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Squarespace: Start free trial
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Square: Start selling for free
Square Online is the best free ecommerce platform. We’ve determined this based on our in-depth research, which included over 200 hours of hands-on testing across 283 areas of investigation.
Square Online tops our ranking because it’s the only platform we tested that allows you to sell products online without signing up for a paid plan. There’s also no limit to the number of products you can sell on it.
The best free ecommerce website builders
- Square Online – Start selling for free
- Wix – Explore ecommerce features
- Squarespace – Try a stylish website builder for service-based businesses
- Hostinger– Test a simple builder, with an option for affordable plans
Click any of the links above to learn more about each ecommerce website builder.
Building an online store doesn’t need to break the bank. Some of the best ecommerce platforms, such as Wix, will let you do it at a remarkably low cost, with free plans or free trials to help you get your business off the ground.
But can you successfully create an online store for free? I’ll unpack the different options below to help you separate the “free forevers” from the “free for a whiles”.
💡 Key takeaways
- Square Online is the only platform we tested that lets you create a store and sell products for free.
- Functionality is limited on Square Online’s free plan – you can’t take PayPal payments, for example – so if you need to upgrade, the paid tiers range from £20 to £64 per month (billed annually).
- If you choose Square Online’s free plan, make sure you factor in extra costs like transaction fees, and the cost of your domain name and web hosting.
- Platforms like Wix and Squarespace offer free website builders, but you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to start selling.
- Free plans are a fine starting point, but you’ll need to consider scaling up to a premium plan to get better design tools and features like abandoned cart recovery.
The best free ecommerce builders: comparison table
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Cheapest ecommerce plan |
Key features |
Free plan or free trial |
Transaction fees |
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Free plan for the website builder |
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1.4% + 25p for UK card payments |
2.1% + 20p for most card payments |
From 1.5% + 25p to 2% + 25p, depending on your plan |
0% – Hostinger does not charge transaction fees |
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| Try Square | Try Wix | Try Squarespace | Try Hostinger |
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On this date, I verified all the information and pricing in this article as accurate. However, I would always recommend confirming pricing directly with the website builders before making any buying decisions.
Square Online – Start selling for free
- Start selling for free
- Excellent analytics
- Supports dozens of payment types
Summary Square Online is the only website builder that allows you to start selling products without upgrading to a paid plan. You’ll still have to pay a 1.9% transaction fee for every payment processed, but you won’t find a more cost-effective way of getting an online store up and running anywhere else. It’s a great way to get to grips with things before you upgrade to one of Square’s premium plans, which start from £9/month.
- The only builder that allows you to sell online on its free plan
- No limit to the number of products you can sell
- Limited sales features on the free plan
- Design flexibility and customisation options are weak
- A custom domain name isn’t included in the free plan
What I like about Square Online’s free plan
Square Online is the only provider on this roundup that lets you build your online store and sell products on the free plan, whereas the others only offer free trials or limited free plans on which you can’t actually sell.
There’s also no limit to the number of products you can sell on Square Online, which is generous for a free plan (by comparison, Wix caps your inventory at 50,000 products).
Moreover, Square’s autumn 2025 updates only added to its impressive ecommerce capabilities, including appointment deposits at booking, enhanced catalogue reporting (insights across items, combos, categories, and more), and the ability to remove backgrounds from product photos to improve your catalogue.
Once you’re ready to upgrade, you can graduate to a premium plan, which ranges from £20 to £64 per month (billed annually).
It was easy for me to add products to my inventory with Square Online’s free plan. Source: Startups.co.uk
The limitations of Square Online’s free plan
You’re locked out of a suite of advanced sales features. Without upgrading to the paid plans, you won’t have access to abandoned cart recovery, or the ability to take PayPal payments. You’ll also need to upgrade to a premium plan to get better design options and customisation, including templates.
Keep in mind that you’ll need to pay extra to get a custom domain, which isn’t included on the free plan.
You’ll also need to factor in the 1.4% + 25p transaction fee on every sale made. Frustratingly, these fees don’t decrease in price when you upgrade to its Plus plan. Its Premium plan charges a 1.4% + 15p transaction fee, which is just a 10p difference.
The bottom line
If you’re determined to build an online store for free, Square Online’s free plan is essentially your only option, but luckily it’s a great one. I’d highly recommend this builder for startups on a budget, or small businesses looking to find their feet online.
