A wall in your home needs painting, what color do you choose? The most popular one? The one with the cheapest paint? No single color is objectively better than any others; the best choice depends on your personal preference, and what the room’s used for. Brighter colors might be better for recreational areas, darker shades for utility rooms that might get dirty, etc. For ecommerce platforms it’s the same: there’s no best ecommerce platform, only the best one for you.
Below, we review the top 11 ecommerce platforms and explain what about them works, what doesn’t and what kinds of online stores they’re best for. Take a quick look to see which ones coincide with your brand personality and business model.
1. Shopify
Let’s start with one of the most common names when discussing the best ecommerce platforms of 2019: Shopify. With its template-style site builder, Shopify lets virtually anyone design and manage an online store, even those with absolutely no experience in web design.
Because Shopify only hosts online stores, they have one of the most conscientious feature sets for ecommerce, including one-click upsells, intrinsic rating systems and apps for easily adding dropshipping products.
There’s a big downside, though. The same template-style design that makes it easy for beginners also limits the creativity of more advanced users. Shopify’s site builder is rigid, and once you’ve chosen your theme, most of your design decisions are already made. If customization and achieving certain “looks” are a top-priority, Shopify may be too limiting.
Pricing:
Shopify offers a range of price packages to suit all ecommerce types, from small-time weekend sellers to global retail enterprises. The different packages determine how much you’ll pay in credit card rates and 3P payment gateway fees, so being a successful store with a cheaper package may actually lose you more money.
- Shopify Lite: $9 per month
- Basic Shopify: $29 per month
- Shopify: $79 per month
- Advanced Shopify: $299 per month
- Shopify Plus: $2,000 - $40,000 per month
Pros:
- User-friendly interface made for those with no design experience.
- Easy template-style design lets you get your site up and running in no time.
- Hosting included.
- Built-in ecommerce features.
- Practical app store offers extra features.
Cons:
- Very limiting customization stifles creativity.
- Needs extra measures to stand out, otherwise your site will look generic.
- Depending on which plan and gateway you choose, you may be paying too much in transaction fees.
Final Verdict:
Shopify is great if you want a low-maintenance ecommerce site. It’s probably the easiest and most convenient ecommerce platform on this list. However, if branding and site design are a top priority, choose a platform with more customization. Also, do the math on how much Shopify will cost you — the value of its price tag depends on both the plan and how much you sell.
2. BigCommerce
As an ecommerce platform attuned to big brands, enterprises and startups planning rapid expansion, BigCommerce lives up to its name. Although they try their best to accommodate first-time site designers, their interface is more complex than other platforms and involves a steeper learning curve. That’s not necessarily a drawback, though — the more complex interface supports more design features and customization options.
Pricing:
Most features are available with all pricing plans. It’s only the more advanced features like API support, custom SSL and Google customer reviews that are exclusive to the top-tier plans.
- BigCommerce Standard: $29.95 per month
- BigCommerce Plus: $79.95 per month
- BigCommerce Pro: $249.95 per month
- BigCommerce Enterprise: custom
Pros:
- No transaction fees.
- Accommodates stores of all sizes.
- Hosting included.
- Great for large stores and scaling upwards.
Cons:
- Steep learning curve for using the site editor.
- Intricate site-builder might intimidate first-time designers.
- No one-click selling.
Final Verdict:
BigCommerce is best for brands that think big. That encompasses not only already-established ecommerce sites, but also startups with a lot of capital or brands with a foolproof business model. If you plan on your store ballooning in the near future, consider this platform.
3. WooCommerce
One of the largest ecommerce platforms of 2019 isn’t an ecommerce platform at all. WooCommerce is really just a WordPress plugin that enables ecommerce functionality like checkout and product pages. That may not sound like much, but its ramifications are huge: store owners can use the entirety of WordPress’s impressive plugin library to design their ecommerce site!
WooCommerce, through WordPress, takes the convenience and user-friendliness of template-style site builders and combines it with nearly endless options for design features from the plugin library. And because it’s WordPress, WooCommerce sites are the best for blogging, if content marketing is a significant part of your business plan.
