7 Best & Cheapest Ecommerce Platforms in 2024

E-commerce is blowing up. And over the years, it has made a massive change in the world economy. The revenue of e-commerce will reach $3,647 billion in 2024. And it is expected to grow 9.83% by 2028. 

However, when trying to establish your e-commerce business, you have gone through many e-commerce platforms. Some of them have high-functionalities, themes, and other features. But as a newbie, you may be looking for a cheap e-commerce platform. 

As the end user, I have good knowledge and years of experience working with most e-commerce platforms. And now, I will discuss the 7 best and cheapest e-commerce platforms in 2024 to build your website. 

What is an E-Commerce Platform?

E-commerce means selling and purchasing products or services through the Internet. It has become a crucial part of our modern economy. Both seller and buyer benefit from this. It allows the sellers to reach more audiences. Also, buyers have a cost-effective and hassle-free shopping experience with it. 

Whether you have a small or large business, e-commerce platforms help you streamline the business smoothly. You can manage your products, inventory management, and customer service. On the other hand, customers can roam around with a cart, discover their products, and check out quickly. 

What to Consider While Choosing the Cheap E-commerce Platforms?

Nowadays, there are so many e-commerce platforms that build websites. But when choosing a cheap e-commerce platform, you must consider some important factors. Here are some of the facts that you need to consider while selecting the best cost-effective e-commerce platform on your budget: 

• User-friendliness: The platform you are choosing must be user-friendly. It should be easy to use, manage, and maintain. It will save you money and time. 

• Templates and Theme Customization: The platform should have a good collection of themes and templates. Also, you need to ensure that the themes are customizable and need high coding skills, or not.

• SEO and Marketing Tools: The most crucial factor is that the platform must build SEO-optimized websites. Also, it must allow the integration of social media and other marketing tools. 

• Security: Safety and security are the first things to consider for an e-commerce website. So, the platform must offer a high-security system and add premium security elements to the website. 

The 7 Best Cheap Ecommerce Platforms in 2024

There are many e-commerce platforms that offer the cheapest and most affordable plans. Here are the 10 best cheap e-commerce platforms to establish your online business. 

1. Woocommerce

There are over 4 million e-commerce websites based on Woocommerce. Along with 39% of market share, it is the most popular e-commerce platform now. However, it is not a stand-alone e-commerce platform. Woocommerce is a plug-in that converts a simple WordPress website to a thriving e-commerce platform. 

Woocommerce is an open-source and free WordPress plug-in, so you don’t have to spend a penny to develop an e-commerce platform. Moreover, it is easy to use and set up. Also, Woocommerce has better scalability and generates SEO-friendly URLs. It increases online visibility and user experience

Additionally, Woocommerce has a massive collection of features and templates. You can build, manage, and customize your website whenever you want. And you don’t even need any technical or coding skills to manage.  

But Woocommerce is a hosting-based platform. You need a hosting provider to manage it. But you need to choose the provider carefully. Woocommerce’s performance and capability depend on the hosting you choose. 

Key Features of Woocommerce

• It is an open-source and easily customizable platform. 
• Woocommerce seamlessly integrates with WordPress websites and drives better results. 
• It has a vast collection of pre-made templates and designs.
• The platform goes very well with SEO and increases online visibility.

Pricing

Woocommerce is entirely free. You can add or manage the templates easily without a single cost. But the hosting service can charge a little.

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2. Magento / Adobe Commerce

Magento is one of the most powerful e-commerce platforms among the cost-effective e-commerce websites. Although Magento or Adobe commerce is an open-source CMS, it is developed by PHP. The central MVC framework allows developers to customize every aspect of a store. 

For the third-party module and theme integrations, the owners can extend functionality and appearance in their online store. Without being a developer, you can easily customize your store’s functionality. 

Magento offers a versatile content management system that allows you to manage all types of content, such as blog posts, product descriptions, page creations, etc. Plus, the drag-and-drop interface offers flexible store management. Magento comes with many productive features that help run your store smoothly at the fastest speed. 

At the same time, Magento has advanced SEO features that help to increase your website conversion rates. And the feature drives more leads in your store. With the security permission feature, you can prevent unauthorized changes from your store. Eventually, it stores your data safely and soundly. 

The mobile-friendly configuration makes mobile responsive and provides a great user experience. Besides, the advanced search functionality helps search products by category, keywords, price, and more. However, the advanced features of Magento save you time and give a productive result for your business. 

Key Features of Magento

• A fully customizable CMS with versatile content management options. 
• It provides advanced SEO and search functionality. 
• The security permission function prevents unauthorized changes in your store. 
• Being the performance-enhancing function, it gives better scalability. 
• It supports third-party integrations that help to include new features and functions. 

