Are you looking to build your eCommerce store but you’re not sure where to start?
Ecwid offers first-time online store owners a platform to get set up because it’s a plugin that you just add to your site and edit the HTML or JavaScript.
The online store builder is easy to embed on your website and integrate with blogs, mobile apps, and social media business pages. It’s available in more than 175 countries and used by over 40,000 business stores.
You also get a free single-page site dubbed the Free Instant Site or Starter Site, which makes the plugin popular for online entrepreneurs.
However, Ecwid has its downsides. The plugin is limited in functionality and the single-page site isn’t good for the long-term if you want to grow and nurture a professional image for your brand.
Plus, Ecwid has no SEO editing in its free plan, and you can’t build a complete storefront with the plugin alone. You also need an app to add its shopping cart to your site, and its features or customization options may be confusing – especially for newbies.
All these drawbacks can make it more painful trying to set up your online storefront the first time – but there are other options. In this post, we’ll provide the 15 best Ecwid alternatives you can choose from to find a simple and effective solution for your online business.
Best Ecwid Alternatives
1. Shopify
Shopify is one of the leading platforms on which you can build your online store. The eCommerce platform doubles as a shopping cart plugin and provides a wide range of features like inventory and order management, email marketing, a loyalty program, and mobile access among others.
You also get refund management, discount and catalog management, inventory control, coupon, and inventory configurator.
Shopify is great to use if you can set up a store regardless of how big or small it is. Unlike Ecwid, which has a smaller customer base, Shopify’s has grown since it was first established in 2006.
Plus, Shopify works well for any size of business compared to Ecwid, which is built for small and medium-sized stores.
Shopify is easy to use and creates better website designs than Ecwid, has more features, and offers better pricing as you get more bang for your buck.
Set up your ecommerce store, pick a plan later. Check special pricing for Shopify =>
2. Magento
Magento is another free and open-source eCommerce platform that business owners go to when planning their websites. The platform offers a hosted option and is useful when you plan to scale up or need a permanent solution when starting out.
It’s bigger in terms of scaling compared to Ecwid, powerful, feature-rich, and has many more features. Plus, it’s more customizable than Ecwid, being open source, and you get more options to add custom features provided you have the budget for it.
Magento is also highly scalable for bigger stores, making it a better choice compared to Ecwid if you’re looking to grow. The robust eCommerce solution has a wide feature list with everything from client and marketing analysis, and you can add almost any type of feature to your store.
It’s flexible, offers plenty of marketing tools, has a large community of users, and has a rich inventory.
3. Volusion
Volusion is a SaaS platform that offers software updates, web hosting, and other tools you need to handle your online site on your own. The software is easy to use: create your account, sign in, and set it up.
It’s an easy-to-use platform with clear workflows and is simple enough for any kind of user. It also has a good number of features compared to Ecwid that provides better eCommerce functionality.
You also get better web design, which is far superior to Ecwid’s free site, better pricing, and more features for your money.
If you opt to lower the costs of starting up your online store or you don’t intend to sell many products, Volusion is worth considering. You don’t have to spend so much on extensions and add-ons. There are many features built into the dashboard, and you don’t pay transaction fees on some plans.
You also get gift certificates, email marketing tools, newsletters, affiliate programs, and more. There’s a mobile app and you can process phone orders. You also don’t have to know or perform any coding, and there are video tutorials to help you get set up, along with over 30 payment gateways.
4. WooCommerce
WooCommerce allows you to build an online store or plugin to more stores and get to use multiple eCommerce features. The software integrates with other platforms so you can extend their functionality and capabilities on your own store.
Plus, you get other features for eCommerce such as customer accounts, shopping carts, order/returns/customer relations/promotions/multi-store management, template catalog, email marketing, and more.
It’s a great tool for small online and large stores, and it’s open-source compared to Ecwid, meaning you can access the free version. You can also train for WooCommerce through documentation, and it’s supported by SaaS and Windows platforms compared to Ecwid, which is only supported by SaaS platforms.
Plus, WooCommerce is more popular and established compared to Ecwid – which was set up in 2009. WooCommerce works best for those with coding knowledge and allows for more customization.
