BigCommerce vs Shopify: Which Ecommerce Platform Is Best for Your Business?

The choice of the right ecommerce solution for your small business is likely going to come down to BigCommerce vs Shopify. Shopify is our top-recommended ecommerce platform for small businesses. However, BigCommerce may be better suited for larger businesses, particularly those with complex inventories or wanting to save on processing fees.

• Shopify: Shopify balances simplicity and ease of use with having all the features small businesses need (and nothing they don’t). This—along with sophisticated point-of-sale apps, an extensive app marketplace, and plans that can grow with your business—make Shopify the best ecommerce platform for most small businesses.
• BigCommerce: BigCommerce allows you to shop around for the lowest transaction fees from any payment processor. And, while Shopify has limitations on the number of variants each product can have, BigCommerce does not. So, it’s a better option for growing ecommerce businesses that have complex product assortments or want to save on processing fees.

BigCommerce vs Shopify at a Glance

Expert Score	4.38 out of 5	4.68 out of 5
Best For	Enterprise-level or high-revenue businesses	Most small businesses or startups
Monthly Fees	Starts at $29.95	Starts at $9
Additional Sales Channels	Facebook, Instagram	Facebook, Instagram
Ease of Use	Average	Excellent
Point-of-Sale-App	N/A (but can be integrated with POS platforms)	Yes; free and paid options
Marketing Features	Excellent	Excellent
Product and Order Management	Extensive	Average
App Marketplace	Average	Extensive
Customer Support	24/7 Email, Live Chat, and Phone	24/7 Email, Live Chat, and Phone
	Read BigCommerce Review	Read Shopify Review

How We Evaluated BigCommerce vs Shopify

To help you decide which ecommerce platform is best for your store, we compared BigCommerce and Shopify on price, ease of use, store builder and design tools, inventory management, and sales tools. We also added in our own expert opinion based on years of experience testing different ecommerce platforms.

Now, let’s dive deeper into comparing Shopify and BigCommerce:

Most Affordable: Shopify

Online Store Plans	$29.95 to $299.95/month	$29 to $299/month
Lite Plans (Add shopping cart functionality to existing site)	N/A	$9/month

BigCommerce and Shopify both have a three-tiered pricing structure and a custom plan for enterprise businesses, and they’re remarkably similar. The lower tiers start with basic tools—such as a branded online store, unlimited product sales, social media integration, and 24/7 support. It’s when you start paying more that you get access to premium tools that include detailed reporting and customer segmentation.

The greatest value of Shopify over BigCommerce is the Shopify Lite offering ($9/month), which gives you basic features such as the Shopify POS app, the ability to accept credit cards, and integration with your existing website. That’s a lot for $9 monthly, and BigCommerce has no answer to it.

If you were to unpack both platforms’ basic plans, Basic Shopify and BigCommerce Standard, BigCommerce’s Standard provides more robust features, specifically:

• Professional reporting features
• Built-in ratings and review system
• Automatic currency conversion, based on geolocation
• Real-time carrier shipping quotes from third-party carriers

However, the Basic Shopify plan has these advantages:

• No sales limits compared to a $50,000/year sales limit on BigCommerce Standard
• Abandoned cart recovery on its entry-level plan. BigCommerce only offers it starting on its Plus plan ($79.95/month).

Best for Payment Processing: Shopify

Built-in Payment Provider (optional)	PayPal powered by Braintree (special discounted rates)	Shopify Payments
Option to Connect to Third-Party Processor	✔ no fees or markups	✔ 0.5%–2% fee
Payment Gateway Options	55	Over 100

Shopify offers built-in payment processing through Shopify Payments and Shop Pay (it’s one-click checkout solution). This means anyone can start accepting payments from day one, without needing to apply for and connect a separate merchant account. This is the easiest option for most small and new businesses, and Shopify’s transaction fees are pretty standard.

One thing that BigCommerce has over Shopify is that it doesn’t charge any transaction fees for connecting a third-party processor. Rather than bundling its own payment processor, it gives you the option to pick the payment gateway that’s right for you. So, larger businesses that process many transactions can shop around for the lowest rates.

Arguably the biggest advantage Shopify has over BigCommerce is its proprietary point-of-sale (POS) app. This allows you to start taking payments immediately, without the hassle of setting up a third-party solution. If you’re selling in person, Shopify sells several very convenient credit card scanners. However, you are not locked into using Shopify’s payment system, and the service is compatible with most of the third-party solutions also offered by BigCommerce.

Third-Party Payment Gateways

Shopify and BigCommerce both allow you to connect an extensive range of payment gateways to your store. Shopify provides more options (over 100) compared to BigCommerce (55).

Built-in Payment Providers

Their built-in payment providers offer the following advantages:

• BigCommerce: PayPal powered by Braintree provides preferential PayPal processing rates and a system where a customer can pay via PayPal without ever having to leave your storefront.
• Shopify: Shopify Payments gives you the ability to set up a local currency on your checkout page and the Shop Pay feature—this is similar to Apple Pay or Google Pay in that shoppers can complete orders in one click.

