10 Best Ecommerce Platforms: Reviewed and Compared In 2023

Subbly is a subscription eCommerce platform that's designed to help businesses set up and manage their subscription box services. It's a pretty nifty tool if you're looking to start a subscription box business or if you already have one and want to streamline your operations.

Why I picked Subbly: Well, this is an eCommerce platform that was specifically tailored for subscription businesses. There are plenty of eCommerce platforms out there, but not all of them are geared towards subscription models. Subbly, on the other hand, is built for this purpose. It's got all the features you need to manage a subscription box business, from setting up an online store to managing your subscribers and processing payments.

Another thing I like about this platform is the low reliance on plugins. Usually, you need a plugin to have subscription billing, membership, automations, and upsells in your CMS. With over a hundred features, Subbly has what you need to run your subscription business from one place.

Subbly Standout Features & Integrations

Features that standout include its user-friendly interface with which, even if you're not tech-savvy, you'll be able to navigate around the platform with ease. It also has a customizable checkout process. I can tailor the checkout experience to match a brand and make it as smooth as possible for customers. Last but not least, the automated billing feature. It's a lifesaver for managing recurring payments.

Integrations include HotJar, Twilio, Pirate Ship, Shipstation, Drip, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Intercom, and Klaviyo. You can also set up an integration with Zapier to connect to thousands of additional apps (requires a paid subscription with Zapier).

Wix is an ecommerce platform perfect for beginners to build a website and start uploading a product catalog. It offers a user-friendly interface and plenty of pre-built templates that simplify designing and customizing an online store, managing inventory, processing payments, and integrating with shipping companies.

Why I picked Wix eCommerce: Wix can create all sorts of websites but for our purposes here I've focused on their ecommerce capabilties, which are great for those just starting out. Wix makes it extra easy to build your site and start selling without knowing how to code. Their website templates can be quickly customized to fit your brand colors and add your logo. For those of you in a real hurry, their ADI builder uses AI to create your site for you after answering a few simple questions. Additionally, their websites are mobile optimzed so your customers can shop on any device.

Wix tends to work better with smaller inventories, making it a great choice for small businesses or brand new stores. Like many website builders, Wix offers a series of plug-ins for increased functionality (like shipping and POS solutions). Built-in features include inventory management, basic marketing tools, SEO optimization, gift card generation, and store anayltics.

Wix eCommerce Standout Features and Integrations

Features that make Wix eCommerce worth checking out include their AI-generating website tool and access to 500+ designer-made templates (some with additional costs) to get a store put together and running fast, even if you are a beginner in this space. Custom functionality with APIs means you can plug in virtually any other software (think: abandoned cart recovery, advanced omnichannel marketing, and sales lead management) so long as you have the technical knowledge to do so

Integrations include 123FormBuilder, AdScale, AfterShip, Cart2Cart, Dropbox, EasyShip, Eventbrite, Google Drive, Importify, JivoChat, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Meta for Business, Privy, SoundCloud, and others.

Ecwid is an ecommerce platform designed to help you sell products, services, digital goods, or subscriptions. Ecwid lets you build an online store and sell up to 5 products free of charge, making it great for subscription-based businesses or SaaS companies that might only have 3-5 products to list.

Why I picked Ecwid: As I mentioned above, Ecwid will let you build an online store plus list and sell up to 5 products for free. This makes it great for stores that may only have a few things to sell in the first place, like a 3-tiered SaaS product, for example. The free plan also comes with a mobile responsive shopping cart, connection to Google, Facebook, Pinterest, and Snapchat advertising, plus a selection of free website templates.

They also let you sell directly on sites like Instagram and Facebook, a technique called 'social commerce' that lets you connect your store to social media platforms using the built-in shopping tools each provides. This means that your social media followers can see images, ads, or videos and be directed to product pages with a click. It can also be a great tool for targeting and retargeting ads.

Ecwid Standout Features and Integrations

Features that make them worthy of a place on this list include omnichannel selling across every platform you can imagine (Facebook, Google, Amazon, ShopApp) and 50+ marketing app integrations like Google Tag Manager, Intercom, and HelpfulCrowd. One thing to be mindful of is that many of their integrations cost extra. However, you may save those costs in shipping fees, as Ecwid offers group Discount Shipping Labels for USPS.

Integrations are extensive and include Intercom, Pinterest, Printful, SUP Dropshipping, Google Shopping, Affiliately, EasyAds, Outfy, Popconverts, and TaxJar. Many others are available by connecting a paid Zapier account. 

