8 Best Free Ecommerce Platforms 2023 | Save and Sell Today
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In the current economic climate, it’s vitally important that we don’t lose the nerve to try and test new ideas, or nothing will ever properly recover. Free ecommerce platforms are so important in this as they give life to new businesses without having to sacrifice large amounts of capital. After hours of testing and research, we’ve awarded Square Online the title of best free ecommerce platform because it offers the most generous free plan, with Big Cartel taking second place as the best platform for independent artists. Wix comes in third place for its excellent free trial (although you will need to upgrade in order to start selling).
We’ve tested all of the platforms on this list, meaning they’re the best of the best.
The 8 Best Free Ecommerce Website Builders
- Square Online – (free plan) – Most generous free ecommerce plan.
- Big Cartel – (free plan) – Best for independent artists.
- Wix – (free to build, not sell) – Best for small online stores.
- Shopify – (free trial) – Best for larger businesses.
- Squarespace – (free trial) – Best value for money.
- BigCommerce – (free trial) – Best for a purely online business.
- WooCommerce – (free to install) – Best WordPress ecommerce plugin.
- Magento – (free to install) – Best for enterprise-level businesses.
We’ve used our own independent research process to create this list. All of our opinions and ratings are backed up by hours of analysis and hard work, so you can be sure that our recommendations are accurate, reliable, and fair. Our mission is to always be honest and transparent with our readers – after all, our primary aim is to find the perfect ecommerce platform for your needs, and we’re confident we can achieve it!
With our research and in-depth testing, we’ve been able to narrow a wide range of platforms down to a list of the best eight. We’ve paid close attention to what each platform offers and what they fall short of, so by the end of this article, you’ll be fully equipped to make an informed decision.
When looking at the best free ecommerce platforms, we focused on what matters to users most:
- Website features
- Sales features
- Design functionalities
- Value for money
- Help and support
- Customer score
- Ease of use
We know that site speed, app integration, payment options, and support services, are just a handful of important factors when it comes to choosing the right free ecommerce platform. We promise that we’ve considered it all when building our list of the best eight.
Additionally, we’ve tailored our focus towards the different ways you can build your online store for free: completely free ecommerce platforms, free trials, or, for the more tech-savvy, using free ecommerce software.
We want to bring you an accurate and fair representation of what’s available in the market, so every platform has not only been tested by us, but also by everyday people. This helps us judge user satisfaction, the usability of the platform, and adds a unique customer perspective to our research.
If you want more information on our processes, check out our post on How We Conduct Our Ecommerce Website Builder Research.
You’ve Got Three Options
We’ll try to keep this short and sweet: There are three different ways to start an online store for free. In this post, we’ll cover:
Option 1: The best free ecommerce platforms – these builders let you sell with absolutely no costs, but will come with strict limits and/or charge commission fees. We’d only really recommend these for people selling “on the side.” The best builder in this category is Square Online.
Option 2: The best ecommerce platforms with free trials – these are builders that offer more powerful paid plans, which you can try out for free. Free trials usually last for about two weeks, so these platforms are perfect for testing out a plan and deciding if it’s worth paying for. Our top recommended free trial builder is Wix.
Option 3: The best free ecommerce software – Software tools are different from website builders because they’re more powerful, more complicated platforms that are free to install, but will require some additional costs to get up and running. Our number one best free ecommerce software is WooCommerce.
We’ve split this page into three sections, so you can compare the best free ecommerce platforms in each of these categories. In each section, you’ll find a side-by-side comparison chart of each builder, plus individual reviews where we get into more detail.
Option 1: Best Free Ecommerce Website Builders
Best in Test | |
In this section:
- Jump to Square Online
- Jump to Big Cartel
#1. Square Online
Most generous free ecommerce plan
Square Online
Most generous free ecommerce plan
- Quick setup
- Easy to use
- Not very scalable
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $12 - $79 / month
Pros
-
Easy to track sales and abandoned carts
-
Responsive help and support
-
Seamless payments system
Cons
-
Limited design freedom
-
Few payment processing options
-
Not great for large volume selling
Overview of Square Online
As far as free online stores go, you can’t beat Square Online. It’s easy to manage inventory and design a professional site. Square Online templates aren’t super customizable – in fact, there are only two template options – but that means you can get online quickly with a template that’s guaranteed to look good. Plus, Square Online offers a remarkable amount of features on its free plan. We recommend Square Online if you want to grow your business as much as possible before you start paying for a website.
