Best E-Commerce Website Builders Based on In-Depth Reviews
- 200+Hours of research
- 50+Sources used
- 20Companies vetted
- 4Features reviewed
- 5Top
Picks
- Read subscription plans carefully and check for any hidden fees
- Avoid platforms that are not mobile-friendly
- More sales channels mean higher revenue
- The best platforms can be customized according to your business needs
How We Found the Best Ecommerce Website Builders
Our Top Picks: Ecommerce Website Reviews
As more and more people take their shopping online, small business owners and individuals looking to sell goods and services are taking advantage of ecommerce website builders, which provide an easy way to create, customize, and manage every aspect of your online storefront, from its design and color palette to its payment options.
Ecommerce builders are ideal for merchants with zero to limited knowledge in coding. The best platforms make managing your online store as easy as a simple drag-and-drop, and allow you to track your sales and run your business from wherever you are, 24/7.
Here are the best ones:
Volusion review
Best for Startups and Small Businesses
Screenshot Volusion.com, June 2020
Founded in 2009, Volusion is the ideal ecommerce website for small businesses or startups with a lot of room for growth and expansion. The Austin-based company has most of the tools you need built right into its platform, which means you won’t need to add a lot of extensions to manage every aspect of your online store.
Volusion’s plans start at $29 per month and each tier has its own caps on staff users, sales per year, and products on display. If none of the plans fit your specific needs, custom plans are available. Also, its mobile app lets you handle your sales from anywhere, at any time.
Other highlights include:
- Unlimited bandwidth in all plans
- No transaction fees
- Integrations with Amazon Marketplace and eBay
- Customizable shipping rates for your products
- 45 Themes (11 free)
- 2.15% rate on credit card transactions
- 24/7 access to ecommerce experts
- Inventory management
- Rich text product descriptions
- Automatic tax calculator
- Abandoned cart reporting
However, there’s this:
-
While most ecommerce websites offer SSL certificates — required for credit card transactions — for free, Volusion only offers it in its “unlimited” plans.
You can try Volusion free for 14 days, no credit card required. For more information, visit their website.
BigCommerce review
Best for International Businesses
Screenshot BigCommerce.com, June 2020
With online sales of over $25 billion, BigCommerce has the tools your online store needs to thrive internationally. Its ability to handle multiple languages and over 250 types of currency in 129 countries is unmatched by any other competitor, which makes it the go-to ecommerce platform for merchants looking to sell outside the US.
BigCommerce is the only ecommerce website builder with built-in PayPal One Touch, which will help you sell to over 170 million PayPal users all over the world. Also, its average loading time of under 10 milliseconds makes it one of the fastest in the industry.
Other highlights include:
- Plans begin at $29.95 per month, and each tier has its own cap on sales.
- No transaction fees.
- Shared SSL certificate included in all plans
- 10% discount for subscribers of the annual plans
- Unlimited product listings
- Unlimited bandwidth and file storage
- Native integration with Google Shopping, Amazon, Facebook, eBay, and Instagram
- Over 65 global payment gateway options
- Library of over 5,000 extensions
- Mobile cart conversion that’s 3x that of the industry (according to the company’s website)
However, there’s this:
-
While BigCommerce offers over 160 themed templates, only 11 of them are free of charge. All other templates are pretty pricey, starting at $150 each.
BigCommerce is now offering a 15-day trial and 3 months free when you subscribe to any of their plans. For more information, visit their website.
Shopify review
Best for Beginners
Screenshot Shopify.com, June 2020
The most popular ecommerce website on the planet is also one of the easiest to use. With over 1 million subscribers, Shopify sets the standard when it comes to ease of use and intuitive interfaces. For this reason, it’s the ideal ecommerce builder for online “solopreneurs” with zero knowledge in coding.
Shopify’s plans begin at $29 per month and include unlimited product listing, real-time sales statistics, inventory tracker, customer reengagement tools, 24-hour support and over 70 customizable templates.
Other highlights include:
- Drag-and-drop management
- Automated email notifications for abandoned carts
- International options available for Canada, UK, and Ireland
- Sales analytics via a dashboard
However, there’s this:
-
Shopify does not offer email hosting, meaning that you will not have a dedicated email for your business unless you pay for a third-party app.
You can try Shopify with its 14-day free trial, no credit card required. For more information, visit their website.
WooCommerce review
Best for WordPress Integration
Screenshot WooCommerce.com, June 2020
If you already have a site on WordPress, look no further. WooCommerce is an open-source plugin that can be installed, used, and modified for free on WordPress, one of the most powerful hosting sites in the world. With WooCommerce, there are no setup or monthly fees to worry about.
