Crate vs Ecwid
Ecwid adds a shop to a website you already have, without asking you to move the website. Crate is the website and the shop together, which is better when there is nothing to keep and worse when there is.
What Ecwid is: An embeddable online store that adds a catalog and checkout to an existing website, content management system or social page rather than replacing it.
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How does Crate compare to Ecwid?
Ecwid is a shop you embed into a site that already exists, so the site keeps its host, its content management system and its design, and gains a catalog and a checkout inside it. Crate provides the storefront itself, on a domain you own, with the catalog, checkout, chat and social selling, point of sale and stock all belonging to one system. The deciding question is whether you already have a site you intend to keep. If you do, and it works, embedding a shop into it is less disruptive than migrating. If you do not, or the site is due for replacement anyway, running the shop and the storefront as one thing removes a seam you would otherwise maintain forever.
Side by side
Qualitative and stable. No prices and no fee percentages for either side, because both change without notice and a comparison table carrying a stale number is worse than no table.
| What | Crate | Ecwid |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A commerce platform that includes the storefront, on a domain you own. | A shop you embed into a site you already run. |
| Keeping your current site | The storefront is Crate's. Existing URLs can be redirected, but the site moves. | The main advantage. Your site stays where it is. |
| Where the design lives | One visual builder for the whole storefront. | Your site's tooling for the site, their settings for the shop. |
| Selling in chat | Built in. A chat order is a real order with real stock movement. | Not a native channel. |
| Point of sale | Included, sharing one stock count with the online store. | Available in some markets. |
| Staff and permissions | Roles, per-staff permissions and an activity trail. | Staff accounts available. |
Which one you actually want
Both columns are real. If the right-hand one describes you, take it: a product that does not fit you is a refund with extra steps.
Choose Crate if
- You have no site worth keeping, or the one you have is due for replacement.
- You would rather maintain one system than a site and a shop that meet at a seam.
- Most of your orders start as a message rather than as a checkout.
- You sell in person and want one stock count across the counter and the store.
Choose Ecwid if
- You have a site that works and you are not moving it.
- The site is a content or brochure site first and the shop is an addition to it.
- Somebody else maintains your website and changing platforms is not your decision to make.
Where Crate is behind
Every comparison on this site carries this section. A page that only lists what we do better is an advert, and you already know how much to trust one of those.
Where Crate is behind: it cannot bolt onto what you already run. If your site is a WordPress install, a Webflow project or a content management system your team is committed to, Crate asks you to move the storefront rather than plug into it. That is a bigger decision than adding a widget, and for a business whose site is not the problem it may not be worth making at all.
About switching to Crate from Ecwid
Short answers, and none of them hedge. If yours is not here, ask us on the contact page.
Can I keep my existing website and use Crate only for the shop?
Crate provides the storefront, so the shop lives on Crate. You can point a subdomain at it and link the two, but Crate is not designed to be embedded inside another site.
Do I keep my URLs if I move?
Existing product and category URLs can be redirected permanently to their new addresses, so links already published elsewhere keep working.
How this comparison is kept honest
Last checked
Everything said about Ecwid here is a qualitative property of the product taken from what Ecwid publishes about itself: what kind of product it is, which channels it sells through natively, and which capabilities it ships rather than leaves to an add-on. We publish no prices, fees, percentages or counts for any competitor, including ourselves, on these pages, because those change without notice and a table carrying a stale number does more damage than no table.
Claims about Crate on this page do not go beyond what our own feature, pricing and security pages already state. Where they would, they are not made.
Product capabilities change. This page states what was accurate on the date above and nothing beyond it. If a row is out of date, we would rather hear it than rank on it.
Other comparisons
Same structure, same honesty rules, different competitor.
- Crate vs Etsy Marketplace
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- Crate vs Payhip Digital product and membership storefront
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- Crate vs Big Cartel Small storefront for artists and makers
- Crate vs Bumpa Mobile business app
- Crate vs Selar Digital product storefront
- Crate vs payment link storefronts Payment links
Try it before you decide.
Every plan starts with the same trial and the same full feature set. Import your catalog, take one real order, and judge it on that.
14-day free trial · No card required