The 6 Best Ecommerce Website Builders 2024

An ecommerce website builder is a website builder that lets you sell online. These builders offer ecommerce-friendly plans, equipped with powerful sales features to help you grow and manage your online store.

When choosing an appropriate home for your business, the best things to look out for are scalability, ease of use in the editor and backend dashboard, and the quality of the features and tools.

However, not all website builders provide ecommerce capabilities, and not all physical stores want to build a website. If you’re looking for a comprehensive solution, a dedicated ecommerce platform could be more suitable for your needs.

An ecommerce platform is a website builder that lets you run your business and handle trade through the platform. It should provide you with two things:

• An online store where you can list and market your products to customers
• A place where you can successfully manage and grow your business online

This is not to say your business must operate this way – many ecommerce platforms are built to run in tandem with physical stores, like Shopify’s POS – but what differs is that ecommerce platforms allow you to run your business through them internally, something not all website builders permit.

When deciding if an ecommerce platform is right for you as opposed to an ecommerce website builder, we recommend considering factors such as budget, the size of your business, niche features you might require, and whether or not your business is your primary focus.

An ecommerce platform is ideal if you’re looking to start and grow an online business, but not if you can’t spare the time to manage it.

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BEST IN TEST
Shopify	Wix	Squarespace	BigCommerce	Square Online	GoDaddy
Overall rating 4.8	Overall rating 4.8	Overall rating 4.4	Overall rating 4.1	Overall rating 4.2	Overall rating 3.0
Starting Price $29	Starting Price $27 $24.30 withe code ‘GET10!’	Starting Price $23 $20.70 with code “WBE”	Starting Price $29	Starting Price $29	Starting Price $24.99
Transaction Fees 2.9% + $0.30	Transaction Fees 2.9% plus $0.30	Transaction Fees 0% – 3%	Transaction Fees None	Transaction Fees 2.9% + $0.30	Transaction Fees 2.3% + $0.30
Free plan or free trial 3-day free trial, then 3 months for $1/month	Free plan or free trial Free plan	Free plan or free trial 14-day free trial	Free plan or free trial 15-day free trial	Free plan or free trial Free plan	Free plan or free trial 1 month free trial
Payment options 100+ including: Shopify Payments, Paypal, Klarna	Payment options 11 including: Paypal, Wix Payments, Stripe, Square	Payment options 3: Stripe, Paypal, Square	Payment options 36 including: Paypal, Square, Stripe, Klarna	Payment options 4: Credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Square	Payment options Paypal, Stripe, and Square
Abandoned cart recovery	Abandoned cart recovery	Abandoned cart recovery	Abandoned cart recovery	Abandoned cart recovery	Abandoned cart recovery
Sales features 4.7	Sales features 4.5	Sales features 3.7	Sales features 4.6	Sales features 3.6	Sales features 2.8
Multichannel integration	Multichannel integration	Multichannel integration	Multichannel integration	Multichannel integration	Multichannel integration
Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unlimited
Storage space Unlimited	Storage space 20GB – 50GB	Storage space Unlimited	Storage space Unlimited	Storage space Unlimited	Storage space Unlimited
Number of products on cheapest plan Unlimited	Number of products on cheapest plan Unlimited	Number of products on cheapest plan Unlimited	Number of products on cheapest plan Unlimited	Number of products on cheapest plan Unlimited	Number of products on cheapest plan 5000
Visit Shopify	Visit Wix	View Squarespace	View BigCommerce	Visit Square	Visit GoDaddy
See our Shopify review	See our Wix review	See our Squarespace review	See our BigCommerce review	See our Square Online review	See our GoDaddy Review

We conducted hundreds of hours of research and testing to bring you this list of the top ecommerce website builders. Our dedicated sections will reveal what we like and dislike about each platform, as well as explain who will benefit from using it.

You can read more about our methodology and how we configured our star ratings in the dedicated section at the end of the article.

