The Best Ecommerce Platforms for Canada 2023

Open laptop with the word website across the screen, comparing best ecommerce platforms
Sabrina Dougall
A head shot of Natasha Willett - a blonde woman in a work shirt with a blue background

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After extensive testing, Shopify (4.7/5) topped our list of the best ecommerce platforms on the market today. With Wix coming in at a close second (4.6/5), we'd recommend Shopify for online sellers prepared to spend more on quality sales and inventory software.

The Top 5 Ecommerce Platforms 2023

  1. Shopify: 4.7/5 – Best for sales-specific features
  2. Wix: 4.6/5 – Best for marketing features
  3. BigCommerce: 4.4/5 – Best for multichannel selling
  4. Square Online: 4.4/5 – Best for value for money
  5. Squarespace: 4.3/5 – Best for selling digital products or portfolios

We know how tough it is to pick the best ecommerce platforms Canada has to offer. While you’ve been cooking up great business ideas, like dropshipping, we’ve been analysing web store builder software tools.

We compared these programmes based on factors that matter most to Canadian merchants: value for money, design options, ease of use and sales functions. Our researchers scored each platform based on more than 50 aspects, and asked a focus group for their feedback, too.

Here are the results.

5 Best Ecommerce Platforms:

Below, you’ll find our comparison table followed by a handy overview of each platform.

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Shopify

Wix

BigCommerce

Square Online

Squarespace

Score
4.7
Score
4.9
Score
4.4
Score
4.4
Score
4.8
Best For

Advanced sales features

Best For

Creating a good-looking website with excellent sales features

Best For

Multichannel selling

Best For

Value for money

Best For

Selling digital products or portfolios

Price Range

CAD$7-CAD$2,675+/month

Price Range
Price Range

CAD$39-CAD$400/month

Price Range

CAD$0-CAD$85/month

Price Range

All prices in Canadian dollars (we've converted Shopify and BigCommerce pricing from USD, as listed on their websites).

Looking for website builders?

This page compares ecommerce platforms for building online stores where you can sell products. If you're looking for generic website builders (to create portfolios, personal sites, business or landing pages), check out our guide to the best website builders.

Shopify 4.7/5

Would suit an ambitious entrepreneur ready to invest in sales functions

Sales features /5Design /5Value for money /5Help and support /5Ease of use /5
4.73.93.04.43.5

Shopify

In our latest round of testing, Shopify shot up to an overall score of 4.7/5 compared with 4.2 the year prior. This comes down to its intuitive inventory management tools and improved customer support. Our researchers appreciated the ability to upload single or multiple products, receive daily revenue reports and use an online invoice generator for simpler payment collection.

Shopify also offers superb multichannel integration, letting you sell through Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, and others. In that sense, it offers more options than Wix and Woocommerce.

However, it’s the only platform to enforce its own transaction fee (2% on the ‘Basic’ plan) unless you use Shopify Payments. It also relies on third-party apps for much of its functionality, which also adds to costs.

Shopify is a secret weapon for complex inventory management.

Pros

  • Excellent multichannel integration
  • Best sales-specific features of any platform we tested
  • Strong server response time (pages load quickly)
  • Intuitive inventory management features

Cons

  • Transaction fees if you don’t use Shopify’s own payment gateway
  • Less creative freedom on your storefront than Wix eCommerce
  • Fewer in-built features (you'll rely more on costly apps)

As of February, Shopify now allows you to show different products to international audiences, so you can ensure customers only see products available in their region. That's helpful for global businesses that retail in more than one geolocation. You can also set country-specific pricing with Shopify, which you can't do with Wix, even though it's a commonly requested feature.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify offers a 3-day free trial period plus three months for $1. There's three core price plans (priced in USD, but we've converted to CAD). We go into more detail on the features available at each price tier in our Shopify price guide but here's a quick overview:

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Price (Paying Monthly)

Starter

Price (Paying Monthly)

Basic

Price (Paying Monthly)

Shopify

Price (Paying Monthly)

Advanced

Price (Paying Monthly)

Plus

Price (Paying Annually)

$7/month

Price (Paying Annually)

$38/month

Price (Paying Annually)

$99/month

Price (Paying Annually)

