Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Businesses

A small business needs an affordable ecommerce platform that’s not too hard to use and has a solid suite of built-in sales tools. We regularly test the best website builders and ecommerce platforms on the market, to help small businesses make informed decisions.

In our recent round of testing, we found that the best ecommerce platform for small businesses is Wix. It combines sales features with a wide range of built-in marketing tools, while remaining cheaper than dedicated ecommerce platforms such as Shopify or BigCommerce.

Of course, Wix won’t work for everyone. We found that Shopify is better for ambitious businesses looking to get a foothold in the ecommerce space, for example. That’s why we’ve reviewed five ecommerce platforms in total, each with different strengths. And, if you need more help making a decision, we have created an easy comparison of online store tools that gives you a quick side-by-side overview of the best platforms.

Best Ecommerce Platforms: Overview

Here’s a quick overview of the best online store platforms. We’ve quoted yearly-billed pricing across the board for ease of comparison, but most platforms will have options for monthly billing or custom plans, so check with your preferred supplier.

1. Wix: Best for Integrating Marketing and Sales Tools

Wix is a great option for small businesses looking for an ecommerce platform with built-in marketing and sales tools. Tools for creating and managing marketing content, such as social posts and email marketing, come as standard in every Wix plan, and don’t cost extra. Pair this with solid ecommerce features, and Wix is an all-in-one solution for businesses.

Why we recommend Wix

Wix is the only website builder on this list to offer built-in logo, email campaign, and social post creation tools. This means businesses can design and manage their online marketing without the need to integrate with or pay for a third-party app. Comparatively, competitors Shopify, Squarespace, and Square only offer built-in email marketing, while BigCommerce has no built-in marketing tools.

Plus, Wix offers a comprehensive range of ecommerce features. Businesses can start selling products or services from the $29 per month Core plan, and integrate sales with online marketplaces such as Amazon and social media platforms such as Facebook. This is a similar level of ecommerce functionality offered by industry giants Shopify and BigCommerce.

However, Wix’s shipping tools and inventory management features aren’t quite as advanced as these two rivals. You can’t generate shipping labels through Wix, for example.

Another area where Wix stands out is its AI tools, which make it possible for businesses to build an ecommerce website quickly. Wix’s AI website builder can produce a wide variety of website designs based on the same prompt, and AI tools extend to other areas of content creation, including writing, image generation, and marketing.

Wix also has a good help and support network, making it a good option for small businesses that are relatively new to ecommerce. Live support can be accessed via phone and live chat, plus Wix has an extensive knowledge center with relevant and up-to-date guides and tutorials.

Where Wix could improve

Wix is the only ecommerce platform on this list that doesn’t let users switch website templates once they’ve published their website. This means Wix isn’t the best option for businesses that envision a rebrand in the future. It’s also the only platform that doesn’t allow for unlimited products, with a 50,000 product limit.

Additionally, while Wix certainly isn’t the most difficult to use platform on this list (Shopify and BigCommerce vie for that title), its dashboard and editor can be overwhelming for beginners since there’s such a wide range of tools to choose from. Small businesses looking for a very basic ecommerce platform might prefer Square Online.

Finally, Wix charges a slightly high payment processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 for businesses that choose to process payments with Wix Payments. Competitors Shopify and Squarespace have the same starting fee, but it gets lowered on more expensive plans, whereas Wix’s fee is the same on all its plans. To get lower fees, you can always process payments through a third-party provider at no extra cost.

Wix pricing

Wix’s ecommerce tools are only available from its $29 per month Core plan; the $17 Light plan is for informational websites. There’s a 14-day free trial period on its premium plans. Details of Wix’s plans are shown below:

We’ve created a Wix pricing page if you want to look more closely at costs.

2. Shopify: Best for Growing your Ecommerce Business

Shopify is a comprehensive omnichannel online selling tool. It allows for massive scalability and even serves large, well-known retail brands, such as Allbirds. You’ll start with a clean, well-presented shopfront, and you can bulk-import and sell unlimited products as your catalog expands.

Why we recommend Shopify

Shopify is the best for serious online retailers that are focused on growth and expansion. Its $29 per month Basic plan is a popular starting point for many small businesses, who can scale up to enterprise level with Shopify’s Plus plan.

