How is this e-commerce ranking decided?

Mechanically. The 15 approved e-commerce listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.

Is this list re-ordered for startups?

No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.

How much does e-commerce software cost?

Across the 15 e-commerce tools listed here, paid plans start between $0.50 and $489 a month, with a median entry price of $26. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $50,000 a month (Algolia). 5 of 15 also publish a $0 plan.

What is the cheapest e-commerce software?

2 of the 15 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Algolia has the lowest published entry price at $0.50 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.

Is there free e-commerce software?

Yes, 5 of 15 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 2 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.

How is e-commerce software usually billed?

subscription (5), quote (2), transaction (2), usage-based (1), counted across the 15 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 2 of 15 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.

What does e-commerce software actually cover?

The 15 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are developer-tools (3), analytics (2), api (2), conversion (2), heatmaps (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under e-commerce may overlap on very little.

How many pricing tiers do e-commerce tools offer?

4 of 15 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 3 of 15 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.

How many e-commerce tools are listed on Softwr?

15 approved e-commerce listings appear on this page, including Algolia, Authorize.net, Bluepark, Braintree. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/e-commerce, which ranks the same set by published rating.

E-commerce · ranked shortlist

Best E-commerce software for Startups in 2026

15 approved e-commerce listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.

Tools ranked: 15
Entry price range: $0.50-$489
Publish a $0 plan: 5 of 15

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.

Where the ratings come from

No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.

What the pool is

Approved e-commerce listings, capped at 20 per page; 15 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the e-commerce category page.

The ranking

Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.

#1
Algolia
Highest rated here
The best Search and Discovery Platform for your business
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $0.50 a month.
- 4 published tiers, topping out at $50,000 plus a tier sold by quote.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
4 tiers
Tags
search, API, discovery, ai-search
Algolia breakdown Compare with Authorize.net
#2
A
Authorize.net
We help make it easy to get paid
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
Authorize.net breakdown Compare with Bluepark
#3
B
Bluepark
A UK-based ecommerce platform to design, sell and manage your online store
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
Bluepark breakdown Compare with Braintree
#4
B
Braintree
End-to-end checkout experiences for businesses, from PayPal
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
transaction
Braintree breakdown Compare with Checkout.com
#5
C
Checkout.com
Your business deserves tailored pricing based on your needs
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
quote
Checkout.com breakdown Compare with Contentful
#6
Contentful
The content platform for the digital-first era
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $489 a month.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
2 tiers
Tags
cms, headless, api-first, content-management
Contentful breakdown Compare with eBay
#7
E
eBay
Buy and sell on the world's online marketplace
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
eBay breakdown Compare with FullStory
#8
FullStory
Digital experience intelligence platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
Billing
quote
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
analytics, session-replay, ux-analysis, heatmaps
FullStory breakdown Compare with Gumroad
#9
G
Gumroad
Sell your stuff, see what sticks
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
Gumroad breakdown Compare with Hotjar
#10
H
Hotjar
Understand how users behave on your site
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $39 a month, with no free plan.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
analytics, heatmaps, user-research, feedback
Hotjar breakdown Compare with Loox
#11
L
Loox
Photo reviews and referrals for Shopify stores
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
usage-based
Loox breakdown Compare with Mailchimp
#12
Mailchimp
Turn emails into revenue
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $13 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $20.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
email-marketing, automation, newsletters, E-commerce
Mailchimp breakdown Compare with Razorpay
#13
R
Razorpay
Accept, process and disburse payments with India's leading payments platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
transaction
Razorpay breakdown Compare with SamCart
#14
S
SamCart
The number one checkout platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
subscription
SamCart breakdown Compare with Stripe
#15
S
Stripe
Financial infrastructure for the internet
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
payments, fintech, billing, API
Stripe breakdown

What e-commerce software costs

Counted from the published pricing of the 15 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.

Cheapest paid plan: $0.50Algolia
Median entry price: $26across 4 priced
Dearest entry price: $489Contentful
Publish a $0 plan: 5of 15

Paid e-commerce plans in this set start anywhere from $0.50 a month for Algolia to $489 for Contentful. The median entry price across the 4 tools that publish one is $26, half of them start below that figure and half above it.

Entry price is not the ceiling. The dearest published tier anywhere in this category is Algolia's at $50,000 a month, 102.2× the highest entry price on the page. Read the top of each ladder as well as the bottom, because that is where you land after two years of growth.

5 of 15 publish a $0 plan, and 2 of those charge nothing at all. 1 tool has no free tier of any kind.

2 of 15 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.

Algolia pricing Contentful pricing

How these vendors bill

The billing model each of the 15 e-commerce listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.

subscription: 5
quote: 2
transaction: 2
usage-based: 1

Separately, 2 of 15 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.

What “E-commerce” covers in practice

The subject tags that recur across these 15 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.

developer-tools3
analytics2
API2
conversion2
heatmaps2

Carried by a single tool: ai-search, automation, cms, E-commerce, feedback, free-tier, payments, session-replay. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.

How to choose between them

Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.

Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them

5 of 15 e-commerce tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line.

Read the spread before you read the features

$0.50 to $489 is a $488.50 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $489 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.

Check which tier you actually land on

3 of 15 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 3 of them. The advertised price is the first rung. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.

The billing model matters more than the headline number

This category splits across 4 billing models: subscription on 5 listings, quote on 2, and 2 other arrangements across the rest. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.

Compare e-commerce tools directly

Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.

Go straight to the numbers

Build your own comparison See the shortlist instead

Questions people ask about e-commerce software

Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.

How is this e-commerce ranking decided?: Mechanically. The 15 approved e-commerce listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
Is this list re-ordered for startups?: No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the startups framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Startups are buying for a headcount they do not have yet, which makes the second and third tier of each ladder more important than the first. Check what the price becomes at ten people.
How much does e-commerce software cost?: Across the 15 e-commerce tools listed here, paid plans start between $0.50 and $489 a month, with a median entry price of $26. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $50,000 a month (Algolia). 5 of 15 also publish a $0 plan.
What is the cheapest e-commerce software?: 2 of the 15 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Algolia has the lowest published entry price at $0.50 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
Is there free e-commerce software?: Yes, 5 of 15 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 2 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
How is e-commerce software usually billed?: subscription (5), quote (2), transaction (2), usage-based (1), counted across the 15 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 2 of 15 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.
What does e-commerce software actually cover?: The 15 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are developer-tools (3), analytics (2), api (2), conversion (2), heatmaps (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under e-commerce may overlap on very little.
How many pricing tiers do e-commerce tools offer?: 4 of 15 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 3 tiers. 3 of 15 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
How many e-commerce tools are listed on Softwr?: 15 approved e-commerce listings appear on this page, including Algolia, Authorize.net, Bluepark, Braintree. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/e-commerce, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Keep reading

Neighbouring categories

Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Where the ratings come from

What the pool is

The ranking

Algolia

Authorize.net

Bluepark

Braintree

Checkout.com

Contentful

eBay

FullStory

Gumroad

Hotjar

Loox

Mailchimp

Razorpay

SamCart

Stripe