Ecwid has restricted its source code, so you won’t get many customization options.
Explore the best alternatives to WooCommerce.
5. Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Salesforce Commerce Cloud blends eCommerce functionalities, an online store, predictive intelligence, mobile POS, and order management.
Unlike Ecwid, which is built for SMBs, this tool works for any size of business – small, medium, or large enterprises. And you can categorize its features into intelligence, experience, and operations.
The experience features include pricing, promos, product management, and customer engagement, while operations features focus on multichannel operation and order fulfillment.
Intelligence features, on the other hand, include refunds, loyalty programs, and customer accounts among others.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud offers a pricing model based on quotes, while Ecwid features free versions – annual and monthly pricing models – but lacks a free version.
Plus, it supports Linux OS while Ecwid doesn’t, and you can integrate personal themes, which Ecwid doesn’t provide in plenty. Salesforce Commerce Cloud also provides better-targeted advertising, which includes customer segmentation.
6. BigCommerce
BigCommerce offers SaaS eCommerce services, and you can set up your online store and integrate features for shopping carts. The tool offers inventory control, refunds/returns/discount/promotions/tax management, order management, product ratings and reviews, and more.
Any type and size of business – small, medium, and large – can use BigCommerce, which is superior to other platforms on this list because of more features, less need for extra-charge apps, and no transaction fees.
Compared to Ecwid, BigCommerce lets you establish your store from the ground up while Ecwid uses your existing site. Plus, Ecwid isn’t fit for large enterprises, while BigCommerce works for any size of business.
BigCommerce also provides more features than Ecwid, better web design even with its limited number of themes, and far more value for money than Ecwid – which makes it a better deal.
Interesting Post: Shopify vs Squarespace vs BigCommerce
7. AmeriCommerce
AmeriCommerce provides eCommerce solutions and shopping carts in one platform. It uses a business-to-business model and features include inventory control, credit card processing, abandoned cart solutions, product ratings and reviews, catalog/returns/refunds management, shipping and tax management, plus more.
The features for eCommerce include loyalty programs, customer accounts, mobile commerce, order and catalog management, mobile access, and email marketing among others.
The software is best fit for retailers and online stores – which manage large volumes of products and anyone dealing with complicated products.
AmeriCommerce is built for large product volumes compared to Ecwid that deals in small and medium-sized volume. Plus, you get refunds and returns management, which isn’t available in Ecwid, and AmeriCommerce is online-based.
8. Sellfy
Sellfy is an easy-to-set-up, super simple, user-friendly eCommerce software that was created for selling digital products. It has all the features for you to sell physical items and subscriptions, and you can build a store in less than five minutes.
The platform offers a native print on demand service without needing integrations, so you can easily create and start selling custom items, home décor, and other products.
It offers a generous free plan, and you can create a fully customizable storefront, compared to Ecwid. Plus, you get built-in email marketing, subscribers, discounts, and more.
You can also embed the buy now or shopping cart button on your entire online store in a few clicks. The experience is smooth, simple, and easy. You get built-in email marketing, native PWYW feature, unlimited number of products, mobile app, and more.
9. PrestaShop
PrestaShop is an open-source, self-hosted solution that helps you build your eCommerce store. The software is free to download and you can set it up or modify it however you want.
The solution is convenient for creating unique eCommerce stores and building a memorable brand for success in the long term. And like any other open-source tool, you can access the code that PrestaShop uses on their software, making your store even more flexible in terms of configuration than Ecwid.
You’ll need your own hosting, and technical experience to build a PrestaShop store though. If you’re not familiar with coding, you can get a developer to help you set things up and handle the technical aspects when you have issues or want to make any modifications.
PrestaShop is completely free to use and doesn’t take any percentage of your store sales. You get unique customizability and over 1500 store templates in its marketplace.
Plus, there’s a strong user community, unlimited number of products, native marketing tools, and support for multiple currencies and languages.
10. Shift4Shop
Shift4Shop is a SaaS eCommerce platform rich in the features and benefits that Ecwid lacks. It has no transaction fees and more native tools that reduce the need to add more apps while keeping your budget predictable.