With Shopify, businesses will get access to a wide range of sales features, including inventory management at multiple sites, calculating taxes, managing international shipping, and much more.

It’s also a great option for businesses interested in omnichannel selling, since Shopify integrates with over 8,000 apps, including popular online marketplaces such as Amazon and social media channels. You can also easily sell in person with Shopify POS, Shopify’s native POS system, which includes software and hardware. This earned Shopify a spot on our list of the best retail POS systems, something Wix’s basic POS systems didn’t achieve. BigCommerce, Shopify’s biggest rival, also doesn’t offer any tools for selling in-person.

Besides sales tools, Shopify has other qualities. For one, it’s easy to create a website that’s mobile optimized with Shopify, since websites automatically optimize their layout for mobile and tablets, and users can edit the mobile and tablet layout so it’s exactly to their liking.

Plus, with its newly-launched AI website builder (released in late 2024), it’s become easier and faster to create an online store with Shopify. Shopify’s AI writing tools can also speed up product listing by writing product descriptions for you, a tool that’s not available with competitor BigCommerce.

Where Shopify could improve

Although the addition of more AI tools has made Shopify easier to use, it’s still not the best option for novice users looking for a simple website. Shopify is designed for running an omnichannel sales business, so its backend is packed full of features, which can be overwhelming. Squarespace or Square Online are better options for ease-of-use.

Additionally, Shopify isn’t the best option for design-focused businesses. Its prebuilt templates aren’t the most modern and unique-looking ones on the market, and you’ll need to put in more work to make them stand out than you would with Squarespace’s templates.

Finally, although Shopify has made an effort to launch more AI tools in the past year, it’s still not an AI-first platform. Businesses looking to use AI to speed up their content creation might prefer Wix.

Shopify pricing

Shopify has four ecommerce plans, ranging from $29 to $2,300 per month. It’s $5 per month Starter plan isn’t technically an ecommerce plan, since it doesn’t allow you to create a website, but it does let users sell via social media. It’s the second-cheapest option for selling online after Square Online’s free plan. Here’s what you need to know:

For a more detailed breakdown of Shopify’s pricing, head over to our guide.

3. Squarespace: Best for Visually Driven Businesses

Squarespace’s stunning website designs and solid suite of ecommerce tools make it a good option for ecommerce businesses that are look-focused. Typical users might be businesses selling trendy fashion items or luxury goods, or those in the fitness and wellness space, such as pilates studios.

Why we recommend Squarespace

The striking beauty of its design templates, optimized for both web and mobile use, is one of Squarespace’s standout features. It is also easy to personalize designs without running the risk of ruining their cohesion, since Squarespace’s editor has a unique grid format that guides users on where to place elements.

Squarespace’s ease of use makes it accessible to small businesses with limited experience to set up a website and start selling, breaking down any barriers that come with more complex platforms, such as BigCommerce, or coding a website yourself.

But the platform is more than just aesthetic designs and an easy drag-and-drop editor, it also has some great sales tools, particularly those designed for taking appointment bookings. Squarespace has specialized scheduling and booking management software called Acuity, which can be accessed directly from the Squarespace backend.

With Squarespace’s Acuity app, businesses can create a customized bookings page, set availability for different staff and across different locations, send automated reminders to clients, accept payment, and even store customer credit card information for next time.

Squarespace’s ecommerce tools can also be used for selling physical products, not just services. The platform integrates with third-party shipping apps and marketplaces, like its rivals Wix and Shopify, and businesses can create a customized checkout page that matches the aesthetic of their Squarespace website.

Where Squarespace could improve

Squarespace didn’t perform well in our site speed tests, perhaps due to its high volume of content and imagery. A slow site speed can cause customers to leave your website before completing a purchase, which can result in lost income. Wix performed the best for site speed out of all the platforms on this list.

Additionally, although Squarespace has tools for selling online, it doesn’t offer any card machines or POS hardware for selling in person, although it has a partnership with Square for in person payments. Still, appointment-based businesses, such as salons or workout studios, that take in-person payments might prefer competitors with native in-person sales equipment, such as Wix, Shopify, and Square.