More Information

• Online Store Builders Comparison Chart: See how these top ecommerce website builders rank against one another

Best for growing businesses looking for ultimate ecommerce success

Not ideal for users who want a simple or design-focused editing experience

Editor's Choice

Shopify

Best overall ecommerce website builder

Outstanding

4.8

out of 5

• Supports big inventories
• Popular with our users
• Heavily reliant on apps

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $29 - $299 / month

Pros

• Strong suite of sales features
• Good for multi-channel integration
• Huge app store

Cons

• Reliant of third party apps
• Customizability is limited
• Transaction fees based on payment option

Shopify Review

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Shopify Overview

Shopify is the best ecommerce website builder overall, especially for large or growing stores selling over 10 products. Shopify offers high-quality sales features to its users, such as a customizable checkout page and abandoned cart recovery, as well as marketing integrations with platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

Its high score of 4.8 out of 5 in our research is thanks to Shopify’s continued efforts to improve itself against its competitors and add new features, such as being able to manage up to 1,000 locations.

That said, while Shopify is powerful, it is expensive, especially in comparison to cheaper alternatives, such as Square Online. Plus, the additional fees from Shopify’s app market can stack up quickly since some basic features, like scheduling tools, aren’t built into Shopify’s base offering. We also found it difficult to use during the initial set up, meaning you’ll need to set aside some time to learn the platform and its editor which isn’t ideal if you want to get up and running quickly.

Because of this, we’d recommend Shopify for businesses looking to scale and expand their inventories. It’s the perfect home for established businesses looking to upgrade their system as opposed to small businesses in the early stages of life.

• Shopify Pricing: Ecommerce plans range between $29 and $299 per month (billed annually). There’s no free plan, but you can take advantage of the 3-day free trial and then get three months for $1 per month on the Shopify Basic plan.

Shopify Gallery

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An example of a finished Shopify store. We love the simple navigation bar and bold CTA.

When I first opened Shopify, I was immediately presented with a checklist which advised me to add products first.

When adding products, I used the new Shopify Magic function to auto-generate my description. I could even choose the tone of voice!

Once I set up my products, I could go back to the website editor to add relevant product sections to the homepage.

Shopify has thousands of apps to choose from, and I appreciated receiving personalized recommendations for my store.

Shopify in Action: Attn: Grace

Alexandra Fennel

Co-Founder

Alexandra Fennell is a passionate advocate for women’s health and an expert in ownable differentiation, having practiced patent law for many years. As CoFounder and Co-CEO of Attn: Grace, she’s leading her team on a mission to center women’s wellness as they age in a way that’s accessible, empathetic, informative, and empowering. The small core team at Attn: Grace is composed of women from all walks of life. They are working mothers, women of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and they care deeply about making safe, sustainable products designed to support health as we age.

Shopify is an invaluable tool for ecommerce retailers. It grows with businesses.

Q&A

How long have you been using Shopify for your online store?

We’ve used Shopify since Attn: Grace’s founding in 2020.

What do you like most about using Shopify to build and run your online store?

Shopify’s many beneficial features have allowed us to launch a successful ecommerce business during a pandemic.

It’s customization apps and analytics have improved our SEO strategies and created a more enjoyable customer experience as they shop online. Its security features and certifications ensure data protection and privacy, building trust between us and our customer base.

We’ve also used Shopify’s POS features to track our sales when we have pop-up stores. Crucially, Shopify also helps optimize websites for mobile viewing, making them accessible to customers no matter where they are.

Is there anything you'd change about it?

Though Shopify offers an extensive app library, I think integrating these features into its interface will make the platform more affordable and customizable for businesses. Built-in tools are easier to use, and they would help retailers create attractive, optimized websites more quickly and efficiently.

Would you recommend Shopify to other businesses looking to build an online store?

Shopify is an invaluable tool for ecommerce retailers. It grows with businesses. Shopify Plus helps scale businesses instantaneously and adapt to changing demands and patterns in consumer behavior.

More Information

• Shopify Success Stories: Get inspiration from real Shopify businesses
• Shopify SEO Review: Everything you need to know about Shopify’s SEO features

Best for small businesses just starting out

Not ideal for online stores looking to expand their operations

Wix

Best value for money

Outstanding

4.8

out of 5

• Best internal features
• 500+ free store templates
• Best overall value

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $16 - $159 / month

Pros

• Highest customer score in our research
• Excellent sales features
• Supports 180 languages

Cons

• Can’t switch template once site is live
• Range of options can feel overwhelming
• Pay more for the best features

Wix Review

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Wix Overview

Wix is a hugely popular drag-and-drop ecommerce website builder, with over 110 million users worldwide. Wix knows a thing or two about creating websites and online stores – so much so, that it ties in with Shopify for the top overall score of 4.8 out of 5, a 2.4% rise from last year’s score of 4.7.

