BigCommerce vs. Shopify: Pricing, Fees, and Features

BigCommerce and Shopify are very similar platforms, which means that a BigCommerce vs. Shopify comparison is expected. They’re both cloud-based, SaaS, all-in-one e-commerce platforms. They’re widely known and very popular with online entrepreneurs, and at first glance, they offer a lot of the same things. 

So, which one should you choose? Here’s the short answer:

• Choose BigCommerce if you run a larger or fast-growing store, sell B2B, or want more features built in so you don’t have to rely on apps.
• Choose Shopify if you’re just starting out, want the easiest setup, or plan to extend your store with apps.

Both platforms cost the same, so the decision comes down to features, fees, and how much you want built in. Here’s how they compare at a glance:

Now, let's get into the details.

What Is the Difference Between BigCommerce and Shopify?

When it comes to features and functionality, at a glance, it looks like there’s not much that separates the two platforms. But more thorough research shows that there are some key differences between Shopify and BigCommerce.

For starters, BigCommerce positions itself as better suited for large businesses, established businesses, B2B (business-to-business) sellers, and global sellers.

Shopify, on the other hand, works better for startups. Due to the global changes in people’s lifestyles, entrepreneurship started massively moving online, and one of the first companies that reaped the benefits was Shopify.

It’s noteworthy that Shopify is also taking steps forward in the same direction as BigCommerce, but it’s generally considered that it hasn’t arrived there yet, even though it has such a large user base.

Despite the fact that BigCommerce began its journey as a platform that was almost identical to Shopify, in time, as its customers grew (in quantity and size), the company shifted its focus to medium-size and enterprise-level businesses. That’s how it got where it is now. This change triggered changes in other areas as well, which resulted in a platform with a unique identity that’s different from Shopify’s.

As an example of this distinctive identity, in November 2020, BigCommerce started an open-source program called Open Checkout. This is really unique since open-source code is not common in the universe of e-commerce SaaS platforms.

So, what else can we say about BigCommerce vs. Shopify? What are the other differences between the two platforms and which one should you choose for your business? Let’s get into the details.

Which Is Easier to Use, Shopify or BigCommerce?

When it comes to ease of use, we’ll say right off the bat that Shopify is easier to use than BigCommerce. This is mostly because BigCommerce is more scalable and therefore has more advanced features out of the box, while Shopify is notably simpler in comparison, which is only fitting because both platforms are geared towards businesses of different sizes.

That said, BigCommerce isn’t as hard and complicated as Magento, for example, but beginners will probably need some time to get used to it and learn what they can do with it. It really does offer a more hands-on experience when it comes to editing your site and polishing the finer details.

Besides that, BigCommerce and Shopify both have comprehensible CMSs with intuitive and simply formatted dashboards that give you access to everything you need to manage your business, plus some additional helpful tools.

So, the main difference here isn’t in how efficient or clunky the UIs are but in what options are put at your disposal. In that vein, with BigCommerce, many small businesses would be paying for advanced features that they wouldn’t be able to fully make use of.

BigCommerce vs. Shopify: Pros and Cons

Here’s a short overview of the pros and cons of both platforms:

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is built for growing stores, so most of its pros and cons come down to how much it gives you out of the box.

Pros

• Comes with many features out of the box, so you won’t have to rely on apps as much and can cut some of the costs.
• No cap on staff accounts listed on any plan, which helps bigger teams.
• 15-day free trial, no credit card needed.
• 24/7 chat and email support on every plan.

Cons

• Not entirely beginner-friendly. It’s better suited for users who have some experience with e-commerce software.
• Plans come with sales thresholds, so you can be moved to a higher plan if your sales go over your current plan’s limit.
• Three out of four plans have an Open Payment Provider fee if you use a payment provider outside BigCommerce’s Embedded Payment Providers list.
• Abandoned cart recovery isn’t included on the Core plan.

Shopify

Shopify’s strengths are simplicity and choice. Most of its downsides come down to fees and plan limits.

