Shopify vs BigCommerce: Which E-commerce Platform to Choose?

Although both platforms are extraordinary in their own rights, they eclipse each other in specific categories. In this article, I will compare Shopify and BigCommerce head-to-head and delve into their pricing, apps/integrations, themes, customer support, analytics, etc..

Introduction to Shopify (Quick Overview)

Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce platform that enables businesses to create and manage online stores. It offers a variety of features, such as customizable templates, payment and shipping integrations, marketing tools, and customer management functionalities. Shopify is designed to be intuitive and accessible to businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises. It offers various pricing plans to suit different needs and budgets, as well as a range of third-party apps and integrations that can be used to extend its capabilities.

Overall, Shopify is a powerful and flexible platform that can help businesses of all types and sizes establish a successful online presence and increase sales. Shopify was founded in 2006 by Tobias Lutke and Scott Lake. According to BuiltWith, Shopify has 4,283,549 live sites and another 2,286,892 sites that have historically used Shopify.

Introduction to BigCommerce (Quick Overview)

BigCommerce is a leading e-commerce platform that empowers businesses large and small to create, manage, and scale their online stores with ease. BigCommerce provides a comprehensive and user-friendly set of tools/integrations that simplify the process of building an online store. With customizable templates, advanced reporting features, multiple sales channels, and secure payment processing, BigCommerce offers a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs and budding businesses.

BigCommerce was founded in 2009 by Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper. According to Builtwith data, BigCommerce has 47,455 live websites on the platform and another 98,049 websites that have historically used it.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Which is the Best Option?

When deciding on which e-commerce platform to host an online store on, there are a couple of criteria that businesses take into consideration, and it is based on those categories that I will compare Shopify and BigCommerce. Here’s a quick overview before we get into the nitty-gritty.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Pricing

When you access Shopify’s pricing page, you will see 6 pricing plans divided into two categories.

The first pricing category contains the Basic plan;

• $32 monthly but $1 for the first three months.
• Basic reports.
• Up to 1,000 inventory locations.
• 2 staff accounts.
• You can add unlimited products to your store.
• More sales channels.
• 24/7 support.
• Automatically send abandoned cart emails to shoppers
• Gift card available.
• Free SSL certificate
• Translate your store into multiple languages.
• You can set different prices for the same product across different international markets.
• You can filter and group your customers into different groups and segments.

The second plan in this first category is called Shopify and includes all of the above plus;

• $92 monthly, $1 for the first 3 months.
• Professional reports.
• Up to 1,000 inventory locations.
• 5 staff accounts.
• Automate manual tasks and create workflows.

The third plan in this first category is called Advanced and includes everything in the first two plans plus;

• $399 monthly, $1 for the first 3 months.
• Custom report builder.
• Up to 1,000 inventory locations.
• 15 staff accounts
• Third-party calculated shipping rates.
• You can estimate and collect import duties and taxes at checkout to give customers full cost clarity and reduce the risk of returns and package refusals.

The second category of pricing plans starts with the ” Starter plan”.

• Get 3 months of starter plan for $1; then monthly, it is $5.
• Sell products through messaging products and apps.

The second pricing plan in this category is Shopify Plus

• Starts at $2,000 per month.
• 24/7 priority technical support via phone, email, or live chat
• Platform knowledge and industry insights through the merchant success program
• Personalized support for migration, launch, and account management at no additional cost
• Platform customization with over 8,000 apps and hundreds of Shopify Plus Partners and certified apps.

The third pricing plan in this category is Shopify’s commerce components.

• Pricing is fixed on the components you want in your store, so you have to contact sales for more details.

Next is BigCommerce.

BigCommerce has 4 pricing plans, standard, plus, pro, and enterprise.