Square Online Sales Features
What’s fantastic about Square Online is you can start selling right away for free! It also comes with some great sales features like Square Online Payments, selling unlimited products and an easy to use inventory management system.
Square Online Free Plan Limitations
Some downsides to the free plan are there’s no PayPal payment option, no product reviews, and there’s no abandoned cart recovery. To access these features you’ll need to upgrade your plan.
Other website builders, like Wix and Weebly, offer ADI as an option. But with Square Online, it’s the main route. ADI means you’re guaranteed to end up with an ecommerce-optimized design, with minimal work on your end!
Overall, we scored Square Online 3.9 out of 5 for ease of use. This is because although it’s easy to get set up, navigating the editor isn’t as straightforward. Some of the language can be a little unfamiliar, so finding what you’re after isn’t always straightforward.
Square Online only offers two layout choices: Shop All and Order Online. The Shop All layout is for ecommerce retail brands that want to set up an online store to sell their products, whereas the Order Online layout is geared more towards restaurants and food businesses.
Despite the limited number of themes, you can still customize Square Online templates in all of the most important ways, like:
- Changing color schemes
- Picking fonts
- Repositioning page elements
- Importing your brand logo
- Uploading photos
We just mean that if you’re really looking to get your hands dirty and create something unique, then you’re better off with Wix or Squarespace (both of which offer free trials for ecommerce).
Square Online templates are professional, just not completely unique.
And even if you’re not already using Square Online products, its free plan comes with some great sales features:
- Sell unlimited products (rare for a free plan!)
- Automatic tax calculator (US only)
- Easily add products with different variations
- Simple inventory management
- Set free or flat rate shipping, or customize by weight, quantity, or order cost
Still, there are a few drawbacks to the free plan. For example, although you can accept payments through Square Online’s in-house payment processing system as well as Google and Apple Pay, customers won’t be able to use PayPal. Additionally, users won’t be able to leave product reviews, there’s no abandoned cart recovery, and your site analytics will be basic, to say the least.
Additionally, you’ll have Square branding stuck to the bottom of your site. Combined with the domain, this can make your online store look unprofessional and untrustworthy.
There are also transaction fees to contend with, as Square Online charges 2.9% + $0.30 for online payments. We mentioned before how Square Online’s free plan has no limitations on product limits, but you only get 500MB of storage and bandwidth. Too many products and high-quality images will slow your site down tremendously.
On a positive note, however, you can sell both physical and digital on the free plan. And if you’re worried about security risks, don’t be, as Square Online’s free plan comes with an SSL certificate included.
If you start on the free plan and find your store growing, then you’ll want to consider what the cheapest paid plan can offer – including a free custom domain for your first year, and no Square Online ads clogging up your store’s branding.
Square Online’s cheapest paid plan costs $12/month, which is even cheaper than best-paid ecommerce builders like Wix and Squarespace.
Square Online Gallery
I encountered no obstacles when building. Zero. It's seriously so easy!

More Information
- Check out our Square Online Review for more info.
#2. Big Cartel
Best for independent artists
Big Cartel
Best for independent artists
- Good for artistic items
- Useful onboarding process
- Very limited free plan
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $9.99 - $19.99 / month
Pros
-
No platform transaction fees
-
Helpful tips throughout design process
-
Individual products get the spotlight
Cons
-
Five product limit on free plan
-
Features and designs lack quality
-
Difficult to customize your store
Overview of Big Cartel
Big Cartel is harder to use than Square, and its templates are still not very flexible. Still, Square is kind of an outlier when it comes to completely free ecommerce website builders – Big Cartel is a little less impressive, but it’s what you can typically expect for the price (or lack thereof).
Plus, Big Cartel does have some impressive sales features, and its paid plans start from very cheap. We recommend Big Cartel if your store sells less than five products, and you don’t plan to expand in the near future.
Big Cartel Sales Features
You can sell right away for free with Big Cartel which is great. Also if you don’t want to be charged transaction fees, Big Cartel is the one for you. The only fee you’ll spend on is for the payment processor you use, but your sales will be yours to keep.
