The number of people who spend money buying things on the Internet is growing every year. According to Statista, retail eCommerce sales in 2025 were estimated to exceed $3.6 trillion worldwide, and this number keeps increasing. Clearly, this trend offers considerable advantages to eCommerce companies.
Still, to start selling goods, it’s important to choose the right content management system (CMS).
An eCommerce CMS is a solution that helps brands create and manage their online stores. Some businesses rely on an experienced eCommerce development company to create and implement their own platforms, while others choose proven market solutions.
However, with the abundance of popular CMS platforms like Shopify and the new ones appearing every month, companies find it more and more difficult to choose the right platform. G2 alone includes 503 eCommerce platforms.
To help business owners make a choice, we have listed the top ten eCommerce CMS solutions for 2026. We’ve covered the strengths and weaknesses of every platform to help them choose wisely.
Why You Need a Separate eCommerce CMS Platform to Manage Your Store
In 2026, treating content as a secondary function of an eCommerce platform is no longer sufficient. As online stores turn into full-fledged digital spaces, brands need to separate content management from the logic of commercial operations – and for good reason.
Independent Content Management & Scalability
Thanks to a separate content management system, you can update and scale content without affecting the core eCommerce logic. Marketing teams publish landing pages, advertising campaigns, and product descriptions according to their schedule, while developers focus on performance and integration.
Content as a Differentiator
When content isn’t constrained by eCommerce website templates, you gain far more creative freedom. Rich storytelling, personalized pages, and adjusted messaging help the store stand out instead of blending in with competitors.
Omnichannel eCommerce
A dedicated CMS makes it easy to publish the same content across websites, mobile apps, marketplaces, social media, and emerging touchpoints. You can create content once and reuse it everywhere, adapting it to each channel without duplication or loss of consistency.
More Flexibility Through a Decoupled Tech Stack
Decoupling content from commerce allows for the technological infrastructure to evolve over time. You can switch platforms, update frontend frameworks, or add new tools without rebuilding the entire system.
Better Security
Separating the CMS from transactional systems reduces risk. Content tools don’t need access to payments or customer data, which limits exposure in case of vulnerabilities. Clear system boundaries make it easier to enforce access control, protect sensitive information, and adhere to modern security standards.
1. Shopify
Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms in the world. At the moment, it is used by over five million eCommerce stores from 175 countries. The reason for the popularity of Shopify is quite obvious — it is a high-quality eCommerce platform that is suitable for firms of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises.
Source: shopify.com
Shopify offers users a wide range of features for marketing, payments, sales, customer engagement, inventory management, and other activities. Thus, using this CMS, each vendor can manage their store, even without resorting to additional software.
One of the hallmarks of this CMS is flexibility. Shopify offers many pricing plans; therefore, each user can choose the option they can afford.
For example, small online stores can use the cheapest plan and get a minimal set of features and modules. Enterprises with large resources can afford Shopify Plus, a more advanced version of the CMS, which suits transnational corporations.
Another advantage of Shopify is its convenience and customer experience. Besides the fact that this CMS is quite easy to use, eCommerce stores can utilize the Shopify mobile app to manage the shop from anywhere.
One of the biggest drawbacks of this eCommerce software is that store owners are charged each time they use third-party payment gateways. Thus, if the merchant intends to use third-party payment systems, they should be prepared to pay extra transaction fees.
2. Magento
Magento is another giant in the eCommerce software market. In 2025, more than 150,000 eCommerce stores already used Magento to manage their online business. Besides that, this CMS often gets on the lists of the most popular eCommerce platforms in Europe.
Source: seekvectorlogo.com
Magento is rightfully considered one of the best eCommerce platforms in the world, as it offers a wide range of customization options for small online stores and large businesses.
It also provides users with numerous third-party integrations and excellent performance. In addition to the standard functionality of CMS solutions, Magento also offers merchants tools for catalog & product management, marketing, and SEO.
Despite all the advantages, if you choose Magento, you should understand that installing this eCommerce software is a much longer and more complex process compared to other solutions.
Even though Magento Open Source is free to download and use, all other things, like development, themes, add-ons, and hosting, may require expenditures. Thus, Magento better suits established eCommerce stores that have a solvent audience and constant demand.
3. WooCommerce
When we list the best quality and most famous eCommerce platforms, we simply cannot ignore WooCommerce.
The thing is that today, this CMS is one of the leading eCommerce solutions in the world. According to Statista, WooCommerce had a market share of 39% in 2024, which made it the world’s leading eCommerce platform.
Source: colorlib.com
By its nature, WooCommerce is a flexible, open-source WordPress-based platform that provides online stores with rich eCommerce functionality, such as PayPal integration and 1-Click Selling. The WooCommerce CMS is also quite easy to use, so there is no problem for eCommerce stores to customize the system to their needs.
While WooCommerce is free for those who have a WordPress-based website, other businesses will have to pay for hosting. Also, WooCommerce may require additional expenses for the purchase of plugins.
However, some companies that use this eCommerce software may have security concerns because of these third-party plugins. Not all of them are connected to WooCommerce directly, and this nuance can be used by hackers.
4. BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a hosted platform that allows eCommerce sites to create and manage digital shops and sell products via the web. When using BigCommerce, users don’t have to download and store anything, since this CMS is a SaaS product.
Source: competethemes.com
BigCommerce contains a wide range of valuable features that allow users to effectively sell products and even market online stores. It also provides vendors with a number of customization options that allow them to change the design of the store and adapt it to their business needs.
Like Shopify, the BigCommerce platform offers eCommerce stores a flexible set of plans, so each brand can choose the plan that suits it best. Therefore, the system can be particularly relevant for brands that want to use a CMS that is cost-effective and easy to customize.
