5 Innovative Shopify Alternatives to Scale Your Print Business

Blog Summary: The more you scale your business, the more specific requirements it needs. If you want to grow your print business large, you need to take care of every minor process. These processes can be unique to your business and need unique solutions. Shopify might be a solution for a lot of businesses, but it not necessarily be one for you. Explore the print storefront builders that are better than Shopify for print businesses.

In the world of competition, finding your brand identity is the key to success. And guess what? Using generic solutions won’t make you unique. You need to have something specific to your business that sets you apart from the crowd. Isn’t it?

Especially, if you are a custom print service provider, you are in one of the most competitive markets. With the reported market size of USD 38.10 billion in 2024, experts project the custom printing market to grow at a CAGR of 10.3% between 2025 to 2030. And we know very well that the bigger the sea, the more the fish.

Is that what made you look for Shopify alternatives? We get you. Shopify is great for a lot of businesses, but it can make you just another one of them. So, if you are looking for the best alternative to Shopify distinctively for your print business, you will find one in this blog.

Top Shopify Alternatives for Your Print Business Storefront

The problem with doing what most businesses do is that you end up facing the same challenges that they do. And sometimes it’s too late.

If you are about to mark your business’s online presence, Shopify isn’t the only eCommerce store builder. There are plenty of them, and you should check them out to make a wise decision before committing, instead of looking for options on your half-way there.

So, here are the top 5 Shopify alternatives that could be proven better for your print business.

Alternative 1: OnPrintShop

As a print shop owner, you have niche-specific requirements that a generic online store might not serve the best. Thus, you should look into Web-to-Print and what it does to help printers like you.

And that’s why OnPrintShop is at the top of this list. It provides #1 AI-powered Web-to-Print solutions, which means it is the best alternative to Shopify for building an online print store. Its modern Web-to-Print storefront is highly popular amongst customizable print product sellers. You get a ton of features not just to manage your storefront, but to manage your workflow too.

You can also utilize the power of AI With OnPrintShop’s web2print solution. Get Generative-AI to create compelling product descriptions and images to make your print store convert more leads. Moreover, it also provides an AI-backed designer studio to easily remove background form images, enhance images, and create stunning creatives.

OnPrintShop uses advanced web-to-print technology in its printing solution, providing a user-friendly interface, customizable templates, and seamless order management. Tailored to the unique needs of the printing industry, it enables effective product showcasing and personalized customer experiences through web-to-print capabilities.

If you compare OnPrintShop’s Web-to-Print platform with a generic eCommerce platform, you get a storefront builder for your print business based on whether you are a B2B print business, B2C printer, print-on-demand business, drop-shipping business, trade printer, print franchisee owner, or a commercial print business.

Having an online store is just the tip of the iceberg, you also need to manage your business operations in sync with your storefront. For example, letting the print buyers design their custom print products and get design approvals for customer satisfaction. Therefore, you would need other tools too. But not if you choose OnPrintShop’s solution. It supports more than 300 major integration tools for Print MIS, Payment, Accounts, Marketing, and Shipping functionalities.

Moreover, here is a table for comparing OnPrintShop and Shopify 1-1.

OnPrintShop vs Shopify: Comparison Table

Lastly, let’s discuss the cost difference between OnPrintShop and Shopify.

Pricing for OnPrintShop’s W2P solution is flexible and can vary based on your specific requirements. This way you don’t pay anything for what you don’t need. Whereas, Shopify has confusing pricing models if you want to create a print eCommerce as it includes a lot of third-party add-ons. Be mindful of additional costs associated with third-party applications that you may need for print-specific features.

Pros and Cons of OnPrintShop Over Shopify

Alternative 2: BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a comprehensive eCommerce platform that empowers businesses to establish and manage online stores seamlessly. With features such as storefront design, theme customization, and mobile optimization, it facilitates a user-friendly shopping experience.

The platform supports various sales channels, including social commerce and integration with major marketplaces. Offering robust B2B functionalities like customer segmentation and bulk pricing, it caters to diverse business needs. Smart Ops features ensure scalability, while global capabilities enable multi-currency transactions and cross-border fulfillment.

Pros and Cons of BigCommerce Over Shopify

Alternative 3: Magento (Adobe Commerce)

Magento is a robust and highly customizable open-source eCommerce platform that empowers businesses of all sizes. Renowned for its flexibility, Magento offers a wide range of features, including advanced product management, multiple storefronts, and a thriving marketplace for extensions.

Its scalable nature makes it suitable for small businesses looking to expand and large enterprises with complex eCommerce requirements. With a strong focus on performance and scalability, Magento provides a comprehensive solution for creating unique and feature-rich online stores.

Pros and Cons of Magento Over Shopify

Alternative 4: WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a user-friendly eCommerce plugin for WordPress, allowing businesses to turn their websites into fully functional online stores. Known for its simplicity and seamless integration with WordPress, WooCommerce offers a range of customizable themes and extensions.

This alternative for Shopify provides essential eCommerce features like product management, secure payments, and shipping options. Ideal for small to medium-sized businesses, WooCommerce is an excellent choice for those already familiar with the WordPress platform, offering a convenient and familiar environment for managing online stores.

