Top 6 Cheap Ecommerce Website Builders For 2024

In this article, we’ll discover the top ecommerce website builders tailored to meet various business needs, from user-friendly interfaces to advanced customization options to help you find the perfect website builder to launch or scale your online store.

Key Takeaways

• Shopify: Best for businesses of all sizes, offering ease of use, diverse themes, and extensive app integrations.
• Mozello: Great for small businesses and entrepreneurs, known for simplicity and multilingual support. 
• Site123: Perfect for beginners with its user-friendly interface, it provides a range of templates. 
• Wix: Suitable for businesses seeking creative control, with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and numerous templates.
• Weebly by Square: Offers simplicity and integration with Square’s payment system, ideal for small to medium businesses. 
• Squarespace: Favored by creative businesses for its beautiful templates and robust blogging features.
• BigCommerce: Excellent for businesses targeting quick scalability, featuring built-in sales tools and multi-channel integration. 

Shopify

Shopify is a top-tier option in selecting the ecommerce website builder, particularly suitable for businesses looking to expand.

Recognized for its flexibility and extensive range of features, Shopify enables users to create scalable online stores. What makes Shopify appealing is its ability to effortlessly incorporate product sales across diverse platforms, such as websites and multiple marketplaces. 

Pros & Cons 

Pros

• Flexibility for All Store Sizes
• Multi-Platform Selling
• Exceptional Design Capabilities
• Extensive App Marketplace
• Diverse Payment Options
• Round-the-Clock Support

Cons

• App Reliance
• High Transaction Fees
• Additional Costs For Third-party Apps

Key features 

User-Friendly Interface 

Shopify’s platform is remarkably user-friendly. Even beginners can set up a Shopify store optimized for search engines within hours. Its intuitive interface and streamlined website design tools make launching an online store a breeze.

Customization Options 

Shopify’s themes are aesthetically pleasing, but the real magic is in personalization. Users can tailor their themes by adding products, rewriting text, replacing images, and creating new pages. The platform offers two main areas for customization: the visual editing interface for design adjustments and the backend dashboard for product management and other operational aspects.

Security Features

Shopify excels in providing a secure shopping environment. It automatically handles cyber threat protection, runs updates, and ensures compliance for online transactions. This includes SSL security, PCI compliance, and regular backups, instilling confidence in the sellers and their customers.

Mobile Responsiveness

With an array of free and premium themes, all Shopify themes are mobile-responsive, an essential feature considering the growing trend of mobile ecommerce.

Pricing 

Shopify offers a three-day free trial followed by a special $1 per month offer for three months. Their pricing plans cater to different business sizes:

• Starter Plan ($5/month): Best for store owners focusing on selling through social media.

• Basic Plan ($39/month): Ideal for individuals and small businesses, offering basic reports, inventory management, shipping discounts, and two staff accounts.
• Shopify Plan ($105/month): Targeted at small businesses, providing professional reports, more inventory locations, excellent shipping discounts, and five staff accounts.
• Advanced Plan ($399/month): Best for medium to large businesses, offering the best of Shopify with custom reporting and the lowest transaction fees.

The website builder is best for 

Shopify is a versatile platform, ideal for stores of all sizes. It’s particularly beneficial for businesses looking to build a scalable online presence encompassing a wide range of built-in features and apps. 

Whether selling on a personal website or across various marketplaces and social media, Shopify caters to a diverse array of ecommerce needs.

Mozello

Mozello has emerged as a notable contender in the website builder market, particularly praised for its simplicity and affordability. It’s an ideal choice for DIY website builders with limited coding knowledge, offering a straightforward path to creating a robust digital storefront.

Pros & Cons 

Pros

• Ease of Use
• Multilingual Support
• Inbuilt eCommerce Functionality
• Free Plan Availability

Cons

• Limited Drag-and-Drop
• Restrained Customization

Key features 

User-Friendly Interface 

Mozello promotes a straightforward website-building experience. The process involves a simple sign-up, template selection, and content insertion. However, it’s worth noting that editing content can be less straightforward. Unlike other builders, Mozello doesn’t use a drag-and-drop system, making content arrangement a bit more cumbersome.

