Ecommerce Website Builders: A Comparison of Top Platforms
Ecommerce Website Builders: A Comparison of Top Platforms
Compare ecommerce builders: Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce & more. Website designer Cullen Fischel shares tips on choosing the best platform for marketing.
Cullen Fischel | APRIL 29, 2025 | 5 min. read
5 minute read
By Cullen Fischel, Website Designer
Day in and day out, I help businesses build their online presence, and a huge part of that, especially for anyone selling online, is choosing the right ecommerce platform.
It's not just about having a place to list products; your platform is the engine driving your online sales and a critical piece of your digital marketing puzzle.
Picking the wrong one can mean headaches down the road – poor customer experience, marketing limitations, or outgrowing your tech too soon.
Picking the right one makes everything smoother, helps you reach more customers, and ultimately, boosts your bottom line.
This article is for you – the business owner wearing the marketing hat, or the marketing pro tasked with making online sales happen. We'll break down what really matters when comparing platforms and look at the top players out there.
My goal is to give you clear, actionable information so you can make the best choice for your business.
Key Takeaways
Platform Choice = Marketing Impact: Your ecommerce platform directly affects how customers interact with your brand online, how easily search engines find you, and how effectively you turn visitors into buyers. It's a marketing decision, not just a tech one.
Compare Smart: Don't just look at the monthly price. Dig into ease of use, total costs (including transaction fees and potential app costs), built-in sales and marketing features, how well it can grow with you (scalability), website design options, and the quality of customer support.
Know the Players: Platforms like Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, Squarespace, and WooCommerce are popular for good reasons, but they serve different needs. We'll look at who does what best.
Match Needs to Platform: The "best" platform is the one that fits your business right now and where you plan to be. Consider your size, budget, how comfortable you are with tech, what you sell, and your growth plans.
Design Drives Sales: A professional, easy-to-use website design builds trust and makes buying simple. Look beyond basic templates – focus on clear navigation, great product images, mobile-friendliness, and making your brand shine. This is core to effective web design.
Think Long-Term: Switching platforms later is possible, but it's often a major project. Try to choose a platform that can handle your anticipated growth.
Choosing Your Engine: Why the Right Ecommerce Platform Fuels Marketing Success
Think of your ecommerce platform as the engine and the chassis of your online store. It dictates how smooth the ride is for your customers and how effectively you can steer your marketing efforts. A clunky, slow, or confusing platform frustrates visitors and sends them clicking away – often straight to your competitors.
Here’s why this choice is so critical for marketing:
User Experience (UX) is Everything: How easy is it for customers to find products? Is the navigation intuitive? Is the checkout process seamless or full of friction? A good platform enables a smooth UX. A great UX leads to happier customers, repeat business, and better conversion rates. That's a direct marketing win.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Foundation: Can search engines easily crawl and understand your site? Does the platform allow you to customize important SEO elements like page titles, meta descriptions, and image alt text? Does it create clean, logical URLs? Some platforms are inherently better structured for SEO than others, giving you a head start in organic search visibility. Bad structure can actively hurt your rankings.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Enablement: Turning visitors into buyers is the name of the game. Your platform influences this heavily. Does it support high-quality product images and videos? Can you easily add customer reviews and trust signals (like security badges)? Does it offer features like abandoned cart recovery or allow integrations with marketing tools for A/B testing or personalization? The right platform makes implementing these conversion-boosting tactics much easier.
Marketing Tool Integration: Your ecommerce store doesn't exist in a vacuum. You need it to work with your email marketing software, social media channels, advertising platforms, and analytics tools. A good platform offers robust integrations (either built-in or via an app store) so your marketing campaigns run smoothly across channels.
Choosing a platform that fails on these points means you're constantly fighting your own tools to achieve your marketing goals. Choosing wisely sets you up for success.
The Essential Checklist: What to Look For in an Ecommerce Builder
Okay, you know why it's important. Now, what should you actually compare? When I, Cullen Fischel, evaluate platforms for clients, these are the key areas we discuss:
Ease of Use: How simple is it to set up and manage your store day-to-day?
Look for: Intuitive dashboards, drag-and-drop editors (like Wix or Shopify offer), clear instructions, minimal need for coding for basic tasks.
Consider: Your own technical comfort level. If you're not tech-savvy, prioritize user-friendliness. Platforms like WooCommerce offer more control but demand more technical know-how.
