SendOwl is a popular shopping cart solution that can let you start selling online using any of your online presence – blog, website, social media, etc.
It is a powerful platform that connects with your payment gateway and delivers the digital product to your customer upon successful payment.
Note that you do not build your storefront on SendOwl. Neither does SendOwl list your products on a product page hosted on its servers.
As a platform, SendOwl mainly targets shop owners selling digital products. This includes eBooks, software, videos, music, and digital files.
Moreover, SendOwl also lets you sell physical goods, subscriptions, and memberships with SendOwl. You can sell services as well.
With its support for several different payment methods, SendOwl has several in-built tools to upsell, cross-sell, and promote your online shop. You can read our SendOwl review for a detailed overview of the platform.
But still, there are reasons why you may start looking for a better alternatives to SendOwl. For example,
- There is no free option available.
- You need to have some sort of online presence to use SendOwl. In other words, you can not have a hosted storefront.
- SendOwl may look expensive when you are just starting.
In this article, we are going to look into seven alternatives to SendOwl that can end your search.
7 Best SendOwl Alternatives
In this article, we are going to discuss about the following alternatives to SendOwl
Payhip as an alternative to SendOwl
The best thing about Payhip is that it has a perpetual free tier. In other words, you can build your Payhip shop without any monthly fees and can start selling for free.
Payhip lets you sell digital products, physical goods, and subscriptions from your hosted storefront. Moreover, it is equipped with many of the necessary tools to upsell and promote your products. You can read our review of Payhip for a more detailed overview of this platform.
But keep in mind, Payhip is not one of the most customizable platforms that you will come across. In short, the options to customize your Payhip shop are quite limited. For example, you can neither use any custom theme nor can you add any plugins or apps.
At the same time, Payhip does not differentiate between its free users and paid users when it comes to features. So, even if you are a free-plan user of Payhip, you will have access to every Payhip feature.
Moreover, Payhip does not have any threshold for payouts. You receive all your proceeds instantly into your linked Paypal or Stripe account.
Unlike SendOwl, Payhip charges you a transaction free which depends on your subscription option.
For example, the free tier users pay a 5% transaction fee. But if you go for the highest offering, your transaction fee will become zero.
Payhip has three flat-rate pricing options that you can choose from.
Payhip’s Free Tier
This is the perpetual free option. If you are a free user of Payhip, you need to pay a 5% transaction fee to Payhip. At the same time, you do not pay any recurring monthly fees. This is perfect if you are just starting out.
Plus Plan of Payhip
The Plus plan comes at a monthly price of $29. If you opt for the Plus plan, your transaction fee drops down to 2%.
Pro Plan of Payhip
The Pro plan is the most expensive Payhip plan. It comes at a monthly price of $99. In this option, Payhip does not charge you any transaction fee.
Note that the Payhip fees are over and above the standard Paypal/Stripe fees.
However, an important limitation of Payhip is, it does not allow you to connect a custom domain even in its premium offering.
In my opinion, you should use Payhip only if you need a free online store builder. There are better alternatives to Payhip if you are ready to go premium.
We recommend you to use Payhip if:
- You need a free online store builder.
- You prefer instant payouts.
- You do not like any threshold for payment.
- You prefer Stripe (or Paypal) for receiving your money.
- Complete branding of your storefront is not necessary.
Hyax as a SendOwl alternative
Hyax is a newcomer in the world of eCommerce platforms. Yet, it is more powerful and full-featured than many established platforms.
In brief, Hyax gives you a single all-in-one platform to sell digital products, physical goods, courses, and membership from a hosted storefront.
The feature that differentiates it from most other platforms that you will come across is it eliminates the need of having different apps or plugins to run your business.
For example, with an online shop built with Hyax:
- You can easily A/B test your product pages.
- You can upsell and cross-sell products effectively.
- You can create product bundles and offers.
- You can run and manage affiliate programs for your eCommerce business.
- You can build sales funnels and landing pages to capture leads.
- You can set-up custom taxes and VAT.
Moreover, as Hyax gives you a hosted storefront, you need not worry about the infrastructures to run your online shop. Besides, you get a free SSL and can use a custom domain or a subdomain for your storefront.
If you use videos for your online courses, Hyax will handle the hosting and video management. In other words, you don’t have to pay for a third-party video hosting service.
The collection of beautiful Hyax templates is impressive and you can use them to build your storefront. You can even design the online shop from scratch using the drag and drop editor.
Hyax does not have any perpetual free tier. But, unlike most other paid alternatives to SendOwl, Hyax lets you try any of its pricing options for free for an unlimited time.