Adobe Commerce is an ecommerce platform perfect for experienced Adobe users, who can integrate Commerce with other programs like InDesign, Dreamweaver, and Adobe Marketing Cloud. Being a platform designed for big businesses and experienced users, Adobe Commerce includes a robust reporting and analytics suite with detailed revenue summaries, data warehouse management, and unlimited dashboards.

Why I picked Adobe Commerce: Adobe Commerce, formerly known as Magento Commerce, is a powerful ecommerce platform that is well-suited for data-driven online businesses. One of the key strengths of Adobe Commerce is its robust analytics and reporting capabilities. With built-in tools for data analysis and visualization, businesses can gain valuable insights into customer behavior, sales trends, and revenue KPIs. You'll have access to an easy-to-use report builder and full-stack, automated data replication technology to pull together your product and sales data from every channel into a single, unified platform.

Additionally, Adobe Commerce offers a wide range of customization options, enabling businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs and integrate with other data systems. With its focus on data-driven decision-making and flexibility, Adobe Commerce is a top choice for online businesses that require a sophisticated, scalable ecommerce solution.

Adobe Commerce Standout Features and Integrations

Features you may love—outside of the analytics suite already covered above—include their ability to handle multi-brand companies with diverse product catalogs (even if you cover vastly different audiences, like B2B vs B2C) as well as their built-in PWA Studio for building and launching progressive web apps for your online store(s). PWA Studio will walk you through building selling apps with performance optimization and responsive design in mind. You can tackle apps for desktop, tablet, and smartphone.

Integrations include EasyShip, eDesk, Facebook Business, Google Shopping, LiveHelp, Mailchimp, Quickbooks, SendCloud, Stripe, and others.

Shopify is a popular ecommerce platform that allows individuals and businesses to create and operate an online store without coding know-how. Shopify also offers a range of add-ons and third-party integrations to further customize and enhance a store's functionality.

Why I picked Shopify: With the benefit of being a household name, Shopify tends to have unmatched native integration with other platforms and apps. Shopify already allows you to manage sales, fulfill orders, and deliver products from a centralized view—hundreds of native and external integrations mean you can increase the functionality of the platform in almost any way you can imagine. Add a conversational AI chatbot, live-record shopper sessions on your site to troubleshoot dropped sales, or even build out loyalty rewards/VIP programs with ease.

Shopify does all this while remaining ridiculously easy to use. Most integrations are 'click to use,' with Shopify's backend technology doing all the heavy lifting of connecting to different software and services automatically. Although many integrations cost extra, Shopify makes for a great choice for those who want to create a completely customized ecommerce experience with no coding burden on the site owner.

Shopify Standout Features and Integrations

Features that make Shopify shine include the ability to customize your orders dashboard to show all the metrics that matter to you, including drill-down analytics for a particular product, product group, or shopping channel. Shopify’s 3PL makes it easy to scale, and their Flow workflow tool makes it easy to automate repetitive tasks and bulk actions. With Shopify, you can move, monitor, and manage inventory, and also scan and count items with their mobile app. Additional features like self-serve returns, easy refunds, and discounted return labels make shipping and fulfillment easier to handle.

Integrations include Facebook, Instagram, Google, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google Analytics, Walmart, Skubana, EzySlips, Shipping & Returns, Xero Kissmetrics, Wish Marketplace, Newegg Marketplace, Tophatter, Heyday, PageFly, and hundreds more.

Sana Commerce Cloud is an ecommerce platform that’s specifically designed for B2B sales. It allows businesses to create online stores that are fully connected to their back-office operations (ERP), providing real-time inventory, pricing, and product information across all channels. 

Why I picked Sana Commerce Cloud: There’s no reason that B2B user interfaces should feel any different from B2C. Consumers are now accustomed to certain actions when purchasing online, and Sana Commerce Cloud bridges the gap with features like custom product recommendations and simple reordering processes. Enterprise resource planning features help your customers understand what’s available in real-time. 

Sana Commerce Cloud is a great fit for medium to large businesses. You can create multiple region-specific web stores to speak specifically to each of the markets you enter as you grow, and the ERP integrations help with transparency and self-serve functionality. 

Sana Commerce Cloud Standout Features and Integrations

Features that stood out to me include a streamlined ordering process optimized for B2B buying, which includes tools for bulk ordering, saved shopping lists, and customizable product configurations. Additionally, Sana Commerce Cloud supports multiple languages, which is particularly important for B2B businesses that operate globally. However, it doesn't skimp on the things all online shoppers have come to expect, like mobile-optimized shopping experiences.

Integrations include Authorize.net, Avalara, Buckaroo, dotdigital, FedEx Ship Manager, Mailchimp, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Opayo, SAP ERP, Worldpay, and other options.

