12 Best Ecommerce Website Builders for Every Niche (June 2023)

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.

Free | Beginners | SMB | Enterprise | Honorable Mentions

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.

More free web hosts and builders »

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:

More beginner-friendly website builders »

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:

More eCommerce website builders »

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.

More plans for enterprise 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.

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!

Hopefully, our recommendation of Wix fulfills all your web hosting needs. Starting at just $0.00 per month and rated 4.9 overall, Wix gives users plenty of bang for the buck. Among our favorite features:

• 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.

If you’d like recommendations similar to Wix and others in 12 Best Ecommerce Website Builders for Every Niche (June 2023), check out these popular guides. You’ll find comparisons of Wix to other hosts on pricing, features, support and more:

• Cheap Hosting like Wix
• VPS Hosting like Wix
• Reseller Hosting like Wix

And of course, if Wix is your top choice, you can get started now at just $0.00/month. Wix is easy to set up and scale, no matter the size of your next project.