Speed is a very important component when it comes to the success of a website as it is not only a ranking factor in Google but it also impacts on user experience, because people don’t like waiting for websites to load but which platforms perform the best?
Well that is what I have spent a lot of time testing out recently!
The Testing Method
For our 2022 performance testing, we changed things up over the previous combination of Pingdom and Google PageSpeed Insights as we couldn’t accurately test the performance on mobile devices. So in 2022 we changed to Uptrends that offers a much more complete testing suite that not only tests on Desktop and Mobile but also tests PageSpeed scores as well.
So the testing method for 2022 was:
- Uptrends Website Speed Test Tool
- 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, I took 5 customer example sites from each platform and ran them through both tools 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
There are two separate lists of platforms that I chose for testing and for this test, I am only looking at fully hosted ecommerce platforms as the customer example sites are all running on the same hosting environment.
The first list are popular ecommerce platforms in the North American market and the 7 I chose are:
- 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.
The second list are platforms that are popular in the UK and surprisingly, the UK does have a larger selection of platforms to choose from:
These were all ran through the London, UK server along with Page Speed Insights.
If you would like to have your platform added to this list or have a suggest for a hosted platform that I should check out, simply contact me and I will check them out.
North American Results
The results are going to be broken down into two sections:
- Load Time
- PageSpeed Scores
Load Time Results
Ecommerce Platform | Desktop Time | Mobile Time |
---|---|---|
Big Cartel | 2.07 Seconds | 2.00 Seconds |
Shift4Shop | 2.15 Seconds | 3.07 Seconds |
Squarespace | 2.27 Seconds | 1.91 Seconds |
Shopify | 2.71 Seconds | 2.48 Seconds |
Volusion | 2.83 Seconds | 3.10 Seconds |
Wix | 4.10 Seconds | 3.98 Seconds |
Bigcommerce | 5.15 Seconds | 5.17 Seconds |
A very solid performance from five of the seven platforms with less than 1 second separating the desktop load time and just over 1 second separating them on mobile load time.
For the third year that we have been running these performance tests, Wix and Bigcommerce performed very poorly with 4 and 5 second load time respectively and for two of the biggest names in the industry, they really should be doing better.

PageSpeed Scores
Ecommerce Platform | Desktop Score | Mobile Score |
---|---|---|
Big Cartel | 89/100 | 58/100 |
Shopify | 80/100 | 37/100 |
Shift4Shop | 77/100 | 36/100 |
Squarespace | 65/100 | 23/100 |
Volusion | 64/100 | 20/100 |
Bigcommerce | 56/100 | 19/100 |
Wix | 54/100 | 20/100 |
A pretty clear win for Big Cartel on the PageSpeed scores, especially on mobile as they were the only platform to average more than 50.
Shopify and Shift4Shop performed reasonably well with respectable desktop scores and ok mobile scores but both are on the wrong side of 50. The bottom four all performed poorly with average at best desktop scores and very poor mobile scores.

North American Summary
Platform | Desktop Load Time | Mobile Load Time | Desktop Score | Mobile Score |
---|---|---|---|---|
Big Cartel | 2.07 Seconds | 2.00 Seconds | 89/100 | 58/100 |
Shift4 Shop (3dcart) | 2.15 Seconds | 3.07 Seconds | 77/100 | 36/100 |
Shopify | 2.71 Seconds | 2.48 Seconds | 80/100 | 37/100 |
Squarespace | 2.27 Seconds | 1.91 Seconds | 65/100 | 23/100 |
Volusion | 2.83 Seconds | 3.10 Seconds | 64/100 | 20/100 |
Wix | 4.10 Seconds | 3.98 Seconds | 54/100 | 20/100 |
Bigcommerce | 5.15 Seconds | 5.17 Seconds | 56/100 | 19/100 |
The overall fastest ecommerce platform for 2022 is BigCartel, followed by Shift4Shop and Shopify.
