Independent · sourced · Updated June 2026

Best E-commerce Platforms (2026)

The cheapest e-commerce platforms is Square Online at $0/mo. 3 offer a free tier (Square Online, Wix Stores, Webflow Ecommerce). This page compares 8 options on entry price, free tier, HIPAA/SOC 2 and best-for — every figure linked to its source, updated June 2026.

8 options compared on price, free tier, compliance and fit — ranked cheapest-first. Every figure links to the vendor's own page and the date we captured it; quote-only tiers show “—”, never a guess.

Key takeaways

  • Cheapest: Square Online at $0/mo (Free).
  • Typical paid price: from $5/mo, median $26.50/mo, up to $49/mo — across 8 with published pricing.
  • Free tier: Square Online, Wix Stores, Webflow Ecommerce.
  • HIPAA-ready: Wix Stores.
  • Tracked: 8 vendors, data current through 2026-06-15.

Comparison

Entry price = lowest published self-serve monthly plan. Sourced per row.
#E-commerce PlatformEntry priceFreeHIPAASOC 2Best forSource
1 Square Online $0/mo Free Yes No Brick-and-mortar retailers adding online sales with existing Square POS squareup.com
2 Ecwid by Lightspeed $5/mo Starter No No Yes Businesses adding a store to an existing website without rebuilding it ecwid.com
3 Shopify $5/mo Starter No No Yes DTC brands scaling from startup to enterprise shopify.com
4 Squarespace $21/mo Basic No No Creative businesses and visual brands (fashion, art, food) squarespace.com
5 Wix Stores $24/mo Light Yes Yes Yes Small businesses wanting an all-in-one site + store with a free starting point wix.com
6 Webflow Ecommerce $29/mo Standard Yes No Yes Design-led brands wanting complete visual control over their storefront webflow.com
7 Volusion $35/mo Personal No No Small-to-mid retailers wanting an all-in-one store with built-in CRM volusion.com
8 BigCommerce $39/mo Core No No Yes Mid-market and enterprise B2B sellers bigcommerce.com

Prices are the lowest published self-serve monthly rate as captured on the linked source. Annual-billing and usage details are on each vendor's record in our open dataset.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest e-commerce platforms?

Square Online has the lowest published entry price at $0/mo (Free), as of 2026-06-15.

How much does e-commerce platforms cost per month?

Across the 8 e-commerce platforms with published paid pricing, the median starting price is $26.50/mo, ranging from $5/mo to $49/mo, as of 2026-06-15. 3 also offer a free tier.

Which e-commerce platforms have a free plan?

Square Online, Wix Stores, Webflow Ecommerce offer a free tier.

Which e-commerce platforms support HIPAA?

Wix Stores state HIPAA support (a BAA). Always confirm current scope with the vendor.

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How we compiled this

Published self-serve pricing collected from each provider's own pricing page on 2026-06-13 (corroborating sources noted where the vendor page rendered non-USD or did not expose prices to the fetcher). All figures are monthly USD; where a vendor lists both monthly and annual billing the monthly-billed price is used as monthlyUsd and the annual discount is captured in annualDiscountPct. Quote-only / custom-priced tiers are recorded with monthlyUsd null. Minutes/calls/overage fields are not applicable to this software vertical and are null throughout.

Last verified 2026-06-15. We re-check published prices and compliance on a recurring cadence and update this page when they change.

Open data & full methodology → · Queryable via MCP

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