In other words, Hyax gives you unlimited time to set-up your products and online shop. When your store is ready to accept orders, you need to select one of the three paid tiers of Hyax and start paying.
Each of the Hyax subscription options offers you the following:
- Zero transaction fees.
- You can create membership and blogs.
- You can sell courses, physical goods, and digital products from a hosted storefront.
- You can have multi-step funnels.
- You can create courses with quizzes.
Note that Hyax is currently running a special introductory offer wherein you will get a 50% discount on any of the following subscription offerings.
Beginner
- The Beginner tier starts at $99 per month.
- Your store can have up to 100k views per month.
- You can have up to 10 products and courses.
- You can have 3 projects.
- You can have up to 10k contacts.
- Your store will have minimal Hyax branding.
Advanced
- The Advanced tier starts at $199 per month.
- Your store can have unlimited page views per month.
- You can have up to 40 products and courses.
- You can have 6 projects.
- You can have up to 25k contacts.
- Your store will have no Hyax branding.
Enterprise
- The Enterprise tier comes with a custom quote.
- Your store can have unlimited page views per month.
- You can have unlimited products and courses.
- You can have 9+ projects.
- You can have up variable contacts.
- Your store will have no Hyax branding.
Hyax can be a good alternative to SendOwl if:
- You need an all-in-one platform having powerful in-built features to sell your products effectively.
- You do not want to spend extra on multiple services, plugins, or apps to run your business effectively.
- You need instant payouts.
- You prefer fixed and predictable charges with zero transaction fees.
- You intend to sell full-featured courses powered with quizzes and videos.
Deal.io as an alternative to SendOwl
Deal.io is a newer yet powerful option to start selling online. Like SendOwl, you do not need a separate storefront to run your business. If you have any web presence, you can use Deal.io.
The platform is a way to enable express checkout of your products. It lets you add checkout widgets on any static site, blog, or another eCommerce platform. You can also share checkout links as shareable URLs with your customers.
Another interesting feature of Deal.io is that it lets you sell or accept payments using QR codes. You also get a custom mobile app for your online store.
Moreover, Deal.io has a generous free tier. You can use this platform for free for up to $1k of sales per year. In this tier, you get access to all features of the Basic plan.
If you want to go premium, Deal.io offers three premium options to its customers.
Basic
Deal.io’s Basic plan comes at a monthly price of $25 per month. This is suitable for anyone who wants a basic eCommerce tool to sell.
In this tier of subscription, you get features like:
- Web widgets to sell on products on your static sites.
- You can share check-out links to your customers speeding up the checkout process.
- You can set up a simple online store.
- You can accept payments with QR codes.
- You get Android and iOS apps.
Pro
Deal.io’s Pro plan comes at a monthly price of $95 per month. This is suitable for early-stage startups who want to improve their sales experience and customer relationships.
In the Pro Plan, you get access to features like:
- Removal of Deal.io branding.
- You can also release your own white-labeled iOS and Android Apps.
- Deal.io takes care of the app store publishing of your apps.
Unlimited
The Unlimited plan comes at a monthly price of $195 per month and is more suited for companies requiring a full-featured solution to sell and to communicate with customers.
As an Unlimited tier customer, you get access to several advanced features.
- Your customers can upload cash to wallets before making any purchases.
- You can launch a reward program for your store.
- You can start a loyalty program.
- You get advanced analytics and manage custom KPIs.
Also, note that you get a considerable discount if you opt for the annual plan.
Deal.io integrates with Stripe for payment processing and does not charge you any transaction fee.
We recommend Deal.io as an alternative to SendOwl if:
- You need a robust next-gen eCommerce platform for your store.
- You want to have mobile apps for your online store.
- You need a generous free tier.
- You have an existing website and do not need another hosted storefront.
Podia as a SendOwl alternative
If you are looking for a robust platform focussed on selling online courses, Podia is the go-to option. There is no doubt that the features of Podia are more geared towards running a learning management system.
But, what you may have overlooked is, Podia is an equally efficient platform to sell digital products. It can let you sell digital products efficiently.
With its features like unlimited bandwidth, unlimited video hosting, support for a custom domain, provision to build multi-lingual and multi-currency storefront – Podia is a perfect choice to sell digital goods and courses.
Moreover, you can sell courses, memberships, webinars, and digital downloads with Podia.
Podia also lets you sell pre-orders.
You can read our review of Podia, to accustom yourself to most of the key features of Podia.
Mind that Podia does not have any free tier. Instead, it offers you a fourteen-day free trial. If you want to continue using Podia after your trial ends, you must upgrade to one of the two paid options.
