10 Best Cheap Ecommerce Platforms In 2023

Shopify is a famous ecommerce website builder with a drag-and-drop interface that allows users to create great-looking online stores. It offers an onboarding wizard that helps users add products, customize their store’s look, connect a domain, and set up payment gateways.

Why I picked Shopify: I wanted to add Shopify to this article for those who need an extensive ecommerce store builder for a new startup or need to switch to a more capable solution for their current operation. Shopify is a cheap ecommerce platform that allows you to create high-quality web designs that can perform to win more customers. The platform also offers many store templates that put your business in the spotlight and enable you to present essential information about your store to customers and highlight your products.

Shopify Standout Features and Integrations

Features include tools that help you effectively scale your business, such as multiple staff accounts, inventory locations, bulk editing, and multiple currencies. Shopify offers online resources to help you with questions, such as a deep knowledge base and 24/7 support.

Integrations include connections with apps that help you grow your brand, business, and sales, such as AdRoll, GetResponse, Gorgias, Growave, Klaviyo, Loox, Omnisend, PushOwl, Retention Rocket, VideoWise, and other software options. You can also use Shopify’s API and a paid Zapier account to create custom integrations.

Squarespace is a powerful ecommerce platform that offers a solution for growing ecommerce sites.

Why I picked Squarespace: Growth is a significant goal for any business, so I wanted to include Squarespace for ecommerce stores that are experiencing this stage of their business. When going through the growth stage of your business, Squarespace offers you solutions to build an online presence with more style and substance than other cheap ecommerce platforms. You can create an online store that’s as simple or complex as you want and add specific functionality as you grow.

Squarespace Standout Features and Integrations

Features include customization options that allow you to change site templates without starting your store from scratch. Squarespace also has no storage database limits, relieving worries about how many product assets you can upload.

Integrations include connections and extensions with tools to help enhance your online store’s power across the internet, such as Avalara, Disqus, Dropbox, FreshBooks, Google Workspace, PayPal, QuickBooks Online, ShipBob, ShipStation, Stripe, and other software options. You can also use a paid Zapier account to connect Squarespace to over 1,000 third-party applications.

PrestaShop offers merchants a cloud-based, open-source ecommerce platform allowing users to choose their desired features.

Why I picked PrestaShop: I wanted to add PrestaShop because it’s a cloud-based option, meaning you and your team can access your store’s backend from anywhere in the world. PrestaShop is a simple ecommerce platform that doesn’t require expertise in web design. It works for selling digital products or operating a marketplace along with regular selling of physical products online.

PrestaShop Standout Features and Integrations

Features include customization tools that allow you to tailor your online store to align with your type of business and meet customers’ expectations. PrestaShop’s catalog and product management tools enable you to create and manage thousands of product listings in hundreds of categories.

Integrations include PrestaShop’s partnerships with applications to offer native connections with tools to give you everything you need to create a successful store. These integrations include systems such as Amazon Pay, Klarna, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, PayPal, Sendinblue, ShipStation, Skrill, Stripe, Zendesk, and other software options.

OpenCart is an open-source ecommerce platform that allows users to create a free online store. The software offers extensive customization capabilities, allowing businesses to create a store that completely fits their brand.

Why I picked OpenCart: I couldn’t create a cheap ecommerce platforms list without adding an option that allows you to create an online store for free, so I added OpenCart for your consideration. OpenCart is an open-source online store management tool that uses programming languages like MySQL and HTML to create a free website. With OpenCart, you can use standard ecommerce store creation and management tools, such as secure payment providers, inventory management, and professional web store templates.

OpenCart Standout Features and Integrations

Features include user management tools that enable you to efficiently work with other team members, allowing them to perform various responsibilities, thanks to advanced user privileges to help you separate access for individual users and groups. You can also use OpenCart to implement recurring payments for customers if you plan to sell products with a subscription, promote a discount or member’s club, or break up costs into smaller segments.

Integrations include connections with over 1,300 tools and systems, such as Google Analytics, LiveAgent, LiveChat, Mailchimp, Omnisend, QuickBooks, ShipMonk, WordPress, Xero, Zendesk, and other software options. You can also use the platform’s API or a paid Zapier account to create custom integrations with your toolset.

BigCommerce is a robust ecommerce platform option for online stores with more extensive inventories. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools from marketing to analytics to help manage significant sales volumes.

Why I picked BigCommerce: For those with significant sales volumes, I wanted to add BigCommerce to this list because it’s a simple tool that can quickly create an ecommerce store for your product line. BigCommerce can simplify inventory management regardless of how many SKUs, warehouses, variants, and sales channels you’re using. On the front end of your store, your customers won’t experience any difficulties finding what they need, thanks to BigCommerce’s strong product search engine.

BigCommerce Standout Features and Integrations

Features include complex inventory management capabilities that empower your teams to manage up to 600 variants tied to a single SKU. BigCommerce also enables teams to quickly track customers and revenue across multiple sales channels, such as Instagram, Facebook Marketplace, and Amazon, and make adjustments to the channels you’re using.

