Spocket vs Oberlo: Which Shopify Dropshipping App is Better? (2024)

Shopify is a popular platform for dropshippers, and if you want to make the process a whole lot easier, our Spocket vs Oberlo comparison is just the thing you need to read.

Dropshipping is very popular – it’s estimated that the dropshipping market reached $111.28 billion in 2018, and it’s predicted to keep rising. That’s positive – there’s tons of choice and opportunity for dropshippers.

But it does present some problems too. Sometimes too much choice is a bad thing. Sifting through thousands of suppliers and products can be pretty exhausting, not to mention time-consuming.

• Related: The Ultimate Guide to Finding Dropshipping Suppliers

There are a few ways you can make things easier. You can use a dropshipping suppliers directory (like ours)– this will give you direct access to the details of vetted suppliers selling good-quality products.

Or you can use an app.

Spocket and Oberlo are two apps designed to import dropshipping products directly into your Shopify store. They both link you to suppliers, saving you precious time and effort.

The question is, how do they work?

And which one is better?

To give you the juicy details up front:I prefer Spocket, but they both have their merits.

Keep reading to find out more.

What’s the Difference Between Spocket and Oberlo?

So, you’ve opened a Shopify account and you’ve chosen a good converting theme for your store.

• Related: How to Create a Coming Soon Page in Shopify

Now you need to find some good suppliers. Spocket and Oberlo can help you here, but how are they different from each other?

I’ll give you a quick rundown:

• Spocket focuses on sellers in the US and the EU, whereas Oberlo uses suppliers from across the globe
• Spocket’s shipping times tend to be fairly quick, whereas Oberlo’s shipping times can be a lot longer
• Spocket has a smaller range of products, whereas Oberlo has a huge range to choose from
• Spocket locks some products behind higher price plans, whereas Oberlo doesn’t
• Spocket’s suppliers can do personalised invoices, whereas Oberlo’s suppliers don’t
• Spocket has a higher price point per month, whereas Oberlo is cheaper and has a free plan
• Spocket has a slightly nicer, brighter interface, whereas Oberlo’s interface is a bit more basic

If shipping times are a concern, you’ll be drawn more to Spocket. But if you want a huge range of products, you will probably want to check out Oberlo.

What are the Similarities?

They have a lot in common, too:

• They both allow you to search for a specific product using a variety of filters
• They both offer you a recommended retail price and calculate profit per item
• They both make it super easy to import products into Shopify
• They both have decent support and free resources for sellers

What is Spocket?

Spocket is a dropshipping app for Shopify that focuses on connecting you with suppliers from the US and Europe.

It has an easy-to-use interface. They try to maintain a high standard, with suppliers having to pass fairly strict procedures to join Spocket.

What is Oberlo?

Oberlo is also a popular dropshipping app for Shopify. It searches through suppliers via AliExpress and has a huge number of products and suppliers to choose from in tons of categories.

It has a simple, easy-to-use interface. They don’t have the same strict standards as Spocket, and they use a lot of suppliers from China, meaning the delivery times are a little longer.

Spocket – Main Features

Dashboard and Setup

Spocket has a bright, easy-to-navigate dashboard. On the left, you can search for products, look at your import list and products, manage your orders, and manage your apps.

Searching for Products

Searching is really easy – you can sort results by relevance, price, newest, and shipping time. You can also choose to search products that ship from the US or Europe, fast shipping, or shipping under $5.

Clicking on a product will bring up more info in a pop-up:

Searching through Spocket can be a tad frustrating it has to be said – some products are locked behind a higher pricing plan, but it’s not immediately easy to filter out products that you don’t have access to. It also doesn’t show you how many other sellers have bought the product, which is a shame.

You don’t have a huge amount of choice in terms of products with Spocket, in comparison to Oberlo. However the products that they do have to offer tend to be high quality. The product descriptions are great, and they usually have high-quality photos – plus you can sometimes order sample products.

Importing Products

The import list is nice to navigate. You can easily edit the product photos, descriptions, and variants. It also shows the cost to you, recommended retail price, and the profit for each item.

Clicking ‘push to store’ will import the product into your Shopify store – it’s really straightforward.

Order Management

You can search for a specific order using order numbers, or filter them by status: unpaid, paid, processing, or shipped.

Shipping tends to be faster with Spocket, because they heavily feature US/EU suppliers – so your customers won’t have to wait for too long.

