My CommerceHQ Review will NOT just look at whether this is the best Shopify alternative 2024. This review is by me – Grant Ambrose from Australia – and I used CommerceHQ for MANY years and used it to make millions of dollars in sales with my CommerceHQ stores (see below).
I wanted to point that out because I’m personally tired of trying to find reviews of a software / tool I’m thinking of using for my business, only to have Google give me affiliate articles that are bias and you can tell the writer has never even used the software.
How this CommerceHQ review is structured
Now, for this review of CommerceHQ, I have decided that the following format will give you the MOST IMPORTANT information you need to be able to choose the right ecommerce platform for you and your store:
- I will break the MUST-HAVE features of an Ecommerce platform into separate headings
Each heading in this article will be what I think are VERY IMPORTANT things that you, as someone who is starting an online store, MUST-HAVE in a store software for your Ecommerce Brand to be successful. This is based on me selling online since 2017 full-time and starting a lot of different stores on different platforms along the way. - For each Heading as I explain each feature, I will compare CommerceHQ vs WooCommerce
I left CommerceHQ and moved my store to a CommerceHQ alternative called WooCommerce. Under each heading, I’ll explain the pros and cons of using CommerceHQ vs WooCommerce so that you can get a better idea of whether or not CommerceHQ is good or if you might be better of using WooCommerce like I currently am.
I think this review will be very helpful for you because I have used CommerceHQ for more than 2 years and I have also used WooCommerce for much longer.
CommerceHQ Review summary
Below I have listed the main features you should be looking for when choosing an Ecommerce platform to start an online store in 2024. The star ratings I have given are comparing CommerceHQ with WooCommerce. The higher the rating, the better CommerceHQ for the point and the lower the star rating, the better WooCommerce is.
I think it’s important to note before we get into this review that, although I strongly recommend that you use WooCommerce instead of CommerceHQ, this recommendation isn’t because I think CommerceHQ is bad. Based on my personal experience (and as I explain in this article) my business really struggled to grow into the business that it COULD BE because I was stuck inside a software that I couldn’t customize.
CommerceHQ and Shopify are websites you sign up to and build your website inside of and this is the problem I have (it’s way too limiting). If they don’t have a feature that your business needs, you’re out of luck – you either just don’t add that feature that would make your online store more sales, or you move your website to another platform (which is LOTS of work).
Now, onto the pros and cons…
Pros and Cons
CommerceHQ is a software used to build online stores and I would say people use it mainly as an alternative to Shopify or WooCommerce. Below I’ll review CommerceHQ in relation to WooCommerce (what I use now). I will cover each of these points in MUCH more detail later on in this article, but this is a good guide to start.
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Hosting
CommerceHQ take care of hosting as they are a software. You don’t need to worry about server issues etc – they do all of that, included in your plan. With WooCommerce, you set up your own hosting and work with your hosting company to fix issues. -
Support
When I used them, CommerceHQ had email-only support, which made things a bit slow. Now they seem to have Live Chat, so this is good. WooCommerce and WordPress has no support and you fix your own issues, but this isn’t as bad as you might think because developers are very affordable if needed and each WordPress plugin has their own support team. -
No Transaction Fees
Shopify charges small % fee when you don’t use Shopify payments. CommerceHQ & WooCommerce don’t do this – you just pay whatever fees PayPal / Stripe etc charge you. For this, full-marks to CommerceHQ and WooCommerce. -
Drag-and-drop Page Builder
The recent version of their drag-and-drop page builder that you use to build your pages and design your theme loads extremely fast while you’re editing content and it’s quite flexible. I used CommerceHQ when they had version 1 of this page builder and it had heaps of bugs. Version 2 (current version) is very impressive. -
Themes
WooCommerce / WordPress have thousands more themes to choose from than CommerceHQ. However, if I’ve learnt anything while selling online since 2017 it’s that your beautiful theme isn’t going to make you money. WHAT you sell (your products) is the most important thing, and the CommerceHQ themes are more than enough. Also, most of what you will do in your website is going to be using the Page Builder.
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Business Scalability
This is the main reason I left CommerceHQ. I wanted to build custom functionality that was specific to my business that would help my business make more sales (I explain this further down this page). Because CommerceHQ is a software online, you aren’t able to customize it to meet the needs of your growing store. This is something you must consider – do you want to be locked into the constraints of a software (CommerceHQ and Shopify) or do you want to be able to hire a developer when your business grows and have then build you anything your business needs (which WooCommerce will allow you to do as you own the entire website). -
Price point
CommerceHQ starts at $99/month, but there are $299 and $499 plans, depending on how much you sell each month. I was paying $499/month when I left CommerceHQ for WooCommerce. On WooCommerce, my hosting is cheaper BUT I pay for plugins(i.e. Apps). WooCommerce wins here for me (I’ll explain why later on).
Above are some very important pros and cons of CommerceHQ when you compare it to WooCommerce and other ecommerce platforms.
So summarise this CommerceHQ review into a few sentences, it would be as follows…
If YOU came to me and told me that you are NEW to selling online, you are LAZY with technology and you really can’t be bothered learning a new software, then I would say CommerceHQ is worth checking out.
Other than that specific case, I would always recommend using WooCommerce because of that scalability aspect.
You never know if your online store will be successful and take-off and you don’t want to be stuck inside a software that you can’t customize.
Sure – there is a case that CommerceHQ might get you online faster, but still – is building your online store a bit slower really worth being stuck in a software later on in the future. Don’t let your current lazy self hurt your store in the future.
That’s my take on this – and hopefully, by the end of this review, maybe you’ll agree with me.
I just can’t honestly recommend someone go and get locked into a system / software, because it happened to me and I don’t want it to happen to you.
My journey to finding best Ecommerce software
I started my dropshipping-from-AliExpress ecommerce store during the boom in 2017.
… but I have since stopped Ecommerce.
I am now spending my time learning to code and build websites inside of WordPress.
One of the main reasons I am doing this is because of my ecommerce exerience.
The only reason I was able to start my Ecommerce store is because I knew how to build a website.
This meant I could get a store up quickly with Facebook Ads going to it the next time – fast and without having to pay a designer or developer.
I am really passionate about helping business owners start and manage their own WordPress websites.
If that piques your interest, I would recommend checking out the below link and subscribing to my YouTube channel.
RELATED: My story – the many online businesses I have tried (and what I’ve learnt)
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