Integrations include connections with over 1,300 powerful ecommerce tools and applications to enhance processes and increase productivity, such as ActiveCampaign, Google Analytics, Gorgias, HubSpot, Keap, LeadDyno, Lucky Orange, Mailchimp, QuickBooks Online, Zendesk, and other software options. You can also use BigCommerce’s API to make custom integrations with your current systems.

Wix is an excellent option for smaller ecommerce brands that don’t plan to carry many products.

Why I picked Wix: The platform is a cloud-based web and webshop builder that allows small businesses to create basic online stores with drag-and-drop tools. Wix offers a feature called Wix Stores that will enable companies to develop online stores with gift cards, coupons, and SEO services and connect with multiple sales channels. Wix also provides hundreds of industry-specific templates to help you get started with extensive in-platform guidance.

Wix Standout Features and Integrations

Features include excellent security capabilities that protect online transactions without taking extra steps to implement them. Also, the platform’s drag-and-drop page elements allow you to place page elements anywhere on a web page, enabling you to create intuitive layouts.

Integrations include over 500 native connections to help you power your Wix storefront. These integrations include systems such as Constant Contact, Dropbox, Easyship, Google Drive, HubSpot, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, QuickBooks, ShipBob, Shipstation, and other software options.

Weebly is a robust ecommerce platform that provides many website templates that offer a simple and affordable way of building an online store.

Why I picked Weebly: I added Weebly to this article because it provides over 100 different website templates to choose from, empowering you to find something just right for your brand. Using one of the templates is quick, choose a design, add products, set up shipping and taxes, then select your preferred payment method. Afterward, Weebly automatically creates your storefront, allowing you to customize it as you see fit.

Weebly Standout Features and Integrations

Features include inventory tracking capabilities that allow you to manage anywhere from a handful of products to a product line with hundreds of choices. Weebly also provides a completely integrated shopping cart with secure checkout to help you provide your customers with peace of mind when shopping in your store.

Integrations include over 370 native connections with popular business management tools. These connections include systems such as AWeber, G Suite, Jotform, LiveChat, PayPal Marketing, Printful, Privy, RabbitSEO, ShipRobot, Tidio Chat, and other software options.

Volusion offers a visual builder tool that empowers online merchants to create ecommerce websites without any coding expertise.

Why I picked Volusion: I decided to add Volusion to this list because of its visual builder that will help you fully customize your ecommerce store without having coding knowledge. For those with some coding knowledge or who are working with a developer, Volusion provides CSS and HTML customization areas. For everyone else, there’s a Style Editor feature that enables you to adjust colors, fonts, and styles to fit your brand.

Volusion Standout Features and Integrations

Features include marketing tools that offer everything you need in one area, such as deals of the day promotions, reward customizations, and newsletter functions. The platform also provides a visual analytics dashboard that helps you see data for orders, categories, and top products.

Integrations include 80 native connections with tools such as Authorize.net, Avalara, Cartmojo, Constant Contact, Fomo, GeoTrust, LiveChat, PayPal Checkout, ShipStation, Shipwire, and other software options. If you have a paid Zapier account, you can create custom integrations if you can’t find any native connections with Volusion and your tech stack.

Big Cartel is an ecommerce platform specially designed for independent artists and creatives. It’s an excellent option for creatives to sell their merchandise.

Why I picked Big Cartel: If you’re an independent artist, you can use Big Cartel to manage your digital storefront. I added Big Cartel because it’s built to provide a straightforward experience by providing essential ecommerce features without overstretching functionality. The platform offers standard ecommerce features, such as real-time statistics, inventory tracking, and custom domains.

Big Cartel Standout Features and Integrations

Features include customization options that enable you to customize your store with free themes to develop the look and feel of your business. You also get a suite of essential ecommerce tools to help you manage your store, fulfill orders, and run promotions from any device.

Integrations include connections between Big Cartel and standard business applications to help you get the most out of your online store, such as Elfsight, Google Analytics, LiveChat, Lucky Orange, Mailchimp, PayPal, Powr.io, Printful, ShipStation, Stripe, and other software options.

WooCommerce is a plugin that enables merchants with a WordPress website to turn it into an online store.

Why I picked WooCommerce: WordPress is the go-to solution for 27% of all websites on the internet, so I thought it would be relevant to add WooCommerce as an option for cheap ecommerce platforms. WooCommerce offers thousands of themes and extensions to customize your ecommerce store. Thanks to its ability to connect with various payment methods and social media networks, you can also use the platform to sell on multiple sales channels.

WooCommerce Standout Features and Integrations

Features include optimized coding that’s fit for search engines; WooCommerce also provides specialized SEO plugins to rank your online store. WooCommerce also offers extensive documentation and a support team to help with any questions.

Integrations include various extensions from the WooCommerce marketplace that allow you to add the features you need. These integrations include over 800 options, such as Afterpay, Fulfillment Center, Google Analytics, Klarna, Mailchimp, Payoneer Checkout, PayPal Payments, Stripe, Vimeo, Zendesk, and other software options.