Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Businesses

If you’re thinking about launching a new business, or want to take your current business online, it’s important to choose your ecommerce platform carefully. You’ll need an affordable platform that’s easy to use and contains all the sales and marketing tools you need to ensure the customer journey runs as smoothly as possible.

We regularly test the best web builders and ecommerce platforms on the market, to help small businesses make informed decisions. Based on the results from our recent round of testing, the best ecommerce platform for small businesses is Squarespace. It’s easier to use and cheaper than rivals Wix and Shopify, while still having plenty of online sales tools and payment options.

Of course, it won’t work for everyone. We found that Shopify is better for ambitious businesses looking to get a foothold in the ecommerce space, as it has inventory management tools like customer wishlists and more advanced product-sorting features. That’s why we’ve reviewed six ecommerce platforms in total, to help you find the best fit.

If you need more help making a decision, we created an easy comparison of online store tools that gives you a quick side-by-side overview of the best platforms.

Quick Comparison: Best Ecommerce Platforms

Here’s a quick overview of the best online store platforms:

1. Squarespace: Best for Elegant, High-Performing Ecommerce Websites

Squarespace works well for online stores that are looks-focused, such as businesses selling trendy items, luxury goods, or wellness products.

Where Squarespace stands out

The striking beauty of its design templates, optimized for both web and mobile use, is one of the stand-out features of Squarespace. It’s never been simpler to create a slick, professional, beautiful-looking website with a solid ecommerce backend.

But it’s not just pretty templates. Squarespace also provides easy payment processing with trusted providers like Paypal, Stripe and Square, and its own payment processing service, Squarespace Payments. Its editor’s drag-and-drop design functionality means you can create an online store easily, and its inventory management and sales analytics are easy to follow.

Its ease of use is important as it allows anyone to set up a website and start selling, breaking down any barriers that come with more complex website builders or coding a website yourself.

Where Squarespace could improve

While Squarespace is easy to use, it has drawbacks. When it comes to payment processing, Squarespace doesn’t integrate with a wide variety of third-party providers, with options limited to Stripe, Square, and Paypal. Wix, on the other hand, integrates with all three of these plus over 10 other providers.

Squarespace’s ecommerce features also aren’t as advanced as a platform like Shopify, and won’t be able to support businesses that are turning into large ecommerce operations. For example, there’s no built-in feature for creating product filters for customers or multilingual websites, key tools for large international e-commerce businesses.

Shopify has all these features and more, making it a better option for expansion. Plus, if it comes to the point where you feel you’ve outgrown Squarespace, it has some export limitations, meaning it may be hard to move to another website builder if necessary.

Features worth knowing more about

We really like the Squarespace App which allows you to update pages, review traffic and update inventory on the go. This gives you great flexibility as a business owner, especially when you have to be in a thousand places at once.

Squarespace also offers beautifully designed email marketing templates to match their slick templates. This means you can keep your brand consistent across all marketing communications.

Squarespace pricing

There are four Squarespace price plans to choose from, all of which are relatively low cost compared with the larger platforms Shopify and BigCommerce:

You may have noticed Squarespace pricing is similar to Wix, and they’re near competitors because of their focus on design and style. You wouldn’t come to either for complex inventory management and warehouse services, for instance.

Squarespace’s Commerce Basic plan costs $28 per month, $1 less than Wix’s Core plan ($29 per month), but with Wix, you’ll get 5 hours of video storage versus 30 minutes with Squarespace. You’ll also get slightly better selling features from Wix at this price point, including abandoned cart recovery emails, applying discounts automatically, and the ability to accept pre-orders.

But if you want to sell more than 50,000 products, you should choose Squarespace over Wix. And if product reviews are important to you, Squarespace is the better choice once again, as Wix limits these.

2. Wix: Best for Combined Powerful Design and Sales Tools

Wix tops our website builder list thanks to the wide range of features but dips into second place when we consider its sales platform. The reason is its selling features are slightly less generous – Wix limits the number of transactions with automated sales tax, for instance.

Where Wix stands out

Wix is similar to Squarespace due to its focus on ease of use and attractive design. However, where it stands out is its extensive app market, with 250+ free and paid apps to choose from, giving you a lot more functionality in your store. In terms of overall features, Wix has a pretty wide range, from subscription and course selling, to an email and social media campaign design studio.

Wix also allows you to create multiple multilingual sites for different countries. This, combined with outstanding shipping options, means the platform is ideal for scaling your business into new markets easily.

Where Wix could improve

Wix doesn’t offer unlimited storage space like Squarespace does, meaning it could be a barrier to scaling, especially if you have a lot of media files on your site or a particularly large inventory. It only offers unlimited storage space on its Business Elite, which costs an eye-watering $159 per month. 

And while Wix is easy to set up and use initially, it can be a little tricky to master it properly. When the team tested it, several participants noted that it was easy to use but “some things just feel like they are a headache for no reason.”