Standard pricing plan:

• $29 monthly if you pay annually, $39 if you pay monthly.
• 0% additional transaction fees when using major payment gateways.
• Unlimited products, file storage, and bandwidth.
• Unlimited staff accounts.
• This pricing plan comes with an online storefront.
• You can create up to 3 multistorefronts to manage multiple brands; each additional storefront costs $30.
• You can connect your store to Amazon/eBay/Walmart.
• Reach more customers and increase sales by connecting your store to the Facebook shop and Instagram checkout.
• Comes with professional reporting tools, accepts payments in 100+ currencies, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, single-page checkout, real-time shipping quotes, etc.
• Features up to 4 inventory locations.

Plus pricing plan:

• You are charged $79 monthly if you pay annually, $105 if you pay monthly.
• Same features as the standard pricing plan and also.
• Allows for multiple storefronts up to 5 with a price per additional storefront at $50.
• You can segment your customers by price, product access, and promotions.
• Has an abandoned cart saver tool that automatically sends shoppers who have abandoned their carts a series of emails to complete their orders.
• With this pricing plan, your customers’ shopping carts are saved to their account, so if they switch devices, their cart is still there.
• Stores billing and shipping information on regular customers. This enhances customer experience.
• Features up to 5 inventory locations.

Professional pricing plan:

• You are charged $299 monthly if you pay annually, $399 if you pay monthly.
• Same features as the plus pricing plan and also.
• Allows for multiple storefronts up to 8 with the price per additional storefront at $100.
• Google customer reviews are enabled on this plan.
• Shoppers can filter products easily and dynamically. This elevates the shopping experience.
• It also has custom product filtering. This means
• Features up to 8 inventory locations.

Enterprise pricing plan:

• You need to contact sales for pricing at this tier.
• Allows for multi-storefront, but you need to contact sales for a custom plan. For every additional store, it costs $100.
• Features custom, SKU-level pricing.
• At this pricing tier, you can sync data from third-party systems like ERPs into BigCommerce.
• Features a custom number of inventory locations.

Verdict: It’s a tie

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Integrations/Apps

In its app store, Shopify has over 8000 apps. Every app on Shopify’s app store undergoes a 100-point check before its launch on the app store. The reason for these apps is to add functionality and better the store’s performance, but apps that run on the front-end tend to affect page speed, which is an important factor for SEO. Keep this in mind when installing apps.

In Shopify’s app store, there are premium apps and free apps. Examples of free apps include Shopify Inbox, Hero multi-currency converter, Shopify Search & Discovery, etc..

It also includes some apps that have a free plan and also a paid plan at a certain threshold. Examples included; Falcon invoice, Printify: print on demand, Zendrop, Klaviyo and Mailchimp (all include free plans).

Shopify groups its 8000+ apps into 6 categories;

• Find Products – to source for products.
• Sell Products – to help sell items in your store.
• Orders & Shipping – to help take customer orders and shipping details.
• Store Design – to enhance the look and feel of your store.
• Marketing & Conversion – to help with marketing and boost sales.
• Store Management – to help keep your store secure and running optimally.

If you are looking for a particular app for a specific function, you can easily find the app because the names of the categories are clear enough to understand.

Next is BigCommerce.

BigCommerce has over 1000 apps in its app store. The fact that it has fewer apps than Shopify does not mean that user needs are not sufficiently met. There are numerous free and paid apps that you can find in the BigCommerce app store. Examples of free apps include; Mailchimp, Quickbooks Online, and Buybuttons. Examples of paid apps include; Shipstation, Justuno, and ShipperHQ.

BigCommerce has its apps divided into 20 categories. When you click on a category, you will see sub-categories underneath. The naming convention here is more specific and can help you find relevant apps quicker.

• Accounting & Tax
• Analytics & Reports.
• B2B/Wholesale
• Catalog & Order Management
• Checkout.
• CMS & Hosting
• CRM & Customer Service
• Data Transfer/Migration Services.
• ERP
• Financing
• Marketing
• Merchandising
• Mobile
• Payments & Security
• POS & In-Store
• Product & Shipping Protection
• Product Sourcing & Sales Channel
• Shipping & Fulfillment
• Site Tools

Another way that BigCommerce’s category stands out is that it tells you the total number of apps in the store and how many per category.

