
With over a dozen CMSs catering to e-commerce stores today, we understand that it’s complicated for online entrepreneurs like yourself to choose.
From industry leaders like Shopify and Magento to open-source solutions like WooCommerce and PrestaShop, the choices seem endless…and endlessly confusing.
The stakes, however, are far too high to leave this decision to guesswork.
Settle for the wrong fit, and you invite higher costs, needless complexity, and time-draining workarounds down the road.
In this blog post, I will cut through the confusion by highlighting the 12 best CMS platforms to help you run a successful e-commerce business.
Alright, let’s get started right away!
1. Shopify
(3-day trial, paid plan starts at $39/month)
Shopify is a user-friendly, all-in-one e-commerce platform that lets you create beautiful online stores and sell across multiple sales channels.
With its intuitive drag-and-drop store builder, hundreds of professional themes, one-click setup, and more, Shopify simplifies the complexities.
Shopify handles all the technical heavy lifting while giving you complete control over the look, content, and functionality of your stores through an easy-to-use dashboard.
As your business scales, your Shopify store seamlessly scales with you – it can manage inventories of tens of thousands of products just as well as a dozen.
An added advantage is Shopify’s integration with over 6,500 apps and sales channels.
You can sync your product data and order information across marketplaces like Amazon, payment platforms, marketing, and operational tools.
Shopify also has built-in mobile optimization and hassle-free mobile management on all plans.
Shopify Features
- Intuitive store builder with themes
- Drag and drop interface
- Mobile optimized
- Scales with business
- Apps and integrations
- Secure hosted platform
- Inventory and order management
2. WooCommerce
(Free WordPress plugin)
WooCommerce is a great choice for entrepreneurs looking to add e-commerce to an existing site, customize their brand identity, and manage a growing product line – all for zero software or transaction fees.
It is a free, open-source WordPress plugin that provides robust e-commerce functionality to existing WordPress websites.
WooCommerce allows you to turn any WordPress site into a customized online store with very little technical expertise required.
One of the major benefits of WooCommerce for online merchants is easy integration if you already use WordPress for your site.
Not only that, but you also get hundreds of free and paid design themes to tailor the look and feel, built-in store management tools like cart and checkout, and a scalable platform that can grow with your inventory needs.
For most small to medium online stores, WooCommerce strikes an ideal balance of affordability, customization, and ease of use by tapping into the WordPress ecosystem.
WooCommerce Features
- Easy integration with existing WordPress sites
- Customizable storefront design themes
- Built-in store management capabilities
- Scales with a growing inventory
- Extend functionality via plugins
- Affordable and no transaction fees
- Large WordPress community support
3. BigCommerce
(15-day trial, paid plan starts at $39/month)
BigCommerce is an e-commerce SaaS platform for small business owners, online retailers, and e-commerce entrepreneurs.
It offers an easy-to-use drag-and-drop store builder with professional templates and themes to customize the design and shopping experience.
You can choose from over 100 mobile-optimized themes with just a few clicks.
BigCommerce also packs built-in blogging features, SEO tools, and social media integration to help drive organic traffic and establish a brand voice.
For inventory and order management, BigCommerce provides robust cataloging, cart recovery, and shipping capabilities right out of the box.
It easily handles thousands of SKUs.
It also integrates with all major payment gateways, shipping carriers like UPS, and FedEx, accounting software, POS systems, and sales channels like Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram.
BigCommerce Features
- Drag-and-drop store builder
- 100+ professional mobile-optimized themes
- Built-in blogging and SEO
- Robust inventory and order management
- Payment gateways integration
- Real-time analytics
4. Magento
(Pricing not disclosed)
Magento (Now: Adobe Commerce) is a flexible and innovative e-commerce platform.
Integrating robust commerce functionality and seamless integration with Adobe Experience Cloud applications, it delivers enterprise-grade capabilities made accessible for companies of all sizes.
With Adobe Commerce’s Page Builder tool, drag-and-drop interface, and 100+ responsive themes, you can quickly build and customize online storefronts suited to your brand without needing developers.
