When you are looking for the next ecommerce platform to launch your online store, there are many options and considerations to take into account. Uncertainty can make an otherwise straightforward decision into a stressful hunting ground for hidden fees and fine print. One solution is to use a free ecommerce script.
You want to create an online store, but you’re not sure which eCommerce platform or script to choose. You’re intrigued by the idea of a free ecommerce solution? I know how confusing this can be. There are so many eCommerce companies, platforms and scripts. And the ones that aren’t free can cost thousands of dollars.
The best free e-commerce software provides excellent free features and also grows with your business to accommodate your business’s needs as it expands. It should allow you to adjust the design and layout of the site, add e-commerce features like coupons and special discounts, handle taxes and shipping costs, have a secure payment gateway, create a mobile website and integrate with web analytics software. Free e-commerce software makes it easy for small businesses to sell products worldwide without having to invest in expensive software or hiring an e-commerce developer.
All businesses need an online presence but not all of them want to invest thousands of dollars in an ecommerce platform. Over the years, there have been plenty of free ecommerce platforms that have come and gone. Not every platform is geared towards a specific business though. Some platforms can be used for any type of business while others are geared more towards one type of business.
What is the best free eCommerce software?
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a fully hosted (or all-in-one) eCommerce platform that you can use to create your eCommerce store. There’s also a WordPress plugin available, if you have an existing site that you want to use with BigCommerce.
While they don’t have a free plan available, there is a free trial which lets you set up your shop and get started without paying anything.
Pros
- You don’t have to enter any credit card details to take the free trial.
- BigCommerce is really easy to get started with. You can just sign up, enter details about your store, and start adding products.
- You can get a free domain like mystore.mybigcommerce.com if you don’t want to pay for a custom domain name.
- BigCommerce gives you plenty of different ways to take payments. It has built-in integration with lots of payment platforms, including PayPal powered by Braintree, Stripe, Authorize.net and more.
- There are lots of third-party apps that you can add to your BigCommerce store to extend its functionality.
Cons
- The free trial only lasts for 15 days, which doesn’t give you long to start making money from your store. After that, you’ll need to pay $29.95/month or more to keep your store going.
- BigCommerce is an all-in-one platform, which means you’re limited to using their addons and themes. You won’t have the range of choice that you’d have with some other eCommerce options.
Shopify
Shopify is another fully hosted eCommerce platform. Shopify also offers a 14 day free trial and, like BigCommerce’s free trial, this doesn’t require a credit card.
Pros
- It’s really easy to get started with Shopify. Their website builder has a drag and drop interface that means even total beginners can create a great looking online store.
- If you want to add extra features to your store, there’s an app marketplace with lots of add-ons that you can buy.
- There’s 24/7 support available, through live chat, phone, email, and Twitter.
- Shopify Payments (Shopify’s built-in payment gateway) charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. Since this is a built-in feature which has the same price as Stripe or other gateways, this makes it easier for users to get started.
Cons
- If you use other payment gateways, like PayPal or Stripe, Shopify charges a 2% transaction fee. This is on top of the fee charged by the third-party payment gateway.
- The free trial only lasts 14 days. After that, you’ll need to move onto a paid plan. The cheapest is $29/month.
Ecwid
Ecwid essentially translates to “ecommerce widgets”. And just like the name suggests, this is not a distinctive ecommerce platform. Check out the detailed Ecwid review.
Instead, it’s a shopping cart that you can integrate with any site to transform it into a fully-fledged online store. However, as you might have guessed already, you need some lines of code to achieve that.
While Ecwid offers three paid packages, it also provides a free option- which, unlike Jimdo, comes with decent ecommerce capabilities. Apart from unlimited bandwidth, you get a mobile responsive design, two product categories, and support for 10 items.
Sadly, you won’t be able to sell digital products at that level. Plus, your online store functionalities will be limited to a one-page ecommerce website. The only way to escape from that, of course, is subscribing to one of the premium plans, which start at $15 per month.
Benefits of Ecwid
- You can use Ecwid to transform any site into an ecommerce website.
- Its basic online store functionalities are ideal for startups and small businesses.
- The entire shopping cart is automatically optimized for mobile.
- You can take advantage of Ecwid to sell concurrently on multiple websites.
- Ecwid does not charge any transaction fees.
Downsides of Ecwid
- Ecwid does not offer advanced ecommerce features. So, of course, you cannot use it on a large dynamic online store.
- Embedding Ecwid into an existing site requires some coding skills.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce (read our review here) is a WordPress plugin, so you’ll have to install WordPress (open source) on your host, then install the WooCommerce plugin onto your site.
You simply just:
- Log into your WordPress site.
- Go to: Plugins > Add New.
- Search for ‘WooCommerce’.
- Select Install Now.
- Select Activate Now and you’re ready for the WooCommerce Wizard!
It automatically turns any WordPress website into a fully functional online store, with inventory management, coupons, and product pages.
Benefits of WooCommerce:
- The plugin is free to download and install. Many stores don’t need anything more than the plugin.
- It connects to all major payment gateways. By default, you are given PayPal and Stripe which are two of the most recognised gateways on the market. Additionally, you can accept payments via Amazon Pay and PayFast
- With a WooCommerce theme, you hardly have to do any work besides adding content. You can get a theme from the official WooCommerce store, additionally, you can use a third party website such as Themeforest which has the largest reposistory of WooCommerce themes on the market.
- You can offer coupons and discounts, along with adding multiple other features with the help of the extension library.
