Best Ecommerce Website Builders

12 Best Ecommerce Website Builders for Every Niche (Feb. 2024)

Written by: Alexandra Anderson

Alexandra Anderson

Alexandra is a web marketer, Agile Product Owner, and die-hard wordsmith who's contributed to HostingAdvice, InMotion Hosting, HostGator, and other prominent hosting and technology blogs, as well as Forbes. She has a master's degree in information technology from Virginia Tech and more than 10 years of experience building websites, advising on web and mobile app design, and crafting content that engages and converts. Her primary subject matter expertise spans WordPress, UX design, Agile project management, and, of course, web hosting.

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Edited by: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian brings more than 30 years of editing and journalism experience to our team. She has written and edited for major news organizations, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, and she previously served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Florida. Today, she edits HostingAdvice content for clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement.

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Built for those with a passion of something other than web design and development, the best ecommerce website builders empower entrepreneurs to showcase their goods and services without all the hangups of coding and website configuration.

For instance, I have a friend who recently decided she wanted to create a site to promote and sell her custom-painted canvases. Her art had made a name for itself in our small community, and everyone was encouraging her to get online. My friend is insanely talented with acrylics, but she’ll be the first to tell you she knows nothing about web design or development. She fumbled with a few online builders that promised her the world and proved to be remarkably underwhelming.

Hers is just one of many stories I’ve heard of folks who want to build an online store but immediately become overwhelmed by so many unhelpful options. I decided to cut through the marketing gimmicks to compile a list of the ecommerce site builders I trust and would recommend.

Best Free Ecommerce Website Builder

Who doesn’t love free stuff? No matter the product or service you’re searching, it’s human nature to turn to Google for the free option first before ponying up to the paid route. The problem with free when it comes to website creation: It’s typically too good to be true. Either the quality is about as low as the price tag, or it’s not free forever, or all of the above.

Then there are services like Wix — defying the odds by delivering a free site-building platform that protects both your aesthetic goals for your site and your budget. You only need an email or Facebook account to get started, and with that, you get access to thousands of templates, conveniently categorized by industry. You can extend your site’s functionality with add-ons available in the App Market, too. It’s one of our favorite starter hosting plans and an esteemed site builder choice industry-wide.

1. Wix.com

WEBSITE BUILDER RATING
★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
  • No coding skills needed with drag-and-drop builder
  • 100s of templates with niche-specific designs
  • Add features via the App Market and Wix Events
  • Easily create ecommerce functionality easily
  • Great way to build small sites on a budget
  • Get started on Wix now.
Starting Price/Mo. $0.00
Money Back Guarantee 14-day FREE trial
Disk Space 2 GB - Unlimited
Domain Name FREE (1 year)
Wix: Our Expert's Review
Alexandra Anderson (HostingAdvice.com):

Website building is where Wix shines. The thousands of templates, the intuitive editor, the industry-leading designs that cater to a variety of specific fields and use cases — all these facets represent a platform that excels at facilitating easy web design for the non-tech-savvy user.

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More free web hosts and builders »

Best Ecommerce Website Builder for Beginners

User-friendliness — specifically, beginner-friendliness — is a key indicator of a quality website builder. Period. They didn’t invent the concepts of what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) or drag-and-drop simplicity for the seasoned developer extraordinaire. The idea of these platforms is to make site-building accessible to the non-coder. Still, some platforms do this better than others.

My take on this: The best beginner builders are those that keep the setup short and clear the path to customizing the content. If you can jump right in and start playing around in a super intuitive interface, familiarizing yourself with the concept of setting up a website while becoming attached to your soon-to-be end result, you’ve found the ideal beginner-friendly platform.

