Choosing the best eCommerce platform for your business isn’t a child’s play, especially when the market is saturated with hundreds of website builders. Even the study states that, by 2040, 95% of purchases will be on eCommerce platforms.
So, it’s high time to choose the best eCommerce platform for your business. But how?
Well, to ease your effort, we have provided here detailed information on the top 11 eCommerce platforms that have some unique functionalities in themselves. We have also mentioned some nitty-gritty features you need to consider before making the right choice.
So, let’s go!
| Sr. No. | Ecommerce Platforms | Overall Ratings |
| 1. | Shopify | 4.6 |
| 2. | Squarespace | 4.7 |
| 3. | Wix Commerce | 4.7 |
| 4. | BigCommerce | 4.5 |
| 5. | Big Cartel | 4.3 |
| 6. | Woocommerce | 4.4 |
| 7. | Ecwid | 4.3 |
| 8. | Zyro | 4.3 |
| 9. | Volusion | 3.8 |
| 10. | Weebly | 4.2 |
| 11. | PrestaShop | 4.1 |
| 12. | Adobe Commerce (Magento) | 4.0 |
Let’s dive into more details and see their functionalities:
1. Shopify
| Value for Money | 4.2 |
| Features | 4.0 |
| Ease of Use | 4.8 |
| Themes and Designs | 3.9 |
| Customer Support | 4.0 |
Shopify is one of the leading ecommerce platforms in the market that allows merchants to set up a complete standalone online store at a very minimal budget.
No matter which business you have ( clothing, jewelry, digital products, home decor, services, memberships ), Shopify has your back. More than 1 million businesses rely on Shopify, and the number is increasing day by day.
According to Statista, Shopify has increased its brand value to 1.3 Canadian dollars. So, you can imagine the continuous hype for this platform.
Now, let’s delve into more details and analyze the features offered by Shopify.
Shopify Pricing
| Basic | Shopify | Advanced |
| $29/month + 2.9% & 30 cent USD per online transaction | $79/month + 2.6% & 30 cents USD per online transaction | $299/month+ 2.4% & 30 cents USD per online transaction |
Apart from that, Shopify also offers two more plans – the Shopify starter plan that costs you $5 and Shopify advanced plan that charges you around $299 + 2.15% per transaction.
Moreover, you can also opt for its 3-day free trial option to test whether this platform is suitable for your business or not.
Shopify Ease of Use
Shopify has been mainly created for beginners. So, its interface and other functionalities are pretty easy to use.
But to be honest, you’ll need some time to set up your first-ever store on Shopify. So, it’s better to take the guidance of a developer. Other than that, changing sites, product descriptions, and meta descriptions are very smooth and simple on Shopify, which we appreciate.
How Shopify Helps Users
Shopify has a range of premium features that allow users to meet their eCommerce needs most effectively. It offers 280+ designing templates ( paid & free) to choose from. Besides building an aesthetic storefront, Shopify helps them to grow their business with Shopify POS, analytics tools, blogging options, email marketing, dropshipping, out-of-the-box SEO features, and many more.
Additionally, Shopify stands out among the crowd by providing fast loading options, personalization, and abandoned cart recovery options.
Who Should Prefer Shopify?
Anyone can use Shopify. No matter if you are just a beginner or have an enterprise-level business, Shopify is a perfect option for everyone.
But honestly, we find Shopify gives a slight edge to beginners and mid-level businesses. And you might face issues to grow your business to the international level as Shopify doesn’t add any marketing automation tools in its plans.
2. Squarespace
| Value for Money | 4.3 |
| Features | 4.5 |
| Ease of Use | 4.0 |
| Themes and Designs | 4.5 |
| Customer Support | 4.2 |
Squarespace is a USA-based website building and hosting company. Currently, it has more than 200K running online stores and has generated over $213 million in revenue.
Squarespace Pricing
| Personal | Business | Basic Commerce | Advanced Commerce |
| $16/month | $26/month | $30/month | $46/month |
If you just have started out your eCommerce business journey, Squarespace Personal and Business plans are the best options for you. Rest, Squarespace commerce plans perfectly fit mid-level and growing businesses.
