Big Cartel vs Instapage: guide for 2024

Final verdict

Big Cartel and Instapage cater to different needs, making them suitable for distinct user bases.

Big Cartel (Overall Grade: 5.8/10)

is tailored for artists and small businesses looking for a simple, affordable way to sell their creations online. It offers essential ecommerce features, user-friendly customization, and a straightforward setup process. When comparing Big Cartel vs Instapage, Big Cartel is ideal for independent creators and small-scale sellers who prioritize simplicity and cost-effectiveness.
Instapage (Overall Grade: 6.6/10)

excels in creating high-converting landing pages with advanced marketing tools and AI capabilities. It offers extensive customization, robust analytics, and seamless integrations, making it a powerful platform for marketing professionals and businesses focused on lead generation and conversion optimization. Considering Big Cartel vs Instapage, Instapage is the better choice for users who need sophisticated marketing features and landing page optimization.

	Overall grade: 5.8	Overall grade: 6.6
Design functionalities & templates	6.9	8.0
Ease of use	8.0	8.5
Ecommerce	6.2	4.2
Website Editors	6.8	7.5
Product testing options	5.9	6.1
Price	7.8	7.0
Hosting quality	5.0	6.0
Website speed optimization	5.0	6.2
Plugins and integrations	5.8	6.8
Marketing features	6.2	7.7
Customer support	5.4	7.6
Security	7.3	8.4
AI capabilities	0.0	6.0
User Management	1.3	7.3

Best for ecommerce

6.2

4.2

Verdict

: Big Cartel is better suited for small businesses and independent creators, while Instapage excels in landing page optimization but lacks comprehensive ecommerce features.

Big Cartel

: Tailored for artists and makers, Big Cartel offers essential ecommerce features like inventory tracking, sales analytics, and social media integrations. It supports up to 150 product variants and provides around 20 templates designed for ecommerce. When comparing Big Cartel vs Instapage, Big Cartel stands out for its simplicity and affordability, making it ideal for small businesses and independent creators.
Instapage

: Primarily a landing page platform, Instapage integrates with ecommerce platforms like Shopify and supports payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal. However, it lacks dedicated ecommerce templates and product page customization. Instapage is more suitable for businesses focused on optimizing their landing pages for better advertising conversion rather than running a full-fledged online store.

Best for informational & business websites

7.2

7.9

Verdict

: Instapage is the superior choice for creating high-conversion, informational business websites, thanks to its advanced design functionalities, ease of use, and robust support and security features. Big Cartel, while user-friendly and affordable, is more tailored to small businesses and independent creators looking to sell their products online.

Big Cartel

: Big Cartel is designed with simplicity in mind, making it an excellent choice for artists and small-scale sellers who need a straightforward platform to showcase and sell their creations. Its ease of use and affordability are significant advantages, but it lacks the advanced customization and optimization features that larger businesses might require for more complex informational websites.
Instapage

: Instapage excels in creating and optimizing landing pages, making it ideal for businesses focused on marketing and conversion. Its extensive customization options, ease of use, and comprehensive support and security features make it a robust platform for building high-performing informational websites. When comparing Big Cartel vs Instapage, Instapage stands out for its advanced functionalities and user-friendly interface, catering to businesses aiming to enhance their online presence and marketing efforts.

Detailed comparison

6.9

8.0

🏆

Winner: Instapage.

With a higher score in design functionalities and templates, Instapage offers more extensive customization options and a larger variety of templates.

Big Cartel provides a variety of free, customizable templates designed to ensure that online stores look appealing on all devices. These templates are geared towards artists, creators, and small business owners, offering features like high-quality product displays and adjustable product grids without the need for coding knowledge.

Big Cartel Themes

On the other hand, Instapage provides an extensive collection of 100+ design templates for website building, business-specific templates. These templates are tailored to support small teams and businesses in executing their marketing campaigns efficiently, including features for marketing automation, CRM, and analytics integrations.

Instapage Themes

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8.0

8.5

🏆 Winner: Instapage

. With a score of 8.5, Instapage edges out Big Cartel (8.0) in terms of ease of use. Instapage’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface and extensive customization options make it a user-friendly choice for creating and optimizing landing pages. Big Cartel, while also user-friendly, is more limited in its features and customization options.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Instapage

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but Instapage goes a step further with a comprehensive set of resources including blogs, webinars, videos, podcasts, ebooks, dictionaries, guides, and customer stories. Big Cartel, on the other hand, offers basic guides and articles on setting up and customizing stores.

Learn Big Cartel

Learn Instapage

6.2

4.2

Big Cartel and Instapage offer different approaches to ecommerce. Big Cartel is specifically designed for artists and makers, offering features that support small businesses in setting up an online store. On the other hand, Instapage is primarily focused on building landing pages, however, the platform supports integration with ecommerce platforms such as Shopify.