Verdict: Shopify has more apps to choose from, so if versatility and a plethora of choices work for you, go with Shopify.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Platform SEO

Every e-commerce store wants to make sales, so they run ads to attract traffic. Paid media can quickly become expensive, especially if it’s not done correctly or you’re missing a few tips and tricks.

This is where SEO comes in. SEO is not cheap, but if done correctly, it brings that free organic traffic for as long as possible, unlike paid ads that can deeply cut into your profits.

Shopify restricts the modification of its URL structure, raising a red flag on how SEO-friendly Shopify is.

The way a page’s URL structure is defined helps with SEO efforts or makes it impossible to achieve.

By default, when you add products to a Shopify store, it includes the collection folder in the URL structure, which is not SEO-friendly.

Here is a rough example;

https://deecream.com/collections/body/products/softening-body-lotion-rose

This type of URL structure is horrible for SEO, some brands on Shopify, such as Gymshark, have been able to fix it, and I’ll show you how.

https://eu.shop.gymshark.com/products/gymshark-sharkhead-cap-terracotta-pink-ss23

To get this type of URL structure;

Start in your Shopify dashboard by going to Online Store > Themes > Customize > Theme actions > Edit code > Snippets > product-grid-item.liquid.

Next is BigCommerce.

BigCommerce, on the other hand, has some special SEO features right out of the box;

• SEO-optimized URLs: BigCommerce automatically populates SEO-friendly URLs for product, category, and other pages. They also give you the ability to edit the URL settings.
• Unique URLs: To avoid duplicate content, they ensure that each page has only one URL, so you won’t be penalized for duplicate content.
• Structured Data: They have built-in structured data, or “rich snippets,” into product pages to enhance search result listings with information like ratings, pricing, brand, and stock levels.
• 301 Redirects & URL Rewrites: If you rename a product, the auto-generated URL will adapt to reflect the name change (without you messing with theme code), and the old URL will redirect to the new URL. Automatic redirects and rewrites help search engines understand when you’ve made changes or moved pages on your site.
• CDN: While there are many things you can do to speed up your site, they have a special Content Delivery Network that always works in the background to ensure your site loads quickly for shoppers and search engines (after all, site speed affects search rankings).

Verdict: BigCommerce has the better SEO setup for any e-commerce site.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Platform Themes & Design

Looks aren’t everything, but they count for a lot when it comes to site design. Many site visitors judge the credibility of a website based on its design.

Shopify has a total of 126 themes. 11 are free, and 115 are paid. Based on your industry/niche, the themes are broken down into different categories. Examples of categories include; arts & crafts, baby & kids, books, music & video, clothing, food & drinks, etc..

Some of the paid themes’ features include;

• Sticky header
• Back to top button
• Color swatches.
• Mega menu
• Stock counter
• Store locator
• In menu promotions, etc.

Free themes on Shopify have limited customization options unlike paid themes, which support extensive customization such as adding animations, etc..

Next is BigCommerce.

BigCommerce has a total of 295 themes; 15 are free, while 280 are paid. Themes in the BigCommerce store are divided into collections and industry.

Verdict: It’s a tie, and this is because both platforms offer free and paid themes with customization options. The deciding factor here is choosing which one you are comfortable with.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Sales Limits

Shopify has no sales limits on any of its plans. This means, if you pay $5 for the starter plan and make sales with millions in revenue, it’s all good.

The same cannot be said for BigCommerce. With BigCommerce, your sales are capped at $50,000 on the “Standard” plan, $180,000 on the “Plus” plan, and $400,000 on the “Pro” plan. The sales limits are described as “custom” if you are on BigCommerce Enterprise (meaning, they are negotiable).

All these limits are calculated on a trailing 12-month basis. When your sales start to exceed the limit, here are the provisions taken by the BigCommerce team.

Verdict: Shopify wins here. BigCommerce imposing a sales limit per pricing tier doesn’t sit well and can come across as a sneaky way to force site users to upgrade.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Sales Channels

Shopify offers more sales channels for all of its pricing plans. From your Shopify dashboard, you can keep track of all your products, orders, and customers.

