Fastest Ecommerce Platforms for 2024 (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 just edged out Big Cartel this year but the difference between the two is negligible, with Shopify finishing third with a big notable improvement over last year and they acheived respectable scores for both desktop and mobile performance.

Shift4Shop once again had a solid performance but were just slightly off the top three.

Once again Wix and Bigcommerce performed poorly in the load time test but this year they were joined by Volusion, who have always performed well and it is a little surprising to see how much their performance has fallen off.

PageSpeed Scores

Big Cartel came top for the 4th consecutive year when it comes to PageSpeed scores, with Shopify not far behind in 2nd place and Shift4Shop once again had a respectable performance.

Wix and Bigcommerce were very close, followed by Squarespace who surprisingly performed poorly on PageSpeed even though they had quick load times and Volusion came in last place with a very poor performance.

North American Summary

For the 3rd year in a row, Big Cartel is the fastest overall ecommerce platform, followed by Shopify and 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

ShopWired just beat EKM to the top spot for load times, with the two UK-based ecommerce platforms both performing extremely well.

Squarespace, Create.net and Shopify all had solid load time performance but were all a step off the top two platforms.

The biggest surprise in this years UK testing was Bluepark, who have always performed very well but struggled in terms of load time performance this year.

For the 5th year in a row, Bigcommerce and Wix are firmly rooted to the bottom, with poor load times on both devices but they have changed places from last year.

PageSpeed Scores

Shopify 85 51 Create 84 51 EKM 84 47 Bluepark 72 53 Shopblocks 69 38 Wix 68 32 Squarespace 61 30 Bigcommerce 61 28

The top 4 were all very close in terms of PageSpeed scores but ShopWired came top this year, with strong scores on desktop and mobile.

There really wasn’t much to separate Shopify, Create.net and EKM this year, which is a good thing.

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

Once again, Wix and Bigcommerce performed poorly, with neither platforming showing any improvement over previous years performance.

UK Summary

ShopWired 1.23 1.25 EKM 1.26 1.31 Squarespace 1.97 2.27 Create 2.27 2.81 Shopify 2.44 3.33 Shopblocks 3.71 4.39 Bluepark 4.44 5.80 Bigcommerce 5.88 6.19 Wix 6.42 8.57

ShopWired 88 56 Shopify 85 51 Create 84 51 EKM 84 47 Bluepark 72 53 Shopblocks 69 38 Wix 68 32 Squarespace 61 30 Bigcommerce 61 28

Overall ShopWired is the UK’s fastest ecommerce platform for 2024 as they came first in every single test.

EKM were not far behind in 2nd place, followed by Create.net and Shopify in 3rd and 4th respectively.

Squarespace is once again the biggest head-scratcher as they load really quickly but always have poor PageSpeed scores.

But once again, Wix and Bigcommerce are at the bottom of the table with the wooden spoon being awarded to Bigcommerce for the second year in a row.

Previous Years Results

2023 Results – North America

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.

2023 Results – UK

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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