Looking for up-to-date prices? This article dates from 2024. For platform costs as of 2026, read How much does an e-commerce site cost in 2026; the CMS guide remains below.
The e-commerce sector offers unprecedented opportunities for businesses of all sizes. Small companies can compete on a global basis, while larger companies can reach a vast audience online. However, success in the world of e-commerce requires an in-depth understanding of various aspects, from choosing the right e-commerce platform to inventory management, from logistics to the security of online transactions.
There are aspects, such as the speed of a site and its ease of use, that are fundamental both for merchants and for end users.
Before looking together at some aspects of the best-known CMSs, such as Magento, Prestashop, Shopify and Woocommerce, and dwelling on how much an e-commerce site costs, let’s see the features a good e-commerce site should have.
The 13 key features of an e-commerce site according to dotenv
A well-made e-commerce site should have a series of key features that set it apart and ensure its success. We summarise them below:
- Attractive, intuitive design: the look of the website matters. It must be attractive, professional and consistent with the brand, with navigation that is intuitive and easy for users to understand.
- Mobile responsive: the e-commerce site must be optimised for mobile devices, since more and more people shop from smartphones and tablets.
- Wide range: a broad assortment of products meets a variety of customer tastes and needs, and should include detailed descriptions and high-quality images.
- Effective search system: an advanced search engine lets customers quickly find what they are looking for, also thanks to filters and sorting options.
- User-friendly cart: the process of adding products to the cart, viewing the cart and completing the order must be easy and clear.
- Secure transactions: the use of encryption protocols to protect customers’ financial information is essential.
- Customer opinions: customer reviews provide trust and transparency. A perfect e-commerce site should allow customers to leave reviews and ratings on products.
- Customer support: offering accessible, responsive customer service is important for answering questions and solving customers’ problems.
- Diversified payments: providing different payment options, including credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers and other solutions, is fundamental to meeting customers’ preferences.
- Reliable, trackable shipping: fast, reliable shipping is essential. In addition, providing shipment tracking tools helps customers to monitor their orders.
- Efficient inventory management: an accurate inventory management system avoids situations in which products are unavailable or out of stock.
- Clear policies: all policies, including those on returns, warranty and shipping, should be clear and accessible to customers.
- Feedback and continuous improvement: collecting feedback from customers and monitoring the site’s performance is strategic for making improvements constantly.
Strengths and costs of the 4 main CMSs for building an e-commerce site
Now that you know the main features a good online shop must have, let’s look together at the characteristics of the best-known CMSs, with a focus on how much an e-commerce site costs.
Magento: completeness, richness and high costs
Magento is not the simplest of CMSs but it offers completeness and a wealth of options, even though in the open-source version almost all the options require the purchase of the related add-ons. Since it is a very well-known CMS, it will not be hard to find the add-on that suits your needs.
Magento, having been born as a product very “rich” in functions, turns out to be decidedly heavy: the demands in terms of servers and performance are relatively high, even for an e-commerce site with few products. So the costs are high on the hardware side, especially when seen against the expenses of a newly founded business.
The more advanced packages, Cloud and Enterprise, cost $2,000 and $22,000 a year. Magento, however, being aimed at businesses of a certain level, is very complex and as a result the maintenance and customisation costs are very high.
Prestashop, the simple, powerful and adaptable CMS for all e-commerce projects
Free and with no commissions, Prestashop is a relatively young product, but one that has undergone several structural changes in recent years, including the move to Symfony as its framework. It is very simple to use and rich in functions, even without any additional add-on (usually paid).
Compared with other similar products, it behaves very well even on low-performance or shared servers. Starting an e-commerce site with Prestashop means being able to begin working with relatively small investments in terms of the hardware infrastructure required, although to start from scratch, so as to have a guide in creating your own e-commerce site, we suggest E-commerce Starter Pack, the package designed by Prestashop that contains all the modules essential for launching your own online shop quickly and safely, which costs €269.99.
Further modules can then be integrated, ranging from the integration with Amazon to cookie banners. The cost varies according to the integrations chosen: there are in fact more than 5,000 modules and themes available on the PrestaShop Addons Marketplace. In addition, there are paid support plans for getting information and guidance on developing and using the platform.
WooCommerce, the flexible, open source WordPress plugin
Just like WordPress, Woocommerce performs very well because it lets you sell online professionally, and it is open source, so it can be downloaded and installed for free.
Since it relies on WordPress, it lets you add features by installing free or paid plugins, so it is not possible to give an indication of the cost of using this CMS. Let’s say it is a cost that takes shape along the way, and perhaps not very advisable for an e-commerce site of a certain level that has to meet specific business requirements.
Shopify, the e-commerce platform based on the SaaS model
Shopify is a CMS within everyone’s reach: even the shopkeeper who wants to start their own business online can do so simply. The documentation is very rich and the customer support fast and precise. It behaves very well online with no slowdowns, it does not force you to buy web space and it is very immediate. However, for those looking for customisations or ad hoc services it could be limiting.
Shopify is a SAAS, that is, software as a service. Since it is a service and not a product, it involves a monthly fee:
- Basic at 29 dollars a month, ideal for getting started
- Standard at 79 dollars a month, recommended for growing businesses
- Advanced at 299 a month, which gives expanding businesses complex reports
All three options let you add an unlimited number of items, so it could be a good solution for starting to sell online using a structure already geared towards growth.
If your shop is growing and the CMS is starting to feel tight, what really moves the bill is how much of your warehouse and your price lists has to go into the platform. Where the ready-made product does not get there, you move on to a custom web app.