In either of its premium tiers, Podia does not charge any transaction fee to its users.
Mover
- Podia’s Mover plan comes at $39 per month.
- You can sell online courses, digital products, and webinars from your hosted shop.
- You get access to fantastic 7 days week support.
- You can also access Podia’s in-built email marketing tools.
Shaker
- The Shaker plan is the more expensive tier that comes at a recurring price of $79 per month.
- You can sell memberships.
- You can build your own affiliate programs.
- You can have access to offsite buy buttons.
- You can build a blog.
- You can integrate Zoom meetings with your Podia store.
Note that Podia offers free migration support in both its plans.
We recommend you to use Podia if:
- You sell digital products – courses, webinars, memberships, videos, eBooks, and info products.
- You are looking for a platform to build a customizable hosted storefront on your own domain.
- You like transparent and predictable pricing along with unlimited bandwidth.
- You are looking for a platform that does not charge you any transaction fee.
- You prefer instant payout processing of your sale proceeds.
Sellfy as SendOwl alternative
Sellfy is an online store builder that was initially built or selling digital products. But over time, it has added all necessary features to sell physical goods as well.
You can use Sellfy to sell digital products, subscriptions, or physical goods to their audience on social media or their website through the option of embed products and buy buttons.
With an active Sellfy subscription you can sell digital products, physical goods, subscriptions, unlimited video streaming, and even print-on-demand items from your hosted storefront.
Sellfy gives you a complete shopping cart solution. It allows you to customize your mobile-optimized store with its online customizer. You can also connect a custom domain to your store.
Sellfy has several in-built tools to promote your store.
You must note that Sellfy does not have any perpetual free tier. But you can try the platform for free for fourteen days. If you wish to continue using Sellfy after your trial, you must upgrade to one of its three paid tiers.
Starter
- The Sellfy starter plan is priced at $19 per month.
- You can add unlimited products to your store.
- You can use Sellfy’s own Print On Demand platform.
- You can sell digital downloads, customize your store, create discount codes, and maintain advanced VAT and tax settings.
- Sellfy starter tier supports shops with up to $10k in sales in a year.
Business
- The Business plan is priced at $39 per month.
- You get all features present in Sellfy’s Starter tier.
- You can use features like product upselling and abandoned cart recovery.
- You can remove Sellfy branding.
- You get free migration support from Sellfy.
- You get a credit of 10000 emails.
- The Business Plan supports shops with up to $50K in sales in a year.
Premium
- The Premium plan of Sellfy is priced at $89 per month.
- With Sellfy’s Premium option, you get access to priority support.
- You also get a higher email credit of 50000.
- You get all the features available in Sellfy’s Business plan.
- The Premium tier supports shops with up to $200K in sales in a year.
An important thing to note is Sellfy does not charge you any transaction fee in any of its three pricing options.
You can use Sellfy as an alternative to SendOwl if:
- You need a hosted storefront to sell unlimited products using your own domain.
- You do not prefer transaction fees.
- You prefer instant payouts.
- You are looking for advanced eCommerce features like upselling, abandoned cart recovery built into the system.
Shopify as an alternative to SendOwl
Shopify is the most robust and full-fledged hosted eCommerce platform. Period.
So, there is no surprise why it is one of the more popular platforms to build a hosted online store. It is a mature platform having an impressive eco-system of over 3000 apps and several fantastic themes.
These apps can help you to have any extra feature active in your store. Moreover, Shopify has powerful APIs to build any custom extension you may need.
But remember that most of these Shopify apps are paid extensions.
When it comes to customization. ycustomization. you can use any of the several beautiful free and premium Shopify themes for your store. You can even customize the themes completely.
Shopify lets you sell digital products, physical goods, pre-orders, subscriptions, memberships, courses, and services. There is no restriction on the number of products or customers, bandwidths, or volume of sale.
Out of the box, the Shopify system also gives you reports and inbuilt fraud analysis systems.
But note that Shopify has no free tier. You get fourteen days to try the platform without any cost. If you decide to use this platform after the trial period, you must choose one of the paid subscription options. Apart from paying the Shopify subscription fees, you must also pay fees towards any paid app you may be using.
One drawback of Shopify is, it charges you a transaction fee over and above the monthly Shopify fees.
The transaction fees depend on your subscription tier.
Basic Shopify
- The Basic plan comes at a monthly price of $29.
- You can sell unlimited products from your hosted storefront.
- You get a free SSL certificate for your store.
- You can run a blog for your store using the Shopify platform.
