22 Comments
I’ve been opening online stores with all the popular ecommerce platforms for years now.
I’ve tried Shopify, Volusion, BigCommerce, Magento, 3dcart, BigCartel, CoreCommerce, LemonStand, osCommece, and more – with one goal in mind: to provide the best, most fair, ecommerce platform reviews out there.
How I Rate Ecommerce Platforms
I don’t write “ordinary” ecommerce reviews, so you may not be used to my style. If you’re new to this site, I’ll tell you our goal for each review:
Ecommerce Platforms is an unbiased review site that shows the good, great, bad, and ugly of online store building software.
We strive to provide you with easy to read (and sometimes fun) objective reviews that will help you choose which ecommerce platform is right for you.
You’ll also notice that I include a lot of comments from ecommerce platform users. I frequent all the popular forums, and the other review sites, and I think it’s important to go beyond the marketing section of “Volusion.com” for example, so I share with you real customer feedback on each platform.
I’m not trying to sell you on any one particular platform. I’ve reviewed each ecommerce platform by taking into account the most important factors to take into consideration when choosing a cart. All my star ratings are based on:
- Features
- Ease of Use
- Pricing
- Templates & Design
- SEO & Marketing
- Inventory Management
- Payments
- Security
- Customer Service
Top 3 Ecommerce Platforms of 2013
Here are our three highest rated ecommerce platforms for 2013. Don’t forget to check out my full-reviews. Also, all the carts I review offer free trials (Shopify gives you 30 days, Bigcommerce 15, and Volusion 14), so I encourage you to take advantage of them. Lastly, feel free to comment, and leave questions anywhere on the site. I always respond!
#1 Shopify
Read our Full Shopify Review. 30 Day Free Shopify Trial HERE.
#2 Bigcommerce
Read our Full Bigcommerce Review. 15 Day Free Bigcommerce Trial HERE.
#3 Volusion
Read our Full Volusion Review. 14 Day Free Volusion Trial HERE.
Hi James, I’ve spent several hours today reading the reviews on your site because I’m moving my ecommerce store away from woocommerce and wanted to get some unbiased reviews. I wanted to thank you for all the work you do and let you know you have an awesome site and I appreciate it.
Hi,
Why are you moving away from Woocommerce?
Thanks!
Joanne: It is my pleasure. Please drop by after your migration is done and let me know where you ended up and how everything is going. Thanks for reading and commenting!
very internist researches, James. I guess you really like what you are doing. your site gives one of the best comparisons, thus you make store owner decision easier. I am choosing now between Shopify and Bigcommerce. I only have 300 products, but they have like 2000 customers, categories and subcategories. I am looking at a migration too. I also found a shopping cart comparison review for Shopify and bigcommerce and the author offers Cart2Cart to transfer all data automatically http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com/useful-articles/55-bigcommerce-useful-articles/5374-bigcommerce-vs-shopify-make-a-difficult-decision-simple-. It looks like interesting solution
Jeck: You’ll be in good hands with Shopify or Bigcommerce. Let me know how everything is going when you’re all set up. Thanks for the link to Shopping-cart-migration… I know them well!
If you don’t want to give up WordPress as an e-commerce solution because of its security/PCI Compliance issues, check out CloudSwipe (http://cloudswipe.com). It’s a whole new approach to selling with WordPress. Not just a WordPress plugin, it’s a fully features and secure PCI Compliant platform with seamless integration with WordPress. Think Shopify, but with the flexibility of WordPress.
Joey: Thanks for letting me know about CloudSwipe – I’ll have to check them out. At first look though, they have zero documentation and I can’t find any live store examples. It kind of looks like one of the hundreds of platforms that are just out to make some cash. Do you have experience with them? Can you tell us more and link to some examples? Anyway, thanks so much for dropping by.
Hi there James,
I am actually on the CloudSwipe team so I’d be happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have. The difference with our platform is that you are free to host your site anywhere without having to deal with security issues like SSL or PCI Compliance. On top of that your secure checkout page will look exactly like the rest of your WordPress theme, which makes your buyers happy.
Here is one example of a live site using CloudSwipe: http://www.g-forcehealth.com
We are continuing to beef up our documentation. Live chat support is available if you need to know more information.
Thanks!
Joey
Hi,
I’m looking at self hosting and usually use WordPress as a CMS but am open to changing. Can you recommend any self hosting e-commerce platforms?