Wix – Explore ecommerce features
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Free plan or trial Free plan for the website builder
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Price from £16 per month, billed annually
- Flexible pricing plans
- AI chatbot builder
- Great additional features that support everything any up and coming merchant needs
Summary When we say Wix really does have it all, we mean it. Its largely improved sales features now support multi-channels including Facebook and other marketplaces. The Light plan, at only £9 per month, comes equipped with 24/7 customer support, unlimited product showcasing and the option to sell on social channels. If you want further insight into your ecommerce business and control of where you can sell, the £119 per month Business Elite plan comes with customised reports, marketplace selling capabilities and priority customer care. However, despite the product priding itself on its ease of use, a rather steep learning curve is required, particularly when navigating set “ecom” functionalities.
- Best all-round builder for small businesses
- Drag-and-drop editor makes building your online shop easy
- AI chatbot website builder is ideal if you don’t want to build from scratch
- Wix’s free plan and free trial don’t let you sell online
- You can’t change your website template once it’s live
- No custom domain on the free plan
What I like about Wix’s free plan
Wix, our top ecommerce platform for small businesses overall, offers both a free plan and a 14-day free trial of its premium plans. It also integrated with Royal Mail in October 2025, making it easy for sellers to manage shipping directly from their dashboard.
That being said, you won’t actually be able to sell until you upgrade to a paid plan.
However, on Wix’s free plan, you can still build a great online store using its AI chatbot builder and intuitive drag-and-drop editor, and give a decent portion of its quality features a test run.
I could create a unique online shop thanks to Wix’s drag-and-drop editor. Source: Startups.co.uk
The limitations of Wix’s free plan
Unlike Square Online, you can’t sell on the free plan. Wix’s premium plans range from £9 to £119 per month (billed annually), but you’ll need the Core plan at least, at £16 per month, for ecommerce functionality. Its transaction fees are also the highest on this list, as it charges 2.1% + 20p per transaction.
Opting for Wix’s free plan means it’ll slap ads on your site, which isn’t very professional-looking. You also can’t change your website template once it’s live, which isn’t ideal if your business is going through a rebrand.
The bottom line
Wix’s free plan is an excellent no-commitment taster of what Wix has to offer, but, realistically, you’ll be using it as a way to get a feel for the builder, rather than it being a long-term solution.
Squarespace – Free trial of great design features
- Easy to use dashboard that links seamlessly with the builder
- Fully customisable checkout page
- Use code “SU10” to receive a 10% discount on all Squarespace plans
Summary Squarespace’s ecommerce offering has plenty of great selling points to keep its users happy. The ecommerce platform provides polished templates that help create a luxury brand experience for your business as well as strong email marketing features. It also provides a step-by-step AI builder, giving you greater control over the look and style of your site.
- Helpful AI builder
- Dashboard and website builder seamlessly link
- Customisable checkout page
- No free website builder
- High transaction fee on the Basic tier
- Site loading times are about average
What I like about Squarespace’s free trial
Squarespace might not have a free ecommerce plan like Square Online, or a free website builder like Wix, but you can try it out risk-free for 14 days. It’s a great way for you to check out the range of incredibly sleek templates that can quickly create a luxury brand presence for creative or service-based businesses.
I was impressed with how Squarespace’s AI website builder helped me design a stylish-looking site with just a few clicks, and I could also tailor the checkout experience to my liking. Appointment-based businesses should try out the top-class scheduling and booking tools.
Squarespace also rolled out several new features in 2025. Its most notable tool, as of its October 2025 product update, is SquareGPT – a new integration that allows users to build a website directly from ChatGPT through a simple conversation.
You can choose from a range of stylish templates and sections to build your brand with Squarespace. Source: Startups.co.uk
The limitations of Squarespace’s free trial
While it’s a good way of getting a taste of what Squarespace has to offer, the two-week trial isn’t very long.
If you do decide to upgrade after your trial is up, the Basic tier is technically the cheapest ecommerce plan (costing £12 per month, billed annually), but it’s subject to a pretty high processing fee of 2% + 25p per transaction, plus an additional 2% transaction fee when selling products.
However, with Plus or Advanced, you won’t have to pay any transaction fees. Although if you’re also selling in-person (not just online exclusively), I’d recommend Square Online over Squarespace. That’s simply because Square Online can seamlessly integrate with Square’s POS system.
The bottom line
I’d recommend the free Squarespace trial for appointment-based businesses and brands that need a stylish site, to test whether the slick templates and excellent booking tools will be worth shelling out for.
