Selling online is not the same as having a pretty site with a buy button. An online store stands or falls on its commerce engine: the catalog, the checkout, inventory and shipping, tax, and what each sale actually costs after fees. So the criterion that decides it is commerce depth and the real cost of selling, not how nice the homepage looks. We reweighted toward the engine and transaction-fee economics, then scale, and we name the trap that catches store owners who pick a general builder for its templates and hit a ceiling within a year.
For a real store the deciding factors are how much commerce the platform actually does and what each sale costs once fees stack up. We lifted weight onto the commerce engine — catalog, checkout, inventory, shipping and tax — and on transaction-fee economics and the ability to scale past a few hundred orders. Templates and ease still matter, but a beautiful builder that caps your catalog or taxes every sale is the wrong tool the moment volume is real. See the full rubric →
Commerce engine (catalog, checkout, inventory)30%
Scalability (SKU/order volume)20%
Payment options & transaction-fee cost20%
Ease of setup & themes15%
Value / total cost15%
01
RANK
★ Editor’s Choice
Shopify
Best for serious selling
Shopify is a commerce platform with a website attached, and for an online store that is exactly right. Real inventory, a checkout that converts, multichannel selling, shipping and tax handled, and an app ecosystem that covers anything native does not. Use Shopify Payments and the platform transaction fee is 0%; bring your own gateway and you pay 2% on Basic, falling on higher tiers. At $39/month for Basic it is not the cheapest, but it is the one you do not outgrow.
Squarespace is the pick when the brand and the photography carry the store and the catalog is modest. The templates are the best in the category, the commerce is competent, and on the Plus plan there are 0% transaction fees on physical products. It is genuinely lovely to build on. The ceiling is real: inventory, multichannel and advanced selling are thinner than Shopify, so it fits boutique and content-led stores rather than high-SKU operations.
Wix gives you the most layout freedom of the general builders and a capable commerce tier: the Core plan at $29/month sells up to tens of thousands of products with a basic marketing suite. For a small-to-mid store that wants design control without Shopify's structure, it works well. The honest limits are performance at scale and a commerce engine that is broad but shallower than Shopify's on inventory and multichannel selling.
Webflow is where designers get pixel control and a real CMS, with Ecommerce plans that add selling. The catch for a store is twofold: the Standard ecommerce plan at $29/month charges a 2% Webflow transaction fee on top of the processor (you reach 0% only on Plus at $74/month), and item limits cap the catalog. Brilliant for a design-led store with a small, curated range; the wrong economics for high-volume selling.
Hostinger's website builder is genuinely cheap and fine for a tiny shop with a handful of products and modest ambitions. It earns its place to mark the line: the commerce engine is basic, scaling tools are limited, and a store with real growth plans will hit the ceiling and migrate. Pick it only when budget is the hard constraint and the catalog will stay small; for anything you expect to grow, the savings are a false economy.
Pricing verified as of June 2026. Vendors change plans often · check the vendor for current pricing.
At a glance
✓ full · ∼ partial · — none
CapabilityShopifySquarespaceWixWebflowHostinger
True inventory management✓∼∼∼—
Multichannel selling✓∼∼——
0% platform transaction fee✓✓✓∼✓
Scales past high SKU/order volume✓—∼——
Large app / extension ecosystem✓∼∼∼—
Questions buyers ask
Store builders, answered
What matters most in a website builder for an online store?+
The commerce engine and the real cost per sale. Catalog management, a high-converting checkout, inventory, shipping and tax, and the platform plus processor fees on every order decide whether the store scales and whether it is profitable. Looks and templates matter for conversion, but they are secondary — a beautiful storefront on a shallow engine still caps your catalog and taxes your margins. Judge the engine and the fees first.
Shopify vs Squarespace vs Wix for an online store?+
Shopify if selling is the business — the deepest engine, 0% platform fee with Shopify Payments, multichannel, and a catalog you will not outgrow. Squarespace if the brand and photography lead and the catalog is small, with 0% fees on physical goods and the best templates. Wix if you want maximum design flexibility for a modest store. The split is commerce depth (Shopify) versus design-led simplicity for a small range (Squarespace, Wix).
How do transaction fees actually change the cost?+
Two layers stack on every sale: the payment processor (around 2.9% + 30c) and the platform's own fee. Shopify charges 0% platform fee when you use Shopify Payments, so you pay only the processor; bring your own gateway and Shopify adds 2% on Basic. Squarespace Plus and Wix charge 0% platform fee on physical goods. Webflow's Standard ecommerce adds a 2% fee until you reach Plus. At volume that platform fee is often the difference between platforms, so price it against your expected sales, not the monthly plan alone.
When is a general website builder the wrong choice for a store?+
The moment real volume, a large catalog, or multichannel selling is on the horizon. General builders — Squarespace, Wix, Hostinger — are excellent for a boutique or content-led store with a curated range, but their inventory, multichannel and scaling tools are shallower than a dedicated commerce platform. Owners who pick them for the templates and then grow tend to migrate to Shopify within a year. If you expect to scale, start on the engine that scales.