From the desk of David Utke
Subj: Online store platform showdown
There is no perfect platform for everyone, depending on the size and complexity of what you’re looking to do will influence what platform you should use.
With that said, Shopify is my #1 recommendation in general for most individuals and small businesses looking to sell physical products, digital downloads, drop shipping or some combination of the three.
11 Best ecommerce platforms for selling online
Your ecommerce software should ideally be easy to use so that you can add products quickly, manage inventory if you’re selling physical products, offer coupons and discounts, have a high converting checkout process, be mobile ready and have good design and SEO.
Shopify – The best overall online store website builder
Shopify is the best website builder for ecommerce because it’s simple to use and has all the features you need to start and run a successful online store. You can add “buy now” buttons to your emails, blog posts, and social media profiles, making it easy for your audience to buy what they need from you.
Plus, Shopify stores come with all the features you need to run a successful online store, including a shopping cart, payment processing, high converting design templates and shipping tools.
There are a wide range of plugins that allow you to add in additional features too, in fact I’ve found that Shopify has the most developed 3rd party ecosystem of every option I’ve tried.
With this platform you get a wide range of design options, superior product organization and inventory management, a huge 3rd party ecosystem and excellent drop shipping options.
Last, Shopify also offers a “lite” version that you can use to integrate with an existing website or social media profile. If you’re looking to start drop shipping or you plan to build up a store that sells a large volume of products, I strongly recommend checking out the Shopify platform first and foremost.
Pricing and features
You can get a 10% discount if you sign up for one year, or 20% off if you sign up for two years. Subscribing to Shopify Basic which starts at $19 per month, gives you access to everything you need in order to begin selling. You’re allowed two staff accounts and four locations for inventory.
Services include with your plan are printable shipping labels, gift certificates, discount codes, and abandoned cart reminders (available only to the buy button sales channel and the wholesale channel). All Shopify users unlock discounts on shipping rates from DHL Express, UPS, and USPS. Users with Basic plans get a 77% discount while those with premium plans receive an 88% markdown.
In the middle tier “Shopify” plan, Shopify provides you with extras like more staff accounts and inventory locations, as well as standard reporting features. Plus, you get a reduced rate on transactions fees for credit card use.
Shopify’s “Advanced” plan adds additional reporting capabilities, third-party calculated shipping rates, and a further discount for credit card purchases. If you use Shopify Payments, the only transaction fee you’ll incur are those from your credit card processing company.
This is why they advertise “0% transaction fees.” However, if you utilize another payment gateway not affiliated with Shopify, then you will have to pay a separate transaction fee on top of everything else.
Finally as mentioned, Shopify offers both a lite plan at $9 a month that is made for anyone who wants to add a buy button to an existing website. They also provide a “starter” plan at $5 for social media profiles and Shopify Plus at $2000+ a month for enterprise level clients.
Pros:
- Highly scalable – Start small and grow your online store into a multi-million dollar business. With multi-currency support, multiple user roles, bulk editing, inventory tagging and management your store can grow from a one man show into a team of people.
- Huge ecosystem of apps – A wide range of plugins or as it’s called with Shopify, “apps” that allow you to add on expanded features for your online store. Things like a gift card loyalty program or an animated “free shipping” bar to get buyers to purchase a minimum are all available.
- Popular and well supported – Shopify is the most popular option for ecommerce websites. So it’s easy to find high quality tutorial videos on YouTube, a thriving support community and knowledgeable staff.
- Excellent for drop shipping – This is where Shopify really shines. They have a strong integration with over 100 different drop shipping vendors.
- Solutions for different use cases – From huge stores doing tremendous volume to someone wanting to sell T-Shirts on their Instagram page, Shopify has something for everyone.
Cons:
- Themes and apps are not free – Shopify has only 9 themes that are free to use, everything else costs money. Same with apps that you’ll find helpful. So out of the box Shopify is good, but adding on themes and apps will increase your cost basis.
- Product variants – Shopify currently supports 100 product variants which is enough for most. However BigCommerce offers the option to have 600 variants.
Example Shopify store
Bare Performance Nutrition – Nick Bare (a popular YouTuber and founder of BPN) built his multi-million dollar business using the Shopify platform. If it’s good enough for him and his team, maybe it’s good enough for what you want to do?
BigCommerce – Better out of the box than Shopify
Big Commerce is my #2 choice for anyone looking to start an online store. To be honest, it was a tough call putting Big Commerce second as out of the proverbial box I do think that Big Commerce is superior to Shopify in a lot of key ways.