It dominates as a website builder and Wix’s editor is incredibly beginner-friendly, bringing a quality and creative control that other online store builders can’t touch.

While the score may be tied, Wix does have to step down from the winner’s podium due to one thing: Shopify has better sales features. Wix still has powerful ecommerce capabilities, such as Wix Bookings and unique product presentation tools, but it can’t beat Shopify’s more impressive range and your storage on Wix is limited unless you upgrade to more expensive plans.

Wix does succeed in more than one area though, most notably being our best value for money ecommerce website builder. It scores 4.4 out of 5 in this category, the best in our research, thanks to its scalable and feature-rich plans.

However, we would only recommend Wix for smaller online stores, especially if you lack any building experience. Its tools and features are great, but they aren’t quite good enough to deal with a large or complex inventory, especially if the business is expanding rapidly. You’ll likely need to switch platforms down the line to fully support your growing online store.

• Wix Pricing: Ecommerce plans range between $27 and $159 per month (billed annually). We’d recommend the Core plan ($27/mo) for those just starting out on their ecommerce journey.

Wix Gallery

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Wix offers plenty of built-in features, including eye-catching contact forms like the one used by Off Highway Van.

Once I was in the editor, Wix provided a helpful tutorial to help me find my footing.

I had no trouble adding new products to my Wix store and found the product page very intuitive.

To save me time, I used Wix's AI text creator to help generate content for my products.

It took me minutes to set up an abandoned cart email automation.

Wix in Action: Off Highway Van

A.J. Turner

Marketing Director

A.J. Turner is the Marketing Director and Product Manager for Off Highway Van. Off Highway Van creates vehicles and products for wilderness exploration, making dreams come true for those looking to get themselves and their loved ones out into the remote places of the world in a campervan.

Its integrations with Quickbooks, Google, and other software we use makes it simple to do everything in one place — and ensure nothing is lost in the shuffle.

Q&A

How long have you been using Wix for your online store?

We’ve been using Wix since 2016 for our business. We utilize the online store features, as well as the booking services.

What do you like most about using Wix to build and run your online store?

The ease of use and simplicity is the best part. Similarly, its integrations with Quickbooks, Google, and other software we use makes it simple to do everything in one place — and ensure nothing is lost in the shuffle.

Is there anything you'd change about it?

We would like a little more functionality in editing. We’re a creative group here, and often the abilities of Wix are limited. Fortunately, we are experts with Adobe and have formed our own workarounds to get our branding, graphics, and creative content to work on the website in a way that reflects the quality of our engineering in our products.

Would you recommend Wix to other businesses looking to build an online store?

Yes — we’d recommend Wix. It’s a great platform for a variety of businesses. We certainly are unique in how we utilize it to sell custom-built campervans and products for those campervans, but we’ve been successful in making it work for our business.

Best for high-performing and stylish ecommerce websites

Not ideal for large or industry-leading businesses

Squarespace

Easiest to use

Excellent

4.4

out of 5

• Easiest to build with
• Great-looking templates
• Can be limiting

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $16 - $49 / month

Pros

• More omni-channel selling options
• Enhanced third-party integrations
• Most visually-striking templates

Cons

• Business plan price increase
• No autosave in editor
• Can't handle larger stores

Squarespace Review

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Squarespace Overview

Best for small stores or those looking to sell digital products online, Squarespace is renowned for its creative finesse. Stunning templates combined with a good inventory system and lots of quality features, such as promotional pop-ups, make Squarespace an attractive choice. That’s why it sits in third place in our rankings with an overall score of 4.4 out of 5, a slight drop of -2.3% from last year’s score of 4.5 out of 5.

However, what we really want to highlight is the fact that Squarespace is the most user-friendly ecommerce website builder, scoring 4.3 out of 5 in our ease of use testing. Its drag-and-drop editor and library of pre-designed elements are just a few of the reasons why it’s the easiest builder to get to grips with.

