Over the last few years, we have tried out several different eCommerce solutions for our online projects. While we like using Easy Digital Downloads to sell our plugins and other software, we also know that there are plenty of other options for online stores.
That’s why we have done the research and investigated all the popular eCommerce solutions for everything from selling a single product online to full-blown online stores and membership websites.
During our testing process, we paid special attention to how easy each platform is to use, along with the features it offers for different kinds of online stores.
And in this article, we will share some of the best and most popular eCommerce solutions we have explored.
Top 3 eCommerce Platforms in 2024
🥇First place
WooCommerce
Price: Free plugin with free/paid extensions
Best for: Selling physical and digital products
Highly scalable & customizable, free to set up
Read more »
🥈Second place
EDD
Price: Free and paid plans (start at $99.50/yr)
Best for: Selling digital downloads
Easy setup, sell unlimited products
Read more »
🥉Third place
MemberPress
Price: Paid plans (start at $179.50/yr)
Best for: Paid memberships & online courses
Powerful membership features, course creation
Read more »
How We Tested and Reviewed the Best eCommerce Solutions
While this article will talk about the best eCommerce solutions, we know there’s more to consider than just how many stores use a particular platform.
We want to introduce you to some popular eCommerce platforms that perfectly balance ease of use and affordability for your business needs.
Here’s how we approached testing and reviewing these platforms:
Value for money: Budget is a big concern for businesses, especially small startups. We looked at each platform’s pricing structure, including which features are in the starting plan, what upgrades unlock, and any additional fees that might add up.
Ease of use: Many online store owners are self-made entrepreneurs who might be new to the technical side of things. So, we prioritized platforms that make it easy to sign up, build your online store, publish it, and manage day-to-day operations.
Real-world experience: Some of the platforms we will discuss are the ones we use here at WPBeginner. This means we can confidently recommend them based on our own experience. For others, we invested our time and resources to test them.
Customer reviews: We don’t just take a platform’s word for it. We delve into user reviews to see what actual customers are experiencing. We then compare these reviews to our own testing results to ensure the platform delivers on its promises.
Market popularity: While we don’t solely rely on popularity, it does hold some weight. We used BuiltWith, a website technology tracker. It helped us get a sense of each platform’s current market share by analyzing the number of active websites built on it.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
At WPBeginner, we’re a team of passionate WordPress experts with over 16 years of experience under our belts. This experience extends far beyond WordPress itself. We’re well-versed in the world of eCommerce, digital marketing, and all things online business.
Want to learn more about our testing process and editorial practices? Read our editorial process to learn more.
1. WooCommerce (Best Overall eCommerce Solution)
We’ve experimented with many self-hosted eCommerce solutions over the years, but WooCommerce remains our favorite for selling physical products through a WordPress website.
There are several reasons why WooCommerce is a great fit for small businesses. First and foremost, it’s completely free to set up and use. A handy setup wizard guides you through the process, making it easy to launch your WooCommerce store quickly.
But what truly sets WooCommerce apart is its incredible extensibility. Unlike hosted eCommerce platforms that bundle everything in, WooCommerce allows you to choose the features you need.
However, the extensive plugin selection can also be a double-edged sword. Finding the right plugins to achieve your desired functionality can be time-consuming.
Get to know more about this eCommerce plugin in our WooCommerce review.
Live website usage stats: 6 million+
Pros of WooCommerce:
Free to set up and use
Highly scalable with tons of WooCommerce extensions available
Sample products and pre-installed themes for easy exploration
Built-in analytics to track your store’s performance
Cons of WooCommerce:
The sheer number of extensions can feel overwhelming for complete beginners.
Pricing: WooCommerce itself is a free plugin. Depending on the features, paid themes and extensions range from $1 to hundreds of dollars. WooCommerce hosting services typically start around $4 per month.
We recommend SiteGround, starting at $3.99 per month, and Bluehost, starting at $9.95 per month.
Why we chose WooCommerce: WooCommerce is the best overall eCommerce solution due to its affordability, ease of use, and unmatched scalability.