Lastly, Squarespace is the only ecommerce platform on this list that does not offer over-the-phone support. If you want to get live support fast, we recommend Wix or Shopify.

Squarespace pricing

You can now start taking payments on all four of Squarespace’s plans, which range from $16 to $99 per month, although the $16 per month Basic plan is more for selling services or digital products than physical products. Here’s what you need to know:

If you want to deep dive into what each plan has to offer, check out our Squarespace pricing guide.

4. Square Online: Best for Small Hospitality Businesses

Square is a great option for hospitality businesses, such as small restaurants, fast-food joints, or food trucks, that want to set up an online store to take online orders or sell merchandise. That’s because Square has one of the best restaurant POS systems on the market, which its ecommerce platform integrates seamlessly with.

Why we recommend Square Online

Square offers free POS software and affordable hardware, which easily integrates with its ecommerce platform. Its three types of POS software cater to restaurants, retail stores, or salons, making it a cost-effective option for small businesses that take payments in person but want to supplement with online sales.

Besides its POS software, what sets Square apart from other providers is that it’s the only one to offer a free ecommerce plan. On the free plan, you can sign up to sell online with no monthly subscription fees, and only pay card processing fees on sales.

As with Square’s POS software, its ecommerce platform is split into three types: an online ordering platform for restaurants, an online store for retail, or a booking platform for salons or hospitality.

The free plan also includes a decent number of sales tools, with options such as in-store pickup and integrations with third-party shipping apps, shipping label printing, and tax calculations, to name a few.

Of course, there are limitations to the free ecommerce plan, and they’re mostly around website design and customisation. The free plan doesn’t include a custom domain, and it doesn’t give you access to Square’s template or stock image library, features available from the $29 per month Plus plan.

The paid ecommerce plans also come with slightly more advanced reporting tools, and more options for product categorization. You’ll also get access to AI-generated product descriptions, like Shopify, which help you to publish your new product pages faster.

Where Square Online could improve

Unlike Shopify, which is ecommerce first, POS second, Square is more of a POS first, ecommerce second provider. This means it’s not the best option for businesses that primarily sell online and want to grow their ecommerce business.

Square doesn’t allow for selling in multiple currencies, for example, limiting international expansion, and doesn’t have many built-in marketing tools, besides basic email marketing templates. There’s also no blog function on Square’s ecommerce platform, which means it’s not a good option for businesses that want to create a blog to supplement their sales.

For serious ecommerce businesses that still want tools for selling in person, Shopify is a better option.

Square Online pricing

Square has three price plans to choose from, ranging from $0 to $79 per month:

You should be aware of the following Square payment processing fees, which apply to certain non-traditional payments:

• AfterPay (you get the full amount upfront, but the customer pays in installments): 6% + $0.30 per transaction fee
• Cash App (digital wallet): 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee
• PayPal: 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction fee
• Google Pay/Apple Pay (via Square Payments): 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction fee

5. BigCommerce: Best for Advanced Inventory and Order Management

BigCommerce is best for growing online-only businesses that need advanced inventory and order management features that can handle thousands of stock keeping units (SKUs), sync inventory across marketplaces, and streamline operations.

Why we recommend BigCommerce

BigCommerce can serve enterprise-level ecommerce businesses, making it a great option for small businesses that are expanding rapidly. It allows you to upload unlimited products, allowing for millions of SKUs, 600 SKU variants on a single product, and 250 product options.

A BigCommerce ecommerce platform lets you create and manage multiple online storefronts from the same platform, helping your small business turn into multiple businesses and brands. It’s also possible to integrate and sell on third-party marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon, and social media platforms.

BigCommerce also has particularly strong shipping tools. Like Shopify, it allows users to calculate shipping costs, integrate with third-party shipping apps, create and manage shipping regions, and create bespoke shipping for individual products.

BigCommerce has the upper hand over its biggest rival, Shopify, when it comes to payment processing fees, since BigCommerce offers overall cheaper processing fees than Shopify. That’s because it charges 0% additional transaction fees on payments processed with a third-party provider, whereas Shopify charges transaction fees of 0.6%-2%.

