Shift4Shop review: Pros and cons in 2024

Best for businesses processing $500 or more monthly

Shift4Shop

Blueprint Rating

Monthly fee

$0 with $500 or more in transactions

Unlimited items

Yes

24/7 live customer support

Live chat, phone and email

Pros

• More than 200 built-in tools.
• Free, ready-to-use templates.
• Able to sell on Amazon, eBay and other channels.

Cons

• Learning curve for some.
• Customization may require HTML coding.
• Expensive for those below the $500 minimum.

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Formerly 3dcart, Shift4Shop is an e-commerce platform owned by Shift4, one of the largest payment processing companies in the world. Because Shift4Shop processes transactions through Shift4, it can offer its e-commerce services for free to users who have a minimum of $500 in transactions per month. 

Shift4Shop boasts e-commerce clients like Hickory Farms and The Honey Baked Ham Co., but smaller businesses with more limited product lines still receive the same features and access to 24/7 support. Currently, Shift4Shop is only available to merchants in the United States. In this review, we’ll cover Shift4Shop’s pricing, all of the features it offers and how it compares to similar e-commerce platforms.

Shift4Shop overview

Shift4Shop offers an out-of-the-box e-commerce store that most users can set up using built-in tools within a few hours. Stores can sell merchandise, digital products (for example, sewing patterns) or a mix of both. 

For stores completing more than $500 per month in transactions, Shift4Shop is free, so if you have an established business with guaranteed sales, a Shift4Shop account makes sense. On the other hand, businesses just starting out may need to pay a monthly fee based on their sales. 

Shift4Shop pros and cons

Like any e-commerce platform, Shift4Shop has its share of pros and cons. Most notably, it doesn’t charge a monthly fee to users that meet the $500 minimum in transactions, but it also comes with a learning curve. Here are more of Shift4Shop’s pros and cons:

Pros

• More than 100 responsive templates. Shift4Shop offers more than 100 SEO-optimized themes for free. Each comes with over 200 built-in tools and is easy to customize using the platform’s drag-and-drop interface. 
• Unlimited storage and bandwidth. With Shift4Shop, you get unlimited bandwidth, meaning you can transfer as much data as you need to without the threat of reduced functionality or additional charges beyond a set limit.
• Unlimited products. Not only can you add as many products as you want with Shift4Shop, but the platform allows you to sell products with unlimited options and variants. For example, you can sell a shirt in unlimited colors and sizes.
• Ability to create reports for free. Shift4Shop comes with a free, built-in reporting suite that provides real-time metrics and graphs. You can filter information to gauge the success of marketing campaigns, identify sales trends and track the growth of your business.
• Can integrate with point-of-sale (POS) devices. By downloading the Octopus Bridge app, you can sell products online and in person with POS devices. The app does have a monthly charge, ranging from $59 to $200.

Cons

• Charge for those under the $500 monthly minimum. Although Shift4Shop is free for users who process a minimum of $500 in transactions per month, it charges those who fall short a minimum of $29 per month.
• Learning curve due to so many built-in features. One of Shift4Shop’s big advantages is that it comes with free built-in tools that replace the apps you need to purchase with other platforms. However, it takes time to learn how to use those tools and can be overwhelming for the technically challenged. 
• Limited app market compared to some competitors. Because Shift4Shop has so many built-in tools, it has very few apps. That can be a problem if you want to use a specific accounting integration, for example, and it limits your ability to customize your e-commerce store. 

Shift4Shop pricing and value

	MONTHLY COST	UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH	UNLIMITED ITEMS	SELL ON AMAZON AND EBAY	SALES TAX CALCULATOR	ANALYTICS
End to End plan	$0 with minimum of $500 in transactions	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, with Google Analytics integration

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Shift4Shop has only one plan for new users, and it’s free as long as you process a minimum of $500 per month on the platform. For users who don’t hit the minimum threshold, the cost starts at $29 per month for new customers. This is in line with what other e-commerce platforms charge monthly for a basic to mid-level plan.

