Best ecommerce website builder of 2024: Build the best online store for your business

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A white shopping bag hanging off a tower crane depicting the Best ecommerce website builder
(Image credit: Future)

Selling products online can be a lucrative business idea, but it isn’t without its challenges or risks. Arming yourself with the best website builder is a smart way to ensure you have all the tools and resources you need to create and grow a successful online store.

However, not all website builders are built equally. What might be a great ecommerce site builder for a single product website, won’t necessarily have everything you need to build a successful reseller store with multiple products. 

Luckily, we have spent many hours testing and reviewing the best website builders on the market. So, we have created a list of the very best ecommerce website builders with the aim of helping you quickly and easily find the one that meets your needs. 

We have tested each website builder included on this list with ecommerce stores in mind, highlighting their pros and cons as well as offering insight into exactly what they offer and what they are like to use. 

2024's best ecommerce website builder deals

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1. Wix - the best overall ecommerce website builder

1. <a href="https://wixstats.com/?a=18408&c=2798&s1=hawk-custom-tracking" data-link-merchant="wixstats.com"" target="_blank">Wix - the best overall ecommerce website builder
Launch, run and scale your online store with Wix's ecommerce website builder and advanced business features, from $27 per month.

2. Squarespace - the best looking website templates

2. <a href="https://squarespace.syuh.net/c/338476/714372/10762?subId1=hawk-custom-tracking&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.squarespace.com%2F" data-link-merchant="squarespace.syuh.net"" target="_blank">Squarespace - the best looking website templates
Starting at $23 per month, Squarespace offers a wide range of stunning templates for your ecommerce store, helping you stand out from the crowd.

3. Shopify - the best modifiable website builder

3. <a href="https://shopify.pxf.io/c/221109/1061744/13624?subId1=hawk-custom-tracking&sharedId=hawk&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.shopify.com%2Fwebsite%2Fbuilder" data-link-merchant="shopify.com"" target="_blank">Shopify - the best modifiable website builder
Build your online store with Shopify and enjoy a free SSL certificate, unlimited products, and 24/7 support plus more, starting from $29 per month.

These are the best ecommerce website builders of 2024

Best overall ecommerce website builder

Wix ecommerce website builder

Wix is the best overall ecommerce website builder (Image credit: Shutterstock/19 STUDIO/Wix)
Perfect solution for professional online stores

Reasons to buy

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Beginner-friendly approach
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Customizable store cart
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Marvelous app market
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Over 500 professional-looking templates

Reasons to avoid

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Can’t switch templates without starting all over 
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No stock management alerts
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Not the cheapest option

Wix more than earns its title as the best ecommerce site builder on the market, with a top-notch mix of quality templates, easy store-building, rich product catalogs and vast range of ecommerce add-ons and extensions. It's earned the company more than 200 million users around the world, and there really is something here for everyone from first-timers to experienced store owners.

Wix's site builder offers simple access to all kinds of key ecommerce features, for instance. You can sell digital and physical products, with customizations such as size and color, and in-depth descriptions with text, images, videos and more.

There are all kinds of tools for managing key ecommerce tasks (customizable shopping carts, taking payments, fulfilling orders, handling shipping, managing inventory), marketing your store, running promotions, and taking it further via a marvellous app market which a host of integrations for other services and platforms.

Wix have also recently launched Artificial Intelligence (AI) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools. These help website owners by automatically filling out meta descriptions and titles. This is a helpful tool for streamlining product uploads. 

As we write, Wix offers three plans aimed at businesses and e-commerce sites, with its most basic e-commerce enabled Core plan costing $27/mo. This plan enables you to sell up to 50,000 products, apply automatic discounts, and set up abandoned cart recovery. The more expensive plans offer all this alongside more advanced ecommerce tools such as offering advanced shipping, setting up loyalty programs and collecting reviews. 