Features worth knowing more about 

We’re excited about Wix’s use of AI, such as the text generator to speed up content creation. However, Wix leverages AI in the setup process too, with Wix suggesting features you’ll need based on your industry.

Here are some examples:

• If you run a restaurant: table reservations, food delivery, menu listings
• Hotel managers: season-specific room pricing, list add-on services at extra cost
• Fitness enthusiast: bookings (in person or online) via Wix Fit, subscriber-only content,  automated reminders
• Creative professionals: membership areas with paywall content, video streaming

Wix is better for the services industry compared to Square, because the latter isn’t set up for paid members-only pages.

Wix pricing

Wix offers a 14-day free trial period on its premium plans, of which there are three ecommerce-specific options:

Wix is very similar in pricing to Squarespace, but is slightly pricier overall, with Squarespace Business costing $23 per month (compared with Wix Core at $29 per month).

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

3. Shopify: Best for Scaling Your Business

Shopify is a comprehensive omnichannel online selling tool and we’re impressed. It allows for massive scalability and currently serves large well-known brands. You’ll start with a clean, well-presented shopfront, and you can bulk-import products as your catalog expands.

Where Shopify stands out

Shopify is the best for serious online retailers and its sales features are unparalleled. It allows you to manage inventory at multiple sites, calculate taxes, manage international shipping, and much more.

It also is brilliant for integrating marketing into your site through apps like Facebook and Instagram, allowing you to sell through these platforms. And, with the introduction of Shopify POS, you can use the same software to sell in-person as well as online.

Where Shopify could improve

There are no native features to connect your Shopify store with any of the main online marketplaces. Exceptions are Facebook and Instagram marketplaces as well as a wholesale option called Handshake. For any of the others, you’ll have to connect an app, which comes with monthly fees. For instance, to connect Etsy, you’ll have to pay $19 per month to synch up to 20,000 products.

Another disadvantage we found during our research was a lack of tutorials, which made it hard to familiarise yourself with the platform.

Features worth knowing more about

This year Shopify released its AI writing tool Shopify Magic, which we found effective in crafting creative prose for our product descriptions. While Wix has a similar AI text generator, it doesn’t offer the same range of tones of voice as Shopify’s tool.

Similarly, the AI chatbot assistant in the help center was quick and mostly effective at answering my questions about setting up additional sales channels. Its comprehension was not perfect, for instance, it couldn’t understand that the Amazon by Shopify app was no longer supported. Instead, it repeated (outdated) instructions for downloading that very app.

Shopify pricing

Here’s an overview of Shopify’s pricing plans:

Shopify’s pricing is quite expensive, not helped by the fact that its free trial period is now just three days, as opposed to the standard 14. Although it offers a really accessible entry price point (its Starter plan is $5 monthly), that comes with 5% transaction fees when you’re signed up to Shopify Payments. And you’ll likely need apps with – you guessed it – more monthly fees.

It also charges transaction fees if you use a third-party payment processor instead of Shopify Payments. This places Shopify on the pricey end of the ecommerce platform scale.

4. GoDaddy: Best for Getting Set Up Quickly

GoDaddy offers one of the fastest ways to get your website online and the best value for money out of all the platforms we tested. It offers lower prices than all competitors except Hostinger, but it’s got more tools for you to play with than this cheaper rival.

Where GoDaddy stands out

Our team found GoDaddy to be one of the easiest platforms to use during our last round of testing, with one participant noting that it felt like “something [their] mother could use.”

The intuitive and simple nature of the platform’s design is only bolstered by GoDaddy’s great customer support. There’s a phone line, with the company readily publishing their number online, unlike some competitors. With Wix, for example, you’ll have to click through online options and request a callback. Squarespace doesn’t even have a customer service number.

In terms of ecommerce features, GoDaddy supports a wide range of payment processing options like Paypal, Stripe and Square, as well as its own payment processing service, GoDaddy Payments, and a new POS system that integrates with your site.

Where GoDaddy could improve

GoDaddy primarily started as a web hosting platform, meaning its e-commerce functionality isn’t as advanced as platforms like Shopify and Wix. There are fewer customization options than either of these two providers when it comes to the checkout area, meaning there are limited ways you can positively impact the number of sales you’re driving.

GoDaddy is perfect for a business that wants a small online retail presence or wants to test online retail. However, if you want to make online selling the focus of your business, Shopify or Wix will be a better choice.

That’s not just from a features perspective either – unlike providers like Shopify, GoDaddy’s native payment processing service has a flat transaction fee rate, so even if you opt for a more expensive plan, there’ll be no payoff for you when it comes to your top line.

Features worth knowing more about

GoDaddy uses an Artificial Design Editor (ADI) so the design process is less time-consuming. This is perfect for business owners who aren’t focused on the design of their website.

The downside to this, however, is that you’ve less creative freedom and your site may end up looking like a lot of other businesses. If you need more creative freedom, look at Wix or Squarespace.