Easiest to Use: Shopify

When we compared BigCommerce vs Shopify, we found that they’re both somewhat accessible to the everyday user. However, Shopify has a big advantage in that nearly anyone who has even minimal computer skills can pick it up almost immediately.

Building an Ecommerce Site With BigCommerce

If you’re new to selling online, BigCommerce could pose something of a challenge. The sheer breadth and scope of what this platform can do can be overwhelming. Nevertheless, there’s nothing you shouldn’t be able to figure out after just a few times through the process.

For a look into the step-by-step process, read our guide on how to set up your BigCommerce store.

Building an Ecommerce Site With Shopify

Shopify is arguably the most user-friendly ecommerce platform out there. It’s basically the WordPress for online retailers. Its entire feature set is accessible from every window of the interface, and all the tools are easily learned and used. If you have any trouble with Shopify’s toolset, there’s a wealth of help options that will show you exactly how things are done.

Best for Design: Shopify

Both Shopify and BigCommerce provide you with tools to create a fully customized online store, but user reviews show that Shopify provides more variety when it comes to template designs. However, BigCommerce has an edge with its website editing tool.

Free Templates	12	9
Paid Templates	100+ (starting at $150)	64 (starting at $100)
Editing Tool	Drag and Drop Builder	WYSIWYG editor
Customization	✔ (CSS and HTML)	✔ (CSS and HTML)

Both Shopify and BigCommerce provide a selection of free and paid themes. Shopify themes offer more variety when it comes to design than BigCommerce’s themes. Common feedback about BigCommerce themes is that they differ only in colors.

Shopify has a user-friendly theme store with free and professional options.
(Source: Shopify)

When it comes to editing, BigCommerce’s page builder uses a drag-and-drop interface that allows you to easily edit and see changes in real time. In Shopify, the native editor is a WYSIWYG editor. A workaround for most users is to install a paid third-party app called DragDropr, an integration that activates a drag-and-drop builder to your website theme.

Best Product and Order Management: BigCommerce

Import/Export Products/Data	CSV and XML	CSV
Product Variants	Up to 600	Up to 100
Product Categories	Manual and Bulk Edit	Manual and Smart/Automatic
Custom Product or Work Order Tools	✔	Only with add-on
Real-Time Tracking in Between Locations/Channels	✔	✔ But with an app
Real-Time Shipping Calculators	Across all plans	Available in highest plan, Advanced Shopify
Shipping Discounts	No	✔ With Shopify Shipping (discounts depend on plan)

• Importing and exporting products or data: In terms of exporting your data, Shopify allows you to export to CSV format. BigCommerce is more flexible because it allows you to export to both CSV and XML.
• Product categories: Setting up collections in Shopify and BigCommerce is straightforward enough, but Shopify’s approach is better because products can automatically be populated based on tags or product descriptions. Although BigCommerce does have a “bulk edit” option to assign products into categories, it doesn’t yet provide the “smart collection” functionality.
• Product options: Shopify lets you set up only three options per product, while BigCommerce lets you set up to 250. It can also auto-generate SKUs for all the different combinations of variants you set up. Its limit on product variants is up to 600, a far cry from Shopify’s equivalent limit of only 100.
• Custom product or work order tools: If your store products have customization options (such as engraving, image uploads, and more), setting this up using custom fields and image uploads is easily done in BigCommerce. Image uploads up to 500MB are accepted. This can only be done using third-party apps in Shopify.

Shopify Inventory Management

Keeping track of your inventory is a snap with Shopify. The “Products” tab gives you an at-a-glance view of the products you have on hand and how many are coming in, and it allows you to manually set actions to take when inventory runs low. Moreover, each item you sell has an easily editable product page where you can input and modify a variety of variants, including descriptions, prices, and shipping.

When put side by side, Shopify has a slight edge over BigCommerce in this area. Shopify has smart inventory management tools to automate product categories, its own fulfillment network for storing and fulfilling orders, and you can adjust inventory right from the mobile app.

Plus, a complete setup with Shopify POS gives you complete visibility to manage products and orders in an omnichannel setting. Shopify is actually our top recommendation for multichannel POS systems.

BigCommerce Inventory Management

The “Products” tab on BigCommerce’s main interface gives you instant access to your inventory, making it easy to see what is available in your store, add new products, and search your inventory. You can even import your own inventory spreadsheet into the interface. When you start out, you’ll have a sample product inventory to help you learn—something you don’t get with Shopify.

BigCommerce vs Shopify Shipping Tools

Both BigCommerce and Shopify allow you to set up a variety of shipping rules, such as:

• Free shipping rates
• Flat rates
• Price-based rates
• Weight-based rates
• Calculated (“real-time”) shipping rates from third-party carriers

BigCommerce, however, wins when it comes to providing customers with third-party real-time shipping rates—making it available on all of its plans. With Shopify, you’ll need to be on a $299 Advanced Shopify plan to unlock this feature.

