Written by Dan Barraclough Updated on 26 November 2021 On this page 5 best ecommerce platforms Shopify: Best for sales-specific features Wix Ecommerce: Best for user-friendliness BigCommerce: Best for scaling your business Square Online: Best value for money Squarespace Ecommerce: Best for design 4 best website builders Wix: Best overall website builder Squarespace: Best templates GoDaddy: Best for getting online quickly Weebly: Best value for money Expert verdict Expand Our site is reader-supported – by clicking our links, we can match you with a potential supplier, and we may earn a small commission for this referral. Shopify is the best dedicated online store platform on the market and Wix is the second-best. Plus, Wix came in first place for best all-round website builder, which considered both the platforms' ecommerce and non-ecommerce offerings.We recently carried out new research to see how the best ecommerce platforms and website builders have improved – or slipped up – since we first tested them. We looked at teach platform's offerings for: sales features, design functions, value for money, customer support, and ease of use, scoring each platform out of five in those categories.And the results are in. The most improved platforms are Shopify – improving its user-experience in the backend – and Wix, with its bulked-out multi-channel selling.For everything else, simply keep reading. We'll first review the best ecommerce platforms, followed by our favourite website builders… Swipe right to see more 0 out of 0 backward forward Shopify Wix BigCommerce Square Online Squarespace Score 4.7 Score 4.6 Score 4.4 Score 4.4 Score 4.3 Best For Sales-specific features and functionality Best For Creating a good-looking website with excellent sales features Best For Offers you all the functionality you need to scale and succeed Best For Value for money Best For Selling digital products or portfolios Price Range £17-£259/month Price Range £15-£27/month£13.50-24.30 with code “GET10!” Price Range £30-£270/month Price Range £9-£54/month (billed annually) Price Range £17-£35/month10% off with code EM10 Try Shopify Try Wix Try BigCommerce Try Square Try Squarespace Shopify 4.7/5Would suit your business if you want excellent sales-specific featuresSales features /5Design functionalities /5Value for money /5Help and support /5Ease of use /54.73.93.04.43.5 In our latest round of testing, Shopify shot up from 4.2 to 4.7/5 overall. This comes down to its intuitive inventory management tools that pre-empt what you might want to add next, and more comprehensive customer support. What's more, you can upload single or multiple products, receive daily revenue reports, and use its online invoice generator to make your payment collection days much easier.It also offers superb multi-channel integration, letting you sell through Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, eBay, and other social platforms (which is more than Wix Ecommerce can offer). In that sense, it also beats competitors like Woocommerce (as discussed in-depth in our comparison between the two).However, it’s the only platform to enforce its own transaction fee (2.2% +20p on the ‘Basic’ plan) unless you use Shopify Payments. Shopify also relies on third party apps for much of its functionality, which can see your monthly costs add up quickly. Pros 50% off annual plans until Aug 4 Excellent multi-channel integration Provides the best sales-specific features of any platform we tested Strong server response time, meaning your pages should load very quickly Intuitive inventory management features Cons Transaction fees imposed if you don’t use Shopify’s payment gateway Less creative freedom on your storefront than Wix Ecommerce Fewer in-built features than most platforms, meaning you'll rely on costly apps for certain functions Shopify pricingShopify offers a 14-day free trial period plus three core price plans, which we’ve converted from USD to GBP: Swipe right to see more 0 out of 0 backward forward Plan Starter Plan Basic Shopify Plan Shopify Plan Advanced Shopify Plan Shopify Plus Price (billed annually) £5/month Price (billed annually) £17/month Price (billed annually) £44/month Price (billed annually) £230.42/month Price (billed annually) £1,640+/month Best For Selling on social media Best For Starting a small online store Best For Growing your business Best For Large online stores Best For High volume retailers Key Features Get shoppable links (URLs)Product pagesBasic order managementCustomer support5% + 25p online credit card rates Key Features Sell an unlimited number of productsUp to two usersSell in 33 currencies (2% conversion fee)2% + 25p online credit card rates Key Features Five staff accountsEcommerce automationsFive inventory locationsStandard reports1.7% + 25p online credit card rates Key Features Third-party calculated shipping rates15 staff accountsSell in five languagesVariable international pricing1.5% + 25p online credit card rates Key Features Faster checkoutManage 10 stores (or more at additional cost)Automate workflowsMigration within weeks Transaction Fees 5% Transaction Fees 2% Transaction Fees 1% Transaction Fees 0.5% Transaction Fees 0.3% Shopify is one of the most comprehensive ecommerce platforms around Try Shopify Free Wix Ecommerce 4.6/5Would suit your business if you want a user-friendly platformSales features /5Design functionalities/5Value for money /5Help and support /5Ease of use /53.93.54.24.34.0 Wix Ecommerce has also improved, increasing from 4.3 to 4.6/5 overall. It now supports Instagram and Facebook integration, while you can also use drop shipping services.We also liked the SEO Wizard tool, which makes it really easy to improve your store’s ranking on