- WooCommerce is a very popular platform which means there is fantastic support available. It’s worth noting that you should always ensure that you are on the latest version of the plugin before requesting any help
Within WooCommerce’s help centre there are 5 options which can provide you with the answer you are looking for.
- WooCommerce 101 – you can watch video material which gives you an explanation in regards to the page you are looking at.
- Help & Support – here you can find links to documentation, the WordPress.org forum as well as the WooCommerce Help Desk where you can submit a ticket.
- Found a bug? – if you spot a bug you can submit these to the WordPress team. You will have to explain in detail what you found and provide screenshots
- Education – WooCommerce has a host of partners which provide customers with courses and training
- Setup Wizard – this wizard puts you back to the beginning and takes you through the process of setting up WooCommerce pages, shipping, taxes and payments.
Downsides of WooCommerce:
- There are plenty of extra expenses such as a WooCommerce theme, extra extensions, hosting, and domain name. It may label itself as free, however, a theme may set you back more than $100 dollars, the domain will be $30 and hosting can be anything from $4 a month to $5,000 for enterprise websites
- WooCommerce has several moving parts. On the surface, it requires hosting + WordPress + the WooCommerce plugin. Beginners can get intimidated by this, especially with tasks like SEO, security, hosting, and caching. There is a big learning curve if you are just starting out which is why new starters opt for something such as Shopify
- You will need some technical knowledge and developer skills for WooCommerce to be cost-effective. If not you will have to outsource to WooCommerce’s selection of ‘WooExperts’ who offer hourly prices and project prices which can be costly
Big Cartel
If you’ve got T-shirts, paintings, jewelry, or other crazy stuff to sell, you’ll feel at home with Big Cartel.
Free plan
With the free Gold plan, you can:
- Start your free store with up to five products
- Pick a theme and customize
- Add one image per product with product options and categories
- Sell in person and on Facebook
- Choose to accept credit card or PayPal payments, or both
- SSL encryption
- Basic order management via the Big Cartel dashboard
- Email support
Free plan limitations
On the free plan, it’s not possible to have a custom domain. Nor will you be able to add multiple images per product or track inventory.
Other key features
- Enable inventory tracking
- Offer discount codes
- Google Analytics
- Full code customization
Since minimalism is Big Cartel’s forte, you won’t find the platform weighed down by too many features. At the same time, the free plan gives you enough to set up a shop, sell, and receive payments.
Price & transaction fees:
Three premium plans are available that allow you to sell different numbers of products
- Platinum – you can sell up to 25 products at $9.99 per month
- Diamond – 100 products at $19.99 per month
- Titanium – 300 products at $29.99 per month
Transaction fees:
None charged directly by BigCartel, but your chosen payment processor will likely charge fees.
Open Source Software
Magento Open Source
If you know anything about eCommerce software, you’ve likely heard of Magento. It’s one of the biggest names in eCommerce software, in general, not just open source.
Screenshot of Magento’s dashboard
Magento gives it open source users all the basic tools they need, saving some of the more powerful, optional tools for paid versions.
- You can make landing pages and content for your products, manage your shipping and fulfillment in almost any manner you see fit, and generate a host of useful reports (including sales tax, stock, and on-site search terms).
- Magento works on a core system with add-ons; its extensions marketplace is full of options to add sales tax integrations, custom stock systems, and live customer chat integrations, to name a few. Prices range from free to more than $5,000 per extension.
- Users can buy pre-made themes to dress their sites up. There are a few free theme options, or you can pay up to around $500 for a responsive Argento theme—which isn’t all that much compared to how much a web developer charges per hour.
Magento Open Source is flexible, capable, and, – in the hands of the right person/team, can create a beautiful, functional website for all manner of retailers.
All this power comes with a caveat: Magento is intended for experienced coders.
While Magento Open Source is free, you will need to purchase a payment processor, domain name, and security certificate in order to get your store online and keep it safe.
For businesses with less technological experience / resources, Magento offers a paid, non-open source solution—Magento Commerce Starter—with pricing starting at $2,000 per month. Curious about comparable software solutions? These Magento Commerce alternatives might be what you are looking for.
OpenCart
Screenshot of OpenCart’s admin dashboard.
OpenCart comes as a basic package that you can extend to fit your business needs.
- OpenCart doesn’t require a whole lot for installation; if you have a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack on a server, you’re off to the races. This setup is typical for most web servers, so you’re likely already set. You can always check with your service provider if you’re not sure.
- Customers can visit OpenCart’s marketplace to find add-ons that extend its functionality, including free basic integrations (such as Square payments or Facebook plugins). The marketplace also offers more powerful tools (SEO insights or Excel tie-ins for product management), costing up to $2,000 for something like a Microsoft Dynamics integration.
OpenCart is noted for having a sleek administrative dashboard and a general out-of-the-box ease of use. Larger or more complex stores may need to expand the core functionality, but smaller stores should be fine with the basic system.
OpenCart also offers a cloud version with a starting price point around $35 per month for businesses without in-house tech support. If you are looking for products with similar features, these OpenCart alternatives are a great place to start.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a small business just starting out or an established ecommerce company that’s looking to switch platforms, you’ll want to read this article. Many companies offer either completely free or tiered pricing plans that are quite reasonably priced. You might even be able to find background information on these companies through some simple Google searches. If your current shopping cart platform is lacking in features and functionality, the money you’ll spend on upgrading may be money well spent in the long run since it will save you time and energy in the future.
Ecommerce is the most popular online business. And ecommerce software’s provide the necessary tools for creating a small or big online store. For those of us who run an online business, we always look to find the best free ecommerce platform and ecommerce script for our websites or blogs.