🛒 Compare Best Ecommerce Platforms

🛍️️ Starting eCommerce Business

Launching an ecommerce business can be an exhilarating experience filled with endless possibilities. From selecting the perfect business name to designing a visually appealing website, there's no shortage of creativity and potential. It's essential to keep in mind the future of your business and plan for the necessary tools and resources you'll require to ensure your business continues to thrive.

Ecommerce has become an indispensable part of modern business and its relevance is only set to grow. Don't take our word for it; take a look at the figures:
According to eMarketer's projections, in 2022, ecommerce sales will cross the $5 trillion mark globally, comprising over 20% of total retail sales. Even with the deceleration of growth, the total amount spent on ecommerce is expected to exceed $7 trillion by 2025.

Choosing the right ecommerce platform is crucial for any merchant looking to expand their business online. It is a major decision that requires careful consideration to ensure scalable and long-term growth.

Essentially, an ecommerce platform is a software application that enables online businesses to manage their website, marketing, sales, and operations. With the help of powerful ecommerce features, platforms like BigCommerce provide businesses with the ability to centralize their operations and run their business the way they want to while also integrating with common business tools.

💘 How to choose Best eCommerce platform for you

When we review the best ecommerce platforms, we find that the most common reason for switching platforms is that the current platform no longer meets our needs. However, we don't necessarily find one platform to be better than another overall, but rather that different platforms work better for different aspects of our business. This is similar to what we have experienced across multiple platforms as web developers.

When we choose an ecommerce platform, it's important to consider the long-term impact on our business. Switching platforms can be a time-consuming process, so it's best to choose the right platform from the start. One way we can approach this is to visualize the physical space we would need to lease for our online store. This will help us determine if a website builder like Wix or Squarespace is appropriate for our boutique or small-scale online retailer, or if a pure ecommerce platform like Shopify or BigCommerce is more suitable for a high-volume online store with a complex inventory system.

While website builders like Wix and Squarespace offer more design flexibility and are easier to use for beginners like us, they have limitations in terms of scalability and payment gateways. Pure ecommerce platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce are better equipped to handle a high-volume online store with multiple inventory locations and payment options. However, customization on these platforms requires more expertise in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, making it more challenging for less experienced ecommerce users like us.

🏆️Selecting the Top Ecommerce Platforms

In order to make our top list, each platform had to include all the fundamentals of a modern online shopping experience:

• Visual website builder: Create your online store with clicks (not code)
• Inventory management tools: Stock, tag, and categorize an unlimited number of items
• Shopping carts: Allow customers to browse and order products
• Payment gateways: Offer secure ways for customers to pay online
• Shipping tools: Arrange for pickup, delivery, or price in a third-party shipper
• SEO & marketing tools: Get the word out and more traffic to your store

Our researchers focused on platforms that individuals could start using right away, without deep experience in computer languages, supply chain management, or online marketing.

On day one, someone should be able to set up their store, stock their products, market their brand, and ship orders. None of these fundamentals should require a developer or a computer science degree.

This is why we ended up excluding some great products like Magento. Those products are marketed toward larger operations with complex requirements. For the vast majority of users, a tool in this class has more firepower than they need, and it’s going to be way more challenging to set up.

You can definitely do millions in revenue with the recommendations on our list. Many businesses already have.

Shopify and BigCommerce offer pre-built integrations with the most popular ERP software and form the ecommerce backbone of massive multinational retailers. Squarespace and Wix offer custom solutions used by some of the biggest companies on the planet. WordPress is still the king of the internet.

If you’re an enterprise buyer, reach out to any of these platforms’ sales teams. That’s where you’ll be able to learn just how well they can handle your needs.

For the rest of you, you can start on any of our recommendations and grow. All of these platforms have fundamentals like security locked down. You’re not worrying about SSL certificates, PCI compliance audits, or anything like that.

You may be on the hook for updating plugins, which is especially important for WordPress, but you certainly don’t need to have any specialized cybersecurity knowledge to keep your site, and your customers, hack-free.

Once we felt confident that our top list was suited to individuals and small businesses, it was time to take a deeper look at what it’s really like to run a store on each of these platforms.

🎯 What types of ecommerce platforms are there?

In order to make your online store accessible to the public, you have to have a hosting solution. Hosting stores your information on a server, which lets internet users visit your site and view all of the content.

Every website is hosted somewhere, meaning it has dedicated server space from a provider. Some ecommerce platforms have hosting built in, while others require you use self-hosting or open-source hosting.

