The 6 Best Ecommerce Website Builders 2023

An ecommerce website builder is a website builder that lets you sell online. These builders offer ecommerce-friendly plans, equipped with powerful sales features to help you grow and manage your online store.

When choosing an appropriate home for your business, the best things to look out for are scalability, ease of use in the editor and the backend dashboard, and quality of features and tools.

But not all website builders come equipped with ecommerce capabilities and not all stores want to build a website – if you’re looking for a comprehensive solution to manage your online store, check out our list of the best ecommerce platforms.

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BEST IN TEST
Shopify	Wix	Squarespace	BigCommerce	Square Online	GoDaddy
Overall rating 4.8	Overall rating 4.8	Overall rating 4.4	Overall rating 4.1	Overall rating 4.2	Overall rating 3.0
Starting Price $29	Starting Price $27 $24.30 with code “GET10!”	Starting Price $23 $20.70 with code “WBE”	Starting Price $29	Starting Price $29	Starting Price $24.99
Transaction Fees 2.9% + $0.30	Transaction Fees 2.9% plus $0.30	Transaction Fees 0% – 3%	Transaction Fees None	Transaction Fees 2.9% + $0.30	Transaction Fees 2.3% + $0.30
Free plan or free trial 3-day free trial, then 3 months for $1/month	Free plan or free trial Free plan	Free plan or free trial 14-day free trial	Free plan or free trial 15-day free trial	Free plan or free trial Free plan	Free plan or free trial 1 month free trial
Abandoned cart recovery	Abandoned cart recovery	Abandoned cart recovery	Abandoned cart recovery	Abandoned cart recovery	Abandoned cart recovery
Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unlimited	Bandwidth Unlimited
Storage space Unlimited	Storage space 20GB – 50GB	Storage space Unlimited	Storage space Unlimited	Storage space Unlimited	Storage space Unlimited
Number of products on cheapest plan Unlimited	Number of products on cheapest plan Unlimited	Number of products on cheapest plan Unlimited	Number of products on cheapest plan Unlimited	Number of products on cheapest plan Unlimited	Number of products on cheapest plan 5000
Payment options 100+ including: Shopify Payments, Paypal, Klarna	Payment options 11 including: Paypal, Wix Payments, Stripe, Square	Payment options 3: Stripe, Paypal, Square	Payment options 36 including: Paypal, Square, Stripe, Klarna	Payment options 4: Credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Square	Payment options Paypal, Stripe, and Square
Multichannel integration	Multichannel integration	Multichannel integration	Multichannel integration	Multichannel integration	Multichannel integration
Sales features 4.7	Sales features 4.5	Sales features 3.7	Sales features 4.6	Sales features 3.6	Sales features 2.8
Visit Shopify	Visit Wix	View Squarespace	View BigCommerce	Visit Square	Visit GoDaddy
See our Shopify review	See our Wix review	See our Squarespace review	See our BigCommerce review	See our Square Online review	See our GoDaddy Review

We know how tricky it can be to decide between ecommerce website builders – that’s why we put the top choices side by side in this handy comparison chart! Use the arrows at the top of the chart to scroll through the six best online store builders, and compare features, pricing, and star ratings. You can read full reviews of each below!

We conducted hundreds of hours of research and testing to bring you this list, so you can sit back and enjoy our breakdown of the six best ecommerce website builders. We’ll also reveal which website builders are best by industry, to give you a detailed low-down and help you get started with the right one.

You can read more about our methodology in our dedicated section at the end of the article.

More Information

• Online Store Builders Comparison Chart: See how these top ecommerce website builders rank against one another

Best Overall Ecommerce Website Builder

Pricing range: $29 per month – $299 per month

Editor's Choice

Shopify

Best overall ecommerce website builder

Outstanding

4.8

out of 5

• Supports big inventories
• Popular with our users
• Heavily reliant on apps

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $29 - $299 / month

Pros

• Strong suite of sales features
• Good for multi-channel integration
• Huge app store

Cons

• Reliant of third party apps
• Customizability is limited
• Transaction fees based on payment option

Read Review

Visit Site

Shopify Overview

Shopify is the best ecommerce website builder overall, especially for large stores selling over 10 products. It powers over 600,000 online stores and has over 1 million active users worldwide. More than $100 billion has been sold on Shopify – so it must be doing something right!

Our research confirmed this. Shopify comes number one overall, rising 4.2% in our ranking since last year, going from 4.6 to 4.8 out of 5. This is thanks to Shopify continually improving itself against its competitors and adding new features, such as being able to manage up to 1,000 locations.

