The best e-commerce software of 2026: Expert tested

Shopify remains the most beginner-friendly way to bring an online store to life. The intuitive setup process starts with adding your first product, writing descriptions, and uploading graphics. From there, Shopify Magic, the built-in AI tool, helps you with basics like cleaning up images and tweaking product details.

You can scroll through Shopify’s theme store or just start with Dawn, the free default theme that’s already used by so many business owners. It’s clean, responsive, and comes with pre-built sections like checkout, FAQ, and about pages. Using the theme editor, you can even adjust layout, colors, and fonts, or drop in new sections and blocks to make your store feel uniquely yours. 

Also: Shopify adds new AI tools for commerce. Here’s how you can use them for your business.

Shopify keeps things easy for anyone who just wants to build fast and sell faster. After adding your products or services to your store, start tightening the smaller screws. For example, you can use Shopify’s bot traffic filter to separate real visitors from bots, keeping your analytics clean. Pair that with the Shopify mobile app, where you can check sales, update inventory, or fulfill orders while you’re out grabbing coffee, and suddenly everything feels connected.

However, there are limits. Advanced reports sit behind higher plans, and real design freedom still leans toward developers. But if you ask me, most sellers can get started with Shopify. It’s got tools to help you go from a product idea to a live store in hours, not weeks. That’s what makes it hard to beat.

Shopify’s pricing starts with the Starter plan at $5 per month, followed by Basic at $39 per month, Grow for $105 per month, and Advanced at $399 per month. You can start for free, then pay $1 per month for the first three months. Though the Starter plan is only available for new merchants and those in the free trial period, it isn’t a perk available to all. 

Shopify features: All-in-one e-commerce platform | Fast drag-and-drop store builder | 13,000+ app integrations | 24/7 support | Bot traffic filtering in analytics | Unlimited contacts | Third-party calculated shipping rates

If your store’s getting traffic from outside your home country, Stripe keeps payments smooth. You just add Checkout, set what you’re selling, and it’ll handle currencies, taxes, and local payment options. Someone in London pays in pounds, someone in Tokyo pays in yen, and you still get the money in your own currency. Stripe sorts out the conversions in real time, so you can keep selling instead of crunching numbers.

For growing brands, the Connect feature helps you onboard vendors, split earnings, and send payouts to over a hundred countries while Stripe manages verification and compliance. That means you can build a multi-seller marketplace or scale B2B partnerships without worrying about handling payouts or settlements.

If you’re running subscriptions, think of Billing as the system that keeps your revenue steady. You can build flexible plans, set metered pricing for things billed by usage or time, and test free trials without editing a single line of code. 

Stripe even keeps tabs on upgrades, skips, and cancelations, adjusting everything automatically. You get real-time revenue updates, so you don’t need to hire someone just to handle subscriptions or payments.

For client and B2B orders, you can send branded invoices that handle taxes, record payments, and even follow up on pending ones. When a buyer pays by bank transfer, Stripe matches it to the right invoice and marks it settled, logging every transaction.

For the U.S. market, Stripe charges a standard 2.9% plus $0.30 per online card transaction.

Stripe features: 125+ payment methods | 135+ currencies | Connect for marketplaces and global payouts | Optimized Checkout Suite with Link | Radar fraud prevention and Adaptive 3D Secure | Billing and Invoicing automation | Terminal for unified in-person sales | PCI Level 1 compliance 

When you’re selling on Shopify, Etsy, and Amazon simultaneously, you need something like ShipStation that centralizes every order into a single dashboard. Think of it as a space where you can compare rates, manage orders, and track deliveries in real time. 

Start by connecting your stores and carrier, and from there, automation does most of the work. You can tag international orders, split multi-item shipments, and print hundreds of labels at once. For example, during a Black Friday rush, ShipStation can batch-print every label, sort them by carrier, and send tracking updates automatically. 

ShipStation also compares live rates from carriers like FedEx, USPS, DHL, and UPS and picks the most affordable or fastest route per shipment. Discounts can go as high as 90%, which means you can stay competitive on pricing without losing margin.

Even global shipping feels simple, because ShipStation generates customs documents, duties, and tracking pages and sends them to customers under your brand name. Once you’re shipping hundreds of orders a month, ShipStation will automate labels, carriers, and tracking so you don’t waste hours managing deliveries.

