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Ecommerce website builders

Ecommerce website builders: choose the shop you’ll trade from

Open shelves stocked

Plain write-ups of the platforms people build online stores on - what each one is built for, what it charges once you are actually trading, and where it gets in the way. Reasoning on the page, no scores in the window.

The six units What this covers

The essentials

Read these first

Guide

Store Builders Compared: Fees, Payments and Where You Outgrow Them (2026)

How much does a small business website cost per month?

Read the guide Explainer

What Does an Online Store Builder Need to Do?

What's the best website builder for an online store just getting started?

Read the explainer Shortlist

Best Website Builders for an Online Store (2026)

What's the best website builder for an online store just getting started?

Read it How-to

How to Launch a Small Online Store Without a Developer (2026)

What's the easiest way to get a simple business website online this week?

Follow the steps Shortlist

Best Builder for a Store Just Getting Started (2026)

What's the best website builder for an online store just getting started?

Read it Head to head

Shopify vs Wix for E-commerce (2026)

What's the best website builder for an online store just getting started?

Read it
The parade

Six units along the parade

Six subjects an online store has to get right, from choosing a platform to moving off one. The numbers are addresses along the parade, not an order of merit.

No. 01

The builders, side by side

Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix and the rest - what each one is actually built for.

Comparison

Worked through in Best Website Builders for an Online Store.

No. 02

Hosted or self-hosted

Renting a storefront against fitting out your own, and what each choice asks of you later.

Explainer

Worked through in the FAQ.

No. 03

What a store costs to keep open

Plan price, transaction cut, apps and themes - the headline figure is rarely the bill.

Costs

Worked through in Store Builders Compared: Fees, Payments and Where You Outgrow Them.

No. 04

Themes and how far they bend

Where the templates stop and the custom work starts on each platform.

Design

Worked through in Squarespace vs Shopify for a Small Store.

No. 05

Payments, shipping and tax

The parts of a store that decide whether a basket turns into an order.

Checkout

Worked through in Which Builders Include Payments and Inventory.

No. 06

Moving a shop across the street

Migrating products, URLs and customers off one builder and onto another.

How-to
Step 01

Browse

Start from the shop you are opening - the catalogue, the volume, the countries - not the brand on the sign.

Step 02

Choose

Every builder is worse at something. The write-ups lead with which something, and who that hurts.

Step 03

Check out

Add up the plan, the transaction cut, the apps and the theme before committing a catalogue to one platform.

Worked through in What Does an Online Store Builder Need to Do?, Best Website Builders for an Online Store and Selling a Handful of Products Without a Full Store Platform.

Window notices

What is written on the door

The rules posted on every door along this street.

Notice A

No scores in the window

No ratings, no star counts, no tier boards. Where something is placed ahead of something else, it is placed there in words, with the reasoning on the page.

Notice B

Hands-on is claimed only when it happened

No described methodology standing in for work nobody did. Where a judgement comes from documentation, pricing pages or a vendor changelog, the write-up says so.

Notice C

Affiliate links are disclosed

Some links here earn a commission. That never decides the order things appear in, and it is stated on every page it applies to.

For dated plan prices and fees set side by side, see Store Builders Compared: Fees, Payments and Where You Outgrow Them.

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