$389/month

Price (Paying Annually)

From $2,677/month

Best For

Adding a buy button to your existing website or social media

Best For

Starting a small online store

Best For

Growing your business

Best For

Larger online stores

Best For

High volume merchants, large businesses

Key Features
  • Get “shoppable links” (URLs)
  • Product pages
  • Basic order management
  • Customer support
Key Features
  • Unlimited products
  • Four inventory locations
  • Two staff accounts
  • Free SSL certificate
  • Domestic credit card rate (online): 2.9% + 30¢
Key Features
  • Ecommerce automations
  • Five inventory locations
  • Five staff accounts
  • Domestic credit card rate (online): 2.7% + 30¢
Key Features
  • 15 staff accounts
  • Eight inventory locations
  • Advanced reports
  • Third-party calculated shipping
  • Domestic credit card rate (online): 2.4% + 30¢
Key Features
  • 99.99% uptime
  • Built-in AR, video, 3D media on product pages
  • Automation for complex processes
  • Faster checkout
Transaction Fees

5%

Transaction Fees

2%

Transaction Fees

1%

Transaction Fees

0.5%

Transaction Fees

0.15%

If you're keen on starting an online store but not sure how it should look, then go and get some style inspiration from our rundown of the best 10 Shopify stores. You'll be able to pick up some truly handy tips and hints on web store creation from some big brands that already use Shopify.

On the other hand, you may not even know what you want to sell yet. If you're interested in earning extra income through ecommerce and want to put a lot of effort into the creative branding and marketing side of things, you can always get into dropshipping. This means purchasing inventory after you've made a sale so you don't have any storage fees. Curious? Why not check out our guide on how to start dropshipping with Shopify to learn more.

Sell like never before with Shopify

Wix Ecommerce 4.6/5

Would suit your business if you want SEO and digital marketing prowess

Sales features /5Design /5Value for money /5Help and support /5Ease of use /5
3.93.54.24.34.0

Wix

If you’re struggling to get the word out about your company, Wix ecommerce plans boast six marketing apps, social media integrations and live social media feeds. It offers a built-in video-maker and logo-maker as well as the option to hire quality-checked freelancers.

Wix scored a perfect 5/5 in SEO functionality testing, offering everything from image alt attributes to SEO best practice prompts. As detailed in our Wix review, it offers comprehensive ecommerce functions, including abandoned cart recovery, across all three price options.

Drawbacks? There’s a steep learning curve – test users found the editor clustered and challenging to use. Plus, syncing your physical inventory with your online store is far easier on other platforms. There’s also no specific fraud detection, unlike with Shopify and BigCommerce.

Wix is our top choice for business owners looking to improve marketing and search engine reach.

Pros

  • Lots of creative control
  • Wide array of social selling and marketing features
  • Video-builder and logo-maker included

Cons

  • Editor is clustered and challenging to use
  • Slow server response time
  • Inventory syncing is fairly difficult

When you're in charge of any kind of website, search engine optimisation is the set of techniques you need to draw in visitors from Google, Bing, Baidu, and Yandex. Wix is a market leader in helping non-experts get ahead in the SEO stakes. Not only does the website builder offer SEO tips as you create, but since 2022, Wix users have been able to integrate the Semrush SEO tool into their Wix website. Wix articles and video guides show you how to best use free keyword research data and search volume analysis with this integration. That gives you a better chance at making sales, because SEO is non-paid marketing that attracts interested buyers to your wares.

Better yet, as of February this year, Wix now integrates with Google Search Console, the silver bullet of SEO analytics. Wix Analytics builds website traffic reports based off data directly from Google. This gives you accurate understanding of which web pages perform well on Google, compared with guesswork and applying general best practice.

Neither Shopify or Squarespace have Semrush or Google Search Console integrations. Instead, Shopify offers “SEO Olympus” which is a much more basic SEO tool. You won't get anywhere near the depth of data you would with Semrush plus Google Search Console.