If you’re a content creator, you can even set up a TikTok store and connect it with ShipStation. You can sell directly through videos or live sessions while ShipStation handles packing, shipping, and tracking. It is as easy as it can get.

ShipStation has a free plan if you just want to test the waters with up to 10 shipments a month. As you grow, the Starter plan, at $15 per month, adds automations and return labels. The Standard brings unlimited orders and carrier integrations for $30 per month. Big teams can jump to Premium for $350 per month to access inventory tools and advanced warehouse management.

ShipStation features: Extensive integrations | Automated rate shopping | User group meet up | Batch printing for 500+ labels | Order Management Systems | Branded tracking and returns | Warehouse and inventory management | Shipment Notifications

Canva has become everyone’s go-to design tool, from freelancers polishing their portfolios to students wrapping up presentations at the last minute. With over 220 million users, it’s no longer limited to a niche use case. 

For e-commerce brands, this is where your visual identity starts taking shape. Before touching templates, you define your brand’s core, what it stands for, how it feels, and how you want customers to remember it. Think of it as giving your store a personality before setting it up.

Also: How to use Canva in ChatGPT to build a stunning presentation in minutes

While it sounds fun in theory, branding can get messy. I collaborated with a friend and built a demo brand for insulated coffee mugs and sippers to see how Canva holds up. We began by defining tone and values, then used Canva Pro’s Brand Kit to set a color palette, upload our logo in SVG, and pair fonts that matched the product’s simplicity. 

Once done, the templates automatically adopted our colors, fonts, and layout hierarchy, whether we were designing packaging, banners, or product listings.

And you don’t have to start from scratch. There are thousands of pre-made designs that you can make your own in seconds by applying your Brand Kit, recoloring elements, tweaking fonts, and aligning everything visually. Even without a designer, you can create logos, product mockups, videos, and branded visuals that look like they belong to the same family.

Canva is free to start, and that tier already covers most design basics, from templates to drag-and-drop editing. Once you move into serious branding, Canva Pro at around $15 per month opens up Brand Kits, Magic Resize, and 100-million-plus stock assets that make content feel truly professional. There’s also a Teams plan if you’re collaborating on brand visuals or product mockups together.

Canva features: Brand Kit setup | AI design tools (Magic Write, Magic Resize, Background Remover) | 600,000+ templates | SVG logo support | Font pairing & color palettes | Team collaboration | Direct social scheduling | Print-ready export options

Who doesn’t want customers coming back for more? Klaviyo helps you do that without manually managing every message. Connect it to your Shopify store, and it instantly pulls in customer data, order history, product views, and profiles. Setting up SPF and DKIM under your domain takes some time, but it’s worth it to keep your emails out of spam folders.

Once it’s synced, segmentation helps you customize things further. You can create groups like “frequent buyers,” “cart abandoners,” or “high-value customers,” and tailor how you talk to each one. 

Also: The best email marketing software

For example, a returning customer might get early access to a new drop, while a first-time visitor sees a welcome discount. It’s simple to build these lists in the Audience tab, and they become the backbone of every campaign that follows.

I tested Klaviyo’s automation by setting up a welcome flow that sent a warm intro email right after signup, followed by a 10% coupon two days later. Parallelly, I ran an abandoned cart flow that brought back people who had almost checked out. Not to mention, you can go old-school and even add SMS reminders without starting from scratch.

If your campaigns start slowing down; instead of guessing why, Klaviyo’s A/B testing lets you test subject lines, designs, or send times side by side. Within a few sends, you’ll know what’s clicking and what’s not, so you can quickly adjust.

Klaviyo’s pricing starts at $20 per month, whether you’re going for email or adding SMS into the mix. You get 5,000 emails and 150 text credits, which is plenty to start seeing results. There’s also a free plan if you’re just getting your store off the ground, with 500 emails and 150 texts for up to 250 profiles. When things finally start rolling, you can scale it on your terms, paying only for what you actually use.

Klaviyo features: 40+ embedded K:AI tools | AI Marketing Agent | AI Customer Agent | Predictive analytics | Image Remix | Channel Affinity | Segments AI | 350+ ecommerce integrations | CDP and App Marketplace