There are more features available with BigCommerce without the need to purchase any additional apps. As such, it tends to be cheaper than Shopify. WordPress integration is also better with BigCommerce as you can have a blog and store on the same domain. The default analytics and reporting I also prefer too, but both Shopify and Big Commerce deliver in this area.
Last, a huge difference between the two are that there are no transaction fees with Big Commerce, you get more product option variants and display flexibility and custom ratings and reviews are built into the platform unlike Shopify which requires a 3rd party app.
With Big Commerce, you can use whatever payment processor you want too. Additionally, there is better international support, better discount features, and better abandon cart features too as there are more triggers that set off the abandon cart function.
Pricing and features:
BigCommerce provides users with unlimited staff accounts, unlimited product storage and bandwidth, and 0% transaction fees on all tiers. All plans also get multiple sales channels like Amazon, eBay, Walmart as well as integration with Facebook and Instagram. Last you also get point of sale support on all plans.
The big differences I’ve found using BigCommerce is that the “Plus” plan provides an abandon cart recovery option which is lacking on the standard plan. The “Pro” plan allows for you to display Google reviews and custom product filtering.
Finally, each tier has a sales limit. Unlike Shopify where you could technically sell half a million dollars a year on their Basic plan without upgrading, BigCommerce requires you to upgrade your account once you cross certain sales thresholds:
The standard plan is 50K in sales a year or less, the Plus plan is 180K a year or less, the Pro plan is up to 400k or less and then from there out it’s a custom price based on sales.
Pros:
- More feature rich out of the box than Shopify which reduces cost for new store owners.
- Less need for apps and plugins to get your store working the way you want.
- No transaction fees which in my opinion is a big plus.
- Unlimited staff accounts on all plans.
- Helpful inventory management, data and analytics on the back end.
Cons:
- I really don’t like how you have to upgrade your account as you have more success. They don’t charge a transaction fee to it is understandable.
- Not really designed with someone who want’s to begin drop shipping. BigCommerce is ideal for someone looking to build a store that does 100K-500K a year in sales.
- BigCommerce design features are fairly limited and you can’t make your own store to the same degree as other options.
Example BigCommerce store:
Brew Shop – One of the finest examples of a beautiful store built with BigCommerce.
WooCommerce – The DIY, customizable choice
WooCommerce was started by a theme maker called WooThemes that’s since been acquired by the company that develops the CMS’s WordPress. It’s the best option if you want to turn a WordPress website into an online store. It’s a free plugin with a lot of paid extensions.
The base free version is perfect if you want to sell simple products, drop shipping or affiliate offers. However you will need to pay for various WordPress plugins to add on additional, helpful functionality and you may need to hire a skilled professional who has a deep understanding of HTML and CSS to get everything working as you like.
WooCommerce is a bit techy to setup for a beginner but the advantage of going with it over a website builder is that you have full control over the entire design, look and feel of your store. With the use of various themes and frameworks you can literally create anything you want.
With SiteGround hosting and the right plugins you can equip your store with features like an abandoned cart plugin, Glew.io for advanced online store analytics, image compression, a framework like Elementor, AffiliateWP, and more.
WooCommerce is totally free, but you will need to setup your own WordPress website on a quality host. The best host I’ve used for WooCommerce is SiteGround.
They provide a managed WordPress experience, on demand backups, a free CDN and their own internal cache plugin. They also have dedicated plans aimed at ecommerce using WooCommerce, as such they provide the required server side resources needed to run an online store.
Pricing and features:
If you’re totally sure you’re only going to be running one store I would choose the “start up” plan. At $2.99 a month for the first year, it’s the perfect plan to lay the groundwork for your store. As your traffic grows and as your store becomes more complex you can always upgrade.
With each tier you get everything you need to run a fast, secure, compliant online store. The only benefit missing from the start up plan is the ability to setup staging and on demand backup. The higher tiers also provide faster performance but if you have no traffic this is not important.
Pros:
- PCI compliance for payments.
- A CDN and internal cache plugin for fast load times.
- Staging environment to test out new features.
- Outstanding customer service.
Cons:
- WooCommerce is excellent for selling products on your blog, but for building out a high traffic store you’re going to need help customizing your store.
- You have full control over everything which is great, but you’ll have to also manage everything yourself instead of having a single support channel like a website builder.
- They offer steep discounts to get you in, then the normal renewal rate is quite high compared to budget shared web host. However, if you’re building a store don’t cheap out on hosting.
WooCommerce example store:
Kopi Coffee – This coffee store is a perfect example of what is possible with WordPress and WooCommerce. With each and every page customized to optimal conversion and branding, you simply can’t achieve something like this with other platforms. However, this design will set you back $1000’s of dollars.
