Marketplace platforms compared - Sharetribe vs Onport

As the marketplace model becomes even more popular online, so does the number of solutions available. This can be confusing, especially if you have particular needs and requirements. Some are cheaper than others, some are better than others, it requires some investigative work to truly understand which option you should go for. In this edition, we will take a look at Sharetribe and how it comes up against Onport.

Features

Sharetribe offers two plans, their Go and Flex plan. Sharetribe has a broader focus than Onport, which means it has more features in terms of areas like legal and regulatory frameworks, frontend templates, and marketing. These are good features but show a broader focus, on areas such as the frontend and backend. This is compared to Onport which is strictly orientated towards the backend.

Onport is designed to automate and streamline all the functions of a busy online marketplace. As a result, it has an extensive feature set to help meet the demand of modern ecommerce. We have carefully implemented features that are designed to help remove the common pain points that arise from day-to-day operations.

Our intelligent order routing system ensures that the right order is routed back to the appropriate vendor, ensuring a steady and correct flow of data between both parties.

Product management is a core element of running a busy marketplace and with Onport, you can gain a powerful oversight of the products available to your marketplace. Analyze changes to unit pricing and product information easily as well as incorporate product catalogs into your system.

Of course, calculating the correct commission on sales to pay your vendors is crucial, that’s why Onport allows you to configure vendor commission rates with ease. You can automatically calculate commission rates for all items sold. You can even import cost prices in batches, directly from your vendors.

Of course, shipping is vital for making your overall marketplace work. With Onport, you can choose from a variety of different carriers as well as supply discounted labels directly to your vendors. Help keep your shipping workflows running smoothly and costs low by choosing to optimize with Onport.

Interested in learning more about our feature set? Check out this link.

Integrations

The Sharetribe Flex option gives the ability to integrate with more 3rd party integrations but it is hard to know the exact level of these integrations and how many there are.

Onport supports a large variety of different platforms, such as front-end solutions, payments, shipping platforms, product management tools, and many more.

If you are using a front-end solution such as Shopify, Bigcommerce, Woocommerce, etc, and are worried about moving, don’t worry, Onport supports them all. Using a custom setup? Don’t worry, Onport is highly flexible and can accommodate your front-end with ease.

When it comes to shipping, Onport integrates with numerous platforms, including Shippo, Shippypro, and many others, allowing you to keep your current shipping set up if you wish whilst also offering you several high-level alternatives if you wish.

Payments between a marketplace and its vendors can be a source of potential friction, thankfully you can help avoid these by making use of our great Stripe, Wise and Paypal integrations. Keep the payments on top and your vendor's happy.

If you are interested in learning more about our integrations, check out the full list here.

Headless

Sharetribe does offer a Headless option, their Sharetribe Flex system.

Onport understands the need for greater flexibility in the modern commerce environment - that is why our headless option is designed to scale as needed, allowing for a more agile and faster development time. Save yourself valuable time and effort by opting to use our software development kits and choose the best-of-breed solutions for your marketplace stack.

If you are interested in learning more about Headless commerce and what Onport can do for you, check out our Headless page here.

Verdict

Sharetribe and Onport are similar in many ways but do differ in some key areas - for instance, Sharetibe has a strong focus on the front end as well as a focus on services and rental marketplaces, which are things Onport does not focus on at all. Overall, Sharetribe is a good solution for those aiming to set up rental and service based marketplace, if that is something you are interested in, then perhaps you may want to investigate them further.

However, with Onport, you’ll find a solution that is solely aimed to create a powerful back-office automation system for product marketplace, one that allows flexibility in terms of the front end, where you can easily connect your front-end platform, even if it’s a custom implementation.

This combined with the other facts outlined above should that when compared against each other, Onport pulls ahead and offers a more complete, flexible, and scalable solution.

When It Comes To Marketplaces - Onport Is The Answer

Onport is a multi-vendor marketplace and dropshipping platform. Onport enables product marketplaces to streamline and automate their inventory, orders, payments, and shipping operations. Designed to be flexible, Onport can accommodate both those seeking an out-the-box solution and through our API, those who require a more bespoke implementation. From growing SMEs to well-established Enterprises, Onport’s infrastructure is designed to be a reliable partner for growth.

With Onport, our customers can scale with confidence, streamline their daily operations as well as create truly unique marketplaces. Onport is trusted by brands such as Bombinate, Ad Hoc Atelier, and Naduvi as well as over 200+ other companies.