The best companies for the job give you all the tools to create a high-functioning website without bogging you down with technical jargon or administrative tasks — a complimentary domain name with signup is a great example of this. Typically, ready-to-go options, such as a wealth of industry-specific themes and premade site templates, are preferred; however, there’s a fine line between beginner-friendly and overwhelming. Our favorite hosts for novices offer free website builders, free domains, and tons of beginner-friendly tools to launch and grow an online store:

2. Wix.com

WEBSITE BUILDER RATING
★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
  • No coding skills needed with drag-and-drop builder
  • 100s of templates with niche-specific designs
  • Add features via the App Market and Wix Events
  • Easily create ecommerce functionality easily
  • Great way to build small sites on a budget
  • Get started on Wix now.
Starting Price/Mo. $0.00
Money Back Guarantee 14-day FREE trial
Disk Space 2 GB - Unlimited
Domain Name FREE (1 year)
Wix: Our Expert's Review
Alexandra Anderson (HostingAdvice.com):

Website building is where Wix shines. The thousands of templates, the intuitive editor, the industry-leading designs that cater to a variety of specific fields and use cases — all these facets represent a platform that excels at facilitating easy web design for the non-tech-savvy user.

Go to full review »
WEBSITE BUILDER RATING
★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
  • No coding skills necessary with MyWebsite Creator
  • Free domain name or transfer your existing site
  • FREE social media and marketing widgets
  • Pro templates with pre-filled text and images
  • Multilingual support and tools for SEO
  • Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
Starting Price/Mo. $1.00
Money Back Guarantee 30 days
Disk Space 10 GB - Unlimited
Domain Name FREE (1 year)
1&1 IONOS: Our Expert's Review
Alexandra Anderson (HostingAdvice.com):

If you're in need of a one-stop shop for designing and launching a website, you should be pleased to hear that 1&1 IONOS offers its own custom website building tools for both desktop and mobile devices. In addition to a free domain and email address, along with unlimited storage space, the 1&1 IONOS MyWebsite platform includes all the essentials for starting a site from scratch.

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WEBSITE BUILDER RATING
★★★★★ 4.6/5.0
  • Drag-and-drop design from custom tools
  • FREE access to hundreds of specialized templates
  • Built-in ecommerce and payment processing
  • Easily switch among widescreen, desktop, tablet, and mobile previews
  • Support for 31 languages and 99.9% uptime
  • Get started on Hostinger now.
Starting Price/Mo. $2.49
Money Back Guarantee 30 days
Disk Space 50 GB SSD - 200 GB SSD
Domain Name FREE (1 year)
Hostinger: Our Expert's Review
Laura Bernheim (HostingAdvice.com):

Whether you're taking your first foray into website hosting or are a developer looking to save some time, a strong website builder can dramatically streamline the creation process and enable users to launch a website in five minutes or less. Fortunately for customers, Hostinger has invested heavily in crafting an impressive visual editor sure to appeal to users of all levels of experience.

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More beginner-friendly website builders »

Best Ecommerce Website Builder for Small Business

Now, let’s say you’re launching an online store — maybe turning your trade or hobby into a secondary income stream, or perhaps developing an online presence for your brick-and-mortar shop that offers vintage tees and trendy collectibles. Online store owners are like beginner website owners in that they typically don’t want to fuss with the details of domains, SEO, or custom CSS. They want to focus on their craft, their inventory, and of course, their profits!

The best ecommerce website builder services are up to the challenge of streamlining the development process for small business owners:

ECOMMERCE RATING
★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
  • Drag-and-drop online store builder for $1/mo
  • Quickly sell products, services, and digital goods
  • Cross-platform selling integrations with social media, Amazon, Google, and eBay
  • Built-in metrics, promos, and coupons
  • Track competitors' Google and social media activity
  • Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
Starting Price/Mo. $1.00
Money Back Guarantee 30 days
Disk Space Unlimited SSD
Domain Name FREE (1 year)
eCommerce Hosting Plans
1&1 IONOS: Our Expert's Review
Alexandra Anderson (HostingAdvice.com):

The online store builder from 1&1 IONOS gives entrepreneurs a full suite of selling and marketing tools at their disposal — and all for a ridiculously low price. The company’s lightning-fast architecture and tools for SEO and marketing metrics...