Learn more about what Wix can offer ecommerce businesses with our full Wix review. You can save on your Wix subscription with our Wix promo codes

Best for stunning templates

Squarespace ecommerce website builder

(Image credit: Squarespace)
Best for stunning simple-to-customize templates

Reasons to buy

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Easily embed maps
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Flexible payment options
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Simple to start
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Superb marketing tools
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Stunning easy-to-customize templates

Reasons to avoid

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No complete customizability
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Can't switch templates without starting from scratch
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No telephone support

Squarespace promises its users it will provide them with “everything, to sell anything” and it delivers on that promise with flying colors. Recognizing that an ecommerce site isn’t just for physical goods, Squarespace offers tons of easily customizable templates with which you can create an online store that’ll charm new customers alongside booking your services.

Smart tools include a feature which recommends relevant products, encouraging customers to explore your store and discover more of what you have to offer.

Setup is easier than usual, with Squarespace reducing the process to only six simple steps. First, pick an ecommerce template and start your free trial. Then, register or transfer your business’s domain name, and set up your online store by adding products and connecting a payment processor. After customizing your online store all that is left for you to do is grow with email marketing and SEO.

While you can customize templates with Squarespace, the scope of this customization doesn’t go beyond changing your template’s preset rows. This can be a limiting factor for those looking to create highly bespoke websites for their ecommerce brand. 

Squarespace’s most popular plan is “Business” and it will cost you $23 per month, plus a higher-than-we'd-like 3% of all transaction fees on sales. This plan will get you advanced analytics services, and SEO tools, as well as allow customers to create their own accounts on your e-commerce site.

While Squarespace doesn’t charge any transaction fees on e-commerce-oriented plans (“Basic Commerce” and “Advanced Commerce”), they are more expensive overall. However, the few extra dollars a month for an ecommerce plan will typically be more beneficial than paying the 3% transaction fee - especially if you are making more than just a couple of sales each month. 

Learn more about Squarespace’s offering with our Squarespace review

Best for support

Shopify ecommerce website builder

(Image credit: Shopify)
Best for those who seek simplicity, stability, and support

Reasons to buy

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14-day free trial
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App store with plenty of add-ons
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Easy to modify designs
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Supports over 100 payment processors

Reasons to avoid

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Advanced features and apps are pretty pricey
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No email hosting
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Limited customization options

With Shopify, you can choose between over 70 premium and free ecommerce templates to create the right e-commerce site for your business. Much like Wix, it offers its users complete control over design. Every plan comes with 24/7 customer support, and what's more, up to two staff members from Shopify will dedicate their time to helping you build your online store.

If you are a total beginner, such customer support is something you will need to put at the top of your list when searching around for the best ecommerce site builder.

Once you have created your ecommerce site, you get the choice to pick whichever payment gateway you desire with over 100 systems supported. There are even gift card options, which can help increase your sales and customer base by encouraging existing customers to share your products with others.

The only drawback we could find with Shopify was the pricing of its products, particularly if you want anything more than standard ecommerce features. The cheapest plan starts at $29 per month (pretty steep in comparison with Wix), but you can try out any of their plans for free thanks to14-day free trials.

Read our full Shopify review

Best for multi-channel selling

Screenshot of Web.com ecommerce dashboard with items of clothing and prices below

(Image credit: Web.com)
Superb choice for multi-channel selling

Reasons to buy

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Advanced inventory management
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Multi-channel selling
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Around-the-clock phone support

Reasons to avoid

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Somewhat limited customization choices
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Doesn't have the most solid interface
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Renewal rates for domains are overpriced

Thanks to Web.com’s novice-friendly approach even ecommerce novices can grow their businesses online without a hitch.

Web.com has created an all-in-one-place sort of solution where you can manage all the day-to-day tasks of running an online business with its ecommerce software.

At the same time, you can list your products on your site and massive online marketplaces (like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy) and reach even more potential buyers. Making things a little easier, Web.com's e-commerce drag-and-drop builder lets you manage all your customer orders in one place.

There's also the option to manage fulfillment, product listing updates, restocking, reporting, and more. Like Wix's ecommerce offering, Web.com lets you customize features such as sales banners and the "Buy Now" buttons. For almost every element, you only have to click on it, and a dialogue box opens that allows you to customize color, text, borders, drop shadows, and so forth.