It was a pretty clear victory for Big Cartel as they came top in nearly every test (only just beaten by Squarespace on Mobile Load Time) and this is testament to their very lightweight platform.
A solid performance by Shift4Shop and Shopify who performed well on most the tests but some improvement is needed on mobile devices to challenge Big Cartel.
Squarespace are a big of an enigma when it comes to performance as load times are always quite good but they really struggle when it comes to their Google scores. Volusion was the big loser this year as they were the overall fastest in 2021 to being the third worst in 2022.
It was close for the wooden spoon in 2022 but Bigcommerce just takes this year as Wix did just enough to not be bottom for 3 years in a row.
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
Ecommerce Platform | Desktop Load Time | Mobile Load Time |
---|---|---|
EKM | 1.23 Seconds | 1.18 Seconds |
ShopWired | 1.45 Seconds | 1.29 Seconds |
Create.net | 1.61 Seconds | 1.83 Seconds |
Shopblocks | 1.70 Seconds | 2.19 Seconds |
Squarespace | 2.07 Seconds | 1.87 Seconds |
Bluepark | 2.46 Seconds | 2.04 Seconds |
Shopify | 2.88 Seconds | 3.31 Seconds |
Wix | 4.81 Seconds | 5.25 Seconds |
Bigcommerce | 5.11 Seconds | 4.97 Seconds |
The UK based platforms performed really well in this years load time testing, taking the top 4 spots.
Not really much to choose between the top two but EKM does just edge ShopWired with Create.net rounding out the top 3 of which all achieving sub 2 second average load times on desktop and mobile.
Shopify is the biggest surprise in 2022, having been one of the best performing platforms in the previous two years testing, it is now firmly in the bottom three but they are still clearly ahead of the bottom two!
Once again, it is Wix and Bigcommerce at the bottom, with poor load times on both devices and there really isn’t much in it as to which one comes out bottom overall.

PageSpeed Scores
Ecommerce Platform | Desktop Score | Mobile Score |
---|---|---|
Create.net | 90/100 | 55/100 |
ShopWired | 80/100 | 46/100 |
EKM | 72/100 | 44/100 |
Shopify | 77/100 | 35/100 |
Bluepark | 67/100 | 44/100 |
Shopblocks | 57/100 | 39/100 |
Squarespace | 65/100 | 21/100 |
Wix | 53/100 | 21/100 |
Bigcommerce | 52/100 | 18/100 |
A clear victory for Create.net on the PageSpeed test as it outperformed all the other platforms and was the only one to get a score greater than 50 on mobile.
A solid performance by both ShopWired and EKM, with respectable scores on both devices, followed up by Shopify who scored well, even though their load times were quite a bit slower than the competition. Squarespace are the reverse of this though, with good load times but poor PageSpeed scores, especially on mobile.
Once again though, it is Wix and Bigcommerce propping up the table but Wix at least managed to not be bottom this year!

UK Summary
Platform | Desktop Load Time | Mobile Load Time | Google Desktop | Mobile Score |
---|---|---|---|---|
ShopWired | 1.45 Seconds | 1.29 Seconds | 80/100 | 46/100 |
Create.net | 1.61 Seconds | 1.83 Seconds | 90/100 | 55/100 |
EKM | 1.23 Seconds | 1.18 Seconds | 72/100 | 44/100 |
Bluepark | 2.49 Seconds | 2.04 Seconds | 67/100 | 44/100 |
Shopblocks | 1.70 Seconds | 2.19 Seconds | 57/100 | 39/100 |
Shopify | 2.88 Seconds | 3.31 Seconds | 77/100 | 35/100 |
Squarespace | 2.07 Seconds | 1.87 Seconds | 65/100 | 21/100 |
Wix | 4.81 Seconds | 5.25 Seconds | 53/100 | 21/100 |
Bigcommerce | 5.11 Seconds | 4.97 Seconds | 52/100 | 18/100 |
Overall ShopWired is the UK’s fastest ecommerce platform due to how they performed in both load time and PageSpeed scores.
