Best E-Commerce Platforms 2022
Thinking about starting an E-Commerce store in 2022? You’re probably not going to have the time or money to custom make an entire store from scratch.
That’s where software comes in. There’s plenty of ways you can make your site in just the way you want it with built in tools. The only question is, which one is worth your time and money?
Wix
By no means the best of the best in any one category but will be good in all. Looking for solid features, good support, and reasonable prices; Well, this would be the option for you.
Price — (A+)
Starting at just 6.50$/month you really can’t find a better deal than this. Wix offers quite a few different plans that are all reasonable and cover a lot of different features.
Wix might not have the incredible feature set of other software competitors but their pricing is a really positive factor.
Features — (B)
Wix offers a competitive tool set but their pricing plans are financed by Wix ads so your tools are far reduced until you get to the unlimited plan.
Their analytics are also not quite what you would expect and only come with the highest end plan.
Summary
While the pricing is great, the tools don’t match up to the level of the other players and thus, this is simply a tool for static websites who aren’t looking to expand; I.e. part-time local business.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a massive player in the E-Commerce world and has been around for ages and therefore, comes with all the amazing features you would ever expect.
BigCommerce is almost the exact opposite of Wix where it trades price for functionality.
Price — (B-)
The pricing may not be that competitive as it starts at 30$ for the basic plan and over doubles to 79$ at the second level plan; despite this high pricing it truly remains worth it with the features provided.
Features —(A)
BigCommerce boasts one the most robust sets of tools in the world.
All the integrations you could ask for, preferential payment processing rates, inventory tracking, abandoned cart saver and more.
They’re also constantly innovating so the feature set will remain rich for the foreseeable future.
Summary
This one isn’t built for those who don’t plan on putting time and effort into their business or for casual selling.
BigCommerce is a perfect fit for those that are serious and want a robust feature set to help their business perform.
Weebly
I personally wouldn’t use Weebly but it is probably the most simple set up of any of these.
Weebly utilizes a drag and drop method of site design that is very similar to Wix but even a slight bit simpler. This is the type of ease you would expect from Square as they made one of the simplest payment systems in the world for business owners.
Price — (A+)
To give you a sense of the price here, Weebly’s highest price is the same as BigCommerce’s lowest price.
30$ a month gets you a full feature set and you can even get started for as low as a free plan.
Features — (B+)
While the feature set didn’t blow me away it is still decent. The blogging features are quite well built out and the inventory system is decent.
Nothing will be a killer feature here but for the price, you really can’t beat Weebly.
Summary
Don’t use Weebly to scale, at least not yet, but if you’re doing 0$- 100,000$ Weebly will suit you just fine.
Nothing ground breaking but as expected, there is ease of use and it is the cheapest option out there.
Shopify
Okay, no surprise here as Shopify has long been the king of E-Commerce, but they are king for a reason.
Beaufitul layouts and rich feature sets contribute to making shopify the best but it also comes with incredible plugins built for you.
Price — (B-)
The pricing here is exactly the same as BigCommerce but in that same way, you pay for what you get.
Features — (A+)
I can’t say enough good things about the features of Shopify. Their inventory system is second to none, the shipping is next level, and the small little function here and there really help your site to shine.
The plugins store is also incredible as they have had time and marketing to help attract developers to their site. Being one of the first e-commerce platforms has it’s advantages and Shopify certainly leveraged their advantage.
Summary
Everything is just plain simple with Shopify and I would recommend it any day of the week.
It’s worth every penny and the themes that you can buy are beautiful. Everything works seamlessly and it really saves you a ton of time in the long run.
Dishonourable Mention: WooCommerce
Quite the opposite of Shopify, I can’t say enough bad things about WooCommerce.
As expected from Wordpress the feature set is clunky and hard to use in every way, plus prone to breaking if any changes are made.
Couple into this hard to make websites, and poor UI/UX used on any of their themes, you’re looking at the worst platform there is.
Nothing is good about WooCommerce and it still comes with the high pricetag of Wordpress so just avoid this if you can.