You can also go for its free trial option before purchasing any plan.
Squarespace Ease of Use
Squarespace is fairly easy-to-use. But it’s not as easy as its competitors. Though the interface features are minimalistic, but you have to spend some time getting familiar with the features.
So, we’ll conclude that Squarespace isn’t for beginners as far as easy interface is concerned.
How Squarespace Helps Users?
To start with, Squarespace is a feature-rich eCommerce Platform where users can enjoy unlimited benefits on a very minimal budget. Squarespace’s every plan comes with unlimited bandwidth and storage, SSL certificate, premium SEO features, award-winning website templates, and many more.
Moreover, suppose you have purchased Squarespace’s advanced business plan. In that case, you will get benefitted from other must-have functionalities, including email marketing tools, abandoned cart recovery, advanced shipping Options, and so on.
Even Squarespace doesn’t charge one single penny for transaction fees. So, it’s a win-win situation for merchants.
For more details, do check out this page.
Who Should Prefer Squarespace?
Mainly, Squarespace is a perfect option for small and growing businesses. If you want to focus on content marketing and blogging, no platform can beat Squarespace.
But, if you have an enterprise-level business, you can’t thrive here.
Also, if not to build a storefront, you can still use this platform to build a professional portfolio for your services.
3. Wix Ecommerce
| Value for Money | 4.0 |
| Features | 3.8 |
| Ease of Use | 4.9 |
| Themes and Designs | 4.0 |
| Customer Support | 4.0 |
With Wix eCommerce, you can create an engaging storefront with up-to-date templates and hundreds of built-in features and sell your products, including physical goods, digital goods, and eBooks.
We can say that Wix eCommerce is a revolutionary invention that supports small businesses with an alluring storefront at a minimal budget.
Currently, it has generated $1.33 B in 2022 and supports 700k+ stores to date.
Pricing
| Business VIP | Business Unlimited | Business Basic |
| $49/month | $27/month | $23/month |
Business Unlimited is the most popular plan that integrates all premium features like multiple currency selling and unlimited bandwidth at only $27/month.
Ease of Use
As Wix eCommerce mainly focuses on small, and newbie businesses, its interface and other functionalities are flawless and easy to use. From adding products to selling, everything is super easy with the drag-and-drop method. Even, you don’t need to hire a website builder to set up a storefront in Wix eCommerce. It’s just an activity of a few clicks.
How Wix Helps Users
Wix Ecommerce has compiled lots of effective features that you need to grow your brand from scratch. When it comes to themes and designs, we would say only one word – Perfect.
Additionally, it offers the built-in “abandoned cart recovery option” even in its lowest plan, which makes Wix the first choice of every new business owner.
Apart from that, other constructive features offered by Wix eCommerce are out-of-the-box SEO, no sales fee, hundreds of marketing and selling features, etc. If you aren’t yet satisfied with these built-in features, you can meet your needs by purchasing integrations from Wix Marketplace.
Who Should Prefer Wix eCommerce
Honestly, Wix eCommerce isn’t suitable for enterprise-level businesses. But, if you have just started your eCommerce business journey, take our words that no platform can work better for you than Wix eCommerce.
4. BigCommerce
| Value for Money | 4.0 |
| Features | 4.2 |
| Ease of Use | 3.9 |
| Themes and Designs | 4.3 |
| Customer Support | 4.5 |
BigCommerce has been designed to grow your business to the next level. From setting up and building a storefront to selling products, BigCommerce has a streamlined process for everything.
BigCommerce is currently dealing with 70+ online stores, and it expects to raise its revenue to $277m in 2022.
BigCommerce Pricing
| Standard | Plus | Pro |
| $29.95/month | $79.95/month | $299,95/month |
In our opinion, BigCommerce’s plans are a bit more expensive than its competitors. But it’s worth it if you are eyeing massive business growth.