Pricing

Magento has both free and paid versions. The free version has limited features and is suitable for small businesses. And the paid version is best for enterprises with more compelling features. 

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3. nopCommerce

nopCommerce is another of the best low-cost e-commerce platforms. The platform is built with Microsoft’s ASP.Net, which has advanced MVC features. So, the developers can customize all aspects of the store from the back end. Furthermore, the store is more scalable and manageable. 

The pre-build SEO tools provide advanced SEO solutions. For that, robot.txt, URL, and XML site map are created and add better navigation. As most of the purchases online come from mobile nopCommerce, it offers ready-made features. So, your store runs on many devices perfectly. 

nopCommerce offers a payment gateway feature that includes 50 different options. As a result, the function makes the checkout process effortless. Although nopCommerce is developed by ASP.Net, it has custom plugins to include functions. 

Furthermore, nopCommerce allows many store management and vendor functionalities. Whether you have two e-commerce stores, you can manage them with it. Additionally, if you want to create an e-commerce platform like Amazon, you can add nopcommerce to your choice. 

Key Features of nopCommerce

• It is an open-source platform that is developed with extensive customizable options. 
• A rich functionality is available on nopCommerce, such as SEO, mobile-friendliness, e-commerce parameters, etc. 
• The built-in integration saves time and money. 
• With a single administration interface, you can manage several stores. 

Pricing

nopCommerce is free to use. The additional cost will include the use of the premium features. 

4. Shopify 

Shopify is a full-focused e-commerce platform. This platform allows anyone to start, manage, and grow their e-commerce business. Mainly, it is a single platform that helps to manage all the commercial activities by one admin. Around 4.8 million online stores use Shopify and have 2.1 million active users daily.

The primary reason people use Shopify is because it is easy to use. You don’t need to have any developer or high technical skills. Adding new products, managing orders, creating discounts, and other processes are easy to maintain. In fact, you can set up your whole e-commerce business in just 4 minutes with Shopify. 

Another thing is that Shopify has built-in SEO optimization features. So, it helps to grow your e-commerce business and increase your online visibility. Also, It allows you to integrate your website with other social media platforms.

Shopify is not just easy to use but also easily customizable. It has a huge collection of customizable templates. Each theme and template is customizable, so you can customize and code them by your choice, making your website more lucrative. 

This e-commerce platform also offers good, responsive support. It makes your website load faster and device-friendly. Moreover, Shopify provides a high-security support. It keeps your and your customer’s information safe. The updates never create any backdoors, so information leaks or hacking is impossible.

Key Features

• Shopify is an absolute e-commerce platform. It is easy to set up, manage and maintain. Moreover, it is the perfect platform for e-commerce businesses. 
• It is very affordable and best for start-ups. 
• Shopify goes well with SEO and easily integrates with other social media platforms. 
• It has an abandoned cart feature that reminds your customers to complete their purchase. 
• Again, it is safe and secure and offers better responsive support. 

Pricing

Shopify is very affordable for start-ups and even small e-commerce businesses. The basic package costs up to $30 per month. And it has its hosting service, so you don’t need to spend extra money for hosting. 

5. Opencart

Opencart is another popular open-source e-commerce platform. That means you can build your e-commerce business with this platform free of cost. Opencart, built with PHP and MVC structure, creates robust e-commerce platforms. Opencart has over 8 lac users now. 

The platform is very beginner-friendly. You can create your e-commerce website by yourself by following some steps. The admin panel is easy to use as well. This platform makes product adding, order managing, and managing customer information very easy. Also, Opencart has over 13000 functions and pre-made templates to make your website more appealing. 

Again, Opencart has built-in SEO functionalities. It helps your website rank high on search engines and increase online visibility. Opencart also allows you to add other social media platforms and accelerates your marketing and branding process. 

Even though Opencart is free, it offers excellent security support. It keeps all your and your customer’s information safe. And you can add multiple payment gateways and currencies to your website. You can track the delivery process, delivery area, and tax calculation. 

Key Features

• Opencart is an open-source and easy-to-access e-commerce platform. 
• It allows you to manage various stores with just one single admin dashboard. 
• Opencart has an in-built affiliate program. 
• The platform also allows you to have backup and restore programs for the products and services. 

Pricing

Opencart is an open-source platform. So, you don’t need to spend any money to build your website. Along with that, it has no transactional fees. 

6. Squarespace

Squarespace is an all-in-one solution for building an e-commerce website. It is a perfect CMS that creates a robust website for your business. Again, Squarespace makes a professional website that connects your audience and increases your business credibility. According to stats, Squarespace powers 1.7% of all internet websites and has 3.79 million subscribers. 

