10 Best Ecommerce Website Builders For Small Business

The best ecommerce website builders for small business are:

1. Wix – best overall ecommerce website builder for small businesses
2. Squarespace – best for creative control
3. Shopify – best for sales-specific features
4. Weebly – the one to watch
5. Square Online – best value for money
6. BigCommerce – best for multichannel selling
7. Volusion – more than you need, but great for growth
8. GoDaddy – easiest to use
9. 3dcart – more complicated than it’s worth
10. BigCartel – free to sell, but very restrictive

You don’t need any coding knowledge to use ecommerce platforms, and you don’t have to organize web hosting or security – anyone can join the ecommerce party!

Sounds great, doesn’t it? In fact, the trickiest part is actually deciding which platform to use. Choosing a platform will depend on your needs; there are many things to consider, but a few of the most important include:

• Number of products you have
• Type of products (i.e. digital, physical, service)
• How much creative control you want
• Your budget
• Time constraints
• Scalability of your business

Now, let’s dive into each website builder to uncover more information…

Best overall ecommerce website builder for small businesses

Price Range: $23 to $49 per month (billed annually)

Features

In our research, Wix scored particularly well in three main areas: value for money, design, and ease of use. Wix’s plans are rich in features, yet its prices are a lot cheaper than ecommerce competitors like Shopify. In short, Wix gives you total creative control, makes building an online store easy for beginners, and packs tons into its ecommerce plans without hiking up its prices.

The main area where Wix didn’t perform quite as well in our research was its sales features. Because it’s a website builder, it doesn’t have the same range of powerful tools that an ecommerce platform like Shopify provides. You can’t sell across multiple channels like Facebook or Instagram, for example.

However, Wix has more than enough to offer a small business looking to get started online. 

Wix is a dream for tech beginners – it’s easy to use, and lets anyone build an awesome online store. You can also add product videos, which is a great feature.

Templates

Wix’s template design and level of creative control is impressive. You simply drag images, text boxes, and more onto your page, then drop them into position wherever you want. This drag-and-drop editing style is super easy, and gives you total creative freedom over the design of your store. 

Pricing

Wix lets you create a store at no cost, so you can build your ecommerce empire’s foundations without spending a dime. However, to actually sell products, you’ll need to upgrade to at least the Business Basic plan, which costs $23 per month.

As you can see, there’s plenty of reasons why Wix is our #1 recommended ecommerce website builder for small businesses. But don’t just take our word for it. We spoke to Claudia, founder of The Vegan Bakes, to find out about her experience of using Wix to build her small bakery website.

Best for creative control

Price Range: $18 – $40 per month (billed annually)

Templates

If you’re looking to build an eye-catching portfolio or online business, then make space for this platform. Why? Because Squarespace stores stand out.

In our research, Squarespace outperformed all other ecommerce website builders when it came to design. Its online store templates are modern, sleek, and built to show off your products. You can even switch your template any time you like – perfect for any rebrands you might have down the line.

Features

Like Wix, Squarespace wasn’t so strong in our testing of its sales features. For example, it does support multichannel selling, but only through Instagram – a pretty limited offering compared to builders like BigCommerce.

That said, with Squarespace’s built-in tools, you’ll still get everything you need to set a small store up for success. You can even add extra sales features from Squarespace’s app store, Squarespace Extensions.

Overall, Squarespace is a great choice if you’re after a superb-looking storefront.

Pricing

Even the Squarespace price plans look good – if you sign up for a year, you’ll pay just $18 per month on the cheapest ecommerce plan (or $26 per month on a month by month contract).

However, you can get the $18/month plan for only $16.20/month when you use our exclusive Squarespace offer code on your first purchase. Simply enter code WBE at the checkout to save 10% on any Squarespace plan.

Best for sales-specific features

Price Range: $29 – $299 per month

Features

If you’re serious about selling and want to give your small business a boost, Shopify has all the tools you’ll need. And if you can’t find what you’re looking for, there’s an enormous app store for you to browse!

Shopify is a dedicated ecommerce platform, meaning it’s designed purely to help you build an online store. That’s why it has much more advanced sales tools than website builders like Wix and Squarespace.

In our research, Shopify didn’t just come top of the rankings for its sales features – it also received the highest customer score. We calculate this score by getting people to try out the builder, and then rate it based on their experience. Shopify was the people’s favorite for building an online store.

