Ecommerce or E-commerce usually refers to the online sale of physical goods, but it can also describe commercial transactions over the internet.Building an online shop or web Store is not difficult nowadays because of the many available and accessible tools and software. The most important part of this process is selecting the best and most suitable software platform for your business.Today we will review all interesting and popular online platforms for e-commerce and see their benefits and disadvantages.  At the end of each section, we'll summarize the features of each one of these tools for electronic commerce.Most Popular Ecommerce Platforms NowadaysOf course, the below numbers do not include all websites or existing systems, but it will be good enough for our comparisons. As per data from BuiltWith®, the most popular CMS (content management systems) for online shops or websites looks presently as follows: Let's now review one by one most of these top popular E-commerce platforms.WooCommerce This is one of the best E-commerce platforms right now. In fact, WooCommerce is the world's most popular open-source eCommerce solution, but it is not a standalone solution or an e-commerce CMS. WooCommerce instead is an open-source e-commerce plugin for the most popular content management system, WordPress. WooCommerce can only be used on self-hosted WordPress.org sites at present. Initially, WooCommerce was designed for small to large-sized online merchants who are using WordPress as a CMS. Due to its simplicity to install and customize this free base product, the plugin quickly became popular.Pros of WooCommerce as an eCommerce solutionIt's a free and open-source plugin, so anyone can download and use it;It is easy to install and use, which is perfect for startups and those that have limited resources;Regular updates of the software and official extension library, which means your store or online shop will be looking good and be safe at all times;Due to its popularity, WooCommerce has excellent Payment gateway support PayPal, Square, and Stripe), out of the box.Many great possibilities to extend the platform functionalities through APIs and plugins;Useful and simple reporting system;Cons of WooCommerce as an eCommerce solutionPremium extensions that cost money. To create a useful and modern e-commerce platform, you will certainly need to invest in some of the paid extensions available on the marketplace. Such investments can be massive, sometimes;Potential coding conflicts with other plugins or extensions. People familiar with WordPress (WP) environment are well aware of this fact. Sometimes WP modules created by different developers can create clashes, resulting in an inefficient performance of the website or even crashes;Slow performance. Speed is an essential factor in every web site, and online stores and e-commerce websites are not an exclusion. Adding more extensions or data to your webshop will certainly lead you to the point where more technical resources (such as different types of web hosting) will be required;The necessity to know about WordPress.Last but not least is the fact that if you want to use WooCommerce and built a website for online shopping with it. First, you will have to spend some time and learn WP;Conclusion about WooCommerce as an eCommerce solutionWooCommerce is a compelling piece of kit which allows you to sell anything, to anyone, anywhere. The responsive design, SEO-friendly interface, and all features that WooCommerce has to offer to customers make it the most widely used eCommerce platform globally. Compared to other e-commerce platforms, WooCommerce is a flexible and cost-effective solution with lots of advances built-in features that make it one of the best eCommerce platforms offered on the market. Shopify and Shopify PlusShopify, as the second most popular e-commerce platform powers thousands of online stores. Fair enough, Shopify is among the best E-commerce platforms yet.If I have to describe Shopify with few words, this is a ready "out of the box," fully hosted cloud-based solution that can be used to build and run any shop or store. With Shopify, everyone can create an e-commerce website and start selling in a relatively short time.Here is time to mention that the difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus is Shopify is while Shopify was designed for small to medium-sized businesses,  Shopify Plus is built for large enterprise companies and brands.  