2. Easy Digital Downloads (Best for Digital Downloads)
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is the best eCommerce solution for selling digital products like ebooks, PDFs, software, audio files, and more. In fact, it’s the same platform we use across our companies to sell our WordPress plugins and manage customer orders.
Feel free to learn more about EDD in our Easy Digital Downloads review.
Like WooCommerce, EDD boasts an easy-to-use setup wizard that streamlines the launch process for your online store. You can quickly configure your business details, payment gateways, receipts, and product listings – all within a user-friendly interface.
EDD comes in both free and paid versions. The free plan is great if you’re just starting out with a few products. It includes all the essentials, like a shopping cart, built-in integration with popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe, order history, and customer invoicing.
However, the free version lacks features like recurring payments, discount code generators, and software licensing. These features can be crucial for businesses offering subscription models or downloadable software.
Live website usage stats: 50,000+
Pros of Easy Digital Downloads:
Easy setup with a user-friendly interface
Sell unlimited products with no transaction fees
Free trial feature available for customers to try the products
Mobile app to manage your store on the go
Cons of Easy Digital Downloads:
It is limited to selling digital products only. If you plan to expand to physical products in the future, you’ll need to consider a different eCommerce platform or upgrade to EDD’s paid plans.
Pricing: Free version available. Paid plans start at $99.50 per year and go up to $499.50 per year. The starting paid plan allows use on 1 website, integrates with email marketing tools, and offers reporting features, custom discount codes, and support for additional payment gateways.
We recommend using SiteGround’s managed EDD Hosting, which starts at $3.99 per month.
Why we chose Easy Digital Downloads: EDD’s free version offers a fantastic starting point for beginners, while the paid plans provide powerful features for growing businesses.
3. MemberPress (Best for Paid Memberships)
MemberPress is the perfect eCommerce solution if you are running a membership-based business model. This includes online courses, coaching services, or educational websites where you offer premium content in exchange for a membership fee.
We use MemberPress ourselves to power the free WPBeginner video membership site, which helps us grow our email list.
While our membership site is free, MemberPress is highly capable of building monetized membership sites. It provides a range of features to support your business, including pay-per-view content, membership level upgrades, discount coupons, and more.
One thing to consider is that MemberPress offers limited payment gateways, integrating only with Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net. This might be a drawback if your business requires a wider range of payment processing options.
Read more about the membership plugin in our MemberPress review.
Live website usage stats: 24,575+
Pros of MemberPress:
Unlimited memberships, members, access rules, and restricted content
Easy-to-use member dashboard for your customers
Extensive library of add-ons to tailor the membership site to your needs
No transaction fees on top of your chosen payment gateway’s fees
Cons of MemberPress:
Limited payment gateway options
Pricing: Starts at $179.50 per year and goes up to $499.50 per year. The basic plan allows use on 1 website with unlimited members and courses.
Also, feel free to use our MemberPress coupon code to save up to 50% off your first purchase.
Why we chose MemberPress: MemberPress’ ease of use, powerful course creation, and focus on membership site features make it a great option for businesses that want to offer exclusive content and subscriptions.
4. WP Simple Pay (Best for Selling Single Products/Services)
If you’re looking to sell a single product or service through your website, then a full-blown eCommerce software with all its features might be overkill. In fact, a complex platform could slow down your website and ruin the customer experience.
For situations like these, a payment processing plugin like WP Simple Pay is a great alternative. WP Simple Pay integrates seamlessly with Stripe, allowing you to create secure payment forms directly on your WordPress website without needing a separate shopping cart.
Despite its focus on simplicity, WP Simple Pay offers some powerful features. We’ve written extensively about the plugin’s capabilities, like one-click checkout (perfect for impulse purchases) and even buy-now-pay-later payment plans to attract a wider audience.
Learn more about the plugin in our WP Simple Pay review.
However, it’s important to remember that WP Simple Pay isn’t ideal for businesses with plans to grow a large product catalog. Order management can soon be tiring if you only rely on this plugin.
