Best Ecommerce Platforms
The best ecommerce platforms for building an online store, ranked from hosted all-in-one tools to open-source carts.
BigCommerce is a powerful hosted platform with strong built-in features and zero transaction fees, popular with larger and B2B merchants who want flexibility.
Squarespace is loved for award-winning templates and a polished editor, with capable ecommerce built in. A favorite of creatives, portfolios, and lifestyle brands.
WooCommerce is the leading open-source ecommerce plugin for WordPress — free to start, endlessly extensible, and fully self-owned, but you manage hosting and updates.
Side-by-side comparison
| Comparison | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.6 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Starting price | $39/mo | $39/mo | $16/mo | Free |
| Pricing model | Paid | Paid | Paid | Freemium |
| API available | ||||
| Best for | DTC brands & growing stores | Mid-market & B2B stores | Creatives & lifestyle brands | Small businesses & creatives |
| Hosted storefront | ||||
| Shopify Payments | ||||
| Huge app store | ||||
| POS & omnichannel | ||||
| Checkout optimization | ||||
| No transaction fees | ||||
| Rich built-in features | ||||
| B2B Edition | ||||
| Headless/API-first | ||||
| Multi-channel | ||||
| Award-winning templates | ||||
| Built-in ecommerce | ||||
| Blogging | ||||
| Email campaigns | ||||
| Scheduling (Acuity) | ||||
| Drag-drop editor | ||||
| Templates | ||||
| Built-in store | ||||
| AI site builder | ||||
| Marketing tools | ||||
| Visit | Visit | Visit | Visit |
Frequently asked questions
What is the best ecommerce platforms?+
Shopify is our #1 pick, rated 4.6/5. The full ranked list with pricing and trade-offs is above.
How did you rank these tools?+
Rankings weigh user ratings, feature depth, pricing value, and fit for the use case. We update them as products evolve.