What makes Shopify so great is that it works with everything. It has an extensive 6,000+ plugin library where you can install most features onto your site. This reliance on third-party apps has led to perhaps not being the easiest-to-use editor, but Shopify has made major improvements in this regard. Its ease of use score in our research rose 13.4% since last year from 3.5 to 4 out of 5, and it now has its own internal service for digital product sales.

With three pricing plans to choose between, Shopify isn’t the cheapest of options, but we think it’s fair to say you get what you pay for. It’s a website builder that will grow with you, supporting the trajectory of your business. An impressive 93% of Shopify customers told our researchers they were satisfied with the ecommerce website builder.

Shopify Gallery

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When I first opened Shopify, I was taken immediately to the dashboard to add products.

Shopify has a comprehensive inventory system, and when I added products through the backend I found the process simple enough.

When adding products, I used the new 'Shopify Magic' function to auto-generate my description. I could even choose the tone of voice!

Once I added my products, I was able to edit my store. I used the free 'Dawn' theme, which set me up with all the basics.

One of Shopify’s biggest assets is its huge app center – there are over 6,000 apps to choose from!

Shopify Sales Features

Shopify has the strongest sales features of any ecommerce website builder we’ve tested. It even rose 4.2% since last year from 4.5 to 4.7 out of 5, thanks to its inclusion of the aforementioned digital product selling.

But that’s not all! Shopify also has one of the best inventory systems, plus connections to over +100 different payment options along with Shopify Payments. If you’re going to sell online, we recommend you go with Shopify.

Shopify’s Pricing

Shopify has three different pricing plans available:

• Shopify Basic – $29 per month
• Shopify – $79 per month
• Shopify Advanced – $299 per month

Shopify also has a cheaper Starter Plan for $5 per month. It’s confined to mobile and for selling on social media, but it’s a great, low-cost way to get access to Shopify’s suite of sales features.

With a starting price of $29 per month, Shopify is one of the more expensive ecommerce builders out there. However, it’s important to look at the value of the plan – Shopify scores 3.6 out of 5 in our research, which is a rise of 20% since last year’s score of just 3 out of 5, the biggest value score increase of all the builders we tested. This increase was due to more widespread support being given to Shopify’s feature versus its price.

Unfortunately, Shopify doesn’t offer a free plan, but you can take advantage of its 3-day free trial, and get three months at just $1 per month on the Basic plan, leaving you time to decide whether it’s the right online store builder for you.

Click the + to see a more detailed summary of Shopify

Shopify in Action: Attn: Grace

Alexandra Fennel

Co-Founder

Alexandra Fennell is a passionate advocate for women’s health and an expert in ownable differentiation, having practiced patent law for many years. As CoFounder and Co-CEO of Attn: Grace, she’s leading her team on a mission to center women’s wellness as they age in a way that’s accessible, empathetic, informative, and empowering. The small core team at Attn: Grace is composed of women from all walks of life. They are working mothers, women of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and they care deeply about making safe, sustainable products designed to support health as we age.

Shopify is an invaluable tool for ecommerce retailers. It grows with businesses.

Q&A

How long have you been using Shopify for your online store?

We’ve used Shopify since Attn: Grace’s founding in 2020.

What do you like most about using Shopify to build and run your online store?

Shopify’s many beneficial features have allowed us to launch a successful ecommerce business during a pandemic.

It’s customization apps and analytics have improved our SEO strategies and created a more enjoyable customer experience as they shop online. Its security features and certifications ensure data protection and privacy, building trust between us and our customer base.

We’ve also used Shopify’s POS features to track our sales when we have pop-up stores. Crucially, Shopify also helps optimize websites for mobile viewing, making them accessible to customers no matter where they are.

Is there anything you'd change about it?

Though Shopify offers an extensive app library, I think integrating these features into its interface will make the platform more affordable and customizable for businesses. Built-in tools are easier to use, and they would help retailers create attractive, optimized websites more quickly and efficiently.

Would you recommend Shopify to other businesses looking to build an online store?

Shopify is an invaluable tool for ecommerce retailers. It grows with businesses. Shopify Plus helps scale businesses instantaneously and adapt to changing demands and patterns in consumer behavior.