One thing to note is that Shopify can provide real-time shipping quotes and discounts on any plan if you choose to use Shopify Shipping and its partner couriers.

Best Sales Tools: A Tie Between BigCommerce and Shopify

Buy Now button	✔ ($29.95 plan)	✔ ($9 plan)
One-Click Checkout Link	✔	✔
Social Media Integration	✔	✔

BigCommerce and Shopify don’t limit your sales to your online storefront. They enable you to sell on popular sales platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, eBay, and Instagram. However, Shopify has industry-leading partnerships with social channels like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. If you want the ability to offer in-app social media sales, Shopify is for you.

However, BigCommerce also allows you to sell on enterprise and ecommerce apps, including Google Shopping, Walmart Marketplace, and PriceGrabber. These are far more options than you get with Shopify. If these marketplace channels are more important to you than social channels, BigCommerce is your best option.

Best Marketing Features: Shopify

As powerful ecommerce platforms, both Shopify and BigCommerce know the importance of marketing for online stores, and they provide great tools to help get your site noticed.

Banners	✔	No
Gift Cards, Discount and Coupon Codes	✔ on all plans	✔ on all plans
Customer Reviews	✔	✔ (but not Google reviews)
Product Reviews	✔	✔ but with an app
Email Marketing	No	Shopify Email
Abandoned Cart Recovery	✔ but starts on Plus plan ($79.95/month)	✔ on all plans

Abandoned cart recovery

One feature worth highlighting is the abandoned cart recovery for marketing. Setting up abandoned cart recovery emails helps you interact with customers who don’t place or finish their orders to lure them back. You can customize your emails, add schedule triggers, and add discount codes as a way of enticing customers back to your store. You can also customize confirmation emails sent to customers when they place an order.

BigCommerce’s abandoned cart saver feature claims to recover up to 15% of lost sales and allows you to send up to three automated follow-up emails compared to Shopify’s singular email. However, the feature is available across all Shopify plans (starting at the $29 plan), whereas BigCommerce unlocks this feature at the $79 tier.

Email marketing

Another essential part of marketing your online store is sending e-newsletters to your mailing list. This helps generate more sales.

As of this writing, Shopify recently launched its native email marketing tool, Shopify Email. Everyone on a paid Shopify plan is entitled to send 2,500 free emails each month. You get to customize your email look with templates and schedule their delivery, but advanced email marketing features—such as automation and customer behavior segmentation—are not available.

BigCommerce doesn’t have a built-in email marketing tool yet, but free third-party email marketing integrations like Mailchimp are available.

Best App Marketplace: Shopify

Shopify beats BigCommerce when it comes to available third-party integrations, offering over 1,000 compared to BigCommerce’s 100+ apps. If there’s something your store needs, it’s a near certainty that you’ll find it in Shopify’s app store.

Shopify’s app store has hundreds of integrations with product suppliers, shipping solutions, affiliate programs, and more. (Source: Shopify)

Best for Security: A Tie Between BigCommerce and Shopify

SSL Certificates

Both BigCommerce and Shopify offer free SSL certificates on all of their plans. With BigCommerce, you have the option to upgrade to a more advanced SSL certificate equipped with site seals and warranties. Prices range from $59 to $299.

PCI compliance

Both BigCommerce and Shopify are also PCI DSS compliant providers. Both platforms meet the requirements of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard to protect against credit card data breaches.

Best for Customer Support: A Tie Between BigCommerce and Shopify

Just as you should provide excellent care to your own customers, Shopify and BigCommerce want to take excellent care of you. If you ever have a problem, both offer 24/7 support through various channels.

BigCommerce Customer Service

BigCommerce’s support page is a simple affair. The first step is seeing if there’s a simple answer to your problem that doesn’t involve another person. If your issue can’t be resolved by a Help Center article, you have the option to chat with an agent live, send an email, or speak with a representative on the phone. Every time we interacted with customer support, the agents were informed, courteous, and eager to help resolve both small and complicated issues.

Shopify Customer Service

Shopify’s help page is much the same as that of BigCommerce in that it tries to resolve your problem with helpful articles and tips before handing you over to support staff. You can reach them directly via live chat, email, and phone. They also reply to support inquiries via Twitter. Like BigCommerce, Shopify’s team is professional, competent, and ready to assist you.

Bottom Line

When it comes to choosing between Shopify and BigCommerce, it’s going to come down to what kind of business you have. If you run a large enterprise that requires numerous user accounts, you need BigCommerce. However, Shopify’s easy-to-use nature and availability of Shopify Lite make it the clear winner for small businesses, solopreneurs, and budding enterprises.

We recommend Shopify for anyone launching an ecommerce platform for the first (or second and third) online storefront. It’s easy to sell your products as early as the first day of your free 14-day free trial—start yours today.

Visit Shopify

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