Big Cartel Free Plan Limitations
The biggest limitation of Big Cartel’s plan is that you’ll only be able to sell five products. This is fantastic if you have a small store or you’re just starting out, but maybe not the best long term solution if you plan on having more products.
Your website will also have an ad banner for Big Cartel at the bottom of your website which could take people away from your site and look less than professional.
Big Cartel themes aren’t very customizable, unless you know how to code (which you can’t do much of on the free plan, anyway). So if you’re in the majority of us without a computer science degree, you may want to stick to Square instead. It’s not that you can’t do anything without coding knowledge, but you can’t do much.
But something we did like about Big Cartel is its onboarding process when you first sign up, which uses pop-up prompts and tips to walk you through your dashboard. You’ll be shown all the basics, from adding products to creating discounts – it’s more the design process that we found clunky!
Well… kind of. Big Cartel’s themes are similar to Square’s, because they’re simple and professional, but lack originality. The difference is that Square’s templates are easier to set up, and you can customize them a little more without any knowledge of code.
Plus, if you do know code and want to use it to make your Big Cartel website a bit snazzier, you’ll have to upgrade to at least the Platinum plan ($9.99 per month). Annoyingly, those on the free plan can’t make any coding changes!
The drawbacks of Big Cartel’s sales features are that:
- You can only sell up to five products on the free plan – any more than this and you’ll have to upgrade
- You can only upload one image per product, so multiple angles are a no-go
- You can’t edit products in bulk, meaning you’ll have to make any changes individually.
A major limitation of Big Cartel’s free plan is its extremely tight product limit which gives you only five products and one image per product. If you were planning on selling even just six products you’d have to leave one behind or upgrade.
Additionally, Big Cartel doesn’t allow digital products on any of its plans. You’ll have to download third-party support with apps like Pulley, which you’ll have to pay monthly for too (though it has a free 14-day trial).
One major plus of Big Cartel is no transaction fees, meaning all the money you get through Big Cartel is yours to keep. For entrepreneurs on a budget, Big Cartel’s free plan gives them a big leg-up, even with the limited inventory.
Big Cartel Gallery

More Information
- Read our Big Cartel review here.
Option 2: Best Ecommerce Website Builders With a Free Trial
In this section
- Jump to Wix
- Jump to Shopify
- Jump to Squarespace
- Jump to BigCommerce
#1. Wix
Best for small online stores
Wix
Best for small online stores
- Plenty of design freedom
- Powerful features
- Easy to use
Free trial available
Paid Plans: $16 - $59 / month
Pros
-
Can sell Wix products on Instagram
-
Product videos add credibility
-
Mobile editor for on-the-go changes
Cons
-
No automated low stock alerts
-
Not the best for very large stores
-
Can’t change templates once site is live
Overview of Wix
88% of the Wix users we spoke to would recommend it to a friend, and for good reason: its templates are extremely flexible, but still easy to use, and its ecommerce features are perfect for any small or midsize store. If you can’t identify any one category that means the most to you (i.e., you can’t choose between features and ease of use), we recommend Wix for creating a well-rounded store.
Wix Sales Features
With the cheapest Wix plan you can sell an unlimited number of products, and the ability to sell on socials like Facebook, Instagram, and more. You will get over 500 templates to choose from, a huge media library of images, and discounted shipping rates.
Wix Free Plan Limitations
You’ll have a 14-day free trial, but you’ll have a Wix ad banner and branded URL on your website which could clutter your design. The biggest limitation is that you’ll need to upgrade your plan to accept payments.
In fact, there’s so much design freedom that you might feel overwhelmed at first – but you’ll get the hang of Wix’s template editor in no time. After all, we awarded it 4 out of 5 in this category, making it the second easiest ecommerce builder to use.
You can get your hands dirty with code if you want to, but it’s by no means required to create a unique, professional design.
We were impressed with Wix’s wide range of templates and generous design freedom – it’s hard to find both of these qualities in one builder! Overall, we score Wix 4 out of 5 for its design functionality, putting it in joint first place with builders like Squarespace and BigCommerce.