More Information

• Shopify Review: For a full look at the features, pros and cons of this top ecommerce website builder
• Shopify Success Stories: Get inspiration from real Shopify businesses
• Shopify SEO Review: Everything you need to know about Shopify’s SEO features

Best Value For Money

Pricing range (for ecommerce): $27 per month – $159 per month

Wix

Best value for money

Outstanding

4.8

out of 5

• Best internal features
• 500+ free store templates
• Best overall value

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $16 - $159 / month

Pros

• Highest customer score in our research
• Excellent sales features
• Supports 180 languages

Cons

• Can’t switch template once site is live
• Range of options can feel overwhelming
• Pay more for the best features

Read Review

Visit Site

Wix Overview

Wix is a hugely popular drag-and-drop ecommerce website builder, with over 110 million users worldwide. Wix knows a thing or two about creating websites and online stores – so much so, that it ties in with Shopify for the top overall score of 4.8 out of 5, a 2.4% rise from last year’s score of 4.7.

While the score may be tied, Wix does have to step down from the winner’s podium due to one thing: Shopify has better sales features. Wix still has powerful ecommerce capabilities, even improving in the last year by 1.6% from 4.4 to 4.5 out of 5, but it can’t beat Shopify’s more impressive range. And, in ranking the best ecommerce website builders, we have to take more consideration for sales features.

Wix does succeed in more than one area though, most notably being our best value for money ecommerce website builder. It scores 4.4 out of 5 in this category, the best in our research, thanks to its scalable and feature-rich plans.

While its sales features may be just shy of Shopify, Wix has top-of-the-range everything else. It dominates as a website builder and Wix’s editor is incredibly beginner-friendly, bringing a quality that other online store builders can’t touch. For the starting price of $27 per month, you get a whole lot more than just an online store, making it our best value builder.

However, we would still only recommend Wix for smaller online stores. Its tools and features are impressive, but they aren’t quite good enough to deal with a large or complex inventory. We’d recommend either Shopify or BigCommerce for that.

Wix Gallery

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I was able to add products to my online store from the Wix dashboard.

Once I was in the editor of my online store, I was able to add a Bookings features and manage its settings, all from the editor.

Wix has in-built apps for everything. I was happy to see a Menu feature for food-based online stores.

When filling out my online store, I was able to use Wix AI Text Creator to fill in any copy.

Wix has recently integrated with Google Ads, allowing me to create ad campaigns directly from the Wix dashboard.

Wix Sales Features

As we mentioned, Wix’s sales features aren’t as impressive as Shopify’s. But don’t let that dishearten you, because they’re still really good, earning a 4.5 out of 5 in our ranking. In fact, Wix’s sales feature scores were the only ones to either increase or sustain their scores across all categories.

Wix also made some improvements over the past year, adding in big data capability, plus better stock management functionality.

Wix Pricing

Wix offers three pricing plans that have ecommerce features. Here’s each plan, with its monthly cost, billed annually:

• Core (Basic ecommerce) – $27 per month
• Business (Standard ecommerce) – $32 per month
• Business Elite (Advanced ecommerce) – $159 per month

The cheapest plan is ideal for those who are just starting out on their ecommerce journey, allowing you to take payments and sell across multiple channels.

The higher tier plans also allow you to sell subscriptions, as well as give you access to dropshipping apps. You’ll be able to display your prices in a variety of currencies, too.

Click the + to see a more detailed summary of Wix

Wix in Action: Off Highway Van

A.J. Turner

Marketing Director

A.J. Turner is the Marketing Director and Product Manager for Off Highway Van. Off Highway Van creates vehicles and products for wilderness exploration, making dreams come true for those looking to get themselves and their loved ones out into the remote places of the world in a campervan.

Its integrations with Quickbooks, Google, and other software we use makes it simple to do everything in one place — and ensure nothing is lost in the shuffle.

Q&A

How long have you been using Wix for your online store?

We’ve been using Wix since 2016 for our business. We utilize the online store features, as well as the booking services.

What do you like most about using Wix to build and run your online store?

The ease of use and simplicity is the best part. Similarly, its integrations with Quickbooks, Google, and other software we use makes it simple to do everything in one place — and ensure nothing is lost in the shuffle.

Is there anything you'd change about it?

We would like a little more functionality in editing. We’re a creative group here, and often the abilities of Wix are limited. Fortunately, we are experts with Adobe and have formed our own workarounds to get our branding, graphics, and creative content to work on the website in a way that reflects the quality of our engineering in our products.

Would you recommend Wix to other businesses looking to build an online store?