Live website usage stats: 14,000+
Pros of WP Simple Pay:
Accepts various payment methods through Stripe, including credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, QR codes, and Alipay
Option to pass on payment processing fees to customers, increasing your profitability
Drag-and-drop form builder with customization options for your payment forms
Secure payments with built-in PCI compliance (no additional setup needed)
Cons of WP Simple Pay:
Not suitable for managing large online stores with a vast product inventory
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $49.50 per year and go up to $299.50 per year. All plans include unlimited payment forms, unlimited transactions, and no monthly fees on top of Stripe’s processing fees.
You can also use our WP Simple Pay coupon code to get 50% off.
Why we chose WP Simple Pay: It provides a user-friendly and secure way to accept payments without the complexity of a full eCommerce platform, making it great for small online stores.
5. Shopify (All-in-One Hosted eCommerce Platform)
Shopify is the most popular cloud-based eCommerce website builder, and for good reason. From our testing, we believe it is a user-friendly, all-in-one solution that streamlines the process of launching and managing your eCommerce store.
Firstly, Shopify eliminates the hassle of finding separate web hosting and domain name providers. It provides everything you need to get your store up and running, including built-in hosting.
We were also impressed by the fact that it offers abandoned cart recovery in all plans, a valuable tool often missing in starter plans from other platforms.
One thing we’re not a fan of is that transaction fees apply across all plans for third-party payment providers besides Shopify Payments (which isn’t available in all countries). They range from 0.2% to 2% per transaction, with lower fees associated with higher-tier plans.
Live website usage stats: 5,300,000+
Pros of Shopify:
Simple setup with a drag-and-drop eCommerce website builder, a vast theme collection, and an easy-to-use backend
Large app store with over 8,000 third-party apps
24/7 live chat customer support ensures you have help whenever you need it
Localized selling features allow you to customize product pricing by market and translate your storefront into different languages
Cons of Shopify:
Transaction fees can add up quickly, especially if you don’t use Shopify Payments or exceed the free listing limit for displaying products on third-party marketplaces
Pricing: Plans range from $19 per month for basic stores to $2,300 per month for enterprise-level solutions. A $5 starter plan is also available for simple online stores or for selling on social media platforms.
Shopify offers a free 3-day trial and $1 for the rest of your first month.
Why we chose Shopify: Shopify is a fantastic option for beginners and growing eCommerce businesses due to its ease of use, comprehensive features, and all-in-one approach.
6. WPForms (Best for Services/Quote-Based Businesses)
WPForms is a powerful form builder plugin for WordPress and the best option for creating eCommerce forms for your website. It allows you to manage many parts of your online store, including collecting service inquiries and accepting payments for those services.
Here at WPBeginner, we use WPForms to build all sorts of forms for our projects, including our contact forms and survey forms. To learn more, see our full WPForms review.
What makes WPForms so user-friendly is its extensive library of over 2000 pre-made form templates. These templates cater to a wide range of businesses, including real estate agents, t-shirt designers, and hotel bookings.
One of the highlights of WPForms’ is its built-in reporting tool. This tool provides valuable insights into your sales performance, allowing you to track total payments, sales, refunds, and even new subscriptions (if applicable).
Plus, WPForms integrates with popular payment gateways like PayPal Commerce, Stripe, Square, and Authorize.net for secure transactions. While these are some of the most common options, WPForms offers fewer payment integrations compared to other solutions.
Live website usage stats: 6,000,000+
Pros of WPForms:
Extensive library of pre-made form templates for various business types
User-friendly drag-and-drop form builder for easy customization
Built-in payment reporting tool to track sales performance
Cons of WPForms:
Limited payment options compared to some other solutions
Not ideal for managing large product inventories due to its limited eCommerce features
Pricing: Free plan available. Plans start at $49.50 per year and go up to $299.50 per year. The most affordable plan allows use on 1 website with unlimited forms, submissions, and users.
You can also use our WPForms coupon code to get up to 50% off.
Why we chose WPForms: Overall, this form plugin is great for service-based businesses and those that require quote requests or upfront payments.
7. Squarespace (For Creative Businesses)
Squarespace isn’t just a website builder – it also offers built-in eCommerce functionality. It’s renowned for its stunning, minimalist website design templates, which cater to a wide range of industries.
Based on our experience, we believe Squarespace is a perfect fit for creative and design businesses looking to establish a beautiful online presence and sell their products.