Pros

• Easy to use for any level of experience.
• An app store with thousands of free and paid apps for anything that’s missing.
• Top-notch themes that often need minimal customization.
• Abandoned cart recovery and basic in-person selling are included on every plan.

Cons

• Transaction fees apply unless you use Shopify Payments.
• Local currency display and local payment methods require Shopify Payments.
• Staff accounts are limited by plan, with none on Basic.
• A smaller built-in feature set, so you may end up paying for more apps.

Pricing and Plans

BigCommerce and Shopify both offer three regular pricing plans, and their list prices are identical: $39, $105, and $399 a month, or $29, $79, and $299 billed annually. The difference is in what each plan includes, with BigCommerce having a greater range of built-in features.

BigCommerce

Pricing Plans

BigCommerce offers three regular pricing plans:

• Core: $39/month

• Growth: $105/month

• Scale: $399/month

There’s a 25% discount if you pay in advance for a whole year, and you can kick the tires cost-free for 15 days.

There’s one more enterprise-level plan with custom pricing, called Performance. The fee is determined based on the size, needs, and requirements of your business, while the starting price is $1,499/month.

One common criticism of the BigCommerce pricing system is that if you hit the upper limit of annual earnings of your current plan, the platform automatically upgrades your subscription. This implies that, from that point on, you have to pay a higher fee based on the next plan on the pricing ladder.

These are the sales limits per plan starting from the lowest tier: $30K in trailing-12-month sales for Core, $100K in trailing-12-month sales for Growth, and $33,333/month for Scale. So, for instance, if you earned more than $30K the previous year, BigCommerce would automatically upgrade your subscription to the Growth plan.

However, not all plans are automatically upgraded once you reach the GMV limit. For its Scale and Performance plans, BigCommerce charges an overage fee on sales above the monthly cap instead of moving you to the next tier, which makes costs more predictable. Scale moves up to Performance only once yearly sales reach $2 million.

Additional Costs

BigCommerce has an Open Payment Provider fee. If you use one of the payment processors from BigCommerce's Embedded Payment Providers list, the company won’t take any percentage of your sales. If the provider isn't on the list, however, you'll pay a fee. For the Core plan, this fee is 2%; for Growth, it's 1%; and for the Scale plan, it's 0.6%. Performance plans on a contract don’t pay an Open Payment Provider fee.

A big plus for BigCommerce is that it provides more tools than Shopify out of the box. This decreases the probability of its clients needing a large number of third-party apps, which means fewer additional costs.

Shopify

Pricing Plans

Shopify also offers a custom enterprise-level plan called Shopify Plus (starting at $2,300/month) and three regular plans:

• Basic: $39/month ($29/month billed yearly)

• Grow: $105/month ($79/month billed yearly)

• Advanced: $399/month ($299/month billed yearly)

In addition to this, Shopify offers a 3-day free trial, followed by three months at $1/month.

Additional Costs

The Shopify pricing plans are priced the same as BigCommerce’s, so the real cost difference comes from fees and add-ons.

First, there are transaction fees. When clients use the Shopify payment gateway called Shopify Payments, they don’t pay transaction fees, but Shopify Payments is not available everywhere in the world, unfortunately. This means you'll be charged transaction fees if you’re in a country where you can’t use Shopify's payment gateway. If you use another payment provider, Shopify charges 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, and 0.6% on Advanced, the same rates as BigCommerce’s Open Payment Provider fee.

So where is Shopify Payments available?

Shopify Payments is now available in 41 countries and regions.

Second, card rates are close: BigCommerce’s start at 2.89% + 29¢, while Shopify’s online rates are 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow, and 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced.

Third, the platform offers a smaller out-of-the-box feature set, so you’ll probably have to pay for more add-ons, dramatically increasing your monthly spending.

Fourth, Shopify supports over 130 currencies, but a conversion fee applies when it converts currencies for you.

BigCommerce vs. Shopify: Key Features Compared

Both platforms offer a variety of useful tools, but the general consensus is that BigCommerce has the upper hand here. It has more built-in enterprise functionality and lets you configure more of your store without paying extra.

