be for running the online store.

Pricing

• Shopify: $29 per month (basic plan) + Oberlo’s basic plan $29.90 per month = $720 per year
• AliDropship: $89 one time fee + $48 per year hosting (optional) = $137

There are no ongoing monthly fees with AliDropship, which makes it the most cost-effective solution in the long run.

It’s also key to understand how the platforms differ, to determine what you need to pay for.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a shopping cart platform and an all-in-one eCommerce store. You can add your products with Oberlo (their dropshipping plugin), fulfill orders, track sales, and more. They include web hosting, although you will have to pay extra for a custom domain ($14 per year).

Shopify by default is not designed for dropshipping. You will need to install the Oberlo plugin in order to add dropshipping products to your online store.

What is AliDropship?

AliDropship is an AliExpress dropshipping WordPress plugin that allows you to import products from AliExpress into a shopping cart enabled WordPress theme such as WooCommerce. They do offer their own shopping cart enabled themes to choose from as well.

They offer both a standalone AliDropship version or one that works with WooCommerce called AliDropship Woo. It’s why I call it the Oberlo for WooCommerce plugin.

WordPress by default is not designed for dropshipping. You will need to install the AliDropship plugin in order to add dropshipping products to your online store. Whether that be the shopping cart that is through AliDropship’s standalone product or their AliDropship Woo plugin that works with WooCommerce.

What Are the Main Differences Between Shopify and AliDropship?

Both platforms allow you to build a dropshipping store and provide many features you’ll need to run the business. The main difference is that Shopify is in all in one platform that’s much simpler to understand with less website experience. Whereas with AliDropship, you create a store by yourself in WordPress.

If you’re already familiar with how to set up a WordPress website and installing plugins, then AliDropship will be easy for you.

On the other hand, if you do not have experience with installing WordPress, then it may be easier for you to use the Shopify platform.

However, AliDropship does offer custom store creation, starting at $299.

Web Hosting

Shopify includes web hosting with all of its plans, and it’s also very fast which is essential for any online store. If your visitors have to wait for a web page to load, they will likely click away and you may lose a potential sale.

AliDropship offers inexpensive web hosting plans for your WordPress based dropshipping store. Prices range from $48 per year for their silver plan, $86 per year for the gold plan, and $220 per year for the platinum plan.

Or you can opt to go with a different WordPress web hosting provider, such as BlueHost with plans starting as low as $3.95/month.

Payment Processing

Shopify will handle your credit card payments for you. Once you open your store, you can begin receiving orders and accepting credit card payments from all major providers. When using Shopify payments, you pay no subscription, transaction fees, and no third-party software is needed. Credit card rates are based on your Shopify plan.

You can read more on the various Shopify payment gateways available.

AliDropship accepts various payment gateways such as popular options like PayPal and Authorize.net. Each different payment gateway will have its own credit card transaction rates and fees, as well as subscription costs if any.

Is SSL Included?

Nowadays, SSL is included in almost any website platform to ensure the security of its users. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is necessary to encrypt personal information when it’s input on a website, especially in eCommerce.

Shopify includes SSL built-in for free when you build a store with them.

AliDropship on the other hand only includes an SSL for free with their hosting plan. If you decide to go with another hosting company, it’s up to you to make sure the SSL is enabled.

What Happens to My Online Store If I Leave the Service?

If you wish to leave Shopify or AliDropship, what would happen to your online store?

If for some reason you would like to move your online store to another service, once you close a Shopify store, you are only able to export a CSV file containing your product data, everything else is deleted.

AliDropship is a plugin, so you have complete control over your website files on the WordPress backend that can be migrated to any hosting company.

With Shopify, you lock yourself up much more into their system, which is something to consider in the long run.

Customer Support and Updates

Either service you go with, Shopify, or AliDropship, both will offer customer support. When you purchase AliDropship, you will continue to receive ongoing product updates. The same goes for Shopify.

With Shopify, any features and updates added will automatically be applied to your online store. Whereas with the AliDropship plugin, you have to manually hit the update button every so often.

To Conclude

At the end of the day, it comes down to your personal preferences as to which option will be better for you. AliDropship will be more hands-on with maintaining your own store compared to relying on Shopify to do it for you and handle anything more technical.

One other key detail is that with AliDropship, you’re limited to AliExpress products. Whereas with Shopify, you can use other plugins to import different products. If you still want to dropship with WordPress and WooCommerce, you can also use other plugins to get the job done.

You can try Shopify free for 14 days.

If you’re ready to launch an AliExpress dropshipping business with AliDropship you can click here to get started today.

Which eCommerce platform do you prefer? Have you tried Shopify or AliDropship?