Go to full review »
ECOMMERCE RATING
★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
  • Code-free design tools for eCommerce stores
  • Templates for retail, food, clothing, and services
  • Custom WordPress integrations and optimizations
  • 24/7/365 support via phone, chat, and email
  • Try StoreBuilder with a 30-DAY FREE TRIAL
  • Get started on Nexcess now.
Starting Price/Mo. $12.67
Money Back Guarantee 30 days
Disk Space 30 GB - 100 GB
Domain Name New or Transfer
eCommerce Hosting Plans nexcess.net/ecommerce
Nexcess: Our Expert's Review
Laura Bernheim (HostingAdvice.com):

Designing, deploying, and maintaining an online store is best done with a quality host. Nexcess created a one-of-a-kind site builder exclusively for optimizing online stores.

Go to full review »
ECOMMERCE RATING
★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
  • 20 times faster performance that boosts sales
  • 80+ software options: Magento, OpenCart, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, and others
  • Fully managed WordPress and server environments
  • Worry-free migration and 24/7 support
  • DDoS protection and layered security measures
  • Get started on A2 Hosting now.
Starting Price/Mo. $11.99
Money Back Guarantee 30 days
Disk Space 100 GB SSD - Unlimited SSD
Domain Name New or Transfer
eCommerce Hosting Plans www.a2hosting.com/ecommerce
A2 Hosting: Our Expert's Review
Alexandra Anderson (HostingAdvice.com):

For those who understand the importance of page load speed and sales, look no further than A2 Hosting. The company boasts premium storage, optimized security, and one of the most diverse portfolios of one-click software installations we’ve seen.

Go to full review »

More eCommerce website builders »

Best Ecommerce Website Builder and Hosting for Enterprise

For those in the enterprise arena, the site-building needs increase across the board. You need more storage, more pages, possibly more product inventory options and ecommerce tools, and definitely more bandwidth and support. Typically, the WYSIWYG builders loved by beginners are not quite up to snuff, but CMS platforms like Magento are more than up to the task.

Enterprise website owners may look to dedicated servers or VPS providers to meet their site-building needs, and in either case, chances are your host will make it easy to download and install your choice of eCommerce platform (e.g., Magento, PrestaShop, or WordPress/Woocommerce).

We feature some of the most popular and reliable hosts for enterprise clients below, specifically highlighting the top dedicated plans; however, keep in mind most of these dedicated hosts offer VPS services as well.

DEDICATED RATING
★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
  • Bare-metal or managed servers available
  • 1-on-1 time with a server administrator
  • 99.99% uptime via Smart Routing™ technology
  • Tier 1 network with redundant bandwidth
  • SSH root access and DDoS protection on all servers
  • Upgrade for cPanel, migration, and auto backups
  • Get started on InMotion now.
Starting Price/Mo. $69.99
Disk Space 1 TB SSD - 3.2 TB SSD
CPU 12 - 32 cores
RAM 192 GB DDR4 - 512 GB DDR4
InMotion: Our Expert's Review
PJ Fancher (HostingAdvice.com):

InMotion Hosting offers amazingly fast and reliable dedicated hosting on market-leading hardware — making it an easy choice for anyone seeking a premium dedicated server host. From free SSDs to a fanatical support team, InMotion has all the bases covered for both small-scale and large-scale operations.

Go to full review »
DEDICATED RATING
★★★★★ 4.9/5.0
  • Explore server deals to find the best rates
  • High powered modern AMD and Intel processors
  • Unlimited traffic and 1 Gbit/s network connectivity
  • 8-minute deployment with full API control
  • Auto backups, DDoS protection, and RAID-1 storage
  • Get started on 1&1 IONOS now.
Starting Price/Mo. $32.00
Disk Space 480 GB SSD - 2 TB HDD
CPU 2 - 32 cores
RAM 12 GB - 256 GB
1&1 IONOS: Our Expert's Review
Alexandra Anderson (HostingAdvice.com):

If you need blazing-fast speed, optimum uptime, top-notch flexibility, and full control over the fate of your website the dedicated servers from 1&1 IONOS have you covered. The company offers an assortment of entry-level, performance-focused, and business-class server options.