Yes — we’d recommend Wix. It’s a great platform for a variety of businesses. We certainly are unique in how we utilize it to sell custom-built campervans and products for those campervans, but we’ve been successful in making it work for our business.

More Information

• Wix eCommerce Review: For an in-depth look at this top ecommerce website builder

Easiest To Use

Pricing range (for ecommerce): $23 per month – $49 per month

Squarespace

Easiest to use

Excellent

4.4

out of 5

• Easiest to build with
• Great-looking templates
• Can be limiting

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $16 - $49 / month

Pros

• More omni-channel selling options
• Enhanced third-party integrations
• Most visually-striking templates

Cons

• Business plan price increase
• No autosave in editor
• Can't handle larger stores

Read Review

Visit Site

Squarespace Overview

Best for small stores or those looking to sell digital products online, Squarespace is renowned for its creative finesse. Stunning templates combined with a good inventory system and lots of quality features make Squarespace an attractive choice. That’s why it sits in third place in our rankings with an overall score of 4.4 out of 5, a slight drop of -2.3% from last year’s score of 4.5 out of 5.

However, what we really want to highlight is the fact that Squarespace is the most user-friendly ecommerce website builder, scoring 4.3 out of 5 in our ease of use testing. Its drag-and-drop editor and library of pre-designed elements are just a few of the reasons why it’s the easiest builder to get to grips with.

Squarespace editor gives you quite a lot of creative freedom to make a site however you want, yet the results never seem to be ugly. The intuitiveness of the editor is great for beginners to get to grips with website building.

While Squarespace’s templates are consistently 5 out of 5 visually, Squarespace has lost points for its design due to increased competition by ecommerce website builders like Shopify, dropping Squarespace’s design score by -5% since last year from 4 to 3.8 out of 5.

But what about the business side? Squarespace is a really strong all-around choice for combining a stylish storefront with classic ecommerce features, such as creating discounts and promotional pop-ups.

With its professional templates, Squarespace will really show off your products and let your storefront shine. It’s a solid choice for your online store, as long as you don’t outgrow its range of ecommerce features.

Squarespace Gallery

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Squarespace gave me the choice of choosing a template or using 'Squarespace Blueprint' to have a custom template made for me.

I was able sell a variety of products, but I learnt it was especially good for selling digital items. Unlike Shopify, you can add your products after you've finished designing

Like Wix and Shopify, Squarespace's commerce was also split between an editor and a dashboard. Here, I was able to check my store's marketing analytics.

I could also check all my payments with the client management page, a handy tool for keeping my stores bookkeeping in order.

Squarespace really improved its app extensions since our last testing. I found a lot more features there than I used to previously.

Squarespace Sales Features

Out of all the ecommerce builders we tested, Squarespace saw the biggest increase in overall sales features score since last year, rising nearly 9% from 3.4 to 3.7 out of 5 due to an increased number of payment options for customers like a Buy Now Pay Later scheme. While not on the same level as Wix or Shopify, Squarespace still provides a good ecommerce service, especially for smaller stores and art-focused sellers.

Squarespace Pricing

Squarespace offers three pricing plans, two of which are solely dedicated to ecommerce. The prices for each are as follows (billed annually):

• Business Plan – $23 per month
• Basic Commerce – $27 per month
• Advanced Commerce – $49 per month

Both the Basic and Advanced Commerce plans come with everything you need to run an online store. The only difference between the two is that the Advanced plan comes with increased ecommerce functionality, including abandoned cart emails, advanced shipping, and discounts, as well as the ability to sell subscriptions.

Click the + to see a more detailed summary of Squarespace

Squarespace in Action: Spanish and Go

Jim Fricker II

Co-Founder

Jim Fricker II is the co-founder of Spanish and Go, a business with a mission to connect English speakers to the Spanish-speaking world. Spanish and Go produces travel and culture related videos on their Youtube channel to share different aspects of Spanish-speaking countries to their audience of over 160,000. Jim, along with his wife and co-founder May Larios, also co-host the weekly Spanish education podcast Learn Spanish and Go, share travel and language tips on their blog, and host Spanish Immersion Retreats in Mexico.

I like the ease of use and flexibility of running our store on Squarespace. We can quickly create new products, update our inventory, and add discount codes.

Q&A

How long have you been using Squarespace for your online store?

We’ve been running our business website on Squarespace since 2016, and we’ve been running our online store on Squarespace since the beginning one 2022.

What do you like most about using Squarespace to build and run your online store?

