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The best ecommerce platforms for most small stores are Shopify (the easiest all-round pick, Basic from $29/mo billed yearly), WooCommerce (free plugin, you pay for hosting, cards at 2.9% + $0.30 through WooPayments), and Square Online (a free plan for sellers who already take payments in person). BigCommerce, Wix and Squarespace are close behind, but each has a catch.
Show me Shopify’s current $1-a-month trial offer
Building an online store is a major investment of time and effort. Even using the most user- and beginner-friendly options, you’ll be putting in time adding products, uploading photos and creating content. Naturally, you want to know that your investment will pay off as well as possible.
Finding the best platform to sell online is about self-assessment. Where are you at on coding and design skills? What is your target for paying fees? Will you need tech support at 3 a.m. on a Sunday?
The platforms break up into three groups: the pure store solutions, the coder’s options and the add-on choices built into website builders. Here are the pros and cons of the strongest players out there.
Key takeaways
- Card fees matter more than the plan price. On $10,000 a month in sales, a 0.4-point difference in card rate is $40 a month, more than most plan upgrades.
- Shopify charges 2.9% + 30¢ per online card sale on Basic and adds a 2% fee if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments.
- BigCommerce replaced its Standard, Plus and Pro plans on June 1, 2026 with Core, Growth and Scale. Core caps you at $30K in yearly sales before an automatic upgrade.
- Square folded its online store subscriptions into three company-wide plans in October 2025: Free, Plus ($49/mo per location) and Premium ($149/mo per location).
- Ecwid (part of Lightspeed since 2021) no longer lists a free plan. Its cheapest plan, Starter, is $5/mo for up to 10 products.
- Adobe Commerce (Magento) does not publish prices. You ask Adobe for a quote, and it is aimed at large merchants.
Ecommerce platforms compared
Prices are the list prices on each vendor’s own pages on September 24, 2026, US dollars. “Yearly” means the monthly equivalent when you prepay a year.
| Platform | Entry paid plan | Online card rate (US, entry plan) | Extra platform fee? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Basic $39/mo, or $29/mo yearly | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2% if you skip Shopify Payments | Most new stores |
| WooCommerce | Free plugin, plus hosting | 2.9% + $0.30 (WooPayments) | None | WordPress owners |
| Square Online | Free plan; Plus $49/mo | 3.3% + 30¢ on Free, 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus | None | In-person sellers going online |
| BigCommerce | Core $39/mo, or $29/mo yearly | Depends on processor | 2% on Core if you use an “Open” payment provider | Large catalogs, B2B |
| Wix | Core $29/mo yearly | 2.9% + $0.30 (Wix Payments) | None found | Design-first small shops |
| Squarespace | Basic $19/mo yearly | 2.9% + $0.30 (Squarespace Payments) | 2% on Basic | Creatives, service businesses |
| Ecwid | Starter $5/mo; Venture $29/mo yearly | Depends on processor | None found | Adding a store to an existing site |
| Big Cartel | Free Gold (limited); Platinum $15/mo | Depends on processor | None found | Artists and makers |
| Adobe Commerce | Quote only | Depends on processor | Quote-based licence | Enterprise teams with developers |
Want the hosting side of the WooCommerce math? Our best cloud hosting roundup covers servers that handle store traffic, and cheap VPS hosting covers the budget end.
Hosted, open source or add-on: which kind of platform?
Hosted ecommerce platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, Square Online, Big Cartel) handle the hosting for you and have a more locked-in system. The huge upside is security and performance. The downside is less control over the code and infrastructure. Some large ecommerce sites will eventually outgrow a hosted solution and move on to their own custom ecommerce system.
Open source ecommerce solutions (WooCommerce, Magento Open Source and the older carts below) suit you if you have a development team on hand, ready to go. You’ll get an amazing amount of flexibility, but the big downside is the expense to maintain and upkeep. You’ll be paying market wages for web developers, which adds up quickly. We only recommend going down this route if you’re a developer yourself or have years of website technical project management behind you. WooCommerce on WordPress is the gentle exception.
The ecommerce add-on options (Wix, Squarespace, Ecwid) don’t specialize in ecommerce, but if you’re already using one of these systems, it’s great to know you can stay within the same platform and add on ecommerce for a fee.
The platforms, one by one
1. Shopify: the default pick for a new store
Best for: first-time store owners who want checkout, hosting, security and apps in one bill.
