Shopify or GrooveFunnels – Which best suits you?

When you start out as an entrepreneur online, there is a lot that you will have to learn about software and operating a business online. One thing that you would have noticed is the number of software there are available for many different tasks. Each of these software is created for a reason and they will each do their own job based on this reason.

Therefore, you will need to find the best software that solves an issue that you have for your business. If you are planning on running an e-commerce store, then there are so many options available for you. However, if you are planning on running a store that doesn’t only focus on e-commerce then you will need access to another tool that can accommodate the requirements that you have.

Both Shopify and GrooveFunnels are website builders and hosts. You can create an online store through both of these, but it will ultimately depend on what type of business you are trying to run. Below, I have gone through everything that you need to know about both of these platforms. 

I have noted down the features, the pricing, and what you can do with each software. You only need to go through everything below and decide for yourself which software you want to go with.

GrooveFunnels – What is this software?

GrooveFunnels has made a name for itself over the past year. It was first released in 2019 with only one tool – GroovePages. This is their website and landing page creator tool. Since then, the team at GrooveDigital has created an arsenal of tools that aims to make GrooveFunnels an all-in-one digital marketing tool for any entrepreneur/business to use.

This software was first built by the previous co-founder of Kartra, Mike Filsaime. Therefore, we know that there is experience and technical knowledge behind this software, which is why the tool is quite good.

Essentially, what the tool can do for you is help you to create an awesome looking landing page (either from scratch or by using one of their award-winning templates) or website that is up to modern standards, quick to load, and conversion-friendly. It then has a bunch of other tools to help you build a sales funnel, manage your marketing efforts, create an affiliate program, and so on.

If you’re wondering how their website builder tool matches against something like WordPress, then you should note that GrooveFunnels uses a more robust platform with new JavaScript technology that helps websites to load faster. Most other site builders out there, including WordPress, still don’t make use of this new technology.

Shopify – What is this software?

If you were ever into e-commerce, or even if you’ve just researched online businesses, then you would have heard about Shopify. They are very popular because of how popular e-commerce stores are online.

That is essentially what Shopify is – an e-commerce store builder. Using this software, you have all the tools that you need to create an e-commerce store and then build a business around it through the use of custom domains, adding discounts, referrals, or even selling what other people produce. 

The Shopify software is loosely based on WordPress technology which allows it to create a website using themes, where you can design both the front end and back end. Because of this, you will have access to a lot of customization features such as controlling what appears on each section of each of your pages, adding images and videos, setting price points, discounts and timers. You can do all of this through the platform itself without having technical knowledge about how websites work. 

Unlike WordPress however, you don’t need to add in any more plug-ins to do specific functions for the website. They will mostly be ready for you right from the get-go.

GrooveFunnels – What can this software do for you?

GrooveFunnels is created to be the go-to tool that you use for anything related to running your business online. This is why they claim their tool makes use of 26 other tools. You would have to pay for 26 tools rather than one tool to get all these features. Here are some things that this software can do:

  • Create websites and build landing pages – This is the main tool of the software and where they have placed most of their time creating. They utilize a drop and drop builder for creating the websites you want. This is because drag and drop is the most simple and easy to master format anyone can use. Even if you are a newbie or someone who doesn’t know anything about creating websites, with a little practice using this system, you should be able to create stunning looking websites with a bit of work.
  • Build your whole sales pipeline – GrooveFunnels has put a lot of thought into how they can help you past the initial website phase. With their other tools, you will be able to set up a sales funnel, customize your own cart and checkout pages, set your prices with discounts and coupons, show customers upsells and recurring payment options, and also track all of your analytics all from the same system!
  • Start an affiliate marketing program – Have you ever wanted to create an affiliate program for your business? Well, you can now do so with their tool – GrooveAffiliate. You can manage all of your affiliates on your own dashboard, see their analytics, set commission rates & caps, set up recurring payments, and more.

Of course, this is not all that GrooveFunnels can do. If I were to talk about all other their features, then you would have to be reading a very long article. For the most part, their tools are not meant to be for the sale of physical products but rather for digital products. Apart from their complete set of tools, there is one tool that is meant specifically for selling physical products called GrooveKart. This tool will have to be purchased separately from the rest of the software. 

To sum it up, let me break down some of their tools so that you have an idea about what you will be getting with their whole software:

  • GroovePages for Shopify – I spoke about GroovePages before which is their landing page builder. They are coming up with a plugin that can be used inside of the Shopify platform. This can be used to create an awesome sales funnel that has the potential to improve your conversion rates. 
  • GrooveMail – This is their email auto-responding software that you can use to manage all your email marketing efforts. 
  • GrooveMember – If you are planning on running a business that is based on monthly subscription tiered memberships, then this tool is for you. It allows you to create gated content that only selected subscribers can access. 
  • GrooveVideo – This tool is to help you host all of your videos online for free. You don’t have to purchase a subscription from a hosting platform. 
  • GrooveWebinar – Host or automate any webinars that you want. 
  • GrooveBlog – A blog creation tool with all the features that rivals a WordPress blog site.