An especially great feature of Shopify is that it comes with built-in drop shipping tools. So if you’re a small business struggling to find storage for your products, Shopify could be your perfect solution.

If you’re already selling, Shopify has apps that let you sync your inventories, making it easy to manage all your sales from one place. Shopify also has great multichannel selling options, including integration with Instagram, Facebook, and even Amazon and eBay.

Pricing

Shopify didn’t wow us in every department, though – the most significant area where it fell down was value for money. A lot of Shopify’s sales tools are actually too advanced for small businesses, meaning you’re paying for features you might not need for a long time. When you’re on a tight budget, every cent counts!

Shopify’s pricing plans start from $29 per month, although you can save money by signing up to an annual plan rather than paying on a monthly basis.You’ll save 10% if you sign up for one year, but you’ll save 20% if you sign up for two years, which means you could save almost $190 per year on the Shopify plan which you could put towards travel expenses, office equipment, or some new business cards!

Shopify’s powerful tools won’t benefit you if you just want to sell one or two products. However, if you’re ambitious and want to give your store a solid foundation, then Shopify has the full package to support your small business.

The one to watch

Price Range: $6 – $26 per month (billed annually)

Pricing

Most small business owners should be wary of hidden costs. Thankfully, Weebly is very budget-friendly, with some of the lowest ecommerce starter prices around. You can even sell products on Weebly’s free ecommerce plan, which is a huge feature to offer at no cost. Plus, Weebly is super easy to use.

Although you can sell on the free plan, if you’re serious about selling then we recommed the Professional plan for small stores, or the Performance plan, which is the best plan for ecommerce.

The $12 per month Professional plan is the cheapest plan to remove Weebly adverts from your site, and also comes with a shipping calculator, free domain, and unlimited storage. That said, the $26 per month Performance plan is best for online stores – you get everything from abandoned cart emails to shipping discounts and advanced ecommerce insights.

Features

Weebly also has some brilliant additional features, particularly in blogging and its password protected pages. The downside? You can’t sell across Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Overall, though, Weebly is a safe pair of hands for your small business.

In testing, Weebly underwhelmed us with its larger scale ecommerce offerings, which is why we recommend it for small businesses only selling a few products – put simply, it just doesn’t have as much to offer as Wix or Squarespace.

However, since Square took over Weebly, its sales features have massively improved – this takeover is to thank for Weebly’s new free ecommerce plan, and also the huge advancement in its sales features. The Performance plan is a shining example of how Weebly has stepped up to the ecommerce mark recently, making it the one to watch!

In our research, Weebly scored highly for value for money, and you can see why. You can sell for free, and its cheapest ecommerce plan starts at just $6 per month (billed annually.)

Best value for money

Price Range: $0 – $72 per month

Best value for money

4.2

out of 5

Website Features

3.3 out of 5 stars

Sales Features

3.8 out of 5 stars

Design Functionalities

3.1 out of 5 stars

Help and Support

3.5 out of 5 stars

Value For Money

4.6 out of 5 stars

Customer Score

3.5 out of 5 stars

Ease Of Use

4.2 out of 5 stars

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Ease of Use

Square is a payment processing giant which bought Weebly – the popular website builder – in 2018. The result is the new Square Online, which combines Square’s features with Weebly’s website building platform. 

The first thing to say about this new kid on the block is that, on the whole, it’s pretty similar to Weebly. You sign up through Square Online, and get extra features, but you’re still using Weebly’s building software to actually create your store.

This is especially great news for beginners, as Weebly is super simple to use and received an impressively high customer satisfaction score in our research. However, it also comes with Weebly’s limitations, namely the limited customization options.

Square Online uses Artificial Design Intelligence (ADI) to build you a store that’s tailored to your needs. This is the same method used by builders like GoDaddy, asking questions about your store to create a personalized layout for your website.

Features

So, why use Square Online instead of Weebly? Well, Square Online comes with extra features and integrations that Weebly doesn’t, such as tracking customer behavior and creating custom invoices.

It also uses its AI tech to help you follow best practice when adding products, which was a feature that really stood out when we tested Square Online. For example, it can identify products and suggest the category name for you, saving time.

Pricing

Because of these features, we recommend Square Online to sellers who want to get the most value for their money. Square Online’s platform is easy to use and affordable, but it doesn’t sacrifice great features, either.