Pricing: Basic is $39/mo billed monthly or $29/mo billed yearly. Grow (the mid-tier plan formerly called “Shopify”) is $105/mo or $79/mo yearly, and Advanced is $399/mo or $299/mo yearly, per Shopify’s pricing page. After a 3-day free trial, most plans cost $1 a month for the first three months. Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/mo on a three-year term.
Card fees: online card rates drop as you move up: 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow, 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced. Use a different payment provider and Shopify adds 2%, 1% or 0.6% on top, depending on plan.
Strengths: its greatest strength is the ease of use, with tools that allow even non-techies to get stores up and running in a day’s time. Taxes are calculated automatically, and the company offers 24/7 tech support. The checkout converts well and is familiar to shoppers. The app store covers almost any feature you’ll want later. You never touch a server.
Watch-outs: a major downside to using Shopify is that the lock-in effect is the company’s business model. There’s also no way to make serious adjustments to the underlying code because the system runs on Shopify’s servers. Apps add up. Many useful features (reviews, subscriptions, advanced filters) are paid apps with their own monthly fees. The third-party provider fee punishes you for keeping an existing processor.
Verdict: for most small to medium shop owners, or even large brands on Shopify Plus, this will be the way to go. Start here unless you have a reason not to. Skip Shopify if you’re tied to a payment processor you can’t leave, since the extra 2% on Basic eats margins fast.
Show me today’s Shopify plan prices
2. WooCommerce: full control if you already run WordPress
Best for: people who already have a WordPress site, or want to own every part of the store.
Pricing: the WooCommerce plugin is free and open source. WooCommerce is built by Automattic. You pay for hosting, a domain, and any paid extensions. WooPayments has no setup or monthly fee and charges 2.9% + $0.30 per US card sale, plus 1.5% on international payments and 1% more if currency conversion applies.
Strengths: no platform fee on your sales. You can move hosts any time and take your data with you. It works with almost every payment processor.
Watch-outs: you’re the IT department. Updates, backups, security and speed depend on your host and on you. A cheap shared plan can buckle during a sale. Our support-focused host ranking helps if you want someone to call when it breaks.
Verdict: great value for a store owner comfortable with WordPress. Don’t pick WooCommerce if you want zero maintenance or have no one to call when a plugin update breaks checkout.
Show me WooCommerce and its free plugin
3. Square Online: the free plan that actually sells
Best for: cafés, shops and market sellers already using Square in person.
Pricing: on October 6, 2025, Square replaced 18 separate subscriptions with three plans: Square Free, Square Plus ($49/mo per location) and Square Premium ($149/mo per location). Premium adds 24/7 phone support. Online card payments cost 3.3% + 30¢ on Square Free and 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus or Premium; payment links cost 3.3% + 30¢.
Strengths: inventory, point of sale and your website live in one dashboard. The free plan is a real store, not a trial.
Watch-outs: the old Square Online-only paid tier is gone, so upgrades now mean paying for the whole Square bundle, per location. On the free plan you pay 0.4 points more per online card sale than on Plus. Design flexibility trails Shopify and Wix.
Verdict: the obvious choice if Square already runs your counter. Skip it if you sell online only and need deep customization or a big app ecosystem.
Show me Square’s online store plans
4. BigCommerce: big catalogs, new pricing rules
Best for: stores with large catalogs, B2B price lists, or multi-channel selling.
Pricing: from June 1, 2026, BigCommerce sells Core ($39/mo, $29 yearly), Growth ($105/mo, $79 yearly), Scale ($399/mo, $299 yearly) and Performance (custom pricing from $1,499/mo). Stores on the old Standard, Plus and Pro plans are being moved to the new structure. Core covers up to $30K in trailing 12-month sales and Growth up to $100K; go over and you’re upgraded automatically. On Scale, sales above $33,333 a month carry a 0.9% overage rate. Orders paid through an “Open Payment Provider” (any processor not on BigCommerce’s embedded list) carry a fee of 2% on Core, 1% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale, billed monthly.
Ownership note: the parent company renamed itself Commerce.com, Inc. on July 31, 2025, and its ticker became CMRC on August 1, 2025. BigCommerce is still the product name.
BigCommerce is the second contender for best ecommerce platform for many stores. Its business model is built more around modularity than the scale of a store.
Strengths: strong built-in features for catalog size and B2B that Shopify often sells as apps.
Watch-outs: the sales caps are the whole story. A store doing $35K a year pays Growth prices whether it needs Growth features or not.