1. Hosted

Some website builders offer a hosted platform. In this case, you don’t need to worry about the mess of self or third-party hosting and the additional fees attached. Shopify stores, for example, include website hosting in every plan.

All Shopify updates are automatic and hassle free, so your site will always be up to date. Building on a hosted ecommerce platform gives you more freedom to focus on running your business—not on putting out fires caused by downtime and the need to fix bugs.

2. Self-hosted

Self-hosted, or non-hosted, ecommerce platforms require merchants to use their own server space or pay to rent space from a hosting provider. This makes ongoing website management complex, as you’re responsible for updates, maintenance, and bug fixes. This requires a lot of internal resources that you could otherwise allocate elsewhere.

Self-hosted platforms are typically open source, and you use a third party to host your website data. Third-party sourcing options charge fees for their services, and these costs quickly add up. Many times, these hosting services use tiered pricing structures, so those on the lowest plans don’t get much in the way of customer support. This can leave you hanging at really important times, like traffic boosts after unexpected press coverage.

✏️ Things to Consider When Choosing Your Ecommerce Platform

Although you might be lured into an especially affordable plan that meets some of your criteria, it’s important to do some research before you commit. You can change hosts at any time, but migrating your site can be a hassle for you and your customers. Consider the following:

• Budget. Even though ecommerce hosts offer competitive packages, you have to decide whether or not they’re actually cost-efficient. Paying more doesn’t always equal the best experience. However, choosing the cheapest option will often leave you looking for add-on capabilities from somewhere else. Piecing together fees from various providers is usually the most expensive way to go. Before you choose an ecommerce host, decide on your budget for the following features. If you choose standalone web hosting, you’ll have to research the costs of these services from other providers. But if you look at all-in-one hosts, you’ll often find that you can select a premium package that includes all of these features and stays within your budget.
• Web design. From landing page to checkout, your store web design should create a unique user experience that reflects your brand and keeps customers coming back. Many major ecommerce platforms have a variety of themes you can choose from. Some themes may be free with the platform, while others may range in price from $60-$200 each. In addition, there will likely be instances when your ecommerce solution doesn’t have a necessary feature you’re looking for. This is where add-ons, plugins and extension costs come into play.
• Programming and functionality. Custom ecommerce functionality, backend programming and coding are often the highest costs in building out your ecommerce website. However, they’re also extremely important if you want your business to operate efficiently and have a competitive edge against other ecommerce solutions. According to OuterBox Design, backend programming can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $75,000, and third-party integrations can range from $500 to $20,000, depending on the size of your business.
• Security. Protecting your data and that of your customers should always be a top priority. Choose a platform that will help you feel secure in how payment processing and data are managed — the alternative can cost your company and lose loyal customers. Luckily, BigCommerce is ISO/IEC 27001:2013 & PCI DSS 3.2, Level 1 certified and supports 65+ online payment gateways, such as PayPal and Stripe, as well as 140 currencies.
• Monthly hosting. Platforms like BigCommerce are hosted on the cloud and offer web hosting as part of the monthly subscription, which means you don’t need to search for third-party hosting or deal with the challenges of managing it. However, if you want to self-host your ecommerce store or use a platform that doesn’t include hosting costs in the subscription rate, such as WooCommerce, the cost can range from $80-$730 per month. However this price may depend on your amount of web traffic, your website features and automated services, such as a site backup.
• Maintenance. Building an ecommerce website isn’t just a one-and-done fee — you’ll likely have to pay to keep up your site and ensure everything continues to run smoothly. For instance, your domain name will be an annual cost unless you're able to pay for several years upfront. Plus, you’ll likely have to pay regularly for hosting unless your ecommerce platform includes it in the subscription costs, and your SSL certificate is another annual

  ✍️ Top Ecommerce Platforms Summary

  Ecommerce solutions come in all shapes and sizes. Some are made for international online stores with thousands of products. Others are better suited for sellers with just a handful of items.
  
  All of the best ecommerce platforms provide the ability to sell online, but not all are built to scale. Be aware that your needs might change as your site grows. If that’s in the cards for you, be sure to choose a platform that can grow with you.
  
  The ideal solution is the one that fits your ecommerce business the best. Each company has its own set of priorities, such as a more extensive range of payment options, dropshipping features, real-time inventory management, or an intuitive interface. Therefore, the 'best' platform for you is the one that addresses your specific requirements.
  
  It's crucial to take your time assessing your options and make use of free trials to experiment with each platform's distinctive features and benefits without hesitation.