If you’re looking for an ecommerce platform that will help you start your store without spending a dime, then our Freewebstore reviews are for you.
We’ll look at how Freewebstore compares to other ecommerce platforms, features, plans, pricing, and more.
How Freewebstore Compares to Other Ecommerce Platforms
Freewebstore Overview
Freewebstore is a completely free (Community plan) SaaS ecommerce platform designed to help beginners set up an online store. You can use that plan until you reach $30,000 a year in sales.
Every plan comes with secure hosting and standard encryption to keep your customer’s data safe. All plans can connect a professional domain, the option to enable wholesale/bulk-buying, and have an age verification option for stores selling adult-only products.
For growing stores that need additional features, the company offers premium plans with additional checkout options.
Upgrading your sales plan gives additional features such as:
- Product suggestions for cross-selling and upselling
- Built-in blog
- Personal design library
Freewebstore Plans and Pricing
Community Plan: Free Forever Version
This plan is supposed by ads, and doesn’t allow you to connect a custom domain, but is a great way to get started with ecommerce on a budget.
You can have a $30,000 annual turnover before you need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Features include:
- Unlimited product listings
- Unlimited pages
- Free security features, including a SSL security certificate
- Discount codes and special offers
- Commission fees start at 0%
- Connect social media accounts
- Support for multiple languages
- Analytics and reporting tools
- Standard customer care
Startup: Starting at $20/month
You get everything in the Community plan plus:
- A $100,000 annual turnover
- The ability to connect your own domain (with a free domain included)
- Removal of Freewebstore ads
- Sell on Marketplaces
- Discount reports
- 2 staff accounts
- Integrated blog
- Priority customer care
Pro: $65/month
Best for established stores, this plan gives you everything in the Startup plan plus:
- Up to $325,000 in annual revenue turnover
- Abandoned cart recovery
- Free domain email
- 5 staff accounts
- Product importer and exporter
- Custom error pages
- GSuite
- UPS rates
- FedEx rates
Ridge: $250/month
With this top-tier plan, you’ll get everything in Pro, plus:
- Unlimited annual sales
- Unlimited storage
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Business Insights
- Real-time activity monitor
- Live Orders Map
- 0% offline payments
Freewebstore Features and Plans
To get the most out of Freewebstore, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the premium versions. However, the free forever version is good enough for start ups that are on a limited budget.
Freewebstore Integrations and Plans
Selling Online with Freewebstore
With the basic free plan, the only place you can sell is your online store. You’ll also have Freewebstore branding and you won’t be able to connect your own domain. However, you can choose from several subdomains to make the most memorable web address you can.
When you upgrade to the Startup plan or above, you’ll have the option to sell on other channels, including:
- TikTok
Marketing Tools and Features
Freewebstore has a variety of marketing tools, though some are only available on paid plans, such as newsletters. The strong search engine product feature makes it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for.
Freewebstore also includes a handy vacation mode feature that lets you tell your visitors you’re not available to fulfill orders. You’ll be able to automate emails to your customers when orders are ready for dispatch again.
Other marketing features include:
- Intelligent product search
- Language packs to make international sales easier
- Google Shopping integration
- Bing ads integration
- Amazon ads integration
- Social proof with product review displays
- Upload products to various shopping directories including Shopping.com, PriceGrabber, Shopzilla, and more.
There are no built-in email marketing tools to create an email flow, but you can install Mailchimp from the app store to handle this for you. If you use another email marketing platform, you’ll have to integrate it via API.
In terms of features, you’ll have everything you need to get started on the free plan, but you’ll have more freedom and flexibility if you opt for the premium services.
Cart and Purchasing
If you want to offer local order pickup, you can use the Google Maps integration to make it easier for local customers to find you.
One area where Freewebstore excels is in cart simplicity and the checkout experience. Everything is streamlined to keep it as simple as possible. Ultimately, this boosts conversion rates and reduces cart abandonment.
Inventory Management Tools
Each product has a stock count option, which makes it easy to track inventory. This helps you avoid running out of your most popular products.
You’ll also receive stock alerts when items are running low or need to be restocked.
SEO Features
Freestore includes a variety of SEO features, making it easy to customize your product titles, product URLs, product categories, and more. With integrations with Google Webmaster Tools, conversion tracking, social media access, and social share icons, free Google site mapping, and more, business owners will be able to get the product insights they need to bring in more website traffic.
Blog Features
A blog isn’t included on the free plan, but if you upgrade your sales plan, you can add one. Blog posts are a great way to draw in more customers through content related to your product options.