Shopify was created as a simple e-commerce solution, and more built-in features usually mean more complexity. So what Shopify lacks in built-in functionality, it makes up for in ease of use.

Feature-wise, choosing between them means choosing between more features and less simplicity vs. fewer features and more simplicity. Here’s where each one stands out.

Where BigCommerce Stands Out

1. Staff Accounts

BigCommerce doesn’t list a cap on staff accounts on any of its plans. Shopify limits them by plan: none on Basic, 5 on Grow, 15 on Advanced, and unlimited on Plus. This is one of the biggest pluses for BigCommerce, and a big reason it suits larger teams.

2. Types of Discounts

BigCommerce lets you offer many different types of discounts and has a host of product configuration options. For comparison, Shopify lets you configure only three product options out of the box.

3. SEO Tools

BigCommerce gives you excellent SEO tools. The most noteworthy is the ability to customize your URLs and make them more SEO-friendly. For more tips, see our BigCommerce SEO guide.

4. API Rate Limits

If you sync large volumes of products or orders with other systems, BigCommerce’s API rate limits are generous: 150 requests per 30 seconds on Core and Growth, 450 on Scale, and no rate limit for some Performance clients. 

That means faster syncing on your store’s side. For comparison, Shopify’s legacy REST Admin API allows 2 requests per second on standard plans, 4 on Advanced, and 20 on Plus.

Where Shopify Stands Out

1. Collections Instead of Categories

Shopify uses collections instead of the traditional category and subcategory model for grouping products. Some shop owners find collections a bit confusing at first, since most people are used to categories, but they can be very helpful.

Collections let you create as many groups of products as you want and place them wherever you want. For example, you can create a seasonal collection for Christmas, a collection of items in a certain color, or a collection that always shows on your home page. For more info, see Shopify’s guide to collections.

2. Abandoned Cart Recovery

Abandoned cart recovery is an essential e-commerce feature, and on Shopify, it’s available with each (even with the cheapest!) Shopify plan. This is not the case with BigCommerce, where abandoned cart recovery is missing from the Core plan, which is the most basic one.

3. Native POS

Shopify POS (point of sale) is another important feature, with basic in-person selling included on every plan. That’s very good news if you sell online but also have a physical store. You just need the hardware, and you’ll be able to accept payments in person and online. You can also sync and manage your inventory and orders from one account.

4. Dropshipping

Shopify provides one of the best dropshipping functionalities on the market. If this is the business model you favor, Shopify is definitely your friend.

Design and Themes

Both platforms give you good-looking, responsive themes and a drag-and-drop editor, so the differences here are small.

BigCommerce

Templates

There are many templates in the BigCommerce theme store to choose from, and they all look pretty nice. The designs aren’t repetitive, and you can find many different layouts that will work for different types of businesses. It goes without saying that they’re all responsive and customizable.

Some of the templates are free (12 to be exact), and others are paid, priced from $99 to $450.

The themes are well designed, so you don’t necessarily need to intervene and tweak anything before launching your store. But if you want your store to have a more personal touch and look more in line with your brand, then BigCommerce provides a page builder where you can customize your storefront.

Page Builder

The BigCommerce page builder is a visual drag-and-drop editor. It doesn’t require coding skills or advanced technical knowledge to use it. The changes you can make with it are pretty standard. You can play around with text, colors, navigation, headers, footers, buttons, etc.

The BigCommerce page builder has a simple and straightforward UI, and we’d say it’s pretty intuitive. You’ll find everything you need to customize your store, and if you have some experience with page builders, it shouldn’t take you long to find your way around it. This is what it looks like:

In addition to this, if you know your way around HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code, BigCommerce enables you to do advanced customization.

All in all, what BigCommerce offers in terms of design and customization is not bad. You get to build a really nice store, and if you know code, you can tweak it however you like. However, its page builder is nothing special either. It’s basically the standard stuff you’ll find anywhere else, if we’re being objective.

Shopify

Templates

The same that we saw at BigCommerce applies here. There’s not a significant difference, although it looks like the majority of reviewers are of the opinion that, regarding design and aesthetics, Shopify has a slight edge over BigCommerce.