Customization Options 

While Mozello is marketed towards beginners, significant customization requires a basic understanding of coding. Without these skills, users can only tweak fundamental elements like layout and color schemes.

Security Features

Mozello’s approach to security is through partnerships with PCI DSS-compliant payment processors like PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree, ensuring safe credit card transactions. While there is no public statement on data backups, Mozello’s support team does conduct automated daily data backups every six hours. They offer partial data restoration, but it requires specific details from the user.

Mobile Responsiveness

Mozello’s themes are automatically responsive, adjusting to fit smaller screens like mobile devices. However, the lack of a mobile view editor and the absence of a hamburger menu for mobile navigation might be a drawback for some users. 

Pricing 

Mozello’s pricing structure is as follows:

• Free Plan: Basic functionality with limitations.
• Premium: $8/month (annual payment) or $10/month (quarterly payment).
• Premium Plus: $16/month (annual payment) or $20/month (quarterly payment).

The website builder is best for 

Mozello is an excellent choice for small businesses and individuals looking to create a simple online store or showcase their services. Its straightforward approach and multilingual support make it a viable option for those entering the digital marketplace without complex functionalities or extensive customization.

Site123 Website Builder

Site123 specializes in delivering a straightforward website-building experience, tailored for individuals and businesses seeking a fuss-free platform. It’s an ideal solution for those needing a quick and easy way to establish an online presence without delving into complex functionalities.

Pros & Cons 

Pros

• Exceptional Help and Support
• Mobile-Responsive Themes
• Beginner-Friendly Editor

Cons

• Limited Creative Freedom
• Basic Free Plan
• Template Variety
• Ecommerce Limitations

Key features 

User-Friendly Interface 

Signing up with Site123 is a breeze, involving a three-step process that guides you through the type of website you wish to create. The editor is section-based, allowing for the addition of new design elements in a structured manner. However, the lack of drag-and-drop functionality does limit creative control but simplifies the website setup process.

Customization Options 

In my experience, Site123 leans heavily towards simplicity. While this makes it easy to use, customization is somewhat limited. The designs felt repetitive, and the simple editing tools didn’t allow significant alterations. It’s excellent for straightforward, basic websites but may not suffice for those seeking extensive customization or complex site structures.

Security Features

Site123 offers a free SSL certificate and domain privacy protection. It also allows for password protection of your site and includes an autosave and restore feature, safeguarding your work.

Mobile Responsiveness

All themes are mobile-responsive, a critical feature given the increasing reliance on mobile devices for web browsing. The mobile preview tool in the editor is a handy feature to ensure your site looks good on all screen sizes.

Pricing 

• Free Plan: Offers basic functionality with 250 MB storage and bandwidth, but includes ads and uses a subdomain.
• Premium Plan ($7.80/month): Includes a free domain for one year, 3GB storage and bandwidth, the removal of Site123 branding, domain connection, and store functionality.

The website builder is best for 

Site123 is an excellent choice for personal websites or small businesses needing a simple online presence without coding skills. It offers good value for money and is quite user-friendly. However, it might not be the best fit for large ecommerce ventures due to its limited feature set and customization options.

Wix

Wix stands out in the website builder market with its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, diverse templates, and powerful tools. It’s particularly favorable for creating everything from personal portfolios to small business websites, offering a beginner-friendly and scalable free plan as a starting point.

Pros & Cons 

Pros

• User-Friendly Interface
• Built-in SEO Tools
• Extensive Template Collection
• Rich App Integrations
• Free Plan Availability

Cons

• Template Limitations
• Not Ideal for Large Sites
• Additional Costs for Third-party Tools
• Storage Limitations
• Restricted Visitor Analytics

Key features 

User-Friendly Interface 

Wix offers two main approaches to website design:

• Wix ADI: This automated design interface creates a website based on your responses to a few questions. It’s less flexible but incredibly user-friendly for beginners.
• Wix Editor: Provides more creative control with drag-and-drop functionality, allowing precise placement and customization of website elements.