Web.com offers two ecommerce plans: “Online Store” and “Online Marketplaces”. Online Store contains all the essentials for small e-commerce businesses, plus one hour of free expert design support, a free private domain registration, a free SSL certificate, over 150 mobile-optimized templates, and the list goes on. Online Marketplaces offers all this alongside advanced tools for selling on marketplaces including Amazon, eBay and Etsy. 

To start selling with Web.com’s Online Store plan you’ll have to pay $13.95/mo on annual billing or $9.95 for a single month after which the price spikes to $32.99/mo.

Among noteworthy features, you’ll also get 24/7 automated inventory sync technology for product quantities to display accurately, support for multi-channel selling, and solid around-the-clock phone support.

Learn more about Web.com with our Web.com website builder review

Best for big business

BigCommerce ecommerce website builder

(Image credit: BigCommerce)
Best for big business or startups with big dreams

Reasons to buy

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Free trials for everyone
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Flexible product management
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No extra transaction fees
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Tons of apps and extensions

Reasons to avoid

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Can seem complex at the start
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Pricey
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Limited design options

As one of the big names in the e-commerce industry, BigCommerce offers a wide variety of templates and themes to help stores look their best and get up and running quickly. 

Like Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace, BigCommerce has an intuitive visual editor which allows users to customise every detail of their store's look and feel, no coding knowledge required.

Users benefit from flexible product management, SEO tools and a variety of integrated marketing tools and analytics. Also, over 65 payment gateway integrations are available out-of-the-box, and shipping details can be customized as per the business's requirements.

A substantial free trial gives you 15 days to try out the service before deciding whether BigCommerce is the best ecommerce website builder for you.

There are three standard plans (starting at $29.95 per month), but big businesses with complex needs can talk to the sales department to create a custom plan.

BigCommerce also has a network of professional e-commerce designers and developers to help build your brand’s ultimate shopping experience, if you don’t have time or energy to do it yourself.

Check out our full BigCommerce review to discover everything they can offer your ecommerce business. 

Best for small and medium businesses

Weebly ecommerce website builder

(Image credit: Weebly)
Best choice for SMBs

Reasons to buy

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An SSL encryption with all plans
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Super-simple to use
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Well-supplied app center

Reasons to avoid

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No multi-channel selling
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Limited features
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Design options are basic

Known as one of the most convenient site-building solutions around, Weebly promises that your shoppers will be able to shop with the convenience of a fully integrated shopping cart and a secure checkout experience directly from your ecommerce site. As soon as you create a store, its shopping cart software will be set up automatically so you can start selling straight away.

Weebly gives you the ability to manage anything from a handful to hundreds of products, alongside the ability to track inventory to manage supply, show customers the number of items remaining to create urgency and boost buying behavior ("Only 2 left!'), and automatically update shoppers when items are sold out.

Its cheapest plan aimed at SMBs starts at $10 per month (when paid annually) and includes all the essential eccomerce tools such as unlimited products, shopping carts, inventory management, coupons and automatic tax calculations. For more advanced features and benefits (such as a free domain) their Professional (from $12/mo) and Performance (from $26/mo) are a better option. 

With Weebly, you can also manage your store on the go thanks to its iPhone and Android apps, which allow you to process and fulfill orders, provide personalized service and respond to customer inquiries, upload new products and photos, notify customers when a purchase has shipped, check sales figures in real-time and receive notifications whenever a new order is placed.

The only noteworthy drawback with Weebly is the lack of multi-channel selling, which means you won’t be able to sell your products and services on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

Get to grips with everything Weebly has to offer with our full Weebly review


How to choose the best ecommerce website builder for you

In order to choose the right ecommerce solution for your business, you first need to recognize your needs, desires, as well as your ultimate aim. This will help you get a clear idea of what to look for while picking through piles of e-commerce solutions scattered across the web.

Some users value simplicity above everything else, while others want a fully flexible site and a wide variety of customizable features that could overwhelm rookie site creators. 

So, before choosing your ecommerce site builder, consider carefully what sort of online store you are trying to create - whether images or videos will be your main method of showcasing your products and services or both. 

Also, before setting things in motion consider the short-term and long-term costs and set the budget for your online store.

