PayPal Zettle vs. Shopify

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
PayPal Zettle
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
PayPal Zettle (formerly PayPal Here) is a POS and payment processing system that includes either a mobile card reader or a chip reader (hardware), and is powered by the mobile PayPal Here app. Admins can add up to 1,000 users per account, and the app also includes invoicing, reporting, and inventory management features. The pricing structure for payment processing is: 2.7% per US card swipe. 3.5% + $0.15 to key in cards. 2.9% + $0.30 to invoice. 1% for cross-border transfers.N/A
Shopify
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Shopify is a commerce platform designed for both online stores and retail locations. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, and the Shopify POS application to power retail sales.
$29
per month
Pricing
PayPal ZettleShopify
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Shopify Lite
$9
per month
Basic Shopify
$29
per month
Shopify
$79
per month
Advanced Shopify
$299
per month
Shopify Plus
2,000
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PayPal ZettleShopify
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PayPal ZettleShopify
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
PayPal ZettleShopify
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
PayPal Zettle
-
Ratings
Shopify
7.4
131 Ratings
4% below category average
Product catalog & listings00 Ratings8.6131 Ratings
Product management00 Ratings7.2129 Ratings
Bulk product upload00 Ratings7.6110 Ratings
Branding00 Ratings8.4130 Ratings
Mobile storefront00 Ratings7.4126 Ratings
Product variations00 Ratings6.3123 Ratings
Website integration00 Ratings9.2124 Ratings
Visual customization00 Ratings7.5129 Ratings
CMS00 Ratings4.4105 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
PayPal Zettle
-
Ratings
Shopify
8.1
125 Ratings
7% above category average
Abandoned cart recovery00 Ratings7.6116 Ratings
Checkout user experience00 Ratings8.5123 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
PayPal Zettle
-
Ratings
Shopify
9.0
127 Ratings
8% above category average
eCommerce security00 Ratings9.0127 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
PayPal Zettle
-
Ratings
Shopify
8.0
129 Ratings
7% above category average
Promotions & discounts00 Ratings7.2124 Ratings
Personalized recommendations00 Ratings8.432 Ratings
SEO00 Ratings8.5120 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
PayPal Zettle
-
Ratings
Shopify
8.0
130 Ratings
2% above category average
Multi-site management00 Ratings6.719 Ratings
Order processing00 Ratings9.1128 Ratings
Inventory management00 Ratings8.8127 Ratings
Shipping00 Ratings8.2120 Ratings
Custom functionality00 Ratings7.2120 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PayPal ZettleShopify
Small Businesses
Square POS
Square POS
Score 9.1 out of 10
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Epicor Eagle
Epicor Eagle
Score 8.2 out of 10
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PayPal ZettleShopify
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(18 ratings)
9.0
(144 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.2
(15 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(5 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PayPal ZettleShopify
Likelihood to Recommend
PayPal
I recommend PayPal Zettle quite a bit, actually. Its flexibility is easy enough to use for people who are not used to technology. Square has good traits, too, but since so many people already have PayPal accounts, it makes it much easier to use. It is perfect for everyday use of bot large and small transactions.
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Shopify
Shopify is a great platform for small to medium-sized businesses looking to set up an online store. It's easy to use, offers a wide range of features and integrations, and is perfect for businesses in the retail and food industry. However, large enterprise businesses with complex and custom needs may find Shopify less suitable.
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Pros
PayPal
  • The PayPal Here hardware connection is very effective, my mobile device recognizes it immediately and the PayPal Here application to receive payments also recognizes it immediately. I don't have to wait a long time like some other POS.
  • Transactions are made instantly, you just have to pass the NFC chip inside the PayPal Here system, and in a second the transaction will be carried out and it will be shown in the history of the PayPal account registered in the POS.
  • It is very easy to provide a receipt to the customer when they use their card within our PayPal Here POS system, as it allows us to digitally send a ticket to the customer and also allows us to send the invoice by email.
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Shopify
  • It is definitely easy to set up and get going. This does not take a lot of work or effort on the user end, especially if using templates.
  • Low code platform. You can. make customizations without code.
  • The integrations are diverse and increase functionality.
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Cons
PayPal
  • While swiped payments are easy, manual entry of payment information often fails. This is a major roadblock when you are in the service industry because not everyone who is making payment is on site.
  • In almost every instance of accepting a payment, we have to call in and reverify every piece of information about our business before we are successful.
  • Whatever system they use to determine how high risk your business is can limit your usage if they get it wrong.
  • Customer service is inconsistent at best. Sometimes issues are handled quickly and easily, other time you have to jump through hoops.
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Shopify
  • The main drawback that I am facing in Shopify for a long time is that their sales analytics system is not up to mark. As I am using Shopify to run different stores for my organization it does not get updated after-sales and does not provide the right analytics about the product strength and number of sales.
  • Secondly, Shopify has different apps which are best to run the store on max strength but they are very much costly like inventory management, generating multiple discount codes, and more robust customizable editing.
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Likelihood to Renew
PayPal
There are no monthly costs, the only expense is the card processing fee which is lower than nearly everyone else out there.