Native AI capabilities drive higher conversions by delivering personalized recommendations and promotions.
The integrated business intelligence dashboard provides data-rich insights to optimize merchandising, marketing, and operations.
Adobe’s extensive partner ecosystem offers 6,500+ third-party extensions to customize every aspect including payments, shipping, accounting, marketing channels, and more.
Magento Features
- CMS with WYSIWYG editor for rich content pages
- SEO capabilities like meta tags, descriptions, sitemaps, URLs
- Catalog management with support for different product types
- Marketing tools for promotions, pricing, recommendations
- Order and customer management
- Multiple storefronts, languages, and currencies
- Integrations with ERP, order management, and other systems
5. PrestaShop
(Open source software, free to use)
PrestaShop is an open-source e-commerce platform that enables you to launch a customized online store on a budget.
Given PrestaShop is open-source, you get full control to tailor everything from site design to functionality by modifying code – no restrictive vendor limits.
With over 300 free responsive templates and themes to select from, you can craft stores reflecting your unique brand identity.
PrestaShop packs built-in marketing and promotional capabilities like coupons integrated with stock levels, email campaigns tracking customer groups, plus SEO optimization.
This allows you to drive sales without added tools.
Payment and shipping options from leading carriers are pre-configured too, minimizing headaches for new sellers.
PrestaShop Features
- Open source e-commerce CMS allowing customization and editing of files
- 300+ free responsive templates
- Built-in marketing capabilities like coupons, email campaigns, etc
- Integrated global shipping and payment options
- Fully customizable – themes, layout, design
- Integrates with payment gateways, shipping solutions & marketplaces
6. OpenCart
(Open source, free to use)
OpenCart is an open-source, free e-commerce platform enabling you to launch online stores quickly by providing a visually polished interface plus powerful store management tools.
After a quick and easy installation process, you can directly start uploading products into a professionally designed catalog.
Dashboard controls give you extensive ability to manage customer accounts, shipping rules, stock quantities, pricing strategies, and sales reports from one centralized location.
OpenCart also fully optimizes stores for mobile shoppers. You can conveniently track and respond to orders on the go with dedicated mobile tools.
For enhancing functionality, OpenCart grants the flexibility to choose from over 13,000 extensions suited for your specific operational needs – whether multi-location inventory syncing, custom packaging options, or niche payment systems.
OpenCart Features
- Free open-source platform
- Professionally designed templates
- Powerful dashboard to manage all store operations
- Mobile shopping optimized
- 13,000+ extensions deliver flexibility
7. CS-Cart
(Online demo available, paid plan starts at $1250/year)
CS-Cart is an open-source e-commerce platform enabling entrepreneurs to launch customized online stores and marketplaces to sell products or services.
It comes packed with hundreds of built-in features to handle catalog management, inventory tracking, shipping logistics, promotion capabilities, and secure payments right out of the box.
For those striving to build multi-vendor marketplaces, CS-Cart streamlines the heavy lifting.
It enables key functions like seller commissions, storefront customization, and unlimited vendor provision.
Marketplace owners and sub-merchants also get dedicated dashboards providing holistic visibility into operations.
CS-Cart shines with responsive store design templates your brand can fully customize without coding skills.
As you scale product lines, CS-Cart flexibly grows with your catalog seamlessly supporting up to 100,000 SKUs.
CS-Cart Features
- Built-in functionality for catalog, inventory, payments, shipping etc
- Multi-vendor marketplace support
- Responsive storefront design and themes
- Scales to support up to 100,000 products
- 1,000+ third-party extensions for added capabilities
8. nopCommerce
(Open source, free to use)
nopCommerce is an open-source e-commerce platform that developers and those with coding experience can download and customize for free to set up an online store.
A major benefit of nopCommerce is the high degree of customizability stemming from its open-source nature.
You can freely modify the codebase to tailor the platform precisely to your business needs.
There is also strong community support via discussion forums where over 300,000 nopCommerce users share advice and help each other out.
Built-in capabilities like automated tax calculation, shipping rate lookup, and promo management help simplify key e-commerce operations for merchants.
