Vanjaro review – Build an e-commerce site in minutes

Building websites in 2022 has become so much easier as we can easily drag and drop our entire e-commerce site or website together. This right here is Vanjaro who claims to be able to build e-commerce sites and websites so you can start selling your products in minutes. So let’s test that use case out.

So this is the Vanjaro platform. First off it is very simple. We have an overview of our websites or e-commerce sites. Then you can create a new one or you can order a website. So if you don’t want to sit and drag and drop yourself you can easily get Vanjaro to set up your website for you. And down here you can see that either you want the basic plan at $200 or the pro plan at $500. It depends on what it is you need.

1. Features of Vanjaro
2. Vanjaro Pricing
3. Alternatives to Vanjaro
4. Future of Vanjaro
5. Pros & Cons of using Vanjaro
6. Last thoughts about Vanjaro

Features of Vanjaro

But let’s go back to the dashboard here. So I have set up the first website here. So let’s go and edit this one so I can show you how it is working with Venjaro. This website when it was I set it up, I chose a template and Vanjaro then took care of the rest. So now I have a website set up and this includes a blog and it includes a store. Before we go to the store I just want to show you some core functionality. So here on the website, you’re either in view mode or in edit mode. Before we were in view mode, now we are back in edit mode. So within edit mode, if you know Elementor, you will quickly see out here that this design is looking very similar to Elementor. We have the same functionality where down here we can see how it scales on the different devices. We can preview it, we can see some history, and we can see the different layers over here in the Navigator. And then here we have our settings for this specific page. So the settings for a page are the name if we want to edit the content and personalisation. We have some SEO we can work with which is basically just a title and meta description.

Here we can enable scheduling if we want this specific page only to be available within a certain amount of time. And then here we can see some deleted apps. But let’s go back and try and edit some different elements. So first off I will close down the settings here. I will change the view to be desktop view again and then let’s add our layer, Navigator. It makes it a little bit easier for me at least. So it is as easy as you can see here where we can easily click I cannot write in here. I have to go to the options over here to start writing but it is as easy as mentioned. You can easily drag and drop around the different elements here. If we want to edit it then we double click and then we can start typing in here. There’s no way you can type out here. It only works within the editor in the design right here. I’ll just move this back and we can move this one up here again. It is quite easy to work with. If we want to add new modules, we can up here add the different modules.

So let’s say we want to add a form builder. Let’s move this one down here to the bottom of the first section. Now we have our form builder here. It can get a little bit tricky because out here we have no options to edit our form builder. We need to move the Navigator a little bit away here and then we need to click on the burger menu here. Under the burger menu, we have our form builder. I’ll close down the Navigator. So here, we can edit our forms. So over here you can see that you can add a checkbox, you can add HTML, a text area, and a text box. Of course, you can write the different elements. We can change this one from phone to something else. I can just write phone if I want to, sit and test it out. You can see up here we can set whether it should be required, whether it should be a sub-label if you want to watermark it and so forth. So you have quite a lot of different elements to work with. We can also enter it here if we want to take credit card information.

A little bit interesting to know what this is integrated up against because I haven’t set up any integrations at all. The only integrations which I will show you at the moment are Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. But here you can see we can also add some metrics, some scaled rating, page breaks and so forth. So you have a lot of options and it is quite an elaborate form builder to sit and work with. So whenever we think that this is good, we can close it down again. So now we have the different changes here for the form builder. We can always publish down here. When it is we’re publishing it, optimises the images and then it publishes the site. That is how easy it is to sit and work with. You can easily drag and drop elements in and then you can change it to be whatever you want it to be. Right here, this is just an icon that I dragged in and then I can change the icon to be whatever I want the icon to be. We can also add sections if you want to have multiple columns, of course, you can work with that here and so forth.

