Try your online shop risk-free for 30 days
Professional and secure online shop, plus hosting- Free first-year domain and email included
- User-friendly design and all the features you need
Why choose IONOS over a free eCommerce website?
Online commerce is big business, and there are plenty of services that let you create a free online store. What's not included in "free" products is hosting, a domain and professional email. Free online shops might be fine for developers who know which apps to install and how to minimise the additional costs that can arise. However, if you've got limited tech know-how, you could end up paying much more than you thought.
For a small monthly fee, the eCommerce Website Builder from IONOS offers you a professional store with all the tools you need to get online fast. In addition to secure hosting and your own free domain for one year, you'll receive extensive options to customise the design and functionality of your shop. You'll also get additional features like multiple payment methods and a shipping wizard, leaving you with a high-quality online shop that’s sure to satisfy your customers. And best of all, you can try it out for free for one month.
Integration with the most popular marketplaces
The IONOS eCommerce packages equip you for the latest online shopping trends and habits, helping you reach your target audience. At the same time, one thing hasn’t changed, and that's how vital it is to have a presence on the most popular online marketplaces.
Our platform syncs and integrates your online shop with Amazon and eBay, as well as price comparison portals such as Google Shopping. Your online store will also meet the growing demand for social commerce thanks to smooth integration with a Facebook Store and Instagram Shopping. Facebook Messenger integration means you can also start chatting directly with your customers on your website.
What you don’t get with free online shop builders
Hosting
Web hosting for your online store
Web hosting for your online store
Basic packages for creating a free online store don’t tend to include web hosting. This means you have to take care of hosting separately. Plus, they often don’t include SSL certificates to ensure that your shop is secure. IONOS includes both of these as standard.
Design templates
High quality design templates
High quality design templates
Free online shop creators often lack free high quality design templates, which they then charge a significant amount for. With IONOS, you get expertly designed templates with extensive customisation options, tailored to your business. For example, drag and drop sections, video and image widgets, and much more.
Domain and mailboxes
Free domain for 1 year and email matching your URL
Free domain for 1 year and email matching your URL
Using free eCommerce websites in the UK usually means not having your own domain. It's different with IONOS. Your domain is free for the first year of your MyWebsite eCommerce contract and you can choose from the following free domain extensions: .co.uk, .uk, .com, .net, .org, .info, .me, .biz, .online. When you build an online shop, customer communication is critical, so having email matching your domain is just another perk that comes for free with IONOS – and it's something that can cost a fortune with free providers.
24/7 Support
Free personal consultant
Free personal consultant
The customer support on offer from free online shop providers leaves a lot to be desired. With IONOS you can access free support 24/7 via phone or chat and on top, you can have your very own free personal consultant, who's able to give you individual advice and guidance.
Choose your online shop package
Money-back guarantee: Try out your new online shop risk-free for 30 days.
No additional transaction fees
Optimised for all devices
Discounts and coupons
Abandoned cart recovery
24/7 support
Tips via email
Up to 500 physical products
Domain included for 1 year
Professional email address with 2 GB storage
Integrated payment and shipping methods
Sell directly on Facebook and Instagram
Advertise on TikTok
Competitor tracking with marketingRadar
5,000 items and digital products up to 1 GB each
Domain included for 1 year
Professional email address with 12 GB storage
Integrated payment and shipping methods
Sell directly on Facebook and Instagram
Advertise on TikTok
Competitor tracking with marketingRadar
SiteAnalytics
Mobile app for shop management
Google Ads, Google Ads remarketing and Google Shopping
Online booking tool
AI text generator
10,000 items and digital products up to 1 GB each
Domain included for 1 year
Professional email address with active syncing on all devices and 50 GB storage
Integrated payment and shipping methods
Sell directly on Facebook and Instagram
Advertise on TikTok
Competitor tracking with marketingRadar
SiteAnalytics Plus
Mobile app for shop management
Google Ads, Google Ads remarketing and Google Shopping
Online booking tool
AI text generator
Favourites, wishlists and product filters
Advanced product SEO
Search engine optimisation with rankingCoach Standard
Unlimited amount of items and digital products up to 10 GB each
Domain included for 1 year
Professional email address with active syncing on all devices and 50 GB storage
Integrated payment and shipping methods
Sell directly on Facebook and Instagram
Advertise on TikTok
Competitor tracking with marketingRadar
SiteAnalytics Plus
Mobile app for shop management
Google Ads, Google Ads remarketing and Google Shopping
Online booking tool
AI text generator
Favourites, wishlists and product filters
Advanced product SEO
Search engine optimisation with rankingCoach Standard
Sell on external marketplaces
B2B features like volume discounts and customer groups
All prices exclude VAT charged at 20%. VAT may be subject to change depending on your country of residence. Terms and conditions apply.
Starter
Plus
Pro
Expert
Usage
Who it's for
Build your online store fast with Starter. Perfect for beginners, the pre-built, unbreakable designs mean you'll be up and running in no time.
Choose Plus for more design freedom and features. Build your store the way you want and manage it via a mobile app.
Take your business to the next level with Pro. Access advanced options like wish lists, and sell both physical and digital products.
Unlock the full potential of eCommerce with Expert. Add unlimited products, access professional B2B features, and sell on external marketplaces.