Customization Options 

For the tech-savvy, Velo by Wix offers access to the HTML code for deeper customization. This feature is optional but available for those wanting to delve deeper into web design.

Wix’s vast template library is continually updated to reflect the latest design trends and requirements. The templates are professionally designed, though some may appear a bit dated. So, it’s important to choose your template, as you cannot change it after your site is live.

Security Features

Wix provides robust security features, including:

• In-built SSL Certificate: Ensuring secure HTTPS connections.
• Customer Login Areas: Offering personalized customer experiences.
• Secure Payment Processing: With PCI compliance and double payment authentication, Wix ensures safe online transactions.

Mobile Responsiveness

All Wix websites are designed to be responsive, ensuring a seamless display on desktop and mobile devices.

Pricing 

Wix’s pricing plans cater to different needs:

• Enterprise ($159/month): Unlimited collaborators, multi-site management, and advanced features for large-scale operations.
• Business Elite ($32/month): Suitable for growing businesses with ten collaborators, 100 GB storage, and an advanced marketing suite.
• Core ($27/month): For medium-sized projects with five collaborators and 50 GB storage.
• Light ($16/month): Basic plan offering essential features for small projects.

The website builder is best for 

Wix is an excellent choice for bloggers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners who want a comprehensive yet easy-to-use platform to build their website. Its flexibility and range of e-commerce tools make it an excellent option for those looking to start an online store without a significant initial investment.

Weebly by Square

Weebly, now powered by Square, positions itself as a user-friendly website builder ideal for individuals and small businesses. It offers a straightforward platform focusing on ease of use without demanding extensive technical expertise, making it a viable option for creating professional-looking websites.

Pros & Cons 

Pros

• Free Plan
• Improved App Store
• SEO Support

Cons

• Limited Drag-and-Drop Customization
• Outdated Design Templates
• Poor Mobile Optimization

Key features 

User-Friendly Interface 

Weebly allows you to build your website as it appears online. Its drag-and-drop editor simplifies adding and moving elements like text boxes, images, and buttons. This approach is friendly for those without coding skills, making website building as easy as creating a PowerPoint presentation. However, since being acquired by Square, the editor hasn’t seen significant updates, which means it lacks some modern functionalities offered by other builders.

Customization Options 

Weebly’s fundamental features are user-friendly, yet they present certain constraints for users aiming to customize their websites to specific designs. The platform provides approximately 50 themes that, despite their variety, do not quite reach the sophistication of Wix or Squarespace templates. Typically, these themes emphasize grid layouts and full-screen image backgrounds, which are visually appealing on desktops but may encounter issues on mobile devices.

Security Features

Weebly websites are protected against DDoS attacks, offering advanced cyber attack protection. Additionally, it allows for the automatic activation of SSL certificates, encrypting sensitive data such as passwords and payment details.

Mobile Responsiveness

Despite claims, Weebly’s templates struggle with mobile responsiveness. The designs often translate poorly to smaller screens, leading to formatting issues and potentially impacting the user experience.

Pricing 

Weebly offers several pricing plans:

• Free: Basic functionality.
• Personal ($10/month billed annually): Connect to a custom domain.
• Professional ($12/month billed annually): Additional customization features.
• Performance ($26/month billed annually): Advanced features for growth and operations.

The website builder is best for 

Weebly is an excellent fit for individuals or small businesses seeking to create a professional website with minimal experience. Its straightforward interface and improved app integrations make it a solid choice for those looking to incorporate additional functionalities into their site. However, other platforms might be more appropriate for larger-scale projects or those requiring advanced design and mobile responsiveness.

Squarespace 

Squarespace stands out in the website builder market for its stunning, design-centric templates. It’s an all-in-one platform that simplifies establishing and managing an online presence, making it particularly suitable for showcasing creative projects, membership sites, or selling online courses.