Go to full review »
DEDICATED RATING
★★★★★ 4.8/5.0
  • Linux or Windows with choice of 3 control panels
  • 100% network and power uptime guarantees
  • Custom configurations and instant provisioning
  • Auto-migrations, backups, and real-time monitoring
  • Block/object storage and load balancer add-ons
  • Get started on Liquid Web now.
Starting Price/Mo. $75.00
Disk Space 480 GB SSD - 960 GB SSD (+ 2 TB SATA)
CPU 4 - 16 cores
RAM 16 GB - 64 GB
Liquid Web: Our Expert's Review
Alexandra Anderson (HostingAdvice.com):

Liquid Web's strong suit is managed dedicated server hosting. The company owns and operates five state-of-the-art datacenters in the US and Europe works tirelessly to build and maintain custom solutions for added performance and security.

Go to full review »

More plans for enterprise eCommerce »

Honorable Mentions: 2 Other Noteworthy Site Builders for ecommerce

And now, for the runners up! The eCommerce hosting niche is competitive, and it’s hard to argue with the low price points and rich feature sets of the popular hosts we’ve discussed here today. Nevertheless, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give a nod to a few widely recognized names.

Shopify and Volusion are not for everyone. Their pricing alone is enough to make store owners think long and hard before signing up. Performance is not their specialty. One doesn’t choose to partner with either of these providers for the hardware specs. It’s the eCommerce-specific features that have built the brand reputations.

While Shopify’s claim to fame is certainly the easy integration with social media platforms and the iconic BUY NOW button, Volusion is a leading platform when it comes to merchant services like payment processing and inventory tracking. Check out our experts’ reviews of each below.

BEST OVERALL RATING
★★★★★ 4.6/5.0
  • Sell via social media or hosted commerce platform
  • FREE website builder and hundreds of themes
  • Unlimited products and unlimited bandwidth
  • PayPal or Shopify point-of-sale systems
  • Advanced reporting and real-time shipping updates
  • Try Shopify FREE for three days.
Starting Price/Mo. $1.00
Money Back Guarantee 3-Day FREE Trial
Disk Space Unlimited
Domain Name FREE Subdomain
Shopify: Our Expert's Review
Toby Sembower (HostingAdvice.com):

Shopify is easily one of the more well-known ecommerce web builder platforms in the hosting industry. Plans are fully hosted, include a free site builder tool, and allow you to showcase an unlimited number of products with unlimited file storage as well.

Go to full review »
BEST OVERALL RATING
★★★★★ 4.7/5.0
  • Design your store with a drag-and-drop builder
  • No transaction fees, plus easy app integration
  • Market products via email, coupons, and social
  • Guides, tutorials, and 24/7 customer support
  • 99.9% network uptime guarantee
  • Try Volusion FREE for 14 days.
Starting Price/Mo. $0.00
Money Back Guarantee 14-Day FREE Trial
Disk Space Unlimited
Domain Name New or Transfer
Volusion: Our Expert's Review
Laura Bernheim (HostingAdvice.com):

Founded by 16-year-old Kevin Sproles in 1999 as a web design studio, Volusion added ecommerce functionality in 2002 and hasn't looked back. More than 180,000 entrepreneurs have looked to the company for help hosting and managing their online businesses, and Volusion has processed more than 185 million orders worth $26 billion.

Go to full review »

Well, I think we’ve made a case for every friend in the market for an eCommerce website builder — from my incredibly talented artist buddy to the next wannabe-Amazon. My final piece of advice: Treat your web host as your friend and partner in building your business. Find a team you can trust, with servers you can count on. Best of luck!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandra Anderson’s interest in website administration was sparked in her teens, priming her for a fast-paced career in managing, building, and contributing to online brands, including HostingAdvice, Forbes, and the blogs of prominent hosting providers. She brings firsthand experience reviewing web hosts, perfecting website design, optimizing content, and walking site owners through the steps that add up to a successful online presence. With a master's degree in information technology from Virginia Tech, she combines her extensive writing experience and technical understanding to unpack some of the most complex topics that daunt novice website owners, as well as the subjects that excite veteran technologists within the HostingAdvice readership.

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