Ecommerce websites are becoming more and more popular every single day. I’ve met people who own their ecommerce stores who have told me that they never thought their store would grow so big. Working with an ecommerce website builder is very important because a lot of these website builders give you the power to create your own ecommerce website without any coding experience at all.
There are many benefits of building an ecommerce site, but choosing an ecommerce platform might be a headache. As there are hundreds of options available and each comes with their own host of features and applications that can only make the selection process more difficult.
If you’re into ecommerce and are looking for a platform to build your store, here’s the thing: you can create your online store without paying a dime. You will need to decide whether it’s worth investing in a premium platform or creating your store on a free one.
As an ecommerce entrepreneur, looking at free online ecommerce platforms can help you understand your options. With the wide variety of platforms out there, it might seem like a daunting task to figure out which one is best for you. We’ll look at the top ten free online ecommerce platforms so you can determine which one is the best option for your business. Let’s start from scratch and figure out what makes a free online ecommerce platform tick.
Which platform is the best platform for eCommerce?
There are so many eCommerce platforms available, choosing one can be very confusing – especially when they claim to be the best of them all. Don’t waste your time and money on second-tier eCommerce platforms. Companies like Amazon are swallowing up more than half of the market and thousands of more online stores are counting their share. Because of this, you need to be able to compete by offering the best experience for your customers on your eCommerce website.
X-Cart
X-Cart has helped to create over 35,000 online stores, and this has been growing rapidly over the past few years. As with all of these ecommerce platforms on the list, it’s free, open source and self-hosted.
X-Cart is often considered one of the fastest open source platforms on the market, and it also has an incredible number of features for you to sink your teeth into. There’s also a free trial for the premium plan, which goes for $495 (one-time payment).
Solidus
Solidus works a bit differently from the majority of eCommerce solutions on the market. It’s a fully customizable open-source eCommerce platform based on the Ruby on Rails framework. It also utilizes headless eCommerce architecture that’s regularly maintained by its developer community. For the uninitiated, this just means that your eCommerce website’s front-end is separate from its backend.
Unlike other eCommerce solutions that hand you premade designs, web design is left entirely in the hands of your software team. At a basic level, you’ll use an API from Solidus’s framework to create custom features and designs while also being able to benefit from Soldius’s in-built eCommerce functionality. All without affecting the design or user interface with any updates or edits you make.
Solidus’s basic eCommerce features focus on product management, payment options, and logistics. This functionality is packed into coding modules that you can import into your site.
For example, you can control your online and physical store inventories using the product module.
Soldius also enables you to organize how products appear on your website and within your database because Solidus provides coding options for both your store’s aesthetics and administration. In fact, you can even use Solidus to build your own backend user interface. This is especially useful for designing something specifically for your team and implementing whatever workflows/processes/UX you think would serve your teammates best.
Solidus is extensive in the sense that not only can you create an online store, but it’s also a complete management system with payment processing and resources that control:
- Shipping
- Postage
- Transactions
On top of all the modules available, you can also integrate with third-party logistics providers, payment services, and marketing platforms.
There are plenty of free extensions available that are designed and updated by other Solidus community members. However, you can also find official third-party add-ons if you want extra assurances about the integration’s validity.
Zen Cart
The whole reason Zen Cart was created was so that people without development degrees could build their own online stores.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you don’t need any coding knowledge, but it’s pretty close.
But, I can assure you this, Zen Cart is more user-friendly than many of the other open source ecommerce platforms, so it might be worth looking into if you want to scale up quickly but you don’t have advanced developer skills.
Drupal Commerce (Drupal)
One of the most comprehensive open source ecommerce platforms available, Drupal Commerce was built by the Commerce Guys and offers multilingual, multicurrency, global functionality – making it the perfect fit for sits like Open Sesame, an e-learning language course provider.
Drupal readily integrates with numerous third-party applications. It’s currently one of the only ecommerce platforms built on a CMS (Drupal Content Management System), making it innately compatible with a strong content marketing strategy. Like many other open source platforms, it’s the support that will cost you – Commerce Guys offers Drupal Commerce application support is very expensive. That makes sense when you see their client list. Drupal Commerce is popular with large enterprises.
Who’s Using Drupal Commerce?
- Open Sesame
- Lush Cosmetics
- Cartier Jewelers
Zeuscart
Zeuscart doesn’t hide their developer-centric nature. Land on the home page, and you’ll be greeted with enough acronyms to chase off anyone who isn’t an avid programmer. MySQL. PHP. GPL license. You get the idea.
No matter how much programming knowledge you have, Zeuscart is a decent open source ecommerce solution. Their focus on the UX of their platform makes the platform less intimidating than many other open source options.
Zeuscart was built with Bootstrap and is designed with small and medium businesses in mind. It is feature rich and marketing friendly, boasts a decent community, and offered free support for the first 30 days with paid support from that point on. This could have been an ecommerce platform worth watching. Unfortunately, the website and social media feeds seem to have been abandoned in 2014, although you can still download the ecommerce platform from the Zuescart website.