BigCommerce also offers special rates through its partnerships with PayPal and Braintree, with businesses able to access card processing fees as low as 1.2% + $0.30, far less than the average 2.9% + $0.30 competitors charge. This makes it a good option for businesses with a high sales volume, since they’ll see big savings.

Where BigCommerce could improve

BigCommerce isn’t the best option for businesses looking for an ecommerce platform with cutting-edge website designs, which gives them creative control. Its prebuilt templates can look a little dated or overcrowded, and customization is limited in some areas. For example, you can’t fully customize your checkout page in terms of layout and branding.

If you’re a small business that doesn’t plan on massively expanding, Squarespace is a better option for optimal website designs, while Shopify is a good alternative for ambitious businesses.

Additionally, like Shopify, BigCommerce can be difficult to use, especially for beginners. This is partly due to its wide range of built-in tools. However, the design of its editor could also be improved to make it easy to locate elements and features.

BigCommerce pricing

BigCommerce has four pricing plans, one of which is for large businesses and has custom pricing. The other three range from $29 to $399 per month:

Buying Guide: How to Choose the Best Ecommerce Platform

The best ecommerce platform for Staples (a brand that happens to use Shopify) isn’t necessarily the best choice for you. Here are the factors you should bear in mind when it comes to selecting an online selling tool:

• Selling location: Wix is better for digital sales, but Square is easy to connect with in-person selling
• Level of technical skill needed: Squarespace is on the easy side, whereas Shopify and BigCommerce are harder
• International selling capability: Shopify supports multiple currencies, but Squarespace doesn’t

After you’ve identified those key features of your business plan, you can move forward with selecting an ecommerce platform. We’ve gone into more detail about which type of user each tool is best suited to, in the reviews below.

What’s the Difference Between an Online Marketplace and an Ecommerce Platform?

It’s easy to get confused about the different types of online selling platforms. But the differences matter, a lot. An online marketplace is owned by a company, and shoppers can buy from many different sellers who list their goods there.

By contrast, an ecommerce platform is a tool you can use to build your own online store, and yours are the only goods or services for sale on that website.

Here are some examples:

As you can see, the marketplace sites (also confusingly known as ecommerce sites) are akin to a shopping mall where you can choose to enter a number of different stores. But the ecommerce platforms are the online version of your physical store.

Should I Use an Ecommerce Platform or Online Marketplace?

Honestly, nothing is stopping you from using both. But if you do, you’ll need to ensure you sync your inventory across all of your online sales channels. That way you’ll avoid a situation where you can’t fulfill orders from your website because you’ve already sold out on eBay.

Let’s quickly look at the differences between using an ecommerce platform versus an online marketplace:

The main points of difference are the cost to you (the seller) and product visibility. Let’s look at each of those.

Costs of Ecommerce Platforms versus Online Marketplaces

The main cost of an ecommerce platform is typically the monthly subscription fee (although Square Online has a free plan), which online marketplaces typically do not charge, and payment processing fees.

Online marketplaces typically take a commission per sale – some ecommerce platforms do this as well, such as Shopify. This is what makes Shopify a pretty expensive ecommerce platform. Some online marketplaces charge a listing fee – eBay and Etsy do this. However, ecommerce platforms do not charge such a fee.

You can also pay extra to “boost” the visibility of your product listing on an online marketplace. On platforms like eBay, you are charged only when a click on a paid placement leads to a sale. On Etsy, however, you are charged per click no matter if the viewer buys your item or not. A model like this can cause you to lose out on profit per sale. However, promoted listings can draw in shoppers to browse the rest of your store.

Product Visibility on Ecommerce Platforms versus Online Marketplaces

The supposed advantage of listing your products on marketplaces like Amazon is that buyers are already searching there. Therefore, your products should automatically get lots of visibility from eager buyers. But if that were entirely true, there wouldn’t be any need for paid marketplace listings (described in the section above).

Therefore, listing your products on a third-party marketplace is certainly no guarantee of better visibility for your wares.

With an ecommerce platform, SEO strategy is vital. That means you need to set your website up well enough that search engines pull in your product pages. However, you may also want to promote your ecommerce store with pay-per-click ads on Google, Bing, Ecosia or other search providers.

How We Test Ecommerce Platforms