- Sell unlimited products
- Automatically send abandoned cart recovery emails
- Let customers create accounts for faster checkout
- Sell on Facebook and Instagram
Wix isn’t a dedicated, ecommerce-specific website builder – it’s a regular website builder with some ecommerce-specific plans – so it doesn’t have the most scalable features on the market. But for small-to-medium sized stores, you’ll have all the features you need and then some.
This can be quite intrusive for your visitors and can make it seem like your site is advertising Wix, not your own products. This is a shame since Wix allows unlimited products and the selling of both physical and digital products, SSL protected.
But the major limitation is that while you can sell products with the ecommerce plan on a free trial, you can’t accept payments until you upgrade. Wix will hold on paying you until you upgrade, effectively keeping your sales hostage until you decide to sign up for a paid plan.
Wix also limits certain key features with the free trial, such as no access to Google Analytics and only providing up to 500MB in bandwidth.
- Design a site on Wix’s free plan, then upgrade to a paid plan to start selling
- Sign up for a paid ecommerce plan, and get all of your money back if you cancel in the first 14 days
If you finish the 14-day trial period and like what you’ve seen, then you can stay on Wix’s cheapest ecommerce plan for $27/month.
Wix Gallery

More Information
- Read our full Wix Ecommerce Review for more information.
- Wix vs Shopify – A deep dive into the key differences between these two platforms, and which will be better for who.
#2. Shopify
Best for larger businesses
Shopify
Best for larger businesses
- Built for large stores
- Great inventory tools
- Recommended by real users
Free trial available
Paid Plans: $29 - $299 / month
Pros
-
Sell across many social media channels
-
Abandoned cart recovery on all plans
-
Easily track stock levels and orders
Cons
-
Some features come separately as apps
-
Transaction fees for most payment tools
-
Switching themes is a hassle
Overview of Shopify
Shopify is a builder with powerful features and a wide range of themes. It has excellent inventory management support, so it’s a really reliable option for an established business. We recommend Shopify as a relatively easy way of building and maintaining a large store.
Shopify Sales Features
Shopify offers the ability to sell unlimited products, and incorporate multichannel selling. Also Shopify is tailored for ecommerce and offers a fantastic inventory system.
Shopify Free Plan Limitations
The limitations include a Shopify-branded free URL and the inability to sell your items until you commit to a payment plan. Essentially meaning that you can create your store for free but you can’t actually sell until you spend.
Whether it’s setting up your store’s pages or managing your inventory, Shopify has a clean and logical interface that makes every task as simple as it can be.
We also liked that Shopify’s dashboard is full of useful tips to help you get started – you won’t be left to learn your way around alone!
Still, it’s not the easiest builder out there. Users were a little confused by the editor, and some disliked how you had to navigate back to the dashboard to add products separately. Because of this, it scored 3.5 out of 5 in our ease of use testing. However, given the powerful tools it has to offer, we think this is a reasonable trade-off for its ecommerce capabilities.
Each of Shopify’s free themes comes in multiple styles, so you still get a decent range to choose from. The main difference between a theme’s styles is the color scheme. For example, the Venture theme comes in three styles: Snowboards (blue), Outdoors (orange), and Boxing (black).
- Sell in 133 currencies and up to 5 languages
- Sell unlimited products
- Set up two staff accounts with access to the Shopify admin
- Sell on multiple channels (sync with online marketplaces and social media accounts)
One glance at these features, and it’s clear that Shopify is equipped to handle larger stores. Plus, we were really impressed with its inventory management, which makes it super easy to track stock levels and update product listings. It’s no wonder we awarded it 4.5 out of 5 in our sales features category.
However, it’s worth noting that you’ll have to check out some third-party apps from the Shopify App Store in order to really maximize your store’s potential. That’s where you’ll find features like email marketing and dropshipping.
You’ll also have to pay transaction fees unless you use Shopify’s in-house payment processor, Shopify Payments. That means popular third-party tools like PayPal will cost you up to 2% of each sale!
In short, Shopify can offer tons of features for larger stores, you’ll just have to download some of them yourself!
However, Shopify runs into the same issue of not allowing any sales transactions until you choose a price plan. Your free trial store will open with a storefront password and a freeze on all checkouts. You can get rid of the password if you don’t plan on selling, but since you probably are you will need to start paying for it.
Shopify Gallery
I love how it creates a seamless process for shop owners and buyers. It is easy and painless to create new products, add specific shipping, and accept many different payments.

More Information
Like to know more? Read our full Shopify review.
Or, if you’d like to branch out, discover the best Shopify alternatives.
#3. Squarespace
Best value for money
Squarespace
Best value for money
- Great management features
- Best designs
- Great built-in tools
Free trial available
Paid Plans: $16 - $49 / month
Pros
-
Powerful features included with plans
-
The easiest ecommerce builder to use
-
Insightful analytics tools
Cons
-
Not many ecommerce-specific templates
-
Fewer payment methods
-
Editor doesn’t autosave your changes
Overview of Squarespace
Squarespace isn’t as powerful as BigCommerce, but it has the best-designed templates on the market, and offers great ecommerce features for a low price. Plus, in our research, it came out as the easiest platform to build and manage an online store. We recommend Squarespace for businesses in a creative industry, because you can really walk the walk with its amazing template designs.
Squarespace Sales Features
Squarespace’s 14-day free trial gives you unlimited products to sell. It also comes with great customizable checkout options, and awesome marketing tools.
Squarespace Free Plan Limitations
Once again, you will need to upgrade plans to accept payments for your store with Squarespace. You will have a randomized Squarespace domain, and you won’t have capabilities like cart abandonment recovery.
Squarespace’s drag-and-drop template editor is a little different t0 BigCommerce’s, because you can see the changes you make to each page in real-time as you make them. We also particularly like how Squarespace’s rows add more structure to the design process. This means that, unlike Wix, you can’t just drag and drop anything anywhere, but the tradeoff is that you’re guaranteed a perfectly constructed store at the end of it all.
As we mentioned in the ease of use section, Squarespace’s template editor is section-based, meaning that you can customize and reorder different parts of a page, but you can’t completely overhaul the actual layout.
You won’t get quite as much design flexibility as you would with Wix, but the benefit is that you won’t have to worry about making a design faux pas or not following ecommerce best practices. Once you choose a Squarespace template, you can customize it “inside the lines,” without having to worry about messing up the general style.
- Sell unlimited products
- Sell digital gift cards
- Accept donations
Squarespace’s ecommerce plans also come with seamless inventory management. Managing products and variants is super simple, and you can even automatically display “limited availability” labels when your stock levels are low.
Just note that this plan charges a 3% transaction fee, and you’ll have to upgrade to a more advanced ecommerce plan in order to waive it.
One of Squarespace’s biggest strengths is its ability to sell digital products. In fact, we think it’s the ideal platform for sales because, although its inventory management is good, it’s not build to support very high stock levels. As a result, digital vendors will see more of what it has to offer as an ecommerce platform.
You will be stuck with a randomized .squarespace.com subdomain during this period, though you can pre-register a domain to a parked page and then transfer once you upgrade.
You will also not be able to send any custom email notifications to any customers or get access to advanced ecommerce features like abandoned checkout recovery or customer accounts.
On the plus side, if your mind is still not made up after the 14-day trial, you are able to extend it by seven days.
Squarespace Gallery

More Information
- Interested in Squarespace for your online store? Read our ecommerce review here.
- See how Squarespace compares to Shopify here.
#4. BigCommerce
Best for a purely online business
BigCommerce
Best for a purely online business
- Scalable features
- Not reliant on apps
- Helps businesses grow
Free trial available
Paid Plans: $29 - $299 / month
Pros
-
Standout inventory management
-
No in-house transaction fees
-
Can send transactional emails
Cons
-
Not the easiest to use
-
Restrictive pricing plans
-
Overwhelming to begin with
Overview of BigCommerce
BigCommerce is extremely scalable, with tons of built-in apps to help you reach your full potential. It’s not the easiest ecommerce builder to use, but if you can get the hang of it, then the sky’s the limit. We recommend BigCommerce for stores planning for growth in the long term.
BigCommerce Sales Features
BigCommerce comes out on top for sales features. On the free trial you will get all the tools you need, built right into the builder. Some examples are social media channel integrations, shopping cart recovery, ability to create customer groups for a personalized shopping experience.
BigCommerce Free Plan Limitations
BigCommerce actually does let you sell on its free trial! You also get full access to everything BigCommerce has to offer which is really rare. But keep in mind that if you don’t pick a paid plan by the end of the 15 days then you won’t get access to your online store.
Users’ biggest complaint with BigCommerce was that its product management dashboard and actual storefront section feel like two very separate areas. Similar to Shopify, BigCommerce makes products and design feel a little disconnected. Swapping between the two can get a little disorientating.
This setup can be frustrating, but it’s by no means too difficult to use – BigCommerce’s interface just takes more getting used to!
Each theme comes in multiple shades, so you can have some control over the general color scheme. When it comes to customizing each page, BigCommerce’s editing tools allow you to make changes to the layout and style.
BigCommerce’s template editor isn’t as seamless as Wix’s or even Shopify’s, but the templates themselves are perfectly suited for ecommerce success.
- Optional digital wallet payments (like Apple Pay)
- POS integrations (sync your online and offline payments)
- Create 70+ native discounts and promotions
BigCommerce’s built-in tools mean that you won’t be as reliant on third-party apps as you would be with Shopify. But if you ever want to add even more functionality, then BigCommerce’s Apps Marketplace has you covered with over 600 apps to choose from.
However, once the trial ends, BigCommerce will seal you out of your account if you haven’t picked a plan.
Despite its trial’s perks, there are some things that BigCommerce doesn’t do, such as not being able to install third-party SSL certificates for the trial period. You also don’t get a custom domain, or access to product filters and setting up 301 redirects.
BigCommerce Gallery

More Information
- Check out our full BigCommerce review.
- Read our Shopify vs BigCommerce article here.
Option 3: Best Free Ecommerce Software
In this section:
- Jump to WooCommerce
- Jump to Magento
#1. WooCommerce
Best WordPress ecommerce plugin
WooCommerce
Best WordPress ecommerce plugin
- Very WordPress-compatible
- Extremely scalable
- Helpful setup wizard
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $12.95 / month
Pros
-
Huge variety of plugins
-
Lots of payment options
-
Tools for selling internationally
Cons
-
Have to install most features yourself
-
Cost of plugins and tools can add up
-
Only works with WordPress
Overview of WooCommerce
WooCommerce requires more technical skill than a website builder, but it’s still pretty easy to install. You’ll have to rely on extensions for most features, but there are seemingly endless options to choose from. We recommend WooCommerce for anyone selling on WordPress.
WooCommerce Sales Features
WooCommerce comes with neat features, including over 140 payment options. It also allows you to sell physical products, members-only digital products, and subscriptions.
WooCommerce Free Plan Limitations
Not all features you can add with WooCommerce will be free, some will be paid. And you’ll need a hosting provider with plenty of storage for adding the features you need to make your store the best it can be.
However, if you need the more advanced capabilities of a WordPress site, then WooCommerce is as easy as ecommerce will get. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress, meaning you can add it as an additional feature to any WordPress site. It comes with a helpful setup wizard, so you won’t have to worry about learning the ropes on your own.
Once you’ve successfully installed WooCommerce, adding and managing products is really straightforward.
If you’re willing to go for a paid theme, you can expect to pay between $39 and $79 for one.
The WooCommerce Extensions Store covers everything from abandoned cart recovery to multi-channel integrations, so the sky’s the limit in terms of features. Just note that not all of these extensions are free, so be sure to budget for the ones that you really want!
You still get unlimited products to sell both physically and digitally, but whether your hosting provider can handle it – with enough storage and bandwidth, for example – is up to what plan you have, rather than WooCommerce itself.
You will also have to organize getting yourself an SSL certificate since WooCommerce doesn’t include it as standard.
Once your store is set up, be wary of transaction fees too. WooCommerce Payments charges no setup or monthly fees but will charge 2.9% + $0.30 on all transactions made with a US credit or debit card. For cards outside the US, an additional 1% is charged.
We recommend using Bluehost with WooCommerce, because it’s an officially recommended provider by WooCommerce itself.
Bluehost has plenty of WooCommerce-specific plans, starting at $15.95/month.