I like the ease of use and flexibility of running our store on Squarespace. We can quickly create new products, update our inventory, and add discount codes. A huge benefit for us is the ability to sell subscriptions. We use this feature to offer a payment plan for our Spanish Immersion Retreats after a customer has paid their deposit. It’s also convenient to use blocks to insert our offerings into different articles on our site.

Is there anything you'd change about it?

I wish Squarespace would allow for the option to offer payment installments and a pay-in-full option for the same product. Currently, a product has to be either a one-time payment or a subscription. While most of our customers prefer the flexibility of a payment plan, others would rather pay in full. Currently, our solution to this is to send them a link to what is technically another product in Squarespace for the same event they’ll be attending, only with the price being the full amount.

Would you recommend Squarespace to other businesses looking to build an online store?

I would recommend Squarespace to other businesses looking to build an online store especially because Squarespace offers plan tiers that are easy to switch between as their business grows.

More Information

• Squarespace Ecommerce Review: A full review of this stylish online store builder
• Squarespace Offer Code: Get 10% off any Squarespace plan with our exclusive deal
• Shopify vs Squarespace: We compare these leading brands

Best For SEO

Pricing range: $29 per month – $299/month

BigCommerce

Best for SEO

Good

4.1

out of 5

• Built for retailers
• Great SEO
• Not the easiest to use

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $29 - $299 / month

Pros

• Excellent SEO features
• Great for scaling your business
• Abandoned cart recovery

Cons

• Not the most user-friendly
• Can be expensive
• Third-party apps needed

Read Review

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BigCommerce Overview

BigCommerce is a well-known ecommerce website builder that boasts some big names – including Clarks and Ben & Jerry’s – as clients. And it’s no wonder! Online stores backed by BigCommerce have been recorded as growing at almost double the industry average.

In our research, BigCommerce came second for its sales features, scoring 4.6 out of 5 in this category. This is thanks to the sheer breadth of tools it offers, including plenty of multi-channel selling options, as well as the ability to accept international payments.

It also performed reasonably well when it came to website features, too. Its score of 3.9 out of 5 puts it in fourth place, a rise of 7.8% from last year’s score of 3.6. You can expect a range of good in-house features, such as customer reviews, email marketing, and search filters.

Its star feature is its SEO capabilities, which we gave a 5 out of 5 in our research. You’ll be equipped with everything you need, from metadata to 301 redirects, to help your business succeed online.

This is all built into BigCommerce’s library of themes, making it the best choice if you’re looking to really grow your online store into a large and successful business. Don’t use it if you are a beginner, either in business or in tech! It’s not the easiest to use, and its prices reflect the large number of tools and features you get.

BigCommerce Gallery

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BigCommerce has everything I need to run and grow my online business across multiple channels.

BigCommerce is great for multi-channel selling, especially connecting to different marketplaces.

BigCommerce suits a larger budget, with pricing plans starting at $29 per month – I didn’t need to worry about transaction fees, though!

Ben & Jerry’s gift shop runs on BigCommerce, and features a search function, a slideshow, product gallery, and a featured product section.

You can serve your global customers effectively with BigCommerce's international features.

BigCommerce Sales Features

BigCommerce should be used by anyone wanting to rapidly and remarkably grow their online store. It has all the necessary sales features plus some new ones since we last tested, such as a 25% rise in our research score for promotions and pop-ups.

BigCommerce Pricing

Although BigCommerce offers tiered pricing like its competitors (in fact, the pricing is identical to Shopify), these tiers are also based on how much revenue your business makes each year. Take a look at BigCommerce’s pricing plans (and the associated revenue brackets) below:

• Standard plan ($0 – $50k)  – $29 per month
• Plus plan  ($50 – $180k) – $79 per month
• Pro plan  ($180 – $400k) – $299 per month

BigCommerce also offers a 15-day free trial.

Click the + to see a more detailed summary of BigCommerce

More Information

• BigCommerce Review: For more details on this ecommerce website builder
• BigCommerce vs Shopify: Compare these two titan online store builders
• Wix vs BigCommerce: Find out if either of these builders is right for your business

Best Free Plan

Pricing range: $0 per month – $79 per month

Square Online

Best free plan

Good

4.2

out of 5

• Sell on its free plan
• Quick onboarding
• Outdated templates

Free plan available

Paid Plans: $12 - $79 / month

Pros

• Customizable checkout
• Built-in marketing tools
• Improved app market

Cons

• Paid plans pricing increased
• Lack of payment gateway variety
• Lacks tools to support growth

Read Review

Visit Site

Square Online Overview

In 2018, the payment processing giant Square bought Weebly. The result is Square Online, which combines powerful payment processing with an easy website builder.