BigCommerce Ease of Use
BigCommerce is not as easy to use as its competitors. Setting up a store on BigCommerce is a time-taking process. So, it’s better to consult a web developer to make the store-setting process more streamlined and seamless.
Rest, other functionalities like product adding, adding meta-descriptions, and shipping process just need a few clicks.
How BigCommerce Helps Users
BigCommerce differentiates itself from the crowd by proving hundreds of effective features, including security systems, POS, built-in marketing, sales features, product inventory, multi-channel and multi-currency selling, and so on.
To adapt to the fast-growing e-commerce domain, BigCommerce has recently introduced multi-storefront options for its users. Its limitless storage will allow you to integrate any functionalities into your store.
Moreover, the BigCommerce app store is pretty versatile and perfect for growing businesses.
Who Should Prefer BigCommerce?
BigCommerce claims that it’s suitable for every kind of business. But we suggest this platform to those with a mid-level business and looking forward to growing it exponentially.
5. Big Cartel
| Value for Money | 4.2 |
| Features | 4.3 |
| Ease of Use | 4.7 |
| Themes and Designs | 4.2 |
| Customer Support | 4.0 |
Big Cartel differs itself from other eCommerce platforms by launching an easy solution for small businesses. That’s why Big Cartel’s functionalities are basic and easy to use.
At present, Big Cartel hosts more than 2 lakh stores. So, if you have a very minimal budget, go for Big Cartel and create an alluring alone storefront for your business.
Big Cartel Pricing
| Gold | Platinum | Diamond |
| $0/month | $9.99/month | $19.99/month |
Big Cartel’s free plan lets you add only 5 products, whereas the Platinum plan allows you to add up to 50 Products. And, if you opt for its Diamond plan, you are free to add 500 products to your store.
Big Cartel Ease of Use
As we have mentioned before, Big Cartel has been mainly launched for small businesses. So, no doubt, it’s super easy and flawless to use.
From setting up your first-ever store to navigating all the features, you can do it by yourself with zero tech knowledge.
How Big Cartel Help Users
No need to say Big Cartel is the best option for newbie entrepreneurs. So, it comes with limited options and functionalities.
But it offers a decent package of features, including free customizable themes, real-time stats, custom domains, discounts, promo codes, built-in SEO, etc.
Who Should Prefer Big Cartel?
Big Cartel isn’t applicable for growing and enterprise-level businesses. Rather, it’s a perfect suit for those who just have taken their first step in this eCommerce world.
6. WooCommerce
| Value for Money | 4.2 |
| Features | 4.3 |
| Ease of Use | 4.5 |
| Themes and Designs | 4.4 |
| Customer Support | 4.2 |
If you are looking for a standalone eCommerce platform, WooCommerce isn’t for you. It’s an open-source ecommerce plugin for WordPress.
BuiltWith states that almost 38,76 748 websites rely on WooCommerce to grow their ecommerce businesses. In the current marketplace, WooCommerce is the first choice of every WordPress owner, which covers 29% of total ecommerce sites.
WooCommerce Pricing
WooCommerce Plugin is completely free to install. But to maintain your eCommerce store, you have to pay extra for hosting and domain ( $10-$40/month), Themes and designs ( >$79/year),
and Shipping ( $108/year).
If you want to scale your business, you have to pay for marketing features and customer experience that cost you around $500/year as per your needs.
WooCommerce Ease of Use
As WooCommerce is an open-source platform, you have to deal with certain technical methods like updating, keeping backups, optimizing, etc. So, honestly, it’s not a beginner-friendly platform.
Unlike Shopify and Squarespace, WooCommerce doesn’t have any drag-and-drop system to navigate other functionalities. So, you need to hire a tech-savvy person to assist you while dealing with WooCommerce.
How WooCommerce Helps Users
WooCommerce stands by its users with hundreds of themes and templates, built-in blogging options, product variables, multiple shipping options, multi-site selling, and many more.
And the best part is that WooCommerce is an open-source platform. So, you can change anything at any time on this platform. Also, it offers a range of extensions and plug-ins (Etsy, eBay) that you might integrate to boost conversion rates.
