Reality check
Read this before you sign up. If any of these limits affect your business, Easel isn't the right tool yet.
What Easel can't do
It's still early
Easel is in public alpha. Features are missing, bugs turn up, and things change without much warning. You'd be an early adopter helping shape the product, not a customer buying mature software.
One developer
Support usually takes one to two business days, not minutes. There's no chat, no phone line, and no 24/7 coverage. If I'm sick or on vacation, everything slows down, and features ship at the pace of one person.
Stripe only
No PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, or regional processors. No crypto and no buy-now-pay-later. Each processor takes months to build and maintain, and doing one well beats doing five badly.
Flat shipping only
Shipping costs are set per order. There are no live rates from UPS, FedEx, or USPS, no tracking integration, and no label printing. If shipping is complicated for you, this will hurt.
No tax automation
Build tax into your prices and keep your own records from your order history. Calculating the right tax for every product in every jurisdiction is not something I can do well.
No subscriptions for your customers
Easel handles one-time purchases, including digital downloads. Recurring billing for your own customers isn't supported.
No theme editor or page builder
There's no drag-and-drop builder, no theme marketplace, and no HTML editing in the dashboard. Deep customization means forking the AGPL source and running your own instance.
No marketing automation
No email campaigns, no behavioral tracking, no A/B testing, and no analytics beyond basic sales reports. Use a separate tool for your newsletter.
No enterprise features or app store
No SSO, LDAP, approval workflows, or procurement tools. No third-party apps either. Apps are planned, but they'll be AGPL and built into the same codebase, so there won't be a marketplace. If you need enterprise software, look at BigCommerce Enterprise or Adobe Commerce.
One currency, basic international support
One currency per site. No automatic exchange rates, VAT compliance, customs paperwork, or regional payment methods.
No reviews or social features
No product ratings, reviews, or customer feedback tools, and no integrations with review services.
Simple infrastructure
Servers in Germany, with no CDN or global edge locations. Uptime is best-effort with no enterprise SLA, and a traffic spike may slow things down. Easel is built for small and medium businesses.
What you get instead
- Direct email access to the developer who built the platform
- No investors, no acquisition risk, and no pressure to grow at any cost
- Your data, exportable through the API whenever you want
- One price, no per-order fees, no hidden add-ons
- AGPL source you can read, modify, or self-host
- No ad tracking or data mining on your customers
- Straight answers about what does and doesn't work
Who should use Easel
- Small businesses selling physical goods or digital downloads
- Solo founders who want simple tools instead of a feature buffet
- Owners who want to keep their customer data
- People who would rather buy from a bootstrapped company
- Businesses whose shipping is simple enough for flat rates
Who shouldn't
- Companies that need SSO, LDAP, or approval workflows
- Stores that need more than one payment processor
- Businesses that depend on marketing automation
- Anyone who needs live carrier rates, label printing, or tracking
- Anyone selling subscriptions to their own customers
- Teams that need 24/7 support or instant replies
- Stores that depend on heavy visual customization
Still interested?
If none of that rules you out, Easel might be a good fit.