Squarespace editor gives you quite a lot of creative freedom to make a site however you want, yet the results never seem to be ugly. The intuitiveness of the editor is great for beginners to get to grips with website building.

But what about the business side? Squarespace is a really strong all-around choice for combining a stylish storefront with classic ecommerce features, such as creating discounts and promotional pop-ups.

With its professional templates, Squarespace will really show off your products and let your storefront shine. It’s a solid choice for smaller online stores if you don’t want to sacrifice design for a powerful backend, as long as you don’t outgrow its range of ecommerce features.

• Squarespace Pricing: Ecommerce plans range between $23 and $49 per month (billed annually). All plans come with unlimited products but you’ll need to upgrade to the Basic Commerce plan ($27/mo) to remove transaction fees.

Squarespace Gallery

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Spanish and Go built an impressive website using Squarespace.

Squarespace gave me the choice of choosing a template or using Squarespace Blueprint which would generate a custom template for my store.

I could easily drag elements around my test website and Squarespace's grid-layout helped keep things aligned.

With Squarespace, I could sell a variety of products, including digital products and courses.

I appreciated Squarespace's helpful tips as I built my online store.

Squarespace in Action: Spanish and Go

Jim Fricker II

Co-Founder

Jim Fricker II is the co-founder of Spanish and Go, a business with a mission to connect English speakers to the Spanish-speaking world. Spanish and Go produces travel and culture related videos on their Youtube channel to share different aspects of Spanish-speaking countries to their audience of over 160,000. Jim, along with his wife and co-founder May Larios, also co-host the weekly Spanish education podcast Learn Spanish and Go, share travel and language tips on their blog, and host Spanish Immersion Retreats in Mexico.

I like the ease of use and flexibility of running our store on Squarespace. We can quickly create new products, update our inventory, and add discount codes.

Q&A

How long have you been using Squarespace for your online store?

We’ve been running our business website on Squarespace since 2016, and we’ve been running our online store on Squarespace since the beginning one 2022.

What do you like most about using Squarespace to build and run your online store?

I like the ease of use and flexibility of running our store on Squarespace. We can quickly create new products, update our inventory, and add discount codes. A huge benefit for us is the ability to sell subscriptions. We use this feature to offer a payment plan for our Spanish Immersion Retreats after a customer has paid their deposit. It’s also convenient to use blocks to insert our offerings into different articles on our site.

Is there anything you'd change about it?

I wish Squarespace would allow for the option to offer payment installments and a pay-in-full option for the same product. Currently, a product has to be either a one-time payment or a subscription. While most of our customers prefer the flexibility of a payment plan, others would rather pay in full. Currently, our solution to this is to send them a link to what is technically another product in Squarespace for the same event they’ll be attending, only with the price being the full amount.

Would you recommend Squarespace to other businesses looking to build an online store?

I would recommend Squarespace to other businesses looking to build an online store especially because Squarespace offers plan tiers that are easy to switch between as their business grows.

More Information

• Squarespace Ecommerce Review: A full review of this stylish online store builder
• Squarespace Offer Code: Get 10% off any Squarespace plan with our exclusive deal
• Shopify vs Squarespace: We compare these leading brands

Best for scalable ecommerce with robust sales features

Not ideal for businesses looking to manage in-person and digital sales

BigCommerce

Best for SEO

Good

4.1

out of 5

• Built for retailers
• Great SEO
• Not the easiest to use

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $29 - $299 / month

Pros

• Excellent SEO features
• Great for scaling your business
• Abandoned cart recovery

Cons

• Not the most user-friendly
• Can be expensive
• Third-party apps needed

BigCommerce Review

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BigCommerce Overview

BigCommerce is a well-known ecommerce website builder that boasts some big names – including Clarks and Ben & Jerry’s – as clients. And it’s no wonder! Online stores backed by BigCommerce have been recorded as growing at almost double the industry average.

In our research, BigCommerce came second for its sales features, scoring 4.6 out of 5 in this category. This is thanks to the sheer breadth of tools it offers, including plenty of multi-channel selling options, as well as the ability to accept international payments.

It also performed reasonably well when it came to website features, too. Its score of 3.9 out of 5 puts it in fourth place, a rise of 7.8% from last year’s score of 3.6. You can expect a range of good in-house features, such as customer reviews, email marketing, and search filters.