While most ecommerce site-building tools are created with ease of use in mind and don’t call for any coding skills, it’s smart to consider your own experience with such tools and how comfortable you are with using more complex solutions on the market.

In addition to this, you’ll want to check the level of customizability the site builder provides, and how many themes and templates come in the package.

Also, stop to consider how simple the checkout process is, what payment options are supported, is the site builder strong in cyber-security, what marketing tools are available, and will you be getting capable customer support.

How we test the best ecommerce website builders

To test website builders we put a magnifying glass on the sign-up process, check out the number of plans and compare the features concerning the price, and purchase an e-commerce site builder plan from the provider. 

Basically, we’ll go through the same process a newcomer would when creating their first online store.

Besides taking a second look at features, we'll look at functionality, available add-ons (such as abandoned cart recovery), and the scope and quality of customer support that’s provided.

Some of the central features we want to see in a solid e-commerce site builder are layout designs for product and category listing pages. After all, that is the face of your online store and the first thing your customers will see when they land on your site.

In the end, we’ll hopefully build a theoretically functional e-commerce store using each of these site-building tools and get a precise portrayal of what you can expect. 

In this fashion, we’ve tested and reviewed all website builders listed above. You can find out more about how we test website builders with our full guide. 

Best ecommerce website builders: Summary

So, these were our top picks for the best ecommerce website builder available on the market. However, simply because something works wonders for us doesn’t mean it will also work for you or your business.

Taking the time to pick the best website builder for your individual needs is important. Doing so will ensure that you have everything you need to make your online store a massive success.

Thankfully, each ecommerce site builder on this list is backed by a free trial or a free plan, which means you can put them to the test risk-free before deciding which one is right for you.


Best ecommerce website builder FAQs

What is an ecommerce website builder?

The primary purpose of an ecommerce site builder is to facilitate the otherwise daunting task of turning a site into a fully-featured online store or building it from the ground up.

This type of site builder is pre-optimized for ecommerce, which means it contains all critical ecommerce features such as a payment processing system, PCI compliance, shipping options, shopping cart, inventory management software, search function, and a variety of templates with mobile-responsive design.

In simplest terms, an ecommerce site builder is much like any other site builder but powered by ecommerce. While most of the top site builders provide some scope of ecommerce functionality, an ecommerce site builder is one cut above.

Will I be charged transaction fees?

Whether you will be charged transaction fees will depend on the website builder and package you pick. For example, cheap and free plans often don’t allow you to sell via your website at all or may charge you a fee for each sale of a product or service that you make.

Squarespace offers a good example of this. If you opt for the most basic Personal plan, you won’t be able to sell directly from your website at all. Upgrade to the Business plan and you can sell via your site, but will be charged 3% of each sale. But upgrade to the next plan (Commerce (Basic)) and you will not be charged any transaction fees at all.

Some quick maths will help you decide which plan is right for you. Typically, if you plan on making more than a handful of sales a month upgrading can be worthwhile.

Is it simple to create an online store?

Yes. Thanks to website builders you no longer need to learn how to code or employ a website developer to build an online store. With the majority of website builders offering a simple drag-and-drop (or similar) method of website building, you need very little technical knowledge or experience to get started. 

Owain Williams
B2B Editor, Website Builders

Previously working as a freelance content writer and editor, Owain has been writing about website builders, marketing, and a range of other business topics since 2017. During this time he has worked with industry leaders, spoken at several events, and been published on top media sites including MarketingProfs, Website Builder Expert, Digital Doughnut, and NealSchaffer.com. 


Owain has gained hands-on experience with many leading website builders. This includes building his own ecommerce store on Shopify, creating several websites on WIX, and working with clients to grow their WordPress and Squarespace sites. 


During his career, Owain has gained a breadth of marketing experience across industries ranging from complex engineering and international events to brand design and even brewing. Undertaking a 4 year apprenticeship in business, Owain has achieved a HNC, HND, and BA(Hons) in Business, Management, and Marketing alongside several professional qualifications from institutes including the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and the Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM). 


When he isn’t thinking, talking, and writing about website builders, Owain is a keen practitioner and competitor in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, enjoys walking his dog, and spending time with his family.

With contributions from