This article is part of a three-piece series. To learn more about the Prodigy Commerce platform, read the next segment: Prodigy Commerce vs WooCommerce: How Do They Compare?
Prodigy Commerce vs Shopify: Solving the Pain Points
From Shopify to BigCommerce and Volusion to 3dcart, the eCommerce platform market continues to grow to provide DIY options for shop owners who are willing to pay monthly for an all-in-one solution.
All of these eCommerce platforms offer similar pricing models and user interfaces: You pay a monthly fee and receive a do-it-yourself eCommerce site builder and all the essentials like domains, apps, hosting, and product management.
Prodigy management doesn’t see its platform as a direct competitor to the DIY platforms, but rather a way to give the WordPress community a respectable content management system and an impressive eCommerce platform. As a bonus, everyone saves money.
How? Well, that’s the main benefit of Prodigy over Shopify. A company like Shopify charges the equivalent of 2% – 3% of store revenue from subscriptions and transaction fees, in addition to the standard credit card processing rates. And that doesn’t include payments for necessary apps.
Prodigy doesn’t charge for any of that. Quite the opposite, since users can get compensated through the Prodigy Partner Program.
Prodigy vs Shopify: A Technical Comparison
From a technical perspective, Shopify provides top-notch eCommerce features wrapped into a neat package for even beginners to try their hand at selling online. The dashboard is beautiful, apps usually work well, and the store owner doesn’t have to worry about hosting or security. However, content management lacks in many areas, from the weak blogging system to the inferior page builder tools.
Prodigy excels with its features for eCommerce as well, replicating much of what Shopify offers through a hosted platform and intuitive dashboard elements. Outside of eCommerce, Prodigy links to WordPress, utilizing the world’s best content management system for outstanding blogging and page building.
Here’s a glance into how Prodigy and Shopify compare from a technical standpoint.
| Technological Feature |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Simplified, with fewer plugins and extensions, less bloat and fewer security problems. | Simplified dashboard with all essential eCommerce tools. Apps are often required to expand, but they’re vetted and usually work well. |
| Speed | Reliable hosting (AWS) with built-in integrations, leading to faster websites. | Fast and reliable hosting with minimal concern for apps slowing down the site – but it’s possible. |
| Hosting | The Prodigy platform is hosted by AWS. The WordPress side requires self-hosting. | Hosted solution. No need to find your own. |
| Security | Secure infrastructure as a hosted solution. Built-in fraud monitoring from MaxMind minFraud, automatic updates, and no add-ons that cause vulnerabilities. | Secure infrastructure as a hosted solution. Built-in fraud monitoring, automatic updates, and vetted add-ons that generally don’t cause problems. |
| SSL Certificate | Included | Included. |
| Checkout | Currently on a Prodigy subdomain, such as mystore.prodigycommerce.com. | Through your own domain. |
| Search Engine Optimization | Uses WordPress SEO for the best URL structures and a wide range of SEO fields for meta descriptions, keywords, and image alt tags. | Limited SEO customization tools. An unusual, and long, URL structure that’s been known to hinder search engine performance. |
| Compatibility | Pre-vetted integrations, all of which are built into the system. | Compatible with many apps, all pre-vetted but not already integrated. More choices for scaling. |
| Shipping | Integrated with ShipEngine. |
Integrated. 
Basic functionality, most store owners will need more than what’s included.
|
| Abandoned Cart Recovery | Integrated. | Integrated. |
| Tax Calculations | Integrated with TaxJar. | Integrated. |
| Advanced Analytics | Integrated with Google Analytics. | Integrated with options to expand with add-ons. |
| Facebook Pixel | Integrated. | Requires add-on. |
| Fraud Analysis Tool | Integrated with MaxMind minFraud. | Integrated. |
| Subscriptions | Integrated. |
Paid add-on required.
Pricing varies ($49.99 to $499/mo)
|
| Elementor Support | Yes. |
No.
Not many quality alternatives either.
|
Prodigy vs Shopify: The Store Owner Experience
Both Prodigy and Shopify present advantages for store owners, most notably the intuitive dashboards. It’s easy to open up either platform and get to work, streamlining payments and fulfillments and cancellations.
Shopify has the downside of monthly fees, but it does provide flexibility with thousands of apps.