As an eCommerce platform, Squarespace lets you sell digital and physical products. It also integrates with various tools to run an eCommerce website. For instance, you can connect with FedEx for reliable shipping and TaxJar to automate sales tax calculations.
However, its pricing structure is a bit confusing. Features like subscription products and product reviews are only available on higher-tier plans, while other platforms might offer these features as standard or through extensions.
Live website usage stats: 5,200,000+
Pros of Squarespace:
Eye-catching, pre-designed website templates and a user-friendly drag-and-drop website builder
Integrates with various tools for online selling, including payment processors, shipping solutions, and dropshipping options
Sell unlimited products through your online store
Cons of Squarespace:
Essential eCommerce features are limited on lower-tier plans, requiring upgrades to access them (unlike some competitors)
A 3% transaction fee applies to the most affordable plan for selling online
Pricing: Plans start at $16 per month and go up to $52 per month. The Business plan, which allows online selling, costs $23 per month and includes features like selling content memberships, products, services, and accepting payments.
Why we chose Squarespace: Creatives can go with Squarespace to easily build a beautiful eCommerce site with stunning templates, a smooth website builder, and integrations with popular sales tools.
8. Wix (For Niche Businesses With Specific Needs)
Wix is a website builder that offers built-in eCommerce functionalities similar to other hosted eCommerce platforms. However, Wix goes a step further by providing industry-specific features that can cater to unique business needs.
For instance, if you manage a hotel, then Wix offers features specifically designed to showcase your property and manage online bookings. These features include tools to display rental listings with customizable rules and availability settings.
While Wix boasts a comprehensive set of features, there’s a potential drawback to be aware of. In our experience, the platform itself can be a bit slow, which could impact the user experience. Some Wix users have also reported poor website loading times.
Live website usage stats: 8,600,000+
Pros of Wix:
Industry-specific features catering to niche businesses (e.g., vacation rentals, event ticketing, digital art)
Ability to sell up to 50,000 products
Supports pre-orders and sales channels like social media and marketplaces
Flexible drag-and-drop website builder with a wide variety of industry-specific templates
Cons of Wix:
Pricing: Plans range from $17 per month to $159 per month. There’s also a free plan available, but it has limited functionality.
Why we chose Wix: Overall, we recommend Wix for niche businesses that require specific functionalities beyond what basic eCommerce platforms offer.
9. BigCommerce (Premium Solution for Enterprises)
BigCommerce caters to businesses of all sizes, but it truly shines for enterprises with high-volume sales and complex needs.
First, BigCommerce offers unlimited product listings, file storage, bandwidth, and staff accounts across all plans. This lets you create a massive online store with extensive product catalogs, add high-quality product images, and manage teams without worrying about limitations.
Additionally, BigCommerce supports multi-storefronts. This enables you to manage separate brands or regional stores under one platform.
That being said, BigCommerce has sales limits associated with each plan. If your online sales exceed the limit for your current plan, you’ll need to upgrade to a higher tier.
Live website usage stats: 42,600+
Pros of BigCommerce:
Unlimited products, file storage, bandwidth, and staff accounts in all plans
Multi-currency support for international selling
Real-time shipping quotes for customer convenience
Multi-channel selling capabilities (Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Facebook, Instagram, POS systems)
Cons of BigCommerce:
Online sales limits on each plan (upgrade required if exceeded)
The drag-and-drop eCommerce website builder is not the easiest to use
Pricing: Plans range from $29 per month to $299 per month, with no additional transaction fees. The lowest plan is capped at $50,000 in annual sales. A free 15-day trial is available.
Why we chose BigCommerce: Scalability, unlimited resources, and multi-channel selling features make BigCommerce an excellent choice for businesses looking to scale fast.
10. Weebly (Freemium eCommerce Platform)
Weebly stands out as the best free eCommerce platform if you are just starting out and budget is a major concern. The free plan offers a surprising amount of functionality, including selling unlimited products, managing inventory, and even calculating sales tax automatically.
One interesting feature we found is the Quick Shop function. This allows you to create a streamlined checkout process in your online shopping experience. This is perfect for situations where you only have a single product or service to sell.
