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There are several brilliant eCommerce website builders to choose from. However, a platform that is right for one company may not be the best for another.
When choosing a website builder, think specifically about your store’s priorities. Do you need a platform that gives you access to a number of staff accounts? Or are you a small business owner looking for the cheapest plan possible?
To help you get up to speed on comparing each platform, we’ve provided quick but effective reviews of the eight best website builders.
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Shopify
Shopify is an excellent platform for creating an online store.
They offer a three-day free trial that we’ve tried and tested. Based on our research, we’ve shared tips and insights on starting a Shopify store and maximizing your profits.
To start selling on Shopify, you’ll need to upgrade from a free trial to a paid plan. At the time of writing, each plan costs just £1 per month for the first three months before increasing to the full monthly cost:
- Basic – £25 per month for basic reports and two staff accounts.
- Shopify – £65 per month for professional reports and five staff accounts.
- Advanced – £344 per month for a custom report builder and 15 staff accounts.
All three plans include up to 1,000 inventory locations.
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Wix
An online store is just one of the many types of websites you can create with Wix.
When you join Wix, you can choose what type of website you run. In addition to an e-commerce site, there is the option to create a blog, event site, online portfolio and more.
Wix does not offer a free trial as such. However, they give you the chance to get your money back within the first 14 days if you are not satisfied with the platform.
They have a wide range of paid plans. These are annual subscriptions, but here are the monthly equivalent costs (not including applicable taxes) for comparison:
- light – £7.50 per month for 2GB of storage and access for two contributors. It also allows you to use a lightweight marketing package.
- Core – £14 per month for 50GB storage, access for five collaborators and the ability to accept payments. The marketing suite is being upgraded from lightweight to basic.
- Job – £20 per month for 100GB of storage, access for 10 contributors and site analytics. The marketing package becomes the standard tier (as opposed to light or basic).
- Business elite – £119 per month for unlimited storage and access for 15 collaborators. It also offers advanced features for the marketing suite, website analytics and more.
- Company – Contact Wix for a quote. This plan is intended for larger businesses (such as those with multiple websites) to support their growth.
All these plans have a free domain for one year. To see all the features of each plan, click the link below.
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Squarespace
Squarespace has fewer plans than Wix, but it still offers some great features to help you start and grow your online store. For example, they have a range of tools to help business leaders with things like SEO, email marketing and logo design.
It is a very well established platform and has been used by millions to build websites.
At the time of writing, these are the monthly costs of their plans:
- personally – £16 a month for their most basic plan. This includes access to customizable templates, but does not allow you to receive payments or access advanced analytics.
- Job – £24 per month for access to advanced analytics and payment on your domain. On this plan, Squarespace charges a 3% transaction fee for sales of physical products, services, digital downloads, and gift cards.
- Shop (basic) – £28 per month to remove transaction fees. It also gives you access to tools to increase your sales.
- Shop (advanced) – £43 per month for the same features as the Basic Commerce plan, plus advanced shipping, discounts and the ability to sell product subscriptions on a weekly or monthly basis.
You can save between 17% – 29% on costs if you pay annually instead of monthly, but savings vary by plan.
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WooCommerce
WooCommerce works similarly to Shopify, giving you the tools to build and run your online store.
It’s based on WordPress, so if you already have experience running a website on that platform, it should be pretty easy for you to adapt to WooCommerce.
If Shopify’s three-day free trial isn’t long enough for you, WooCommerce’s sign-up offer might appeal to you more. They offer a fortnightly free trialfollowed by $1 (∼£0.80) for the first three months for both of their plans.
At the time of writing, these are the full monthly prices of each plan:
- Basic – $39 (∼£31) for tons of great features including unlimited staff accounts, built-in payment processing, live shipping rates and order tracking, automated tax calculation and more.
- Performance – $70 (∼£55) for the same features as the Essential plan plus automated abandoned cart recovery, event-based email marketing (eg messages on customer birthdays), discounted shipping rates and more.