Freewebstore Performance
In our tests, we found the sites load quickly, but many lack traffic. This could be due to the fact that many of the sites we tested were built on subdomains. It could also be that the store owners don’t have much (if any) budget to dedicate to SEO and digital marketing.
The platform could use some improvement in terms of mobile core web vitals.
| Platform | Performance | Load Time | Mobile Speed | Desktop Speed | Avg SEO Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 3.9 | 1.3 | 63 | 75 | 11717 |
| Sellfy | 3.1 | 1.4 | 46.8 | 72 | 134 |
| Zyro | 3.3 | 2.1 | 51 | 89 | 128 |
| Nexcess StoreBuilder | 4.0 | 1.93 | 53 | 72 | 58,645 |
| ShopWired | 4.3 | 1.38 | 56 | 80 | 717 |
| Pixpa | 2.3 | 1.6 | 22.66 | 65.5 | 72 |
| Freewebstore | 3.5 | 1.89 | 53 | 79 | 927 |
| Ecwid | 3.5 | 5.0 | 50 | 82 | 15,517 |
| Square Online | 2.8 | 2.03 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 65,317 |
| BigCommerce | 4.5 | 2.2 | 63 | 80 | 33626 |
| Woocommerce | 3.1 | 3.4 | 42 | 52 | 72968 |
| Shift4Shop | 3.0 | 2.8 | 50 | 58 | 9703 |
| Volusion | 2.9 | 3.5 | 48 | 56 | 15779 |
| Adobe Commerce | 2.8 | 4.8 | 39 | 43 | 19408 |
| Prestashop | 2.9 | 4.62 | 50 | 52 | 33851 |
| SquareSpace | 3.5 | 3.5 | 42 | 63 | 5678 |
| Wix | 3.9 | 3.2 | 69 | 81 | 543 |
| Weebly | 2.6 | 3 | 49 | 59 | 186 |
Freewebstore Themes and Apps
Freewebstore has a range of themes to choose from. The theme library includes 100+ free options to help you find the right look and feel for your website. They have auto GFX for easy slideshow creation for all themes, so you can customize slideshows to show your sales and promotions, popular products, and more.
All the themes are responsive, so they look great on mobile devices and computers alike.
The App Center includes things like Pinterest Shops, Instagram Gallery, Google Shopping, Google Webmaster Tools, Messenger Chat, and Facebook Pixel. These apps are free to install, to help you make store operations easier.
Compared to other ecommerce platforms, the App Center is limited, but you can create other integrations with Freewebstore API access.
| Platform | Design & Themes | Visual Design | Mobile UX | Cost Of Premium Themes | # of Free Themes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 4.0 | 5.0 | 97 | $140 | 9 |
| Sellfy | 5.0 | 5 | 93 | $0 | 5 |
| Zyro | 5.0 | 5.0 | 92 | $0 | 50+ |
| Nexcess StoreBuilder | 4.3 | 3.0 | 94 | $20-$100 | 4 |
| ShopWired | 4.3 | 5 | 93 | $3495+ | 20 |
| Pixpa | 4.3 | 5 | 94 | 0 | 131 |
| Freewebstore | 4.3 | 5 | 92 | 0 | 100+ |
| Ecwid | 4.3 | 5.0 | 93 | $60 | 1 |
| Square Online | 3.7 | 5.0 | 92 | $0 | 1 |
| BigCommerce | 3.8 | 5.0 | 94 | $150 | 12 |
| Woocommerce | 4.3 | 3.0 | 97 | $39 | 1000+ |
| Shift4Shop | 4.3 | 4.0 | 95 | $200+ | 50+ |
| Volusion | 3.7 | 4 | 92 | $180 | 18 |
| Adobe Commerce | 3.7 | 5.0 | 5 | $300+ | 1 |
| Prestashop | 3.2 | 4 | 94 | $29+ | 0 |
| SquareSpace | 4.3 | 5.0 | 5 | 100.00% | 14 |
| Wix | 4.7 | 5.0 | 92 | 0 | 72 |
| Weebly | 4.3 | 5 | 97 | $45 | 15 |
Freewebstore Integrations
Freewebstore works with various payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, 2Checkout, and Skrill.
You can also accept offline payment options on certain plans, making it easy to sell your products at markets, craft shows, and other events.
You can add Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics through the App store, so you can get essential visitor statistics, advanced visitor statistics, and in-depth reporting about your organic visitors.
Ease of Use
The Freewebsstore control panel is incredibly easy to use. At sign up, you’re taken to a bot conversation that asks you a few questions like your name, location, and birth date while set up runs.
Once your store is created, you’ll have a generic domain name, and you’ll be taken to a dashboard where you can set up everything from your brand to your products, theme, and shipping options.