Ecommerce themes and templates	5.5	0.0
Product page customization	6.8	0.0
Payment processing and commissions	7.0	5.0
POS capabilities	6.5	0.0
Payment gateways	6.0	6.0
Product numbers	4.5	0.0
Additional ecommerce features	5.7	4.0

Big Cartel ecommerce features:

Inventory tracking
Sales analytics
Social Media integrations
Marketing tools

Big Cartel Add a product

Instapage ecommerce features:

Shopify integration
Payment gateways such as Stripe and Paypal

Ecommerce themes & templates

Big Cartel offers around 20 templates, each specifically designed to cater to the needs of ecommerce stores, providing a variety of options for creating an online store. In contrast, Instapage does not have ecommerce specific templates.

Product page customization

Big Cartel enables merchants to customize their product offerings with the Product Variants feature, supporting up to 150 variants per item, such as sizes, colors, and more, allowing for specific pricing and quantities for each variant. Instapage, however, does not have product page customization capabilities.

Payment processing

When it comes to payment processing, Big Cartel supports payment processing through PayPal and Stripe, allowing a variety of payment methods including credit/debit cards and mobile payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay. The platform itself does not charge additional transaction fees, but standard processing fees from PayPal and Stripe apply. Big Cartel also offers POS capabilities, primarily through Stripe terminal for Android and iOS for in-person sales, enhancing flexibility for both online and offline business operations. Instapage supports payment gateway integration, notably through external systems and third-party services like Commence Payments for Stripe, facilitating various payment options such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and card payments. The platform itself does not directly charge commissions for transactions, but payment gateways may have their own fees. While Instapage specializes in creating high-converting landing pages with a focus on online marketing, it does not explicitly offer Point of Sale (POS) capabilities, suggesting a primary use case away from direct sales or retail transactions.

6.8

7.5

🏆

Winner: Instapage

. Instapage, with a score of 7.5, is a comprehensive website builder focused on creating and optimizing landing pages for various marketing campaigns. It offers a drag-and-drop editor, AI content generation, detailed analytics, and extensive customization through custom code editing, alongside security and compliance features. The platform supports collaboration, integrates with numerous marketing tools, and is designed to streamline the process of building, testing, and optimizing landing pages to increase conversions.

Big Cartel’s website builder editor, scoring 6.8, is designed with simplicity in mind, catering primarily to artists and small-scale sellers. Users can easily customize their online store’s look and feel without needing advanced technical skills, thanks to its user-friendly interface. The editor allows for the customization of themes, addition of products, and setup of different pages like home, about, and contact pages. Additionally, it offers basic SEO settings and integration options with social media and other tools, making it a straightforward solution for those looking to sell their work online with minimal fuss.

Mobile editor/app

7.5

🏆

Winner: Big Cartel

. Big Cartel offers a mobile app that allows users to manage their online store directly from their mobile device. Key features include the ability to add and edit products, process orders, check inventory, and view store statistics. The app provides a convenient way for store owners to keep their business running smoothly on-the-go, without the need for a computer. The interface is user-friendly, ensuring that even those with minimal technical skills can easily navigate and make use of its functionalities. However, website design changes can be applied only on the desktop version.

Instapage, on the other hand, does not have a dedicated mobile editor app, which limits its usability for users who need to make adjustments on the go. This absence makes Big Cartel the more versatile option for mobile management of online stores.

5.9

6.1

Overall Result

:

Instapage Wins

. Instapage scores slightly higher than Big Cartel with a score of 6.1 against 5.9. While Big Cartel offers a free version and allows testing of some features, it does not provide a trial version or a money-back guarantee. On the other hand, Instapage does not have a free version but offers a 14-day free trial where users can test premium features. However, users are required to fill in their payment information, and if they don’t cancel by the end of the trial period, they may be charged automatically. Instapage also offers a 24-hour money-back guarantee.


Free Plan	Yes	No
Trial Duration	No	14 days (Requires payment information)
Testing Premium Features	Limited with free plan	During the free trial
Money Back Guarantee	No	24 hours

7.8

7.0

Big Cartel offers more affordable pricing plans, while Instapage provides more comprehensive features for conversion optimization at a higher price point.