Oberlo – Main Features

Dashboard and Setup

It’s easy to get going on Oberlo – just connect your Shopify store and search for products. You can either look in Oberlo, or search AliExpress. On the left, you’ll find all the links you need – you can manage products, search products, look at your import list, or click ‘My Products’ (more on that shortly). You can also manage your orders and check your inbox, too.

Searching for Products

You can choose ‘selling to’ to narrow down your results by the region you want to sell to. You can also sort by Best Match, Seller Rate, Lowest Price, Highest Price, and Order Count.

Clicking on a product will obviously show you the vital info you need to know – like sizing, price, etc - but clicking ‘view product statistics’ will pull up more in-depth stats which could be useful.

For example, here you can see that this product has been imported to 318 Oberlo stores – that’s 318 potential competitors selling the same product. It’s had no orders in the last 30 days, and only 23 orders in the past 6 months. This simple breakdown can give you some clues about whether a product is worth listing or not.

You can also see your chosen seller’s feedback percentage, as well as individual ratings in three categories – ‘item as described’, ‘communication’, and ‘shipping speed’.

If you like a product, you can click ‘add to import list’.

You can also browse by category if you’re not looking for a specific product just yet – for example, you can focus on finding fashion suppliers and then browse from there.

There’s a pretty vast selection of sellers to choose from – because Oberlo searches for products from across the globe, you’re going to get a good amount of choice.

Importing Products

Clicking ‘Import List’ will take you to the list of products you’ve saved.

Here, you can view each product and add a description of your choice. This is done using a simple text editor. You can add your own images and links. You can also manage the variants here, and set the pricing. It will give you the suggested retail price (which it estimates by using data from similar businesses), giving you the cost to you, the cost to your customer, and the profit you’ll make.

When you’re happy, you can click ‘import to store’ – this can take some time, but you can work on other products while you wait. You’ll see the products appear in your Shopify inventory.

You can also choose to add the Oberlo extension to Google Chrome. This allows you to browse through AliExpress and quickly add products to your import list that way, as opposed to doing it through Oberlo’s interface.

The drawback to Oberlo is that the quality of each product is not guaranteed. It will take longer to search through and test products to see if they meet your required standards.

Order Management

Oberlo offers you an overview of each order, so you can view its current stage. It will show you the fulfilment status, financial status, and ‘flags’ status of each order. You can search through orders by keyword.

You may find that the shipping times are longer for some Oberlo products. Because they use sellers from across the globe, your customers may end up waiting a while. This is something to keep an eye on as you choose which sellers to buy from.

Spocket vs Oberlo - Branding

Spocket

Spocket guarantees that your customers won’t receive promotional materials or flyers from suppliers. Suppliers also offer to include your own personalized invoice to each order, with your store’s name and logo. You can even include a thank you note from you to your customer. It’s a small touch but could make the difference in terms of customers coming back again.

Oberlo

Oberlo also guarantees that your customers won’t receive extra promotional materials or flyers from the suppliers you choose to work with. This means they’ll receive neutral packaging. The downside is, they don’t offer branded packaging or customized invoices (unlike Spocket).

Spocket vs Oberlo - Support

Spocket

Spocket has a blog with case studies, tips and tricks – there’s a lot of articles to look at. They also have a help center with articles about using Spocket, which answers most of the basic questions people tend to have.

They also have a chat system if you need specific help with something. Users have had pretty positive experiences with the customer service team. You can access 24/7 chat support on their Pro plan, as well as phone support on their Unicorn plan.

Oberlo

Oberlo’s support is good. They have a ton of free content for sellers, including an Oberlo 101 course, videos, podcasts, and a free eBook with lots of tips and tricks. They also have a help center which is useful for troubleshooting.

They use a ticket query system if you require extra support, and users report that the customer service team is helpful and fast to respond.

Spocket vs Oberlo - Pricing

Spocket

Spocket has four pricing plans:

Starter - $19 per month

The Starter plan includes:

• Up to 25 unique products
• Unlimited orders
• Email support
• Real-Time Inventory Update
• Currency exchange
• Global pricing rules
• Shipment tracking number

Pro - $49 per month

The Pro plan includes everything on the Starter plan, plus:

• Up to 250 unique products
• Up to 25 Premium products
• Branded invoicing
• Premium chat support
• Exclusive deals
• Premium search

Empire - $99 per month

The Empire plan includes everything in the Pro plan, plus:

• Up to 10,000 products
• Up to 10,000 Premium products

Unicorn - $299 per month

The Unicorn plan includes everything in the Empire plan, plus:

• Bulk checkout
• Dedicated account executive
• Premium 24/7 phone support
• Product requests

They offer a free 14-day trial.