In our most recent round of testing, Square Online earned an overall score of 4 out of 5, a -4.5% drop from 2021. This is mainly because Square Online’s previously quick editing process has become overly complicated with its new dashboard – this is something we noticed during hands-on testing when customizing our Square Online websites. As a result, Square Online’s ease of use score fell by 4.6% from 3.9 to 3.7 out of 5.

Its real selling point, though, is its great value for money. In this category, Square Online scores an excellent 4.2 out of 5, sitting just behind Wix. This accolade is largely down to the fact that Square Online is the only builder on this list that lets you sell for free – in fact, it’s our top choice if you’re looking for a free ecommerce platform. That means you can get started without spending a single cent and choose to upgrade when you want to.

Although, it’s worth mentioning that its free plan is obviously more limited than its paid packages. For example, you won’t be able to use a custom domain on the free plan, and you’ll also have Square ads to contend with.

But Square Online isn’t stingy with its ecommerce features. From generous multi-channel integrations to quick access to revenue and traffic insights, Square Online has an excellent bank of tools to help you get online and start selling.

Square Online Gallery

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I was able to add products to my Square Online store without having to leave the website editor – convenient!

Square Online also had a dashboard to add products if I preferred.

Using the editor, I found it a bit simple compared to Wix or Squarespace. There wasn't as much customization.

In the dashboard, I found the automation feature. Here, I could add automatic processes for retaining customers.

The customer relation tool I found really useful in gaining insights about target audiences, which is important for running a successful online store.

Square Online’s Sales Features

Square Online’s overall score for sales features rose by 2.1%, from 3.5 to 3.6 out of 5 since we last tested. This was due to major improvements made to the ecommerce website builder, such as fraud detection, promotional capabilities, and a completely customizable checkout page.

Square Online Pricing

Square Online’s pricing plans have jumped 142% since last year! Now, its price matches Shopify’s, which is quite expensive. However, it does offer a free plan which you can sell on. No other builder can claim the same.

Aside from its free plan, Square Online has two plans to choose from:

• Plus plan – $29 per month
• Premium plan – $79 per month

Click the + to see a more detailed summary of Square Online

More Information

• Square Online Review: A deep dive on this ecommerce website builder

Fastest Way To Build A Website

Pricing range (for ecommerce): $16.99 per month – $29.99 per month

GoDaddy

Fastest way to build a website

Okay

3

out of 5

• 5-minute setup
• Good for basic sites
• Affordable starting plan

Free trial available

Paid Plans: $2.99 - $469.99 / month

Pros

• Fastest route to building a website
• Switch templates at any time
• Supports the most industries

Cons

• Only suitable for basic websites
• ADI limits customization
• Sales features aren't the best

Read Review

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GoDaddy Overview

GoDaddy is one of the oldest website builders, originally starting as a domain name registrar founded in 1997. While it has forayed into ecommerce website building, it could use some work, since it completes our list of the best ecommerce website builders with an overall score of 3 out of 5. This rating is much lower than others, but GoDaddy still has plenty about it that will appeal to the right user, so it’s worth taking a look!

GoDaddy’s strongest area is its ease of use, getting you set up online in minutes. If you want a website built and ready to function in under 10 minutes, GoDaddy is the website builder for you, because its ADI tool builds the website for you after you answer a quick questionnaire. In our research, it got an overall ease of use score of 4 out of 5, tying it with Wix and Shopify.

In other areas though, GoDaddy sadly does not fare as well. It has the lowest sales feature score of 2.8 out of 5, plus the worst value for money score of 3.4 out of 5. To put it bluntly, GoDaddy gives you a very stripped ecommerce experience. It will do the basics, but that’s about it. If you’re a hobby seller or just want to sell a limited collection, then GoDaddy might be ideal for you.

GoDaddy Gallery

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When I first went to build my store, GoDaddy's ADI asked me series of questions. Using AI, it then builds a custom website for me.

I chose a ceramic store, and this was the result. GoDaddy's ADI filled the site with relevant images and copy, which was awesome!

GoDaddy’s store manager comes with a store setup checklist to help you get started, but it feels very separate from the rest of the editor.

GoDaddy also uses AI to make digital ads. I was able to make ads for my website for both Facebook and Instagram.

In the dashboard, I found this marketing to-do list feature that really nicely plans out the steps a new online store should take.

