2022 Mozello Review: Basic, Free Ecommerce Website Builder
Meaghan has provided content and guidance for indie retailers as the editor for a number of retail publications and a speaker at trade shows. She is Fit Small Business’s authority on retail and ecommerce.
Agatha Aviso is a writer of the Retail Section at Fit Small Business, focusing on retail software and ecommerce platforms.
This article is part of a larger series on Retail Management.
Mozello is a self-hosted ecommerce website builder that allows you to set up your online store in multiple languages. It offers a free plan and two paid options starting at $10 per month on a quarterly subscription and $8 per month on an annual subscription. We recommend Mozello for international sellers.
Mozello
What We Like
- 48 customizable, mobile-responsive templates
- Variety of payment options, including wire transfer and cash on delivery (COD)
- User-friendly platform
What's Missing
- Limited features and integrations
- Discount codes only available on highest paid plan
- Plans paid quarterly or annually; no month-to-month option
Deciding Factors
- Software Fees: $0–$10/month
- Transaction Fees: None
- Payment Providers: PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, API
- Point-of-Sale Integrations: None
- Standout Features:
- Ability to create a multilanguage website
- Allows you to sell digital products
What We Recommend Mozello For
Mozello earned a spot in our list of the best free ecommerce platforms, scoring a 2.35 out of 5 on our evaluation. It’s the only self-hosted ecommerce platform that supports over 60 languages, even on its free plan. A solid website builder, Mozello is easy to use; however, it also has limitations on more advanced ecommerce features (related products and marketing integrations, for example, are not available), lowering its overall score. Mozello is a fairly new product—it entered the market in 2015.
We recommend Mozello for:
- Small international sellers and those wanting wire transfer: You can translate your site into multiple languages and set up delivery options based on your customer’s address. Mozello also allows you to set up wire transfer as a payment option, which is uncommon in other ecommerce platforms.
- Small businesses wanting a free, intuitive site builder: Mozello made our list of the best free website builders because of its user-friendly interface.
When Mozello Would Not Be a Good Fit
- If you want a full-blown self-hosted ecommerce website that can accommodate growth, Shopify is what you need. It is a platform that is ideal for new businesses.
- If you are an artist or entrepreneur looking to sell custom, handmade, or limited edition products, consider Big Cartel, as it was made with artists in mind. It works best for businesses with a relatively small inventory, and its stylish templates are developed with aesthetically pleasing product photos in mind.
- If you already have a WordPress website and want to add an ecommerce functionality to it, go with WooCommerce, a WordPress plugin. If you also have experience working with WordPress and its plugins, WooCommerce’s installation and setup will be easier.
- If your business has an existing website, we recommend Ecwid. It’s best suited and most commonly used as a plugin to add ecommerce functionality to a current site. Wix, Weebly (now part of Square), and Squarespace users have the advantage of having native Ecwid integrations.
- If you want an ecommerce website and a content website, we recommend Squarespace. Its drag-and-drop page editor is user-friendly and easier to maintain than Mozello’s blogging platform.
Related articles:
Read our guide to the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses and best website builders to find a solution that’s right for you. Alternatively, see how Mozello compares to other free ecommerce website builders if budget is a priority.
If you’re ready to test Mozello, sign up for a free account and follow our guide on how to set up a Mozello online store.
Mozello Store Examples
Big Bad Bagels
Zane Urtāne, Big Bad Bagels’ co-founder, decided to go with Mozello because it was essential for the company to maintain the website themselves, something Mozello’s user-friendly platform can offer. She also shared that it was easy to add translated versions of website content.
Zane Urtāne shared that Mozello’s mobile responsiveness was also a big factor in helping them decide to sign up with the platform.
#Cesisinside
Elizabete Vetra, a content creator and social media manager from Latvia, chose to sign up with Mozello after finding that it has an easy-to-use website editor, offers plenty of website templates, can analyze web traffic, and provides a multilanguage site (in her case, English and Latvian).
Elizabete Vetra went with a content website for now but plans to add a blog and online store to it soon.
OWA
OWA sells clothes printed with watercolor and graphics artwork by Latvian artists. Its co-founder, Natalija Jermolajeva, shared that the company focused on selling online when COVID-19 hit and was surprised to see a quick boost in sales.
Natalija Jermolajeva finds it easy to create sales, special offers, and add new products to the store, even from her mobile phone.
Mozello Pricing
Mozello offers a free plan and two paid tiers, starting at $10 per month (quarterly subscription). All plans allow you to create multilingual websites and offer a variety of payment methods—bank transfers, online payments, and cash on delivery (COD). Mozello does not charge transaction fees, though you’ll need to pay the processing fees charged by your selected payment processor.
Mozello Pricing Plans
Free | Premium | Premium Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Fees (Quarterly Subscription) | $0 | $10 | $21 |
Monthly Fees (Annual Subscription) | $0 | $8 | $18 |
Product Limits | 5 | 15 | Unlimited |
Product Options | Up to 1 | Up to 1 | Up to 3 |
Product Variants | Up to 5 | Up to 20 | Unlimited |
Storage Space | 0.5GB | 50GB | Unlimited |
Payment Providers | PayPal | PayPal | PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, API |
Discount Coupons | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Free Domain Name | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Under the Free plan, you get a Mozella-branded URL (yourstorename.mozello.com), SSL security, mobile device support, and many payment methods: PayPal, cash payments, and bank account transfers. The Premium plan does not differ much except for product limits and options (listed in the table above), storage space, and a free domain name.