Oberlo

Oberlo has three pricing plans:

Free - $0 per month

The free plan includes:

• 500 products
• Unlimited monthly orders
• Oberlo Chrome extension
• Automated product pricing
• Product statistics
• Inventory updates
• Import list
• Sales reports
• Order numbers sync

Basic - $29.90 per month

The Basic plan includes everything in the Free plan, plus:

• 10000 products
• Variant mapping
• Bulk orders
• Real-time order tracking
• Affiliate program
• Order fulfilment monitoring
• Captcha solver

Pro - $79.90 per month

The Pro plan includes everything in the Basic plan, plus:

• 30000 orders
• Multiple staff accounts

You can find out more on their pricing page.

As you can see, Oberlo is cheaper than Spocket and includes a free plan – so if you’re on a low budget, you might be swayed towards Oberlo.

Pros and Cons

Let’s take a look at the highlights and the downsides of both Spocket and Oberlo.

Alternatives to Try

Don’t fancy Spocket or Oberlo? There are others you can try, too.

My Brand Journey Dropshipper’s Directory

Our own Dropshipping Directory is a great resource for dropshippers. For a one-off cost, you’ll get full access to suppliers across a range of product categories, based all over the world.

You can search for products in your niche, or just browse for ideas – and you can trust that our suppliers are legit, as we screen them for quality and reliability. If you see a supplier you like, you can click through to their landing page, which will save you a ton of research time

We add new suppliers often, so the directory is always being updated – and you’ll get access to all the updates too.

Product Pro

ProductPro is an app for Shopify and WooCommerce that has a strong focus on automating repetitive tasks. It will give you access to over 50,000 products, and suppliers are vetted for quality.

All orders are shipped in 3 days, meaning a quick turnaround for your customers. It has a free plan, or a paid plan at $89 per month.

Importify

Importify is another tool for Shopify, WooCommerce and Jumpseller. If you want a lot of choice, you’ll find it here – it allows you to easily import products from Alibaba, AliExpress, Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, and hundreds of other suppliers.

It has three price plans, starting at $14.95 per month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I start with building a Shopify store?

Setting up a Shopify store is really straightforward – follow our guide, and you can get it done in 20 minutes!

Do Oberlo or Spocket have mobile apps?

No – you have to access them via your Shopify account.

Can I use Oberlo and Spocket at the same time?

Yes, you can use as many dropshipping apps as you want!

How do I figure out which products to sell?

Generally, it’s a good idea to focus on products that you have some kind of interest in – it makes it much easier to be enthusiastic about them if you like them in the first place.

You can check out what’s trending, too, using sites like Google Trends to judge how interested people are in a certain product.

You can also check out our article, 30 Best Dropshipping Business Ideas, if you’re stuck on ideas.

The Bottom Line … Which is Better?

As you can probably tell by now, both apps have their strengths and weaknesses.

However …

I prefer Spocket.

That being said, Oberlo is a really great tool too. It’s easy to use, it has a free plan, it gives you tons of choice when it comes to suppliers and products. I’d recommend checking it out using the free plan – you might find exactly what you’re looking for.

But Spocket is just that little bit better. It links you to high quality products, the shipping tends to be faster, and you can personalize the invoices with notes for your customers. This means that your customers will:

1. Trust that you sell good products
2. Enjoy faster shipping times
3. Understand your brand’s identity a little better and feel more connected to you

Those 3 things can really change how a customer will perceive your brand and may make them more likely to come back again.

Plus, Spocket’s interface is a bit nicer and easier to navigate. You’ll have to avoid accidentally finding products that are locked behind a higher price plan, though.

Despite all that, don’t discount Oberlo – it’s a great choice too. I’d recommend checking them both out before you decide for sure. In fact, if you like them both, you can use them at the same time!

Keep reading for more guidance on how to build your dropshipping business:

• A Guide To Partnering With The Best Fashion Dropshippers
• An In-Depth Guide to Finding the Best Shoe Dropshippers