BigCommerce’s star feature is its SEO capabilities, which we gave a 5 out of 5 in our research. You’ll be equipped with everything you need, from metadata to 301 redirects, to help your business succeed online.

This is all built into BigCommerce’s library of themes, making it the best choice if you’re looking to really grow your online store into a large and successful business. However, we don’t recommend using it if your business is in the early stages of development or if you’re hoping to manage both in-store and online sales in one central hub. It’s not the easiest to use, and its steep prices reflect the large number of tools and features you get.

• BigCommerce Pricing: Ecommerce plans range between $29 and $299 per month (billed annually), identical to Shopify. You can get started with BigCommerce’s 15-day free trial.

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As you can see from Best Price Nutrition's homepage, BigCommerce is a good home for larger businesses.

After signing up, I could choose from a range of templates and filter them by industry.

Once in the editor, I could add new elements to the online store, such as products and videos.

BigCommerce suits a larger budget, with pricing plans starting at $29 per month – I didn’t need to worry about transaction fees, though!

Ben & Jerry’s gift shop runs on BigCommerce, and features a search function, a slideshow, product gallery, and a featured product section.

BigCommerce in Action: Best Price Nutrition

John Frigo

eCommerce Manager

John Frigo runs three sites on BigCommerce, including Best Price Nutrition - an online store that specializes in supplements.

[…] everything on Big Commerce just seems to be a bigger headache, take longer and be less streamlined than Shopify.

Q&A

How long have you been using BigCommerce for your online store?

I chose Big Commerce for my store because Shopify kicked us off their platform. Over the past year Shopify has been kicking a lot of sellers off their platform for selling completely legal products. In the past many people would have issues with Shopify payments but the platform itself never kicked people off. More recently Shopify is beginning to act like a platform like eBay or Amazon dictating what can and can’t be sold which is something they were against in the past and said they wouldn’t do in the past. We moved to Big Commerce because they pride themselves on staying out of peoples way and assured us if for some reason down the road there was a policy change they would give us 6 months to re-platform compared to Shopify who gave us no warning, booted us and never responded to inquiries as to why. Several months later, Shopify admitted it was a mistake but we’d already moved on.

What do you like most about using BigCommerce and what would you change?

We were in a rush so where as normally you’d spend 3-6 months re-platforming we did it in about 5 weeks. At first I hated Big Commerce. I will say its grown on me but the app store is lacking and its lacking many common sense very basic features. Just to give one example we do a lot of blogging and content on our site. Big Commerce’s backend of their blog doesn’t have a search function so if I need to edit a blog, add a link to a blog etc I have to comb through hundreds of pages each of which contain 10 blog posts and try to find the one I’m looking for. There’s a lot of very dumb things like that and everything on Big Commerce just seems to be a bigger headache, take longer and be less streamlined than Shopify.

Big Commerce makes it easy to add products but their inventory management is terrible. If you want to sell into the negative while waiting for stock Big Commerce will allow that but inventory isn’t tracked below zero. That means if you were to do a pre-order or wanted to sell say 50 units into the negative when waiting for a shipment you’ll have no idea how many units past 0 you sold.

Would you recommend BigCommerce to other businesses looking to build an online store?

Overall I’m happy with how our store turned out. Would I recommend Big Commerce? That’s a tough question. Shopify is a superior platform in almost every way but you can’t rely on them not to shutdown your store on a whim and, even if it’s a mistake, your business will be destroyed waiting months to find out it was a mistake, so I’m torn whether to recommend clients of mine start on Shopify or BigCommerce.

More Information

• BigCommerce vs Shopify: Compare these two titan online store builders
• Wix vs BigCommerce: Find out if either of these builders is right for your business

Best for selling online for free

Not ideal for established businesses with larger inventories

Square Online

Best free plan

Good

4.2

out of 5

• Sell on its free plan
• Quick onboarding
• Outdated templates

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $12 - $79 / month

Pros

• Customizable checkout
• Built-in marketing tools
• Improved app market

Cons

• Paid plans pricing increased
• Lack of payment gateway variety
• Lacks tools to support growth

Square Online Review

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Square Online Overview

In our most recent round of testing, Square Online earned an overall score of 4 out of 5. This is mainly because Square Online’s previously quick editing process has become overly complicated with its new dashboard – this is something we noticed during hands-on testing when customizing our Square Online websites. As a result, Square Online’s ease of use score fell by 4.6% from 3.9 to 3.7 out of 5.