If you were to use any other website builder, you will need to have to integrate other software or use multiple tools in order to get all of this functionality. Most of the time, this will be difficult to work with because you will need to keep switching between tools and most software don’t usually integrate well with each other. 

Because all of these tools were developed under GrooveDigital, they will all work well in conjunction which makes your marketing strategies work even better. They are definitely an all-in-one system that works very well together. 

Shopify – What can this software do for you?

When compared to GrooveFunnels, Shopify does not have as much functionality in terms of running your whole digital marketing strategy. However, they are very good at what they are focused on:

  • Build your entire business online – Out of all the multiple e-commerce business builders out there, Shopify has the most comprehensive system. Everything from the start is streamlined towards allowing you to begin making sales right from the start. You will be given a blank theme to use at the start, which you can then customize any way you want for your business. Inside the software, there is a section called the “app store” where you can access hundreds of small tools that have individual uses (such as adding pop-ups, adding a special footer, creating a referral/bonus program). These tools can help you to do extra things on your website to help improve conversions. 
  • Customize your checkout and cart options – Based on your theme and other premium tools, you can customize your overall checkout process. You can add upsells, discounts, and more. For payments, it will be set to Shopify payments by default but you are free to choose your own payment processors, all of which will be displayed to you in the settings.
  • An unlimited number of pages – Because Shopify is built around WordPress, you can find some of that functionality inside the system. You are free to add any number of pages that you need to your website. They even have a section for blogs as well. Blogs are important for SEO and providing content, so it is very important that they have added this section for you as well.

As I mentioned, Shopify does not try to be more than what it was built for. It is not a fully functional digital marketing tool but rather an all-in-one online e-commerce store builder. On top of the above, you will also get access to how your backend of the website is run. 

Here, you will be able to see all your analytics (processed orders, refunds, shipped orders, etc). You will also be able to access all the information you have captured of your customers and leads. 

The only place that Shopify fails is that they don’t have an inbuilt funnel builder to help you convert sales. Therefore, you are left to your own devices to try and get your website visitors to turn into customers. 

GrooveFunnels – How much does it cost?

At this point, there are three paid options available for the GrooveFunnels accounts. Each of these accounts come with their own set of tools. They also have a free account available, and this free account comes with so much value that you will be hard-pressed to match on any other software. This is what you get with the account:

  • A free SSL certificate for your website
  • Custom domain integration into their amazon servers – basically free hosting
  • Access to GroovePages lite – Doesn’t have most of their pre-made templates
  • GrooveSell – The tool to sell any digital products
  • GrooveAffiliate

You get all of this by just creating an account on their platform. You don’t even need to enter your credit card details before entering! Here are the rest of their packages:

  • The Silver Package – $99 per month – You will get the above plus full access to GroovePages, GrooveMail, GrooveMember, and GrooveVideo.
  • The Gold Package – $199 per month – The above plus GrooveBlog, GrooveDesk (create a helpdesk website), GrooveCalendar (schedule all your business events), GrooveQuize, and GrooveSurvey (create online surveys and quizzes).
  • The Platinum Package – $299 per month – The above plus GrooveWebinar and GroovePages for Shopify.

Shopify – How much does it cost?

Shopify has a more basic payment method that is broken down into three categories:

  • The Basic Package – $29 per month – You can build your whole store with this package but with a limited number of products.
  • The Shopify Package – $79 per month – You will get additional features such as more staff accounts and a lower credit card fee.
  • The Advanced Package – $299 per month – This package is meant for big businesses or agencies. You will get a 74% reduction in shipping charges, very low transaction fees, add 5 languages to the site, and more.

If you are a beginner, then the basic package is more than enough to start off with. Before you make a payment, you can even try out the system with their 14-day trial period as well. Like GrooveFunnels, you don’t need to enter your credit card details. 

Which software should you use?

So in conclusion, which system you should use will ultimately depend on the type of business you want to run. 

If you are planning on running a business that is mostly dependent on selling physical products such as a dropshipping store, then the definite go-to would be Shopify. They have been specialized in this field for a long time now, and as I mentioned, they are the most popular and the most comprehensive system available for this purpose. 

For any other type of business, where you are free to choose what type of website it is going to be in the future as well as a whole range of tools that are at your disposal to be used in creative marketing methods, the perfect choice would be GrooveFunnels.

There is a lot to like about the GrooveFunnels platform and there is a reason why it became so popular over the last year. If you are still on the fence, try the free account out for yourself and then decide. It’s as easy as entering a few lines of your information and you’re good to go!

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