- You can issue gift cards, offer discount coupons, and utilize the in-built abandoned cart recovery system.
- You can create manual orders.
- You can also sell on online marketplaces and social media.
- In the Basic Shopify offering, you can have up to 2 staff accounts.
- Shopify will charge you a 2% transaction fee in this option.
Shopify
- The Shopify plan comes at a monthly price of $79.
- You get all features available in the Basic plan.
- You also get access to professional Shopify reports.
- You can have up to 5 staff accounts for your store.
- Shopify charges you a transaction fee of 1%.
Advanced Shopify
- The Advanced Shopify plan is more for larger enterprises.
- It comes at a monthly price of $299.
- You get all features of the Shopify plan.
- You get access to the Advanced Report builder and shipping rates calculated by third-party applications.
- You can have up to 15 staff accounts for your report.
- If you subscribe to this tier, your transaction fees come down to 0.5%.
- In all three options, you get access to Shopify’s 24×7 support system.
Shopify Lite
- Shopify also has a basic Lite plan that comes at $9 per month.
- Here, you do not get any hosted storefront. But you can sell products from your website, blog, or social media.
You can choose Shopify as a SendOwl alternative if:
- You are looking for the most robust eCommerce platform for your business.
- You need to build a unique and branded online presence.
- You need to integrate with almost every third-party application using intuitive apps.
- You need advanced eCommerce features that are not present in any out-of-the-box eCommerce platform.
WooCommerce as a SendOwl alternative
Unlike the other platforms we discussed in this article, WooCommerce operates differently. If you want to use WooCommerce, you need to host your storefront on your own server.
WooCommerce is a plugin of the popular WordPress CMS.
In short, WooCommerce is a free and open-source eCommerce software. While the core software itself is free of cost, you still need to pay for the servers and any other premium plugin you may need.
To use WooCommerce, you must first install a self-hosted WordPress site. You can easily turn this website into an online shop by activating the WooCommerce plugin.
The cost of running a self-hosted WooCommerce store varies on different factors.
For example, your expense will depend on your choice of themes, plugins, and servers.
While you can run your WooCommerce shop using free themes and plugins, you still have to pay for domain and hosting.
Some web hosts like Bluehost offer you a heavily discounted package that includes managed hosting, domain, and free SSL for $3.95 per month.
And if you are a little tech-savvy to manage a few technical things, VPS like Uplcoud can also be an excellent choice.
WooCommerce is a feature-rich eCommerce software that gives you complete control over the features of your online shop. Moreover, it has an established eco-system of themes and plugins.
If you use WooCommerce, you can access numerous free and premium WooCommerce themes to completely customize your storefront. Besides, you can activate WooCommerce plugins to enhance the functionalities of your store to any extent.
This eCommerce platform also has robust integrations with most Payment Gateways, dropshipping platforms, email marketing tools, and so on.
Another advantage of using WooCommerce is that you can sell anything. There is no restriction imposed by the platform on what you can sell, or can not. Moreover, you need not pay any transaction fees.
You can use WooCommerce as an alternative to SendOwl if:
- You want complete control over every aspect of your store.
- You are looking forward to running a store without any restriction on the type of products to sell.
- You need full flexibility in customizing your online shop.
Wrapping Up Our List of Best SendOwl alternatives
The different alternatives that we discussed, are viable alternatives to SendOwl. In the table below, I have summarized the crucial differences between these platforms to help you make an informed decision.
| Platform | Free Tier | Who should use? | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payhip | Yes | If you need a perpetual free tier. | Payhip |
| Hyax | No | If you need all-in-one powerful platform. | Hyax |
| Deal.io | Yes | If you need an exact replacement of SendOwl. | Deal.io |
| Podia | No | If you primarily sell courses, info products. | Podia |
| Sellfy | No | If you prefer a easy-to-manage platform without transaction fees. | Sellfy |
| Shopify | No | If you need the most robust and complete platform. | Shopify |
| WooCommerce | No | If you need full control over every aspect of your online store. | WooCommerce |
In general, I recommend Payhip if you are looking for a similar and free replacement of SendOwl. Its free tier is generous enough to run any small online business.
Next, if you primarily sell courses and digital info products, choose Podia.
If you need a robust and complete eCommerce platform for your online business, Shopify is the way to go. It is a feature-rich and mature platform.
But, if you want to eliminate the need for multiple third-party apps and Shopify’s transaction fees you can check Hyax. This is a powerful and promising eCommerce platform.
I am hopeful that this list of alternatives to SendOwl will definitely help you. If you have any questions, drop us a note.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply