E-commerce software lets you track and manage product inventory, as well as fulfill and ship orders. It helps you maintain a product database, track sales, market to customers, offer discounts, maintain a loyalty program, and even create a blog to connect with potential customers. Even better, numerous turnkey bundles are available that combine custom or name-brand shopping cart solutions with e-commerce-focused web hosting services, banks and payment processors, and fulfillment and warehousing operators. The problem with such complex, do-it-all services, however, is that it's tough to know how to evaluate them or even where to begin. Don't worry; we're here to lend a helping hand. We've thoroughly tested all of the services on this list to guarantee they are the best in the field. Shopify and Wix Stores are our Editors' Choice winners, but they aren't the only services we recommend, so read on to find the best e-commerce software for you.
Overview
-
Jump To Details
![Shopify]()
Best for a Limitless Product InventoryShopify
-
Jump To Details
![Wix Stores]()
Best Shop CustomizationsWix Stores
-
Jump To Details
![BigCommerce]()
Best for E-Commerce NewbiesBigCommerce
-
Jump To Details
![GoDaddy Websites + Marketing Website Builder]()
Best Marketing and SEO ToolsGoDaddy Websites + Marketing Website Builder
-
Jump To Details
![PinnacleCart]()
Best for Multiple AdministratorsPinnacleCart
-
Jump To Details
![Square Online]()
Best Free TierSquare Online
-
Jump To Details
![Ecwid]()
Best for Easy Barcode CreationEcwid
-
Jump To Details
![Volusion]()
Best for Small BusinessesVolusion
You Can Trust Our Reviews
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
-
Credit: Shopify
![Shopify]()
Best for a Limitless Product InventoryShopify
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Shopify is an excellent e-commerce platform that provides entrepreneurs with the tools they need to run a successful online shop. Its many benefits include attractive and SEO-friendly themes; unlimited storage, inventory, and bandwidth; and 24/7 customer support should you run into a problem at an unusual hour.
Who It's For
Solo or lean e-commerce retailers: Shopify is ideal for brand owners and small teams who manage their own storefronts. In other words, businesses that do not have the operational bandwidth to manage separate, disconnected marketing applications. Shopify gives you an all-in-one system to quickly build automated email campaigns for product drops, drag inventory blocks straight into the newsletter body, and track exactly how much sales revenue each blast generates from a single, unified dashboard.
Conversion-focused, growth-oriented merchants: Spotify helps you secure your bottom line by reducing cart abandonment and driving repeat purchases. Leverage streamlined marketing automation blocks for instant, one-click access to critical e-commerce engagement, such as automated welcome sequences and abandoned-checkout triggers. This lets your business run revenue-growing workflows without the steep learning curves or high costs of enterprise third-party software.
Specs & Configurations
24/7 Phone Support Drag-and-Drop Site Editor Live Chat Point of Sale Support REST API SSL Certificate Included Transaction Fees Learn More Shopify Review -
-
Credit: Wix
![Wix Stores]()
Best Shop CustomizationsWix Stores
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Have a vision for your e-commerce site? Wix Stores lets you tweak your online shop until you achieve your design goal. It doesn't let you easily switch themes, but you can customize one using a deep stock photo catalog and a robust third-party app marketplace.
Who It's For
Service and subscription entrepreneurs: Businesses whose revenue relies on client bookings, consultations, or recurring memberships need automated email workflows that sync with their sales calendars. Wix excels here by linking its email system directly to the built-in Wix CRM. When a customer books a session or purchases a membership tier, the platform instantly triggers automated follow-ups, prep materials, or targeted marketing campaigns based on that specific transaction.
Visually-driven boutique brands: Wix is great for design-conscious e-commerce businesses like lifestyle shops, creators, and highly curated boutiques. Presentation is everything for these brands, so they need marketing emails that complement their stylized storefronts. Wix delivers total drag-and-drop design freedom and instant access to a massive stock media library, allowing brands to build highly visual campaigns that seamlessly match their website's aesthetic.
Specs & Configurations
24/7 Phone Support Bandwidth Fees Drag-and-Drop Site Editor Live Chat Point of Sale Support REST API SSL Certificate Included Transaction Fees Learn More Wix Stores Review -
-
Credit: BigCommerce
![BigCommerce]()
Best for E-Commerce NewbiesBigCommerce
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
BigCommerce gives your online shop plenty of room to grow via unlimited storage, inventory, and bandwidth. In addition, you can integrate FreshBooks for invoicing, Mailchimp for email marketing, QuickBooks for accounting, and SurveyMonkey for customer surveys.
Who It's For
High-volume, multi-storefront, or international brands: Enterprise operations selling across multiple distinct brands, regions, or diverse target demographics require centralized management. BigCommerce offers a native multi-storefront architecture that allows them to configure custom transactional logic, design unique abandoned-cart email drips, and funnel distinct marketing data to external email systems across several localized storefront environments from a single backend login panel.
Hybrid B2B/B2C manufacturers: BigCommerce is ideal for bulk manufacturers, wholesalers, and industrial suppliers that maintain a standard direct-to-consumer storefront and a restricted corporate portal. Because client communications cannot be one-size-fits-all for these companies, they leverage BigCommerce’s native customer grouping and technical custom fields to drive targeted marketing automation. The platform seamlessly syncs this data with major email service providers to separate consumers receiving retail promotions from wholesale buyers who require targeted tax-exempt catalog announcements, real-time quote confirmations, or custom price-tier alerts.
Specs & Configurations
Drag-and-Drop Site Editor Live Chat Point of Sale Support REST API Learn More BigCommerce Review -
-
Credit: GoDaddy
![GoDaddy Websites + Marketing Website Builder]()
Best Marketing and SEO ToolsGoDaddy Websites + Marketing Website Builder
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
GoDaddy is the face of web hosting due to its long-running advertising push online and on TV. So, it makes sense that the company's e-commerce offering excels in marketing and SEO, with many useful promotional tools.
Who It's For
Convenience-seeking small businesses: Business owners who manage daily operations on their own need an out-of-the-box system that securely stores customer contacts, syncs with their domain, and deploys high-deliverability updates in minutes. GoDaddy nails these points by offering pre-built, zero-setup email automations for booking confirmations and appointment reminders, so solo entrepreneurs can run their businesses without wasting time on micromanagement.
Traditional brick-and-mortar storefronts: Physical businesses like neighborhood retail shops, diners, and galleries need a service that drives foot traffic and local awareness, rather than building an intricate digital sales funnel. GoDaddy offers straightforward tools to broadcast holiday hours or share event announcements. Because GoDaddy automatically applies the website's active logo, fonts, and color scheme directly to the email template, brick-and-mortar owners can maintain brand consistency without graphic design experience.
Specs & Configurations
24/7 Phone Support Basic Image Editing Blogging Tool Download Selling Drag-and-Drop Site Editor Free Version Offered Live Chat Point of Sale Support REST API Site Membership SSL Certificate Included Transaction Fees Unlimited Monthly Data Transfers With All Plans Unlimited Storage With All Plans Web Store -
-
Credit: PinnacleCart
![PinnacleCart]()
Best for Multiple AdministratorsPinnacleCart
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
PinnacleCart is an e-commerce platform designed for large online shops that need multiple administrators. It lacks transaction fees, helping you save money on each sale.
Who It's For
High-volume direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands: Dedicated online retailers operating entirely in the digital marketplace benefit greatly from PinnacleCart's tools. This platform integrates with backend inventory systems, supports multiple payment gateways, and manages shipping infrastructure. Pinnacle Cart also provides essential, conversion-focused automation tools, such as native abandoned cart remarketing and web-pain up-sells, to recapture lost revenue streams.
Conversion-optimized retailers. Give PinnacleCart a try if you own a rapidly growing business but are tired of platform transaction fees cutting into your margins. Pinnacle Cart charges zero transaction fees and combines unlimited product hosting with deeply integrated, built-in promotional capabilities. You can easily run aggressive, profit-maximizing marketing campaigns using custom gift certificates, automatic quantity discounts, and targeted discount codes from a single dashboard.
Specs & Configurations
24/7 Phone Support Drag-and-Drop Site Editor Free Version Live Chat REST API SSL Certificate Included Learn More PinnacleCart Review -
-
Credit: Square
![Square Online]()
Best Free TierSquare Online
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Square Online is a worthwhile service for its unlimited storage and bandwidth, as well as its compatibility with the company's POS terminals. Its free tier is welcome, too.
Who It's For
Omnichannel retailers or local boutiques: Square is an outstanding choice for local retail businesses that sell face-to-face, while maintaining a Square Online store for local pickup or shipping. Thanks to Square's unified customer database, an in-person credit card swipe instantly updates the customer's centralized profile. Merchants can seamlessly target automated email campaigns to local buyers with exclusive deals and discount codes that work identically at the physical counter or the online checkout.