Pricing:
Technically speaking, WooCommerce is free… but don’t get excited. You’ll still have to pay for hosting yourself since it’s not included in WordPress, not to mention however much you spend on custom themes and designer plugins.
Pros:
- All the features of WordPress available for ecommerce, including the massive community of 3P plugins.
- Like Shopify, you can access plugins for easy incorporation of dropshipping goods.
- Scalable price.
- Best ecommerce platform for blogging.
Cons:
- High-quality plugins tend to cost more, so you have to be careful about spending.
- Hosting not included.
Final Verdict:
If you’re already familiar with how to design with WordPress, you’ll find WooCommerce intuitive and easy. Otherwise, it may take some getting used to. Many think of WooCommerce as a cheap ecommerce platform, but all those plugin and theme purchases add up, so calculate how much the site you want would cost before making it final.
4. 3dcart
Don’t let the name full you. The 3 Ds in “3dcart” refer to the three Dimensions of ecommerce: Search Engines, Shoppers, and Store Owners (... maybe it should be “3 S Cart?”). While shoppers and store owners are a top priority for all the top ecommerce platforms, it’s that first dimension, search engines, that sets 3dcart apart from the others.
Many of the 3dcart users consider it to be the best ecommerce platform for SEO. Regardless, there’s still plenty to 3dcart besides SEO that landed it on this list, like it’s wide variety of features or how there are no transaction fees for any price plan.
Price:
Prices are divided into 4 different pricing plans, but most of the advantages of 3dcart are available on them all. Every plan includes unlimited products, no transaction fees, 24/7 tech support, secure hosting, unlimited bandwidth and API access. Higher-tier plans allow more staff members, though, as well as access to exclusive features like pre-orders, daily deals and email marketing integrations. (Prices below are for the monthly payment plans.)
- Startup Store: $19 per month
- Basic Store: $29 per month
- Plus Store: $79 per month
- Pro Store: $229 per month
Pros:
- No transaction fees.
- Tons of features; one of the best ecommerce platforms for features
- Unlimited product listings, even with beginner plans
- Hosting included
Cons:
- Design templates and options seem lackluster and old-fashioned, especially compared to the other top ecommerce platforms
- Users report customer errors every time 3dcart updates.
Final Verdict:
3dcart is best compared with Shopify. On the one hand, 3dcart’s templates and design choices are even worse than those on Shopify, for which design is also a weakness. On the other hand, 3dcart brings more additional features than Shopify. So, again, if design is your top priority, look elsewhere. If all you want are ecommerce features and Shopify falls short, 3dcart is perfect for you.
5. Squarespace
Squarespace is known as a DIY site-builder for any industry, just as attuned to a law firm website as an online store. But in recent years, the company has been investing more in their ecommerce capabilities, enough to land them on our list of the best ecommerce platforms for 2019.
Like WooCommerce, Squarespace grants online stores access to all of its (award-winning) design tools and templates. That means you can build an ecommerce site using elements from any other industry, letting you customize your site and build something wholly unique.
Price:
One of the biggest rollouts for Squarespace online stores is the addition of two payment plans exclusive to ecommerce. Neither of these plans charge a transaction fee, on top of other exclusive features. Although you can still use ecommerce functionality with the Business plan, you’ll have to pay a 3% transaction fee, plus you still can’t use most of the ecommerce features. (Prices below are for the monthly payment plans.)
- Business: $26 per month
- Basic Commerce: $30 per month
- Advanced Commerce: $46 per month
Pros:
- Spectacular, top-shelf design templates.
- One of the most customizable ecommerce platforms.
- Hosting & unlimited bandwidth included.
Cons:
- A lot of basic ecommerce features — like ratings and reviews — have to be added manually via 3P integrations.
- Only accepts two payment gateways, PayPal and Stripe, which could severely limit your territory and customer-base.
Final Verdict:
Squarespace is one of the best site builders for aesthetics and creativity — ecommerce site or not. If appearances and branding are top priorities, and WordPress/WooCommerce doesn’t appeal to you, Squarespace is a good bet. However, if you have elaborate pricing strategies or marketing campaigns, Squarespace’s limited add-on library might not have what you need. We expect them to release more ecommerce features in the future, as well.
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