Its real selling point, though, is its great value for money. In this category, Square Online scores an excellent 4.2 out of 5, sitting just behind Wix. This accolade is largely down to the fact that Square Online is the only builder on this list that lets you sell for free – in fact, it’s our top choice if you’re looking for a free ecommerce platform. That means you can get started without spending a single cent and choose to upgrade when you want to.

Although, it’s worth mentioning that its free plan is obviously more limited than its paid packages. For example, you won’t be able to use a custom domain on the free plan, and you’ll also have Square ads to contend with.

But Square Online isn’t stingy with its ecommerce features. From generous multi-channel integrations to quick access to revenue and traffic insights, Square Online has an excellent bank of tools to help you get online and start selling.

Because of all this, we recommend Square Online for small businesses just starting out. You can start selling without a premium plan, meaning you don’t need to sacrifice any earnings to build your online presence which is useful in the early stages of a business! We know it can take time to get things off the ground.

• Square Online Pricing: You can start selling with Square Online’s free plan. To remove ads and unlock more features, you’ll need one of the two premium plans – Plus ($29/mo) or Premium ($79/mo).

Square Online Gallery

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Erin's Elderberries, a Square Online business, uses a large visual to grab the attention of customers.

I was able to add products to my Square Online store without having to leave the website editor – convenient!

Square Online also had a dashboard to add products if I preferred.

Using the editor, I found it a bit simple compared to Wix or Squarespace. There wasn't as much customization.

In the dashboard, I found the automation feature. Here, I could add automatic processes for retaining customers.

Square Online in Action: Erin's Elderberries

Erin Mann

Owner

Erin's Elderberries specializes in elderberry, honey, and aronia-themed food products. Erin set up a website with Square Online to combine all of the sales information for the business in one place.

It lets you get to selling immediately, and then have the ability to customize later when you have more time.

Q&A

Why did you choose Square Online and how long did it take to make your website?

I was already using it for my sales at farmers markets, and I wanted all of my sales information for my business in one place. I also liked the cost and ease of use compared to other competitors. I’m not a “tech person”, and I didn’t have the time or the funds to figure out how to be one or to hire one.

It took about three days to build my website when I started from scratch, but I was surprised how fast it went.

What do you like most about using Square Online to build and run your online store?

That there are prebuilt layouts and options. It lets you get to selling immediately, and then have the ability to customize later when you have more time. You don’t lose precious days or weeks until it is “usable”.

Is there anything you'd change about Square Online?

I would like to see more customizations for the website. I also wish they had the ability to let customers sign up for subscription-based products on the website without a customer having to email you, you create a link, and then send it. Less clicks means more sales, and this is something that is severely lacking for subscriptions.

Would you recommend Square Online to other businesses looking to build an online store?

You don’t have to invest money you don’t yet have to make a professional and trustworthy website, because it’s user-friendly for those who do not feel they are strong in technology. If you can upload pictures in social media, then you can build your own Square Online website!

Best for new businesses looking to get online quickly

Not ideal for large ecommerce stores who want a unique design

GoDaddy

Fastest way to build a website

Okay

3

out of 5

• 5-minute setup
• Good for basic sites
• Affordable starting plan

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $6.99 - $469.99 / month

Pros

• Fastest route to building a website
• Switch templates at any time
• Supports the most industries

Cons

• Only suitable for basic websites
• ADI limits customization
• Sales features aren't the best

GoDaddy Review

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GoDaddy Overview

GoDaddy completes our list of the best ecommerce website builders with an overall score of 3 out of 5. This rating is much lower than others, but GoDaddy still has plenty about it that will appeal to the right user, so it’s worth taking a look!

GoDaddy’s strongest area is its ease of use, getting you set up online in minutes. If you want a website built and ready to function in under 10 minutes, GoDaddy is the website builder for you, because its ADI tool builds the website for you after you answer a quick questionnaire. In our research, it got an overall ease of use score of 4 out of 5, tying it with Wix and Shopify.

