I will touch base on a few types of vendor apps. There are vendor apps that calculate and build reports on commissions, and then there are vendor apps that allow product creators to add a product to your marketplace, similar to Etsy.
A common thing I find with Shopify apps is that the interfaces are really confusing and look outdated to the point it looks like a site from 1996. CollabPay is the only one that looks professional with the interface. Of course, it’s not all about the design. It’s about the functionality too. I will dive deep into the pros and cons I found when using these Shopify apps.
If you’re interested in learning some sneaky tips about Shopify that you may not know, check out my Shopify Tips & Tricks blog.
Best Multi-Vendor Reporting Shopify Apps
These apps are my favourite for reporting, statistics and calculating commissions for vendors. I will now always choose CollabPay as my favourite, but I wanted to give you choice and my second and third-best options.
Look at my blog here if you want to learn more about how to set up your store to auto-pay and split payments for collaborates on Shopify.
1. CollabPay – Best overall
CollabPay is the perfect app for calculating reports, paying commissions, automating supplier payments, and paying your vendors, suppliers and product collaborators automatically. It features the easiest-to-use interface, with the menu laid out neatly.
To add a collaborator, all you need to do is go to the product you want to add the collaborator to, then click the ‘Add collaborator‘ button. This will open up a window where you can add a current collaborator or invite a new one via email. After adding them, you will be able to add the commission percentage.
Your collaborators/vendors can easily log in to their accounts on the CollabPay website. Here they will see all their order details and be able to set up payouts.
Overall, CollabPay is the best I’ve used for paying my vendors on my marketplace. They have the most affordable options as well as the best features.
As I noted above, most Shopify apps have really bad designs and look very outdated, but CollabPay is one of the only ones that look professional.
Pricing
| FREELANCER PLAN | STARTUP PLAN | BUSINESS PLAN |
|---|---|---|
| $9/month | $19/month | £35/month |
| 3 Collaborators/vendors | 12 Collaborators/vendors | Unlimited Collaborators/vendors |
| 3 Payouts per month | Unlimited payouts per month | Unlimited payouts per month |
+ Pros
- Auto-pay vendors or collaborators of products
- Doesn’t rely on having a vendor in the Shopify admin
- Set percentages and flat-fee for vendors
- Add multiple collaborators/vendors to a single product
- Deduct tax, shipping & gateway fees before commission split
- Easy-to-use modern user interface
- Reads refunds and cancellations
- Works with Shopify & WooCommerce
- Invite collaborators/vendors via email
- Pay vendors instantly
- Vendors can create an account and track sales/earnings
- Works with your store home currency (all currencies)
- Works with Shopify Multi-Currency
- Works with Shopify International Pricing
- 7-day free trial
– Cons
- Can’t edit orders that have happened
2. Vendor Consignment
Vendor consignment is a decent app, but one thing I found is that it runs relatively slowly. It does the job well, calculates all the vendor’s payments and splits them up to the correct amounts.
It features a bunch of unique features, such as setting a start date for commissions to start, overriding orders manually and downloading vendor reports.
It doesn’t have a crazy amount of features, but it’s got what you need to calculate earnings. It doesn’t
Pricing
+ Pros
- Can import previous order prior to installing the Shopify app
- Simplified layout, not confusing
- One pricing plan at a good price
- Set a date to start tracking commission
- Free Onboarding + Setup
- Add notes to orders
- Pay vendors instantly
- White-label vendor portal
- Set global percentage for all vendors
- 14-day free trial
– Cons
- Ran into a few bugs
- Outdated user interface
- Seems to run really slow
- Doesn’t support auto payouts
Links
- Developer website – Vendor Consignment
- Shopify app store – Vendor Consignment
3. Vendor Payout
Vendor Payout is a good app for splitting the calculation between vendors. It does rely on creating a vendor in Shopify, and you cannot add multiple vendors to a single product.
I’ve used Vendor Payout for many years, and they were quite slow with updating the app.
Some cool features include recalculating all orders if you make a change to percentages, custom deductions, bulk mark as ‘Paid and including the cost of goods in the reports.
