Best E-Commerce Platforms of 2025 – Forbes Advisor

Ecwid by Lightspeed is one of the few beginner-friendly e-commerce platforms that allows easy embedding of your entire store into another website. Copy and paste a bit of code Ecwid provides into just about any website or website builder that allows HTML injections to create a shop within your preferred website design. This opens up a lot of possibilities for small businesses with an existing website that just want to add e-commerce functionality easily.

Ecwid also offers site hosting as part of its plans if you don’t want to embed your store elsewhere. Great security features, such as data backups and privacy protections, are available, and Ecwid is PCI-DSS certified. The online store builder includes free themes and is very intuitive overall.

Ecwid offers over 70 payment processing options, including cash, Lightspeed Payments and popular choices like Stripe and PayPal.

Pricing and features are not quite as attractive as they once were, however. Ecwid used to be the starting point for many online shops due to a free forever plan, but pricing changed at the start of 2025 Q2. The previously free Starter plan is now $5 monthly but still carries the nearly draconian limits on products and features. The other plans bumped in price slightly, but are still very competitive.

It is worth noting that Ecwid no longer offers a free custom domain name option, and buying a domain name directly from Ecwid has limits that make going through another domain registrar a better option in many cases. Likewise, customer service availability varies by plan. All plans come with access to the self-help knowledge base and email support. However, for live chat or callback phone support, you’ll have to upgrade to higher-tier plans, and hours are limited.

Learn more: Read our full Ecwid review.

Overall, Ecwid is very beginner-friendly. I especially like the logical method that the product setup follows, and the builder itself is reasonable, although it lacks true drag-and-drop functionality. Initial store setup—those behind-the-scenes items like checkout fields, such as order confirmation email settings, taxes, customer groups and legal notices—feels almost randomly tossed into a catch-all settings menu and are hard to find.

Squarespace does a good job of removing the technical skill barrier to entry that some other e-commerce platforms have. E-commerce solutions like Shopify and BigCommerce offer great scalability and can handle complex online sales needs, but they can be overwhelming when you are just starting out. Someone who has never built a website or worked with any e-commerce platform can DIY build an online store with Squarespace.

In fact, it’s a perpetual star on my best blogging platform and best CMS lists.

Squarespace offers an easy-to-use blog paywall feature for creators expanding beyond social media for e-commerce.

Squarespace offers a simplified website builder that may be frustrating to anyone with website-building experience, but strikes just the right combination of control and presets for beginners. Admittedly, some templates are pretty dated and remind me of when McDonald’s took all the color out of buildings and went with an industrial HOA look, but there are some gems hidden in there if you take the time to scroll long enough.

I also like that POS integration is included in every plan, so if you’re a small Main Street shop trying to modernize, you can keep everything together. The blog monetization tools are the outstanding feature, though, allowing creators to easily handle paywalled blog content like online video tutorials or even subscription boxes.

Learn more: Read our full Squarespace review.

Sometimes I expect too much from a beginner website builder. Anytime I log into Squarespace, it always startles me with how basic its online store maker is. That said, it gets the job done and is far easier to get e-commerce and blogs set up than most other e-commerce sites.

However, the repeated but non-constant glitches do bother me because they could be very discouraging for new DIYers. For example, sometimes the builder gets stuck in a loop where you can’t get out of the design features to move to content creation. The only way out is to go back to your main dashboard. Sometimes you even need to log out and back in. It also tends to work better in Chrome than in other browsers.

Shopify built its reputation on providing enterprise tools to SMBs. Shopify is nearly as synonymous with e-commerce as Google is with search. However, like Google’s mixed search reputation, Shopify has its detractors as well. Additional costs, high plan fees and customization difficulties that require hiring professional help are all fairly common complaints. That said, it is still an extremely powerful e-commerce platform and a good option for many SMBs.

A streamlined basic store starts as low as $5 monthly, but more fully featured plans start at $39 monthly. While basic POS functionality is included in many plans, specific use cases like restaurant and advanced POS features can run another $89 monthly. While the free trial is short at only three days, Shopify offers discounted $1 monthly pricing for the first three paid months, so you have plenty of time to test-drive the system before committing to full price plans.

Shopify includes a helpful assistant called Sidekick to walk new users through store creation.

All that taken into account, there’s still a lot to offer. Basic store setup is beginner-friendly, multiple currency conversions are available, multiple inventory locations are easily managed and many marketplaces are supported. Shopify also has a huge library of over 8,000 third-party apps to add even more features and functions so you can connect your Shopify store to your favorite business software without a complicated third-party API system.