Prodigy features its integration with WordPress. That’s not available through Shopify, which can cause strife for users who want to blog and easily adjust every design aspect of their sites.
| Administrative Feature | |
|
|---|---|---|
| Workflow/UX | All product management is done on Prodigy, giving the store owner one dashboard for all eCommerce tools. Content management and blogging are done in WordPress. You manage two dashboards but only for their advantages. | Hosted, with a beautiful dashboard and quick options to integrate with vetted apps and link to social accounts. Only one dashboard is required. But the content management is lacking without a viable WordPress alternative. |
| Payments | Integrated. Several curated providers to pick from. Prodigy helps the store owner find the best fit. | Built-in Shopify Payments with dozens of other options like Amazon Pay, PayPal, and more. The store owner decides and configures. |
| Fulfillment | Built-in shipping with potential for third-party fulfillment solution. | Built-in shipping and a Shopify-offered fulfillment program. |
| Cancellations | Integrated. | Integrated. |
| Returns | Integrated. |
Add-on required.
$0 to $239/mo for the most popular returns app (but the free plan is extremely limiting).
|
| Coupons | Integrated. | Integrated. |
| Refund, Privacy, and Terms of Service Statements | Automatically generated. | Automatically generated. |
| Notification Emails | Prefilled and automated. | Prefilled and automated. |
| Sales Reports | Provided. | Provided. |
| Subscription management | Integrated. |
Paid add-on required.
Pricing varies ($49.99 to $499/mo).
|
| Site design with Elementor |
Yes.
Must still install Elementor.
|
No.
Limited site design options in general.
|
| Product imports/exports | Provided. | Provided. |
Prodigy vs Shopify: A Customer Support Comparison
Differing from WooCommerce, Shopify offers exemplary customer support for all paying users.
It’s tough to catch up with Shopify when looking at support resources, but Prodigy handles its support fairly well.
| Support Channel | |
|
|---|---|---|
| Phone | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | |
| Online Chat | Yes | Yes, inside the dashboard and on its website. |
| Community | No, given the direct channels above. | Support forums, a blog, social media, tutorials, webinars, groups, and an eCommerce university training program. |
| Knowledgebase | Yes | Yes |
| Development Resources | Yes | Yes |
| Ticketing System | Yes | Yes |
| Separate Support for Developers and Store Owners | Yes | Yes |
Putting It All Together: A Final Summary
Just like building or running an online store, comprehending the pros and cons of a new eCommerce platform can seem like quite the chore.
Having said that, these facts show a clear-cut view of the issues that surround the current eCommerce platform world and how Prodigy plans to resolve the problems and build on the advantages.
If you still have questions about where Prodigy falls in the eCommerce platform landscape, take a look at our final Prodigy vs WooCommerce vs Shopify roundup below, incorporating the key elements like pricing, support, and user experience.
| Element | |
 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Infrastructure | Full eCommerce platform that connects to the WordPress CMS with a simple plugin. | eCommerce plugin that connects to the WordPress CMS, but requires many add-ons to become a full platform. | Full eCommerce platform with additional apps but lacking a decent CMS. |
| Pricing | Free – with possible compensation – to use Prodigy. Minor fees for the WordPress self-hosting and a potential premium theme. | Free for WordPress and the plugin. Fees for hosting, domain name, plugins, themes, and extensions. | An ongoing fee for an entire eCommerce platform, starting at $29 per month. Potential monthly fees for apps. |
| Required Add-ons? | No. | Usually. | Usually. |
| Financial Bonuses | Yes. | No. | No. |
| Customer Support | Very high-quality, through email, chat, and phone. | Limited to online resources and forums. | Very high quality, through online resources, email, chat, and phone. |
| Website Control | Hosted platform with full control. | Self-hosted with full control. | Hosted platform with limited control and unusual coding language. |
| On-boarding Assistance | Yes. | No. | Yes. |
| DIY Platform? | No. | No. | Yes. |
| Who is it Meant For? | Developers building for store owners. | Developers building for store owners. | Store owners who want to build themselves. |
Give Prodigy Commerce a Try Today
If you’re interested in a revolutionary eCommerce platform with compensation options, take the time to create a free account today and launch a demo store to see how it can benefit you and your store owner clients. Not only does Prodigy offer an alternative to WooCommerce and Shopify, but it brings together the benefits of each for a completely fresh and improved option.