Everything is broken down into tasks, which makes it quick and easy to set up your store.
In the Creative section, you choose your theme, upload your logo and set your brand colors. You can also choose to enable a slideshow in your header and upload additional images to include there.
Once that’s finished, you’ll get a quick walkthrough of the theme editor, where you’ll learn how to make more customizations.
Upon returning to your dashboard, the next step is to add products. You’ll enter a product name, price, category, product image and description, and stock information. You’ll have an autogenerated product SKU that you can change if you want. You’ll also have the option to mark it visible on your store.
You’ll have a more detailed product dashboard where you can go back and add more categories and stock information, but to proceed to the next setup step, you’ll go back to the dashboard, and start with “Tell Your Story.”
That’s where you’ll manage your store’s pages, including your About, Contact Us, and so on. You can add or remove pages as you see fit and control your navigation menu.
The next step is to Get Paid. In this section, you’ll set up all your payment gateways so you can accept credit card payments. You’ll be able to accept all major credit cards, along with Google Pay, Klarna, and AfterPay through Stripe.
On paid plans, you’ll also be able to set up your Cash on Delivery/Offline payment methods, such as Pay Over the Phone, Pay by Check, and Pay by Bank Transfer, or credit account.
Next, you’ll set up your shipping options – where you ship to, and so on. Once you enter your Ship From address, you’ll be able to see real-time rates from USPS, UPS, and FedEx, on higher-tier plans. It includes shipping label printing and shipping quotes, as well.
You can also set up manual shipping options and shipping rules, based on your own fulfillment needs, if necessary.
From there, you can choose to customize your free store URL. On paid plans, you’ll have the option to connect a domain.
Customer Support
Customer support is available via a contact form on the website, email, and live chat. Live chat is not 24/7, and will show closed when it’s not available.
| Platform | Ease of Use | Phone Support | 24/7 Support | Chat Support | Community Rating | # of Apps/ Plugins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify | 4.9 | Yes | Yes | Yes | 5 | 5,000 |
| Sellfy | 3.5 | No | Yes | No | 4 | 4 |
| Zyro | 3.7 | No | Yes | Yes | 4.7 | 30 |
| Nexcess StoreBuilder | 4.5 | Yes | Yes | Yes | 3.6 | 50,000+ |
| ShopWired | 4.5 | No | No | Yes | 4.9 | 72 |
| Pixpa | 3.7 | Yes | No | Yes | 4.7 | 103 |
| Freewebstore | 3.4 | No | No | Yes | None | 25+ |
| Ecwid | 3.6 | 5.0 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 4.7 | 100+ |
| Square Online | 4.0 | 5.0 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 4.2 | 25+ |
| BigCommerce | 4.8 | Yes | Yes | Yes | 4.0 | 1000 |
| Woocommerce | 3.3 | No | No | Yes | 4.0 | 250+ |
| Shift4Shop | 4.3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | 3.0 | ~250 |
| Volusion | 4.1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | 2 | ~20 |
| Adobe Commerce | 2.2 | No | No | No | 4 | 3000+ |
| Prestashop | 2.9 | Yes | No | No | 3 | 3000+ |
| SquareSpace | 3.8 | No | Yes | Yes | 3.0 | 10+ |
| Wix | 4.2 | Yes | Yes | No | 4.5 | 700 |
| Weebly | 3.6 | Yes | No | Yes | 2 | ~350 |
The operating hours are based on London time and run from 9:00 am to 4:45 pm Monday through Friday.
This makes it difficult for US-based customers to catch live chat running.
Freewebstore Alternatives
If after reading this review, you don’t feel like Freewebstore is the right solution for you, consider these alternatives.
Shopify
Shopify is a popular ecommerce platform that offers many of the same features as Freewebstore. The difference is there is no free plan. You can get a free trial to see if you like it before you push your store live, but not all features are available on all plans. You’ll also have to rely on apps from the marketplace to get some features.
Sellfy
Freewebstore doesn’t allow for the sale of digital products, so if that’s what you’re looking for, then Sellfy is the right choice. Sellfy also offers print-on-demand features, which Freewebtore would require an API integration.
Zyro
Zyro is a competitively-priced website builder. The base plan does not include ecommerce features, however. The native features give you what you need to create a search engine optimized ecommerce website.
Start Your Online Store with Freewebstore Today
Whether you need to start with the free plan or are ready to go straight to one of the more advanced plans, Freewebstore is a strong option for hosting your online store. The back end tools give you everything you need to run your business successfully.
Leave Your Freewebstore Reviews
If you’ve used this store builder before, please leave a review to help our readers decide if it’s the right choice for them.