WooCommerce Gallery
I choose WooCommerce when it's a personal project because there are no monthly costs if you know how to code a bit. There are some one-off plugins, but you're up and running quickly and you can customize everything.

More Information
- Top 6 WooCommerce Hosting Providers – Find out why Bluehost is our top-rated hosting provider for WooCommerce, and which other providers we’d recommend.
- Bluehost Pricing Review – A full breakdown of all the costs you can expect when you sign up to a Bluehost plan.
#2. Magento
Best for enterprise-level businesses
Magento
Best for enterprise-level businesses
- Very customizable
- Very scalable
- Not very easy to use
Free plan available
Paid Plans: $6.99 / month
Pros
-
Powerful features to support huge stores
-
Can manage thousands of products
-
Trusted by brands like Nike and Samsung
Cons
-
Difficult setup and installation process
-
Beginners will need to hire a developer
-
No help and support
Overview of Magento
Magento is not for small stores, or beginners – it’s pretty difficult to use if you don’t have some level of tech skill going in. However, the payoff is that Magento is the most powerful ecommerce platform on this list. We recommend Magento for very large stores who already have a strong base of loyal customers.
Magento Sales Features
Magento does have some built-in features – but you’ll still need to add extensions which aren’t cheap. Some features include free shipping options, bundle products, and access to Google Universal Analytics.
Magento Free Plan Limitations
While Magento’s open source version is free, you’ll need to incorporate plenty of plugins to get the features you need, which can tally up the costs. It’s also worth noting Magento has transaction fees, which can eat away at your sales over time.
If you can’t code, we don’t recommend Magento. It’s aimed at developers and enterprise-level businesses, and it shows.
If you can code, Magento offers scalability and customization that’s unrivalled by any other ecommerce solution, open-source or otherwise – but don’t expect the setup to be easy. In fact, unless you have experience in web development, you won’t be able to set it up at all, far less customize it to your liking.
If you’re not super tech-savvy, then the best way to get the most out of your Magento design is to hire a web developer to tweak the theme for you. Just note that you can expect to pay at least a few hundred dollars for this option!
Magento claims it can hold over a million items comfortably and enables the selling of both physical and digital products. However, like WooCommerce, you will still need to supplement it with plugins from the Magento Marketplace.
You will also have to deal with transaction fees with Magento, charging the usual 2.9% + $0.30 as well as providing your own domain name and SSL certificate once your site is live.
There aren’t many hosts that cater for Magento, which is why installation can be so difficult. We recommend SiteGround’s Magento hosting plans for easy installation – it’s one of the few hosts with Magento-specific plans, and prices start at a modest $3.99 per month.
Magento Gallery

More Information
- Best Magento Hosting Providers – HostGator came out top for Magento hosting – see who else made the cut!
- Magento vs Shopify – A complete comparison of two very big players in the ecommerce world.
Still, they’re not the only ecommerce software options available. So if you’d like to broaden your horizons before making a decision, here are a few software options that are decent, but didn’t make our top two.
OpenCart
If your store is too large for WooCommerce, but too small for Magento, then OpenCart is worth a look: it’s a powerful platform, with a ton of scope for customization and additional features. In fact, there are over 13,000 OpenCart integrations available.
Just keep in mind that OpenCart itself is very light on built-in features, so you’ll need to make use of these add-ons. There’s a fairly steep learning curve though, and unlike WooCommerce, you probably won’t be able to ‘muddle through’ without any developer experience.
PrestaShop
PrestaShop is an open-source software that pitches itself as more of a website builder. As you’ve seen with the platforms above, ease of use can be a real sticking point when it comes to using open-source software, so combining open-source power and potential with website builder simplicity sounds like a winning recipe.
Unfortunately, while a good platform, PrestaShop kind of misses the mark on both fronts. If you’re set on an open-source software, pick from one of the platforms above (depending on your business size). And if you’re after something that’s as easy to use as a website builder, why not pick… a website builder! The ones we featured at the very top of this article will be a safe bet.
Is It Worth Upgrading to a Paid Plan?
Unlocking extra features is key for a successful online store. And, with the website builders around today, it’s cheaper than ever to do so. Remember – Big Cartel’s paid plans start from a mere $9.99 per month. So if you’re wondering whether it’s worth upgrading to a paid plan, the answer is almost definitely: yes!