Pros and Cons of WooCommerce Over Shopify

Alternative 5: Wix eCommerce

Wix eCommerce is a cloud-based website developer popular for building creative websites. Its drag-n-drop builder lets you create fully responsive websites without the need for coding knowledge. It has plenty of apps, plugins, and add-ons for various functionalities.

Its affordable prices make it the best platform for business owners to build professional websites themselves. Therefore, it is mostly used by freelancers, agencies, and small enterprises.

Pros and Cons of Wix eCommerce Over Shopify

So, these were the top-ranking alternatives to Shopify for the print industry. Like everything, they come with advantages and drawbacks of their own. So, the question arises, should you be looking for an alternative in the first place?

If you are thinking the same, what we are going to discuss next is for you.

Why Consider Shopify Alternatives for Your Online Print Store

Shopify has rightfully made its place in the eCommerce web development industry. It has several success stories to prove that, but having said that, one size does not fit all.

There are many reasons why opting or switching to an alternative would be considered a smart move. So, here are the right reasons you should consider eStore platforms beyond Shopify.

To Address Industry Specific Requirements

As mentioned earlier, Shopify is great for generic themes but when it comes down to niche-specific eStores, either you have to be open to different options or buy third-party add-ons to work with Shopify. Now, if you are paying for the add-ons, why get the same functionality in less than what Shopify charges you?

Some of the print business-specific needs such as a robust custom packaging solution for shipping, or different textures for customizing business cards are more seamless and intuitive with platforms like W2P by OnPrintShop.

To Have More Control Over SEO

What’s the point of having an online store if your ideal audience can’t find you? SEO is a critical aspect of your online presence and with the growing online traffic, you need to have more SEO control to outshine your competitors. Shopify does provide SEO plugins, but you have limited control. And you need to pay extra for some of the basic requirements too.

For example, it restricts you from accessing the robot.txt files. These files are crucial for indexing your webstore on Google. Whereas OnPrintShop’s print store platform provides you with SEO-friendly content produced by Generative-AI for displaying your products and has a lot more control over the web store’s SEO.

To Have a Wide Range of Products

If you wish to add a wide range of products in multiple categories, Shopify limits you to having 100 SKUs for every product and only three variations per product. So, if you choose to list customizable business cards of various sizes, you cannot have more than three sizes for the same card. Which does not do justice at all.

However, there is no limit to the printed products supported by OnPrintShop’s Web-to-Print solutions. You can add as many products as possible and options for appeals, photobooks, mugs, labels, stickers, canvas prints, and whatnot.

To Lower Your Operational Cost

Last but not least—cost. It has been covered by all the above points in some way or another, so have an idea already. Shopify charges you for every extra print-specific requirement on top of the commission for every sale you make.

So, for these reasons, you definitely should look for Shopify alternatives.

Now, you know your options and you also know the reasons to consider them. But what about features to look for in those options?

The next section covers exactly that. So, keep on reading.

What Features to Look for in a Shopify Alternative for a Print Shop

You should know what to look for before you start doing so. Therefore, to help you make a better decision, here is the list of features that make a difference when selecting one from Shopify alternatives for print businesses.

Customization of Storefront Design

Know what customization you need to build your online print store and ensure the platform you choose can fulfill your demands.

Customizable Product Options

If you wish to sell customizable printed products, make sure the platform lets your customers do so with an online design tool.

Order Management Integration

A print storefront is incomplete without order management integration. So, look for a platform that includes high-tech order management solutions for your print business.

Shipping and Payment Gateway Integration

You want to maximize your reach and thus the platform you select should support multiple payment gateways and shipping integrations.

Scalability

Futureproof your business with a platform that can scale with your business growth. Make sure it does not have any cap for adding limited products.

Good Customer Support

You never know with any certainty that you will not face a downtime. So, as a precaution, the platform should have a dedicated support team to help you with any technical issue.

Third-Party App Compatibility

Having a website is not the end, if you cannot integrate it with your current workflow, it becomes a hindrance rather than a convenience. So, check the integration support beforehand.

Advanced Analytics and Reporting

Making data-backed decisions is the key to quick growth for any business. Thus, your online print storefront must be able to automate advanced analytics and reports for valuable insights.

Selecting the Best Shopify Alternative for Your Online Printing BusinessWhen you want to make an online presence for a printing business, it is essential to customize the storefront as per your brand image, which is done seamlessly with OnPrintShop’s next-gen Web-to-Print software. It gives customers the power to decide the look and feel of their online print store. With over 300+ integrations, we ensure you have all the latest features and functions to meet web-to-print industry trends.With over a decade of industry experience, OnPrintShop can provide the right solutions for your print businesses. It’s helping several businesses to expand globally while maintaining the perfect balance between demands, expectations, and trends in the print industry.OnPrintShop helps your online print storefront handle bulk orders, corporate requests, and customer queries from a single dashboard. With continuous updates, our storefront experts make it an excellent choice for businesses of all sizes while keeping unique business needs in mind.Our main goal is to deliver a complete custom solution that lets print business owners design their storefronts and add unique products through existing templates. A vast potential in your businesses can be highlighted using just a single software solution. Try OnPrintShop today and see the difference it can make for your business.