Your ultimate guide to the best ecommerce shopping cart software for 2024

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You've decided to open an ecommerce store or sell products on your website or social media page.

Or maybe you want to migrate your current online store to a different ecommerce shopping cart software but don’t know which one to choose.

Worry not. In this guide, we'll talk about the best ecommerce shopping carts for 2024 (and beyond), their benefits and shortcomings, and what to consider when choosing a shopping cart solution.

But first, let's go over what we mean by shopping cart software.

• Shopping cart software: What is it?
• How to choose the best shopping cart software for your website
• Shopping cart solutions for ecommerce
• Final thoughts: The best ecommerce shopping cart software for 2024

Shopping cart software: What is it?

Shopping cart software lets you set up a digital shop or ecommerce platform.

Users select items to buy from your website and gather them in a digital shopping cart.

The shopping cart software lets users securely input their name, payment information, and shipping details.

More advanced shopping cart solutions can calculate taxes, shipping rates, and after-discount prices.

The capacity of shopping cart software can range from adding a plugin or storefront to your existing website to building an ecommerce website from scratch.

Their basic functions remain the same. Shopping cart software empowers buyers to browse your ecommerce website, select items to buy, and complete their online payment. They can do all these functions without leaving your online store.

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How to choose the best shopping cart software for your website

Here are some questions to consider:

• What platform does your website use? Some shopping cart software solutions are only compatible with certain websites. For example, you can only use WooCommerce with WordPress.
• What functionalities do you want? Do you want it to calculate taxes, have a built-in order management system, and work with payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal? Do you want to be able to use search engine optimization (SEO) in your product descriptions?
• What about your resources? How much are you willing to pay for the ecommerce shopping cart software? Do you want to pay a monthly fee, opt for one-off pricing, or use free software solutions?
• Do you want to leave room for expansion? Will the software still work for your online store as your needs change?

Shopping cart solutions for ecommerce

• StoreBuilder by Nexcess.
• WooCommerce.
• Magento.
• Ecwid.
• Shopify.

StoreBuilder by Nexcess

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StoreBuilder by Nexcess is one of the most reliable, affordable, secure, and intuitive ecommerce shopping cart software platforms.

StoreBuilder is an ecommerce website builder built on WordPress and comes with a curated list of plugins.

It's available at a competitive price with no hidden fees or add-ons.

Features and benefits:

• Nexcess has fast servers. So, you won’t have to worry about loading times.
• StoreBuilder comes with sales monitoring technology. It gives you valuable insights into demand and sales.
• StoreBuilder's abandoned cart recovery technology helps boost customer conversions by sending notifications to users about items left in their carts.
• This ecommerce software can host unlimited products and lets you customize your online store.
• Unlike Shopify or Squarespace, you get full website ownership with StoreBuilder.
• StoreBuilder comes with fully managed hosting. You don't need much technical knowledge to run your ecommerce store.
• With StoreBuilder, your ecommerce platform gets an SSL certificate and security monitoring. Those protect against data theft and unauthorized access.
• You can accept payments through PayPal, credit cards, and other payment methods.
• StoreBuilder empowers you to share your product and pricing catalog with marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. This feature helps boost your store’s reach.

Challenges:

• You might need WordPress knowledge to set it up.

Best ecommerce shopping cart software for:

• Small businesses with limited technical knowledge or resources.
• Ecommerce sites that want to try a new online shopping cart before committing to it.
• Online stores that want to avoid coding but still prefer control over their ecommerce store management.
• Online stores that prioritize their security and reputation.

Pricing: Pricing starts at $5/month for the first three months with no hidden costs or transaction fees. Nexcess offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a leading ecommerce shopping cart software with a global market share of 36.68% .

WooCommerce is a great ecommerce shopping cart software solution if you’re a beginner seller with an existing WordPress website.

It's available as a free plugin that you can add to your WordPress website to enjoy functions like listing items, order management, and receiving online payments.

Features and benefits:

• The WooCommerce plugin is open-source, meaning you can modify and customize it.
• The integration process is easy and can be affordable.
• WooCommerce offers many plugins and add-ons for essential functions like inventory management, accounting, email marketing, and online payment processing.
• It offers multiple payment options.
• WooCommerce has a huge community support group, Facebook groups for basic help and advanced users, and the WordPress support forum.
• While you need plugins to run a WooCommerce store, it can still be more cost-effective than many other ecommerce shopping cart software options.
• Nexcess offers fully managed WooCommerce hosting plans with proactive monitoring and 24/7/365 support.

Challenges:

• You can only use WooCommerce with WordPress websites. So, you need extra cash for hosting, design, security, and other features.
• Some of its plugins and add-ons can be expensive.
• You'll need to hire a developer if you lack the in-house expertise to set up your ecommerce store.
• WooCommerce is still growing outside the U.S. Its European market has just begun to develop.

Best ecommerce shopping cart software for:

• WordPress users who'd like to easily convert their website to a scalable ecommerce store.
• Small businesses because WooCommerce is a free, highly customizable plugin.

Pricing: Free with limited features. You'll need a domain name (~$12/year) and a hosting service ($5-$25/month) to run it. You have to pay extra for things like a storefront design, templates, add-ons, and plugins.

Magento

You can build some of the most customized, sophisticated, and enterprise-level ecommerce stores with Magento.