	Offerings	Offerings
Free	Gold ($0/month): The Gold plan is free and allows up to 5 product listings with one image per product. It includes features such as free customizable templates, the ability to sell online and in person, multiple payment options, real-time stats, product variant groups, and sales tax autopilot.	No offering at this amount
$0-$10	Platinum ($9.99/month): The Platinum plan increases the product listing limit to 50 and allows up to five images per product. It adds features like the use of a custom domain, template code editing, Google Analytics, ads support, inventory tracking, the ability to offer discounts and run promos, bulk editing, and shipment tracking. Value for Price: 7.5	No offering at this amount
$10-$20	Diamond ($19.99/month): The Diamond plan further extends the product limit to 500 with the same benefits as the Platinum plan, including advanced Google Analytics reporting, ads with audience targeting, and priority customer support. Value for Price: 8.5	No offering at this amount
$200+	No offering at this amount	BUILD ($299/month): Optimize conversions with experimentation and lead generation. Includes #1 Landing page builder, No Conversion Limits, Server-Side A/B Testing, AI Content, Unlimited Triggered Popups, Thor Render Engine, Dynamic Text Replacement, SSL Encryption, GDPR Compliance, Google SSO, Zapier, HubSpot, Salesforce, Marketo Integration, Multi-Step Forms, Invisible reCAPTCHA, and more. Value for Price: 7.5

In some cases companies have different prices based on various components like a
location. As a result in rare cases the prices displayed here can differ from the ones you see on their
websites.

5.0

6.0

🏆

Winner: Instapage

Instapage offers cloud hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee, while Big Cartel does not provide specific information on their hosting type, uptime, or data centers. This lack of transparency results in a lower hosting quality score for Big Cartel.


Do they offer hosting?	Yes	Yes
Type of hosting:	Not specified	Cloud Hosting
Uptime:	Not specified	99.9%
Uptime Guarantee:	No	Yes, 99.9%
Data Centers:	Not specified	Not specified

5.0

6.2

🏆 Winner: Instapage

Both Big Cartel and Instapage do not provide much information about their strategies for speed optimization and Core Web Vital improvements. However, Instapage has a slightly higher website speed optimization score.


Focus	Not specified	Responsive design, Image optimization, Caching
Performance Tools	Not specified	Not specified
Key Strategies	Not specified	Responsive design, Image optimization, Caching
Load Times	Varies depending on optimization and website complexity	Varies depending on optimization
Page Speed Scores Range	Not specified	Not specified
Core Web Vitals Improvement	Not specified	Not specified

Instapage, a comprehensive landing page platform, focuses on responsive design, image optimization, and caching for speed optimization. However, it does not provide specific information about its load times, PageSpeed score ranges, and Core Web Vital improvements.

Big Cartel, a website builder designed for artists and makers, does not mention any information on speed optimization strategies, load times, PageSpeed score ranges, and Core Web Vital improvements. It is important for users to consider these factors when choosing a website builder.

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5.8

6.8

🏆 Winner: Instapage.

With a score of 6.8, Instapage offers more than 40 integrations with third-party platforms, including major CRM, email marketing, analytics, and advertising tools. This allows users to connect their landing pages seamlessly with essential digital marketing tools and services, enhancing the overall marketing funnel. Big Cartel, scoring 5.8, offers a variety of apps and integrations to enhance ecommerce store functionality, including marketing, shipping, and store management tools. However, the total number of direct apps and integrations is around 27, which is fewer than what Instapage offers.

Instapage Applications

Instapage integrations

6.2

7.7

🏆

Overall Winner: Instapage

. Instapage stands out for its comprehensive landing page platform designed to improve advertising conversion through personalization, optimization, and testing. Big Cartel, while offering a straightforward setup process and essential features, lacks the advanced marketing tools that Instapage provides.


SEO Tools	Basic SEO features	Advanced SEO features with AI-powered content generation
Email Marketing	Through third party integrations like Mailchimp	Comprehensive email marketing tools
Blogging	No	No
Social Media Integration	Yes	Yes
Analytics and Reporting	Basic analytics and reporting	Advanced analytics with A/B testing
Ads and Promotions	Yes, using third party integration	Advanced ad-to-page personalization and integration with advertising platforms

5.4

7.6

🏆 Winner: Instapage

. In the Big Cartel vs Instapage comparison, Instapage takes the lead with a higher customer support score of 7.6 compared to Big Cartel’s 5.4. Instapage offers extensive support options, including 24/5 live chat support directly within the application, email, and toll-free phone support during business hours. This ensures users have multiple channels to seek help and maintain a record of their service requests.

Big Cartel, on the other hand, provides support via email from Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 6 PM EST. While their support team is dedicated, the limited availability and fewer support channels may not be sufficient for users needing immediate assistance. However, Big Cartel’s straightforward approach and resources can still be beneficial for small businesses and independent creators looking for a simple and affordable solution.