Pricing & Total Cost: Don't just look at the advertised monthly fee.
Look for: Clear breakdowns of different pricing tiers, transaction fees (some charge extra if you don't use their payment processor), costs for themes (templates) and essential apps/plugins, bandwidth or storage limits on cheaper plans.
Consider: Calculate the total potential cost based on your expected sales volume and the features you'll actually need. BigCommerce often highlights its lack of transaction fees, while Shopify might push its own Shopify Payments to avoid extra fees.
Core Ecommerce Features: What tools are included out-of-the-box?
Look for: Product management (variants, inventory tracking), order management, secure payment processing options (credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay etc.), shipping options and calculations, discount/promo code capabilities, basic analytics.
Consider: Features essential for your business. Do you need digital product delivery? Subscription capabilities? Multi-currency support? Point-of-sale (POS) integration for physical stores (like Square or Shopify POS)?
Scalability: Can the platform grow with your business?
Look for: Ability to handle increasing traffic and large product catalogs, tiered plans that offer more features as you grow, robust infrastructure (check uptime guarantees), options for international selling if that's in your plan.
Consider: Where do you see your business in 1, 3, or 5 years? Platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce are generally considered highly scalable. Wix might be better suited for smaller operations initially.
Design Flexibility & Customization: How much control do you have over the look and feel?
Look for: A good selection of professional-looking, mobile-responsive themes (templates), options to customize colors, fonts, and layouts without code, access to code (HTML/CSS) for deeper customization if needed.
Consider: How important is a unique brand look? As a website designer, I know this is crucial. Some platforms (like Squarespace or Wix) excel with beautiful templates but might offer less deep customization than WooCommerce or Shopify (with coding). Effective web design builds credibility. Does the platform allow you to create the specific website design you envision?
Marketing & SEO Tools: What's built-in to help you promote your store?
Look for: SEO features (customizable URLs, titles, descriptions, alt text), blogging capabilities, email marketing integration or built-in tools, social media integration, abandoned cart recovery features, ability to create landing pages.
Consider: Which marketing channels are most important to you? Ensure the platform supports them well.
Customer Support: What happens when you need help?
Look for: Multiple support channels (phone, email, live chat), 24/7 availability, extensive documentation (help guides, tutorials), active community forums.
Consider: Read reviews about support quality. When something breaks at 2 AM, reliable support is invaluable.
Go through this checklist for each platform you're seriously considering. Prioritize what matters most for your specific situation.
Meet the Market Leaders: Top Ecommerce Platforms Compared
There are many ecommerce builders out there, but a few consistently rise to the top. Let's look at some of the most popular options, keeping our checklist in mind. Remember, the "best" is relative!
Shopify: The Powerhouse for Growth
Shopify is often the first name that comes up, and for good reason. It's a dedicated ecommerce platform designed to help businesses sell online, from startups to large enterprises.
Best For: Businesses of most sizes, especially those with significant physical inventory, aiming for growth, and wanting an all-in-one solution.
Ease of Use: Generally very user-friendly interface and setup wizard. Managing products and orders is straightforward. It's designed for ecommerce.
Pricing: Plans typically start around $29-$39/month and go up significantly for higher tiers (Basic, Shopify, Advanced). Watch out for transaction fees if you don't use Shopify Payments (around 0.5% to 2% extra depending on the plan). Theme costs can add up (many premium themes are $150+).
Features: Robust core ecommerce features are built-in (inventory, shipping, payments). Its biggest strength is the massive App Store, offering integrations for almost anything you can imagine (marketing, accounting, customer service, etc.). Also includes good POS options. Recently added AI tools ("Shopify Magic") can help with tasks like writing product descriptions.
Scalability: Highly scalable. Handles large product catalogs and high traffic volumes well. Shopify Plus offers enterprise-level solutions for very large businesses.
Design: Offers a decent number of themes (around 12 free, 200+ paid). Customization without coding is decent but can feel more limited than Wix or Squarespace for pure visual editing. Deeper customization requires knowledge of Shopify's template language, Liquid. URL structure has some rigidity (e.g.,
/products/and/collections/prefixes are mandatory), which can be an SEO drawback for some.Support: Excellent 24/7 support via chat, email, and sometimes phone. Extensive documentation and active community forums.
Bottom Line: A powerful, reliable, and scalable choice that's relatively easy to get started with. Can become expensive as you add paid apps. Great all-rounder, especially if ecommerce is your primary focus.