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Shopify
Nothing we have used in the past or have seen thus far even comes close to offering what we get with Shopify Plus, especially for the price. You cannot even come close to getting what we are getting at the price we pay. We are beyond thrilled and Shopify Plus meets and exceeds all of our needs and expectations. We love it!
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Usability
PayPal
I absolutely LOVE this system. It is very fast and easy to use, and integrates with my eCommerce platform perfectly. The card processing fees are really low and the money is in my account quickly, even on weekends! I can either keep the funds in my PayPal account and access them with my PayPal business debit, or I can transfer them to my back (or a combination of these). The funds are always in my bank next business day. Also, it was one of the least expensive solutions out there as far as the hardware goes.
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Shopify
I think most people are able to suer Shopify that have used a computer. There are some features that take a bit longer to learn. If you are not a creative person it may be a bit more difficult to learn the website customization, but with a help guide or tutorial it will only take a few tries to understand how to work the interface
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Reliability and Availability
PayPal
Adding skus was down for 1hr one day, otherwise have never experienced an outage.
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Shopify
No answers on this topic
Performance
PayPal
Everything is very fast. Adding products, selling products, processing cards, and receiving funds.
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Shopify
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
PayPal
Support hasn't been needed in the 2 years of using PayPal but I have received calls from the company in the past asking about my experience with the device that was sent to me and they were pretty helpful with advice. Support is all over the internet if needed but for emergencies, so it is best to contact them during business hours.
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Shopify
In terms of support I give Shopify a 9 out of 10 because they're always very friendly and thorough, and they personally can't solve my problem for me they always point me in the proper direction with the proper information I need to move forward
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Implementation Rating
PayPal
It went very smoothly.
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Shopify
Just start now and make the switch, the sooner the better. You will love it and it is really a simple process
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Alternatives Considered
PayPal
The main selection criteria were ease of use and the presence of a plugin for WooCommerce. However, in practice it turned out that an important factor is also the availability of the product for purchase in a small batch and at an affordable price. I chose PayPal Zettle because I was able to easily and simply purchase it in my country.
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Shopify
The old platform that I used could not help us to meet our requirements. It was not helping us properly, then I got to know about Shopify and started using it. After 1 month [of] usage of Shopify we could understand that this is the best platform [for E-commerce] to make better sales and goodwill. Shopify helped us to get a proper idea of the analytics of the website. Shopify [supports] most of the [applications] and helps us to make better results.
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Scalability
PayPal
Have not run into any limitations as of yet, with 500 SKUs entered and counting.
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Shopify
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
PayPal
  • PayPal Here has allowed us to have a retail presence when we are away from our home location.
  • We have sold literally millions of dollars in merchandise at events over the last several years that we otherwise would not have been able to.
  • The only negative about PayPal Here is that we did not implement it sooner.
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Shopify
  • It got the store up quickly so the client could start selling. She was previously selling products on Etsy and Facebook and wanted to consolidate everything onto one website, so the main thing Shopify solved was to reduce the store owner's time in managing all her products on multiple sites. Also, we had previously built a website on Wix with all the custom functionality and branding she needed - a truly great, high-end website - but it performed so slowly that it was unusable. So the speed at which Shopify can be set up and then works on the page is appreciable.
  • The website was manageable by the client - she could figure the system out herself after a while so she saved money on costs for hiring developers. She did have to hire developers to customize some of the plug-ins but costs are all relative; it wasn't a high investment compared to building a full e-commerce website. With the complexity and size of her product base and the functionality and branding she wanted to have in a website, and the potential of her business, she would have needed to invest well over $10,000 to get to where she really needs to be. In the end she kept the budget under $5000.00.
  • Costs kept climbing with plug-ins having to be added with everything. My client became more involved in building the website and began to try multiple plugins, and she did not have the skill base to evaluate the plugins functionalities so she chose plugins that did not do everything she needed, and then ended up paying the plugin developers to customize the plugins. So on one hand, it's pretty amazing to be able to bring up an e-commerce website as quickly as a week or so, but on the other hand if you need anything customized or deeper functionality in regards to product searching and filtering on the web page, and management on the backend, it quickly goes beyond the skills of the average person to manage, and above their expected budget as well. In the end my client really did not get anything close to the functionality for the website we had originally envisioned.
  • Shopify was the easiest way we could find to bring the client's products to a global market. We evaluated several other platforms and the functionality simple did not seem to be adequate, so Shopify seemed like the only solution that could do enough of what we needed and still stay within this client's budget. Really the problem in this project was not platform per se but that the budget wasn't large enough. Shopify managed to provide a solution for an ecommerce store with thousands of products on a tiny budget, so in the sense of pure functionality it provided the best value of all the platforms we evaluated. The solution still isn't big enough for this client's business though so, without having insights into this client's post-build sales results, my guess is that because her new website did not make her products easier to sort through, and she likely didn't have much more budget left to invest in SEO and other marketing of the website, her sales probably didn't increase substantially as a result of having built the website. So I think this project all in all did not likely have a high ROI.
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ScreenShots