Wix eCommerce Pricing

Wix offers a 14-day money-back guarantee on its premium plans, and we're glad to offer our readers a discount code: “GET10!” for 10% off subscriptions. There are three ecommerce-specific plans to choose from:

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Price (Paying Monthly)

Business Basic

Price (Paying Monthly)

Business Unlimited

Price (Paying Monthly)

Business VIP

Price (Paying Annually)
Price (Paying Annually)
Price (Paying Annually)
Best For

Starting a small online store

Best For

Selling internationally or subscriptions

Best For

High volume selling online or large-scale dropshipping

Key Features
  • List unlimited products
  • Take online payments
  • 20GB storage
  • 5hrs video
  • Facebook and Instagram sales
  • Abandoned cart emails
Key Features
  • 35GB storage
  • Sell subscriptions
  • Prices in local currencies
  • Print shipping labels
  • Automated sales tax for 100 transactions/month
  • 10hrs video
Key Features
  • 50GB storage
  • Customized data reports
  • Rewards for loyalty
  • Unlimited dropshipping (via Modalyst)
  • Unlimited video hours
  • Priority support
Transaction Fees

0%

Transaction Fees

0%

Transaction Fees

0%

Wix is one of very few ecommerce platforms that doesn't charge transaction fees. If you want to find out more about the costs and features of each tier, check out our Wix pricing guide. We've also taken a deep dive into the pros and cons of Wix vs Squarespace in case you'd like to take a more in-depth look at those two side-by-side.

BigCommerce 4.4/5

Would suit your business if you want wider multichannel selling options

Sales features /5Design /5Value for money /5Help and support /5Ease of use /5
4.64.23.04.53.3

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is geared towards larger enterprises and is best suited for online clothing stores. A major reason for this is its strong multichannel integration – BigCommerce enables sales through Walmart in addition to eBay, Amazon and Google Shopping.

Its stand-out feature is inventory functionality, though overall it feels like an all-in-one solution with great multichannel marketplace and social media sales integrations. One user said: “BigCommerce goes beyond just creating a website – you can create an online business with the capability of running itself once you have the setup correct.”

As far as pricing goes, BigCommerce scored low in value for money (3/5). That said, it charges no transaction fees – unlike Shopify and Square – and this is a major financial bonus.

While it’s the least user-friendly platform we've tested (scoring 3.3/5 for ease of use), BigCommerce is brilliant at helping you to manage your entire business process, not just sell products.

BigCommerce can grow multichannel selling for your clothing store.

Pros

  • Strong inventory management functionality
  • No transaction fees
  • Multichannel integration across marketplaces and social media

Cons

  • Interface not very user-friendly
  • Overwhelming for tech beginners
  • Restrictive template designs

BigCommerce Pricing

BigCommerce offers a generous 15-day free trial period, and three core price plans in USD, which we’ve converted to CAD (enterprise pricing is available upon request):

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Price (Paying Monthly)

Standard

Price (Paying Monthly)

Plus

Price (Paying Monthly)

Pro

Price (Paying Annually)

$39/month

Price (Paying Annually)

$106/month

Price (Paying Annually)

$400/month

Key Features

Sell an unlimited number of products

Multichannel selling

Coupon creation

Reporting tools

No transaction fees

Key Features

Abandoned cart recovery emails

Customer loyalty programmes

Store credit card payment details

No transaction fees

Key Features

Product filters for sizes and colours

Dedicated SSL security

Google reviews

No transaction fees

Multiply inventory capability with BigCommerce

Square Online 4.4/5

Would suit your business if you want value for money.

Sales features /5Design /5Value for money /5Help and support /5Ease of use /5
3.72.64.74.13.9

Square Online

Square Online lets you build a website and sell for free, which is by far its biggest selling point. It's also one of the quickest and most affordable ways to build an online store.

While it could massively improve its design flexibility (users scored it a measly 2.6/5), and offer better reporting features, Square Online has all the essentials you need to start selling online for free, including multichannel integration. The transaction fees are relatively high, and the overall layout could be more intuitive, but Square Online is an excellent no-frills approach to selling online.

We recommend Square Online for small online stores as it doesn't overwhelm you with data fields like BigCommerce does.

Square Online is the best value for money platform we've tested.

