Ecommerce platform comparison: five options, one decision.

There’s no such thing, and any comparison that names one is selling something. What exists is the platform that fits your situation: how much of the running you want to own, where your ceiling is, and what it costs over three years rather than this month. That’s why this page has no score and no winner – the weight of each row is something only you know.

You shouldn’t trust it blindly – you should check it. That’s why every claim here’s traceable to the detailed comparison it came from, why there are no affiliate links anywhere on this site, and why the table contains three rows Shopify loses: the gateway surcharge, control over URLs and support. A comparison without the losses is an advert.

Only if your own time is free. The licence costs nothing on WooCommerce and PrestaShop, but a real store pays for hosting, a premium theme, paid modules or plugins and, on PrestaShop, an annual renewal at 40% of each module’s price. Add the hours for updates and security and the totals converge. The honest difference isn’t the amount but who carries the work.

Yes, and all of these platforms let your data out – products, customers and order history through export and an API. What doesn’t move is the design and anything living inside plugins or modules. The cost of moving is mostly redirects and rebuilding functionality, which is why choosing with three years in mind is cheaper than choosing for this quarter.

It matters more than almost anything else on this page. Several currencies and languages, VAT rates per country and OSS reporting, carriers and payment methods that differ by market – on a hosted platform that’s configuration, on self-hosted it’s plugins you choose and maintain. If cross-border selling is the plan rather than a maybe, weigh this row heavily.

Usually yes, once I know three things: what you sell, who maintains your store today, and where you want to be in two years. Write a few sentences through the form below and you get a straight answer within 24 hours – including "stay where you are", which is an answer I give regularly.

Every page here carries the month it was checked, and the figures come from the vendors’ own price lists and documentation rather than from other comparison articles. Plans change without notice – BigCommerce moved its sales thresholds in 2026, Shopware prices its cloud on your revenue – so confirm the current plan for your country with the vendor before you decide. If something here has gone out of date, tell me and I’ll fix it.

Up to a point. A shortlist of five is useful for one thing: deciding whether you want a platform that’s run for you or one you run yourself. Once that’s settled the list collapses to two or three, and the detail starts to matter – which is why each pairing has a page of its own instead of a row in a table.