Affirm vs. Shift4Shop

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Affirm
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Affirm, headquartered in San Francisco, offers their dynamic payment system for ecommerce, supporting payments broken out into installments to accommodate shopper preference.N/A
Shift4Shop
Score 1.9 out of 10
N/A
Shift4Shop (formerly 3dcart) is a customizable eCommerce platform designed to build an online store. Some features include Level 1 PCI security compliance, the same level used by banks and large financial institutions, along with search engine optimized templates and no transaction fees. The former 3dcart was acquired by Shift4 Payments in November, 2020.N/A
Pricing
AffirmShift4Shop
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AffirmShift4Shop
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsShift4Shop offers a free enterprise-grade plan for US customers who use their payment processing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AffirmShift4Shop
Top Pros
Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
AffirmShift4Shop
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
Affirm
-
Ratings
Shift4Shop
1.0
9 Ratings
154% below category average
Product catalog & listings00 Ratings1.09 Ratings
Product management00 Ratings1.09 Ratings
Bulk product upload00 Ratings1.07 Ratings
Branding00 Ratings1.08 Ratings
Mobile storefront00 Ratings1.09 Ratings
Product variations00 Ratings1.09 Ratings
Website integration00 Ratings1.09 Ratings
Visual customization00 Ratings1.09 Ratings
CMS00 Ratings1.08 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
Affirm
-
Ratings
Shift4Shop
1.4
9 Ratings
138% below category average
Abandoned cart recovery00 Ratings1.47 Ratings
Checkout user experience00 Ratings1.49 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
Affirm
-
Ratings
Shift4Shop
1.4
9 Ratings
142% below category average
eCommerce security00 Ratings1.49 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Affirm
-
Ratings
Shift4Shop
1.4
9 Ratings
137% below category average
Promotions & discounts00 Ratings1.09 Ratings
Personalized recommendations00 Ratings1.78 Ratings
SEO00 Ratings1.69 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
Affirm
-
Ratings
Shift4Shop
1.7
9 Ratings
129% below category average
Multi-site management00 Ratings1.04 Ratings
Order processing00 Ratings3.18 Ratings
Inventory management00 Ratings1.07 Ratings
Shipping00 Ratings2.48 Ratings
Custom functionality00 Ratings1.08 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AffirmShift4Shop
Small Businesses
Square Invoices
Square Invoices
Score 9.2 out of 10
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Apple Pay
Apple Pay
Score 9.1 out of 10
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Adyen
Adyen
Score 8.8 out of 10
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AffirmShift4Shop
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(4 ratings)
1.0
(10 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
4.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
2.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
4.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
2.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
2.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
AffirmShift4Shop
Likelihood to Recommend
Affirm
We use Affirm with a Woocommerce/Wordpress website and there is a plugin that integrates Affirm for us. We also use a payment method plugin that limits Affirms availability only to products that they support. Generally, we have had a good experience with integration and payments from Affirm to us are consistent and timely. People finance guitars, pedals, and amplifiers and it offers us a way to reach a customer base that may not otherwise purchase from us.
Read full review
Shift4
At this point I would recommend looking elsewhere - 8 years with a platform and finally have to switch due to the unreliability is not something a business likes to do! They should sell the platform to a company that actually cares about owning an ecommerce builder. Research Shift4 - the parent
Read full review
Pros
Affirm
  • Easy installation.
  • Great customer service.
  • Painless pay as you go software.
Read full review
Shift4
  • In my opinion, charge you too much for what it is worth
  • In my opinion, tech support is always blaming client and end up fixing it own issues
  • In my experience, make you believe client is important
Read full review
Cons
Affirm
  • We haven't had any issues as of yet, we are very happy with everything.
Read full review
Shift4
  • Page structure is all over the place. It can be difficult to find where to go to make page edits.
  • Base platform isn't very robust and requires multiple add-ons in order to add CRM, Taxes, and other capabilities
  • Reporting isn't very strong, necessitating outside analytics
  • File system is also pretty wonky and feels very primitive
  • Customer service and technical help leaves MUCH to be desired.
  • Not as many supported add-ons/plug-ins as other platforms, and many of them cost additional fees. Many of them also don't seamlessly integrate, meaning you'll need to dev the integration yourself.
  • In general, what you see in the WYSIWYG is not what you get.
  • Order System is not very intuitive for the modern era
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Affirm
No answers on this topic
Shift4
Not applicable - as a franchisee, the franchiser took over the web site and shopping cart capabilities, so I no longer need the tool. But I would recommend it.
Read full review
Usability
Affirm
Easy to use, simple to integrate, especially if you are using Shopify Plus. Putting everything live and active was easy. We did have to do some simple HTML/CSS to make everything look the way that we wanted it to, but that was very easy and something that we did in house. If you can do some simple style work, you won't have any issues at all.
Read full review
Shift4
If you are looking for ultra basic interface ...
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Affirm
No answers on this topic
Shift4
regular updates braking our site
Read full review
Support Rating
Affirm
No answers on this topic
Shift4
You always manage to fins someone, but, in my experience, resolving issues are not an easy task. Why do we pay for a service , and then spend time trouble shooting constantly with them ?? In my experience, they eliminate features , send you an email what you can use instead, with instructions most people cant do without an IT guy . It feel more like an open source than a true integrated service.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Affirm
No answers on this topic
Shift4
Initially it was difficult to manage the UI to the client, and then hard to change anything , unless you used the boring and too generic templates . Their template selection is very limited , that are basically all the same with different background images and colours . If you are unfortunate to have been a long-time client, you will have to completely rebuild your store, because old templates are not supported anymore
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Affirm
We have not used any payment plans before, this was the first for the company.
Read full review
Shift4
We used them for 2 years and had minor problems up until the end. For the last 2 months, customers were unable to checkout, or connect to our payment processor. We put in like 3 to 5 hot tickets to get fixed and day after day nothing was fixed and support got ruder and ruder with us! We lost thousands of dollars online with this company and now they are chasing us for a renewal payment! Simply put, this is bad software with a poor customer care staff!
Read full review
Return on Investment
Affirm
  • Higher average order value.
  • Mores sales.
  • Better user experience.
Read full review
Shift4
  • We have seen an increase in sales of 440% since starting with 3D cart.
  • We find that the 3D features of promotions, coupon codes, rewards points all make customers want to come to us or come back to us.
  • They made mobile conversion pretty easy, and our mobile traffic went from 33% to 54%.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Shift4Shop Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of