“It was nice to see product images from my homepage design appearing in the image library for me to upload. Squarespace’s AI assistant also advised adding three photos at least – something that’s a really nice touch and shows off the platform’s expertise. I was also impressed to see product SEO info on this page.“
Hostinger – Test an easy-to-use builder
- Affordable deals for beginners
- The drag-and-drop editor is very easy to use
- A growing suite of AI features
Summary Hostinger is a simple and low-cost website builder, offering affordable plans and introductory deals for new businesses. It’s made recent upgrades in overall usability and navigation, though it lacks basic functionalities like email marketing. That said, its design options are impressive and its suite of AI tools makes building a website quick and easy.
- Very easy to use
- Some of the cheapest ecommerce plans available
- Fastest loading speeds we tested
- No free plan, but there is a free trial
- Less equipped to deal with large ranges of products
- Limited marketing tools compared with competitors
What I like about Hostinger’s free plan
Hostinger excels in simplicity, and you can use the free seven-day trial to try its super easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor for yourself.
When I used the AI builder, it set up an online store for me in under a minute. You can also use the free trial to check out its AI suite, including an image generator, templates, search engine optimisation (SEO) tools, logo maker, and blogging tool (which can generate up to 2,000 words).
In November 2025, Hostinger also enhanced its ecommerce capabilities with a new marketing consent feature, which allows businesses to collect customer permissions at checkout to send personalised marketing emails.
If you do choose to upgrade after the trial expires, Hostinger has the cheapest ecommerce plan available from just £2.45 per month (on a 48-month contract) with 0% transaction fees, and you can also get two months for free.
Hostinger provides a host of AI tools to streamline your ecommerce, including being able to instantly generate product details. Source: Startups.co.uk
The limitations of Hostinger’s free plan
Hostinger has no free ecommerce plan like Square’s, no free website builder like Wix, and its free trial is half as long as Squarespace’s.
I’d also say that if you’re in the market for integrated booking tools, Squarespace is a stronger option. Similarly, if you’re looking to enhance your marketing efforts, such as on social media, Wix’s tools will be a better fit.
The bottom line
I recommend Hostinger if you’re looking for a fast, easy-to-use ecommerce platform without having to make a significant financial investment.
“When using Hostinger’s SEO tool, I added the suggested meta description and it offered SEO tips, such as adding the primary keyword ‘electrician’. This was a really nice touch and very helpful for beginners.“
What are the limitations of free ecommerce builders?
Free ecommerce platforms inevitably come with some restrictions, compared to paid plans:
- Free plans often come with higher transaction fees, so you’ll pay more out of your earnings when you make a sale.
- Free plans typically place the platform’s own advertisements and branding (such as header ads) on your website, which can appear unprofessional.
- You also won’t be able to use a custom domain name, meaning the platform’s name will appear in your URL. For example, on Wix’s free plan, your domain would be username.wixsite.com/websitename.
- On free plans, you have limited access to advanced ecommerce features and customisation. For example, while Square Online offers a good range of basic tools (such as customer accounts and the ability to accept multiple payment methods), its paid plans come with more advanced capabilities, including better site customisation (such as a custom domain name, fonts, and widgets), QR code ordering, and better sales features (like item recommendations and loyalty rewards).
What transaction fees do these platforms charge?
Square Online, Wix, Squarespace, and Hostinger charge the following rates on each transaction:
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Transaction Fees |
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1.4% + 25p per UK card payment 2.5% + 25p per non-UK card payment |
2.1% + 20p per card payment (excl. AMEX) 3.1% + 20p per AMEX card payment |
2% + 25p, plus 2% transaction rate on the Basic plan 2% + 25p on the Core plan 1.7% + 25p on the Plus plan 1.5% + 25p on the Advanced plan |
0% – Hostinger does not charge transaction fees |
| Learn More | Learn More | Learn More | Learn More |
You should also be aware that the payment providers used to process payments on each platform will also charge additional card processing fees. However, if the platform has its own native payment provider, such as Wix Payments or Squarespace Payments, you won’t need to pay additional fees to use it.
Do you need to worry about extra costs?
If you’re expecting to launch an online store at minimal or even zero cost, be conscious of some extra fees that could sting you along the way:
- Domain name – Most free plans don’t come with (or even permit) a custom domain. Purchasing a domain name can be done directly through your website builder, or a domain name registrar. It’s usually very affordable and can cost under £10 per year in some cases.