GoDaddy pricing

GoDaddy has three tiers in its pricing plan

GoDaddy has three tiers of pricing instead of four – Basic, Premium, and Commerce.  The Commerce plan is the best option for small businesses and offers features like unlimited products, sales tax calculation, and up to 10,000 email marketing sends per month.

The Commerce plan is currently $20.99 for the first year and rises to $26.99 per month the year after, which is affordable for most small businesses.

5. Hostinger: Best for Small Local Businesses

Hostinger is an easy-to-use website builder and ecommerce platform, best for small and local businesses. Its one of the few ecommerce platforms with no additional transaction fees, besides what you pay for card processing.

Where Hostinger stands out

Hostinger has some great ecommerce features like no transaction fees, customizable checkout options and an advanced fraud detection system. These are solid e-commerce features for a small business and all for a relatively low price compared to other website builders aimed at small businesses.

Hostingers AI Website Builder is a useful tool for business owners. The AI builder creates a custom website based on the description you enter and offers AI content creation tools to create engaging, SEO-friendly website copy quickly.

Where Hostinger could improve

While Hostinger offers some great features at a low price, it is missing out on some key features that some businesses may need to be successful online.

At the moment, Hostinger doesn’t offer any POS integration which may be a disadvantage for local businesses with a physical store alongside an online store. It also doesn’t offer any email marketing feature which could limit your ability to grow your business. In fact, it’s the only ecommerce platform on this list that doesn’t offer at least one of these two bonus tools.

Features worth knowing about

Hostinger offers 24/7 live support with a typical response time of 3 minutes through its live chat and email. They claim to offer support in 10+ languages which would be useful if your business spans different countries.

Another key feature is its fraud detection systems. Hostinger monitors servers 24/7 so any suspicious activity is picked up straight away, keeping your online store safe. Some competitors, like GoDaddy, make you report it yourself and won’t detect it independently.

Hostinger Pricing

Hostinger offers one pricing tier for it website builder and web hosting plan

Hostinger is one of the cheaper plans we’ve looked at. However, it has a product limit of 500, which could be limiting depending on the size of your product range. Squares free online plan for example, has unlimited space for products

6. Square: Best Free Online Store

Square is quite popular in the hospitality industry. It’s ideal for a the brick and mortar restaurant or the burger van at a festival. The Square POS (point of sale) hardware devices are, admittedly, an additional expense. However, Square’s ability to offer a very wide range of payment options for your customers is a big pull factor.

Where Square stands out

Square’s free plan, is the most cost-effective way to sell online. On the free plan, you can sign up to sell online with no monthly subscription fees. Coupled with solutions specifically for retail, restaurateurs, and appointment-based businesses like salons, it allows businesses to create an online store pre-built around what they need to sell.

Its free POS app, and tap-to-pay on smartphone functions make it an accessible tool for new or very small businesses with a tiny budget.

Where Square could improve

The drawback of the Free plan is the basic nature of the editing tools. You won’t have as much design customization as you would with Square Plus. And you’ll have Square-branded adverts on your site.

The transaction fees could also build up over time, so it may not be suitable for bigger businesses that sell a lot of products. Shopify has much lower transaction fees, so may be more suitable if you are growing your business.

Square is also not the best for international sellers as it doesn’t offer multiple currencies. If you need to sell products in multiple currencies, look at a platform like Spotify

Features worth knowing more about

Square retail online store checkout includes a “buy online, pick up in-store” option. We really love that, across all price plans, you can opt for a courier to come straight to your location as soon as a sale goes through.

Shipping is now more streamlined, thanks to a refreshed Shipments Page, from which vendors can manage online, in-store, and subscription order fulfillment.

Square also offers AI-generated product descriptions, which help you to publish your new product pages faster. That’s a valuable time saver, and means you won’t have to spend time and money on professional copywriters each time you want to launch a new product. range

Square pricing

Square has three price plans to choose from:

Square’s premium price plans are good value for money, in our eyes. At just $29 per month, Square Plus will send personalized product recommendations to your customers (if they’re logged in). Customers will also get order status text alerts. That’s a surprisingly affordable price point for such a personalized customer experience.

Square’s simple pricing structure (monthly subscription fee + set fee per transaction) is also much easier to understand than Shopify’s multi-layered payment fee structure.

That said, you should be aware of the following payment processing fees with Square:

• AfterPay (you get the full amount upfront, but the customer pays in installments): 6% + 30¢ per transaction fee
• Cash App (digital wallet): 2.9% + 30c per transaction fee
• PayPal: 3.49% + 49¢ per transaction fee
• Google Pay/Apple Pay (via Square Payments): 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction fee

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 – Wix is on the easy side, whereas WordPress/WooCommerce is 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 the different 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 synch 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 vs 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. Almost all ecommerce platforms charge payment processing fees (except, again, Square Online, which instead charges a flat fee for its premium monthly plans).

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 vs 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