Best ecommerce website builders in 2026: 7 picks where fees matter

How we picked

This list is built from research, not our own testing. We ranked each store builder on what its pricing page, help center and docs say, with the most weight on fees: the platform’s own transaction fees, the card processing rate, and what you pay to drop those fees. Each pick also gets a true 3-year cost and its exit score out of 10 from our exit scores tool, which matters for a store because product, order and customer data is the hardest thing to rebuild. Our full method is on the how we research page.

Our 3-year estimates use the plan price for 36 months, a .com domain at Namecheap’s posted prices ($11.28 first year, $18.48 renewal; two renewals, $36.96, where the first year is free), and one Google Workspace inbox at $7 a month billed yearly ($252). They leave out card fees, which depend on your sales.

1. Shopify: best for a business where the store comes first

Shopify is built for selling: product catalogs, checkout, staff accounts, in-person sales and a large app store. If most of your revenue will come through the site, it is the most complete store platform on this list.

Basic is $29 a month billed yearly ($39 billed monthly). With Shopify Payments, online cards cost 2.9% + 30 cents on Basic and 2.7% + 30 cents on Grow ($79 a month billed yearly, $105 billed monthly), with no added Shopify fee. Our 3-year estimate for Basic is $1,344.24 before card fees and apps.

What to watch: use a third-party payment gateway instead and Shopify adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow or 0.6% on Advanced. Basic has no staff accounts, and paid apps add monthly costs. The old Starter plan is closed to new stores.

Exit score: 5/10. Products, customers and orders export to CSV, but product images export only as links that stop working if the store closes. Read our Shopify review.

2. WordPress with WooCommerce: best for zero platform fees and full ownership

WooCommerce is a free plugin that turns self-hosted WordPress into a store. WordPress and WooCommerce charge 0% platform fees; you pay only your payment gateway’s rates. We build on WordPress every week, so weigh that.

You pick the hosting. A store needs more room than a brochure site, so we priced Bluehost Business at $6.99 a month on a 36-month term (renews at $13.99 a month). Our 3-year estimate is $540.60, before paid extensions. Managed hosting such as Kinsta starts at $30 a month billed yearly ($35 billed monthly).

What to watch: many store features are paid yearly extensions, such as WooCommerce Subscriptions at $279 a year. You or your developer handle updates, backups and security.

Exit score: 10/10. Products export to CSV, and the whole database and site move with you. Read our WordPress review.

3. Squarespace: best for a small store on a design-first site

Squarespace suits makers, studios and service businesses that sell a modest range of products next to a polished site. Store, payments, email marketing and hosting come in one bill.

Skip Basic for selling. Core, at $29 a month billed yearly ($39 billed monthly), drops the store transaction fee to 0% and charges 2.9% + $0.30 per card. Plus, at $49 a month billed yearly ($65 billed monthly), lowers cards to 2.7% + $0.30 and adds reserved cart and advanced merchandising. Our 3-year estimate for Core is $1,332.96.

What to watch: Basic charges 2% on store sales. Digital content and memberships carry their own fee: 5% on Core, 1% on Plus, 0% on Advanced. Premium cards cost 3.2% + $0.30 on every plan.

Exit score: 5/10. Products, orders and contacts export to CSV, but store pages are not in the site export. Read our Squarespace review.

4. WordPress.com: best managed WooCommerce

WordPress.com runs WooCommerce for you on its Business and Commerce plans, so you get the WordPress store ecosystem without managing hosting.

Business is $25 a month billed yearly ($40 billed monthly) with WooCommerce and 0% transaction fees. Commerce, at $45 a month billed yearly ($70 billed monthly), adds full store tools and premium store themes. The pricing page doesn’t show renewal prices, so we priced 3-year prepaid terms: $918.96 for Business and $1,422.96 for Commerce.

What to watch: Personal and Premium only offer payment buttons, with 10% and 8% fees. WordPress.com’s payment processing rates were not on the pages we checked.

Exit score: 8/10. Content exports to standard WordPress files, and Business and Commerce can download a full backup. Read our WordPress.com review.

5. Webflow: best for a designer-built catalog

Webflow Ecommerce gives designers full control over product pages and pairs well with a content-heavy marketing site.

Ecommerce Standard is $29 a month billed yearly ($39 billed monthly) with a 2% Webflow fee and a 500-item cap. Ecommerce Plus, at $74 a month billed yearly ($99 billed monthly), removes the fee and allows 5,000 items. Stripe or PayPal fees apply on top. Our 3-year estimates are $1,344.24 for Standard and $2,964.24 for Plus.

What to watch: the top plan caps out at 15,000 items, and building seats are billed separately from the site plan.

Exit score: 6/10. Store data exports as CSV, but the store stops working in an exported copy of the site. Read our Webflow review.

6. Wix: best for a store plus bookings

Wix suits a business that sells products and also takes appointments, since scheduling and a store come together on Core and higher plans.

Core is $29 a month billed yearly with basic ecommerce; Business, at $39 a month billed yearly, steps up to standard ecommerce. Our 3-year estimate for Core is $1,332.96. Light can’t take online payments.

What to watch: we could not confirm Wix Payments’ US card rate, or whether Wix adds any transaction fee, from the pages we checked. Ask before you launch.

Exit score: 3/10. Products export to CSV up to 5,000 rows per file, but digital products and the site itself cannot leave Wix. Read our Wix review.

7. Hostinger: best for the cheapest small store

Hostinger’s builder includes a store for up to 1,000 products on its Premium plan, and Hostinger says it charges no sales commission. Stripe, PayPal and dLocal Go handle payments at their own rates.

Premium is $2.99 a month on a 48-month term paid upfront ($143.52), then $10.99 a month. Our 3-year estimate is $432.48.

What to watch: Hostinger documents no product export, and its WordPress export leaves the store behind. That makes it a poor fit for a store you expect to grow.

Exit score: 3/10. Read our Hostinger review.

When the next plan up pays for itself

Platform fees scale with sales, while plan prices don’t. That makes the upgrade math simple once you know your yearly sales. Here is the break-even point for two common jumps, using prices billed yearly.

• Squarespace Basic to Core. Core costs $120 a year more ($29 vs $19 a month) and removes the 2% store fee. It pays for itself once you sell more than $6,000 a year.
• Webflow Ecommerce Standard to Plus. Plus costs $540 a year more ($74 vs $29 a month) and removes the 2% fee. It pays for itself above $27,000 a year in sales, and it also raises the item cap from 500 to 5,000.

Card processing is a separate charge on every platform, and the platform fee comes on top of it. At $24,000 a year in sales, Squarespace Basic costs $708 a year in plan and platform fees, while Core costs $348, before card fees on either.

Compare the picks

To see what fees would cost at your sales volume, try our cost calculator.

Skip the list if…

• You sell a handful of services, not products. A regular builder with payments is enough; see our small business picks.
• You already run a store elsewhere. Moving products, customers and URLs takes planning; start with how to move your website.
• You want to compare two finalists in detail. See Squarespace vs Shopify or Wix vs Shopify.

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