Its top-tier plan, Premium Plus, lets you generate discount coupons, have customizable emails and checkout forms, perform product import/export and order export, and have digital product delivery—and all the features included in the Free and Premium.
Given that Premium Plus allows you unlimited products and a free domain name, we can say its pricing ($21 per month under a quarterly subscription) is economical compared to other ecommerce platforms.
Mozello Features
Mozello provides a basic set of ecommerce features that enables you to build and launch your online store—a website builder (with a built-in blogging platform and contact form), a product catalog, and payment providers to choose from. However, it lacks advanced inventory tracking and shipping features. There are also not that many integrations available, save for Google Maps, Google Analytics, Disqus comments, and YouTube/Vimeo.
Since our last update:
Since we last wrote this review in July 2021, Mozello has made the following improvements to its platform:
- An improved website content layout editor with new content block styles and personalization
- Ability to sell digital products
- Updates to delivery options such as setting limits for specific types of delivery or linking them to particular countries or regions
- Improvements to order management such as search window and data export
- New payment providers, such as Klix by Citadele, kevin., SEB, and BlueOrange
- Launching of API (delivery, payment, and store)
- Support for Google Analytics 4
Website Templates
Mozello has 48 pre-designed, mobile-responsive website templates that you can customize in color and font choices; you can check out guides outlining how in Mozello’s blog. The templates are classy and minimal in design, but you can change your page layouts depending on how you want to showcase your products.
All of Mozello’s website templates are mobile-responsive.
Website Builder
In the News:
Mozello recently released a new website content layout editor that provides content block styles (text, image, banners, store products, gallery, and contact forms) you can easily add to pages.
You can customize these content blocks—there are options to change its background, content color, section height, width, and column count.
Mozello formerly used its own type of website builder (not the WYSIWYG editor or a drag-and-drop interface), so it could take some time to get used to. However, its recent update (detailed above) provided its website builder a major improvement with a new layout editor. You can easily add a variety of section blocks in a page and customize it to some extent.
Mozello content block layouts you can add to website pages
Product Catalog
Adding products is easy with Mozello. Under a free plan, you can set up a maximum of five products with one option and five variants. You can place them in multiple catalogs.
Set up delivery, payment, checkout forms, and taxes in catalog settings. You will need to upgrade to a paid plan if you want to show a Search box in your store.
You can set up your default store currency in the catalog settings.
Payment Providers
Mozello accepts PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree for online payments. Additionally, you can set up a bank account for wire transfers and enable cash payments on delivery.
In the News:
As of October 2021, Mozello added the following payment platforms to its roster of providers:
- Klix by Citadele
- kevin.
- SEB
- BlueOrange
Multilanguage & Multicurrency Support
Mozello is the only free self-hosted ecommerce platform we know of that covers more than 60 languages (even on its free plan). You can choose which languages you want to support and write your website content (like product titles and descriptions) for each language. At the top of your site, visitors will be able to click which language they want to see.
It also supports multiple currencies. You can set up your default currency in your catalog settings.
Mozello Ease of Use
- Intuitive dashboard
- FAQ
- Customer support: Email, phone (European time zone), and chat
Mozello has an intuitive user interface. Its back-office settings (like a catalog of products and payment methods) are easy to configure because they’re straightforward. Signing up was a different experience, however. You need to make sure you click on Create Online Store from the homepage to see ecommerce features in your dashboard (like catalog and orders).
Make sure to choose Create Online Store when signing up for a Mozello account when building your ecommerce store.
If you chose Create a Website when signing up for some reason, you won’t be able to upgrade your account to an ecommerce store and would need to sign up again.
When it comes to support, Mozello provides an FAQ section that is divided into categories to make it easy to scan through topics—but it lacks in-depth guides and video tutorials.
There is a chat button on its Support page, and you get free email support in English. We sent a few questions and received a very detailed and personalized response three hours later. While there is a phone support line, the office is based in Eastern Europe, so you will have to call early in the morning to reach them and may incur international charges.
Mozello has an active social media presence on Facebook and Twitter. User feedback indicates that its reps typically get back to customers within minutes.
Top Mozello Alternatives
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
Best for: Small businesses with ecommerce as its backbone | Best for: Small storefronts wanting to add an online store | Best for: Small businesses that have an existing website |
Monthly fee starts at: $29 | Monthly fee starts at: $12 | Monthly fee starts at: $15 |
Offers a free plan? No | Offers a free plan? Yes | Offers a free plan? Yes |
If you’re not sure Mozello is right for you, see how it compares with our top free ecommerce platforms.
What Users Think About Mozello
At the time of publication, Mozello has not earned reviews on popular user review sites. However, other critics have reviewed its website builder and ecommerce platform. Website Planet gave Mozello a 4.4 out of 5 rating based on its evaluation, highlighting its affordability and template designs. However, the review says its navigation needs improvement, adding that there are a lot of hidden menus and buttons that can take a while to identify.
Meanwhile, Superb Website Builders gave Mozello a 4 out 5 rating based on its criteria. It praised Mozello’s free plan and user-friendly platform. It stressed that its feature set is basic enough to run a small online store, but won’t hold out when a business wants to scale, lacking custom features for its website builder and advanced ecommerce functionalities such as integrations and inventory management.
Bottom Line
Mozello offers a basic set of ecommerce features for small businesses. If you are looking into whether it’s a good fit, then its free plan offers enough functionality for you to launch and run your online store. Its inexpensive upgrades like discount codes and a free domain are also worth it. Its ability to support multiple languages remains to be its most significant advantage. If you need to communicate with your international customers in their native languages, Mozello makes it easy.
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