On the other hand, after paying for the subscription, users may need to switch to more expensive plans since the standard BigCommerce plan cannot offer a rich set of themes and add-ons.
5. Open Cart
OpenCart is a free open-source platform for small and large online stores. This eCommerce software has a relatively large community of contributors, so the product is constantly evolving and improving.
Source: sphereplugins.com
The main advantages of this platform are simplicity and flexibility; therefore, it can be useful for small online stores and startups that don’t want to spend a lot of time and money on development.
OpenCart provides users with a wide range of payment methods and more than 13,000 extensions; therefore, any brand can customize the software and better tailor it to its needs. OpenCart provides merchants with such features as a marketing tool, sales reports, customer and order management, and so on.
The disadvantages of this eCommerce software include low performance, which may be fixed with the help of additional plug-ins and extensions, and the need for merchants to host and secure the site themselves.
6. Wix
Wix is a relatively new eCommerce platform that is successfully used by online stores around the world. By its nature, Wix is not a ready-made eCommerce product but rather a solution for constructing websites that allow users to create digital stores using an in-built set of tools.
Source: wikipedia.org
What makes Wix a good CMS? Firstly, it is easy to learn and has a user-friendly interface, which means that even a beginner who doesn’t have experience in coding can quickly create a site. In fact, the user only needs to choose a suitable design, and then the system develops the site.
Secondly, this eCommerce software is very customizable since it offers a huge selection of creative templates that can be used to build original sites that are different from competitor sites. Merchants can also install various eCommerce, marketing, and social plugins to make their stores more efficient.
However, the product has a number of disadvantages. For example, users cannot change the store’s design and template after it has already been selected, or use native blogging solutions since Wix doesn’t provide them.
7. PrestaShop
PrestaShop is a popular open-source eCommerce CMS. Many brands use it because they don’t have to pay any license fees for developing and managing online stores.
Source: ecommerce-nation.com
This eCommerce software is quite flexible and easy to manage because each user can download it for free and then customize it using various add-ons. Among other things, the system supports a wide range of integrations, for example, those related to payment, such as PayPal or Google Checkout.
If a merchant doesn’t want to spend time customizing the system, they can buy a hosted version, which is called PrestaShop Ready.
In general, PrestaShop may be useful for stores that don’t want to spend much time developing an eCommerce solution, which sets PrestaShop apart from other solutions.
Nevertheless, this eCommerce software has a couple of drawbacks. For instance, merchants may spend extra money on the purchase of modules and add-ons, because not all of them are included in the standard set.
Also, previously, PrestaShop had some problems with payment gateway modules, so users may fail to complete payments quickly.
8. Drupal
Drupal is a powerful open-source CMS written in PHP that’s widely used for making complex, content-heavy websites and eCommerce solutions. Thanks to Drupal Commerce modules, it can be extended into a fully functional online store.
Today, Drupal is used by hundreds of thousands of websites worldwide, including large enterprises, media platforms, and government organizations.
Drupal can be a strong choice for eCommerce management when flexibility and advanced content modeling are priorities. It offers rich SEO capabilities, granular user permissions, multilingual support, and deep customization options.
Its modular architecture allows merchants to integrate third-party services, build custom workflows, and tailor the storefront to very specific business needs. Since Drupal is open source, there are no licensing fees, but development and maintenance costs may vary depending on project complexity.
That said, Drupal is generally better suited for medium to large stores or projects with complex requirements. The learning curve is quite steep, and setting up or maintaining an eCommerce store usually requires experienced developers. For smaller teams or simple stores, this complexity can feel excessive.
9. Joomla
Joomla is another open-source PHP-based CMS that sits somewhere between ease of use and flexibility. With extensions like VirtueMart, HikaShop, or J2Store, Joomla can be transformed into a capable eCommerce platform for selling products and managing stores.
Joomla offers a wide set of built-in features, including SEO-friendly URLs, multilingual support, flexible content management, and a wide range of templates and extensions.
It’s often appreciated for its balance: more flexible than beginner-focused CMSs, but generally easier to work with than highly technical platforms. Merchants can customize store functionality, integrate third-party tools, and manage content and commerce within a single ecosystem.
However, Joomla’s capabilities depend heavily on extensions, which can vary in quality and long-term support. While the CMS itself is free, costs may arise from paid extensions, templates, and development work.
Joomla is usually a good fit for small to mid-sized stores, but for very large or highly customized eCommerce projects, its ecosystem may feel limiting compared to more enterprise-oriented platforms.
10. Volusion
In the eCommerce market, Volusion is one of the most mature paid software platforms. More than 250,000 stores use Volusion to manage their eCommerce business.
Volusion has a number of valuable and unique features. For example, it offers users 11 free templates and, contrary to its competitors, allows merchants to change templates if necessary. Volusion is also known for its dashboard that has a large number of built-in features, which reduces the need to install paid add-ons.
However, Volusion doesn’t have support for third-party plug-ins. Also, when buying a standard plan, stores have limited bandwidth, which may negatively affect their work.
Wrapping Up
There are many truly best eCommerce CMS in the market, and they all have a wide range of functionalities and scalability opportunities. However, there is no universal solution, because each product has its pros and cons.
To maximize the benefits of an eCommerce CMS, companies can develop digital solutions that are tailored to their business needs. This way, store owners can ensure that they get a custom product adapted to their business requirements and able to deliver the highest possible ROI.
If you are considering the possibility of developing an eCommerce platform, please feel free to contact us. Our experts will provide you with a free consultation and answer all your questions.
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