This page aims to give you an idea about the popularity of the top ecommerce platforms of 2021. However, it is good to be aware of two things when reading this page.
1) On this page we group together “ecommerce platforms” and “ecommerce solutions”. The difference between those is that “platforms” are standalone software used to build ecommerce stores whereas “solutions” are more of a plugins/addons that you can use to add an ecommerce store to an existing website. The reason why we group those two together on this page, is that lot of people might not be aware of the difference.
And 2) Many of the popular ecommerce solutions and platforms are just part of an offering of a company that as its main offering sells a traditional website builder. Those companies don’t break down their customer numbers in terms of those who use the traditional website builder and those who use their ecommerce offering. As a result, we have listed the companies that belong to that category at the end of this page – regardless of how impressive their total user numbers might be.
WooCommerce – the most popular ecommerce solution in 2021
According to recent statistics, WooCommerce is currently used on around 4.5 million websites. That impressive number makes WooCommerce the most popular ecommerce solution in 2021. WooCommerce is a plugin that you can use to add an ecommerce store to a WordPress-website.
Top reasons for WooCommerce’s popularity:
- Free to use (although you need web hosting, see e.g. Hostinger)
- Allows for a lot of customization
- WordPress has a huge installation base -> lot of people can try WooCommerce with just a couple of clicks
Interested to learn more about WooCommerce? See our review.
Shopify – almost 2 million users
According to Shopify’s latest annual report, Shopify had about 1.749 million users at the end of 2020. Shopify’s annual report for 2020 also reveals that in that year alone Shopify’s users generated in total over $100 billion in revenue. Those numbers quite likely make Shopify the most popular standalone ecommerce platform (i.e. not a plugin or an addon).
3 reasons why Shopify is popular:
- Very well known brand
- Great customer service
- 14-day free trial
Looking for more information about Shopify? See our Shopify review.
OpenCart – more than 340,000 users
OpenCart is an extremely popular open source ecommerce platform and according their website, there are at the time of writing this more than 342,000 entrepreneurs using their software.
Magento – possibly over 250,000 merchants
Magento focuses on serving large ecommerce businesses and has been extremely successful in it: according to themselves they have at least in the past had 250,000 merchants using their platform. However, there does not appear to be precise and reliable 2021 statistics about how many stores are currently using Magento.
BigCommerce – used by more than 60,000 stores
BigCommerce is pleasantly open about how many online stores are currently using its platform. And according to a 2020 press release that number is more than 60,000. And that should make BigCommerce one of the most popular e-commerce platforms.
Top reasons for BigCommerce’s popularity:
- Advanced features
- Free trial
- No additional transaction fees
Interested to learn more about Bigcommerce? See our Bigcommerce review.
Ecwid – popular, but exact numbers are not clear
According to Ecwid’s website more than 1.6 million small businesses “have trusted” Ecwid. The issue with that (impressive) number is that it doesn’t say anything about the number of businesses that are currently using Ecwid. However, it is safe to assume that Ecwid ranks among the most popular e-commerce solutions. That assumption is backed up by the fact that according to Ecwid’s website, its merchants have generated more than $4 billion in revenue.
3 reasons for why Ecwid is popular:
- Has a free plan
- The paid plans are relatively inexpensive
- Can be used with WordPress
For more information about Ecwid, see our 2021 Ecwid review.
Bigcartel – has been used by over 1 million creators
Bigcartel focuses on serving artists who want to sell products online. Despite of this seemingly narrow focus, based on information from Bigcartel’s website, their e-commerce platform has been used by more than 1 million people. And that is obviously quite impressive. A big reason for Bigcartel’s success is likely that you can use this platform even for free.
Volusion – another popular e-commerce solution
Just like Ecwid, Volusion also talks about those who “have trusted” them. With Volusion that number is 180,000, so significantly smaller than the one at Ecwid. Despite of that Volusion is still likely quite popular even among those who are currently running an online store.
Reasons for Volusion’s popularity:
- Very visually pleasing store builder
- Free trial
- No transaction fees
For more information about Volusion, check out our Volusion review.
