Best Ecommerce Platforms for Small Business
Shopify is the usual starting point for a small shop: $29 a month on annual billing, a point of sale built into the same account, and the widest pool of apps, themes and freelancers. It is not the only sensible answer, because these ten platforms reach a store in five different ways, and the right one depends on what you already have.
A business with a Square register can open Square Online for $0. One with a WordPress site can add WooCommerce for free, or drop Ecwid by Lightspeed into almost any existing site from $5. Squarespace ($19) and Wix ($29) are website builders with selling added, while PrestaShop is code you host yourself. The other thing to weigh is the platform's cut: Shopify, BigCommerce and Squarespace list 2% per online sale on their entry plans, and the other seven list 0%.
Our picks
- Already taking payments with Square: Square Online. The free plan has no monthly fee, and in-store and online inventory stay in sync with the Square register.
- Makers selling at craft fairs: Big Cartel. A free tier, no cut of sales ever, and an app that works as a register on a paid plan.
- Adding a shop without rebuilding your site: Ecwid by Lightspeed. Drops a store into an existing WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or hand-built site from $5 a month, with a 0% fee.
- Running WordPress already: WooCommerce. A free plugin with no revenue share; hosting and extensions are the costs you pay instead.
- Creators selling downloads and merch: Sellfy. Starts at $22 with a 0% transaction fee and bundles email marketing and upsells.
At a glance
| Option | Starting Price | Transaction Fee | Free Trial | Platform Type | Sells In Person |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $29source | 2%source | 3source | Hosted all-in-one storesource | Built-in point of salesource | |
| $29source | 2%source | 15source | Hosted all-in-one storesource | Through integrationssource | |
| Freesource | 0%source | 0source | WordPress pluginsource | Through integrationssource | |
| $19source | 2%source | 14source | Website builder with a storesource | Built-in point of salesource | |
| $29source | 0%source | 0source | Website builder with a storesource | Built-in point of salesource | |
| Freesource | 0%source | 0source | Website builder with a storesource | Built-in point of salesource | |
| $5source | 0%source | 0source | Store add-on for an existing sitesource | Through integrationssource | |
| Freesource | 0%source | 7source | Hosted all-in-one storesource | Built-in point of salesource | |
| $22source | 0%source | 14source | Hosted all-in-one storesource | ||
| Freesource | 0%source | 0source | Open-source self-hostedsource |
Transaction fees, billing terms and sales caps
Three platforms list a 2% fee on their starting plan, and the conditions differ. Shopify adds its percentage when you take payments through an outside gateway instead of Shopify Payments. BigCommerce's 2026 pricing adds its percentage on orders processed through providers outside its embedded list, and Squarespace's cheapest tier takes its cut on every order, so a store that is actually selling usually moves one plan higher.
Most advertised prices assume annual billing. Month to month, Shopify and BigCommerce rise from $29 to $39, Squarespace from $19 to $25, and Wix from $29 to $36. Two platforms also cap plans by sales: BigCommerce moves your account up a tier automatically once trailing-twelve-month sales pass the limit, and Sellfy's plans are capped by annual sales volume.
What a $0 starting price actually covers
Four rows start at $0, and they mean two different things. Square Online and Big Cartel have free plans you can sell on. WooCommerce and PrestaShop are free software, so hosting, a domain and most useful extensions or modules are bills the price column cannot show, along with keeping the site updated and secure. Wix sits apart: you can build the whole site free, but selling starts at $29 and there is no free trial, only a money-back window. Ecwid's $5 plan is capped at 10 products.
Selling at a counter or market stall
Five platforms include their own point of sale: Shopify, Wix, Square Online, Big Cartel (on a paid plan) and Squarespace, which pairs its app with a Square card reader. BigCommerce, WooCommerce and Ecwid rely on a partner register instead. Sellfy and PrestaShop are blank in that column because no first-party page on in-person selling could be found for either.