It easily handles complex product catalogs spanning thousands of SKUs.
However, the open-source flexibility comes at the cost of a steep learning curve for non-developers.
nopCommerce Features
- Open-source platform enabling full customization
- Strong community support via forums
- Automation for taxes, shipping, promos
- Scales to thousands of products
9. Squarespace
(14-day trial, paid plan starts at $23/month)
Squarespace is an all-in-one website-building and e-commerce platform that elegantly balances aesthetics and functionality.
With Squarespace, you can pick from beautifully designed templates showcasing your products in style right out of the gate.
Its powerful yet intuitive drag-and-drop store builder allows customizing your site. It assists you in designing and layout to match your brand without needing any coding skills.
Key commerce capabilities like unified product, inventory and order management, and abandoned cart recovery ensure you have the tools to not just attract customers, but also fulfill orders with ease.
As your inventory grows, Squarespace flexibly scales to add up to thousands of product variants while retaining site speed.
Squarespace Features
- Elegant templates to showcase products
- Customizable storefront design
- Unified inventory and order management
- Built-in abandoned cart recovery
- Direct shipping integrations
- Mobile app for sales management
- Hundreds of App Marketplace integrations
10. Jumpseller
(14-day trial, paid plan starts at $11/month)
Jumpseller is a cloud-based e-commerce platform to creates customized online stores and marketplaces effortlessly.
With drag-and-drop site builders and dozens of professional templates, you can launch fully functional webshops.
Additionally, the intuitive catalog manager and bulk upload tools help you seamlessly showcase every product detail to boost conversions.
Moreover, capabilities like automated inventory sync, shipping integrations, payment gateway flexibility, and abandoned cart recovery further simplify order operations.
You also gain marketing tools to engage customers via email campaigns, coupons, reviews management, and SEO optimization.
Jumpseller Features
- Drag and drop store builder with dozens of templates
- Intuitive catalog and inventory management
- Multi-channel selling integrations
- Built-in marketing and promotion capabilities
- Scales with business growth
11. Duda
(14-day trial, paid plan starts at $25/month)
Duda is a robust and feature-rich website builder with a focus on creating stunning and highly functional websites.
Duda takes website responsiveness to the next level by allowing you to customize every element per device.
This feature ensures full control over how your site appears and functions on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.
Duda also comes with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor.
Duda also supports for CSS Grid, Flexbox, and snapping which allows building responsive, pixel-perfect websites.
This allows for efficient design implementation, providing full flexibility for creativity while saving time.
Duda Features
- Device-specific customization
- Intuitive drag-and-drop editor
- Flexible navigation options
- Responsive DudaFlex sections
- Developer Mode for advanced customization
- Efficient content management
12. WordPress.org
(Open source, free to use)
WordPress.org is an open-source content management system that powers over 43% of all websites.
It started as a blogging platform but has evolved into a flexible and customizable CMS capable of powering all types of websites, including e-commerce stores.
With the help of plugins like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and Ecwid, WordPress makes it easy to set up an online store and start selling products.
It handles all the core functionality needed for an e-commerce site like catalog management, shopping cart, checkout process, payments, shipping, and taxes.
WordPress is easy to use and manage, even for those without coding skills. You can easily add/edit products, create promotions, view reports, etc. through the intuitive dashboard.
There are thousands of themes and plugins available to customize the design, layout, features, and functionality of your online store as per your needs.
WordPress sites are search engine friendly by default. With some optimization, you can improve organic traffic and conversions as well.
WordPress.org Features
- Extensible and customizable with plugins and themes
- Supports eCommerce plugins like WooCommerce for store functionality
- Responsive design for optimal viewing on all devices
- SEO optimization for discoverability and traffic
- Security measures and backups for protection
- Integrations with payment gateways, shipping carriers, etc.
Final Thoughts
This was us reviewing the 12 most versatile e-commerce CMS platforms on the market today.
Now it’s your turn to carefully evaluate these options against your specific business needs.
Shortlist platforms that best align, sign up for free trials/plans of your top choices, take them for a test drive, and visualize your store coming to life.
All the best!