High-volume event, pop-up, or mobile vendors: Highly mobile merchants operating in fast-paced environments (festival vendors, food trucks, and market sellers) struggle to capture customer data during high-volume rushes. The Square ecosystem makes this a cinch because the digital checkout process prompts buyers to receive a text or email receipt, capturing customer contact information on the fly. Sellers can then leverage automated email workflows—like birthday rewards or follow-up discount codes—to turn that one-time foot-traffic buyer into a repeat online customer.
Specs & Configurations
24/7 Phone Support Drag-and-Drop Site Editor Free Version Live Chat Point of Sale Support REST API SSL Certificate Included Transaction Fees Learn More Square Online Review -
-
unknown
![Ecwid]()
Best for Easy Barcode CreationEcwid
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
The Ecwid e-commerce platform makes it easy to create an online store and export it to popular marketplaces, such as Amazon and Google Shopping. However, the service stands out from the pack due to its mobile apps, which let you quickly generate barcodes using your phone.
Who It's For
Monetized content creators and bloggers: Ecwid offers convenient plug-and-play simplicity for creative individuals and small media teams—such as food bloggers, podcasters, or artists—who have an established audience on platforms like WordPress. By dropping a secure shop widget directly into their existing website, creators can instantly sell merch or digital downloads, leveraging Ecwid’s hands-free marketing engine to trigger automated favorite-product reminders and post-purchase follow-ups.
Multi-channel merchants: Ecwid is a fantastic solution for growing brands that sell simultaneously across multiple online spaces, such as portfolio websites, blogs, and social media business pages. Instead of logging into distinct marketing dashboards for each channel, you can use Ecwid as a centralized administrative hub. By embedding a single code snippet across all your digital web properties, you can ensure that automated abandoned cart sequences, purchase feedback requests, and GDPR-compliant checkout permission boxes operate identically, while also collecting customer data into one unified list.
Specs & Configurations
Free Version Live Chat Point of Sale Support REST API SSL Certificate Included Learn More Ecwid Review -
-
Credit: Volusion
![Volusion]()
Best for Small BusinessesVolusion
Pros & Cons
Why We Picked It
Volusion is a predictable, highly stable, server-side platform. It offers 0% platform transaction fees, native ERP-level reporting, and a robust database architecture that eliminates "app creep" and unexpected code breaks.
Who It's For
Margin-focused retailers: Volusion is a solid pick for merchants with custom payment processor contracts who want zero extra transaction fees and built-in flash sale and inventory tools. However, it's not for sellers who heavily rely on Google Shopping ads, as the platform lacks integration with the Google ecosystem.
Fixed-catalog distributors: Are you a B2B or industrial seller with complex SKU matrices who prioritizes raw mathematical reporting and uncorrupted bulk data over trendy design flexibility? You should check out Volusion, especially if you rely on direct sales rather than Google search.
Specs & Configurations
24/7 Phone Support Drag-and-Drop Site Editor Live Chat REST API Learn More Volusion Review -
Compare Specs
Our Pick | |||||||||||
Rating |
4.5 Outstanding |
4.0 Excellent |
4.0 Excellent |
4.0 Excellent |
4.0 Excellent |
4.0 Excellent |
3.5 Good |
3.5 Good |
4.5 Outstanding |
4.0 Excellent |
4.0 Excellent |
Best For | Best for a Limitless Product Inventory | Best Shop Customizations | Best for E-Commerce Newbies | Best Marketing and SEO Tools | Best for Multiple Administrators | Best Free Tier | Best for Easy Barcode Creation | Best for Small Businesses | Best for a Limitless Product Inventory | Best Shop Customizations | Best for E-Commerce Newbies |
Free Version | |||||||||||
Transaction Fees | |||||||||||
Bandwidth Fees | |||||||||||
Point of Sale Support | |||||||||||
Drag-and-Drop Site Editor | |||||||||||
REST API | |||||||||||
SSL Certificate Included | |||||||||||
24/7 Phone Support | |||||||||||
Live Chat |
Buying Guide: The Best E-Commerce Software for 2026
Who Needs to Use E-Commerce Software?
