Reality check
Don't use Easel if these limitations affect your business. This isn't marketing - it's honesty.
What Easel can't do
One developer, human limitations
Support during Portuguese business hours only. 24-48 hour response times, not minutes. No instant chat, phone calls, or 24/7 coverage. If I'm sick, on vacation, or dealing with emergencies, everything slows down. Feature development happens at the pace of one person, not a team.
Only Stripe payments accepted
No PayPal Pro, Square, Authorize.net, or regional processors. No cryptocurrency or buy-now-pay-later integrations. Each payment processor requires months of development and ongoing PCI compliance work. Supporting one processor excellently beats supporting many poorly.
No drag-and-drop customization
No visual page builders, infinite theme options, or HTML access. Heavy customization requires forking the open source code and maintaining your own instance. Most businesses need functional commerce tools, not design studios.
Physical products only
No digital product sales - no downloadable files, software licenses, or digital content delivery. No subscription billing for your customers. These features are on the roadmap but not available at this time.
Basic shipping only
Shipping costs are fixed per order. No dynamic rate calculation from UPS, FedEx, USPS, or any carriers. No real-time shipping quotes, tracking integration, or label printing. Set flat rates and average out shipping costs across orders.
No marketing automation
No email campaigns, behavioral tracking, or A/B testing tools. No advanced analytics beyond basic sales reports. Supplement Easel with your own email newsletter tools.
No tax management
Build taxes into the price of your products. Dynamically figuring out taxes across every city, county, state, and country against various types of products as laws change daily is an impossible undertaking for us. Instead, export sales to CSVs and determine your tax obligations on your own from that.
Basic international features
Multi-currency display without exchange rate management. No automated VAT compliance or customs documentation. No sophisticated international shipping rates or regional payment methods.
No app ecosystem
Although apps are on our roadmap, they will all be open-sourced under the AGPL and built into the same codebase with the same code quality and thorough testing as the rest of Easel. There are no 3rd-party apps.
No enterprise features
No SSO, LDAP integration, or advanced user management. No approval workflows, procurement features, or multi-tenant administration. No enterprise-grade SLAs or dedicated support teams. For enterprise needs, consider BigCommerce Enterprise or Magento (Adobe Commerce).
Simple infrastructure
Servers in Germany only, no CDN or global edge locations. Best-effort uptime without enterprise SLAs. No auto-scaling beyond basic levels. Traffic spikes may slow performance without advance warning. Built for small-medium businesses.
No built-in reviews or social features
No product review system, ratings, or customer feedback features. No third-party review service integrations. Focus is on core commerce functionality, not social features.
What you get for these constraints
- Direct access to the developer who built everything
- No venture capital pressure or acquisition risk
- Complete data ownership with instant, comprehensive export
- Transparent pricing without hidden fees or transaction percentages
- Open source code you can modify or fork
- Privacy by design - no customer tracking or data mining
- Long-term stability focused on sustainability, not growth-at-all-costs
- Honest communication about what works and what doesn't
Who should use Easel?
- Small businesses selling physical products
- Solo founders who value simplicity over features
- Business owners who want simple, focused commerce tools
- People who want to own their customer data
- Those who prefer sustainable, bootstrapped companies
- Businesses comfortable with basic shipping setups
Who shouldn't use Easel?
- Enterprises needing SSO, LDAP, or complex approval workflows
- Businesses requiring multiple payment processors
- Companies needing advanced marketing automation
- Stores heavily dependent on carrier shipping integrations
- Businesses selling digital products or subscriptions at this time
- Teams needing 24/7 support or instant responses
- Companies requiring extensive visual customization
Still interested?
If these constraints don't affect your business, you might be a good fit for Easel.