Pros

  • Ability to sell for free
  • Straightforward set-up
  • Easy to get started quickly

Cons

  • High transaction fees
  • Overall layout could be more logical
  • Restrictive design tools

Square Online Pricing

Square Online has four price plans to choose from:

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Price (Paying Monthly)

Free

Price (Paying Monthly)

Professional

Price (Paying Monthly)

Performance

Price (Paying Monthly)

Premium

Price (Paying Annually)

Free

Price (Paying Annually)

$15/month

Price (Paying Annually)

$30/month

Price (Paying Annually)

$85/month

Key Features

Sell unlimited products

Instagram and Pinterest integration

2.9%+30¢ transaction fees

Key Features

Custom font uploads

Password-protected pages

Free custom domain for one year

2.9%+30¢ transaction fees

Key Features

Customer reviews on your site

Abandoned cart recovery

Accept PayPal

2.9% + 30¢ transaction fees

Key Features

Advanced ecommerce analytics

Real-time shipping

Low processing rate

2.6%+30¢ transaction fees

Get online and sell for less with Square Online

Squarespace Ecommerce 4.3/5

Would suit your business if you need a user-friendly interface.

Sales features /5Design /5Value for money /5Help and support /5Ease of use /5
3.13.94.23.94.2

Squarespace

Squarespace impressed us with its intuitive inventory management, visual marketing approach and improved ease of use – going from a 3.4 to 4.2/5 score since our previous testing. In fact, it's now the easiest platform to use on our list.

As detailed in our Squarespace review, it supports multichannel selling, offers the ability to create and brand your Instagram story posts, and allows for built-in social media live feeds on your website – a feature that costs extra with other platforms. Squarespace has also increased the number of integrated payment processors from two to five.

Space for improvement? Sure. Squarespace has limited stock monitoring capabilities and a relatively poor site speed performance. For a platform focused on design, we were disappointed to find a limited number of ecommerce-specific templates, too.

Squarespace is the easiest platform for a basic online store.

Pros

  • Excellent value for money
  • Easiest to use
  • Great for visual marketing

Cons

  • Relatively limited stock monitoring
  • Poor site speed performance
  • Few ecommerce templates

Squarespace Pricing

Squarespace offers a 14-day free trial period and has two ecommerce-specific pricing plans. Also, don't forget you can save 10% on Squarespace by using code EM10 at the checkout.

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Price (Paying Monthly)

Business

Price (Paying Monthly)

Basic Commerce

Price (Paying Monthly)

Advanced Commerce

Price (Paying Annually)

$31/month

Price (Paying Annually)

$37/month

Price (Paying Annually)

$66/month

Best For

New entrepreneurs and small business owners

Best For

SMBs looking to sell online

Best For

Medium-sized ecommerce businesses

Key Features
  • Sell unlimited number of products
  • Professional Google account
  • Google Ads extra credit
  • Sell gift cards
Key Features
  • Product waitlists
  • Sell on Instagram
  • Ecommerce analytics
  • Product reviews
  • Display stock levels
Key Features
  • Abandoned cart recovery
  • Sell subscriptions
  • Commerce APIs
  • Advanced shipping features (including a real-time cost calculator)
Transaction Fees

3%

Transaction Fees

0%

Transaction Fees

0%

Get online in no time with Squarespace

The Best Free Ecommerce Platform

Square Online is the best free ecommerce platform for businesses in Canada. Offering reasonable functionality at zero cost is a huge draw for many. It’s the only platform in our review to offer a free ecommerce product, though Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce and Squarespace all provide at least a 14-day free trial period.

That said, nothing in this life is truly free: Square Online takes a slice of every sale made on its free platforms. Also, its design features scored pretty low in our user testing. Overall, you’d make far better use of your time and resources by investing in a premium model to grow your sales the way you need to.

Expert Verdict

The best ecommerce platforms are Shopify and Wix eCommerce, scoring 4.7/5 and 4.6/5 respectively in our testing. Shopify is the all-in-one ecommerce solution, ideal for larger, more complex setups. In comparison, Wix eCommerce has more creative marketing options for Canadian businesses eager to grow their customer base.

Increased competition between ecommerce website builders results in improved features every year. This is great news for business owners, who enjoy a pretty good selection of online store options. Nowadays, it’s easy for just about anyone to set up their digital storefront in a few clicks. Whether you’re looking to sell services, physical items or digital products, you’re sure to find an ecommerce plan and price that’s right for you.

