The Facebook app might be too much of a hassle for Android users. You are tired of draining your battery and losing data and want to use a Facebook app that is optimized for mobile, but you also want the convenience of doing so.
If this has been your experience, you should be glad to know that there are other options. We’ve put together a list of our favorites so you can start posting without worrying about how much it will cost.
All of these apps are free at first, but Swipe has a Pro version and some of them offer in-app purchases to get rid of ads.
Facebook Lite is Facebook’s own alternative application. It’s new, so there are still some bugs to iron out, but it’s lightning fast and works on 2G networks. Download Facebook Light from Google Play.
Friendly Friendly strikes a good balance between giving you full functionality while not draining your phone’s resources. It consolidates the first Facebook application with the Courier application, so don’t have to change to and fro from one to the next. If you want to save even more data, you can also choose to block all images. Friendly can be obtained from Google Play.
Toffeed Toffeed prioritizes design first, employing a minimal user interface that conceals the majority of the navigation. This is a good choice if you want a simple option with almost nothing but your feed on screen. Toffeed can be obtained from Google Play.
Swipe Swipe is the closest thing to Facebook’s actual app, but it uses more battery power than the other apps on this list. Instead of scrolling, you can swipe through posts and notifications, and you can choose from a variety of clever custom designs. Swipe can be obtained from Google Play.
Another of the older options is Puffin, which has a mobile site wrapper that is simple and smooth. It comes out on top in terms of data efficiency and even has a counter at the top that tells you how much you’ve saved. Puffin can be obtained from Google Play.
Tinfoil This is the original Facebook alternative app, a wrapper that makes Facebook’s mobile site easier to use and more streamlined. Although there are not many updates, the overall experience is satisfactory. Tinfoil can be obtained from Google Play.
Metal Metal’s design and functionality are very similar to Tinfoil’s. Its options for notifications, which include a wide range of frequencies and a shade bar of notifications that you can review without opening the full app, are what set it apart the most. Metal can be obtained from Google Play.
When you think of Facebook, you probably don’t think of “e-commerce.”
What if you could engage your customers on Facebook in a shopping and social context as well?
There is no need to re-upload your inventory and slog through all that work once more because many of the solutions below also work with existing stores created through virtual storefronts like Shopify and Magento. The prices, ratings, and other information for seven of our favorite Facebook eCommerce apps can be found here.
Facebook StoreYa’s integration with Magento, a well-known e-commerce platform, is well-known. However, you may not be aware that it is compatible with a number of other well-known selling platforms, such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and WordPress (via WooCommerce). This means that using StoreYa to import your existing online store to Facebook only requires a few clicks if you use one of these providers.
However, that is just the beginning. The e-commerce marketing tools that StoreYa offers really stand out. You can access a variety of social shopping features by using their service as a storefront provider, such as a coupon pop-up to thank customers for browsing your Facebook store, a Groupon-like group buying deal, a “scratch and win” coupon game, and more.
The coupon pop-up feature is all that is included in the free version of StoreYa, which is plenty for many small businesses looking to start selling online. For 500 SKUs, premium plans start at $9.99 per month and go up to $69.99 per month for 10,000 SKUs.
Overall, opening your store to Facebook’s e-commerce potential is simple thanks to StoreYa’s ease of use and seamless integration with other seller platforms. Whether you’re just getting started or already have a store with another merchant, it’s well worth a look.
The Storefront Social shop is a Facebook store application that works for both new businesses and established brands. It makes it simple to start a new store. It integrates with over two dozen providers, like StoreYa. Additionally, Storefront Social is compatible with well-known self-hosted shopping cart solutions like X-Cart, OS Commerce, and 3D Cart. Prices start at $9.95 per month and go up to $29.95 per month for up to 1,000 products. A seven-day free trial is available.
Although Storefront Social lacks the marketing features of other Facebook e-commerce apps, its connection and capability options make up for it. The app, for instance, makes it simple to connect storefronts to Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. It also supports CSV imports, interfaces with Google Base Feed and Yahoo Commerce Central, and international currencies and languages.
The fact that stores built with the Storefront Social app are also mobile-friendly is perhaps the cherry on top—a must-have feature if you want to attract Facebook customers.
Ecwid is one of the most widely used Facebook e-commerce applications. Its robust free plan, which allows business owners to add up to ten products, is what makes it one of the most widely used Facebook e-commerce applications. This is one of the fastest ways to start selling on Facebook if you only have a few items because there are no setup or per-transaction fees. Other plan tiers offer varying levels of products (up to unlimited) at prices ranging from $12.50 to $82.50 per month.
Digital goods like books, courses, and so on can be sold at any price point. be that as it may, more extravagant plans additionally incorporate the capacity to offer coupons, as well as deal with your Facebook retail facade from an iPhone application. The product itself is compatible with a wide variety of existing merchant and content management systems, including WordPress, Joomla, and even plain HTML sites, and it is available as a monthly plan for $29.50 or $82.50. It likewise incorporates with an assortment of delivery transporters including UPS, DHL, FedEx, USPS, Australia Post, Canada Post and others.
Amazon S3, a digital storage network, hosts all of Ecwid’s Facebook stores. They are now able to provide unlimited bandwidth, much like a web host, but much, much faster. By choosing a data center close to the user’s location, an Ecwid storefront can use cloud-based technology to load quickly. You only need to click, upload, and leave as the merchant because all of this is done behind the scenes.
A selection of Shopify’s more than 100 user-friendly cart templates. Unlike many of the other Facebook e-commerce apps profiled here, Shopify stands out for its user-friendliness and integration capabilities, of which Facebook is a part. However, it is not a Facebook store in the traditional sense.
E-commerce website owners have access to over one hundred distinct store templates through a hosted Shopify storefront. Prices start at $29 per month and include credit card interest rates. They can go up to $179 per month. The level of plan you choose will affect how much lower the credit card rates are.
A free card reader, an unlimited number of products (on any plan), and the capability to include discount codes at the checkout are just a few of the many additional features that Shopify offers that other providers do not. The option of shopping cart abandonment recovery, which typically necessitates the integration of a third-party service, is one of the excellent conversion optimization features offered by higher-tiered plans.
Shopify’s focus is on digital storefronts, so many of its features—including Facebook integration—are apps. Many of these are developed by third-party services that “plug in” to Shopify and come in a variety of price ranges, from free to paid.
This basically means that you can “accessorize” your Shopified Facebook store with things like contests, coupons, “Want” buttons, reviews, and even a fully functioning customer support desk.
Even though Shopify has dozens of apps, it’s best not to get too caught up in them and stick to what really matters: getting customers to talk to each other and engage with your fans more. Remember that social networking is more important than shopping.