In other areas though, GoDaddy sadly does not fare as well. It has the lowest sales feature score of 2.8 out of 5, plus the worst value for money score of 3.4 out of 5. To put it bluntly, GoDaddy gives you a very limited ecommerce experience. It will do the basics, but that’s about it.

If you’re hoping to get your store up and running, then GoDaddy’s ideal, but we wouldn’t recommend GoDaddy for larger businesses looking for scalability. If you’re a hobby seller or just want to sell a limited collection, then GoDaddy might be ideal for you.

• GoDaddy Pricing: Ecommerce plans range between $16.99 and $29.99 per month (billed annually).

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While GoDaddy offers less creative control than others, Hinterland Skis is proof you can still build an eye-catching website with the builder.

When I first went to build my store, GoDaddy's ADI asked me series of questions. Using AI, it then builds a custom website for me.

I chose a ceramic store, and this was the result. GoDaddy's ADI filled the site with relevant images and copy, which was awesome!

GoDaddy’s store manager comes with a store setup checklist to help you get started, but it feels very separate from the rest of the editor.

GoDaddy also uses AI to make digital ads. I was able to make ads for my website for both Facebook and Instagram.

GoDaddy in Action: Hinterland Skis

Creighton Elinski

Founder

Creighton Elinski is a full-stack marketing professional by day and a designer, inventor, and engineer by night. If he’s not 20 pages deep in an architectural design book you can find him 30 miles into the mountains on his bicycle. Hinterland Skis began as a custom ski shop, soon expanding as its own brand with 100 custom shapes and over 1000 custom sets sold.

The GoDaddy website builder gives me the ability to focus on my creativity and site function without getting bogged down by heavy coding or dealing with minor update issues.

Q&A

How long have you been using GoDaddy for your online store?

We’ve been using the GoDaddy Website Builder for almost 2 years now.

What do you like most about using GoDaddy to build and run your online store?

Even with my previous experience coding websites, I never really wanted to learn to code. I wanted a way to build creative web pages for the whole internet to interact with. The GoDaddy Website Builder gives me the ability to focus on my creativity and site function without getting bogged down by heavy coding or dealing with minor update issues.

The builder is simple and fast to learn. It’s easy to visually build almost anything you can think of. My absolute favorite part of the experience is the prebuilt integrations that are plug-and-play. I can add a web store in a matter of minutes, start a new email campaign quickly and track analytics without a hassle.

As an entrepreneur, minutes really matter. The 30 minutes I get back by being able to send an email blast quickly or the 2 hours I get back by not having to code a landing page really adds up. You don’t realize how much of your life you give up as an entrepreneur until you start to get some of that time back. Passion doesn’t clock out at 5 pm.

Is there anything you'd change about it?

Something I would add to the website builder is options to add more visual creativity. While I have the skills and desire to make fantastic visual pieces, my time and energy are limited. A themed filter for all images or some quick creative background content blocks would go a long way. Anything that I can quickly add to a landing page to spice things up a little bit would be a great help.

Would you recommend GoDaddy to other businesses looking to build an online store?

I’d absolutely recommend the Builder to anyone looking to build a website or web store. GoDaddy has a full-service, one-stop-shop, for everything entrepreneur.

I used to search around for plugins that go out of date and are impossible to keep integrated. Having GoDaddy take the lead on making sure everything works gives people the ability to focus on their customers, employees, and products. It’s a no-brainer to me.

More Information

• GoDaddy Review: See a full breakdown of GoDaddy’s features, pricing, and more

We know how overwhelming it can be to sift through the dozens of ecommerce website builders and platforms until you find your perfect fit. That’s why we’ve shared our top choices in this article, but if you’re still on the hunt, there are certain factors to consider as you shop around.

Sales Features

Ecommerce website builders generally offer the same basic sales features, such as abandoned cart recovery, customer reviews, and a variety of payment gateways. When searching for the right fit for your business, make sure to scrutinize each plan to see what’s included for the price. What sort of shipping or delivery options can you add? Does the builder provide high-quality inventory and customer management?