Volusion is a cloud-based ecommerce platform that allows businesses to create online stores with customizable designs and features. The platform also offers marketing and SEO tools, as well as integrations with popular third-party apps and services.

Why I picked Volusion: No matter what subscription plan you settle on, Volusion offers an accessible and friendly customer service team that does everything from employing web developers to help customize your site to addressing your questions at any time of day or night. Volusion provides 24/7 customer support via phone, email, and chat, which helps businesses quickly resolve issues no matter what timezone you're contacting them from.

Volusion offers a wide array of features to build exactly the ecommerce solution to suit your business needs. If you need extra help building your site, Volusion has an in-house site builder agency that’s available to assist. With Volusion, businesses can design a completely customized solution to manage their products, inventory, and orders, as well as process payments and ship products.

Volusion Standout Features and Integrations

Features that stood out to me include the fact that you can easily bulk upload products for speedy launches or seasonal turnover, and their inventory grid feature allows you to view and manage the price and status of products and their subcategories. Additionally, Volusion’s simple analytics tools include options to view revenue by day, gross revenue, traffic conversions, total orders received, and other helpful data combinations. You can plot all your most important metrics on a single dashboard or build personalized dashboards for different categories of data (day over day vs month over month, for example). 

Integrations include Answerbase, Authorize.net, BuySafe, Constant Contact, Doogma, Google Analytics, Grasshopper, LiveChat, Mailchimp, PayPal, ShipStation, SnapEngage, Xero, and many others. Connecting to Zapier can unlock more integration options but may incur additional costs. 

Shift4Shop provides a complete ecommerce solution, including website hosting, payment processing, security, and marketing tools. This eliminates the need for businesses to use multiple platforms and integrations (although they offer those, too).

Why I picked Shift4Shop: Many website builders offer a range of free site templates for you to choose from but they are often limited in number and many of them are focused on media sharing rather than product selling. Shift4Shop goes against the grain in this regard, in that it offers 100+ dedicated ecommerce website templates for free. They are constantly adding to this library, too. 

You can tell Shift4Shop takes 'value adds' seriously when packaging their products, as you'll also get a free SSL certificate, free website domain name (renewed annually on your behalf), free website migration assistance, and free AI-driven fraud protection. These are the kinds of things that cost extra with other platforms or are not included at all.

Shift4Shop Standout Features and Integrations

Features include multichannel selling—Shift4Shop allows businesses to sell their products not only on their own website but also on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Facebook—as well as a complete suite of marketing, SEO, inventory, and CRM tools built-in. They have a huge list of features, so much so that I find it hard to pick just one or two. Additional nominees include advanced tokenization, an integrated blog, subscription software, upsell/cross-sell capabilities, and a gift-wrapping module.

Integrations include AWeber, ClearSale, Klaviyo, OmniStar, Picreel, Tapfiliate, TargetBay, Time-to-Reorder, TradeGecko, and other options.

Elastic Path is an ecommerce platform that can be scaled up to deliver complex solutions for enterprise businesses. Elastic Path Commerce Cloud supports a flexible product catalog that can handle complex product hierarchies, attributes, and variants.

Why I picked Elastic Path Commerce Cloud: Elastic Path Commerce Cloud is a robust, enterprise-level ecommerce platform that is particularly well-suited for large businesses. Its microservices-based architecture allows for unparalleled flexibility and scalability, making it easy to customize and adapt to changing business needs. Additionally, its headless approach enables businesses to easily integrate with existing systems and touchpoints, providing a seamless customer experience across all channels. With a focus on performance, security, and reliability, Elastic Path Commerce Cloud is an ideal choice for large businesses that require a powerful and adaptable ecommerce solution.

Elastic Path also enables you to pivot and adapt to current inventory challenges and trends with features like time-boxed flash sales. In addition to custom enterprise solutions, they also offer three pre-composed solutions: B2B, D2C, and subscriptions.

Elastic Path Commerce Cloud Standout Features and Integrations

Features worth noting include their headless commerce experience, which means that the front-end presentation layer is decoupled from the back-end commerce engine. This provides businesses with greater flexibility and control over the customer experience. Additionally, Elastic Path Commerce Cloud has an API-based architecture, which enables businesses to integrate with other systems and platforms easily. This includes integrations with content management systems, ERP, and marketing automation platforms.

Integrations include AiBUY, Algolia, Authorize.net, Braintree, Contentful, CoreMedia CMS, Drupal, GhostRetail, Google Analytics, SmartHint, Stripe, Vertex, and other tools you may need.