Whether you meet the $500 minimum and get it for free or pay a monthly charge, you get a free SSL certificate for your store, unlimited bandwidth, 24/7 customer support (including phone support) and unlimited products. Shift4Shop also provides all users with access to more than 100 free pre-built themes, all of which are SEO-optimized and responsive, and over 200 built-in tools. 

The real value lies in those built-in tools since most e-commerce platforms that have a free option severely limit available features. For example, email marketing, advanced SEO capabilities and the ability to issue gift cards come for free with Shift4Shop, but to get those features with other platforms, you would need to purchase an app. Although some apps are free, most have a monthly fee ranging from $10 to over $100 per month.

E-commerce functionality

Shift4Shop is an out-of-the-box solution, meaning you can set it up with minimal effort beyond adding your products, text and images. Because it has so many built-in features, you don’t have to add apps to get started unless you need a specific integration such as QuickBooks. 

Shift4Shop also comes with built-in tax and shipping calculators and advanced reports. If you want to build a business based on dropshipping, it is compatible with Doba, AliExpress and MegaGoods, to name a few. 

When it comes to actually selling products, Shift4Shop gives you many options. It accommodates omnichannel selling so that you can sell on Amazon, eBay, Facebook and Google Shopping in addition to your online store. You also have the option to sell in person using a POS device when you purchase the Octopus Bridge app.

While some e-commerce platforms limit you to one or two payment types, Shift4Shop supports PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Pay Later and all major credit cards with no transaction fees.

Inventory management features

Managing your inventory in Shift4Shop is fairly intuitive. Each new item can be entered by checking options and entering text, including a keyword-rich product description. Because your store comes with unlimited hard disk storage and bandwidth, you can upload videos and photos with dynamic zoom capabilities. Additionally, Shift4Shop displays all your store products in a bulleted list, where you can manage them on one page.

The platform’s built-in tools allow you to perform advanced tasks like monitoring a particular product separately or grouping similar items. Other features run automatically. For example, SmartCategories™ automatically generates new pages for items such as new releases, and the purchase order system automatically issues purchase orders when stock falls below a predetermined number.

With so many features, expect a learning curve. To help with that, Shift4Shop has a blog that covers its features, how to start an online business and other related topics, as well as a community forum and articles.

Web editor

Most users won’t have a difficult time setting up and customizing a Shift4Shop store. The platform has more than 100 free pre-built, SEO-optimized responsive themes with over 200 built-in tools, minimizing the need to add many (if any) apps or plugins to get started. If you can’t find a free theme you like, Shift4Shop also has premium themes with extras like product sliders and upgraded widgets. 

Once you choose a theme, you can customize colors, fonts and layouts using the company’s drag-and-drop interface. However, the drag-and-drop tool is currently only available on the home, blog and content pages. (Shift4Shop is working to add it to the e-commerce website pages.) Customizing these other pages requires editing the HTML and CSS directly. 

If you get stuck, Shift4Shop offers 24/7 live chat and telephone support as well as its online knowledge base articles and community forum. You can also hire a third-party designer through Shift4Shop.

Marketing and SEO

Shift4Shop provides enough built-in tools to launch an effective marketing campaign as soon as you finish setting up your Shift4Shop store. The platform features customizable URLs, page titles, tags and H1 headings to help optimize SEO (search engine optimization) and get your site ranked higher in internet searches. If you’re unsure how to maximize your SEO opportunities, the Shift4Shop blog has an entire section devoted to this as well as e-commerce marketing and email marketing. 

The platform has several ways to connect directly with your customers. First, you can reach out through an email marketing campaign or start a drip campaign that uses collected information to target specific customers with products and offers that would interest them. You can also create dedicated landing pages for marketing campaigns, offer promotions and institute a loyalty program. Even better, social sharing buttons let your customers spread the word for you by posting your products and blog posts on their social media accounts. 