However, it’s important to understand the limitations of Weebly’s free plan. For instance, you cannot connect your online store to a custom domain name, meaning your website address won’t be as professional-looking.
Additionally, selling digital products is not allowed on the free plan.
Live website usage stats: 770,000+
Pros of Weebly:
Generous free plan with unlimited products, shopping cart, inventory management, and basic eCommerce marketing tools.
Free SSL certificate for secure online transactions.
Affordable paid plans compared to other hosted eCommerce platforms.
Cons of Weebly:
Free plan limitations (no custom domain name and restricted to selling digital products)
May feel less scalable for complex online stores
Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $10 per month and go up to $26 per month. All plans include a free SSL certificate, the ability to add custom code, Quick Shop functionality, and unlimited products.
Why we chose Weebly: If you want to start a simple online store on a budget, then Weebly is a great place to do it.
11. Magento (Open-Source Solution for Enterprises)
Magento is a powerful open-source eCommerce platform owned by Adobe Commerce. Unlike hosted solutions, Magento offers extensive customization capabilities for tailoring your online store to your exact needs.
Similar to WordPress plugins, Magento extensions offer a wide range of features, from customer support and security enhancements to advanced shipping options and marketing tools. These extensions can add significant value to your store but often come with additional costs.
With all this in mind, Magento requires significant technical expertise to set up and maintain. Additionally, it demands robust hosting resources, typically on a VPS (Virtual Private Server). For business owners looking for a managed solution, it’s better to look elsewhere.
Live website usage stats: 120,000+
Pros of Magento:
Open-source software, free to download and use
A large and active community forum for support
Extensive library of extensions to enhance store functionality
Cons of Magento:
Requires significant technical expertise for setup, maintenance, and security
Why we chose Magento: With all things considered, we recommend Magento for established businesses with the technical resources and development expertise to manage a complex platform.
Must-Use Tools to Optimize Your Online Store
Now that you are familiar with the most popular eCommerce platforms, here are some must-use tools to help you optimize your store and increase conversions.
1. FunnelKit
FunnelKit is a sales funnel builder specifically designed to improve your eCommerce website’s conversion rate. By creating targeted sales funnels, you can guide your website visitors through a specific journey, leading them toward making a purchase.
We have tested out FunnelKit extensively to evaluate its features for eCommerce stores. Feel free to read our FunnelKit review to learn more about it.
Besides the sales funnel builder, you can also use FunnelKit Automations. This tool lets you set up automated marketing campaigns triggered by your visitors’ behavior. For instance, you can automatically send emails to follow up with customers after they make a purchase or promote new products.
While FunneKit offers a free version, it’s very limited. For example, it’s not possible to set up order bumps to offer users additional products to increase average order value. That’s why we recommend investing in a paid version.
Pros of FunnelKit:
Pre-made design templates for essential funnel elements
Dynamic offers can personalize upsell recommendations based on customer shopping carts
Split testing functionality to optimize your funnels for better conversions
Cons of FunnelKit:
Free plan has limitations
Pricing: Plans range from $99.5 per year to $399 per year. The most affordable plan allows use on 1 website and includes over 20 checkout templates, 9 checkout optimization features, and an abandoned cart recovery tool.
Why we chose FunnelKit: With its pre-made templates, automation features, and split testing capabilities, FunnelKit makes it easy to optimize your conversion rate and increase your sales.
2. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is a powerful lead-generation plugin designed to help you capture visitor email addresses and grow your email list. We use it on all our websites to capture leads, and it helped us increase email subscribers by 600% on WPBeginner alone.
With this tool, you can create targeted popups, opt-in forms, and notification banners to encourage users to subscribe and stay engaged with your brand. This allows you to nurture leads, promote new products and special offers, and ultimately drive more sales.
One of OptinMonster’s standout features is its advanced targeting capabilities. For instance, you can target visitors based on their exit intent (showing a popup as they try to leave your website) or tailor product recommendations based on their past purchases.
The one downside to OptinMonster is there is no free plan, though you can use our coupon code to get 10% off.
