11 Best eCommerce Website Builders for Small Businesses [Free & Paid]

Last Updated: October 7, 2024

Vendors and entrepreneurs planning to sell products by operating online stores need a professional solution to give these stores a professional, customer-friendly touch. The best ecommerce website builders come to the rescue by providing such professional solutions for planning out an online store as per the business requirements and customer preferences.

Most of the ecommerce website builders for small businesses are SSL compliant and scalable in nature. Businesses prefer the best commerce website builders for their multilingual interface, friendly UI/UX, high storage capacity and varied payment gateways.

11 Free eCommerce Website Builders for Small Businesses (Best Online Store Builders)

Try any of these paid and free ecommerce website builders for developing an attractive online store for your business and sell products to audience. These best online website makers help sell your product worldwide without worrying about the security of payment transactions or language barriers of any kind.

  • Weebly

Best for: Start your own online store through Weebly online store builder. Advanced inventory management tools and drag and drop builder are key features of Weebly online website maker that would help you showcase the best products available on your website and make it easy for the customers to search products online.

Features You Will Get in Your Online Store

  • Badges for sales items
  • Automatic tax calculator
  • Real-time shipping rates
  • Analytical tools to track site’s performance
  • Customisable email templates
  • Drag and drop builder for launching online stores fast
  • Bundled hosting with friendly customer support.
  • Hand coded HTML files for content management.
  • Fast loading speed as websites are optimised for their own hosting.
  • Limited customization of the check-out page, with no option to sell on social media channels.

Pricing: Weebly offers easy to use tools for developing online ecommerce websites at free of cost. The starting price of connect version is ₹350.  There is also available Pro and Business version. Feel free to connect with us for accessing price details of the advanced plans.

SSL Included: Custom code SSL certificates available with this free ecommerce website creator.

Payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal and Square.

Product type: Physical goods, non-physical items, hidden products and food/drinks.

Product limit: Take advantage of the unlimited number of products with its Business Plus plan starting at Rs 2860 per month available with one of the best ecommerce website builders.

  • Big Cartel

Best for: Either use free themes to create an attractive online store or a code to develop one-of-a kind design with Big Cartel ecommerce web builder. Moreover, Big Cartel doesn’t charge any listing fees or commission over the sales that your business does.

Online Store Features with the Free Plan

  • Free customisable themes
  • Shipment tracking
  • Sales tax autopilot
  • Theme code editing
  • Real-time stats
  • Custom domain
  • You can run discounts & promos
  • Product option groups
  • Easy to upload images of products
  • No hassle of coding
  • Intuitive dashboard tools
  • Add your store tab on Facebook page
  • The maximum product limit is 500

Pricing: Use Big Cartel free ecommerce website builder for unlimited period with the Gold Plan. Many upgraded features are available with Platinum, Titanium and Diamond plans, such as Google analytics, inventory tracking, theme code editing, etc.

SSL Included: SSL encryption is available

Payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal and Venmo

Product type: Physical goods 

Product limit: With the free plan is available a total of five products whereas with upgraded plans- the product limit increasing to 50 (Platinum), 250 (Diamond) and 500 (Titanium).

  • Square Online Store

Best for: You don’t need to learn coding for building a product website when using Square best free ecommerce website builder. For further easing the website set up process, they have integrated Square Online Store with Square Point of Sale. You can also sell online without creating an ecommerce website by using the Square Online Checkout feature.

Online Store Features with the Free Plan

  • Integration with Pinterest and Instagram
  • Automatic inventory syn with Square POS
  • Order syncing with Square Point of Sale
  • Online shopping cart
  • Curbside pickup
  • Friendly UI and UX interface
  • There is no charge to launch your website, pay only when you start making the sale
  • Connect your existing domain easily with Square Online store
  • High domain privacy protection
  • Limited design flexibility

Pricing: You can start with the free version and set up your online store.

SSL Included: SSL security provided with Square online store creator

Payment gateways: End to end processing system that doesn’t require payment gateways.

Product type: Services, retail and restaurants, all types of physical and digital products

Product limit: Unlimited products with the free plan

  • Freewebstore

Best for: Freewebstore ecommerce site builder offers an easy online store setup process where all you have to do is create your online account, select the store design, upload all the products and start selling immediately. You will get a hosted ecommerce website with this best ecommerce website builder.  