Wix: Design Freedom Meets Ecommerce
Wix started as a general website builder but has significantly beefed up its ecommerce offering. It's known for its visual drag-and-drop editor, giving you lots of design freedom.
Best For: Small to medium-sized businesses, creatives, restaurants, or anyone prioritizing website design flexibility and ease of use over complex, large-scale ecommerce operations.
Ease of Use: Extremely easy to use, especially the ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) builder or the standard drag-and-drop editor. No coding required for most tasks.
Pricing: Ecommerce plans typically start around $27-$29/month. Wix Payments generally doesn't add extra transaction fees on top of standard processing rates (around 2.9% + $0.30 in the US), which can be simpler than Shopify's structure.
Features: Offers solid core ecommerce features suitable for many smaller businesses (product management, secure checkout, order tracking, abandoned cart recovery on higher plans). Has an App Market, but it's smaller than Shopify's, particularly for niche ecommerce functions. Product limit is typically around 50,000 items.
Scalability: Good for small to medium businesses, but generally considered less scalable for very high-volume sales or extremely complex inventories compared to Shopify or BigCommerce.
Design: This is where Wix shines. Huge selection of templates (800+), many of which are free. The drag-and-drop editor offers pixel-perfect control, giving you immense freedom over your web design. Excellent for visually focused brands.
Support: Good support options, including 24/7 phone and chat for relevant plans.
Bottom Line: Fantastic choice if you want maximum design control without touching code and run a small-to-medium online store. Might hit limitations if you have very large inventory or complex operational needs.
BigCommerce: Built-in Features for Scaling Sellers
BigCommerce is another heavyweight contender, often compared directly with Shopify. It positions itself as a platform with more built-in features, potentially reducing reliance on third-party apps.
Best For: Growing businesses, medium to large online stores, businesses wanting robust features out-of-the-box, especially those doing multi-channel selling.
Ease of Use: Powerful, but generally considered to have a steeper learning curve than Shopify or Wix, especially for beginners. The interface can feel a bit more complex due to the number of built-in options.
Pricing: Plans (Standard, Plus, Pro) often mirror Shopify's pricing tiers (starting around $39/month). A key differentiator: BigCommerce typically has zero transaction fees regardless of the payment processor you use on standard plans (though plans have annual sales volume thresholds).
Features: Excellent range of built-in features, including advanced SEO options, single-page checkout, robust product options/variants, multi-currency support, and strong tools for selling on marketplaces (like Amazon, eBay) and social media. Less reliance on apps compared to Shopify for core functionality.
Scalability: Highly scalable, designed to handle significant growth and high sales volumes. Often favored by businesses anticipating rapid expansion.
Design: Offers a good selection of free and paid themes. Customization is possible, but like Shopify, deep changes often require familiarity with their theme framework (Stencil). Might not feel as visually intuitive for design tweaks as Wix or Squarespace for non-designers.
Support: Good support options available 24/7 via phone, chat, and email.
Bottom Line: A very powerful and scalable platform, especially strong if you value extensive built-in features and want to avoid extra transaction fees. Be prepared for a potentially steeper learning curve initially.
Squarespace: Stunning Designs for Creatives & Content
Squarespace is renowned for its beautiful templates and ease of use, making it a favorite among creatives, bloggers, and businesses where aesthetics are paramount. They also offer solid ecommerce capabilities.
Best For: Creative businesses, artists, photographers, bloggers adding a store, businesses selling services, memberships, or digital content.
Ease of Use: Very user-friendly with a clean interface. It's a bit more structured than Wix's freeform drag-and-drop, but still intuitive for beginners.
Pricing: Plans with ecommerce features usually start around $26-$30/month. Squarespace typically doesn't charge its own transaction fees on its commerce plans (you still pay standard processor fees).
Features: Good for core ecommerce needs. Strong features for selling services, digital downloads, subscriptions, and managing appointments or memberships. Integrates well with Squarespace's own email marketing tools. Might lack some of the deep inventory management or niche B2B features of Shopify/BigCommerce.
Scalability: Best suited for small to medium-sized businesses. While reliable, it may not be the top choice for stores expecting massive, complex scaling compared to the dedicated giants like Shopify or BigCommerce.