Google’s results pages.That said, Wix is still your best bet if you want total control over how your storefront looks. With Wix, you can create an online store entirely within your own control, with its flexible creative tools enabling you to build a truly unique storefront. If you're not too concerned about a powerful inventory system, then you'll love using this platform.Read Full Wix Review Pros Lots of creative control to help you build your brand Add product videos to help improve the customer experience Wix has everything a small business would need already built-in Cons The sheer amount of creative freedom can hinder ecommerce best practices Only supports multi-channel selling via Instagram as an in-built feature Could be easier to sync physical inventory with your new Wix store Wix Ecommerce pricingWix offers a 14-day free trial on its premium plans, with three ecommerce-specific plans to choose from: Wix is our top choice for small businesses looking to get online TRY WIX FREE BigCommerce 4.4/5Would suit your business if you want to scale to new heightsSales features /5Design functionalities /5Value for money /5Help and support /5Ease of use /54.64.23.04.53.3 BigCommerce is big on built-in features. It has everything you need to grow your business already available at no extra cost – unlike the other platforms, such as Shopify, which rely on third-party apps.We found BigCommerce’s multi-channel selling particularly impressive – enabling you to sell via social media and grow your audience with ease – and loved its SEO features, which can help your online store to appear high up on relevant search engine results pages. Again, unlike Shopify, there is no transaction fee to worry about, which can help you save enormously in the long run.While it’s still 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 processes, not just sell products. Pros Excellent SEO features, including onsite prompts and hints when adding products Widest choice of in-built features of any platform on the market Multi-channel integration across social media No transaction fees, unlike Shopify Cons Interface could be more user-friendly Would be quite overwhelming at first for tech beginners Relatively restrictive template design BigCommerce pricingBigCommerce offers a generous 15-day free trial period, and three core price plans in USD, which we’ve converted to GBP: Big ambitions for your business? BigCommerce might be right for you Try BigCommerce Free Square Online 4.4/5Would suit your business if you want value for moneySales features /5Design functionalities /5Value for money /5Help and support /5Ease of use /53.72.64.74.13.9 Square Online lets you build a website and sell for free. That's by far its biggest selling point. While it could massively improve its design flexibility (scoring a measly 2.6/5), and offer better reporting features, it's still one of the quickest and most affordable ways to build an online store.We recommend Square Online for small online stores – it has all the essentials you need to start selling online for free, including multi-channel integration, and it doesn't overwhelm you with data fields like BigCommerce does.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. Pros Ability to sell for free No bells and whistles platform – simply the essentials Easy to get your store up and running Cons High transaction fees which could impact growing businesses Overall layout could be more logical Restrictive design tools Square Online pricingSquare Online has four price plans to choose from: Square Online is the best value for money platform we've tested Try Square Free Squarespace Ecommerce 4.3/5Would suit your business if you want a stunning online storeSales features /5Design functionalities /5Value for money /5Help and support /5Ease of use /53.13.94.24.24.2 Squarespace is the best website builder that offers ecommerce functionality on the side, impressing 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-to-use platform on our list.It supports multi-channel selling, the ability to create and brand your Instagram story posts, and built-in social media live feeds on your website – something that costs extra on the other platforms. Squarespace has also increased the number of integrated payment processers from two to five.Space for improvement? Sure. It has limited stock monitoring capabilities and a relatively poor site speed performance, meaning you risk your customers waiting for some pages to load. For a platform focussed on design, we were disappointed to find a limited number of ecommerce-specific templates, too. Pros Excellent value for money Easiest platform to build an online store with, providing prompts to support your experience Real focus on visual marketing, helping you build more than a website Cons Relatively limited stock monitoring functions Poor site speed performance Very limited ecommerce-specific templates to choose from Squarespace pricingSquarespace offers a 14-day free trial period and has two ecommerce-specific price plans to choose from. Also, don't forget you can save 10% on Squarespace by using code EM10 at the checkout. Squarespace can help you design a store that really stands out from the competition Try Squarespace Free The 4 best website buildersFrom our independent research, we know that the best website builders are: Swipe right to see more 0 out of 0 backward forward Wix Squarespace GoDaddy Score 4.8 Score 4.8 Score 4.2 Score Best For Creating a good-looking website with excellent sales features Best For Selling digital products or portfolios Best For Speedy set up Best For Lowest Price £4/month£3.60 with code “GET10!” Lowest Price £12/month (billed annually) Lowest Price £7.99/month Lowest Price