Verdict: worth a look past $100K a year in sales with a complex catalog. Skip it if you’re small and growing fast, since the automatic upgrades make costs hard to predict.
Show me BigCommerce’s current plans
5. Wix: easiest design control for small shops
Best for: small businesses that care most about how the site looks.
Pricing: Wix plans run $17 to $159/mo billed yearly. You need Core ($29/mo yearly) or higher to take payments; Business is $39/mo and Business Elite $159/mo. Wix Payments in the US charges 2.9% + $0.30 per card sale, or 3.7% + $0.30 for American Express.
Wix is a business that has been a player in the website field for a while, and it uses the same type of super-easy model for store setup that its site builder does. There’s drag-and-drop editing capability, making it appealing to folks who are more artists than coders.
Strengths: drag-and-drop editing, good templates, and bookings and events in the same account.
Watch-outs: monthly billing costs noticeably more than the yearly prices above. Moving a Wix site to another platform later is mostly a rebuild.
Verdict: a solid fit for a service business with a small product line. Skip Wix if you expect hundreds of SKUs or plan to switch platforms in a few years.
6. Squarespace: good-looking stores for creatives
Best for: photographers, designers and service businesses selling a few products or digital goods.
Pricing: Squarespace replaced its Personal, Business and Commerce plans with Basic, Core, Plus and Advanced. Billed yearly, Basic is $19/mo, Core $29/mo, Plus $49/mo and Advanced $99/mo (monthly billing: $25, $39, $65 and $139). Basic charges a 2% commerce transaction fee that disappears from Core up. Squarespace Payments costs 2.9% + $0.30 per US card on Basic and Core, 2.7% on Plus and 2.5% on Advanced.
Squarespace comes into the market from a very similar start as Wix. The interface places an emphasis on simplicity and approachability, making it an excellent choice for pure beginners.
Strengths: the templates are the best-looking of this group out of the box. They offer a ton of templates, allowing you to quickly create something visually appealing.
Watch-outs: a downside to the Squarespace design model is that most of the templates are super minimal. This means they can produce strangely empty-looking stores for folks who don’t have lots of products to put or who have very little in the way of high-quality imagery. Fewer integrations than Shopify or WooCommerce. Card and transaction fees change by plan and country, so read the fee page for your country.
Verdict: pick it for a brand-led store with a small catalog. Skip it if you need complex shipping rules or wholesale pricing.
7. Ecwid by Lightspeed: add a store to the site you already have
Best for: adding a shop to an existing website, Facebook page or WordPress site without rebuilding.
Pricing: Ecwid’s pricing page no longer lists a free plan. Starter costs $5/mo for up to 10 products. Venture is $29/mo yearly or $35 monthly, Business $49 or $65, and Unlimited $119 or $149. Lightspeed bought Ecwid in 2021.
Strengths: it plugs into almost anything. One catalog can feed several sites and marketplaces.
Watch-outs: you’re managing two systems (your site and Ecwid). Older reviews still describe a free plan and lower Venture prices, so check the date on any review you read.
Verdict: a smart bolt-on. Skip it if you’re starting from nothing, since a full platform like Shopify is simpler.
Show me Ecwid’s free and paid plans
8. Big Cartel: tiny catalogs, tiny bills
Best for: artists, bands and makers selling a handful of items.
Pricing: Gold is a free, limited-feature plan. Platinum is $15/mo after a 7-day trial and Diamond $30/mo; paying yearly saves 20% ($12 and $24 a month).
Big Cartel is a company that’s making a play for the small store owner.
Strengths: the cheapest paid plans on this list and a setup you can finish in an afternoon.
Watch-outs: the feature set is basic, and Gold is limited. The interface is downright sparse, but that may be appealing to people who just want the basics. Check the plan comparison before you list.
Verdict: perfect for a merch table going online. Skip it if you plan to grow past a small product line.
9. Adobe Commerce (Magento): enterprise only
Best for: large merchants with an in-house or agency development team.
Pricing: Adobe does not list prices. Adobe Commerce is licensed by quote. Magento Open Source is free, open-source software (OSL 3.0 licence), but you host, secure and develop it yourself.
Magento is the best ecommerce platform for the person who demands code access. Magento Open Source is a PHP-based, open-source platform that can be downloaded and modified for use on your own servers. There are also numerous hosted Magento solutions for folks who’d prefer to not deal with setting up their own computers.