You can save 35% by paying annually.
While the sign-up offers are generous and the features on both plans are very useful, the full prices are more than some of the other options on this list. To see a full list of what each plan covers, head over to the WooCommerce website.
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Weebly
Compared to other website builders, Weebly has relatively low monthly costs.
They even have a free plan. This could be ideal if you are just setting up your e-commerce business and want to adjust to your new store before paying monthly costs.
The free plan includes Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security and the ability to add third-party embed code. However, it doesn’t allow you to have a custom domain, so it won’t look as professional as a store with a paid plan.
At the time of writing, these are the monthly costs and key site features of each paid plan:
- personally – For £7 a month you can connect a store with a custom domain.
- Professional – At £12 a month, this plan includes a free domain, unlimited storage, advanced site statistics, password protection and the ability to remove ads for Square (the company that merged with Weebly).
- Performance – For £22 a month, you’ll get access to additional features to help you grow your business, such as advanced ecommerce insights, item reviews, abandoned cart emails and more.
You can save money on each plan by paying annually instead of monthly. To learn more about each plan, such as their e-commerce, marketing, and support features, click the link below.
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Ecwid
Like Weebly, Ecwid allows you to start an online store for free.
If you try the free plan and are happy with Ecwid’s platform, consider upgrading to a paid plan.
Here’s how much their paid plans cost at the time of writing:
- Venture – £19 a month for the opportunity to sell 100 products, live chat support, automated tax calculation and more.
- Job – £39 per month for the same features as the Venture plan, plus the opportunity to sell 2,500 products, subscription services, two staff accounts, phone support and more.
- Unlimited – £99 a month to sell unlimited products, get unlimited staff accounts, priority support and more.
We’ve listed monthly subscription costs here, but you can save 25% if you pay annually.
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Sellify
If you plan to sell print-on-demand products, Sellfy is worth considering. This is one of the aspects of e-commerce that they focus on as a platform and it is a great way to earn passive income.
However, print on demand is not the only way to sell through Sellfy. You can also sell physical and digital products, along with subscription products and video streaming services.
Sellfy says on its website that you can get your store up and running in just five minutes. Because they offer a 14-day free trial, there’s an opportunity to test the platform and quickly find out if it’s a good fit for your business.
There are three plans available on Sellfy. These are their monthly costs (correct at the time of writing):
- Launcher – $29 (∼£23) per month to get up to $10,000 (∼£7,870) in annual sales. You can sell unlimited products, link your own domain and do email marketing.
- Job – $79 (∼£62) per month for the same features as the starter plan plus more. Added features include the option to earn up to $50,000 (∼£39,350) each year in sales, sell more expensive products, remove the Sellfy branding, reposition the store design, use their cart abandonment feature, and start affiliate marketing.
- Premium – $159 (∼£125) per month for the chance to earn up to $200,000 (∼£157,420) annually in sales, product migration, access to priority support and all features in the business plan.
Discounts are available for annual and bi-annual payments. Go to their website for more information, including full details on each plan.
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BigCommerce
BigCommerce services are divided into two key categories: Essentials and Enterprise.
The Essentials side of the platform is aimed at small businesses and includes three different plans:
- Standard – $39 (∼ £31) per month and includes up to four inventory locations, maximum online sales of $50,000 (∼ £39,350) per year and more.
- plus – $105 (∼ £83) per month and includes up to five inventory locations, maximum online sales of $180,000 (∼ £141,680) per year and more.
- Pros – $399 (∼ £314) per month and includes up to eight inventory locations, maximum online sales of $400,000 (∼ £314,830) per year and more. To sell over that $400k limit, you’ll need to pay an additional $150 (∼£120) per month for every additional $200,000 (∼£157,420) in online sales.
The Enterprise plan, however, has custom pricing depending on the size of your business. It is best suited for large, growth-oriented e-commerce sites. Visit BigCommerce’s website to learn more and get a quote.