Squarespace is a user-friendly platform. You can build, manage, and maintain your e-commerce website from just one admin. The platform has a drag-and-drop design that makes adding and managing your product easy. Additionally, Squarespace has no plug-in functionality. 

The content management system has enormous collections of pre-made templates and functionalities. You can customize them to your choice. You can change the images, fonts, colors, typography, etc. 

Squarespace uses the best practice of SEO. It has built-in SEO practices that help to rank your website high and increase visibility. Moreover, it integrates your website with other social media platforms. Besides, you can add other tools such as Google Analytics, Mailchimp, Payment processors, and Amazon. 

Coupled with that, Squarespace offers good, responsive support. It builds a mobile-friendly website that fits any screen size or resolution. Also, the website loads faster, which helps expand your business. Again, it provides high-security support to your website. 

Key Features

• Squarespace allows you to code if you want. You can fix them and customize the lines of code you want. 
• It is easy to use, manage, and maintain. 
• You can use the premade templates and customize them to your choice. 
• Squarespace offers high-security support. Also, you can create password-protected pages to secure your website information more efficiently. 

Pricing

Squarespace has subscription plans for the subscribers. The basic plan starts from $16 per month. It is very affordable and has no other transaction fees. Another is that Squarespace has its hosting service. So, you need to spend extra money on hosting services. 

7. PrestaShop

PrestaShop is another open-source e-commerce platform that builds impressive websites for your business. It makes robust, feature-rich websites that easily grab your client’s attention and increase conversions. PrestaShop was established in 2007 and is available in 65 international languages. 0.8% of all websites use PrestaShop. 

PrestaShop is very easy to install and manage. Even if you are a newbie, you can build your website without any hassle. The system is so easy that you need only a few clicks to set up the website. Moreover, the file size is 6 MB, so you can easily do the entire setup even if you have a slow internet connection. 

This growing platform has over 200 pre-made templates and is rich in feature themes. You can customize the themes and templates as per your choice. PrestaShop is so flexible that it allows you to add and delete features quickly. You can even customize a specific area with this platform. 

Key Feature

• PrestaShop is written in PHP language and supports MySQL databases. So, you can make robust e-commerce websites free of cost. 
• It offers sound, responsive support and loads faster than any other website. 
• The platform is so user-friendly that you can build an amazing website with basic tech knowledge. 
• PrestaShop goes very well with SEO and increases your website ranking effortlessly. 

Pricing

PrestaShop is an open-source platform. It doesn’t require any money to build a website. However, PrestaShop needs a hosting provider that charges a little. 

Which Is the Best Platform According to Business Demand?

In today’s growing market, tons of e-commerce platforms build e-commerce websites. Each of them makes unique websites and helps to grow e-commerce businesses. And obviously, all the platforms have their distinct features and functions. 

However, not all e-commerce platforms can meet your unique business needs. After a thorough analysis, I have decided on the best e-commerce platform according to your business demands. 

• For Small Businesses or Start-ups

If you have a small business or start-up, then WordPress+Woocommerce is the best platform for you. Woocommerce is an open-source and easy-to-use e-commerce platform. It integrates with WordPress and builds a user-friendly e-commerce website. It helps you add new products and manage products and customer details. 

• For Medium Businesses or Growth-stage Companies

For medium and growth-stage businesses, WordPress+Woocommerce and Magento are the best options. Both of the platforms are free to use and beginner-friendly. You can build robust and high-security websites with Magento. Both have affordable hosting plans that help you manage your growing business smoothly. 

• For Large Businesses or Large Enterprises

You need a robust website with high security when you have a large business or enterprise. nopCommerce and Custom Laravel allow you to build a gigantic feature-rich website. nopCommerce is free to use but charges little to add premium features. Yet, both platforms are very affordable for large businesses. 

WooCommerce Vs. Magento Vs. nopCommerce Vs. Shopify Vs Custom 

Our Recommended E-commerce Platforms

Now you know about the 7 best cost-effective e-commerce platforms. So, you can easily choose one according to your business demand. But if you ask me, I would recommend WordPress + Woocommerce for small businesses, Magento for medium size businesses and custom (Laravel/React) for large enterprises. 

Woocommerce is free to use and novice-friendly. So, it is the absolute platform when your budget is low, and you want a good website. On the other hand, if you want to build a hefty website with high security and functionalities, you must go for the custom ecommerce development with Laravel or React. 

Final Verdict

Through this blog, I have discussed the 7 best and cheapest ecommerce platforms. All of them are not only affordable but also user-friendly and rich in features. 

As I have already said, E-commerce has a continued pace. And it is a very essential part of our economy. So, it is high time to be a part of the economy. With the cheap e-commerce platforms, you don’t need a million dollars to sail your ship. So, start your journey and be part of the most significant change in the world’s modern economy.

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