Who Should Prefer WooCommerce?
No matter whether you have a small business or a growing business, WooCommerce is suitable for everyone. But if you are a newbie entrepreneur, we recommend you hire a developer to enjoy a streamlined process with this platform.
7. Ecwid
| Value for Money | 4.2 |
| Features | 4.5 |
| Ease of Use | 4.0 |
| Themes and Designs | 4.2 |
| Customer Support | 4.1 |
If you are familiar with other traditional eCommerce platforms, let me tell you that Ecwid mostly differs from them. However, Ecwid isn’t designed to create a separate online store. Rather, it allows you to integrate a store with your existing website.
Even if you don’t have a website, Ecwid has recently launched Ecwid by Lightspeed, where you can set up a one-page site without any technical hassles.
At present, Ecwid supports almost 1 million stores worldwide. So, no need to say, it’s one of the most used ecommerce platforms in the market.
Ecwid Pricing
| Free | Venture | Business | Unlimited |
| $0 | $15/month | $35/month | $99/month |
Remember, Ecwid’s free plan lets you add only 10 products in your store and you can also get an exclusive discount on its subscription.
Ecwid Ease of Use
If you have prior technical knowledge, navigating Ecwid’s functions won’t be difficult for you. Even if you are a beginner, you won’t find any issues while dealing with Ecwid. But to some extent, Ecwid’s functionalities depend on your chosen themes and design. But overall, it’s fairly easy to use.
How Ecwid Helps Users
Users enjoy using Ecwid because of its up-to-date functionalities. Starting from premium selling and marketing features to out-of-the-box SEO to POS features and multi-channel selling options, everything is available on Ecwid.
In a nutshell, we will say Ecwid is perfect for business growth.
Who Should Prefer Ecwid?
Ecwid is applicable for both beginners and expert business owners. But mostly, Beginners get a slight edge on Ecwid because of its easy-to-use functionalities.
8. Zyro
| Value for Money | 4.0 |
| Features | 4.3 |
| Ease of Use | 4.7 |
| Themes and Designs | 3.9 |
| Customer Support | 4.1 |
Zyro is a beginner-friendly eCommerce platform having a decent number of features at a cheap rate.
Let’s be transparent here. We don’t recommend Zyro for growing business. But it’s a good choice for newbie business owners.
In spite of that, Zyro is now dealing with more than 40 thousand websites, and the number is increasing day by day.
Zyro Pricing
| Website | Business | Advanced Store |
| $2.61/month | $4.17/month | $14.31/month |
After comparing Zyro’s features with its plans, we find that Zyro’s pricing plans are quite decent and perfect for side hustlers.
Zyro Ease of Use
As it’s mainly designed for beginners, Zyro has an easy-to-use interface and functionalities. You can navigate every feature on your Zyro site with the simple drag-and-drop option. Even Zyro lets you use its stock photos ( from Unsplash) free of cost.
How Zyro Helps Users
Zyro helps its users to create a storefront with 28 eCommerce templates. Each of them is updated and mobile responsive. It has 70+ payment options, a great feature for seamless payment gateways.
Moreover, other built-in functionalities like Product management ( add up to 2,500 products), SEO features, and abandoned cart recovery options are available on Zyro sites.
Who Should Prefer Zyro?
We won’t recommend Zyro for Enterprise and growing businesses as it solely focuses on newbie entrepreneurs.
9. Volusion
| Value for Money | 3.8 |
| Features | 4.3 |
| Ease of Use | 3.9 |
| Themes and Designs | 4.0 |
| Customer Support | 4.1 |
Volusion is a cloud-based eCommerce platform that lets you create an alluring storefront with hundreds of premium benefits you need to grow your business from scratch.
Over 30k online stores are now successfully dealing with Volusion. So, we can’t say that Volusion is out of the market.
Volusion Pricing
| Personal | Professional | Business | Prime |
| $35/month | $79/month | $299/month | Not Fixed |
In Volusion’s Personal plan, you can add upto 100 products, whereas the Professional plan lets you add upto 5000 products. And, with Business and Prime plans, there is no limitation in adding products.
