Best Ecommerce Platforms in 2026: Hosted, Open-Source and Headless Options

The best ecommerce platform depends on how much of the store you want to run yourself. Shopify and BigCommerce are hosted platforms that handle checkout, hosting and security for you, WooCommerce is the open-source choice for WordPress sites, and Medusa and Saleor suit developer teams building custom or headless stores.

The list is grouped by how you will run the store: hosted all-in-one platforms, open-source software you host, headless commerce engines and tools for selling digital products. A separate section answers whether a free ecommerce platform really exists. If you are leaving Shopify specifically, the Shopify alternatives guide goes deeper on migration.

How we picked the best ecommerce platforms

Enlisted kept platforms whose core job is selling online: product catalogue, cart, checkout and order management. Each pick shows its licence, whether you can self-host, whether a managed version exists and its pricing model, all from the directory. For open-source software, Enlisted also checks recent GitHub activity, shown on the live cards. Enterprise suites quoted only through sales, such as Salesforce Commerce Cloud and VTEX, are left out of the main list because they are priced and scoped differently. Descriptions come from vendor sites and directory data, not benchmark runs. See how Enlisted ranks tools, or browse the ecommerce category.

Hosted, open-source or headless: which model fits?

Hosted platforms are the quickest route: you sign up, pick a theme, and the vendor runs the servers, checkout and security. The trade-off is monthly fees, platform rules and no access to the source.

Open-source platforms are free to download and run on your own hosting, so you control the code and the data, and you also own updates, security and performance. Headless platforms split the back end from the storefront, which gives developers freedom to build any front end but means there is no ready-made store to switch on.

Best hosted all-in-one ecommerce platforms

1. Shopify: best hosted platform for most online stores

Shopify is a hosted commerce platform for building and running online stores, with a website builder, themes, domains, checkout, payments and taxes, orders, inventory and shipping in one product. It also sells in person with point of sale, and through the Shop app, social platforms, marketplaces and B2B channels. Marketing tools include email, discounts and analytics, and an App Store and developer tooling extend it.

Enlisted lists no free plan, only a free trial, with several monthly tiers. See the Shopify listing, and the Shopify alternatives page if you are comparing.

• Best for: merchants from solo sellers to large brands who want one hosted system for online and in-person sales.
• Watch out for: it is closed source with no self-hosted option, and costs grow with plan tier and the apps you add.

2. BigCommerce: best hosted platform for B2B and multi-storefront stores

BigCommerce is a software-as-a-service ecommerce platform with built-in B2B features, multi-storefront management and headless options through its APIs. Stores can be designed with or without code, and the platform covers checkout, payments, inventory, shipping and promotions, with international and multi-channel selling and product feed management.

It lists an app marketplace and migration paths from other platforms. Enlisted notes that plans carry sales-volume caps and that some payment providers add fees, so read the plan terms against your expected revenue. Details are on the BigCommerce page.

• Best for: merchants who sell to other businesses or run several storefronts from one account.
• Watch out for: plan tiers are tied to sales volume, and there is no free plan, only a trial.

3. Wix: best drag-and-drop site builder that also sells

Wix is a hosted website builder with a drag-and-drop editor, templates, AI site creation and ecommerce capabilities. It is commonly used for small business sites and stores, and hosting is handled by the vendor.

Enlisted lists a free plan that covers hosting and the editor, plus paid Light, Core, Business and Business Elite plans on yearly terms. Check which plan adds the store features you need before you build. See the Wix entry.

• Best for: small businesses that want a flexible visual editor with a store attached.
• Watch out for: it is a website builder first, so catalogues with complex requirements may suit a dedicated commerce platform better.

4. Square Online: best for businesses that already take payments with Square

Square Online is a website and online store builder inside the Square ecosystem, built for small businesses that sell online and in person with the same tools. Orders, inventory and payments connect to Square's point-of-sale hardware and its industry tools for retail and food and beverage.

Enlisted lists a free plan with no monthly fee, card processing fees on every plan, and paid plans per location with trials. See the Square Online page.

• Best for: restaurants, retailers and service businesses that already use Square.
• Watch out for: it is tied to Square's payments, so it is a weaker fit if you need a different payment provider.

Other hosted options are covered elsewhere. Squarespace is a template-led website builder with ecommerce and a free trial, and the Squarespace alternatives guide compares it with Wix and Webflow. Ecwid adds a store to a site you already have, and Big Cartel is a hosted builder for artists and makers with a free limited plan.

Best open-source ecommerce platforms

Open-source stores are free software, so the real costs are hosting, development time, extensions and payment processing. All four below are self-hosted and PHP-based.

5. WooCommerce: best open-source store for WordPress sites

WooCommerce is a customizable open-source ecommerce platform built as a plugin for WordPress, written mainly in PHP. It adds a store to an existing WordPress site, and extensions add features on top of the core, with a large third-party ecosystem.

Enlisted notes that the core platform is free with no subscription or revenue share, and that you pay separately for hosting and any paid extensions. Its licence is listed as "Other". If you are still choosing the site platform underneath, read the best CMS platforms guide. See the WooCommerce page.

• Best for: anyone who already runs WordPress and wants a store inside it.
• Watch out for: you manage hosting, updates and security yourself, and paid extensions add up.

6. Magento Open Source: best self-managed store with a commercial upgrade path

Magento Open Source is a PHP-based ecommerce platform for building a store from the ground up, released under OSL-3.0. Its README presents it as the basic ecommerce edition and points merchants who need a more complete solution to Adobe Commerce, which adds hosting on an optimized cloud architecture, AI-powered merchandising and analytics.

The project has a large contributor community and documents system requirements and several installation options. See the Magento Open Source entry.