There are a lot of options, but now let’s go to the overall options because if you click on the burger menu again up here, then we can go to Tools and we have site logs and site logs is basically just what you have done to the website. It’s just a log over that. Going back I want to show you some integrations. So if we go to settings here then we have here integrations and connectors. There are no integrations to third-party systems except for Google. So you can set up an IMAP here where you set up. So you’re able to send out emails from your website. You can set up Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager but that’s it. We can’t even add our custom JavaScript. Then we have to go back to the columns here. We need to add custom HTML, we need to drag this over and then we need to add our script but then it’s not necessarily added in the head section. So that is something I really hope that they will take a look at. Here if I go back to email marketing, we can set up some lists, we can add subscribers, we can change the settings and so forth.

This is a very simple email marketing module and I will not recommend you necessarily use this compared to using MailChimp or Active Campaign or similar because you get very limited functionality. Within the site here you can see that we also have form submissions. So all the forms we have on our website, they will be laying in here with the information filled out can be a little bit confusing sometimes, but that’s the way they have done it. We also have the blog post here where we can sit and create blog posts. From our blog. You can see right now there is just one simple blog post. So when you start to dive into Vanjaro you can see that there is a lot of functionality. We also have our pages here. I would just really like it if they separated the editor from all the overall functionality. So the way that I have my form submissions, the way that I manage the users, the way that I manage the pages, the menu and so forth, take that away from the editor. It makes it so much cleaner and easier to use. But just remind yourself that everything is within the burger menu here and then under site.

But now let’s move on to the store. What I usually do is close this one down and then I click on the store. What we need to do now is we need to set up the store. When we set up the store we need to fill out names, addresses and so forth. So the first thing I noticed is the currency here. I cannot choose a Danish Kroner. I can only choose between these different currencies here. Would be nice to be able to add, of course, all the different currencies but I’ve now filled them out. So let’s go to the next step which is payment. Within payment here you can see that we have some different options. We can set up Stripe, we can set up Braintree and we can set up PayPal and so forth. For now, we’ll just use PayPal and then we need to set up the actual PayPal set-up. So we have a client ID and we have our client secret. For now, I’ll just keep this as is and will not set anything up. But here you can see the different options. It is quite limited, especially when you do it in countries like Denmark.

We have a lot of different types of payment methods, but of course, you can set it up here and fast get started to take payments. Here we choose whether we ship physical goods or not and then we choose whether we use FedEx, Fixed, Ups or USPS. For now, I’ll just say no, this is only digital products and then we need to set the tax, will I tax the product? I will not. So let’s finish the setup and see how this will go. So now our store is set up and now we need to figure out how can we add products. So under here on catalogue we have customers, we have sales. Our store where we can change the settings. We just set up now and then we have reported. But under catalogue is where we have all of our products. So here we can create a new product manually or you can import your products. For now, let’s just create it manually. Here we write the name, summary, and description, we upload pictures, we set the pricing, we set the category and it will then be shown in the webshop itself or in the e-commerce site. So let’s say this is our first product.

We set some summary, just writing some nonsense here, description and let’s see if we can create it just with this or if it requires more. It did not require more. So now we have a product that we have created. This is our first product. But as you can see they also have some demo products here that we can use. So now let’s go and view the store. So this is the store. Very simple. We have an overview of how our products are looking. We can add them to the cart and so forth. This is in view mode. I can then change to edit mode over here and then hopefully we can sit and change the design a bit. So here we have an app called Online Store. Again, I click here and I click Manage. When I do that then I’m sent to the manage page where we were just before where I can add products, see reviews, and categories, I can see the customers and so forth. I would like to be able to change the design of this app. Let’s try and go to the settings part here. The setting is as we saw before. We can schedule, we can see permissions and we can go to the advanced part.

But there’s no way right now for me to edit this actual part. Up here again, we have a widget, but again I cannot change this widget. I can maybe change the styling a little bit about the hover state, the state itself. I can add a class, but that’s it. It’s very simple. I would really like an easier way for me to change these different widgets. Right now I can’t seem to find a way how I can change this. Of course, I can change it manually by writing custom CSS, but that’s not the way, I would like to be able to change it by dragging and dropping. Maybe I’m missing something. Please let me know in the comment section down below if you have other thoughts on this. But over here, the last thing I just want to show you is the library. Because within the library we can build whole pages or blocks. So let’s say you want a block just to show some pricing tables. Then here you can easily take this one. We can import it to our design and then we can start working with it. So let’s see if it was imported correctly.