Pros & Cons 

Pros

• Beautiful Templates
• Excellent Marketing Features
• Great Value for Money
• Superb Customer Support

Cons

• Limited Customizability
• Manual Editor

Key features 

User-Friendly Interface 

Squarespace offers a tutorial for first-time users, making navigation through its editor straightforward. While it is a drag-and-drop builder, it’s more section-based than other platforms like Wix, lending to a more structured editing process. This structure ensures a clean and tidy site design, though it might take some time to get accustomed to.

Customization Options 

The flexibility of Squarespace’s templates allows for significant personalization. You can easily replace images, add or delete sections, and manage multiple pages. However, customization is more limited to design settings adjustments, like image layout. One potential challenge is filling the large image blocks that dominate most templates with high-resolution photos.

For those with coding knowledge, there’s an opportunity to customize fonts, colors, and backgrounds. Squarespace’s templates allow for a great deal of style expression without needing to code, including customizing fonts, colors, backgrounds, images, text, and headings.

Security Features

Squarespace ensures security with free SSL certificates for all domains, encrypting data entered on the site. This is crucial for sites processing payments. Additionally, it includes built-in security against malware and DDoS attacks, providing robust protection for your website.

Mobile Responsiveness

All Squarespace templates are responsive, ensuring your site looks great on any device, a crucial feature in today’s mobile-first world.

Pricing 

Squarespace offers various pricing tiers:

• Personal ($23/month billed annually): Basic plan with customizable templates and a free custom domain.
• Business ($33/month billed annually): Advanced features, including website analytics, and ecommerce capabilities, with a 3% transaction fee.
• Commerce Basic ($36/month billed annually): For growing businesses with 0% transaction fees.
• Commerce Advanced ($65/month billed annually): Advanced tools for more complex ecommerce needs.

The website builder is best for 

Squarespace is ideal for individuals, businesses, and creative professionals seeking a sophisticated and easy-to-use platform for building websites. Thanks to its strong marketing and design capabilities, it’s also well-suited for businesses focused on brand development and customer engagement.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is among the most affordable e-commerce website builders, offering a comprehensive set of tools and features for store owners to create and manage their online stores efficiently.

Pros & Cons 

Pros

• No Platform Fees
• Rich In-Built Features
• Efficient Multi-Channel Integration
• Strong SEO Support

Cons

• Complex Setup
• Revenue-Led Billing.

Key features 

User-Friendly Interface 

BigCommerce’s design interface is divided into two sections: managing products and store operations (like discounts and shipping) and editing the storefront. Setting up the inventory section first is recommended before personalizing the storefront. Especially, the introduction of the Store Design tool has enhanced the customization process, reflecting BigCommerce’s commitment to user feedback and ease of use.

Customization Options 

With over 100 themes available, including 15 free and numerous paid options (ranging from $150-$300), BigCommerce offers ample design choices. The platform enables easy theme selection based on industry, layout preference, and pricing, ensuring businesses find a design that resonates with their brand.

Security Features

The Pro plan includes a Custom SSL option, enhancing the security of online transactions and customer data.

Mobile Responsiveness

All themes on BigCommerce are fully responsive. The automatic reformatting of themes for mobile screens ensures a seamless shopping experience for mobile users without additional editing.

Pricing 

BigCommerce offers several pricing tiers to accommodate different business sizes:

• Standard ($39/month): Suitable for establishing an online store with basic features.
• Plus ($105/month): Enhanced with marketing tools for business growth.
• Pro ($399/month): Comprehensive features for scaling businesses.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing tailored for large-scale operations.

The website builder is best for 

BigCommerce is an excellent choice for businesses focusing on multichannel selling and requiring scalable features. It’s particularly beneficial for small businesses and new online shop owners due to its comprehensive toolset. 

Additionally, BigCommerce is a top choice for businesses aiming for rapid expansion, offering the necessary infrastructure and features to support significant growth.

Case Studies: Successful Stores Using Cheap Website Builders

These case studies demonstrate the versatility and effectiveness of affordable website builders in various industries. From fashion retail to hospitality, these platforms offer businesses the tools and features needed to expand their online presence, enhance customer experience, and increase revenue.