Nexcess – Best hosting for Magento
Magento is a free, and open source ecommerce platform that enables businesses to sell their products online. It offers features such as catalog management, order management, payment processing, and shipping. Magento is also highly customizable, so businesses can create a unique online store that meets their specific needs.
Nexcess is one of the best hosts I’ve used for building an online store powered by Magento. Services provided include hosting for ecommerce platforms such as Drupal and BigCommerce, PHP optimization, support for PHP7, 24/7 monitoring with alert response, container add-ons and asset caching that is nearly instantaneous.
One aspect I love about Nexcess compared to SiteGround is that with just one click, you can automatically scale to accommodate a sudden influx in traffic. SiteGround by contrast suspends your website if you get a huge influx in traffic from an advertisement or a viral post or product.
Pricing and features
Nexcess provides managed Magento hosting. As such it’s a bit more expensive than other options because keeping Magento updated and working correctly would typically require a technical person on your team.
Elasticsearch enhances your Magento powered business’ search capabilities and helps you to provide better search results to your customers. Even with typos, misplaced or scrambled words, and other all-too-human errors, consumers can still discover what they’re looking for. Elasticsearch makes your Magento store more search-friendly while also increasing conversion potential.
Elasticsearch is now a requirement for Magento installs of version 2.4 and higher. With Nexcess, they include Elasticsearch with every new cloud container plan for Magento. Making running your online store less technical so you and your team can focus on selling.
Last, they also don’t cut corners when it comes to customer support by offering 24/7/365 expert support, proactive service monitoring, and free white-glove site migrations.
Pros:
- Magento is powerful but technical. Nexcess makes Magento less intimidating for smaller teams to implement effectively.
- Elasticsearch is required to install along with Magento, it’s done for you correctly with a Nexcess plan.
- Magento has an extensive library of plugins to expand the functionality of your online store.
Cons:
- Magento is still a complex piece of software with a steep learning curve.
- Nexcess support is knowledgeable but their support times for solving issues does take time. It’s also not possible to find an archive of previous support tickets.
Magento example store:
Scuf Gaming – This site sells custom video game controllers internationally and is powered by Magento on the back end.
Squarespace – Ideal for content creators
Squarespace is not for enterprise level ecommerce the way Magento or even Shopify is. They are an outstanding platform if you’re looking to sell 10-50 products online, digital downloads all the while you blog and run an email list.
They are a solid choice for content creators as Squarespace is sort of like the iPhone of website builders. It’s feature rich and everything just works. Where Squarespace ecommerce stands out is that they offer gift cards on all plans, low inventory notifications, a structured editor for design, Etsy integration and the ability to sell directly through Instagram.
Overall Squarespace allows anyone to create a beautiful, high converting store with their structured editor. The downside of this however is that websites made with Squarespace do tend to be a bit cookie cutter in appearance. So if a truly custom design is important to you then Squarespace may not be right for you.
Pricing and features:
Squarespace pricing is very straight forward. The “business” plan is mostly designed towards bloggers who want a little ecommerce functionality built into their website. At this plan you can sell digital downloads and physical products. However there is a transaction fee of 3% at this tier.
When you upgrade to the commerce basic or advanced plans there is no transaction fee at this level. You also get the ability to have the checkout process be on your domain, allow for point of sale, sell products on Instagram and business analytics.
The “advanced” plan provides more features with shipping, discounts, access to API’s and finally an abandon cart feature. For most, the basic commerce plan is the optimal choice.
Pros:
- Beginner friendly design editor.
- Ecommerce functionality perfectly well out of the box without needing technical skills.
- Gift cards offered on all plans.
- Etsy integration and can sell products through Instagram.
Cons:
- Beautiful design but everything is a bit cookie cutter.
- A 3% transaction fee at the lower tier plans does cut into your revenue.
- Not ideal for building massive, high traffic stores with lots of products.
Squarespace store example:
The Sorry Girls – A great example of leveraging all the functionality Squarespace provides. A blog, physical products, cool design and an email list.
Wix – Custom design and good drop shipping
Wix is a popular “unstructured” website builder that offers both website plans (aimed if you’re looking to start a blog or build an information website) and ecommerce focused plans for creating online stores. Starting at $17 a month you can get access to the various ecommerce features they provide store owners.
With Wix they provide hundreds of custom-made templates, deals and gift cards, app integration as well as amazing product pictures and straightforward order management and delivery.
However, a large majority of their templates are quite dated in my opinion. But the unique selling point of Wix is that with their unstructured, drag and drop editor you can make whatever design you want.