GoDaddy Sales Features

GoDaddy has a decent set of sales features available. You can list unlimited products, with unlimited variants too, as well as having GoDaddy Insights – GoDaddy’s smart in-house tool for measuring your site’s performance and marketing success – to get up-to-date metrics.

GoDaddy Pricing

GoDaddy only has two ecommerce plans:

• Commerce –  $16.99 per month
• Commerce Plus – $29.99 per month

Although this is a relatively affordable starting price, GoDaddy’s value for money score sits at 3.4 out of 5, sharing the bottom spot with BigCommerce.

Click the + to see a more detailed summary of GoDaddy

GoDaddy in Action: Hinterland Skis

Creighton Elinski

Founder

Creighton Elinski is a full-stack marketing professional by day and a designer, inventor, and engineer by night. If he’s not 20 pages deep in an architectural design book you can find him 30 miles into the mountains on his bicycle. Hinterland Skis began as a custom ski shop, soon expanding as its own brand with 100 custom shapes and over 1000 custom sets sold.

The GoDaddy website builder gives me the ability to focus on my creativity and site function without getting bogged down by heavy coding or dealing with minor update issues.

Q&A

How long have you been using GoDaddy for your online store?

We’ve been using the GoDaddy Website Builder for almost 2 years now.

What do you like most about using GoDaddy to build and run your online store?

Even with my previous experience coding websites, I never really wanted to learn to code. I wanted a way to build creative web pages for the whole internet to interact with. The GoDaddy Website Builder gives me the ability to focus on my creativity and site function without getting bogged down by heavy coding or dealing with minor update issues.

The builder is simple and fast to learn. It’s easy to visually build almost anything you can think of. My absolute favorite part of the experience is the prebuilt integrations that are plug-and-play. I can add a web store in a matter of minutes, start a new email campaign quickly and track analytics without a hassle.

As an entrepreneur, minutes really matter. The 30 minutes I get back by being able to send an email blast quickly or the 2 hours I get back by not having to code a landing page really adds up. You don’t realize how much of your life you give up as an entrepreneur until you start to get some of that time back. Passion doesn’t clock out at 5 pm.

Is there anything you'd change about it?

Something I would add to the website builder is options to add more visual creativity. While I have the skills and desire to make fantastic visual pieces, my time and energy are limited. A themed filter for all images or some quick creative background content blocks would go a long way. Anything that I can quickly add to a landing page to spice things up a little bit would be a great help.

Would you recommend GoDaddy to other businesses looking to build an online store?

I’d absolutely recommend the Builder to anyone looking to build a website or web store. GoDaddy has a full-service, one-stop-shop, for everything entrepreneur.

I used to search around for plugins that go out of date and are impossible to keep integrated. Having GoDaddy take the lead on making sure everything works gives people the ability to focus on their customers, employees, and products. It’s a no-brainer to me.

More Information

• GoDaddy Review: See a full breakdown of GoDaddy’s features, pricing, and more
• GoDaddy Ecommerce Review: Everything you need to know about GoDaddy’s ecommerce capabilities

We’re pretty proud of our research process because not many sites can say they’ve carried out such in-depth testing before making recommendations. Here’s how our in-house research team goes about finding the best ecommerce website builders on the market.

Every single builder goes through our thorough research process. We investigate important areas such as:

• Ease of use
• Sales Features
• Design flexibility
• Value for money
• Feature quality
• Help and support
• Customer satisfaction

When creating our list of the top online store builders, we paid particular attention to the sales features each has to offer, because these are the tools that are going to be instrumental in making your website a success.

Let’s take a closer look at these categories:

• Website features – weighting: 15%

For website features, we compare what is offered by a website builder that isn’t ecommerce related. This includes features like domain names, email addresses, blogging functionality, internationalization capabilities, members area, SEO and marketing functionalities, and app market – plus an analysis of site speed and storage space.

While sales features are the category we weight the most in our rankings, it’s important that your online store has all the necessary features that make a website usable and appealing. Additionally, things like SEO and marketing are crucial to running and growing a successful online business, so we have given this category a respectable 15% weighting in our methodology.

• Sales features – weighting: 25%

The highest weighting in this methodology is the category that is most relevant to online store owners. If an ecommerce website builder’s sales features aren’t in-depth enough how is it supposed to be successful? Therefore, we have given it a worthy 25% weighting as the category our readers should be most concerned with.