Lyn: If you’re happy with what you currently use, no point in changing. I don’t personally like using WP for ecommerce (search this site for an article I wrote about the topic). If you’re looking for a non-hosted ecommerce platform, I would suggest lemonstand.
Hello James – glad I stumbled upon your site. Also glad that the top 3 sites you are discussing are the very 3 I am considering switching to. I do like much of what I see on shopify, but given my volume (around $5-7000 / mo.), and their 1 percent transaction fee would add significantly to the monthly price, as compared to volusion and big commerce.
I also like a couple of the features on volusion that I did not see on shopify. One was the ability to set up a store and sell directly within Facebook. The other is the ability to give certain customers a designated price discount (in other words a price level and not just coupon codes). Though I am concerned with your mention that customer support at volusion is terrible. Based on my sales volume and my want to avoid transaction fees, would you recommend Vol or BC? I sell a very limited products line, less than a dozen items, and I currently use presto sell which is only 9.95 a month, but I have outgrown their features. They are basically an online order form, though they do allow the use of a payment gateway, so from an order processing standpoint, it works.
Your advice and previous research is greatly appreciated.
Lee: James has me handling comments these days, so I hope you don’t mind me coming in here. If you’re going to be selling $5 – $7K per month, I would recommend going with Shopify’s ‘Unlimited’ account. It’s $179 per month with zero transaction fees. Buy a year in advance and they’ll give you a really good deal…. it won’t be much considering you’ll be making 60 – 80K a year.
The features you say that Volusion has (FB store / discounts) you can get w/ Shopify and Bigcommerce. You’re right about Volusion support.. I haven’t heard much good about it lately.
Not surprised you’re outgrowing Presto. Great starting point but it doesn’t scale well.
Lee – all things considered, I suggest Shopify or Bigcommerce for your store. Maybe get a trial with both and see which you prefer?
Hey all,
Great review site. I was previously looking at all 3 of these. We’ve been a Shopify customer now for several years and in general we have been very happy with them.
Customer service is top notch and friendly, themes are gorgeous (we just recently updated with a fully responsive very modern feeling theme and are thrilled with the change) and the team seems committed to adding new, customer driven features pretty regularly.
The use of apps to extend functionality can sometimes feel little frustrating, like being nickel and dime-d if you want to get fancier than that is offered by default but all around we’re really happy with our choice.
I would however LOVE to see this site do a review of the Cloudswipe platform per Joey’s post.
We use WP for some sites b/c and in looking at how to monetize those spaces e-commerce questions are the first to come up. Cloudswipe looks like a great option so an in-depth review would be helpful for myself and future seekers for solid options for invested in using WP.
Many thanks!
Hey Matthew, thanks for your feedback on Shopify. I’m glad you’re enjoying their services! Regarding Cloudswipe, I’ll put in our list of platforms to review. We have a few other big ones to review before, so it may be a couple months before you see it, but we will get around to it. Thanks for commenting Matthew!
Thank you for your list.
At this moment, I’m using Interspire’s hosted solution, Bigcommerce, for my online store and I’m very happy with their service.
I am looking for a solution that provides me daily deals + e-shop, which will be best for this kind of solution. I know little bit PHP, will i be able to complete my e-shop in the period of two months using magento? as i think Magento is the best one, my second option is to go with bigCommerce. i need suggestions.
Thanks
Hi! I know I’m a few months off, but worth a try. I have a store in Brazil and I need the platform to integrate with a third-party gateway (using paypal or such as primary gateway decimates conversion)
Volusion said they won’t allow it as did Big Commerce. I’ve been waiting on Shopify’s answer but they are reviewing. Any other platforms that might accept it? Thanks!
Why hasn’t OpenCart been reviewed anywhere on your site?
Great information! We are seeking a closed source eCommerce platform to build a multi retail site with their own independent inventories but the ability to have a single check out feature. The ability to query the multiple retailers inventory by category, style, price, color, in stock and price. The ability to develop API ‘a to address different back end scenarios and that can handle unlimited products without breaking the bank.
Also a platform that has a good community to draw upon for development resources. Any suggestions?
hi rachel, I am wondering if you have opinions about the best payment gateway??
amy
Hi Rachel,I own a brick and mortar furniture store.We like to have a high visibility and eventually would like to sell online .Which one would you recommend?also best seo services?
Hi Rachel, Any feedback on Squarespace? I am starting out. I sell clothing on an Iphone app. However, I want to expand to the internet. I haven’t made the plunge yet because I am not sure who to go with- Squarespace or Shopify ? So, with that said any feedback will be helpful.
Thanks!