That means you can build a beautiful online store without having to deal with HTML or CSS. But if you want to jump into the HTML or CSS you can.
In addition, they automatically optimize your online store for all types of mobile devices. But you also have full control over the mobile design too if you like.
Pricing and features
The Wix ecommerce plans come in at three tiers: Basic, Unlimited and VIP. All tiers provide abandon cart recovery which is a nice advantage when compared to Squarespace. There are also no transaction fees.
The Basic plan unlocks the ability to sell products and is fine for the blogger or content marketer who want’s to sell a few products on their site like digital downloads or a handful of physical products. For anyone looking to make an online store you’ll want to get the “Business Unlimited” plan.
The Unlimited plan provides all the same features as the VIP plan, but not the same level of storage or amount of products. With Wix you can have multiple variations of products, custom design your product pages, sell on social media and other marketplaces, leverage 3PL solutions and integrate drop shipping.
The drop shipping particular I liked which is powered by Modalyst for physical products and Printful for print on demand. So what’s great about Wix is that you can build an online store that sells products you don’t even have. Just sync everything with these two on-demand marketplaces.
The only thing I found annoying about Modalyst integrate is that it automatically detects your location. So when I was in Vietnam building my store, I had to price everything in VND and could not change it to USD. Then when I synced it to my store, it then priced everything in USD. So 500,000 VND is about $20.
My store ended having cups and books priced at half a million dollars. I was able to fix the issue through support but it was a time consuming headache. Overall Wix ecommerce is good choice if you’re looking to start a blog, dropship and sell both digital and physical products. However, for high volume stores Shopify is the better choice.
Pros:
- Wix provides an unstructured, drag and drop editor so you have full control over the design of your website.
- Great integration with Modalyst and Printful for drop shipping purposes.
- All the standard ecommerce features you need to create an online store.
Cons:
- Wix supports a fraction of the payment gateways competitors like Shopify provide.
- They also are lacking in having a lot of 3rd party logistic support for serious sellers.
Wix store example:
Copper and Brass – A simple, well designed Wix store selling everyday stationary items.
Hostinger – The budget option ecommerce
Hostinger’s eCommerce platform offers a robust set of features tailored for online businesses, allowing you to sell up to 600 products and schedule services effortlessly.
It supports over 100 payment methods with 0% transaction fees, ensuring flexibility and cost-efficiency. The platform includes inventory management to track stock, product reviews to build trust, and customizable shipping rules for seamless logistics.
Additionally, suggested products enhance cross-selling opportunities, boosting customer engagement and sales potential.
Pricing and features:
Simple, straight forward pricing. You get access to the website builder that can leverage AI to help you create your website.
Pros:
- Great introduction rate and feature rich for the price point.
- Has all the basic ecommerce features you need to sell digital and physical products online.
- Support for multiple payment gates ways and email notifications for your buyers.
- If you ever want to setup a blog and consulting offer with digital downloads for sale Zyro is a a great choice.
Cons:
- Zyro is lacking with regards to 3rd party apps you see on other platforms.
- Not designed for drop shipping or selling on 3rd party marketplaces.
Ecwid – Add products to Google Sites and other platforms easily
One of the best things about Ecwid is that it’s extremely easy to use – even if you’re a complete beginner. The platform has a user-friendly interface and simple, step-by-step instructions that make setting up an online store quick and easy.
With a forever free plan you can get started today designing your online store.
Ecwid paid plans also unlock all the features you should come to expect like mobile POS, the ability to sell on marketplaces like Amazon or Ebay, gift cards, discount codes automatic tax calculations, custom checkout fields, the ability to sell digital products and even set products to a “pay what you want” price point and more.
Where Ecwid is weak is with their design templates and lack of blogging functionality. You can technically start a blog on Ecwid but it’s inferior to WordPress, Shopify or a website builder like Wix and Sqaurespace. Trust me, I tried setting up a blog and I was not impressed.
If blogging and content marketing is not important to you and you’re going to instead run paid ads to your website then Ecwid is a good choice. Just know that all ecommerce sites on this platform do look a bit cookie cutter which I don’t like. But that price point, hard to beat with the features you’re given.
Ecwid pricing and features:
Ecwid has a budget friendly “Starter” plan that allows you to sell up to 5 products and embed Ecwid products into any site (like Google Sites)
The Venture plan unlocks everything you need to create a fully functional online store with your own custom domain, coupon codes, tax invoices automatically applied, access to their app store, inventory management and so forth. For access to selling on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay you’ll need to upgrade to the “Business” plan.