Online Store Features with the Free Community Plan:

  • Multiple design themes
  • Guest checkout
  • Email customizer
  • Stock management
  • Product notes
  • Social media integration
  • Essential visitor statistics
  • Add Google Maps to the website pages to help customers search for you easily.
  • New designs launched regularly according to latest trends.
  • Attach logos/banners to the pages for highlighting your business.
  • You get the choice of free domain names
  • A secure cart to accept orders instantly
  • Dated and complex backend process with support for only physical goods and no services, etc.

Pricing: The ecommerce store builder offers a community plan that is available for free of cost. There are three other plans available – Startup for ₹1,513 per month, Pro at ₹4,919 per month, and Ridge version available for ₹18,921 per month.

SSL: Included in Freewebstore online website maker.

Payment gateways: Credit cards, PayPal, Sagepay, Nochex, Skrill, Stripe, MyGate and Adyen. Freewebstore further supports payment gateways enlisted in its website.

Product type: Physical goods only

Product limit: Unlimited products can be uploaded with this free best ecommerce website builder.

Suggested Read: 7 Best Static Site Generators: Detailed Comparison

  • Strikingly

Best for: Develop a website in few minutes with the help of multiple options available to give the online store a polished and professional look. Quick templates and easy import of information from social media platforms further eases this website building process.

Online Store Features with the Free Plan

  • Invite collaborators
  • Membership logins
  • Social feeds
  • Built-in HTTPS
  • Sign-up and contact forms
  • Strikingly.com domain
  • Monthly bandwidth of 5GB
  • 1 product per site
  • Total storage of 500 MB per site
  • Unlimited free sites available
  • You don’t need coding or design experience to develop online stores through Strikingly
  • Site editor gets stuck too often.

Pricing: Unlimited free plan is available besides Pro and Limited. Limited plan costs around ₹906 whereas Pro plan is for ₹1,510.

SSL: SSL available for any custom domain.

Payment gateways: PayPal and Stripe.

Product type: NA

Product limit: One product per site with the free plan. Pro plan offers 300 products per site whereas Limited plan offers five products per site.

  • MyOnlineStore

Best for: Responsive templates to perfectly fit the screen according to the screen layout. MyOnlineStore ecommerce builder offers configurable tools for adjusting the layout of an online store in few, simple steps.

Online Store Features:

  • Store manager
  • Drag and drop store builder
  • Multiple language support
  • Online checkout
  • Module boxes for changing layout of the design.
  • Online and offline payment options
  • Modern designs to give an attractive look to your online store
  • Easy drag and drop options with simple layout configurations
  • The choice for selecting templates is limited.

Pricing: You can sell up to 2500 products with the Pro plan at around ₹ 1,800 per month.

SSL: Not included

Payment gateways: Credit cards, cash on delivery, Paysafecard, AfterPay, etc. 

Product type: Physical and digital products

Product limit: Free plan supports up to ten products. Pro version supports 2500 products whereas in Premium plan provides support for unlimited products.

  • WooCommerce

Best for: Extend and improve the functionality of your online store through WooCommerce marketplace extensions. WooCommerce as one of the best ecommerce website builders has an advanced content management system for seamless integration of content with commerce. Regular security audits of the platform also make it ideal for store building.

Online Store Features:

  • Secure payments
  • Configurable shipping options
  • REST API and scalable
  • Tax calculations
  • Live shipping rates
  • Label printing at home
  • Public support forum for managing queries
  • Good number of extensions and plugins available to enhance the product reach
  • Constant updates
  • Google Analytics to track on marketing efforts
  • Content support in multiple languages
  • Does not function without WordPress and provides no hosting solutions.

Pricing: WooCommerce is a free and open source ecommerce website builder.

SSL: Depending on your web host

Payment gateways: Stripe, Square, PayPal, cash on delivery, credit cards, bank transfers, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, and cheques.

Product type: Physical products, member sonly digital content & appointment booking

Product limit: Unlimited products with this best ecommerce website builder platform.

  • WiX eCommerce

Best for: Custom storefront and cart for exhibiting the way you want your products, shopping cart, product galleries, collections and wishlist. Wix eCommerce site builder supports advanced marketing tools for securing online payments and selling on multiple sales channels.

Online Store Features:

  • Multichannel sales through Facebook and Instagram
  • Dropshipping with modalyst
  • Global shipping secure payment solutions
  • Business name generator
  • Logo maker
  • Invoice generator
  • Take advantage of real time delivery estimates
  • 500 plus online store templates
  • Helps create ecommerce website for desktop and mobile
  • Hundreds of design effects and features to build an attractive product catalog
  • Print your own labels for worldwide shipping
  • Over five hundred store templates available for personalising the website
  • Templates cannot be interchanged.