While we'll mention a few things about Shopify Plus, the focus here will be mainly on Shopify.If I have to compare WooCommerce vs. Shopify, I would like to say that Shopify has a slight overall advantage against WooComerce, but this is my personal opinion, based on experience. However, it is essential to remember that everyone has different needs when creating an e-commerce site.Pros of Shopify as an eCommerce solutionIntuitive, user-friendly interface, suitable for newbies;Flexible design and a variety of sales features;Shopify has an amazing inventory system;Over 100+ ready themes for every type of shop or store;The e-commerce features are better than on any other website builder. Store owners can sell across multiple platforms Instagram, Facebook, and Amazon.Ready to use solution with a good value for money;Great support provided literally 24/7;The cost per month is very affordable, and up to 5 staff accounts can be used;Useful features such as unlimited number of products abandoned cart recovery and discount codes;Integrated fraud analysis;Cons of Shopify as an eCommerce solutionCan’t switch themes without having to reformat your content;Transaction fees enforced if you don’t use Shopify Payments;Lacking specialist integrations;Pros of Shopify Plus as an eCommerce solutionThere are Unlimited staff accounts;the system can handle over 10 thousand transactions per minute;Have Personalized, dedicated help and support;Cons of Shopify Plus as an eCommerce solutionRequires a lot of free time to invest in your eCommerce website;Price with monthly costs done by a quote, rather than set pricing;Only worth investment if you own an enterprise-level business;Conclusion about Shopify and Shopify Plus as an eCommerce solutionEvery day, eCommerce businesses and companies widely use Shopify. Its pricing plans, which range from $29 to  $299 per month, can satisfy most merchants' requirements and are accessible to most people or brands. The affordable pricing, combined with all the useful features this ready to use eCommerce platform has to offer, makes Shopify probably the best solution if you are planning to invest in an online store or webshop and start it as soon as you can. Shopify Plus is for flagship companies and massive retailers, so it worths the money only if your business really needs an enterprise eCommerce solution.Magento and Magento EnterpriseMagento, the third most popular platform for eCommerce, empowers thousands of brands and retailers with an open-source solution. Besides having rich features, Magento offers users unrivaled flexibility to manage content, looks, and functionality of their e-commerce store. There is no doubt that Magento is one of the best E-commerce platforms nowadays.This open-source eCommerce platform will give you the ultimate eCommerce solution with a powerful blend of wide-ranging support network combined with a highly scalable design. To give you a clue for its flexibility, I will mention that companies like Coca-Cola and Ford use Magento as an e-commerce platform.There are many differences between Magento and WooCommerce and their competitor Shopify. The main difference between these three platforms is that Magento and WooCommerce operate as self-hosted platforms, while Shopify is a hosted platform, also known as SAAS. This means that if you select for your online store a self-hosted platform like WooComerce or Magento, the care for all your hosting worries is for you. Magento is free to install, but you’ll need to think about a domain, web hosting, security, and extensions.Now it's time to say a few words about Magento Commerce, aka Magento 2.Magento Commerce, Magento 2, or Magento Commerce 2 offers modern eCommerce solutions for growth-oriented brands and enterprises. In short, the main differences between these two versions lay in their scalability and sustainability. Where the free, open-source Magento falls short, the paid Magento Commerce 2 supports rich functionality right out-of-the-box.Pros of Magento as an eCommerce solutionAn open-source e-commerce solution;Feature-rich system-it offers a bunch of useful "out-of-the-box" features;Fully scalable-whether you’re selling 10 or 10,000k items, Magento can deal with it without an issue;Magento is a mobile-friendly and SEO friendly platform;Magento offers limitless customization and great flexibility; A large community of users, which means many free sources for helpful information;Cons of Magento as an eCommerce solutionYou need to pay for a host and requires a decent time for setting it up;Not an easy to use e-commerce platform (this is valid for personnel which doesn't have required experience);There is no real technical support;Magento 2 is affordable only for enterprises because it is super expensive;This e-commerce platform can be quite slow at times;Conclusion about Magento and Magento 2 as an eCommerce solutionThe flexibility of Magento’s Enables store owners to add rich capabilities and enable integrations with other digital tools. Magento allows you to fully control how you deliver your customer experience without limits but requires knowledge and trained personnel for maintenance. As a flexible eCommerce platform, Magento supports business expansion within a single instance. Besides, the system enables merchants to sell digital goods and customizable products online and handle the complexities of B2B commerce. Again, compared to other eCommerce systems, the experience with this platform is essential.There are great differences between the Open-source and the paid versions of Magento, so that you can choose between these two options depending on your business needs and financial capabilities.PrestaShopPrestaShop is another open-source e-commerce platform, which is offered as