Help and Support

Everyone gets in a jam here and there, so it’s important that your website builder has systems in place to support you. We recommend choosing an ecommerce platform that provides 24/7 support in some capacity, whether that’s live chat, phone support, or email. It’s also worth browsing the help center to check out the guides and tutorials on offer.

Features and Apps

To complement your ecommerce website builder’s sales features, don’t forget to consider the quality and quantity of general website features, too. Are there security features included, such as an SSL certificate? Do you get a free domain name? Does your website need specialty features, such as booking tools or memberships? We recommend checking out what features are available with the platform itself before you turn to third-party apps and integrations.

Design Functionality

Designing a website shouldn’t be a complicated process, and the majority of builders try to make their editors accessible for all users. The good news is most platforms offer a free trial so you can test out the editor, browse the available templates, and assess the customization options ahead of committing.

Ease of Use

Unless you have years of web design experience, you’ll want to choose an ecommerce website builder that offers a user-friendly interface and experience. We’ve had trouble locating features or navigating the backend in the past, so make sure you find a dashboard and editor that works for you.

Value for Money

Of course, price will always play a role in a decision like this. If you run a small business or you’re just getting started, affordable plans will be more appealing, especially when you factor in additional costs, such as transaction fees, third-party apps, and premium templates. In comparison, if your business is growing rapidly and you have a large inventory to manage, you want to make sure you choose a plan with the capacity to support your needs.

Your Business Needs

Ultimately, it comes down to what your business needs to thrive and grow online. If you have a large inventory to manage, Shopify or BigCommerce would be good options to consider. If you simply want to get online as quickly as possible and don’t need all the bells and whistles of more complex ecommerce builders, take a look at GoDaddy. If creating a beautiful online store is your number one priority, check out Squarespace’s free trial.

We’ve collected the most burning questions are users had and answered them in this buying guide, so you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into when making your choice of ecommerce website builder.

Want to know more about how we conduct our ecommerce website builder research? Our detailed page will give you the full breakdown, but here’s a quick summary of our in-depth research process to help you understand our reasoning and ratings in the list you’ve just read.

Let’s take a closer look at our testing categories:

• Website features – weighting: 15%

For website features, we compare what is offered by a website builder that isn’t ecommerce related. This includes domain names, email addresses, blogging functionality, internationalization capabilities, members area, SEO and marketing functionalities, and app market – plus an analysis of site speed and storage space.

• Sales features – weighting: 25%

This category is focused on everything that’s ecommerce focused, ranging from inventory, multi-channel integration, payment options, abandoned cart recovery, promotions and discount codes, mobile apps, and shipping options. All of these are vital to an online store’s continuing lifespan and success.

• Design functionalities – weighting: 10%

This covers a website builder’s aesthetic capabilities, such as the quality and quantity of the templates, a mobile editor, an image editor, UX design, whether it has ADI, and if you can switch templates once you’ve started.

• Value for money – weighting: 15%

The sub-criteria we look for in this category is the average pricing plan, the features versus the price, and an evaluation of the free trial (if offered). While cost is important, an online business can be many different sizes from small businesses to larger, more established brands and we want to cover all types.

• Help and support – weighting: 10%

The support options offered by the website builder are vital for first-time online merchants. We evaluate what support options are available for customers, the knowledge center, restore options, and what help features are available on the lowest cost plan.

• Customer satisfaction – weighting: 15%

A category dedicated to user reviews. Sub-criteria include Trustpilot scores, brand recognition, market analysis, UX, and whether current customers would be likely to recommend.

• Ease of use – weighting: 10%

This measures how easy it is to build a store using the builder. We rely on regular in-house user testing for this, testing each builder ourselves, and compiling quotes and scores from real testers to give you honest, undoctored views.

To recap, our top ecommerce website builder is Shopify, scoring 4.8 out of 5 in our recent research. Shopify’s scalable plans provide users with powerful sales features, such as an online invoice generator and checkout customization.

We may have ranked these ecommerce website builders, but the truth is the right one for you will depend on a number of different factors.

If affordability is important to you, Wix is the best value for money. If building a website isn’t your strong point, we’d recommend Squarespace for ease of use and high-quality designs, or you could try GoDaddy to get online quickly. Whatever your priority, remember that every website builder on this list comes with a free trial or a free plan, so you can try them risk-free before making your decision.