Free Plan Free Plan Free Plan Free Plan Free Trial Free Trial Free Trial Free Trial Wix 4.8/5Would suit your business if you want a website built quickly With over 154 million users in 190 different countries, Wix enables you to build a professional-looking website within a matter of hours, offering 510+ templates and intuitive drag-and-drop design tools. Better yet, Wix ADI (artificial design intelligence) can generate a brand new website for you in minutes, after you’ve answered a few questions about the type of site you want.On the downside, Wix doesn’t allow you to switch templates once you publish your website, which can be quite restrictive. Pros Huge choice of templates to help you design the website you want Best website builder for help and support Wix ADI can build a website for you within minutes Cons Cannot switch templates after publishing your website Adding apps can increase your monthly costs Wix pricingWix has four plans that are designed for building non-ecommerce websites. Connect Domain is not a full premium plan – instead it simply allows you to add a custom domain name to your website. For Wix's premium features, you'll need to sign up to at least the Combo plan at £6.50 per month.Wix also has a free plan, but it comes with Wix adverts on every page, plus a ‘.wix.com’ subdomain, which can make your site look unprofessional. For that reason, we’d recommend the premium plans for building your business website: Wix is our top choice for small businesses looking to get online TRY WIX FREE Squarespace 4.8/5Would suit your business if you want a beautiful website The best website builder for design, using Squarespace is the closest you’ll get to professional web designer quality. It offers the best-designed templates on the market, and powerful design tools.Due to this creative complexity, Squarespace is harder to use than Wix. If you struggle with tech or have little interest in spending hours – or days – designing your website, then you should try Wix or Weebly instead.That said, you’ll end up with a beautiful website if you stick it out with Squarespace. Pros Best-designed templates of any website builder Offers lots of creative control through powerful design tools Mobile app to help you get creative on the go Cons Steeper learning curve than on Wix No auto-save feature while editing your website Squarespace pricingSquarespace offers a 14-day free trial, and has two website builder plans to choose from. Remember that Expert Market readers can save 10% on Squarespace by using code EM10 at the checkout. Squarespace has the best design tools to help your website shine online Try Squarespace Today GoDaddy 4.2/5Would suit your business if you want to get online quickly GoDaddy is a solid all-round choice for small businesses. It's user-friendly thanks to its ADI feature (artificial design intelligence) and has since improved its design functionality by offering sleeker templates and greater customisation. It's also the quickest and most efficient website building experience.However, the ADI feature sacrifices originality for time. This means your store will get built within a few minutes but risks looking just like another GoDaddy product.We were also impressed by GoDaddy's SEO Wiz, helping you optimise your website in order to appear higher in the search engine results pages. All in all, GoDaddy's a safe pair of hands. Pros Quickest and most efficient way to build a website Excellent SEO features to increase your site's visibility on search engines Generous free trial period of 30 days Cons Your site risks looking generic due to the ADI function Restrictive design interface GoDaddy pricing GoDaddy is the quickest and most efficient route to building a website Try GoDaddy Today Weebly 3.9/5Would suit your business if you want value for money Weebly is another popular drag-and-drop website builder, meaning you can place elements wherever you like on each page. It offers affordable price plans and plenty of apps to help you grow your business, as well as strong SEO features to help your website appear higher up on the search engine results pages, making Weebly great value for money.It can’t match Wix for creative freedom, and it doesn’t have an ADI option. Also, Weebly’s templates are less impressive than those offered by Squarespace, but it’s a good option for small business owners who don’t have much technical skill. Pros Really useful SEO guides and tips Large app market to help you bolster your site Best value for money website builder Cons Lacks the creative freedom found on Wix No ADI feature No personal restore option (the support team will have to restore your site for you) Weebly pricingWeebly has three website builder plans to choose from. Like Wix, it has a free plan, but that comes with Weebly adverts on each page, which can make your site look amateurish. We recommend signing up to one of these price plans: Weebly offers superb value for money and can help your business grow online Try Weebly Today Expert verdictThe best ecommerce platforms are Shopify and Wix Ecommerce, scoring 4.7/5 and 4.6/5, respectively overall in our testing. Shopify is the all-in-one ecommerce solution, ideal for almost any online store, while Wix Ecommerce is the more user-friendly platform, making it easy to build a smaller, brand-focussed online store.The best ‘generic' website builders are Wix and Squarespace, both scoring an impressive 4.8/5. Wix is ideal for creating professional-looking websites with consummate ease, while Squarespace offers sleek templates and superb design features. Written by: Dan Barraclough Dan’s a Senior Writer at Expert Market, specialising in digital marketing, web design, and photocopiers, amongst other topics.