- Web hosting – Your website needs to be hosted on servers, and it’s very rare for this to be free. Usually, this is packaged up with your website builder plan, which is why they’re so appealing. If you need to purchase web hosting separately, it can cost around £20 per year for basic shared hosting (which is fine for a small business).
- Transaction fees – Almost all ecommerce platforms will charge transaction fees on the sales you process online. These can change depending on your builder, the plan you sign up for, and the number of sales you make per month.
- Business email address – A business email address is a common feature on ecommerce plans. Costs are typically low – it’s £5 per account, per month on Google Workspace, for instance – but it’s something to consider if you don’t already have an email address for your site.
- Apps and extensions – Some ecommerce website builders, like Wix, offer rich app markets to browse. These offer a huge number of extensions for all sorts of purposes, from customer-facing tools on your site to useful behind-the-scenes integrations for accounting software.
The Site Booster app, available on Wix’s app market, has a free plan and a premium plan that costs £2.81 per month (billed annually). Source: Startups.co.uk
How to choose a free ecommerce website builder
When it comes to ecommerce, a free plan is an okay starting point, but you must be willing to upgrade to a premium plan to unlock the best features and remove a free plan’s limitations, such as ads on your site.
Moreover, even if you choose Square Online’s free plan for selling, you’ll still have to pay transaction fees and consider other additional costs, like a domain name.
I recommend assessing your budget fully before choosing your ecommerce website builder. How much are you willing to spend? What does your business need to thrive?
Who should use a free ecommerce website builder?
Ecommerce builders are an easy and accessible way of building your ecommerce site, making them a great option for:
- New businesses that want to quickly get their store live and online
- Growing startups that want to keep their budget in check and don’t want to invest in hiring a website designer
- Side hustlers who want to have an easily manageable ecommerce site
As you scale, there are low-cost paid plans that can give your small business extra features and functionality. And, in most cases, you will need to be on one of these paid plans to sell products.
How we test ecommerce website builders for small businesses
We regularly test and review the market’s top website builders to bring you up-to-date and accurate recommendations.
Our latest round of testing covered seven main categories. All in all, we spent over 100 hours collecting data for the platforms.
Each research category is given a weighting, depending on its importance to business owners. In this latest round of testing, an increased importance was given to support and user experience. Sales features remained the most important category:
- Sales features: 30% – The ecommerce functionality available to support your online store.
- Pricing: 20% – The availability of a free plan or at least a free trial, and the balance between features and price for the paid plans if you choose to upgrade.
- Website functionality: 15% – The number and quality of features on offer, such as SEO and marketing.
- Design features: 10% – Based on several design factors, such as templates and AI builders.
- User experience: 10% – We test each platform to assess its usability and accessibility.
- Help and support: 10% – The customer support options available to business owners.
- Reputation: 5% – We examine an ecommerce platform’s position and popularity in the market.
Final verdict: is a free plan suitable for online stores?
Square Online is the only free ecommerce website builder I recommend, as it offers the ability to list and sell unlimited products and also gives you access to social media integrations. But, even Square Online’s free plan is limited versus what you can get on the paid tiers.
If you want to set up your store before you pay for a plan, Wix is a great all-rounder for small businesses. And, if you’re looking for something more affordable long-term, then Hostinger and Squarespace are your best bets.
Whichever free ecommerce website builder you pick, just remember that upgrading to a premium plan should be your next goal to work towards.
Jump back up to any of our reviews:
- Will my free website have ads on it?
Yes. Opting for a free plan means you’ll have the platform’s branding on your website.
- Can I use my own domain on a free ecommerce plan?
No, you typically can’t use your own domain on a free ecommerce plan, and the platform’s name will be present in your domain. For example, a free Wix domain would be: username.wixsite.com/websitename
- Can I pay monthly for an ecommerce platform?
Yes, some ecommerce platforms offer the option to pay monthly instead of annually. While this is cheaper upfront, the per-month cost is almost always more expensive than it would be if you paid for a whole year in one go.
- Are “free“ ecommerce plans free of all costs?
No. Even on the best free plan, you must factor in costs like transaction fees, the cost of a custom domain name, and potentially web hosting if it isn’t included.
- Which free ecommerce platform offers the best overall value?
Square Online offers the best value as its free plan comes with a generous amount of features, and is the only free plan that allows you to start selling straight away. However, Wix and Squarespace are better alternatives if you’re looking for a wide variety of design options. Meanwhile, Hostinger is the best choice for transaction fees, as it charges 0% on your sales.
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