Pricing: ₹ 29 per month paid on yearly basis for the Premium plan and enjoy Google analytics, free domain for one year and unlimited video hours.

SSL: SSL certificate included

Payment gateways: Credit card/debit card, PayPal, Wix payments, etc.

Product type: Physical products, digital goods and downloadable products.

Product limit: The premium plan offers unlimited pages and hundreds of templates for free.

  • Shopify

Best for: Use Shopify, one of the best ecommerce website builders, for selling products online or in person with Point of Sale. Take advantage of robust tools for finding new customers, driving sales and managing day-to-day business activities. Create a fully featured store and ecommerce website inventory for adding products, uploading photos and setting stock levels using this online store builder.

Online Store Features:

  • Inventory management
  • SEO product tags
  • Traffic and referral reports
  • Export/import using CSV files
  • Export reports
  • Level-1 PCI Compliant
  • Email forwarding
  • Content management system to create new webpages and blog pages
  • Helps set logins for the multiple staff
  • You can add multiple images of your product to showcase them from multiple angles.
  • Automatic updates so that your system is always enabled with upgraded features
  • Product reports for an insight into product’s growth and demand
  • Hundreds of design effects and features to build an attractive product catalog
  • Helps create customer accounts and manage customer groups
  • You can track the order status.
  • Regular pages’ and blog articles’ URL structure not ideal for SEO.

Pricing: Aside from a ninety-day free trial, all the three available plans are chargeable on monthly basis. The Basic plan starts around Rs 2190 per month. You can also look into the top alternatives of Shopify.

SSL: 256-bit SSL certification

Payment gateways: CC Avenue, PayPal, PayU, Cashfree, Paytm, Razorpay, etc.

Product type: Physical products

Product limit: No limit set on products for all paid plans.

  • GoDaddy

Best for: Robust marketing tools for developing SEO friendly website and various hosting plans for a powerful online presence offered by one of the best ecommerce website builders, GoDaddy.

Online Store Features:

  • Domain search tool for buying a domain name.
  • cPanel web hosting platform
  • One-click installs
  • Compatible with all hosting providers
  • Centralised client management
  • Integration with Facebook
  • Uptime monitor
  • Template builder
  • Ready to launch templates available with GoDaddy website builder..
  • Single dashboard for managing clients and website.
  • Monthly backups and off-site storage.
  • Integrated with Google My Business.
  • Code snippets for maximum functionalities under minimal resources.
  • Live chat support for reaching customer service team in case of technical issue is unavailable.

Pricing: GoDaddy Pro version available for free of cost is a free online store builder.

The paid plan starts at around Rs 6639 and you can access more details by forwarding to us a call back request.

(There is available a set of four plans based on VPS hosting; another set of four plans based on WordPress hosting; online starter bundle at ₹54/month paid annually and further four plans based on SSL security).

SSL: SSL included

Payment gateways: Stripe, Square, ApplePay and PayPal.

Product type: Physical and digital products

Product limit: Up to 5000 products with 10 images each.

  • BigCommerce

Best for: Omnichannel commerce tool with powerful analytics to reach customers around the globe and flexible feature integrations with third-party applications are an integral part of BigCommerce online website maker.  

Online Store Features:

  • Akamai image manager for optimising images
  • Code free updates
  • In-house catalogue transfer team for moving products in your store.
  • One-on-one launch services
  • Manage products and
  • add/edit pages
  • Access to key performance metrics
  • Unlimited accounts available for staff.
  • Integrated with email marketing services such as MailChimp, iContact and Interspire
  • Unlimited file storage and bandwidth.
  • Abandoned cart saving functionality to check which customers have left their shopping midway is unavailable.

Pricing: A 14-day free trial plan is available for using BigCommerce best ecommerce website creator. For information regarding upgraded pricing plans, please refer the official website.

SSL: Included

Payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, CyberSource, Square, etc.

Product type: Physical and downloadable products

Product limit: Up to 600 SKUs per product with the free ecommerce website builder.

Summary

Sell all kinds of products through online stores and get these online stores from the best available online store creators free and paid. Secured, multiple-currency/multi-language support, these are flexible yet free best ecommerce website builders with robust marketing tools to enrich you selling experience.

You can also check wireframe tools online for web designing.

Published On: June 2, 2020
Somya Gupta

Somya is one of the most experienced technical writers in the team who seems to be comfortable with all types of business technologies. She is a sensitive writer who ensures that businesses are able to find the right technologies through her writings. She would leave no stones unturned in making business professionals, even with minimal technical expertise understand the power of automation.

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Somya Gupta

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