Before we talk about what to look for in an e-commerce service, you may be wondering why you need one. As mentioned earlier, many web hosting services now offer e-commerce packages as part of their hosting plans, using built-in tools or integrating with open-source tools. It boils down to just how much extra work you, as a small business owner, want to put in to manage your store from scratch. It's just another set of hoops through which to jump if you have to set up your own merchant account and payment gateway. Plus, everything is on the web now: If you make your customers place an order and then call you with their credit card information, you are going to lose a lot of sales.
A PayPal button on your website is a good first step, but if you want to operate an attractive, modern online storefront from which people can shop day or night, then you really are better off using a full-featured e-commerce platform instead of trying to glue all of the separate parts together on your own. E-commerce services streamline the relationship between buyers and sellers by handling multiple payment methods, collecting tax, and calculating shipping costs. A straightforward shopping experience means buyers get the product faster, too. A happy customer is just good business, after all.
How Much Does E-Commerce Software Cost?
It's difficult to choose an e-commerce platform strictly based on price. Some offer advanced features but impose restrictions on transactions or monthly data transfers; others limit a plan's features by price. Most e-commerce tools offer templates (also known as themes), but some may exclude popular ones from their premium packages. That means you must pay more money for an attractive website. A website builder is useful for customizing templates.
Some services may have a low monthly cost but charge fees for transactions and for add-ons that let you integrate with third-party tools. Depending on your requirements, you can expect prices ranging from $9.99 to thousands of dollars per month. As always, it pays to read the fine print.
There are two types of transaction fees to keep track of when evaluating e-commerce services: those charged by the shopping cart and those charged by the payment gateway. You can't avoid payment gateway fees; whichever service you select will charge a fee per credit card transaction. That's the fee from Authorize.Net or PayPal, for example.
Some e-commerce platforms charge an additional transaction fee for using the service, regardless of the payment gateway. This means you pay your shopping cart vendor a certain percentage per transaction before the payment gateway collects its fee. Consider this scenario: A customer came to your store and paid $100 via PayPal. Your vendor will collect $3.20 for that transaction, and PayPal will collect $3.20 (the exact amount may vary depending on your PayPal account type). E-commerce platforms typically offer bandwidth restrictions if they don't charge transaction fees.
Many services offer tiers based on the amount of monthly data you need. If you expect high traffic volumes and sales, you should consider unlimited plans or at least something more generous than the typical 1GB of bandwidth. Others restrict storage, which limits the number and size of product images you can display. Cheaper plans have smaller storage capacity, so if you have a fairly large product database or plan to have multiple images per product, you will need to consider how much storage you need. Otherwise, that monthly bill with overage fees will be a surprise.
Monthly data is consumed whenever visitors swing by your website. If you list several images for a single product or you have a long slideshow, then that will eat up data. In that case, you'll need a generous data allotment. Think carefully about what you want from your store to determine if bandwidth limits or transaction fees make sense for you.
What Are the Most Important E-Commerce Features?
Some e-commerce services are better suited for selling physical goods, while others support digital and virtual products, such as ebooks and services. As a result, you need to think about the types of products you want to sell before selecting a service. Some e-commerce companies let you migrate data from an existing service. They handle bulk product database uploads and moving customer and order history. If you aren't setting up a brand-new storefront, then you really need to look for e-commerce tools to help with the move.
Look for plans that let you organize inventory and maintain a customer database. If there aren't any built-in tools, see if you can integrate your cart with a third-party service. If you plan to send emails from your e-commerce website, then MailChimp, for example, might integrate with your service tier. See if you can issue discounts and gift certificates and run sales.
You want search engine optimization (SEO) tools to help your storefront rise up in search results. You should consider integrating Google Analytics (GA) into your dashboard to understand who is visiting your store and what they are doing. You won't need GA if the shopping cart provides its own website metrics, but it's still a good tool to consider using with your store.
Don't rely on documentation, tutorials, and forums for customer support. Those are great resources, but you should be able to get someone on the phone or in a web chat. Ideally, support should be available at any time of day. You don't know when things will go wrong, so why should you have to wait for normal business hours to get help?
Many e-commerce tools offer trial periods. Take advantage of the trial to learn how to work with the shopping cart dashboard. If you find it annoying to view placed orders, enter products, or fulfill orders, consider a shopping cart that fits your workflow.
Finally, think about security. While many of your customers will shop while using a virtual private network (VPN) service, many others won't. To protect them, make sure your online store and its web hosting provider either offer a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate or can accommodate a third-party certificate you purchase elsewhere. In addition, invest in a reliable website monitoring tool to stay on top of security or performance issues in real time.
Mike Williams contributed to this story.