E-Commerce is one of the most important steps towards digitalization for your company or large-medium-small business. Most small businesses are very concerned about the costs involved and are looking for solutions. And there are several popular e-commerce platforms that offer free or low-cost options.

In this article, we will present the best and most popular free e-commerce platforms that you can use to create an online store. We will also talk about their advantages and disadvantages.

How to Choose the Best Free eCommerce Platform?

Even if the eCommerce platform itself is free, you will have to pay for the domain name, hosting, payment processing fees and expenses.

Create e-commerce websites You can read our related article.

However, your goal should be to find an e-commerce platform that will help you get started at minimal or no cost, without imposing severe limitations on how you run your business.

You also want the platform to be fully featured, easy to use, with the ability to accept payments using your preferred payment methods.

Receiving WordPress Payments You can get detailed information by reading our article on the subject.

With that in mind, let's take a look at the best free e-commerce platforms you can use to make money online and grow your business.

1. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the world. It is a Free E-commerce Platform that you can download and run on any web hosting provider.

WooCommerce Advantages

• Getting started with WooCommerce is very easy. You can build your e-commerce site very quickly. There are also many payment pluginyou can easily find.
• You will host your website yourself, which gives you complete control.
• There are many that give you the opportunity to create a store that truly reflects your brand WooCommerce Theme  There are.
• There are many ways to add new features and stay ahead of the competition. WooCommerce plugin There is.
• With WooCommerce, you can make sales such as physical, digital, membership plans.
• WooCommerce does not charge you any transaction fees. You only need to pay your payment service provider such as PayPal or Stripe or your bank.

WooCommerce Disadvantages

• If you are a complete beginner, WooCommerce will challenge you at some points. For example, you will need to purchase hosting and a domain name.
• You are responsible for maintaining your online store as it grows. This might mean upgrading your hosting plan or paying for a security plugin for WordPress.

2. Constant Contact

Free E-commerce Platform Constant Contact has a free plan that allows you to create an online store without spending anything. Constant Contact will host the store and even provide you with a free subdomain.

You can sell up to 3 products in your store, or you can upgrade to the paid version and sell more than 3 products.

It's worth noting that Constant Contact charges a % 3 transaction fee if you're on the Free or Starter plan.

Constant Contact Advantages

• With Constant Contact you can create an online store for free. You can also get a domain name for free.
• You can sell both physical and digital products in your store and keep track of your inventory
• A 24/7 email and live support system is available on the free plan.

Constant Disadvantages of Contact

• You cannot use your own domain name with the free plan.
• If you use the free plan, Constant Contact will display its ads on your site.

3. BuyNow Plus

Free E-commerce Platform BuyNow Plus is not a full e-commerce platform. Instead, you can use "Buy Now" buttons that you can use on any site.

To use BuyNow Plus, you need to create a free Stripe account.

BuyNow Plus Pros

• There is a transaction fee, % 2 commission fee. Note, however, that Stripe charges its own transaction fees on top of this.
• You can use BuyNow Plus to process recurring payments on credit cards without your customers having to open an account.
• You can put the button links on your website as well as on social media or even use them in emails.
• There is no limit to how many different products you can sell using BuyNow Plus.

BuyNow Plus Cons

• BuyNow Plus doesn't offer anything extra like inventory tracking or website creation.
• You can do something similar using Stripe directly on your website. You need your own SSL certificate.

4. BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a free eCommerce platform that you can use to build your eCommerce store. If you have an existing WordPress site where you want to use BigCommerce, a WordPress plugin is also available.

While they don't have a free plan, there is a free trial that allows you to set up your store and get started at no cost.

BigCommerce  Advantages

• You do not need to enter any credit card information to upgrade to the free trial.
• You can easily build your e-commerce site on BigCommerce.
• You can get a free domain like mystore.mybigcommerce.com If you don't want to pay for a custom domain name.
• BigCommerce offers you many different ways to get paid.
• There are many third-party apps you can add to your BigCommerce store to extend its functionality.

BigCommerce  Disadvantages

• The free trial lasts only 15 days, which doesn't give you much time to start monetizing your store. After that, you'll need to pay 29.95 $ or more per month to keep your store going.
• BigCommerce is an all-in-one platform, which means you are limited to using their plugins and themes. You won't have the range of choice you would have with some other e-commerce options.

5. Shopify

Free Ecommerce Platform Shopify is another fully hosted e-commerce platform. Shopify also offers a 14-day free trial, and like BigCommerce's free trial this does not require a credit card.

Shopify Advantages

• Shopify is really easy to get started with. Their website builder has a drag and drop interface, which means that even beginners can create a great looking online store.
• If you want to add extra features to your store, there is an app store with many plugins you can buy.
• 24/7 support is available via live chat, phone, email and Twitter.
• Shopify Payments (Shopify's built-in payment gateway) charges % 2.9 plus 30 cents per transaction. This makes it easy for users to get started, as it's a built-in feature with the same price as Stripe or other gateways.

Shopify Disadvantages

• If you use other payment gateways such as PayPal or Stripe, Shopify% charges 2 transaction fees.
• The free trial only lasts for 14 days. After that, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan. The cheapest plan is 29 dollars / month

Related: For more details Shopify and WooCommerce see our comparison

6. Weebly

Free E-commerce Platform Weebly While it's not as well known as some other e-commerce platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, it does have a free trial.

Weebly Advantages

• You can add and sell all kinds of physical or digital products to your store.
• With drag and drop, it's easy to build your site and manage the items in your store.
• There are around 100 different themes (designs) to choose from, so you should be able to find something that is exactly right for your site.
• Built-in inventory, transportation, tax management features.
• Besides the community forum, the free plan gives you access to live chat, email and even phone support.
• If you want to upgrade to a paid plan, these are affordable even for very small businesses. The e-commerce starter plan starts at US$12 per month, paid annually.

Weebly Disadvantages

• Weebly, % charges 3 transaction fees.
• If you have Free or Personal ($9 per month) plans, Weebly will show ads and branding from Square, Weebly's parent company.
• Even with the paid starter plan, you can only sell 25 products at a time.

7. Big Cartel

Free E-commerce Platform Big Cartel is a hosted e-commerce platform designed specifically for artists and creatives. If you want to have a store selling handmade products or similar items, this could be a great option for you.

Big Cartel  Advantages

• There are no transaction fees on the free plan. However, you will have to pay Stripe or PayPal fees (these are the only options Big Cartel offers for payment processing).
• Your free store URL is customizable. Ad.bigcartel.com in the form of must but you can choose whatever you want for the name. Many other platforms assign you a specific URL based on your username or store name and you cannot change it.
• You can have up to 5 products on your free plan, making it more generous than other hosted free plans.
• Setting up your store is quick and adding your products is easy. Big Kartel walks you through the process step by step.

Big Cartel Disadvantages

• If you want to customize the theme of your website, you need to edit the HTML of the theme. This is definitely not as beginner-friendly as most other e-commerce platforms.
• The free plan only has limited features. If you want to use things like inventory tracking or discount codes, you'll need to upgrade to a paid plan.