EasyStore vs SiteGiant (2022)

EasyStore and SiteGiant are two of the biggest and most popular website builders in Malaysia. If you’ve been shopping around for a platform to build and host your website, it’s highly likely that these big names have popped up in your radar.

But with each promising to offer a large number of features, it can be tough picking one that’s best for you. Since your website will make up a significant investment in your e-commerce business, you want to avoid choosing the one only to discover that it is missing essential features you need.

To help you make the decision, in this post, we’ll take a look at the main differences between the two website builders. By the end of this post, you’ll have a better idea of the main differences between the website builders so you can make a decision on which is the best one for you.

Let’s get into it!

EasyStore and SiteGiant Main Features Compared

Pricing	Lite Plan: RM59/month or RM495.50/year Standard Plan: RM199/month or RM1,194/year Business Plan: RM499/month or RM2,994/year	Unicart Basic: RM590/year Unicart Pro: RM1,090/year Unicart Pro Plus: RM1,290/year Unicart Business: RM2,390/year
Trial availability	14 day trial available	Have to arrange for a demo
Monthly plan availability	Yes	No
Unlimited product uploads	Available for Standard Plan and Business Plan	Only available for Unicart Business Plan
Transaction fees	Zero transaction fees	Zero transaction fees
Free domain name	Available with annual plans	Available with all plans (limited to .com and .net only)
Marketplace integration	Lazada, Lelong, 11Street and YouBeli integration available for all plans through app store. Shopee integration not available.	Lazada, Lelong, 11Street and YouBeli integration available for Unicart Plan and above. Additional Shopee integration available for Unicart Pro Plus and Unicart Business plan only.
Shipping consolidator integration	EasyParcel integration available for all plans through app store.	Shippop and Web2Ship integration for Unicart Pro Plan and above. Additional EasyParcel integration available for RM200/year for Unicart Pro Plus and Unicart Business Plan.
Collection box integration	Collectco integration available for all plans through app store.	Collectco integration available for Unicart Pro Plan and above
Payment gateway options	iPay88, MOLPay and eGHL available	iPay88, MOLPay, eGHL, Boost, AliPay, etc – a total of 40 payment gateways available

Pricing: Tie

Both SiteGiant and EasyStore offer beginner plans from around RM500 – 600 a year to heavier plans costing above RM2,000 a month for the heavy-duty e-commerce user. 

This provides options for e-commerce business owners from across the spectrum to start their own e-commerce plan.

Monthly plan availability: EasyStore

If you prefer not being locked down to a website builder right away, you’ll be able to test run your store for a minimum of one month. On the other hand, SiteGiant does not offer any monthly plans.

Trial available: EasyStore

It takes only a few clicks to get a trial started for EasyStore, but for SiteGiant, you’ll only be able to test run your website after scheduling a demo with them.

For people who prefer exploring a website builder on their own without the hassle of scheduling a demo, EasyStore is preferable.

Unlimited product uploads available: EasyStore

For SiteGiant, all plans except the most expensive Unicart Business plan comes with a product upload cap. Though the Unicart Pro Plus plan does offer a pretty generous 50,000 product uploads, it can’t compete with the unlimited products offered by EasyStore’s Standard and Business Plan.

Transaction fees: Tie

Both website builders don’t charge a transaction fee for sales made on their platforms.

Free domain name: Tie

Both EasyStore and SiteGiant offer free domain name with their annual plans. This means you don’t need to spend an additional RM35 – RM60 a year for a domain name.

Marketplace Sync: Tie

Both EasyStore and SiteGiant offer marketplace integrations for Lazada, Shopee, 11Street and YouBeli. Though, SiteGiant only offers these with their integrations with their Unicart Pro plan and above whereas EasyStore offers the options for marketplace integration for all their plans.

The reason why I think it’s a tie is because EasyStore currently doesn’t offer integration for Shopee whereas SiteGiant provides an additional Shopee integration for the Unicart Pro Plus and Unicart Business Plan.

Shipping consolidator and collect box integration: EasyStore

While you can only get shipping consolidator and collect box integration with the Unicart Pro plan and above with SiteGiant, you can integrate EasyParcel to your store with even the lowest EasyStore plan.

This means you’ll be able to give your customers more shipping options and returns options on a smaller budget with EasyStore compared with SiteGiant.

Payment Gateway Options: EasyStore

While SiteGiant has a limited number of payment options, EasyStore offers up to 40 payment gateways including new and trendy ones like Boost e-wallet!

If you like offering more payment options for your customer, you’ll likely be spoilt for choice with EasyStore!

Pick EasyStore if…

The biggest benefit of choosing EasyStore is their easy to sign up free trial and affordable RM59 monthly plan. If you want to do your own testing on the platform, give it a trial run and get started with your own e-commerce store without spending too much money on an annual plan, I recommend going for EasyStore.

Pick SiteGiant if…

The biggest benefit of using SiteGiant is their Shopee integration which isn’t available for any EasyStore plan. If integrating with Shopee is an important aspect of your e-commerce business, SiteGiant is the clear winner. 

However, you’ll have less flexibility in terms of their plans and need to sign up for at least 1 year.

Conclusion

Both EasyStore and SiteGiant are powerful e-commerce website solutions created for people who want to start their own e-commerce store in Malaysia. Each provides all the basic features that makes it easy to create an e-commerce website, manage your orders and delight your customers easily.

Which website builder to pick will depend on the features you prioritise and how much money you can afford to get started.

EasyStore provides a quick, easy and affordable way to get started within a short period of time whereas SiteGiant provides an additional Shopee marketplace integration in exchange of having only annual plans.

Over to you: which of these local website builders have you used before? Would you recommend them?