shift4shop vs now

Compare shift4shop and now on pricing, features, platforms, and ratings — both Ecommerce tools, Free for merchants who exclusively use Shift4 Payments as…

At a Glance

 shift4shopnow
Primary categoryEcommerceEcommerce
RatingNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelFree for merchants who exclusively use Shift4 Payments as their card processor, with no added transaction fee on top of processing; merchants using another payment processor or based outside the U.S. pay for a standard plan instead — Shift4Shop's own site cites an unlimited 'End-to-End eCommerce' plan at $41/month.Now Shipping does not publish fixed rates; pricing is described as competitive and transparent with no hidden fees, with exact rates provided on request, and free pickup for a merchant's first 100 shipments under its Launch Partners program.
Starting priceNot documentedNot documented
Free planYesNot documented
Free trialNot documentedNot documented
PlatformsNot documentedNot documented
Team collaborationNot documentedNot documented
AI featuresNot documentedNot documented
Public APIYesNot documented

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

shift4shop

No individual plan breakdown documented yet.

now

No individual plan breakdown documented yet.

Pros & Cons

shift4shop

Pros

  • Genuinely free software tier for merchants who use Shift4 Payments, with no separate transaction fee layered on top
  • All-in-one feature set — website builder, product/inventory management, marketing, and SEO tools are bundled rather than sold as add-on apps
  • 100+ included, SEO-optimized, mobile-responsive themes plus a free domain and SSL, reducing setup costs
  • Long operating history (21+ years, formerly 3dcart) with an established merchant base (~22k merchants) suggesting platform maturity

Cons

  • The free plan is conditional on exclusively using Shift4 Payments for card processing, which limits payment-provider flexibility for merchants who want the no-cost tier
  • As a hosted, all-in-one platform, merchants have less flexibility to swap in third-party theme/checkout systems compared to fully headless or open ecommerce stacks
  • Publicly listed pricing beyond the single $41/month End-to-End plan is not consistently detailed on Shift4Shop's own marketing pages, making full plan-to-plan comparison harder without contacting sales

now

Pros

  • Same-day delivery with orders picked up before noon typically delivered by evening
  • In-house trained couriers rather than freelance/gig drivers
  • Live dashboard with real-time shipment tracking for merchants and end customers
  • Native integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Salla, and Zid reduce manual setup
  • Launch Partners program offers free pickup for a merchant's first 100 shipments

Cons

  • Service area is currently limited to Cairo and Giza, so it is not usable for merchants shipping nationwide or internationally
  • Exact shipping rates are not published; merchants must contact sales to get pricing
  • Still in soft launch, so the platform and track record are relatively new and unproven at scale
  • No visible self-serve signup flow noted on the site; onboarding appears to require direct contact

Read the full shift4shop review · Read the full now review