It only calculates discounts on the total price of the orders and doesn’t calculate tax or do tax deductions. So if you are tracking VAT tax, then this app won’t work for you.
Pricing
+ Pros
- Simple layout
- Easy-to-use
- Cost of goods added in calculation
- Add extra costs/fees per order
- Set global percntage for all vendors
- Invite vendor via email
- Manually mark commission as ‘Paid’
- Can import previous order prior to installing the Shopify app
- 7-day free trial
– Cons
- Doesn’t calculate taxes on the order
- User interface doesn’t look good
- Doesn’t calculate shipping on the orders
- Doesn’t work with Shopify Multi-currency
- No auto payouts
- Cannot add multiple vendors to a single product
Links
- Developer website – Vendor Payout
- Shopify app store – Vendor Payout
Learn more
Best Multi-vendor Marketplace Shopify Apps
A marketplace app is more of an app that gives the ability to convert your Shopify store into a marketplace like Amazon or Etsy. Usually provides you with a lot more features than a standard reporting tool but at an extra cost. Providing more features can slow down your store and also make it confusing for vendors if they are only to be paid commission, nothing else.
1. ShipTurtle – Best marketplace Shopify app
If you’re looking for an app to make your store a marketplace, then here you are. ShipTurtle gives your store the ability to let your vendors upload their own products for review, change their prices, set up their store under their brand (white-label) and much more.
When I used them on my marketplace, their support was amazing, helping me add new features for my digital products and customise the app, particularly to my brand.
They have a lot of features that will pretty much be all you need to create a marketplace. The only thing I wished they had worked on was their design. When vendors log in, it can seem outdated and clunky, which isn’t a look you want for your vendors.
Overall, their functionality is great and lets your vendors add products, set up pricing and discounts and much more.
I actually wrote a blog on how to create a marketplace on Shopify if you want to learn more about marketplace creation.
Pricing
+ Pros
- Supports digital products
- Great support team
- Allows vendors to add products to the marketplace
- Set commissions and payout
- White-label and use your own branding
- Vendor product management and customisations
- Order tracking
- Fulfilment automation
- Great pricing
- Stripe and Paypal Payouts
- 7-day free trial
– Cons
- Digital products feature is a bit glitchy and digital downloads disappear
- Doesn’t allow your digital products to show in customer accounts
- The design is quite clunky and outdated
Links
- Developer website – ShipTurtle
- Shopify app store – ShipTurtle
2. Multi-vendor Reporting
This app is a recent app that I have tested and to be fair provides a good amount of features. It can be a bit overwhelming when it comes to setting up the settings, there seem to be a lot of different amounts to account for. This is great to have these features, but sometimes can be very confusing depending on your needs.
The support was quite slow whenever I reached out to them, but I never needed to reach out too much which is a good sign.
Their design is quite funky, not easy on the eyes but functionality is good.
Pricing
+ Pros
- Allows vendors to upload their products
- White-label and use your branding
- Can import previous orders prior to installing the Shopify app
- Supports digital products
- Set Commissions By Shop, Vendor, Product/SKU
– Cons
- Confusing user interface
- Loads of features are in beta
- Need to pay extra for add-ons like Payouts
- Slow support
Links
- Developer website – Multi-vendor Reporting
- Shopify app store – Multi-vendor Reporting
Shopify vendor apps to avoid
I do have one note, though, never ever use Multi-vendor Marketplace by WebKul, they cost one of my stores’ thousands by paying out all of our PayPal money, and they never helped or even apologised.
They caused me countless hours of pain, and also their support is one of the worst I’ve ever experienced. Once ShipTurtle came along a couple of years ago, we instantly changed.
Summary
Here’s my list of the best multi-vendor apps for Shopify, crafted from experience. These are the apps I have used on my Shopify stores. I’ve had quite a lot of experience with all of these apps, so I felt I was able to provide some great value for anyone looking for the best Shopify vendor app.
If you have any questions, please drop me an email on my card below, and I will get back to you straight away.