a freemium (a combination of “free” and “premium”) solution, which means that the basic features are free. In contrast, advanced features are part of the premium part. PrestaShop is currently available in 60 different languages and is used by 300,000 shops worldwide as per Wikipedia.PrestaShop is a good option for most users, especially if you want to have access to as many options as you can. Let's see now where this eCommerce system stands when compared with some of its rivals.If we compare PrestaShop with WooCommerce, we can say that the latter stands out for ease of use due to its integration with WordPress. PrestaShop, on the other hand, offers more features by default.If compare PrestaShop to Shopify,  then I must say that Shopify can be a useful option for small stores that don't need a lot of advanced functionality. Pros of PrestaShop as an eCommerce solutionThe PrestaShop custom design is simple and friendly. You don't need vast technical knowledge to own and run a PrestaShop e-store; It is easy to customize a shopping site using Prestashop. Since there are 25000+ plugins are available for PrestaShop, the e-commerce platform is super flexible. It is effortless to personalize specific areas of PrestaShop store during the site development process;Prestashop comes up with several integrated features, "out of the box." These features include free tools like coupons, deals, vouchers, automation Email follow-ups, and many more;Prestashop is easy to install and maintain;This open-source shopping cart is free of cost;Prestashop supports multiple languages and currencies. Hence localization is simple and demographic assistance makes PrestaShop stores run effectively around the globe;The major benefit of Prestashop is the reliable and convenient payment gateways, which are secure, and there is no worry about fraud activities;Cons of PrestaShop as an eCommerce solutionOne of the main disadvantages of this e-commerce platform is the lack of a support team. Still, there is a community of 700k plus active members who can always support the users whenever this is required;Another limitation of Prestashop is Limited scalability. This eCommerce platform is suitable for small size shops or medium stores, but when the platform needs to expand, PrestaShop is not a great choice;PrestaShop has a decent design for the low budget store, but when compared with its rivals, the platform's design looks poor. For large-scale shops, the design of the system will not be suitable, regardless of its primary essential functions;Conclusion about PrestaShop is an eCommerce solution.PrestaShop is a freeware, open-source e-commerce platform, which can be highly customizable with some coding knowledge.An advantage can be pointed to the fact that the system has plenty of add-ons and third-party extensions. Additionally, the platform is self-hosted, which allows the store owner full control over server files.Some of PrestaShop's disadvantages are that the platform's speed needs improvement and add-ons required to build a decent, operating shop or online store can be quite expensive.PrestaShop can be a good solution for an e-commerce platform if you are on a low budget. This solution will be suitable if you are looking to set up a standard store with some basic features that will allow you to get your new online business started as a shop owner.OpenCartOpenCart is an open-source e-commerce platform written in PHP and used to sell online. It is definitely a robust solution so that any merchant can set up their online store quickly and easily, allowing you to create your own virtual store at a meager price. OpenCart is designed with complete features, easy to use, powerful, fast, and with a visually attractive interface. In my opinion, OpenCart is perhaps one of the best of all the existing open-code e-commerce systems by comparing speed, simplicity, and efficiency.Pros of OpenCart as an eCommerce solutionEasy installation: installing OpenCart is easy, so much so that a single mouse click is enough to be able to install it on your hosting account successfully;Compatible with Apache and Nginx: It can be installed on these, which are the two most popular web servers on the market;Scalable: allows its use from shared hosting plans, such as cloud servers, dedicated, and even server clusters.Easy to use: from the beginning, OpenCart was designed to be easy to use above all, both for experienced users and beginners;Personalization: allows you to customize the look and feel of the online store, making it easy to adapt it to your tastes, with some themes and plugins as you need;Multiple languages, currencies, and products - Allows an unlimited number of products, currencies, and almost any language;Cons of OpenCart as an eCommerce solutionNot so many templates: compared to other e-commerce CMS, we can say that it has few templates or themes to customize the online store;Not so many plugins: another weak point is that you will not have as many add-ons available as if you set up an online store with Woocommerce or Prestashop;The dedicated technical supports for OpenCart it is