Learn more:Read our full Shopify review.

I want to like Shopify, I really do. There’s a lot of good going for it, at least for straightforward shops, and the setup process is surprisingly simple. The problems I always run into are when I try to do anything outside of the ordinary, especially with advanced features like setting up a marketplace on your shop where creators can list products to sell with you.

For example, there are odd restrictions on things like the file sizes that your creators can upload that aren’t there if a random shopper directly uploads a design for you to customize a product with. So just be aware that for SMBs without a tech team, features beyond the basics often require a lot of work or hiring a Shopify professional to implement.

BigCommerce is a rare find. While it offers powerful tools at affordable rates for SMB, it also offers enterprise-level tools so you never outgrow the platform. If your startup turns out to be the next Apple, BigCommerce can stay with you the whole time, from training wheels to global sensation. In fact, it’s powerful enough to top my best content management system list.

That said, the interface isn’t as pretty or smooth as beginner-style DIY builders like Squarespace, but the functionality goes deeper, and more customization is possible than most “pretty” platforms. It’s also designed with pure e-commerce in mind, so POS integrations aren’t necessarily included in every plan or as natively connected as an e-commerce solution built around in-person sales connections like Square Online.

Some of the store builder tools are a bit clunky in BigCommerce, like having to jump out of the main editor into a new screen to manage hero images.

While hosting is included with plans, I absolutely love that you can get upgraded enterprise-level hosting as your needs grow. Hosting resource and speed limits are a near-universal weakness of all-in-one e-commerce platforms, and this upgrade option gives online shop owners a great resource as needs and budgets grow.

Another great option is multiple storefronts. If your business has multiple product lines that need to be segregated, BigCommerce makes it easy to manage all of them on one account. There is a small cost per additional storefront that varies by plan, but the option is a welcome simplification and cost saver for many businesses.

Learn more:Read our full BigCommerce review.

While not as intuitive as some other e-commerce platforms, BigCommerce isn’t a particularly steep learning curve either. That said, there are quirks, like the builder carousel controls having to be edited outside of the main page editing controls (similar to some WordPress themes).

While the builder isn’t sleek and flashy, it gets the job done, and I was impressed with the ease of setting up actual e-commerce functions. I’m especially fond of how easy the automatic payment testing feature makes getting payments set up compared to other platforms that aren’t as testing-friendly.

Square is well-known as one of the best POS systems for small businesses, but many don’t realize the online e-commerce platform, Square Online, is also a great option. Square Online’s power lies in its integration with onsite selling.

For businesses that rely on in-person interactions but need to add the convenience of online shopping, Square Online is your go-to. For example, food trucks that want to offer mobile ordering, craft fair makers that want to enable pre-orders, and traditional brick-and-mortar stores wanting to add buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS).

Square Online lets you customize what columns show on your product overview reports.

For those on a shoestring budget, Square Online offers a forever-free plan where your costs are covered by transaction fees when you actually get an order, so there’s no upfront cost to you. However, all Square Online plans carry transaction fees, so if you are paying for a higher tier, you must consider those fees when planning your budget.

While there are reports of slow customer service, phone support is available on all plans weekdays, which is something most e-commerce platforms don’t offer except with the highest-tier plans.

Learn more: Read our full Square Online review.

Square’s e-commerce features and website builder meet what they were designed for. They aren’t meant to go toe to toe or feature to feature with something like Shopify. For most, the builder itself will be the most frustrating part, not the e-commerce.

The builder is very basic and has weird limitations, like being unable to move text around in a design block. An e-commerce website from Square isn’t going to win you any awards, but it is functional.

Think of OpenCart as the WordPress of e-commerce. OpenCart is a complete open-source platform on its own that doesn’t have to run inside of WordPress. Like other open-source software, it is free, but you have to pay for hosting. Unlike most open source platforms, direct technical support is available, but it comes with an often hefty extra cost. A community forum is available for shop owners to help each other without cost.

Hosting costs are up to you, with OpenCart hosting available through any cPanel or host-branded control panel-style hosting. That said, OpenCart has partnered with Scala Hosting to offer powerful cloud VPS hosting options designed and optimized for OpenCart performance. I am particularly fond of this model over all-in-one platforms because it means you aren’t stuck with limited, generic shared hosting plans that many all-in-one platforms offer.

Theme management and editing in OpenCart requires patience and fighting through a deeper learning curve than other e-commerce platforms.