One of the most obvious things to shout about with Square Online is the fact it has a free plan for you to sell on – a very rare offer that isn’t available with most ecommerce builders. Square Online has four plans, ranging from $0 to $72 per month (billed annually).

Best for multichannel selling

Price Range: $29.95 – $249.95 per month

Features

BigCommerce has the most built-in features of any ecommerce builder, meaning it’s less reliant on apps than platforms like Shopify. This can help keep your costs down, but it also means that BigCommerce is the most scalable ecommerce builder on the market. So, if you’ve got big dreams for your small business, this is the best choice for you!

BigCommerce also lets you sell across a variety of channels, including eBay, Amazon, Square, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. This lets you expand your store’s reach while still keeping costs low.

The main snag with BigCommerce is that a lot of its tools are geared towards helping businesses grow rapidly, and supporting large stores. If you’re not looking to scale, then you’ll find you’re paying for features you don’t need for your small business.

It was for this reason that BigCommerce scored unexceptionally for value for money in our research. It also fell down in our ease of use testing because of the complex terminology it uses. This makes it less than ideal for a small business wanting to get online quickly, and with minimum hassle.

However, BigCommerce unsurprisingly received high scores for its sales features, and it has great SEO tools to help your business get found via Google.

Pricing

If you want to build with BigCommerce, you’ve got three ecommerce plans to choose from – the cheapest starts at $29.95 per month. It has a 15 day free trial so you can give it a go before you commit to a plan!

Overall, BigCommerce is ideal if you want some advanced tools under your belt as you grow your small business. It’s undoubtedly a powerful ecommerce builder, but for most small stores, it sits in the middle of the pack.

More than you need, but great for growth

Price Range: $29 – $299 per month

Volusion provides no illusions when it comes to data reports. Everything you need for tracking your site’s performance and progress is in one place – it’s a data-lover’s dream.

This makes it ideal for growing your business at a pace that suits you. Volusion’s data tools let you measure how successful your pages are, so you can easily adjust your site to improve your sales.

Features

In our research, Volusion scored poorly for its website features – the main problem being that Volusion doesn’t offer any blogging tools. Blogging can play an important part in the growth of small businesses, so this is a major drawback.

Where Volusion scored well was its sales features – indeed, it actually matched BigCommerce’s scores. That said, for most small businesses, a lot of these features will be overkill.

However, if you want to grow your business, Volusion is a decent place to start.

Pricing

Volusion’s cheapest price plan costs $29 per month. That’s right – it costs the same as Shopify! Out of the two, though, you’ll get better value for your money with Shopify.

Easiest to use

Price Range: $19.99 per month (billed annually)

Ease of Use

GoDaddy uses GoCentral ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) to build your online store in minutes. If you want your business to get up and running online quickly, it’s a no brainer.

Sure, some features could be stronger – particularly when it comes to blogging – but for a simple, hassle-free website, GoDaddy is perfect.

The proof is right there in black and white – our users awarded GoDaddy the highest ‘ease of use’ score in our research. So even if you’re a total technophobe, you’ll find GoDaddy a breeze to build with.

That said, ease of use was the only area GoDaddy really shone – elsewhere it was pretty average. For example, while GoDaddy’s ADI helps you design your site, the actual level of creative control isn’t great.

Still, what you lose in creative freedom, you more than make up in time – you can’t beat GoDaddy for speed.

Pricing

GoDaddy can give you a website in a few minutes, and for less than $20 per month. It only has one ecommerce plan – the suitably named Online Store price plan, which costs $19.99 per month, (billed annually). This includes a generous one month free trial, too.

More complicated than it’s worth

Price Range: $19 – $229 per month

Features

3dcart is the opposite to Squarespace. It relies on powerful back-end tools and inventory features, focusing less on creativity and design. With no mobile app, you can’t edit your site on the go, but 3dcart does come with a surprisingly good range of built-in sales tools. This will also save you buying tons of apps, which can see costs quickly rack up.

3dcart came behind Volusion for its sales features in our research rankings.  That said, it comes with a great inventory system, and plenty of management control in the backend. It also reformats your site for you when you change themes, earning it points in the design category.

Ease of Use

However, 3dcart fell down when we put it to the test. Our users who tried it out gave it the lowest customer score, making it the small business ecommerce builder people were least likely to recommend.

Pricing

3dcart’s cheapest plan is $19 per month, which is less than Shopify’s lowest price plan. So, if you want some great tools at a lower cost, 3dcart could be for you.

