The best ecommerce platforms, tested and ranked

Adobe Commerce came first of six with 5 out of 5. All 50 of our test checkouts went through, the only perfect result in the test, and 19 of 20 products imported correctly. It published our store in 79 minutes, the fastest build, showed the main content on a phone in 1.08 seconds and responded to taps in 88 milliseconds, also the best in the test. Uptime was 99.936% over 30 days. Our full Adobe Commerce review has the details.

Adobe Commerce is the paid, enterprise edition of the platform once called Magento. You can run it on Adobe's cloud (PaaS), as a SaaS service launched in June 2025, or on your own servers. It suits large catalogs, B2B selling and complex multi-site stores.

Support was its only part below 5, at 4.5: all 3 answers were useful, but the median reply took 204 minutes. The bigger catch is everything around the software. There are no public prices, renewals reset with your sales, most work needs developers, and self-managed stores must patch security flaws fast, as the SessionReaper flaw patched in September 2025 showed.

BigCommerce came second with 4.5 out of 5, with top marks for Ease of use and Support. It published our store in 80 minutes, and support replied in a median of 12 minutes with useful answers every time, by far the quickest in the test. 19 of 20 products imported correctly and uptime was 99.786%. Our BigCommerce review covers the full test.

Its weaker spots were page speed and checkout. Mobile pages took 2.56 seconds to show their main content and 199 milliseconds to respond to a tap, and 42 of 50 test checkouts went through, so Performance and Value for money scored 4.

BigCommerce is a hosted platform with many features built in rather than added as apps, such as multi-currency, gift cards, coupons, a blog and product reviews. Plans are capped by sales and move up automatically when you pass the cap. Since June 2026 it charges 2%, 1% or 0.6% by plan on payments through providers outside its embedded list. It has 4.2 out of 5 on G2 (568 reviews) but 1.3 on Trustpilot (460 reviews), both checked November 2026.

Shopify came third with 4.5 out of 5, tied with BigCommerce on score. It was the most dependable store in the test: all 20 products imported correctly, 49 of 50 checkouts went through, mobile pages showed their main content in 1.05 seconds, the fastest here, and uptime was the highest at 99.995%. Performance and Features both scored 5. Read our Shopify review.

What held it back was time and support. The build took 157 minutes, against BigCommerce's 80, and support took a median of 430 minutes to reply, though all 3 answers were useful.

Shopify is a hosted platform: you pay a monthly plan and get the store, checkout, hosting, a Sidekick AI assistant and more than 13,000 apps. It also sells in person through its POS add-on. Using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a fee of 2% on Basic down to 0.2% on Plus. It has 4.4 out of 5 on G2 (5,144 reviews) but 1.3 on Trustpilot (5,272), mostly over payout holds, both checked November 2026.

WooCommerce came fourth with 4 out of 5, just behind the hosted platforms. Ease of use was its best part at 4.5: we had our store live in 154 minutes. Mobile pages showed their main content in 2.42 seconds and responded to taps in 208 milliseconds, uptime was 99.771%, and all 3 support answers were useful, after a median of 363 minutes. More in our WooCommerce review.

It needed more care than the leaders. 17 of 20 products imported correctly and 44 of 50 test checkouts went through, so a few things needed fixing before launch.

WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin that turns a WordPress site into a store you host yourself. There's no revenue share and no Woo fee on any payment provider, but you pay for hosting, about $25 to $350 a month for most stores per Woo, and extensions at $29 to $299 a year each, and you handle updates and security. It has 4.4 out of 5 on G2 (1,280 reviews) and 2.1 on Trustpilot (144), checked November 2026.

PrestaShop came fifth with 2.5 out of 5. Only 24 of our 50 test checkouts went through, the worst result in the test, and 14 of 20 products imported correctly. Mobile pages took 5.32 seconds to show their main content and 471 milliseconds to respond to a tap, both the slowest here. The build took 460 minutes and uptime was 99.323%, the lowest of the six. Our PrestaShop review has the full results.

Support took a median of 1,061 minutes to reply, with 2 of 3 answers useful. Features was its best part at 3, helped by its marketplace of modules and themes.

PrestaShop is free, open-source store software you host yourself, with an optional hosted edition. It's strong in Europe, with payment options such as Alma, Klarna and Stripe, and some users report difficult upgrades from version 8 to 9. It has 4.3 out of 5 on G2 (158 reviews) and Capterra (331), and 1.8 on Trustpilot (582), all checked November 2026.

Big Cartel came last with 2 out of 5. It took 528 minutes to publish our store, the longest in the test, only 10 of 20 products imported correctly and 31 of 50 test checkouts went through. Mobile pages showed their main content in 4.76 seconds and uptime was 99.468%. Support took a median of 1,292 minutes, the slowest here, with 2 of 3 answers useful. Read our Big Cartel review.

To be fair, it isn't built for a store like ours. Big Cartel is a simple hosted store builder for independent artists and makers. Plans are priced by product count, not sales: the free Gold plan allows 5 products, Platinum 50 and Diamond 500. Diamond adds scheduled drops, abandoned cart emails and Zapier.

It has the best Trustpilot rating in this list, 4.7 out of 5 from 446 reviews (checked November 2026). Monthly plans can't be refunded, and you get far fewer features than on the platforms above.