WooCommerce is fully customizable, with thousands of extensions available for installation, including catalog management, geo-location support, mobile optimization, Google Analytics, and lots more. In short, it will turn your WordPress site into a full-fledged online store.
Other highlights include:
- International options available through paid extensions
- Starting at 2.9% plus $0.30 per credit card transaction.
- Inventory management
- Shipping and tax calculator
- Online community of hundreds of thousands of users
- Available in 24 languages
- The app has everything you need to manage your online store
However, there’s this:
-
WooCommerce only offers customer assistance via live chat. It does not offer phone or mail support.
For more information, visit their website.
Magento review
Best for Experts
Screenshot Magento.com, June 2020
If you plan on using the services of an IT or know how to code yourself, then Magento is definitely the best alternative for you. The ecommerce website builder, which is part of Adobe’s Experience Cloud, offers two alternatives for ecommerce merchants: “Open Source” and “Commerce”.
The basic open source platform is free to use and gives you 100% control over every aspect of your online business. With its library of over 5,000 extensions, it allows for virtually limitless flexibility and customization as long as you’re willing to spend the time, manpower, and effort required. You should also know that, while the basic open-sourced platform is free to use, most extensions carry a price.
On the other hand, Magento’s “Commerce” option offers all-in-one cloud solutions that are already packed with the tools you need to run your online business. You’ll get all the benefits of open-source platforms —such as unlimited scalability — plus the support of a team of ecommerce experts to guide you every step of the way. However, plans can be very pricey and can range anywhere between $15,000 to $50,000 per year.
Other highlights include:
- Customer behavior analysis via Adobe Sensei, which uses artificial intelligence to personalize recommendations
- Free Amazon Sales Channel extension
- Integrated checkout, payment and shipping
- Optimized for mobile shopping
- Instant purchase feature available at checkout
- Newsletter management
However, there’s this:
-
Magento’s open source platform does not offer any type of customer support, which means you’re on your own when it comes to troubleshooting.
Also, Magento does not offer a trial period. For more information, visit their website.
Further Insight Into Our Methodology
There are hundreds of ecommerce website builders, each claiming to be the “best”. With all of them competing for your attention, it would take dozens of hours of thorough, in-depth research to find out which ones are really the best ones.
And that’s what we did. For days, we dug into and analyzed some of the most popular ecommerce websites in order to give you the best ones out there. In the end, we decided the following four factors are essential for an ecommerce website to stand out in a very crowded field:
Hosting Capabilities
Ecommerce hosting refers to the tools and features that are essential for an online store to work efficiently and provide a seamless customer experience. These include bandwidth and file storage capacity, safety protocols and privacy protection, design and template options, shopping cart features, and payment methods. Let’s take a look at each:
Bandwidth and File Storage: In a nutshell, bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be transferred between computers and devices connected to the internet. When it comes to ecommerce, bandwidth determines your online store’s capacity for handling visits. The larger the bandwidth, the more traffic your site will be able to get. But most importantly, larger bandwidth means faster loading times. This is very important as, per a Google report, most online shoppers will leave a site that does not load after three seconds.
Bandwidth is also directly related to file storage capacity, which refers to the amount of data available for constructing, designing, and managing your online store. In practice, file storage capacity determines how many items you can sell on your site, how many images and videos you can upload, and how much information you can store.
The good news is, some of the best ecommerce website builders offer unlimited bandwidth and file storage within their subscription plans.
Safety: Strong protection protocols targeting fraud, hacking, and theft are essential to an online store’s trustworthiness and transaction safety. For this reason, we prioritized ecommerce websites that adhere to safety standards like the SSL and the PCI-DDS.
The SSL, short for “Secure Sockets Layer”, encrypts your online store’s data so that all transactions are hidden from any third parties. This way, only you and your customers will be able to access the data. On the other hand, PCI-DDS—short for “Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard”— is a protocol designed to ensure all credit card information in your platform is thoroughly safeguarded.
Designs and Templates: These tools allow you to design your online storefront from top to bottom, including themes, menus, items for sale, search filters, and the overall look and feel of your interface. The best ecommerce website builders make designing a professional-looking online store as easy as a drag-and-drop.
Shopping Cart and Payment Options: There are lots of ways for making online payments, and your online store should be able to handle most of them. For this reason, we prioritized ecommerce website builders that allow for multiple payment options.
Ease of Use
Not so long ago, people and companies looking to sell online had to hire a professional coder—or learn how to code themselves— in order to create and manage their online stores, as it was an extremely complex endeavor. Now, with the arrival of ecommerce website builders, virtually anybody can create their own, customized online storefront with just a few clicks.