Free to sell, but very restrictive

Price range: $0 – $29.99 per month

Features

Big Cartel’s main selling point is that you can build, publish, and even sell without having to pay a cent. That’s pretty rare. With most other ecommerce website builders, you have to be on a paid plan to sell through your site, but Big Cartel breaks this mold.

However, the phrase “you get what you pay for” springs to mind, because Big Cartel is an extremely basic ecommerce builder. It came last in five out of seven of our research categories, making it the worst builder for:

• Website Features – for example, Big Cartel doesn’t have any built-in blogging tools.
• Sales Features – it’s missing important features; for example, it’s not PCI compliant, and there’s no abandoned cart recovery.
• Design – there’s only a small choice of themes, none of which offer product zoom, product videos, or customer logins. Very limited customization!
• Help and Support – you only get help through email support Monday to Friday, or via the Help Center.
• Ease of Use – Big Cartel seems simple to start with, but quickly becomes frustrating unless you know how to code.

So, Big Cartel comes firmly in last place. But no builder is all bad, and Big Cartel does have its own benefits that earn it a place in our list of the best ecommerce builders for small businesses.

If you’re starting small and don’t mind staying that way, Big Cartel is built for you.

It’s designed to help artists, makers, and creatives sell their products online, meaning it’s ideal for selling a small number of unique items. You can’t bulk upload products, so be prepared to add each one separately!

You can be sure that Big Cartel isn’t going to overwhelm you with tons of features you don’t need, making it easy to keep your small business manageable.

Pricing

One of the best things about Big Cartel is its affordable price plans. These are very budget-friendly, offering better value for money than most other builders – including Shopify!

Big Cartel’s free plan lets you sell up to five products, and comes with very basic features. The cheapest paid plan costs $9.99 per month, unlocks all Big Carel’s features, and lets you sell up to 25 products. You can upgrade or downgrade at any time.

There are many website builder options for your small business. These builders let you create an awesome online store for a relatively low cost, helping you get off the ground and into the world of ecommerce.

To recap, the 10 best ecommerce website builders for small business are:

1. Wix – best overall ecommerce website builder for small businesses
2. Squarespace – best for creative control
3. Shopify – best for sales-specific features
4. Weebly – the one to watch
5. Square Online – best value for money
6. BigCommerce – best for multichannel selling
7. Volusion – more than you need, but great for growth
8. GoDaddy – easiest to use
9. 3dcart – more complicated than it’s worth
10. BigCartel – free to sell, but very restrictive

This list of 10 is a great fix for small businesses looking to get started online. However, as your store grows, so will your website’s needs.

If your store does grow quickly – and hopefully it will – you might want to consider switching to a big business-friendly platform like BigCommerce, which is ideal for fast growing ecommerce stores.

For most small businesses, we recommend one of our top three. You should use:

• Wix if you want to get the most out of your budget – or if you’re a beginner who wants total creative freedom over your site’s design.
• Squarespace if you want a sleek, modern design template for your business website, tons of creative control, and all your features built-in.
• Shopify if you’re serious about selling, and want powerful tools and an endless choice of apps to help you run your business.

Unless you have very specific needs, we don’t recommend Big Cartel or 3dcart – they’re right for some small businesses, but most will find them restrictive and time consuming.

For now, we recommend trying one of the other builders listed above for your small business. Don’t forget that each platform either offers a free plan or free trial, so you can begin building the foundations for your future ecommerce empire at no personal cost.

Which is the best ecommerce platform?

Shopify is the best overall ecommerce platform on the market, it’s easy to use, offers the best sales tools and provides the most comprehensive customer support. For smaller businesses, Wix is a great option. It lets you build a store and sell a few products with ease.

Should I use BigCommerce or Shopify?

BigCommerce is for fast growing businesses looking to scale massively. It has the best built-in features of any platform, but it’s quite tricky to work because it uses complicated language. Shopify is better for smaller businesses. It’s much easier to use than BigCommerce, helping you build a store quickly.

Which is the cheapest ecommerce website builder?

Weebly’s ecommerce-specific pricing plans start from just $6 per month, which is ideal for small businesses looking after their budget. Weebly also lets you sell for free, although it’s fairly limited. BigCartel also lets you sell online for free, but it cannot match Weebly for ecommerce tools and features. But you’ll get the best value for your money from Square Online, which lets you sell on the free plan and offers excellent features on its paid plans from $12 per month.