PinnacleCart – used by over 30,000 stores
PinnacleCart’s popularity might come as a surprise to some people, as it is a platform that is not discussed nearly as often as many of the other platforms listed on this page. However, according to PinnacleCart, their platform has been used by more than 30,000 “successful online stores” – one can assume that the word “successful” is used by PinnacleCart mainly for marketing purposes and that it is not an indication that they are not including in the 30,000 number their less successful users.
Top reasons for why PinnacleCart is popular:
- The platform has been around for a long time
- It is relatively easy to use
- Great customer service
- 14-day free trial
You can read more about PinnacleCart, for example, from our PinnacleCart review.
Shift4Shop – over 14,000 merchants
Shift4 Payments bought an ecommerce platform known previously as 3dcart in 2020 and when they did that they revealed that 3dcart had over 14,000 businesses using the platform. Following the acquisition of 3dcart, Shift4 Payments changed the name of the platform to Shift4Shop. Given that it is has been relatively little time since the acquisition of 3dcart, one can assume that Shift4Shop has around 14,000 merchants using the platform at the time of writing this.
However, it is good to note that because of the new owner’s resources and the introduction of a free ecommerce plan, it is possible that Shift4Shop will grow very rapidly in 2021.
3 reasons for why Shift4Shop is popular:
- Cheap or free
- The platform was founded more than 20 years ago
- Easy to get started
Looking for more information about Shift4Shop? Check out our Shift4Shop review.
AmeriCommerce – almost 3,000 users
AmeriCommerce is a great example of how there can be quite large differences in the user numbers even among the most popular ecommerce platforms. That is as while AmeriCommerce ranks among the most popular platforms, it only has around 1/300 of the users that Shopify does. And to be more exact, according to a press release AmeriCommerce had a bit under 3,000 (active) users at the beginning of 2021.
Are you interested to learn more about AmeriCommerce? See our AmeriCommerce review.
Wix – hugely popular, at least as a website builder
According to Wix’s website they had massive 150 million users in 2019. However, the issue with that number in the context of e-commerce platforms is that, Wix appears to mainly cater to those who are looking to launch a traditional website rather than an online store. That despite of the fact that Wix’s platform is actually, in my opinion, one of the best of 2021.
3 reasons why Wix is popular
- Well known brand
- Beginner-friendly
- Can be tried for free
Weebly – popular and focusing increasingly on e-commerce
It is difficult to estimate how popular Weebly’s e-commerce platform is, but as a solution for running a website, it is certainly very popular. That is as Weebly says that it “power millions of businesses on more than 50 million sites”.
But obviously that statement doesn’t differentiate between traditional websites and e-commerce stores. And to make it even more difficult to estimate how popular using Weebly for e-commerce is, the company used to be very much focused on traditional websites but has clearly been moving more into the direction of becoming an e-commerce platform.
Zyro – currently around 150,000 sites published
Zyro is one those services that offers both a traditional website builder and an ecommerce platform. And according to information from Zyro, there are currently about 150,000 websites published with Zyro. That is already itself a respectable number, but Zyro also appears to be growing very rapidly. That is, for example, thanks to their good ecommerce platform and attractive pricing.
Four reasons for Zyro’s popularity
- Cheap pricing
- A lot of promos
- Backed and promoted by a huge web hosting company
- Easy to use
Squarespace – millions of users, but mainly focused on its website builder
According to a quite recent press release, Squarespace “empowers millions”. While that expression leaves some room for speculation regarding if all those who are empowered are actually separate users, it should be safe to assume that Squarespace has in total millions of active users.
At the same time, it is good to note that if Squarespace had almost 10 million or over 10 million users, they would have likely mentioned it, so we can assume that Squarespace’s number of users is in the (low) single millions. This assumption is supported by the fact Squarespace has around 1,300 employees, which seems like a number of employees that would fit their presumed number of customers.
While Squarespace is hugely popular, it is good to note that they seem to be much more focused on their traditional website builder than on their ecommerce offering.
For obvious reasons, the popularity of ecommerce platforms can fluctuate. It is also good to note that this page only includes platforms that operate globally.
