Every score on this site comes from the same criteria and weightings, so you can compare platforms fairly and see exactly why we rank them the way we do.
Our scoring criteria
| Criterion | Weight | What we assess |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of use | 20% | Setup, admin experience, editor, learning curve |
| Total cost of ownership | 20% | Plans, fees, apps, themes, hosting and hidden costs |
| Sales features | 20% | Products, variants, inventory, discounts, multichannel, POS |
| Payments & checkout | 15% | Checkout experience, payment options, fees |
| Growth & scalability | 15% | Performance, international, B2B, ecosystem |
| Support & reliability | 10% | Support channels, documentation, uptime |
Our process
- Hands-on use: we sign up and set up each platform's core store features.
- Pricing research: we check official pricing pages and fee schedules and note the date checked.
- Use-case testing: we evaluate each platform for specific store types (dropshipping, digital, local, etc.).
- Scoring: we score each criterion out of 10 and apply the weightings.
- Updates: we review key pages regularly and when platforms announce major changes.
Editorial independence
We earn commissions from some links (see our affiliate disclosure). Commission rates never influence scores or rankings, and we recommend platforms we don't earn from when they're the better fit, as you'll see across our best-of guides and comparisons.
Corrections
If you find an error, email hello@bestonlineshopplatforms.com. We review every report and update the page with a new "updated" date.