Website basics
Webspace (storage)
10 GB
50 GB
Unlimited
Unlimited
Webpages
10
200
Unlimited
Unlimited
Free domain for one year
1
1
1
1
Professional email
1
1
1
1
Email inbox storage
2 GB
12 GB
50 GB
50 GB
Wildcard SSL certificate
Statistics and analytics
SiteAnalytics
SiteAnalytics
SiteAnalytics Plus
SiteAnalytics Plus
Tips via email
GDPR compliant
Ad-free
24/7 multi-channel support
IONOS personal consultant
Website design & content
AI Website Builder
AI Text Generator & AI Text Improver
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High-quality, professional templates
Pre-designed colour schemes and text styles
Pre-designed sections and layouts
Flexibility to add and re-arrange elements within sections
―
Over 17,000 royalty-free images
AI Image Generator
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Social media integration
Contact form
Optimised for all mobile devices
Photo galleries
Automatic image optimisation
Adjustable design styles
SEO ready
AI SEO Text Generator
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Online marketing
Project guidance dashboard
Online booking tool
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Competitor tracking
Search engine optimisation tool
―
―
Onboarding wizard
Recommended actions
Supported business types
Retail – B2C
Wholesale – B2B
―
―
―
Online and offline sync with POS
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―
Product catalogue
Number of products
500
5,000
10,000
Unlimited
Product listing according to attributes
Adjust price according to variations such as colour or size
Cross-sharing of products and categories
Digital goods size limit
―
1 GB
1 GB
10 GB
Download protection for digital products
―
CSV import
CSV export
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―
Design & customisation features
Optimised for all mobile devices
Customisable product page designs
Customisable checkout page designs
Business widgets
Automatic "On Sale" and "Sold Out" labelling
Strikethrough pricing
Comment field for orders
Customisable cart widgets
Fast content delivery with CDN
Payment options
PayPal
Credit card
All major credit cards
All major credit cards
All major credit cards
All major credit cards
Direct debit
―
―
Invoicing
Others
Shipping
Shipping wizard
In-store pickup
Scheduled pickup
―
―
Real-time shipping quotes from FedEx, UPS, and more
Real-time shipment tracking
―
―
Configure shipping per product
―
Manual carrier management
Operations
Product-level inventory control
―
―
Stock control at product variation level
―
―
Store management app
―
Bulk invoice printing
―
―
Manual order editing
―
―
Custom order statuses
―
―
―
Automatic tax calculation
B2B
VAT ID for EU business customers
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―
Tax exempt customers
―
―
Customer group discounting
―
―
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Volume discounts
―
―
―
Marketing
Storefront languages
45
45
45
45
Multi-currency support
Product sharing on Facebook, Pinterest, X, and Tumblr
Facebook Shop
Instagram Shop
Short URLs
SEO tutorials
SEO product fields
―
―
Discount and coupons
Abandoned cart recovery
Cross-selling on product pages and in the basket
Google Analytics
Facebook Pixel
Thank you page tracking
Wishlists
―
―
Google Shopping
―
Amazon
―
―
―
eBay
―
―
―
Other features
App store
At IONOS, you have a dedicated contact person for personalised advice, tips to boost your online success, and technical support. Reach them via phone, chat and email, all at no cost to you as an IONOS customer.
We're always working to improve our customer support, and we're proud to have won several awards. These include Best Customer Engagement Initiative and Best Use of Customer Insight.
How to sell more on Facebook
Facebook is the perfect platform for boosting sales and learning about your target market. Get started or skill up with our free guide.
How to sell on social media
Social media has huge potential for driving sales. Find out how to boost customer engagement, build relationships and win new customers in this free guide.
How to start selling online
Thinking about launching your own online store? Set yourself up for success with our handy checklist. It covers designing, launching and maintaining your store.
Free eCommerce website – FAQ
Yes, you can upgrade it at any time, either in the area where you manage your contract, or directly within the product.
No, creating a professional online store with extensive features with IONOS involves a small monthly fee. Providers offering free eCommerce websites often don’t meet the high expectations of customers. IONOS, on the other hand, gives you powerful tools to create a superior online store that will satisfy your target audience’s requirements.
You benefit from attractive and customisable design templates, comprehensive functionality and many extra features. This is in addition to secure web hosting and a lifetime domain, which will strengthen your store’s credibility. With IONOS MyWebsite, you can completely customise the design and features of your online shop without any programming knowledge. The numerous additional features are included in the monthly price.
Free online store builders are suited mainly to developers who know how to the specific technology provided. Since it doesn’t require a budget to get started, these free services are suitable for developers starting a personal project or a smaller professional project, such as:
- Private or self-employed individuals
- Startups
- Small businesses
On the other hand, the IONOS MyWebsite eCommerce packages are suitable for small to medium projects that require the highest standard of quality and curated functionality. They can be used by people with no developing experience, as it is easy and intuitive, but also by developers who want to create projects that are later managed by non-techy customers. You don’t need any programming or design skills to set up your online store, just like with a free online shop service. Thanks to the modular functionality, it’s really straightforward to set up and design your eCommerce site; simply select the elements you need and customise them.
Since the MyWebsite eCommerce platform comes available in a range of packages, which differ in capacity and functions, it’s accessible to a wide range of users:
- Private or self-employed individuals
- Startups
- Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
The cheapest package allows for a shop with up to 500 products. But you never know when you’ll need to expand once your business starts to grow, so IONOS allows you to upgrade at any time. If you need to start small because you only have a few products, we have great solutions for you, such as the Social Buy Button or the Shop Integration.
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