The free end-to-end eCommerce plan comes with lots of pro-level features and can be scaled by any size and type of business – startup or enterprise – which can use the free plan and get everything the software provides.
You get the best tools and features to build and grow your store, reach your goals, and more. These features include industry-leading SEO, robust inventory management, marketing tools, and more – which Ecwid doesn’t provide in such quantity.
You get hosting, software updates, security, and other technical details without the limitations of a free site that Ecwid has.
The free plan is also unlimited with hundreds of features that are usually found in pricey pro plans, making it superior to the free plan by Ecwid.
Many of its features including eCommerce essentials aren’t available in Ecwid even though you need them to sell online like shipping label printing or returns system.
You also get to build your site completely with the full functionality of an online store, including category and content pages, a native blog, and more.
Shift4Shop also provides better cutting-edge SEO including the freedom to adjust and customize URLs and native optimizations. You can also choose from a wide range of free and premium eCommerce themes with various features and looks for any brand compared to Ecwid.
11. Pinnacle Cart
Pinnacle Cart is a fully customizable eCommerce solution that’s been around for over a decade or more now.
The software offers image and order management, inventory tracking, cart management, product attributes, import & export, adaptation to various languages and currencies, payment and shipping options, wholesale and dropshipping, business analytics, customer registration, and reports among others.
The software can adapt to the needs of small and big brands including those that do business in other countries.
Ecwid only caters to SMBs and freelancers, while Pinnacle Cart can accommodate all including large enterprises. Plus, you get a free trial, and refunds and returns management – which Ecwid lacks.
12. Shopping Cart Elite
With Shopping Cart Elite, you can get so many eCommerce solutions in one platform. It integrates with others like Google Shopping, eBay, Amazon, and more.
Plus, you get features like CRM, data entry, automation, B2B support, marketplace integrations, online store security, and tax management among others.
Unlike Ecwid, which works best for freelancers and SMBs, Shopping Cart Elite supports those and large enterprises as well.
13. Systum
Systum is not as popular as other solutions on this list but the cloud-based eCommerce software allows you to consolidate a wide range of important apps and functionalities under one roof. This way, you can enhance your wholesale distribution.
Among the features you’ll get that may not be available in Ecwid include multi-channel sales, centralized inventory, inventory management, warehouse management, a B2B portal, mobile apps, third-party logistics, real-time shipping rates, tracking, POS, and omnichannel eCommerce, among others.
Plus, Systum supports multiple types of business compared to Ecwid, which is mostly for SMBs. Systum is used by B2B eCommerce, multichannel sellers, online B2B retailers, and SMBs in wholesale distribution.
14. Maropost
Maropost was Neto earlier. It is cloud-based and used in retail and wholesale management. It has integrations and features that give your business a competitive edge while creating a user experience that’s consistent.
Among its key features include inventory tracking, POS, inventory management, barcode scanning customer history, statistics and reporting, and loyalty, among many others.
It can be used by any type and size of business including large eCommerce establishments, which Ecwid doesn’t support.
Plus, it has a free plan and offers return management as well.
Also Read: Neto vs Shopify
15. Wix Stores
Wix is a popular brand in the online store and web design business. This hosted eCommerce solution provides the primary functionality that Wix gives and you don’t need much experience if any to develop your store.
You get a drag and drop web builder with over 500 templates to choose from to build your beautiful store. It was initially not meant for online stores, but over time, its ease of use and pure eCommerce solution grew into a popular software for many businesses.
It has an eCommerce plan that rivals Ecwid and provides certain levels of control and features. You get a free domain for a year, plus ad vouchers for your site, 20GB storage, and two premium add-ons for free.
The platform offers an extensive add-on library, a simple interface, modern templates, a mobile app, and an API for integrations and customization.
Wrapping Up
Whether you’re a startup or an established brand, you need an easy-to-use platform to set up your online store and do business with your customers and prospects.
Any of these 15 Ecwid alternatives offer a great platform from which you can get started, some with free and pro versions with multiple features and integrations that Ecwid lacks.
With this information in mind, it’s easy to pick the platform that best suits your business needs and goals.