With direct hosting, you always know what your server resources are. It’s also a fantastic safety net for technical support outside of OpenCart. If anything goes wrong with hosting, you have your host’s included tech support, like Scala Hosting’s 24/7 live chat support with a 30-second guaranteed response time or its 15-minute response time ticketed support.

Like WordPress, beyond the core features, you’ll need a plug-in (extension) to add functionality. OpenCart boasts a whopping 13,000 third-party extensions—some free, some paid. That adds a lot of flexibility for online stores. For example, there are 1,368 payment gateway integrations alone.

Flexibility comes at a cost of time spent with OpenCart. Like WordPress, there is a steeper learning curve, and OpenCart can easily overwhelm beginners. Unlike options like Squarespace or Wix, where it’s very plug-and-play, there is a good bit of work to be done to set up OpenCart.

Likewise, it’s not particularly intuitive, and menus often make about as much sense as the last step in IKEA instructions. However, if you can stick with it, the possibilities are nearly endless, with deep customization possible. The real benefit of OpenCart is flexibility, not being tied into one hosting choice or stuck under another CMS like WordPress.

Big Cartel is a low-cost, simplified option for setting up an online store. While not as robust as other options, it’s got some nice extra features for the lower price point. The store builder is also deceptively simple-looking, but the sidebar control system is quick for beginners to pick up and keeps things organized.

I love that they offer automated sales tax handling and real-time shipping rates from USPS (for paid plans). Lower-cost plans often overlook those. Plus, the mobile store management app that handles in-person orders is a great option for crafters and artisans working various festivals and weekend shows.

From theme selection to palettes to images, Big Cartel shop controls are handled in a sidebar menu system.

Third-party integrations are fairly limited, but basic services for shipping, marketing and dropshipping are available and easily installed. Signing up for a free plan to check if the available integrations fit your needs is a smart step before committing to a free Big Commerce plan.

It’s also worth noting that Big Cartel reviews tend to be skewed on aggregator sites like TrustPilot. Since Big Cartel users skew toward small shops, the branding on free stores can be confusing to shoppers, and many negative reviews are actually people who were trying to complain about the individual shop they bought from, not Big Cartel.

Learn more: Read our full Big Cartel review.

I won’t deny that Big Cartel is sleek and pretty out of the box, which can be a little scary at first glance. However, the dashboard is fairly well laid out and the builder gets the job done with strong task menus in the sidebar to guide you through the steps to making it more robust. It also has quick links to help files as you go through the setup process.

Another thing I really like about Big Cartel setup is that it doesn’t take you out of product addition when you need to handle another task. For example, most e-commerce platforms kick you out of product creation to go set up categories and other background information. That often throws off folks just setting up their first few products. Big Cartel uses a pop-up that sets the basics but doesn’t lose the product you were creating, making initial shop setup much easier.

SEO tools are a near-universal blind spot for e-commerce platforms. Shift4Shop offers more core technical SEO tools than others at a much lower price. If your business relies on search engine result page (SERP) placement, Shift4Shop gives you great control and tools to help you rank higher. Easily accessed robots.txt, canonical URLs, a meta tag wizard, Google tagging, redirects and sitemaps are only the tip of the iceberg.

Beyond SEO, all the core e-commerce tools you expect are easily accessed and managed. The hardest part about Shift4Shop is setting up your store theme, which requires more steps than it should. However, once you are past that hurdle, setup is fairly simple.

Shift4Shop offers plenty of themes, but theme management is a bit more complex than on many other e-commerce platforms.

Do bear in mind that payment processing options are limited. You can either use PayPal or Shift4. If you use Shift4, your plan is free if you process at least $1,000 in sales each month. Do bear in mind that the minimum processing amount has changed from time to time, so it’s best to confirm it with Shift4Shop before signing up, as we do every time we review the platform. However, you can start your shop for free, and you’ll have a month to make your payment processor decision if you want to play around with the platform before making a final decision.

Customer service is my biggest concern with Shift4Shop, and contacting someone often means providing a lot of information, even when logged in, before you can talk to anyone.

Learn more: Read our full Shift4Shop review.

Shift4Shop is one of those rare e-commerce platforms where you don’t often want to bang your head against a wall because small features that should be simple aren’t working right. Mostly, outside of an awkward template manager, it is smooth sailing to get a shop up and running with easy menus and controls that make sense.

However, you will likely need to talk to customer service in setting up your payment processing if you want to use the Shift4 option as it doesn’t always show during setup automatically.