You can try for Volusion’s free trial option to check out its functionalities before purchasing one. For more details, click here.
Volusion Ease of Use
Though Volusion is pretty easy to use, you can face major issues while dealing with the front end. So, it’s better to take the guidance of a tech-savvy person.
How Volusion Helps Users
When it comes to the benefits users will get with Volusion, we will say it’s decent. Users will enjoy a number of key benefits, including mobile-friendly themes, powerful SEO, mobile app, modern checkout solutions, extra security, in-house designing services, and many more. But, one problem you’ll face with Volusion is its backdated blogging feature. So, if you looking for gross content marketing, Volusion isn’t for you.
Who Should Prefer Volusion?
Volution has got 3.8 ratings out of five from a value-for-money point of view. It’s preferable for newbie owners, but its plans are very expensive. But at the same time, it’s not a perfect suit for enterprise businesses because of its limited features. So, we’ll recommend this platform solely for newbie entrepreneurs who can afford its rates.
10. Weebly
| Value for Money | 4.3 |
| Features | 4.4 |
| Ease of Use | 3.7 |
| Themes and Designs | 4.1 |
| Customer Support | 4.0 |
Weebly is a San Fransisco eCommerce site-building platform that lets your business grow from scratch to an advanced level with its powerful marketing and analytics tools.
Weebly was launched in 2007, and in 2018 Weebly got acquired by Square. Currently, it powers more than 50 million sites worldwide.
Weebly Pricing
| Free | Personal | Professional | Performance |
| $0 | $6/month | $12/month | $26/month |
According to our research, Weebly is a perfect choice as far as its rates are concerned. The free plan is appropriate for newbies, whereas Personal and professional plans are appropriate for building a credible portfolio. And, if you want to grow your business with a standalone online store, we recommend you go for the Performance Plan.
Weebly Ease of Use
Weebly isn’t as easy to use as it claims to be. You might face several technical issues while dragging the images, text boxes, etc.
We can say that Weebly is easy than other website builders, but it’s not for everyone.
How Weebly Helps Users
Weebly has a range of key eCommerce functionalities that help users build their own eCommerce business in the simplest way possible. These include – a strong set of SEO tools, the Weebly App Center that lets you expand your store functionalities, and lots of eCommerce tools for shopping carts, inventory management, in-store pickup, etc. Very few website builders offer such premium features at a low price.
So, we highly recommend this platform for your business.
Who Should Prefer Weebly?
Whether you have just started out or have an already grown business, Weebly is the best suit for every merchant. But for beginners, it needs some time to cope with the functionalities.
11. PrestaShop
| Value for Money | 4.0 |
| Features | 4.3 |
| Ease of Use | 3.6 |
| Themes and Designs | 4.2 |
| Customer Support | 4.2 |
PrestaShop is an open-source ecommerce builder based in Europe and Latin America.
It means you can customize this platform as per your needs. More than 3 lakh sites are using this platform, and it has recently generated a total of $1.1m in revenue.
PrestaShop Pricing
Though PrestaShop is a free-to-download platform, you still have to pay for other expenses like hosting and domain ( $4 to $14/month) and other add-ons and extensions that will cost you around $35-$6000.
In a nutshell, PrestaShop’s pricing completely depends on other extensions you’ll integrate with your store.
PrestaShop Ease of Use
Building an online store on PrestaShop takes some time. So, it’s not an easy-to-use platform. However, you need to have some coding knowledge to equip other functionalities in terms of handling product pages, shipping options, and so on.
We recommend you hire a developer to create an eye-catchy platform with PrestaShop.
How PrestaShop Helps Users
With PrestaShop, you can create your eCommerce store with alluring customizable themes and designs. User prefers PrestaShop because of its strong SEO and marketing features. Other built-in features offered by PrestaShop are product management, multi-channel selling options, multi-currency selling options, etc.