That might not be possible with solutions like Shopify or BigCommerce.

This ecommerce shopping cart software solution is relatively more expensive than its counterparts because of its scalability and sophistication. You'll need specialized developers to build a Magento-based ecommerce platform.

Features and benefits:

• Magento empowers you to manage several online stores, locations, currencies, payment methods, languages, and pricing. It’s one of the most flexible ecommerce shopping cart solutions.
• It lets you set different pricing for different groups of customers.
• Magento has a sizable user community that develops additional add-ons and can help troubleshoot problems.
• Magento is one of the most scalable ecommerce shopping cart software solutions. It can cater to your expanding online store and handle up to 500,000 products and thousands of transactions in an hour.
• You can edit your product descriptions and URLs for SEO.
• Magento offers several languages, payment methods, and currencies.
• You can measure customer conversion rates.
• Nexcess offers fully managed Magento hosting plans with 24/7/365 security monitoring and support.

Challenges:

• Magento is costly and better suited for ecommerce stores that want to stand out from the competition.
• Setting up a Magento online shopping cart requires professional developer help.
• Although Magento’s community version is free, incorrect server or caching configurations can cause it to load slowly. The enterprise version costs over $20,000.
• Magento developers charge a steep fee.
• It’s difficult to migrate from a different ecommerce website to Magento on your own. But a managed hosting provider like Nexcess would handle this step for you.

Best ecommerce shopping cart software for:

• Bigger ecommerce platforms that have the resources to set up enterprise-grade, sophisticated online stores.

Pricing: Free with limited features. Premium services start at around $12,000/year.

Ecwid

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Ecwid stands for “ecommerce widget.”

This widget acts as an online shopping cart when placed on a website. Over 1.5 million ecommerce platforms in 175 countries use Ecwid.

Ecwid lets you create an ecommerce store on your existing website. It offers easy integration on any platform, CMS, and social media page.

You can expand your online store on Ecwid through a simple and easy-to-use admin.

Features and benefits:

• The free version of Ecwid comes with some essential features and can host up to 10 products.
• The Ecwid plugin is compatible with commonly used web hosting platforms.
• A starter website package is available for sellers without websites.
• Ecwid accommodates dropshippers.
• Multi-currency selling is possible after paying for an app.
• Ecwid is GDPR compliant and offers a multilingual store facility.
• It supports 50 languages and over 40 online payment gateways.
• Ecwid is a PCI DSS-validated Level 1 service provider, guaranteeing a high level of security for your ecommerce website.
• Ecwid can connect your ecommerce store to your POS system and sync inventory levels across your digital and physical stores.

Challenges:

• Ecwid's free plan doesn’t let you edit product URLs for SEO.
• You can’t build a complete ecommerce website on Ecwid.
• Ecwid's mobile POS integration is only compatible with iOS devices.
• Limited apps and integrations are available for this ecommerce solution.
• Ecwid's monthly pricing is higher for some countries.

Best ecommerce shopping cart software for:

• Existing website owners who'd like to install a cost-effective ecommerce shopping cart solution.
• Sellers who'd like to modify their ecommerce platforms in the future.
• Dropshippers.

Pricing: Free with limited features. Premium plans start at $14.08/month when billed annually.

Shopify

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Shopify is one of the world’s most popular ecommerce shopping cart software solutions. It has a 10% share in the global ecommerce market and serves ecommerce stores in 190 countries.

Features and benefits:

• Shopify is affordable.
• It has impressive features and responsive customer support.
• Shopify is user-friendly. You don't need coding knowledge to set it up.
• Basic Shopify subscribers can display as many products as they want with no limits on disk space, bandwidth, or revenue per year.
• With the Shopify Fulfillment Network, you can deliver products worldwide from the U.S. and Canada.
• Shopify accepts all credit cards and offers a fast checkout process via Shopify Pay or Apple Pay. It also works with online payment gateways like Sage Payments and PayPal.
• It helps you sell internationally in multiple languages.
• Shopify offers maximum security to your ecommerce platform with its Level 1 PCI DSS compliance and SSL certificate.
• Shopify empowers you with functionalities like SEO, discounts, and email marketing tools.

Challenges:

• Shopify charges up to 2% on top of online payment processor fees for all payment methods (except for Shopify Payments).
• Moving your online store from Shopify to another ecommerce platform is difficult.
• For its basic plan, Shopify allows only two users to manage an ecommerce store.
• Shopify's basic functions are free, but you need to buy apps and add-ons to create a unique and dynamic online store.
• Shopify Payments is only available in 17 countries.

Best ecommerce shopping cart software for:

• Bigger online stores looking for scalability and customizable options with add-ons and plugins.
• Dropshippers.

Pricing: Starts at $14.44/month when billed annually.

Final thoughts: The best ecommerce shopping cart software for 2024

You might still be wondering what options from our best ecommerce shopping cart software list to try out.

If so, we recommend StoreBuilder for its flexibility, security, and reliability.

Nexcess StoreBuilder is one of the most cost-effective online shopping cart software solutions. You'll need minimal technical skills to get your online store up and running.

With StoreBuilder, you can choose the best plugins, add-ons, and templates and enjoy fully managed hosting for your ecommerce store.

If you’d prefer another online store platform, then leave the hosting responsibilities to us with our fully managed Magento and WooCommerce hosting .