It seems it is not imported. So for now I’ll just show you that we can see what it looks like here. This is just an image of how it’s looking, but right now I can’t seem to import it. Maybe it’s because I’m on the shop page. It would be nice if we could still import even though we are on the shop page because I guess that we can still add the different modules up here. So if I take the block here and I drag in the section, we can easily do that. So something is definitely wrong with the import function there. But it was just to show you that it is possible for you to import the different elements. I’m really hoping that we can change the design of this online store here in the near future. Or maybe I have missed something up here we have again a store widgets. This entire store is built up of widgets and I’m really missing a way to change all of these widgets.

Vanjaro Pricing

Now getting started with Vanjaro is quite cheap. First off, then they have a 14-day free trial where you can test out all of the features within Vanjaro.

And then hopefully after those 14 days, you need to decide between what paid plan you want to go with and they have four paid plans. The first one is very simple. It costs $11 and I would say it’s perfect if you just have a personal website, a small blog or something similar. If you want to host an e-commerce website within Vanjaro, then you need to go for the next plan which costs $22. It is still quite cheap because you get an entire e-commerce site you can set up. However, if you want the full feature set and be able to build an advanced webshop, then you need to go for the third plan which comes in at $49 per month. It is still an okay price because you really get a lot of features and they have of course the fourth plan as mentioned, but that comes in at $99 and the only difference between the $49 and the $99 is the limits. So this means the number of visitors that come to your website, and the features are exactly the same.

Alternatives to Vanjaro

Now let’s discuss the alternatives. The first alternative is Shopify. Shopify is not exactly the same as Vanjaro.

You can’t especially sit and drag and drop in the same sense, but you can easily set up a webshop with Shopify and get started so easily. And Shopify is a huge company so, of course, they have a lot more features than Vanjaro, they have a lot of integrations and so forth because integration is really missing within Vanjaro. The other alternative is Elementor and as I mentioned in the Walkthrough, Elementor is very similar to Vanjaro, even though Elementor is depending on a WordPress website. Elementor is also now starting to offer hosting for you to use, basically only using Elementor and the design is very similar to Vanjaro. So if you’ve previously used Elementor you can also easily use Vanjaro. And again, Elementor is not as big as Shopify, but it runs smoothly. They have a lot of integrations that are easy to use and when it is we’re working with forms, webshop orders and so forth, we really need integrations. It just makes our lives so much easier.

Future of Vanjaro

Now let’s take a look at the future of Vanjaro. They have a long roadmap with some quite big elements. First off, then they are working on forums so you can build a website which is basically functioning as a forum.

Furthermore, then they are adding a knowledge base and help desk. So again you can build these things into your website so you can easily start using your website, drag and drop the different elements and maintain it as is. The last thing that I noticed which is quite exciting, is a popup builder and this is something that works so well within Elementor. So I hope again they will continue to be inspired by Elementor and build a popup builder that works in just the same way. One thing I was really surprised not to see on the road map is integrations. This is really something that Vanjaro is in the need of. Without integrations, we have to manually move our data from Vanjaro into a third party programme and especially when we collect email addresses. This is super frustrating. Of course, there are workarounds, but without integrations, it just makes it so much more difficult. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that they will add this to the roadmap in the near future.

Pros & Cons of using Vanjaro

Now, after using Vanjaro, I really like that I can set up an entire e-commerce site in minutes and then the fact that it’s so easy to use though, I really want them to implement integrations to make it easier for us and the design could really use an overhaul.

Last thoughts about Vanjaro

If you’ve ever built an e-commerce site or a website using Elementor then you will find Vanjaro super easy to use as it’s inspired by Elementor. I want to give Vanjaro three and a half stars they’ve built a lot of great core functionality but the fact that we’re missing integration is just a huge disadvantage. That’s my review.