The available sales channels include;

• Your Shopify-hosted domain.
• Shop channel.
• Facebook: Post and sell directly from the shop tab on your store’s Facebook page.
• Buy Button: allows you to link to your website in addition to your Shopify domain name.
• Instagram: Tag your products on your Instagram posts and sell from there.

Note: other online sales channels are available for Shopify from third-party app developers and can be added from the Shopify app store.

You might need to edit your store’s settings before adding a sales channel due to specific eligibility requirements.

If your store is not eligible for a sales channel, the channel appears as Unavailable in your Shopify admin. Click on You can’t add this channel to see why your store isn’t eligible.

Examples of sales channel apps from third-party developers;

• eBay (free to install).
• Wanelo (free to install).
• Amazon channel (free to install).
• Tiktok (free to install).
• Pinterest (free to install).

Next is BigCommerce.

BigCommerce has a total of 60 sales channels of which 25 are marketplaces while multi-channel listings make up 33.

Under the marketplaces, 5 are free and they are;

• Maven Messenger.
• Reverb.
• Trade runner.
• Sincee.
• Avasam.

This means all you need to do is install these free marketplaces and start selling your products.

Examples of paid marketplaces include;

• Google Shopping for Sales and Orders.
• Codisto’s Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Google.
• CedCommerce’s Walmart Connector
• CedCommerce’s Sears Connector

Note: Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Point of Sale, Facebook, and Instagram are available for every pricing plan.

Verdict: This is a tie, both platforms offer solid sales channels to increase your online store’s growth.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Payment Gateway

Shopify has its unique payment gateway called ShopPay, which is only available for stores in certain countries and also boasts of over 100 integrations with other payment gateways in case Shopify Payments is not available.

Countries in which Shopify Pay is accepted;

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Canada
• Czechia
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong SAR
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Portugal
• Romania
• Singapore
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• United States

To learn more about the specifics for each country: Supported countries. Shopify integrates with over 100 payment gateways and is grouped by regions and countries.

This means a payment gateway that works for Angola might not work in Nigeria.

Here are some examples of payment gateway integrations;

• Skrill
• Pay nexus
• PayFast
• Pay refund
• Revolutpay
• Ocean payment
• BitPay
• Pay G2A

To learn more about the payment gateway for your country or region, use this link.

One of the main advantages of multiple payment gateways is that they give shoppers more options rather than abandoning their carts.

Note: when you use other payment gateway options, you will be charged a 2% fee on all transactions for the basic Shopify plan, 1% for the standard Shopify plan, and 0.5% for the advanced Shopify plan. If you opt to use Shopify Pay, you can avoid these transaction fees.

Next is BigCommerce

BigCommerce has over 65 payment gateway integrations available out of the box, serving over 100 countries and 250+ local payment methods. They also offer integrations to the most popular digital and mobile wallets, such as Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Venmo, and others.

Not all payment gateways have the same functionalities;

• Capture – to authorize transactions.
• Refunds – allows you to process refunds
• 3D secure – additional security layer
• Multi-currency – supports multiple currency transactions.
• Stored Credit Cards – allows you to securely store shoppers’ credit cards in case they return to shop.
• Embedded Checkout – allows you to process payments in headless stores.
• Supported Countries – are listed by country code.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Reporting and Analytics

Shopify has a reporting structure for all of its payment plans. From Shopify Lite all the way up to Shopify Plus.

For Shopify Lite, you will get the following;

• Basic analytics page view
• Financial reports (including taxes and payouts)
• Product analytics

For Shopify’s starter plan, you will get everything above plus;

• Live view analytics reports.
• Acquisition reports
• Behavior reports (5/6)
• Marketing reports (⅕)

For Shopify, you would get everything in Shopify starter plus;

• Order reports – helps you understand your store’s order volume
• Sales reports – you can view sales by month, by channel, etc.
• Retail sales reports – if you sell in person, you can view reports from the POS
• Profit reports – gain insights into costs, margins, and profits.
• Customer reports – gain insights into who your customers are and how they interact with your business.

