Fastest Ecommerce Platforms for 2023 (Mobile & Desktop)

Speed is a very important component when it comes to the success of an online store!

This is because load time is not only a Google ranking factor but it also impacts on user experience because people don’t like waiting for websites to load and the longer it takes to load, the lower the chances that they become a paying customer.

And when it comes to performance, not all ecommerce platforms are the same, which is why we decided to put the most popular ones to the test, for the third year in a row, so let’s see how they did…

The Testing Method

Before we get to the results, let’s just go over our testing method and for 2023 we decided to stick with Uptrends as it allows us to test both Desktop and Mobile performance along with Google PageSpeed scores from different locations and the parameters we set for 2023 are:

• New York Server for US Platforms
• London Server for UK Platforms
• Desktop Chrome Browser at Native Speed with HD+ screen size
• Mobile Apple Iphone 8 at Native Speed

To get the data for this test, we took 5 customer example sites from each platform and ran them through the Uptrends Speed Tool once a day for three days and recorded each individual score/result, these were then added up and divided by the number of tests run, which gave their average score.

The Ecommerce Platforms

For this testing, we only looked at fully-hosted ecommerce platforms as all the test stores are running on the same hosting environment and looked at the most popular options for each side of the Atlantic.

For the North American market, the 7 we chose were:

• Big Cartel
• Bigcommerce
• Shift4 Shop (formerly 3dcart)
• Shopify
• Squarespace (ecommerce stores)
• Volusion
• Wix w/ Wix Stores App installed

These were run through Uptrends New York server and as you can see, there are some pretty big names on this list, so it is going to be interesting to see how they perform.

Two platforms missing from this list are Ecwid and Square as neither have any customer example sites showcased on their websites.

For the UK market, we surprisingly had a larger number of platforms to test and we chose:

• Bigcommerce
• Bluepark
• Create.net
• EKM
• Shopblocks
• Shopify
• ShopWired
• Squarespace
• Wix

These were all ran through the London, UK server.

If you would like to have your platform added to this list or have a suggestion for a hosted platform that we should check out, simply contact us and we will check them out.

North American Results

The results are going to be broken down into two sections:

1. Load Time
2. PageSpeed Scores

Load Time Results

Squarespace was the clear winner of the load time tests and was the only platform to achieve sub 2-second load times for both desktop and mobile.

Big Cartel, Shift4Shop and Volusion were very close in terms of load time and all performed well on both desktop and mobile.

The surprise this year was Shopify as they seem to be going backwards and are now much closer to Bigcommerce (who have improved since last years testing) in terms of load time than they have been in an of our previous tests.

Wix are once again bottom of the list, for the third time in 4 years.

PageSpeed Scores

Big Cartel came top for the third consecutive year when it comes to PageSpeed scores but wasn’t able to break to 50 mark for the mobile score and this was the area where all the platforms struggled.

Shopify and Shift4Shop performed well, with decent scores for both desktop and mobile.

The other 4 platforms were all very similar, with only Bigcommerce putting in a decent score for mobile although still not that great of a score but Wix and Squarespace really struggled on the mobile scores.

North American Summary

The overall fastest ecommerce platform for 2023 is BigCartel, followed by Shift4Shop.

Big Cartel performed well in every test, finishing either 1st or 2nd, which gave them the overall top spot for the second year in a row.

A solid performance by Shift4Shop who weren’t that far behind Big Cartel on any of the tests, which once again saw them come second overall.

Squarespace is a bit of an enigma when it comes to performance as the load times were excellent but they really struggle when it comes to their Google scores.

Shopify was the underperformer this year, with the load times being worse than last year’s testing and some improvements need to be made so that they bring the average load time closer to the 2-second mark being hit by their competition.

The wooden spoon goes to Wix, who came last for the 3rd time in 4 years as they came last in 3 of the 4 tests and once again shows that there are some issues with their hosting setup.

UK Results

As with the North American results above, all the UK results will be broken down in to their separate tests.

Load Time Results

Once again, UK-based platforms performed really will in terms of load times and locked in the 4 top stops with only Squarespace being anywhere near being able to compete.

The sub 2 second load time of the top 5 is good to see and all seem to be working hard on improving site speed, which is always a good thing and one trend that was good with the UK testing was that the majority of platforms had better mobile load time than desktop.

Shopify once again performed poorly in comparison, having been one of the better-performing platforms prior to 2022 and while the load times aren’t bad, there is definitely room for improvement from the biggest name in the space.

For the fourth year in a row, Wix and Bigcommerce are firmly rooted to the bottom, with poor load times on both devices.

PageSpeed Scores

Very close between EKM and Create.net on PageSpeed scores but EKM comes top due to the better mobile performance with ShopWired coming in a very respectable third, followed by Shopify that performed well on this test.

Wix climbed out of the bottom two spots for a change and even though their mobile performance was pretty poor, their desktop scores have improved.

The strange one here is Squarespace as they have good load times but always score poorly on PageSpeed, which is a little confusing.

UK Summary

Overall EKM is the UK’s fastest ecommerce platform for 2023 as they came first in every single test.

Create.net and ShopWired came in 2nd and 3rd respectively with both platforms performing very well in every single test.

Shopify were perhaps the poorest performer this year as they struggled for load time when compared to their main competition and Squarespace could be serious contenders if they could improve their PageSpeed scores.

But once again, Wix and Bigcommerce are at the bottom of the table with Wix just missing out on being bottom four years in a row, instead, the wooden spoon is awarded to Bigcommerce who seem to have issues with their hosting environment.

Previous Years Results

2022 Results – North America

2021 Results – North America

2020 Results – North America

All of the 2020 tests were done using three customer example sites, rather than the five in 2021.

2022 Results – UK

2021 Results – UK

2020 Results – UK

The test in 2020 was slightly smaller, with only three customer example sites being used, rather than the five in the 2021 tests.

Paul Haywood

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Hi, I'm Paul, the Owner and Founder of EcommerceGold.
I ran my own Ecommerce Business for over 7 years and now help others start their own online retail empires!

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