Design: Exceptional design quality. Squarespace is known for its award-winning, modern, and highly professional templates. While customization is good, it operates within a more structured framework than Wix, ensuring designs stay looking sharp and cohesive. Excellent choice if you want a polished look with minimal fuss.
Support: Good customer support available 24/7 via email and live chat during business hours. Known for helpful documentation.
Bottom Line: A fantastic option if visual appeal and branding are top priorities, especially if you sell services, digital goods, or content alongside physical products. Very easy to use and creates beautiful sites.
WooCommerce: WordPress Flexibility Unleashed
Unlike the others, WooCommerce isn't a standalone platform. It's a free plugin that transforms a WordPress website into a powerful ecommerce store. This offers immense flexibility but comes with more responsibility.
Best For: Businesses already using WordPress, those wanting maximum control and customization, developers, or businesses with unique needs that require tailored solutions.
Ease of Use: Requires an existing WordPress site. While WooCommerce itself has a setup wizard, managing WordPress (hosting, security, updates, potential plugin conflicts) requires more technical knowledge than all-in-one platforms. It’s not inherently difficult, but it’s definitely more hands-on.
Pricing: The WooCommerce plugin is free. However, you must pay for web hosting, potentially a premium WordPress theme, and likely several paid extensions (plugins) for specific features (e.g., advanced shipping, subscriptions, payment gateways). Costs can vary wildly but might be lower initially than a monthly platform fee if you manage things carefully.
Features: Extremely flexible. Because it's open-source and built on WordPress, you can customize almost anything. There's a vast library of WooCommerce extensions (both free and paid) for nearly any feature imaginable. You have full control over your data and code.
Scalability: Highly scalable, provided your hosting plan can handle the traffic. Suitable for both small shops and very large, complex stores.
Design: Your design options are tied to your WordPress theme. There are thousands of WooCommerce-compatible themes available, offering limitless website design possibilities. Full customization is possible if you have coding skills or work with a developer.
Support: Support comes primarily from the WordPress community forums, documentation, your hosting provider, or the developers of specific themes/plugins you purchase. There's no single 24/7 helpdesk for everything like with Shopify or BigCommerce.
Bottom Line: Unbeatable for flexibility and control if you're comfortable with WordPress or willing to learn/hire help. Can be cost-effective, but requires you to manage hosting, security, and updates yourself. It puts you in the driver's seat – for better or worse.
Other Noteworthy Options
While the above are often the main contenders, a few others are worth a quick mention:
Square Online: Great if you already use Square for payments or have a physical store with Square POS. Offers a free plan to get started (though it has limitations and Square branding). Simple to use, excellent integration with the Square ecosystem.
GoDaddy: Known for domain registration and hosting, GoDaddy also offers a simple website builder with ecommerce plans. Focuses on ease of use and affordability, good for basic stores needing to get online quickly.
Ecwid (by Lightspeed): Designed primarily to add ecommerce functionality to an existing website (though you can create a simple standalone store too). Offers a free plan for up to 5 products. Good option if you already have a site you like on another platform (like a basic WordPress site without WooCommerce, or even Squarespace/Wix for some users).
Beyond the Template: The Crucial Role of Web Design
Choosing a platform and picking a template is just the start. How you implement your design has a massive impact on whether visitors trust you and, ultimately, buy from you. This is where effective web design principles come into play.
Think about it: when you land on a cluttered, confusing, or unprofessional-looking website, what do you do? You probably leave. Your customers are the same. Good website design isn't just about looking pretty; it's about:
Building Trust: A clean, professional design with consistent branding (logos, colors, fonts), high-quality images, and clear contact information makes you look legitimate. This is vital when asking customers for their money.
Simplifying Navigation: Can users easily find what they're looking for? Are categories logical? Is the search bar prominent? Good web design guides users effortlessly through your site.
Highlighting Products: Your design should showcase your products effectively using compelling images (multiple angles!), clear descriptions, and visible pricing.
Ensuring Mobile Responsiveness: Most people browse and shop on their phones. Your website design MUST look and work perfectly on all screen sizes. Most modern platforms and themes handle this well, but always test it thoroughly.
Clear Calls-to-Action (CTAs): Buttons like "Add to Cart," "Buy Now," or "Learn More" should be prominent, clear, and strategically placed to encourage action.
Optimizing Checkout: The checkout process should be as simple and frictionless as possible. Eliminate unnecessary steps. Offer guest checkout. Clearly display shipping costs and delivery estimates early on.