In short, upgrading to a paid plan will upgrade your business. How is that so? Well, like any subscription, if you pay more, you get more. Below, we’ve listed five of the best features you can get on a paid plan…
1. No ads
You may be a really small or totally new business, but nobody will actually know that – unless, of course, you’re using a free plan on an ecommerce builder, and your site is plastered with ads as a result. There’s an element of ‘fake it till you make it’ as a new business, and an unprofessional website isn’t going to give off the right signals.

It can feel daunting to pay for an ecommerce platform before you’ve got any guarantee of customers and income, but think of this as a small but necessary investment. And remember, all these platforms will allow you to pay month by month, so there’s no pressure to commit to something long term if you’re not sure it’s going to work out.
2. Better sales tools
A paid plan won’t just make you a website that looks more professional – it will make you a website that acts more professional, too. Ecommerce platforms withhold premium features, like the ability to send abandoned cart recovery emails, for paying members – and with good reason. In fact, 69% of online carts are abandoned (i.e. the customer leaves the site without paying for the items they have collected in their cart). Emails sent to these customers can have an impressive open rate of 45%, and are hugely effective in re-engaging these customers.

Even upgrading to the cheapest ecommerce plan will get you a ton of better features. For example, Wix’s Business Basic plan piles on features like five hours’ worth of video and a free domain name for the first year.
3. Sell more products
Most free ecommerce plans put a cap on the number of items you can sell. By opting for a paid plan, you’re giving yourself more freedom, and your customers more choice.
4. Get better support
Paying customers tend to be able to access support in more ways, such as over the phone. Even if you get the same help and support options as premium customers, you better believe you’re not going to be top of the priority queue when you need help. Don’t wait until your site is down, or until you can’t get an answer to something that’s driving you nuts, before you upgrade – do it now, and your future self (and site) will thank you!
5. Increase payment methods
Paid plans typically allow you to connect more payment methods. This in turn makes for an easier shopping experience for your customers, increasing the likelihood that they’ll come back.
6. Don’t forget your hosting
If you choose to build your ecommerce store using one of the open-source software we have listed here, you’ll know that you need to arrange hosting separately. We recommend Bluehost across the board for this, although SiteGround also has brilliant Magento-specific plans.

Our top tip would be to review your hosting plan on a regular basis, rather than signing up and considering it a job ticked off.
As your ecommerce business grows, this can put a strain on your hosting plan, which in turn can lead to problems such as:
- A slow-loading website, or users being timed out
- Your site crashing when too many people are using it
Providers like Bluehost are great because they cover websites of every size, and offer excellent customer support to walk you through the different stages.
If you’re interested in upgrading your free plan or free trial, check out our table below. We’ve listed all of the cheapest starting prices for the platforms we’ve included in this article.
Best Free Ecommerce Platforms: The Verdict
This post has walked you through the key pros and cons of the best free ecommerce platforms and software on the market.
By now, we hope you have a really clear idea of which will work for your budget and your store. Here’s a quick recap:
The 8 Best Free Ecommerce Website Builders
- Square Online – (free plan) – Most generous free ecommerce plan.
- Big Cartel – (free plan) – Best for independent artists.
- Wix – (free to build, not sell) – Best for small online stores.
- Shopify – (free trial) – Best for larger businesses.
- Squarespace – (free trial) – Best value for money.
- BigCommerce – (free trial) – Best for a purely online business.
- WooCommerce – (free to install) – Best WordPress ecommerce plugin.
- Magento – (free to install) – Best for enterprise-level businesses.
While free plans make perfect sense for money-conscious business owners, they do have their limitations.
Firstly, with Wix, you can only build your store for free. In other words, to actually make money, you’ll need to spend some.
Secondly, on Big Cartel’s free plan, you can only sell five products. This isn’t really feasible for businesses looking to scale; If this is your aim, you’re better off trying Shopify or BigCommerce using their free trials.
So why should you think about upgrading? Because, for just a few extra dollars per month, you’ll have access to a wide range of features. The most important include more sales tools, better customer support, and the ability to actually sell more products.
Overall, we recommend signing up to a free ecommerce plan today – or testing a free trial – to really get the most out of selling your products online.
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