Freewebstore

What Freewebstore is

Freewebstore is a hosted ecommerce site builder that gives a seller a complete online store on a free plan. It is aimed at small sellers, side businesses and first-time shop owners who want a store without code, a developer or a monthly bill to start. Its about page says it was "created and developed in the North-West of England", that the team started more than 15 years ago, and that it has "gifted nearly a million stores" to individuals and businesses worldwide. The company's pages say "Since 2007" and describe the platform as UK owned and UK based.

What you build and how

The store itself. The company's homepage describes what comes with a store: a fully hosted ecommerce website, a choice of free domain names secured with free SSL, unlimited products with unlimited storage and bandwidth, and a "free secure cart" that accepts orders instantly. The pitch is that "Everything is point and click", with no code. The company says most people get their first store live in an afternoon, and describes the three steps as signing up, setting up and then selling: "Share the link. Take the order. Keep the profit."

Themes and design. A comparison page tells you to pick one of 100+ mobile-responsive UK themes and drop in your logo. The site also lists EPIC themes and a Flex AI design editor in its navigation, but the pages we hold do not describe either in detail.

AI features. The UK homepage has a section headed "Now with Generative AI". It says the AI can write product descriptions and help with SEO and keywords, and the .com homepage's comparison table lists "AI product copy & SEO" as built in and free. A Smart Import tool reads an export from another store and matches product titles, variants, images and stock automatically. The company's Wix comparison walks through it: export products from Wix as CSV, drop the file into Freewebstore and let the AI map the columns.

Domains. The company says the free Community plan accepts your existing .co.uk or .com domain, with free SSL applied automatically. The Startup plan includes a free .co.uk domain for the first year, and the Pro plan's feature list says "A free domain forever".

Selling tools. The pricing page's feature table lists discount codes, unlimited pages, live shipping rates, abandoned cart data and custom error pages across the paid plans. Its integrations row names Google Shopping, Google Conversion Tracking, Google Adsense, Facebook Shops, Facebook Pixel, Mailchimp, TikTok Ads, Pinterest Shops, Instagram Gallery, Kashflow Accounting, Grow by TradeDoubler and GSuite, though the pages we hold do not show which plan carries which. The navigation also lists an API and a partner program.

Support. The homepage describes an AI assistant "on tap 24/7", and says real humans handle tickets within a day. New stores "get a full month of personal support, free". The company says the team is the same one that built the platform.

Your data. The company's FAQ says import and export tools for products, orders and customers come with paid plans, but your data is always yours to take, with no lock-in or exit fee. The Wix comparison states that product data, orders and customer lists export as CSV. Free stores carry a small "powered by Freewebstore" link in the footer, and paid plans remove it. The company says it does not sell customer data and does not inject banner ads, pop-ups or affiliate links into product pages.

The evidence from the pages

Plans. The pricing page lists four plans: Community, Startup, Pro and Ridge. They are matched to business size (Micro, Small, Medium, Large) and to feature depth, from "Essential" to "Advanced+". Community is free with unlimited products, and the pages repeat "Free forever", "No trial countdown" and no forced upgrades. The company's UK comparison pages put Startup at £15 a month, with a free .co.uk domain for year one, discount codes, loyalty points, gift cards and a 0.5% sale fee. Pro is £49 a month, with live shipping rates, abandoned-cart recovery, unlimited Smart Import and 5 staff accounts. The Ridge plan starts "from £132.67 /month Billed Annually". The pricing page also shows Startup and Pro at lower monthly rates when billed annually, so check which figure applies to which plan on the pricing page itself.

Fees. Per the company's Ecwid comparison, there is a sale fee on top of payment gateway charges: 2.5% on Community and 0.5% on paid plans. The same page says gateways typically charge 1.5-2.9% plus 20p-30p. The free plan is not fee-free, so read "free" as meaning no monthly charge.

Competitor claims. The .com homepage prints a table headed "Shopify wants $348 a year. We want $0", lists Shopify Basic at $29 a month and Wix Business at $17 a month, and says Freewebstore has no trial countdown while the others do. The UK Wix comparison lists Wix plans from £11 to £137 a month. These are the company's own statements about competitors, and one UK homepage table is labeled "correct as of 2022/09/29". The Ecwid comparison claims Freewebstore Community has unlimited products where the competitor's free plan has a product cap, and describes Ecwid as widget-first and Freewebstore as a standalone store.

Scale. The company's Ecwid comparison page closes with "Helping a million people be their own boss." It is a company statement, and the pages give no independent figure.

Not stated. The pages we hold name no payment providers for checkout, give no compliance certifications and no uptime figures.

Who it suits and who it does not

Freewebstore suits a seller who wants a hosted, no-code store with unlimited products, their own domain and a checkout at no monthly cost, especially a UK seller who values UK-based support and a UK-priced comparison. A craft seller, a side business or a person testing an idea can start on Community and step up to Startup at £15 a month for discount codes, loyalty points and gift cards, then to Pro for live shipping rates and abandoned-cart recovery. Someone leaving Wix or Ecwid has Smart Import and CSV export to move products over.

It is a looser fit for a seller who wants the largest app marketplace or a heavily customized storefront, since the pages describe themes and a point-and-click builder rather than an app store or a code layer. The 2.5% sale fee on the free plan eats margin at volume, and the company's own figures show it falling to 0.5% only on paid plans. The pages say little about physical shipping setups beyond live shipping rates on Pro, or about subscriptions and digital delivery, so a seller with those needs should ask first.