Shopify offers 23 free themes and more than 800 free and paid themes in total. Like BigCommerce’s, they’re responsive, functional, and very good-looking.

Ease of use and convenience are among the staples of the Shopify philosophy; the templates are designed so that customers can use them right off the bat.

Page Editor

Of course, many Shopify customers would rather customize their storefronts before going live. Shopify allows you to do that via its page editor. It’s the same type of drag-and-drop editor found at BigCommerce.

Similarly, the editor is convenient, straightforward, and very easy to use. This is the Shopify page editor in action:

Generally speaking, drag-and-drop editors are a good option because they’re pretty simple to use. The trade-off is that they’re not super flexible, so they only offer a limited set of customization options. That’s why, just like BigCommerce, Shopify also leaves room for advanced customization through coding.

Apps and Integrations

If there’s a feature your store is missing, both platforms have an app store to fill the gap. The difference is size.

BigCommerce Apps

BigCommerce has over 1,200 apps in its app store, which isn’t as much as Shopify has, but it’s not too shabby either, considering that BigCommerce already comes with so many built-in features. You have access to all the major and some lesser-known apps for analytics, marketing, payments, shipping, and more, found in 21 categories. Not bad at all.

And if the categories don’t do it for you, there are app collections where different apps are grouped according to their purpose, so if you’re looking for something specific, you can find it there.

Shopify Apps

It’s amazing how many extension-of-functionality options you get with the Shopify app store. There are more than 16,000 apps listed there. This is definitely one of the things that separates Shopify from its rivals. In essence, any company that means something in the e-commerce market has its app on the Shopify app store. There’s an app for anything you’d ever need.

There are free and paid apps grouped in various categories, depending on what they were developed for. There are apps for store design, marketing, sales and conversion, ordering and shipping, inventory management, security, and more.

If you plan on adding a bunch more functionalities to your store through third-party integrations, you can’t do better than with Shopify. For example, both platforms’ built-in blogs are pretty basic, but thanks to the Shopify App Store, you can add a dedicated blogging tool like DropInBlog. More on that below.

Adding a Blog to BigCommerce or Shopify

Both platforms come with a built-in blog, but as we’ve seen, it’s pretty basic. If content marketing is a big part of your plan, you’ll want a dedicated blogging tool.

DropInBlog works with both. You can install it from the BigCommerce App Marketplace or the Shopify App Store, and your blog automatically picks up your store’s design. You can also embed your products right in your posts, and the built-in SEO Analyzer helps your content rank.

If you’re on BigCommerce, here’s how to create a blog on BigCommerce step by step. Shopify users can follow our guide on adding a blog to Shopify. And if you already have posts on BigCommerce’s native blog, you can move them over to DropInBlog and redirect your old URLs.

Customer Support and Learning Resources

When it comes to customer care and resources, both BigCommerce and Shopify score high. BigCommerce offers 24/7 chat and email on every plan, with phone support on Growth and up, while Shopify offers 24/7 live chat on its regular plans and phone support on Plus.

Both platforms have superb help centers, community forums, and video tutorials geared towards beginners. BigCommerce even gives its customers a space to share their ideas about how to improve the product or service. 

What we also like about their approach to customer care is that they have learning hubs for those looking to hone their skills. Commerce University offers courses for both business users and technical users, while on Shopify Academy, you can find courses on business, marketing, and development.

All in all, both platforms are intent on keeping the relationship with their customers tight and have taken all measures to do so.

BigCommerce or Shopify: Which Should You Choose?

There’s a reason Shopify is so popular, and there’s a reason BigCommerce is considered its biggest rival. Now that their list prices are identical and their payment fees match, the choice comes down to how much you want built in.

If you run a larger or fast-growing store, sell B2B, or want more tools without adding apps, go with BigCommerce. If you’re just starting out or want the simplest setup and the biggest app store, go with Shopify.

Either way, you can’t go wrong, and both let you kick the tires before you commit.