Ecwid by Lightspeed vs. Podia

[Ecwid is] very well suited for small businesses. Extremely flexible and easy to manage from my mobile device. Extremely easy to use. When I finally discovered Ecwid, I was shocked that I hadn't heard more about it or that it had become more popular than Shopify. I think it is far superior to Shopify.

If you are not techy want to create a course creation type of business then I think its really great. I have used a lot of programs and only a few are complete and Podia is there except for a full fledge blogging platform (you can do a version but it's not quite the same). It's probably the most user friendly email system I have used and the website builder is very user friendly as well. I think if you are a serious blogger and wanting seo traffic to drive to your site, this one thing to watch and consider not as competitive then vs Kajabi.

Incentivized

• Clarity - there has been very little confusion and need to reach out to Customer Support for help
• Consistency - no big, crazy updates or changes have been made to the format of Ecwid during my time using it, so I know when I log in to preform my business tasks I can always locate what I need and accomplish what is at hand easily
• Simplicity - everything is so clear and straightforward. It's like e-commerce for dummies.

• Emails
• Course hosting
• Website creation
• Website chat

Incentivized

• In my experience, there is an issue with Ecwid's ability to enable customization of our specific Shipping requirements. In South Africa, we have to be very mindful of the associated costs for online shoppers. We cannot do the required level of customization in Ecwid that we need to offer potential clients the best service and online shopping experience.
• The available store front design templates are very limited.
• I have had to move to another platform that will allow for customization of the shipping process together with our integrated shipping partner company in South Africa. (MDS Collivery).

Incentivized

• I sometimes wish there was more that I could customize on my website and digital programs
• I wish their email service (for broadcasts/group emails) had more features and customization
• I would like to use my brand font

Incentivized

The value given by Ecwid is unmatched. When combined with the ease of use of the product, it is a no-brainer to continue to use the product. The only thing that could cause us to switch is if some feature we needed which is not available which is unlikely based on the feature list we reviewed when making the decision to go with them.

Incentivized

So easy to use. Nice aesthetics and very intuitive. This was key to starting up quickly. I could find everything easily and it had enough customization options, but not too many. Was able to use much of the standard offerings to customize to my rental business, instead of having to subscribe to expensive rental management software.

It has a great user interface, it's fast to edit and create courses, to edit and create emails, to find chats, to develop the website. Support has been friendly and I haven't found anything that hasn't worked. It also has basically all the tools you need outside if a complete blog platform

Incentivized

Always available. Very reliable

Good overall performance both in desktop and mobile

I have always received the support I need in a timely manner. I enjoy receiving emails every week on trending business topics and new suggestions. They often serve as a reminder for me to include new e-commerce tools into our strategy. And I've always had great experiences with reaching out to the support team with specific questions.

Fast and simple implementation of Ecwid's solutions. Easy to learn and navigate

We began our journey using Squarespace and Square exclusively, then ran into complications. A fellow small business owner recommended Ecwid (she had experienced similar issues with Squarespace) and we quickly made the swap/integration and have never regretted it. We've considered transitioning our website from Squarespace to Shopify, but need Ecwid to continue to be operational regardless.

Kajabi had lots of features all in one place. I liked their digital course creator program. I liked the ease of their their membership site program/host, too. It had an app for my clients to use. There were some problems with not being able to customize the look of pages, but they allowed coding/programming if you had training, so I sometimes hired someone to do that for me. I couldn't figure out how to use their website builder, so I didn't do much there. When it came down to it, I could use Podia and it was cheaper and easier to use. GoDaddy was my website host for a few years. I did a lot on there. It was my website builder and host and I liked it. It was easy to use. My website looked great. It had more features than Podia with blogging and connecting to social media. I had a storefront but it wasn't great for selling digital products. Back then, it wanted to show my inventory and shipping options, which don't apply for services and digital products. I did a little with my digital courses on there, but in the end, I liked other sites better for this. It didn't work out. Weebly was just a starting point for me when I create my first digital course. I liked how it looked and it was easy to build, but there are better options for this sort of thing now.

Incentivized

Good scalability. I use the second plan and there are 2 more plans that I could use if I needed other features or services

• Ecwid has positively impacted our ROI because it provides a very secure platform which allows us to easily certify our PCI Compliance requirements as they are a Tier 1 PCI Certified company so we can be confident they have the right security systems in place which is important to our customers.

Incentivized

• Increased sales by $8000 from January to June (Added 2 more programs quickly and easily)
• Saved almost a thousand dollars in the first year in costs by switching to Podia
• Improved customer satisfaction by using 1 site instead of 4

Incentivized