4 Best Shogun
Alternatives in 2024

Despite Shogun’s long-term reign as a feature-rich Shopify page builder, it does have few drawbacks. This is why store owners and marketers are looking for a Shogun alternative:

• Outdated elements: Though Shogun’s page builder offers a smooth drag-and-drop editor the featured elements just aren’t as good, meaning there isn’t the flexibility to create intricate page designs.
• Expensive: Shogun’s lower-end plans don’t offer many features so users have no option but to upgrade to higher-end plans, which are way more costly. This isn’t economical for small Shopify owners working with tight budgets.
• Slow saving and publishing: Shogun’s wait time for saving work is between 10 seconds and a minute. What makes this risky is that there is no auto-save feature. Imagine the hours of work that could be lost if your device encounters a minor technical hitch.
• Limited blog SEO features: Shogun only allows you to set a page title and meta description for your pages, which isn’t enough to drive organic traffic to your Shopify store. 

In this post, we'll compare four of the best Shogun alternatives on the market. Starting with our own Shopify app that provides full customization of your blog posts.

Shogun alternative #1: Bloggle 

Bloggle is a Shopify app for creating beautiful blog posts for your online store. Unlike Shogun which focuses on product pages, landing pages, about us pages, etc, Bloggle enables you to come up with conversion-focused blog posts in a matter of minutes, thanks to the ready-to-use templates. Shogun also has a blog feature, though is lacking in blog templates. Plus, the only SEO capability is setting your page title and meta description. Furthermore, you can't integrate your posts with a third-party, such as newsletter forms to leverage the organic traffic. 

Bloggle on the other hand, is a full-suite blogging tool for creating epic blog posts enabling you to optimize for SEO, drive traffic, and boost revenue. In addition, you can integrate videos, embed products on your blog posts and add newsletter forms to grow your mailing list. 

The Bloggle tool enables users to: 

• Write and design blog posts to increase time-on-page for visitors.
• Increase organic traffic through SEO-optimized blog posts. 
• Embed products and collections in blog posts to boost conversions.
• Collect emails using signup forms strategically placed on posts.
• Create templates from scratch and reuse them at a later date. 

Here’s a detailed breakdown of Bloggle’s core features. 

#1. Blog page builder

This is where the magic happens as the tool is designed to make page building as intuitive as possible. If you’ve used Elementor in WordPress, you won’t have a problem navigating Bloggle’s page editor, as they have many similarities. 

Here’s how to use the blog builder to write your articles. 

• Step one: Log into your Bloggle account. 
• Step two: Go to the two options for creating your post at the top right side of the screen - Import article or create new article.
  

• With the first option, you can import an article you’ve already published on Shopify and then edit it using Bloggles advanced features.

• Step three: Click on the “create new article” button which takes you to the blog template library. You also have the option of creating an article from scratch using a blank template.

• Step four: Fill in your post settings, such as the article title and author.

• Step five: As Bloggle offers two methods of writing an article you can either do it manually or using A.I. The tool has been connected to Writesonic for this very purpose.

If you prefer to write an article manually, click on the “manual content” icon. This action will take you to the blog page editor. This will be discussed further in the next section.

#2. Drag-and-drop page editor

With Bloggle’s page editor, you can drag and drop Bloggle’s 21 elements (shown in the GIF below) to where you want them on your blog template. 

You can preview your blog on a mobile, tablet, or PC, which allows you to make any changes required for an excellent viewing experience. That’s not all. The page editor allows you to embed products into your blog post, making your piece more appealing.

 Here’s an example.

#3. SEO score

Bloggle features an in-built SEO tool that caters to users who don’t want to spend more dollars on SEO tools.

The tool provides a set of SEO suggestions for you to consider when writing your article. You are then given an overall score based on the SEO suggestions you’ve executed.

In short, Bloggle helps by suggesting word count, alt tags, image count and keeps you focused on the keywords to improve ranking on search engines and have better visibility and better traffic.

#4. Blog Layout

The blog layout is a visual representation of how the blog section will appear on your Shopify Store. Bloggle’s blog layout feature allows you to create a fully-responsive blog using elements like a table of content, product carousels, CTA buttons and more. Furthermore, you can add a blog layout title, a search bar for easy navigation, or even code the page layout if you want to customize it.

These features help in:

• Creating a streamlined experience for your visitors.
• Designing your site to adapt to your brand’s look.
• Creating a layout quickly with no fuss.

Here’s an example of a page layout created with Bloggle. 

Pricing

Bloggle offers a free 10-day plan. You don’t have to provide a credit card, and you can cancel at any time. We believe the 14-days free trial is more than enough to test the tool and see how it works. 

Once you’re confident that Bloggle will be a great addition to your Shopify store, you can upgrade to our $25/month pricing plan, or subscribe to our $49/month premium plan for extra features and to get the maximum of the app use our business plan which is $89/month.

Start a free trial today to test how Bloggle works for you. 

Shogun alternative #2: GemPages

Compared to Shogun, GemPages is a less robust Shopify page builder app with loads of ready-made templates at a more affordable price. You get access to 100+ pre-made templates on any page which are already SEO-optimized. They are easily customizable, thanks to the intuitive drag-and-drop editor. 

Here are GemPages best features :

#1: Third-Party integrations 

GemPages has a long list of integrable tools like email marketing tools, navigation, search, design social proof, etc. It also has native integrations, which include review platforms like Ali Reviews, Growave, and Judge.me. These integrations make up for the functions any user would want to add on GemPages. For instance, you can integrate with Google Analytics to conduct A/B tests and get insightful analytics. 

#2. Templates 

As mentioned earlier, GemPages has tens of professionally designed templates for all your Shopify page types. Thanks to the responsive design feature, you can quickly choose and preview the templates on any device  - desktop, laptop, mobile, or tablet. 