existing, but it is a bit pricey; On another hand, the existing community that can help you with free advice it's not so big: since it is software not as popular as other options, the community will not be as active, and you will not find as many answers to the questions you have about the software;Conclusion about OpenCart as an eCommerce solutionAs we have seen, OpenCart is an easy, fast, and free solution to be able to set up your own e-commerce store. Although it is not one of the most popular, it has everything you need to successfully install and configure your online store to start selling online easily and quickly finalized. Squarespace Add to CartSquarespace is the all-in-one SAAS (service s)solution for anyone looking to build a  website of any type, including web stores (online shops). Squarespace allows users to use pre-built templates, like any other website builders and drag-and-drop elements, to create and modify webpages. With Squarespace, you can create a beautiful website that helps your business attract new customers and sell products or services.Setting up a Squarespace store is easy, even for the newbies. If you want to have one, you have to choose a prebuilt template, add products for selling, connect payment processors, and are pretty much ready to go. Of course, there are few other things to do, such as shipping options or taxes set up before you start to sell, but these are things you need to do with any store, anyway.Squarespace can often work out to be a good option for those on a low budget or intent on building their website without involving a developer.WordPress, for example, is a considerably more powerful and flexible CMS than Squarespace, but on the other hand, Squarespace includes everything you'll need.Pros of Squarespace as an eCommerce solutionSquarespace is a complete package because it includes everything, such as themes, plugins, hosting. Right out of the box solution, built to speed up the development of personalized websites;Squarespace is user-friendly and intuitive and offers ready templates for every type of website;Features include everything from the built-in shopping cart to unlimited product support;Because the system is offered as SAAS, you don’t have to think about technical details because  it’s all taken care of behind the scenes;Easy to set up any website including an online store and cheaper compared to some of its paid rivals;Cons of Squarespace as an eCommerce solutionThere is no App store;Restrictive templates;The payment options are limited;No Multi-Channel Selling available;Conclusion about Squarespace as an eCommerce solutionSquarespace eCommerce is a good choice for anyone with an eye for beautiful things but very little technical confidence, looking to take their sales online. This e-commerce system is well-known for its sleek, beautiful templates and is likely to be a good choice for people who want to launch their site with minimal effort.BigCommerceBigCommerce is an e-commerce solution for small and medium businesses. With BigCommerce, you can quickly and easily create an online store where you can sell products, process and send orders, manage stock, and customize your store's design. BigCommerce is offered as a SaaS eCommerce platform and is one of the best options for starting and running a successful online shop or store. It offers a wide range of built-in functions and is also very easy to use, so you do not need advanced knowledge to create an online store. In terms of design, it is important to note that BigCommerce offers multiple e-commerce themes and other tools that allow you to keep your online store looking professional and above the competition. Each of these themes has several styles that you can choose from.Pros of BigCommerce as an eCommerce solutionBigCommerce is ideal for different sizes of online businesses;Customer Support behind this e-commerce platform is outstanding;Fully adapted to mobile devices -BigCommerce was the first platform to integrate Google AMP into e-commerce;This platform for eCommerce allows you to increase traffic on your page using content RSS and purchase feeds;BigCommerce gives you the possibility of integrating your e-commerce in many marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, etc.BigCommerce has an intuitive, user-friendly interface;Secure e-shopping cart;Cons of BigCommerce as an eCommerce solutionLacks flexibility on the skins of the web pages when minor changes are needed;When it comes to SEO, BigCommerce is far behind other shopping carts;Payment gateways are not ideal; Some of the "extras" can be expensive for some owners of small businesses. Conclusion about BigCommerce as an eCommerce solutionBigCommerce is one of the big names in the e-Commerce business and an all-in-one tool that packs many powerful features into a single platform. BigCommerce is very easy to use, so you do not need advanced knowledge to create an online store. It is an affordable out-of-the-box solution, but if you're looking for a fully customizable website, this e-commerce solution might not be good for you. Future customizations and integrations could cost a lot of money. Salesforce Commerce CloudCommerce Cloud is an e-commerce platform from Salesforce that enables companies to create personalized and intelligent unified online stores across multiple channels, including mobile, social, web, and store.  