Pros of OptinMonster:
Extensive library of pre-made templates for various campaigns and seasons
User-friendly drag-and-drop builder for easy customization
A/B testing functionality to identify your most effective marketing strategies
Cons of OptinMonster:
Pricing: Plans range from $5.97 per month to $39.97 per month. Even the most affordable plan offers unlimited campaigns and unlimited subscribers, making it a cost-effective solution for growing your email list.
Why we chose OptinMonster: The vast template library, drag-and-drop builder, and advanced targeting features make OptinMonster a valuable tool for boosting conversions.
3. Advanced Coupons
If you use WooCommerce as your eCommerce platform, then it already offers a built-in discount feature. However, for businesses seeking more advanced coupon features, Advanced Coupons is a powerful plugin worth considering.
This plugin lets you create various coupon types, including ‘Buy One Get One’ (BOGO) offers, coupon codes that can be shared through unique URLs, scheduled coupons that activate or deactivate at specific times, and even automatically applied coupons at checkout.
That being said, Advanced Coupons is best if you plan on offering various types of discounts. Otherwise, the plugin can feel like overkill.
You can read our Advanced Coupons review for more details.
Pros of Advanced Coupons:
Wide variety of coupon options: one-time discounts, BOGO deals, percentage or fixed-amount discounts, free shipping coupons, and more
Set usage restrictions and cart conditions to control how coupons are applied
Schedule coupons in advance for strategic promotions and sales events
Cons of Advanced Coupons:
May be excessive if you only require basic discount functionalities
Pricing: Advanced Coupons offers tiered plans starting from $59.50 per year to $149.50 per year.
However, we recommend considering the all-access bundle priced at $249.50 per year. This bundle includes Advanced Coupons, the Loyalty Program plugin, and the Advanced Gift Cards plugin. This is a complete kit to incentivize repeat business and increase customer loyalty.
You can also use our coupon code to get up to 50% off of your first purchase.
Why we chose Advanced Coupons: The plugin offers various coupon types, the ability to set rules for coupons, and coupon scheduling features. All these features let you run your promotional campaigns much more effectively.
What Is the Best eCommerce Platform?
Overall, the best eCommerce solution growing in popularity is WooCommerce. It has a user-friendly interface for managing products, inventory, and orders, making it perfect for first-time business owners.
Plus, it integrates with the extensive WordPress plugin ecosystem. This gives you countless options for marketing, payments, shipping, and more for your online store.
Alternatively, if you specialize in selling digital products like ebooks, software, or courses, then Easy Digital Downloads is the perfect solution. This eCommerce tool streamlines the process of managing digital downloads, protecting your files, and delivering them securely to customers.
If you offer exclusive content, courses, or communities, then MemberPress allows you to create paid memberships with tiered access levels. This gives you the flexibility to create premium content subscriptions and generate recurring revenue.
eCommerce Solutions: FAQs
Now that we’ve explored some popular eCommerce platforms and tools, let’s answer some frequently asked questions.
What is an eCommerce solution?
An eCommerce solution is a platform or set of tools for creating and managing an online store. It includes features for adding and managing products, processing payments securely, fulfilling orders, and tracking inventory.
What tools can help you generate revenue in an online store?
Several tools can enhance your online store’s revenue generation. Here are a few examples:
FunnelKit: This tool helps you create targeted sales funnels that guide visitors toward making a purchase.
OptinMonster: This platform allows you to create popups and promotional banners to capture leads and convert website visitors into customers.
Advanced Coupons: This plugin for WooCommerce lets you design creative discount campaigns and set up promotions to drive sales.
Is eCommerce dead?
Absolutely not. eCommerce is a thriving industry that continues to experience significant growth. The convenience and variety offered by online shopping have established eCommerce as a major force in retail.
In fact, with the ongoing rise of mobile shopping and social commerce, eCommerce is expected to keep growing in the years to come.
Ultimate Guides to Boost Your Online Store Sales
We hope this article has helped you find the best eCommerce solution that’s growing in popularity. You may also want to check out our article on proven affiliate marketing tips and our expert picks of the best referral program software for small businesses.
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Disclaimer: We evaluated other popular platforms, like PrestaShop and Big Cartel, during our research. However, we decided to focus on the eCommerce solutions covered in this guide because we believe they offer the best value and user experience for a wider range of online businesses.