7.3

8.4

🏆

Winner: Instapage

. Instapage has a higher security score and offers a comprehensive set of security measures. It is SOC 2 Type I and Type II compliant, aligns with GDPR and CCPA regulations, and has an Information Security Program based on ISO 27001/2 and NIST 800-53 frameworks. It also provides SSL/HTTPS support for all landing pages to ensure secure client data handling and privacy.

Big Cartel also emphasizes on the protection of private data and provides SSL encryption across its platform. However, it is not PCI compliant by itself and relies on third-party gateways for secure payment processing. This makes Instapage a more secure option for users.

0.0

6.0


AI Builder
AI Ecommerce features
AI content generation		Instapage’s AI Content Generator facilitates quicker landing page creation by automatically producing content tailored to the target audience.
Additional AI features		Instapage’s AI Experiments dynamically allocate traffic to higher-performing test variants.

🏆 Winner: Instapage

. Instapage, with a score of 6.0, utilizes AI to enhance the landing page creation and optimization process. Its AI features focus on content generation and traffic allocation to better performing test variants. On the other hand, Big Cartel does not have any AI capabilities.

1.3

7.3

🏆 Winner: Instapage

. The user management capabilities of Big Cartel and Instapage are quite different.

Big Cartel allows only one user to build and edit a website.
On Instapage, users managing a website can be assigned different roles: Viewer, Editor, or Manager. A Viewer has limited access, only able to view pages. An Editor can edit pages, and a Manager has full access except for billing information and the audit log. The number of users you can invite depends on your subscription limits. However, only one user can edit a page at a time to prevent overwrite issues.

Instapage User Roles and Access Levels:

Role	Description	Access Highlights
Administrator	Oversees the entire Instapage account, managing users, settings, and billing information.	Full access to all features, including user management, settings, billing, and page creation and editing.
Editor	Works on creating and editing landing pages, responsible for the design and content.	Can create and edit pages, manage integrations, and view analytics, but cannot change account settings or manage users.
Viewer	Has view-only access to the landing pages, typically for review or analytics purposes.	Can view pages and analytics but cannot make any edits or access account settings.

Additional Features


SSL Certificate	✓	✓
Custom Domain	✓	✓
Free Custom Domain Included	✓	X
International Domains	✓	✓
Mobile Responsive	✓	✓
Page Speed	✓	✓
Website Builder Mobile App	✓	X
Convert a Website To An App	X	X
Website Analytics	✓	✓
Multilingual Sites	✓	✓
Multiple Users	X	✓

User Feedback

Big Cartel

26 reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars

Instapage

488 reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars

User feedback on Big Cartel highlights its simplicity and affordability as key advantages, making it a popular choice for small businesses and startups looking to establish an online presence quickly. Users appreciate the ease of setting up and customizing their online stores, the flat monthly fees without per-item charges, and the platform’s intuitive design and mobile management capabilities. However, limitations in features compared to more comprehensive platforms, restricted customization options, and lack of advanced integrations or inventory management for specific items are noted drawbacks. Despite these concerns, Big Cartel is praised for its cost-effectiveness and user-friendly approach, particularly for those new to e-commerce or with smaller inventories.

Users generally appreciate Instapage for its user-friendly interface, robust customer support, and seamless integration capabilities, highlighting its effectiveness in creating high-quality, high-converting landing pages optimized for lead capture. Positive feedback emphasizes the platform’s ease of use, allowing both experienced marketers and newcomers to quickly design and deploy landing pages, along with its broad range of integrations with other marketing tools and CRM systems. However, some users encounter challenges with mobile responsiveness, custom domain settings, and occasional bugs.

The making of this blog

We followed a clear, step-by-step process to write and research this article.

Our Ranking Criteria

FAQ

Which platform is better for small businesses, Big Cartel or Instapage?

Big Cartel is specifically designed for small businesses, particularly artists and creators, offering essential ecommerce features and a user-friendly interface. Instapage, while also user-friendly, is optimized for creating high-converting landing pages and is better suited for marketing campaigns rather than direct ecommerce.

Can I use Instapage for ecommerce?

Instapage itself is not an ecommerce platform but excels at creating optimized landing pages that can integrate with ecommerce platforms like Shopify. This makes it suitable for marketing-focused ecommerce strategies rather than direct selling.

What are the main differences in customization between Big Cartel and Instapage?

Big Cartel offers customization tailored to ecommerce stores, with a focus on simplicity and ease of use for small businesses. Instapage provides extensive customization options for landing pages, supporting detailed analytics and marketing integrations, making it ideal for targeted marketing efforts.

How do the pricing models for Big Cartel and Instapage compare?

Big Cartel offers more affordable pricing plans, making it accessible for small businesses and independent creators. Instapage, while more expensive, provides advanced features for conversion optimization, justifying its higher price point for businesses focused on maximizing advertising effectiveness.