Performance and security

Every Shift4Shop store comes with a free secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate that enables an encrypted connection between the store and its customers. That means when you communicate with your customers, the information you exchange is encrypted or jumbled. If hackers do tap into an information exchange during a transaction, they will only receive unusable data.

Additionally, Shift4Shop provides Level 1 payment card industry (PCI) hosting, the same level of security used by banks and financial institutions. It also uses Cloudflare to protect against cyberattacks and allows you to block people from reaching your site. 

Mobile app

Although Shift4Shop has a lot of built-in features, it also has a marketplace with apps covering aspects of business like accounting, marketing, fraud prevention and live chat. Some of these are free, but most have a monthly charge that can run over $100. While you’ll find big names like MailChimp, Google Analytics and QuickBooks, the marketplace has only a few hundred apps. For comparison, Shopify has more than 8,000 apps.

For smaller e-commerce stores, that may not matter since Shift4Shop provides so many tools for free. You can run a store without purchasing apps. However, if you do need apps, the marketplace has a decent selection. 

Shift4Shop vs. top competitors

Shift4Shop is a popular e-commerce platform because it doesn’t charge for stores with more than $500 worth of transactions per month and because it has so many built-in tools for free. However, it faces stiff competition from other well-known e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce and Weebly. 

	STARTING MONTHLY PRICE	FREE TRIAL	FREE SSL	PRODUCT LIMIT	TRANSACTION FEES	24/7 SUPPORT
Shift4Shop	Free	No	Yes	No	No	Live chat and phone 24/7
Shopify	$39	3 days	Yes	No	From 2.4% plus $0.30	Live chat 24/7
BigCommerce	$39	15 days	Yes	No	No	Live chat, ticket and phone 24/7
Weebly	$0	No	Yes	No	Through Square or PayPal	Limited chat and email, phone support with higher tier plans

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Shift4Shop vs Shopify

Shift4Shop and Shopify have similar capabilities, but Shift4Shop has a clear advantage when it comes to price. While Shift4Shop is free, Shopify charges $39 per month for its basic plan, $105 for its small business plan and $399 for its medium to large business plan. In addition, it charges transaction fees for sales made through a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, and you have to pay every month for apps to get the same capabilities that Shift4Shop offers for free. 

However, Shopify offers more design templates, many of which are free, and because they have limited functions until you purchase and add apps, it can be easier for first-time site builders to set up their stores. Plus, Shopify has a marketplace with more than 8,000 apps to choose from, while Shift4Shop has only a few hundred.

Shift4Shop vs BigCommerce

Like Shift4Shop, BigCommerce comes with the built-in tools you need to start your store without purchasing apps. These features are very similar to ones offered for free with Shift4Shop and include free templates, drag-and-drop page building and the ability to sell on Amazon, eBay and other channels. Both also support blogs. However, BigCommerce can integrate with WordPress for a more robust blog with better SEO capabilities. Shift4Shop cannot.

Shift4Shop vs Weebly

With its free basic plan, Weebly is an attractive alternative to Shift4Shop. However, you get what you pay for with Weebly. The basic plan comes with ads and limited features, and you have to upgrade to the $16 per month plan to take advantage of phone support. The ability to send abandoned cart emails and accept payments through PayPal only come with the premium plan at $29 per month. 

On the other hand, Shift4Shop’s one plan is free with a monthly minimum of $500 in transactions, giving every user access to the same features and perks, including 24-hour support through live chat, email and phone. Both Shift4Shop and Weebly offer free website templates, but Shift4Shop provides free social media integration and email marketing tools, too. Weebly doesn’t have social media integration, and you have to purchase apps to have email marketing capabilities. 

Featured website builder offers

Wix

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Via Wix’s website

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Web.com

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Squarespace

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Frequently asked questions (FAQs)