This category is focused on everything that is ecommerce focused, ranging from inventory, multi-channel integration, payment options, abandoned cart recovery, promotions and discount codes, mobile apps, and shipping options. All of these are vital to the continuing lifespan and success of an online store.

• Design functionalities – weighting: 10%

This covers a website builder’s aesthetic capabilities, such as the quality and quantity of the templates, a mobile editor, an image editor, UX design, whether it has ADI, and if you are able to switch templates once you’ve started.

A large majority of your customers will be coming to your store for a specific reason or purchase, which means they will be less concerned about the aesthetics of your website. While easy navigation and good UX are very important, it’s even more important that your website is able to handle your store and customer transactions. Design functionality is still key, but just slightly less for ecommerce-focused sites, hence the lower 10% weighting.

• Value for money – weighting: 15%

The sub-criteria we look for in this category is the average pricing plan, the features versus the price, and an evaluation of the free trial (if offered).

Starting a new business is a hard enough process as is without thinking of start-up costs. We weight value for money the same as website features with a respectable 15% to reflect this. This is because, while cost is important, an online business can be many different sizes from small businesses to larger, more established brands and we want to cover all types.

• Help and support – weighting: 10%

The support options offered by the website builder are particularly important for first-time online merchants. We evaluate what support options are available for customers, the knowledge center, restore options, and what help features are available on the lowest cost plan.

A 10% weighting is a fair assessment of how crucial this is to ecommerce website builders as a whole industry. Smaller businesses will get more out of the help and support options than larger, already established stores.

• Customer satisfaction – weighting: 15%

A category dedicated to user reviews. Sub-criteria include Trustpilot scores, brand recognition, market analysis, UX, and whether current customers would be likely to recommend.

For an ecommerce store, customer reviews are vitally important to whether you get a dedicated consumer base. Your store’s great-looking design is not as important to your customers as your ecommerce provider delivering their package in an unacceptable state. “The customer is always right” as they say, and so we have weighted this category 15%.

• Ease of use – weighting: 10%

This measures how easy it is to actually build a store using the builder. We rely on regular in-house user testing for this, testing each builder ourselves, and compiling quotes and scores from real testers to give you honest, undoctored views.

Having an easy-to-use website means you can be quicker on ecommerce trends and update your shop’s design. Ultimately, keeping sure your online store’s many, many functions continue to work like clockwork takes precedence. It can be complicated, and many ecommerce-only website builders reflect this by having a low overall ease of use score. In the end, we weight ease of use at a slightly lower 10% due to other categories taking prominence.

Balancing this against the other categories helps us rate and compare the builders fairly, focusing on important factors that users have told us matter most. We get groups of everyday people to test the builders out and give us feedback, which we then analyze. We also conduct business interviews with real online store owners to get their views on what they think of the builders. This helps us:

• Understand exactly how easy (or difficult) beginners find the builder
• Uncover any issues within the builder
• Judge customer satisfaction

We’ve applied this process to over 50 website builders so far – all so we can bring you the most accurate results and recommendations!

Still have questions? Read our full report on How We Conduct Our Ecommerce Website Builder Research for a more detailed explanation.

In this guide, we’ve introduced you to the six best ecommerce website builders. You won’t waste any time on inferior builders – instead, you’re now ready to pick a first-class ecommerce website builder to build your online store and start selling online.

Our top ecommerce website builder is Shopify, scoring 4.8 out of 5 in our recent research. Shopify’s scalable plans provide users with powerful sales features, such as an online invoice generator and checkout customization.

We may have ranked these ecommerce website builders, but the truth is the right one for you will depend on a number of different factors. Let’s recap quickly:

If affordability is important to you, Wix is the best value for money. Its feature-heavy plans will cover your basic business needs, but you can fill any gaps with Wix’s comprehensive marketplace if you need additional functionality.

If building a website isn’t your strong point, we’d recommend Squarespace for ease of use and high-quality designs, or you could try GoDaddy to get online quickly and without hassle thanks to its ADI builder.

If your online store is just starting out, Square Online lets you sell online for free, though you’ll be stuck with ads. In contrast, BigCommerce’s powerful sales tools are perfect for large and growing businesses

At some point, it’s all about gaining the right leverage to expand your business, without taking up more of your limited time. This is where ecommerce website builders can give you the right tools for success.

Remember, every website builder on this list comes with a free trial or a free plan, so you can try any of them risk-free before making your decision. Don’t miss out – your perfect ecommerce website builder is waiting, so jump on a free trial today to get started!