Your chosen platform provides the tools and the framework, but thoughtful web design is how you use them effectively. As Cullen Fischel, I believe that investing time (or budget) in refining your website design beyond the basic template pays off significantly in conversions. Sometimes, working with a professional website designer can make all the difference. We understand how to structure pages, use visual hierarchy, and apply branding consistently to create an experience that not only looks good but also achieves your business goals.
Cullen's Tips for Success
Alright, we've covered a lot. Here are my quick, actionable tips as you embark on choosing and setting up your ecommerce platform:
Define Your Needs First: Before you even look at platforms, list your must-have features, budget, technical skill level, and growth plans. Don't get swayed by flashy features you don't need.
Use Free Trials Extensively: Most platforms offer free trials (or free plans). Use them! Build a basic test store, add a few products, play with the settings, test the checkout. Get a feel for the day-to-day management.
Prioritize Mobile-First Design: Assume most customers will visit on mobile. Test everything on your phone. Does it load fast? Is text readable? Are buttons easy to tap?
Think Long-Term Scalability: Choose a platform that can handle your projected growth for the next few years. Migrating later is disruptive.
Check Built-in SEO Tools: Ensure you can easily edit titles, descriptions, URLs, and image alt text. Good SEO starts with a solid technical foundation.
Make Checkout Flawless: Test your checkout process repeatedly. Is it fast? Easy? Does it inspire confidence? Offer multiple payment options.
Invest in High-Quality Product Images: Grainy, small, or poorly lit photos kill sales. Show your products clearly and professionally from multiple angles.
Don't Underestimate Professional Design: If web design isn't your strength, consider hiring a website designer. A well-designed site builds trust and improves conversions, making it a worthwhile investment.
Ask a Website Designer
How much technical skill do I really need for platforms like Shopify or Wix vs. WooCommerce?
This is a great question! Here’s the breakdown:
Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, BigCommerce (Hosted Platforms): These are designed to be user-friendly. For most day-to-day tasks – adding products, managing orders, basic design tweaks using their visual editors – you don't need technical or coding skills. They handle the hosting, security, and software updates for you. Think of them like renting a fully managed storefront.
WooCommerce (Self-Hosted): This requires more technical comfort. You need to manage your own web hosting, install WordPress, install the WooCommerce plugin, handle security updates for WordPress and all your plugins, and potentially troubleshoot conflicts between themes and plugins. While powerful, it's more like owning the building – you have more control, but also more responsibility for maintenance. You'll likely need some familiarity with the WordPress dashboard or be prepared to learn/hire help.
Can I switch platforms later if my business outgrows my initial choice?
Yes, you can switch platforms, but be aware that it's rarely a simple copy-paste process. Migrating an ecommerce store involves moving several key pieces: * Product Data: Exporting products, descriptions, images, prices, inventory levels. * Customer Data: Exporting customer accounts and order history (privacy regulations are critical here). * Content: Moving blog posts, pages, etc. * Design: You'll likely need to recreate your website design using the new platform's themes and tools. * SEO: Setting up redirects (301s) from old URLs to new URLs is crucial to avoid losing search engine rankings. This can be complex.
There are tools and services that can help with migration, but it often requires significant time, effort, and potentially budget. It's always best to choose a platform with future growth in mind to minimize the chance you'll need a major migration soon.
How important is the platform's built-in SEO compared to the content I create and my overall website design?
Think of it this way:
The Platform Provides the Foundation: A good platform makes SEO easier. It gives you the tools to control basic technical SEO elements: clean URL structures, customizable title tags and meta descriptions, mobile-friendliness, decent site speed potential, schema markup support, etc. A bad platform might actively hinder SEO (e.g., forced awkward URLs, slow performance).
Content & Strategy Drive Results: High-quality, relevant content that answers user questions and targets the right keywords is what attracts search engines and users. Your link-building efforts, content marketing strategy, and local SEO tactics are critical.
Website Design Impacts User Signals: Good web design keeps users engaged. Easy navigation, fast loading speed, and a positive mobile experience reduce bounce rates and encourage longer visits. Search engines like Google notice these positive user signals, which can boost your rankings.
So, the platform's SEO features are important for the technical foundation, but they won't rank you on their own. Your content, overall marketing strategy, and user-friendly web design are equally, if not more, important for long-term SEO success. The best approach is a good platform plus great content and a solid user experience.