• Best for: development teams that need deep customization and want an upgrade path to a commercial edition.
• Watch out for: it is self-managed with no hosted version from the open-source project, so expect to budget for developers and hosting.

7. PrestaShop: best self-hosted store for multi-language, multi-country shops

PrestaShop is an open-source ecommerce web application written in PHP, with support for the major payment services, translations into many languages, localization for many countries and a responsive storefront and back office. It is described as highly customizable through modules and themes.

Stable downloads come from its releases page, and installing it needs a web server with PHP and a MySQL or MariaDB database. Its licence is listed as "Other" in the catalogue. See the PrestaShop listing.

• Best for: merchants selling in several languages and countries who want to host the store themselves.
• Watch out for: you own hosting and updates, and the licence label is non-standard, so read the terms.

8. Shopware: best open-source platform for headless or conventional shops

Shopware is an open-source, API-first ecommerce platform built on Symfony and Vue.js, used by merchants and agencies for online shops and headless storefronts. Experience-management tools let content teams build shopping pages, and an extension store of community and commercial add-ons expands it without changing the core. It is MIT-licensed.

The Community Edition is free, and paid Rise, Evolve and Beyond editions sit above it. See the Shopware page.

• Best for: agencies and merchants who want a PHP platform that works both as a standard shop and as a headless back end.
• Watch out for: higher editions are paid and priced separately, and it assumes PHP development skills.

Best headless commerce platforms

Headless engines give you the commerce logic (carts, orders, pricing, payments) as an API and leave the storefront to you. They fit teams with front-end developers, not merchants who want to open a store this week.

9. Medusa: best open-source commerce engine for custom stores

Medusa is an open-source TypeScript commerce platform with a framework for customizing behavior and modular building blocks for carts, orders and payments. It can power B2B and direct-to-consumer stores, marketplaces and other commerce apps, and its core modules are published on npm.

Enterprise Edition features are marked separately in the repository, and Medusa Cloud is the managed hosting option. Its licence is listed as "Other". Check the live card for activity, and see the Medusa entry.

• Best for: TypeScript teams building a custom store or marketplace.
• Watch out for: it supplies building blocks rather than a finished storefront, so you build the front end.

10. Saleor: best API-first platform for multichannel and multi-currency commerce

Saleor is an open-source, GraphQL-native headless commerce platform written in Python. It is API-only, so storefronts and dashboards talk to it exclusively through its API, and it offers per-channel control over pricing, currencies, stock and products. It is extended through webhooks and apps rather than a plugin system.

The licence is BSD-3-Clause. Enlisted lists free cloud sandboxes for non-commercial use and paid cloud tiers above that. See the Saleor page.

• Best for: teams selling across several channels, currencies or markets with their own storefront.
• Watch out for: it is API-only, so there is no built-in storefront, and the managed cloud is paid beyond the free sandboxes.

Other headless choices: Vendure is a TypeScript, NestJS and GraphQL platform with a React admin and a free core, Sylius is an MIT-licensed headless framework on PHP and Symfony, and commercetools is an enterprise API-first platform priced through sales.

Best ecommerce platforms for selling digital products

If you sell downloads, courses, memberships or software licences, a full store platform is more than you need. These tools focus on digital goods.

11. Gumroad: best simple storefront for creators selling digital products

Gumroad is a platform for creators to sell digital products, subscriptions and courses through a storefront or an existing website. Sellers can charge one-time, recurring or fixed-length payments, customers can pay in their own currency, and a marketplace helps buyers discover products.

There is no monthly fee in Enlisted's data: Gumroad takes a share of each sale, and sales that come through its marketplace carry a higher share. See the Gumroad entry.

• Best for: creators who want to start selling downloads or memberships quickly.
• Watch out for: a per-sale percentage can cost more than a flat monthly plan once sales grow.

12. Lemon Squeezy: best for software and digital goods when you want tax handled

Lemon Squeezy is a hosted platform for digital downloads, software licenses and subscriptions that acts as merchant of record, so it takes responsibility for collecting and remitting global sales tax and compliance. It offers hosted checkout, embeddable overlays, subscription management, usage-based billing, affiliate tools and a customer portal.

Enlisted lists no monthly fee, with a percentage plus a fixed amount taken per transaction. See the Lemon Squeezy page.

• Best for: indie software makers and creators who do not want to register for sales tax in every region.
• Watch out for: it is built for digital goods and software, not physical inventory, and it takes a cut of every transaction.

More options for digital sellers: Payhip and Sellfy are hosted storefronts for downloads and memberships, Easy Digital Downloads is a WordPress plugin for downloadable products, and Polar is an open-source, Apache-2.0 billing platform for software and AI products that acts as merchant of record. For payment processing itself, see the Stripe alternatives guide.

Is there a free ecommerce platform?

Yes, but "free" usually means free software or a free plan, not a free store.

• Free software you host: WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento Open Source, Shopware Community Edition, Medusa, Saleor and EverShop are free to download. You still pay for hosting, domain, extensions and payment processing.
• Free hosted plans: Square Online and Big Cartel list free entry plans with limits, and Wix lists a free plan for the editor and hosting. Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy charge no monthly fee but take a cut of each sale.
• Free to try: Shopify, BigCommerce and Squarespace offer trials rather than free plans.

Add up payment processing fees, apps or extensions, hosting and your own time before calling any option free. Marketing also costs something: email tools such as Klaviyo and Omnisend connect to stores, and the email marketing software guide covers them.

How to choose the best ecommerce platform

Start with who will maintain the store. If nobody on your team writes code, choose a hosted platform and compare plan limits and fees. If you have developers and want control of data and costs, an open-source or headless platform is worth the extra work. Once the store is live, the best SEO tools guide helps with product-page search visibility.