Advanced Shopify and Shopify Plus have the same features as the above Shopify, including:

• Ability to create custom reports

If you started using the Shopify platform on the basic plan, should you upgrade to the Advanced plan, the additional reports in this new plan will provide data from the time you started using Shopify.

This means if you started using basic Shopify in January and upgraded in April to the advanced plan, you will get additional reports starting from January.

If you can’t answer questions about your store’s performance with the data available in Shopify’s analytics, you can use Google Analytics. Google Analytics allows you to track visitors, sessions, and other customer behaviors on your store.

Next is BigCommerce.

BigCommerce has an integrated analytics suite that contains 11 reports tailored to various aspects of stores on their online platform.

Here’s a breakdown of the reports and what they mean;

• Store Overview Report – With this report, you have access to an overview of the entire business across all key metrics, a view of the purchase funnel, abandoned carts, top products, and sales by marketing channels.

• Real-time Report – Track revenue, orders, and site visitors second by second. Monitor the effects of any email campaigns or new offers launched on social media channels in real-time.

• Merchandising Report – Track sales by product, down to the SKU level.

• Marketing Report – Access your marketing activity in one place, broken down by every email campaign you send.

• Orders Report – View all of your business’s orders in detail with one-click access to the various aspects of each order.

• Customers Report – View your progress in bringing new customers versus repeat ones to your business. Click to view any customer’s purchase behaviors throughout their lifetime with your business.

• Shopping Cart Report – Get insights into the products people abandon in their carts.

• In-store Search Report – Find out what your shoppers are searching for and customize their experience when they use the in-store search feature.

• Sales Tax Report – Track which orders were taxed, the jurisdiction of those taxes, and the rate used.

• E-commerce Insights – This premium offering, sold separately, analyzes your store’s data and provides suggestions for improving conversion rates and customer loyalty.

When orders come in from eBay, Amazon, Facebook, and other sales channels, they are included in the e-commerce analytics report.

Pro Tip: Google Analytics is a great tool for understanding your shoppers’ behavior on your website, creating custom segments, and doing a detailed analysis of where your shoppers are coming from, among many other features. We highly recommend leveraging this fantastic tool to supplement BigCommerce Analytics’ capabilities.

Verdict: BigCommerce appears to have more features and ease of use compared to Shopify.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Customer Support

Having access to support is crucial for the survival of any business. The reason is simple; you don’t know what kind of problems you’ll encounter.

Shopify and BigCommerce offer these same features when it comes to customer support;

• 24/7 Phone Support
• 24/7 Live Chat
• Help Center
• Support Forum
• Email
• Video Tutorials
• Advanced Specialist Support

Shopify’s help center page is well organized into different categories, and with nice naming that makes it easy to find what you are looking for.

Shopify offers 24-hour support but requires customers to try DIY solutions before giving them access to actual contact details.

Although phone support is available for certain countries, those not on the list are not given any directives on who to contact.

However, many customers have reported receiving excellent customer service from Shopify, even without phone support.

BigCommerce, on the other hand, its help center page leads with Community and then breaks down into important sections like;

• Knowledge Base
• Community
• Ideas, etc.

BigCommerce offers 24/7 support via phone, live chat, and email, but you will need to fill out a form and look through DIY tips before gaining access to contact information.

If you need further assistance, there is an option to skip this step. On a positive note, BigCommerce has a reputation for delivering top-notch support, with roughly 90% of issues resolved on the first call.

Verdict: BigCommerce wins in this category.

Final Thoughts

However you want to look at it, there are specific categories where BigCommerce performs better than Shopify, and vice versa. The final decision is yours; it’s not about BigCommerce vs. Shopify, but about how each platform performs, and more importantly, in the categories relevant to you. This should be the parameter you use in choosing the platform to build your online store.

Source Invesp

Pubblicato in E-commerce