Strengths: it can model almost any catalog, pricing or B2B workflow. As is the case with WordPress, Magento provides users access to an insane amount of plug-ins. If there’s a tiny little function that you need, there’s a good chance someone has already created it. If it doesn’t exist, you’re welcome to code it yourself or hire someone to write the code for you. Magento offers infinite expandability and customizability.
Watch-outs: development and hosting costs dwarf the licence for most mid-size stores. On Open Source, you may end up being entirely on the hook for tech support.
Verdict: only if you have developers on staff and eight-figure sales plans. Everyone else should skip it.
Request an Adobe Commerce quote
Other open-source carts: OpenCart, Zen Cart and osCommerce
OpenCart is the distant second to Magento when it comes to the big open-source ecommerce options. It’s largely designed to be downloaded and run on your own server. The main upside is that you get unlimited everything that you can squeeze out of your own server solution. The dashboard makes it very easy to start and maintain multiple stores on the same platform, a plus for companies that operate several brands or in multiple sectors. In light of the large number of self-hosters out there, you also can find a ton of community support for the platform online for free.
Zen Cart has been around a while, and it has a big user community to support it. osCommerce has been around for more than two decades, and it has a reputation for being highly hands-on. As is the case with Zen Cart, it’s not a beginner’s choice, but those with programming skills will find the accessibility of the platform to be refreshing. We haven’t re-checked these three for this update, so treat this as background, not a ranking.
What happened to Shift4Shop?
Shift4Shop (formerly 3dcart, bought by payments company Shift4 in November 2020) is still online. Its End-to-End plan is no longer the free deal it was known for: the plan page now lists an unlimited plan at $41 a month, with card processing from PayPal. We dropped it from the ranked list while those terms settle. If you’re on it today, read your current invoice and terms before you renew.
How much will you really pay each month?
Take a store selling $5,000 a month online, average order $50, using each platform’s own processor on the entry plan that can sell. Card fees at 2.9% + 30¢ come to about $175 a month (100 orders). That is the same on Shopify Basic, WooPayments and Wix Payments. Square Free charges 3.3% + 30¢ online, so the same sales cost about $195 in fees. Then add the plan price: $29 yearly-billed on Shopify Basic, $0 on Square Free, $29 on Wix Core, plus hosting for WooCommerce. This is our arithmetic from the published rates, not a test.
The math changes when you bring your own processor. On Shopify Basic, a third-party gateway adds 2%, which is $100 a month on $5,000 in sales.
How we chose
On September 24, 2026 we read each vendor’s pricing page, fee documentation, help-center plan pages and recent announcements (BigCommerce’s June 2026 plan change, Square’s October 2025 plans). Adobe’s pricing page would not load for us, so we make no price claim for Adobe Commerce. We have not run stores on these platforms for this update, and we did not run speed or conversion tests. Rankings weigh total monthly cost for a small store, card fees, lock-in risk and how much maintenance you take on.
FAQ
What is the cheapest ecommerce platform?
Square Online and Big Cartel both have free plans. Ecwid’s Starter plan is $5 a month. You still pay card processing fees on every sale: 3.3% + 30¢ online on Square Free, and around 2.9% + 30¢ on most other platforms’ own processors in the US.
Is Shopify better than WooCommerce?
Shopify is better if you want no maintenance. WooCommerce is better if you already use WordPress and want to avoid platform fees and lock-in. WooCommerce’s total cost depends on your host.
Does Shopify charge transaction fees?
Not if you use Shopify Payments. If you use another payment provider, Shopify adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced.
Did BigCommerce change its pricing?
Yes. On June 1, 2026, BigCommerce moved self-serve stores to Core, Growth and Scale plans with yearly sales thresholds and automatic upgrades.
Is Square Online still free?
Yes. The Square Free plan includes an online store, though online card sales cost 3.3% + 30¢ on it. Paid features now come through Square Plus or Premium, priced per location.
Which platform is best for selling digital products?
Squarespace and Shopify both handle downloads well. On Squarespace, plan choice matters: the digital product fee is 7% on Basic, 5% on Core, 1% on Plus and 0% on Advanced.
Related
- Best domain registrars for the store’s domain
- Best cloud hosting if you run WooCommerce
- Hosts with 24/7 support
Sources
Full source list with retrieved dates is in this page’s sources block.
Update log
- : Rewrote and fact-checked the page: the first full update since 2022. Kept Joe’s original writing where it still holds.
- : Prices and facts checked against the cited sources, read September 24, 2026.