The Business plan unlocks everything Ecwid has to offer including abandon cart recovery, mobile POS, Mailchimp integration and wholesale pricing.
Pros:
- Ecwid offers a forever free plan (though limited obviously).
- You can integrate an Ecwid with an existing website via an app.
- Their price points are quite affordable.
- Can sell on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay at the Business and Unlimited plans.
Cons:
- Blogging on Ecwid is cumbersome and overall awful. You’re better off using WordPress and integrating Ecwid via the shopping cart plugin.
- Themes are basic and it’s hard to make something unique looking.
- Supports Mailchimp but not other email marketing service providers.
Snipcart – Add a shopping cart to any website
Snipcart is a developer-oriented shopping cart platform that anyone can integrate into their website with simple HTML and JavaScript.
Snipcart offers customizable frontend options for your store, webhooks & APIs, as well as a merchant back office to manage e-commerce operations easily.
Pretty much every ecommerce platform is designed with the merchant in mind, Snipcart is the first tool designed for the web designer and developer who wants to easily add in ecommerce functionality to a website.
So if you’re using Drupal, WordPress or even Ghost.org, you can now easily add a shopping cart to your website as a way to accept payment for both physical or digital goods.
Snipcart pricing and features:
Snipcart is free to use but does charge a 2% transaction fee. If you’re intent is to build a large ecommerce website where you’re doing a lot of volume then Snipcart is not ideal for you. It’s also not a good choice if you’re looking to drop ship.
It is the perfect solution though if you’re wanting to add on ecommerce functionality to an already existing website or a website where ecommerce is not the only offer.
Snipcart provides a complete set of tools for managing orders, payments, inventory, shipping, and taxes. In addition, businesses can use Snipcart to create custom shopping experiences for their customers. With its flexible API, businesses can integrate Snipcart into their existing websites and systems with ease. As a result, Snipcart is a powerful e-commerce solution that can help businesses of all sizes Sell Online.
With Snipcart you get a huge amount of customizable features. From a customizable shopping, invoice, shipping methods and email templates to real time shipping estimates and multi-currency support. Snipcart is an under rated, powerful ecommerce solution.
Pros:
- A developer focused ecommerce solution.
- Free to use and easy to integrate into an already existing platform.
- A huge amount of helpful ecommerce features.
Cons:
- Not ideal for high volume ecommerce as the 2% transaction fee will start to add up quick.
- A bit technical to setup for someone with no experience managing or running a website, let alone an ecommerce store.
Square Online – Great restaurant and retail choice
Square online is a website builder that allows you to create and customize your own website and online store. With Square online, you can choose from a variety of templates to create an online store that fits your brand and style.
From online order fulfillment, to accepting payments with a variety of processors like the Cash App, to setting up age confirmation challenges for 18+ an older content. Square is a solid choice.
Creators can add their own photos, videos, and text to create a uniquely designed website. Square online also offers a variety of features such as contact forms, ecommerce integration, and social media integration. Best of all, Square online has a free plan to take advantage of if you’re just starting out.
Square Online pricing and features:
Like Ecwid, Square Online provides a totally free plan to create an online store. Your not limited by the amount of products, but you are limited to 500 MB of bandwidth and storage which is enough to get you going. However if you want to set a custom domain you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
As for the transaction fee, all paid plans charge 2.9% of the sale plus an additional 30 cents for online sales. With a paid plan you get access to all the ecommerce features you’re going expect and more.
In store and curb side pickup, shipping label printing, password protected pages, sell on social media like Instagram, abandon cart recovery (on the Performance plan and above), item badges on products to help drive sales (20% off!) and access to the “stories blog platform.
Last, in addition to selling products and blogging, you can now schedule client calls with Square’s built in appointment booking feature. Great if you’re also providing a service in addition to physical products.
Pros:
- A feature rich platform with a solid free plan to take advantage of.
- Support for cash app and Apple Pay.
- A lot of features like delivery and curb side pickup focused on serving restaurants.
- Square has a surprisingly good blogging platform for content marketing.
- Lead capture forms for email marketing.
- The appointment booking feature is great for small business that provide a service in addition to products.
Cons:
- Like Squarespace, the design looks great but you’re limited in how your store looks and how much of it you can customize. This is not an issue if you’re just starting out but long term this may be an issue.
Best ecommerce platforms conclusion
I hope I helped you narrow down your options and given you a better understanding of what each platform offers. From options to adding on a simple shopping cart of embedding products in an already existing site, to building out a full on online store, it’s not one size fits all for ecommerce.
My top overall choice for most people is to use Shopify to power your online store due to their solid checkout pages, app store and support.
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