#3. Elements 

The page builder has divided its list of elements into three groups - Design, eCommerce, and marketing which are situated within the drag-and-drop builder for easy navigation. Each group contains tens of design elements for creating pages based on your Shopify store’s theme. 

GemPages Pricing

GemPages offers a tiered pricing plan spanning four options. The first plan is free and lasts for 30 days. You get free access to all page types, meaning you can create unlimited pages without paying a dime. It offers a perfect place to start familiarizing yourself with the tool before upgrading. The first paid plan, “Build,” costs $29 monthly. You get three unlimited page types, ten product pages, and an A/B testing campaign. It may best fit new Shopify stores that are still scaling and don’t have many products. 

If dissatisfied, you can upgrade to the “Optimize plan,” which costs $59/month and which includes features like unlimited page types, monthly templates, 20/A/B testing, and more. There’s also the Enterprise plan at $199/month. This plan gives you access to all premium features, A/B testing campaigns, video call support, and more. So would better suit established Shopify stores with many products on the line. 

Shogun alternative #3: Layoutbase

Layoutbase lets you design professional Shopify stores without coding. It’s one of the most uncomplicated Shopify page builder apps. You can use it to create customizable pages, and add, delete and move elements on your website. Compared to Shogun, Layoutbase is much more user-friendly, thanks to the intuitive interface. In addition, they have a much more responsive customer support team who are always ready to help. And if you can’t create your first page, the team has a page-build request program in which they build your pages for free. 

That’s not all; here are some of its key features.

#1. Content Scheduling

As a conversion-focused Shopify page builder, Layoutbase lets you schedule pages on popular events.

For example, you can create a different post for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which will automatically switch once it reaches the designated time. The page then automatically switches back to its original format once the event is over. This means you can leverage events by creating unique offers to maximize conversions on the fly.

#2. Design Duplication

The drag-and-drop editor enables you to create optimized pages in a few hours. But if you have multiple stores and want to replicate the same design across all the stores, you don’t have to start the process from scratch. The tool offers a design duplication feature that allows you to use the same page on other stores. This saves you time and keeps your brand’s theme across all your Shopify stores. 

‍

#3. Elements library

Layout element library has multiple elements to help you create your pages in no time. 

The elements are divided into four sections available on the page editor's sidebar. These include:

• Structure: Sections, Columns, Gird, Tabs, Accordion, Slideshow, and Tables.
• Content: Heading, Text, Button, Image, Video, Icon, Separator, HTML editor.
• Shopify Product Element: Product Title, Product Description, Product Image, Product Price, Product Quantity, Product Variant, Product Vendor, Product Add To Cart.
• Shopify Collection Element: Collection Title, Collection Description

Layoutbase pricing

The tool gives you a 30-day free plan to test how it works. Once you’re done, you can upgrade to the only paid plan that costs $29/month and gives you all the features. 

Shogun alternative #4: LayoutHub 

LayoutHub enables you to create Shopify pages using a library of pre-designed layouts and templates. Unlike Shogun, which gives you page templates only, LayoutHub works with design blocks which are sections that create a layout on your page.  You can use the blocks to design fully-responsive landing pages, blog pages, and product pages. 

Below are some of LayoutHub's core features :

#1. Page Builder 

To create a page with LayoutHub, choose a layout template with your preferred design. Next, customize it by changing the texts, and order of blocks, deleting some or adding new ones. Layouthub has over 170 design blocks divided into multiple categories as shown. Simply pick a category, navigate through the tens of options, and choose the one you prefer.

The page builder allows you to preview your design before publishing. This approach is quick, as you are able to create a full page in minutes, not days. 

#2. Templates

The tool divides the templates into two-page layouts and design blocks. Page layouts are full Shopify page templates that you can customize to your design. Design block templates are individual blocks you can combine to create complete pages. The beauty is that you can take a page layout, remove some blocks, and insert each block in any position to create a fully responsive and beautiful page. 

#3. Third-party integrations 

You can integrate LayoutHub with all your email marketing tools like Mailchimp, Sendgrid, GetResponse, etc. Since it doesn’t offer an A/B test feature, you can also integrate it with Google Analytics or Facebook Pixel. 

‍

LayoutHub Pricing 

LayoutHub provides a free lifetime plan. Though that sounds great, we must warn you - it’s actually not sustainable as you’re limited to only three-page types, so you will need to upgrade to a new plan as soon as possible. 

The first paid plan costs $14.99/month. It gives you access to all page types, but the page limit is 10. You also get live chat support and 10 revisions. The second plan goes for $29.99. You get everything the first plan offers, with increased page limits and 50 revisions. The final plan is $59.99/month, giving you unlimited pages and 100 revisions. 

What is the best Shogun alternative?

Whilst we won’t tell you which option you should choose, we will inform you on which option is most suitable for different scenarios. 

Choose Gempages if:

• You’re looking for visually-stunning templates for multiple products.
• You’re looking for a page builder that is easy to install and use.

Choose Layoutbase if:

• You’re a beginner and don’t know how to create Shopify pages
• You’re looking for an intuitive and easy-to-operate page builder. 

Coose LayoutHub if:

• You have a tight budget for a Shopify page builder app.
• You want a free tool to practice creating Shopify pages.

Choose Bloggle if:

• You’re looking for a blog page builder, not a Shopify page builder.
• You want to design SEO-optimized and high-converting blog posts for your Shopify store.
• You want to spend less time creating blog posts.
• You’re looking for a sleek drag-and-drop blog page builder with a range of elements and pre-made templates ready for product images. 

Start a 10-day free trial today on Bloggle. No credit card required.

‍