The options in detail
Shopify
Shopify is the default answer for a small business that wants one system for an online store, a market stall and social channels, and it is the platform most apps, themes and freelancers are built around. Its own pricing page pitches the entry plan at solo entrepreneurs, and hosting, checkout and a card reader all come from the same account. The catch is that the sticker price is only part of the bill: a paid theme or a handful of apps is normal, and taking payments through an outside gateway instead of Shopify Payments adds a percentage to every order.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a hosted platform aimed at stores with bigger catalogs and more complicated products than a starter shop, with more built in rather than bought as apps. Its plans are tied to how much you sell: each tier has a trailing-twelve-month sales cap and the account moves up automatically once you pass it, which is worth understanding before you sign up. It has no register of its own and instead lets you pick a point-of-sale partner, and its 2026 pricing adds a percentage fee on orders processed through payment providers outside its embedded list.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce turns a WordPress site into a store, which is why it suits anyone who already runs WordPress or wants to own the whole stack. The software itself is free and there is no revenue share, but that is not the real cost: you pay for hosting, and most stores end up buying extensions for shipping, subscriptions or bookings. It expects you to be comfortable keeping a site updated and secure, and in-person selling comes from a partner rather than from Woo itself.
Squarespace
Squarespace is a website builder first, so it fits a business whose site is mostly brand, photography and services with a shop attached. Selling works on every paid plan, but the cheapest tier takes a cut of each order, so a store that is actually moving product usually ends up one plan higher. In-person selling runs through the Squarespace app paired with a Square card reader, which is handy if you already use Square, and the templates are the reason most people choose it in the first place.
Wix
Wix is the other big website builder, with a drag-and-drop editor, a huge template library and, more recently, a full commerce and point-of-sale stack behind it. You can build the entire site for nothing and only pay when you want to start accepting payments, which makes it a low-risk way to see whether the shop idea works. There is no free trial on the paid plans, only a money-back window, and a heavily customized Wix site can be more work to keep tidy than a purpose-built store.
Square Online
Square Online, which Square now simply calls websites, is the free way to put a shop next to a Square register, and it is the obvious pick for a cafe, a market stall or any business already taking payments with Square. The free plan has no monthly fee at all, just the card processing charge, and in-store and online inventory stay in sync without any setup. The builder is plainer than Squarespace's or Wix's, so think of it as a companion to a Square account rather than a place to build a brand site.
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid works differently from the rest: rather than replacing your website, it drops a store into the site you already have, whether that is WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or something hand-built. That makes it the cheapest way to start selling without rebuilding anything, and it takes nothing on top of your sales. The cheapest plan is tightly capped on products, the SEO tools only appear on higher tiers, and there is no free trial, so you are paying from the first day.
Big Cartel
Big Cartel is built for artists, makers and indie brands rather than general retail, and the whole product reflects that: small setup, cheap plans and a genuinely free tier you can launch a shop on. It never takes a cut of your sales, and its phone app doubles as a register for craft fairs and pop-ups, although in-person selling requires a paid plan. The trade-off is scope, with product limits on the lower plans and far fewer apps and themes than the bigger platforms offer.
Sellfy
Sellfy is a storefront for creators selling digital downloads, subscriptions and print-on-demand merch, so it is aimed at an audience rather than a shopping catalog. It takes no cut of your sales on any tier and bundles in email marketing and upsells, which for a creator replaces a couple of separate subscriptions. Its plans are capped by annual sales volume rather than by features alone, and it is not the right tool for a shop with real physical inventory to manage.
PrestaShop
PrestaShop is open-source software you download and run on your own hosting, and it is widely used by European small businesses and the agencies that build for them. Nobody takes a commission on your sales and there is no monthly platform fee, but hosting, a domain and most of the useful modules are yours to buy and maintain. It asks for more technical confidence than any hosted option here, so it makes sense mainly if owning the code and the data matters to you. PrestaShop also sells a managed Hosted plan if you want the same software without running the server.
How we researched this
The ten were picked to cover the range of ways a small business can get a shop online: a hosted store, a website builder with selling added, a WordPress plugin, an add-on for an existing site, and self-hosted open-source code. Webflow was left out because its store is a paid add-on on top of a site plan, so its price would not compare, and Hostinger because its plans are paid upfront for up to 48 months. GoDaddy's Online Store is missing only because its pricing page could not be read. Shift4Shop, Volusion, Adobe Commerce and OpenCart were considered; PrestaShop fills the open-source slot. BigCommerce stays in even though its own site calls it especially suited to mid-market businesses, since its entry plan is priced for a small shop.
Starting Price is the lowest monthly rate each platform advertises for a plan you can sell on. Most cells cite the platform's own pricing or help pages; Squarespace's price and fee, Ecwid's price and trial, and Wix's 0% fee come from independent reviews because the vendors' own pages do not state them in quotable text. Plans and fees are revised often, and the payment-provider rules behind each 2% fee are the detail most worth rereading at signup.