Sir

In Sydney, Australia, Sir is an exemplary Shopify store highlighting the platform’s capability to create visually stunning and practical online retail spaces. This fashion store is known for its bold and expansive website design, featuring serene photography that conveys a luxurious and calming vibe. The store successfully captures the essence of its brand through Shopify’s versatile design capabilities, emphasizing a solid visual appeal that enhances the online shopping experience.

RB Windows

RB Windows showcases the innovative potential of Site123 in website design. The site features a unique split-screen design with engaging text and a dynamic slider, making excellent use of Site123’s features. This design incorporates a parallax effect and a partners’ logo slider, all efficiently integrated on a single-page site with a floating navbar. This approach significantly enhances user experience by simplifying navigation and providing an engaging layout.

Alissa Bell

Alissa Bell’s Squarespace store demonstrates how simplicity and elegance can define an online presence. The stationery store features a creative layout with a sophisticated beige color palette, offering an elegant and refined user experience. Its shop page includes a helpful filter-by-category feature, allowing easy navigation through a vast product catalog and showcasing Squarespace’s capabilities in creating aesthetically appealing and functional websites.

Sugarbush 

Using Weebly, Sugarbush Resort exemplifies how hospitality and tourism businesses can successfully branch into e-commerce. In addition to its primary service of mountainside accommodation, Sugarbush has established an online retail store for booking services and souvenir purchases. This expansion into online retail, facilitated by Weebly’s e-commerce features, has significantly contributed to the business’s revenue, with estimates suggesting a substantial financial impact.

Dress Up

Lastly, Dress Up‘s transition from Shopify to BigCommerce highlights the importance of choosing the right platform for specific business needs. Initially opting for Shopify, the business soon migrated to BigCommerce, drawn by its superior API integrations and extensive in-platform app offerings. This move was critical for Dress Up, leading to a notable revenue increase and more efficient online store management. 

This case study underscores BigCommerce’s strengths in scalability and integrated functionalities, essential for businesses experiencing rapid growth and expansion.

How To Select the Right Builder Website

Here’s a guide to help you make an informed choice:

Determine Your Needs and Goals

First, identify what you need from a website builder. Are you creating a personal blog, a portfolio, an e-commerce store, or a business website? Your goals will dictate the features you need. For example, an online store will require robust e-commerce capabilities, while a portfolio site might prioritize visual aesthetics and simplicity.

Consider Ease of Use

If you’re not tech-savvy, look for a website builder with a user-friendly interface. Platforms like Wix and Weebly offer drag-and-drop editors that make it easy to create and customize your website without any coding knowledge. Test the builder with a free trial to ensure you’re comfortable with its interface.

Evaluate Design Flexibility and Templates

The design of your website is crucial. Assess the quality and variety of templates offered by the website builder. Ensure they are responsive (mobile-friendly) and customizable to match your brand’s aesthetic. Squarespace, for example, is known for its stylish and professionally designed templates.

Check for SEO and Marketing Tools

For your website to succeed, it must be visible to your target audience. Consider builders that offer built-in SEO tools to help your site rank higher in search results. Additionally, marketing tools like social media integration, email marketing, and analytics are valuable for growing and understanding your audience.

Assess the Pricing Structure

Compare the pricing plans of various builders. While some offer free basic plans, others require a subscription. Consider the long-term costs, especially if you’re running an e-commerce site, as some platforms charge transaction fees. Always read the fine print to understand what’s included in each plan.

Explore Customer Support and Resources

Good customer support can be a lifesaver, especially if you’re new to website building. Look for platforms that offer reliable support through live chat, email, or phone. Additionally, educational resources like tutorials, forums, and blogs can be invaluable for troubleshooting and learning.

Read Reviews and User Feedback

Finally, consider the experiences of others. Read online reviews and user feedback to gain insights into the pros and cons of each website builder. This real-world information can be crucial in making your final decision.

Wrapping Up         

The builders listed here aren’t just selected for their price tag and proven ability to help various businesses succeed online. Each recommendation is backed by a growth story, aiming to help you choose a platform to elevate your business from the ground up.

Cheap Ecommerce Website Builder: FAQs