PrestaShop’s marketplace offers 4116 modules ( $99.99-$699.99) that help the store-owners boost their conversion rates in a short period.
Who Should Use PrestaShop?
After deep research, we find PrestaShop to be a better option for mid-level businesses than Beginners. However, if you are tech-savvy, then you can consider PrestaShop your best fit.
12. Adobe Commerce (Magento)
| Value for Money | 4.7 |
| Features | 4.8 |
| Ease of Use | 4.2 |
| Themes and Designs | 4.4 |
| Customer Support | 4.6 |
Adobe Commerce (previously known as Magento) is a comprehensive eCommerce platform that offers businesses an end-to-end solution for building, managing, and scaling their online stores.
Adobe Commerce provides businesses with advanced features for customization, analytics, and merchandising, along with a flexible and scalable architecture that can accommodate the needs of businesses of all sizes.
Adobe Commerce Pricing
Currently, Adobe Commerce offers two plans to its users: Adobe Commerce Pro and Managed Services. Since the platform offers tailored solutions to businesses, you can get a quote from Adobe Commerce by providing details and business needs.
Adobe Commerce Ease of Use
Adobe Commerce is structured to be intuitive and user-friendly. The platform includes a drag & drop page editor, a visual designer editor, and an easy-to-understand dashboard, which makes it flexible for users to customize their online store and manage other aspects.
However, using Adobe Commerce can be a little complex for non-coders as it requires you to have technical knowledge in order to explore its full potential.
How Adobe Commerce Helps Users
Adobe Commerce has a robust commerce engine that includes advanced data sharing and AI capabilities. These features allow businesses to create a customized platform so sellers can offer an end-to-end personalized experience to their customers.
The platform also offers powerful marketing tools, such as email marketing and promotion campaigns, that help businesses drive traffic and sales. You will also get exceptional analytics ad reporting features so users can stay up-to-date with valuable insights into their businesses.
Who Should Prefer Adobe Commerce?
Adobe Commerce tends to cater to businesses of all sizes. However, you will need to have some technical knowledge if you want to unlock its full potential and features.
Some Key Features You Need To Consider Before Choosing an eCommerce Platform
Choosing the best eCommerce platform for your business is not a piece of cake. You need to consider a few major features before purchasing one for yourself. These are-
- It should be worth it for every penny you would pay. So make sure to check the features offered with each plan before purchasing one.
- The eCommerce platform should be SEO-friendly to make your site visible to potential customers.
- The platform should have streamlined payment options to have a flawless user experience.
- It should integrate other third-party tools and extensions to boost the conversion rate.
- It must have an active customer support system to brace you in your adversities.
Final Words: Best eCommerce Platforms (2023)
It’s obvious that choosing the best one among the ocean of eCommerce Platforms is a task. But if you have the right knowledge and information in place, it’s not difficult.
As per our research and analysis, we would recommend you to go for Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and WooCommerce if you are eyeing massive business growth. These platforms have all the effective features that are mandatory to scale your business.
Now, it’s your call to find the most suitable one. And in this article, we have given you all the details that’ll assist you in this process.
If you have any doubts regarding this, don’t forget to let us know in the comment section below.
FAQs
There are plenty of eCommerce platforms available on the internet, and there might be chances that if one platform works for you, it may not work for everyone else. So determining the best eCommerce platform is difficult, but here are my top choices: Shopify, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Wix, and WooCommerce.
There are many. But, Shopify is considered the easiest eCommerce platform available in the market.
To start an eCommerce business, you must invest at least something because you can not start an eCommerce business completely free. Even if you choose WooCommerce as an eCommerce platform, you will still need to buy a domain, buy a hosting solution for your website and buy a few premium plugins.
An open-source eCommerce platform gives you the option to make coding changes to your website to add more customization options to it. The best example of an open-source eCommerce platform is WooCommerce.
One of the most successful eCommerce business models is B2C (Business To Consumer) model. In this model, you will deal directly with the customer, so there isn’t any communication gap between the business entity and the customer. That is why it is considered the most successful eCommerce business model.