For this factor, we prioritized companies that make every ecommerce process—from designing to tracking sales— as easy as managing a simple social media account.
Marketing & Analytic Tools
Besides giving you a simple way to create and manage your online store, the best ecommerce websites also give you tools that make it easy for you to market your business and analyze your sales data.
Some of the most important marketing tools of this type include customer outreach services such as live chat email marketing campaigns, and social media integrations, all of which will help you attract as many visitors as possible. On the other hand, analytic tools are essential for organizing all your sales data, which will in turn make it easier for you to make sense of the market, change course when needed, plan ahead, and develop your best sales strategy.
Cost
Most ecommerce website builders offer several monthly subscription plans that are tiered to fit most business’ needs. This is important, as you don’t want to pay for features that your business will never use.
When considering costs, we took a close look at any additional fees that might increase your monthly payment. If a company either charges too many additional fees or is not transparent about its pricing details, you should avoid doing business with them. For this reason, we prioritized companies that: 1) offered customizable and/or tiered plans that let you pay only for what you need, and; 2) are transparent about all fees.
Helpful Information on Ecommerce Website Builders
With an estimated $6.5 trillion in sales revenue by 2022, ecommerce is not only here to stay, but well on its way to dethroning brick and mortar stores as the number one choice for shopping. It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that businesses large and small are going online in record numbers. However, while big companies have the resources to hire professional coders to handle their online storefronts, small business owners are making use of ecommerce website builders, which, aside from being far more affordable, don’t require any technical knowledge.
One of the big advantages of an ecommerce website is that all the tools you need to manage your online store are built into a unified platform. Merchants are able to let go of some of the most complex online tasks, giving them time to focus on expanding their businesses. Also, if things go wrong, you or your customers can benefit from the ecommerce website builder’s support department, most of which are available 24/7.
In short, ecommerce website builders are a great, inexpensive solution for business owners looking to have control over most aspects of their online businesses, including designs, sales, market overviews, order management, and customer outreach. If you want to sell products or services online but don’t know how to even start, an ecommerce website will get you going.
What to Watch Out for With Ecommerce Websites
Before deciding on an ecommerce website builder, make sure their subscription plan either meets your business’ needs or can be customized accordingly. You should also review the plan carefully to avoid paying for services and features that are irrelevant to your business.
Another thing to watch out for are the additional fees, which many companies do not publicize efficiently and are therefore “hidden”. Remember that these fees may increase your monthly payments without you even knowing beforehand. For this reason, we strongly recommend you read the subscription plan’s fine print for any additional fees.
Lastly, the ideal thing to do before subscribing to an ecommerce website is to make use of their free trial, if available. This way, you’ll be able to test ride the platform and find out if it’s right for you.
FAQs about eCommerce Websites
What are the different types of eCommerce?
There are four main types of ecommerce transactions: 1) Business-to-Business (B2B) - Businesses selling or outsourcing their services and products to other businesses; 2) Business-to-Consumer (B2C) - Businesses selling their services and products to users; 3) Consumer-to-Business (C2B) - Individuals selling their products or services to businesses; and 4) Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) - Individuals selling their goods or services to one another.
How much does building an eCommerce website cost?
The cost of building an ecommerce website depends on the platform you choose and your individual needs, such as purchasing your own domain name, file storage, special features, and transaction fees. Website builders can range from as low as $8 per month up to $300 per month. Keep in mind that while ecommerce websites display their monthly costs, most will process the total fee for the year upfront.
What are the security risks associated with eCommerce?
All of our top recommended eCommerce websites are secured with encryption, which privatizes any password and sensitive information entered. However, as with any online platform, there is the possibility of security risks from cybercriminals, such as hacking, credit card fraud, money theft, and data misuse.
What can I do to keep my eCommerce website protected?
To protect your ecommerce website, it’s important to regularly back up your data, in case of manual error or hardware failure. Choose a reputable hosting service that provides SSL (Security Sockets Layer) Certificate to secure and protect online transactions. Make sure that you use complex passwords and change them periodically. You can also install extra security software on your website, such as anti-fraud and anti-malware.
Can I use an ecommerce website if I don’t know how to code?
Yes. In fact, most ecommerce website builders are designed specifically for people who have little or no coding experience. With some of the platforms, managing your online store is as easy as doing a drag-and-drop.
What if I want to sell outside the US?
Some ecommerce websites have the ability to manage several currencies for sales outside the US and provide international shipping, tax calculators for foreign countries, and even translation services.
I mostly work from my phone or tablet. Do ecommerce website builders allow for mobile use?
Yes. Some of the best ecommerce website builders, such as the ones included in this review, have developed apps that let you manage every aspect of your online store via a dedicated mobile app.