This solution is comprised of Salesforce B2C Commerce and Salesforce B2B Commerce. Both  B2B Commerce and B2C Commerce are often used together to deliver end to end unified commerce. Salesforce owns another e-commerce solution mentioned here - Demandware.SAP Commerce CloudSAP Commerce Cloud delivers personalized experiences on a global scale.This is one of the Enterprise e-commerce solutions and is a cloud-native omnichannel solution designed for B2B2C, B2B, and B2C companies.Zen CartZenCart is open-source software that allows you to design e-commerce websites easily and intuitively. Unlike other eCommerce solutions with complicated setups and processes, ZenCart highlights merchants and buyer requirements, allowing almost anyone with the most basic skills to install and launch a site.As with Prestashop, ZenCart allows you to have your e-commerce on your own hosting and with your own domain. ZenCart has numerous functionalities to customize and configure your e-commerce website. Pros of Zen Cart is an eCommerce solution.Zen Cart is an easy-to-use e-commerce platform; merchants can start accepting payments immediately;Several tasks such as order confirmation are automated;Software modules in ZenCart  are integrated to create promotions, discount coupons, gift vouchers, newsletters, and product notifications;Zen Cart allows individual products to be put on sale or all of them have a discount, including discounts by a group to which they belong and discounts by quantity;Integrated tool for Search Engine Optimization, including 'meta-tag' controls at the individual product levelZen Cart supports multiple languages, currencies, and tax structures;Cons of Zen Cart is an eCommerce solution.The administration interface looks overloaded;It lacks useful plugins such as plugin for SEO or such to obtain reports on the behavior of users;Design customization is based on paid templates;Conclusion about Zen Cartas as an eCommerce solutionZen Cart® a friendly shopping cart system that prioritizes the requirements of customers and merchants. Similarly, while e-commerce platforms are difficult to use without high tech knowledge, Zen Cart can be operated by anyone with basic knowledge.From my personal experience, I think newbies have more chances of success setting up a new online store with Prestashop than with Zen Cart. I find Prestashop more user-friendly as an e-commerce platform compared to Zen Cart, but again - this is a personal opinion.UbercartUbercart is an open-source e-commerce solution based on Drupal, one of the most popular and comprehensive content management systems. If you’re planning to build a small eCommerce store, then Ubercart is the right option because it’s simple to implement and maintain.  Pros of UberCart as an eCommerce solutionFull control of your product catalog;Versatility ;Ubercart is simple to use and easy to set-up;Huge variety of design templates;  Designed to facilitate the work of search engines; Integration with different payment methods;Cons of UberCart as an eCommerce solutionUbercart has weak stock control;The system allows limited customization;UberCart Only provides basic features;It can be difficult to create products for the first time;Ubercart website is not so pretty;Conclusion about UberCart as an eCommerce solutionUbercart is a free e-commerce solution, an open-source shopping cart, which is easy to install, manage, and use. Over the years, UberCart becomes more and more user-friendly; hence, if you are acquainted with Drupal, you’ll have no operating problems. If you are familiar with Drupal and are interested in running a Drupal-based e-commerce system, then check out Drupal Commerce too.EcwidI will say that Ecwid is one of my favorite e-commerce systems since it is unique.The fact that makes this e-commerce solution unique is that Ecwid offers the solution to any business that wants to sell online. Ecwid is a responsive design cloud commerce platform that offers the easiest way to add an online store to any website. You can sell across a website, social media, and marketplaces. I'm not joking - users can set up an Online Store on WordPress, Drupal, Facebook, and many other platforms and systems!  Although it lacks the popularity of WooCommece or the glamor of Shopify, Ecwid's customer base is not small: one million merchants spread over 150+ countries. Likewise, its platform is available in 40+ different languages.To SummarizeMany available solutions can be suitable for an e-commerce system when building a website store or setting up an online shop. When selecting an e-commerce solution, some of the most important factors are the budget, flexibility, scalability, ease of use, and a few more.Selecting the right system depends on many factors, but there will always be options among the reviewed above most popular e-commerce systems.