Why not bookmark this guide and come back to it after you’ve come up with a budget?

How We Test Ecommerce Website Builders for Businesses

We tested eight market-leading ecommerce website builders to evaluate them in terms of functionality, usability, accuracy, and aesthetics so we can make the most useful recommendations to Canadian businesses.

Our rigorous testing process means these products have been scored and rated in seven main categories of investigation and 47 subcategories – in fact, we covered 341 areas of investigation in total. We then gave each category score a ‘relevance weighting' to ensure the product's final score perfectly reflects the needs and requirements of Expert Market readers – and that's our product testing algorithm in a nutshell!

Our main testing categories for ecommerce website builders are:

Website Features: the capabilities and functionalities offered by a website builder, e.g. blog functionality, SEO capability, marketing capacity.

Sales Features: the sales capabilities and sales functionalities offered by a website builder, including shipping, inventory capacity, and payment options.

Design: the aesthetic appeal and visual layout of a website created using a website builder. It encompasses aspects such as page templates and customizable themes.

Customer Score: external customer opinion; the feedback and ratings given by customers who have used a particular website builder – the market position and reputation a website builder holds.

Ease of Use: how user-friendly and intuitive a website builder is for people with varying levels of technical expertise.

Value for Money: the balance between the cost of a website builder and the benefits it provides. It considers factors such as pricing plans, subscription models, and available features.

Help and Support: the assistance and resources available to users when they encounter issues or need guidance while using a website builder. This can include tutorials, knowledge bases, and email or chat support.

 

Reach a wider audience with Wix

FAQ

What is the best ecommerce platform in Canada and why?
Shopify is the best ecommerce platform because it has a wide range of sales-specific features and multichannel integration. In our research, Shopify scored 5/5 in its provision of alternative sales channels, the highest of any platform we tested. Its huge selection of apps enables a highly flexible merchant setup, plus testing revealed a rapid server response time.
Is Shopify the best ecommerce site?
Yes, Shopify came out on top of our best ecommerce platforms research. Scoring an impressive 4.7/5 overall, test users noted its strong capability in large inventory management. Of the online store builders we tested, Shopify came out on top thanks to its stellar sales-specific features – including stock monitoring, which neither Wix nor Squarespace offer.
What is the difference between Magento and Shopify?
While Shopify is a subscription-based ecommerce platform builder, Magento software is open source (free) but requires much more advanced setup know-how. Shopify is aimed at a wide range of skill levels, whereas Magento is only really for developers and those with a deeper interest in design control.
What is the most popular ecommerce platform in Canada?
The most widely used ecommerce platforms in Canada (meaning a type of website builder that lets you create an online shop) are:

  1. Shopify – 28% of online shops in Canada
  2. Wix – 23%
  3. Squarespace (Add to Cart, Commerce or Active Store) – 21%
  4. WooCommerce – 15%
  5. Other (including BigCommerce) – 9%
  6. Ecwid – 3%

Data is from Builtwith as of March 2023.

Who is Shopify's biggest competitor?
BigCommerce is the main rival of Shopify, according to audience and search data from Similarweb. Both platforms provide a scalable way to sell products online, enabling entrepreneurs to host a custom website and take payments for products, services, and subscriptions. The advantage of BigCommerce over Shopify is the fact you'll pay no transaction fees with the former, while the latter takes a percentage of your sales unless you use its proprietary payment gateway.
Written by:
Sabrina Dougall
Sabrina Dougall Web Marketing Expert

Sabrina is a business journalist whose career began in news reporting. She has a master’s in Investigative Journalism from City University London, and her work has appeared in The Times, The Daily Express, Money Saving Expert, Camden New Journal, Global Trade Review, and Computer Business Review. She specializes in writing about SEO (search engine optimization). Having run her own small business, Sabrina knows first-hand how critical digital marketing is to building a client base and local reputation.

Reviewed by:
A head shot of Natasha Willett - a blonde woman in a work shirt with a blue background
Natasha Willett Head of Research

For over 9 years Natasha has worked as a mixed method researcher working across a range of sectors from insurance and policy development, to business services and software. As a member of the Market Research Society, Natasha is an advocate for high ethical, commercial and methodological best practices.