Who’s Using Zeuscart?
- [queried Zeuscart Support. Waiting for reply.]
CubeCart
This British open source ecommerce solution is popular on both sides of the pond – in fact, they’ve got a decent following in many parts of the globe. CubeCart uses a 100% template-driven responsive skin to look good across devices. Great customer support, social media plugins, unlimited products, administrators, customers, orders…you name it. This cart is setting itself apart as a member of the new generation of ecommerce open source platforms. That said, it’s no Shopify or BigCommerce and you won’t be able to get phone support, although you’ll find live help on the site.
CubeCart scales decently but is not equipped for large enterprises. It integrates with several common applications, such as MailChimp, but can’t compete with OpenCart for the number of third-party integrations available.
Who’s Using CubeCart?
- Harris Organic Wines
- Kula Cards
- Orchid Jacky
Wix
Wix packs in a user-friendly website builder (similarly to Weebly or Squarespace) to help you create a website in one of two easy ways: with mere drag and drop or by using Wix’s ADI artificial intelligence designer. What’s more, you can even customize it greatly without knowing a thing about code.
Note: Wix is also a perfect store builder that will let you create an eCommerce website – but you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to start selling to customers.
Free plan
- Online presence with free and secure web hosting
- Up to 500 MB bandwidth and up to 500 MB storage
- Hundreds of fully customizable templates, mobile-optimized website
- Access to an extensive collection of icons, images, clip art, and free apps
- Free Wix domain – (
username.wixsite.com/siteaddress) - Email marketing, SEO assistance, and other marketing tools
Free plan limitations
Your site address will carry the Wix favicon. Further, you’ll find Wix ads on every page. You cannot have a custom domain or change templates.
Most importantly, you cannot accept payments under the free plan. Again, while you can create your store for free, you need to pay once you’re ready to start selling.
Other key features
- Easy-to-use tools in a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor
- Assistance of Wix Artificial Design Intelligence to build personalized websites
- 500+ design templates covering any and every type of website
- Built-in tools to customize the design and layout
- Unlimited bandwidth and 10 GB storage
- Hassle-free coding for advanced functionality
- Mobile-friendly and SEO-friendly
- Google Analytics included
- Great ecommerce website builder
Among the free eCommerce platforms, Wix is ideal for websites that want everything taken care of and need only regular website features.
Price & transaction fees
The Premium plans start at $17 per month. There are three premium plans that are usable by small businesses, startups, and medium-sized eCommerce business owners – Basic, Unlimited, and VIP.
All these plans allow you to connect to your own domain and are ad-free. They vary in the amount of storage as well as the level of support and apps available. All three plans provide unlimited bandwidth.
While these business and eCommerce plans allow you to set up a store, accept payments, and view detailed Analytics, you’ll have to pick from their Unlimited or VIP business and eCommerce plans to get access to other advanced Wix Business applications, such as currency converter, automated sales tax, etc. They cost $25 and $35 per month, respectively.
Transaction fees:
Wix Payments lets Wix business and eCommerce plan subscribers accept card payments, digital wallets, and more without having to integrate third-party payment gateways.
It’s available only in some countries, and in the US, there’s a fee of 30¢ plus 2.9% for each transaction. It’s lower in EU countries, at 1.9% of the transaction amount + 0.30 EUR. These are similar to the fees that other payment processing software options charge.
Why choose a free eCommerce platform?
When we add the term “free” before anything, it usually means that either you cannot afford a premium version or you are just trying your hands before making any investment.
And in most cases, it is true.
But, when it comes to choosing an eCommerce platform for your store, free doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have to make any investment to build your store.
Most of the free eCommerce platforms available out there are open-source platforms, i.e., you can get the software or platform where you can build the store at no cost but may have to pay for hosting, domain, themes and other services involved.
Over that, if you don’t have technical knowledge of website development, you will have to hire a developer as well.
Yes, free eCommerce platforms are not exactly FREE!
So, why should you choose free eCommerce platforms to build their stores? Well, free platforms have their own advantages and disadvantages over paid ones.
Conclusion
In today’s digital age, ecommerce business is becoming more and more popular. Traditionally, to establish an ecommerce business one had to start a website, register for a domain name, and create a platform on which the client would be able to purchase products. Nowadays there are many free ecommerce websites that bypass the registration process entirely. One can typically search for the desired item right on the site by simply filling out the appropriate form fields. If you’re looking to get in on this booming industry, then these are great resources for you to use.
An e-commerce website is a must for any business selling products or services online. Online stores help you sell products at zero marginal costs and therefore offer the lowest prices to consumers. Plus, you can track your sales 24/7 allowing you to evaluate products based on demand and profit. Since just about any major retailer offers some sort of e-commerce platform, it’s difficult to make the best choice