It really was very close between the top three, with EKM coming top in load time but falling just short on PageSpeed scores and Create.net coming top on PageSpeed scores but being a bit slower when it comes to load time. But all three platforms should be pleased with their performance.
Shopify was the big loser in this years performance testing, with somewhat surprisingly slow load times and average PageSpeed scores, which isn’t great for the biggest name in the industry.
Squarespace are good when it comes to load time but fall short on their PageSpeed scores, which results in the being the third worst in this years testing.
But once again, Wix and Bigcommerce are at the bottom of the table with Wix just missing out on being bottom for three years in a row, instead the wooden spoon is awarded to Bigcommerce who seem to have issues with their hosting environment.
Previous Years Results
2021 Results – North America
Platform | Pingdom (D.C) | Pingdom (SF) | Google Mobile | Google Desktop |
---|---|---|---|---|
Volusion | 1.05 Seconds | 1.32 Seconds | 38/100 | 68/100 |
Shopify | 1.15 Seconds | 1.37 Seconds | 30/100 | 77/100 |
Big Cartel | 1.16 Seconds | 1.62 Seconds | 58/100 | 90/100 |
Shift4 Shop (3dcart) | 1.32 Seconds | 1.48 Seconds | 36/100 | 71/100 |
Squarespace | 1.63 Seconds | 1.91 Seconds | 16/100 | 64/100 |
Bigcommerce | 2.79 Seconds | 3.10 Seconds | 18/100 | 56/100 |
Wix | 3.66 Seconds | 4.05 Seconds | 10/100 | 31/100 |
2020 Results – North America
All of the 2020 tests were done using three customer example sites, rather than the five in 2021.
Platform | Pingdom (D.C) | Pingdom (SF) | Google Mobile | Google Desktop |
---|---|---|---|---|
Shopify | 1.07 Seconds | 0.98 Seconds | 38/100 | 80/100 |
Squarespace | 1.20 Seconds | 1.47 Seconds | 30/100 | 62/100 |
Volusion | 1.21 Seconds | 1.51 Seconds | 54/100 | 62/100 |
3dcart | 1.21 Seconds | 1.95 Seconds | 31/100 | 69/100 |
Bigcommerce | 2.84 Seconds | 3.43 Seconds | 12/100 | 48/100 |
Wix | 6.52 Seconds | 6.72 Seconds | 12/100 | 28/100 |
2021 Results – UK
Platform | Pingdom UK | Google Mobile | Google Desktop |
---|---|---|---|
Create.net | 0.78 Seconds | 62/100 | 91/100 |
EKM | 1.12 Seconds | 55/100 | 83/100 |
Shopify | 1.14 Seconds | 41/100 | 84/100 |
ShopWired | 1.17 Seconds | 42/100 | 81/100 |
Bluepark | 1.22 Seconds | 37/100 | 69/100 |
Shopblocks | 1.52 Seconds | 28/100 | 60/100 |
Squarespace | 1.71 Seconds | 18/100 | 61/100 |
Bigcommerce | 2.95 Seconds | 17/100 | 57/100 |
Wix | 3.93 Seconds | 13/100 | 42/100 |
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.
Platform | Pingdom UK | Google Mobile | Google Desktop |
---|---|---|---|
Bluepark | 0.76 Seconds | 66/100 | 88/100 |
Create.net | 0.82 Seconds | 64/100 | 92/100 |
EKM | 1.30 Seconds | 55/100 | 87/100 |
Shopify | 1.60 Seconds | 38/100 | 80/100 |
Shopblocks | 1.18 Seconds | 32/100 | 63/100 |
Squarespace | 1.82 Seconds | 30/100 | 66/100 |
ShopWired | 1.44 Seconds | 24/100 | 53/100 |
Bigcommerce | 3.42 Seconds | 12/100 | 48/100 |
Wix | 6.29 Seconds | 12/100 | 28/100 |
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!