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Shopify vs BigCommerce – a clash between two of the biggest ecommerce companies in the world. They’re both devoted to helping people like you sell stuff easily and successfully, both online and offline.
While they claim to do the same thing, which can make choosing between them complicated, here at Tech.co, we've done hours of in-depth user testing to separate the platforms, so you don't have to. We've found that Shopify is a better all-round ecommerce platform than BigCommerce. However, BigCommerce is still a fantastic option, though it can't quite match Shopify's excellent website design features or its help and support options.
Want to get into the detail of why Shopify is better than BigCommerce? We’ll explain everything in the rest of this guide, including:
Shopify vs BigCommerce: Which Website Builder Is Best?
Shopify is a better choice than BigCommerce if you're creating an online store, because of its ease of use, customizability, and overall depth. All in all, as an ecommerce website builder, Shopify is pretty hard to beat.
That said, BigCommerce isn't far behind it, and both brands emerged from our independent testing and user ratings with very respectable scores.
On the surface, they might look similar. However, there are some big differences between Shopify and BigCommerce that are worth bearing in mind before picking one to be your ecommerce platform.
You can see some highlights of Shopify and BigCommerce's scores, prices, and features in the table below:
Scroll right to see full table on mobile devices —>
| Test Score Our score is based on independent assessments of ease of use, features, ecommerce functionality and value for money | Verdict | Cheapest Ecommerce Plan (per month) | Priciest Ecommerce Plan (per month) | Number of extra sales channels | Physical Product Sales | Digital Product Sales | Service Sales | Try Click to check for deals, discounts and tiers of plans | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  | |||||||||
4.5 | 4.2 | |||||||||
The best ecommerce website builder for larger businesses, with outstanding features for managing sales and accepting payments, and a 14-day free trial | Runs Shopify close with great sales features and has a Free Trial, but a small knowledge base and weaker website design let it down. | |||||||||
$29 | $29.95 | |||||||||
$299 | $249.95 | |||||||||
10 | 3 | |||||||||
✔ | ✔ | |||||||||
App required | ✔ | |||||||||
✔ | ✔ | |||||||||
Shopify vs BigCommerce: Pricing Plans Compared
Shopify offers a 14-day free trial, and not to be outdone, BigCommerce lets you try the platform for free for 14 days, too. There are further similarities – both have three pricing plan tiers, and the option of custom pricing plans for high volume or high-value merchants.
All told, Shopify’s low and middle-tier plans offer better value than BigCommerce’s, but BigCommerce offers a better high-value option compared to Shopify. Here's a more detailed look at each provider's pricing options:
Shopify Pricing Plans
| Plan | Price paid annually The price per month you'll pay if you choose to be billed annually | Hosting included | Free SSL certificate | Staff accounts | Abandoned cart recovery | Gift cards | Online credit card rates | In-person credit card rates | Transaction fee if not using Shopify Payments | International pricing Customize your product prices for different countries/regions with a percentage increase or decrease. | International domains Set country-specific domains to optimize international SEO. | Point-of-sale support | Hardware peripheral support | Inventory locations Assign inventory to retail stores, warehouses, pop-ups, or wherever you store products. | Shipping labels Print shipping labels for orders using a standard printer—no special equipment required. | Shipping discount Competitive shipping rates from DHL Express, UPS, or USPS. | Reporting | Support | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | | | | | |||||||||||||||
Lite | Basic | Shopify | Advanced | Plus | |||||||||||||||
$9 per month | $29 per month | $79 per month | $299 per month | From $2,000 | |||||||||||||||
1 | 2 | 5 | 15 | Bespoke | |||||||||||||||
2.9% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.6% + 30¢ | 2.4% + 30¢ | Bespoke | |||||||||||||||
2.7% | 2.7% | 2.5% | 2.4% | Bespoke | |||||||||||||||
2% | 2% | 1% | 0.5% | Bespoke | |||||||||||||||
One | Up to four | Up to five | Up to eight | Bespoke | |||||||||||||||
N/A | Up to 77% | Up to 88% | Up to 88% | Bespoke | |||||||||||||||
Basic | N/A | Standard | Advanced | Bespoke | |||||||||||||||
24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 |
Shopify’s cheapest plan, called Basic Shopify, starts from $29 per month. With this pricing plan. you’ll be able to run a fully-functioning online store: You’ll get access to all the sales channels offered by Shopify, the Shopify POS app for offline sales, and abandoned cart recovery.
Confusingly, Shopify’s middle plan is simply called Shopify, and costs $79 per month. With this plan, you get slightly cheaper credit card rates, and the ability to sell gift cards. The big changes come in the point of sale functions: you’ll now be able to manage register shifts, as well as support peripherals such as barcode scanners or receipt printers.
The most expensive plan is called Advanced Shopify, and it costs $299 per month. This plan will give you improved reporting tools, third-party calculated shipping rates, cheaper credit card rates, and up to 15 staff accounts.
BigCommerce Pricing Plans
| Plan | Price paid annually The price per month you'll pay if you choose to be billed annually | Bandwidth | Storage | Abandoned cart recovery | Gift cards | Transaction fees | Maximum sales | Point-of-sale support | Support | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | | | | |||||||
Standard | Plus | Pro | Enterprise | |||||||
$29.95 per month | $79.95 per month | $299.95 per month | On request | |||||||
Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||||||
0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | |||||||
$50,000 | $180,000 | $400,000 | Unlimited | |||||||
24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 | Premium |
BigCommerce’s cheapest plan is called Standard, and costs $29.95 per month. There aren’t any transaction fees, but there is a $50k cap on the value of online sales you can make per year. However, you’ll get access to real time shipping quotes, coupons, discounts and gift cards, and all the sales channels supported by BigCommerce.
BigCommerce’s middle plan is called Plus, and costs $79.95 per month. This plan gives you abandoned cart recovery, raises the sales cap to $150k per month, and will allow you to store credit card details. Shopify’s plan certainly offers more features compared to its own bargain-basement option.
BigCommerce Pro, the most expensive plan, costs $299.95 per month. It gives you Google customer reviews, improved on-site search functions, and a $400k sales limit.
Shopify vs BigCommerce: Head-to-Head
Both Shopify and BigCommerce offer a lot when it comes to ecommerce, but each one has its ups and downs. Take a look at how they match up against each other when it comes to website features, sales features, ease of use, and customer support.
Shopify Has Better Website Features
Shopify Has Better Website FeaturesSimply put, Shopify lets you build a better-looking website than BigCommerce. It has a better online storefront editor than BigCommerce, allowing for more customization and editing.
Shopify also offers more website templates – 220 to BigCommerce’s 126. What’s more, 22 of Shopify’s templates are free, compared to seven from BigCommerce. We also thought that Shopify’s templates were better looking and easier for users to navigate than BigCommerce’s.
They're Tied On Sales Features
They're Tied On Sales FeaturesThis was always going to be close, given how these two are the leading ecommerce platforms on the market. Both offer a wide range of sales channels, including eBay, Amazon, and social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Shopify is slightly better when it comes to offline point-of-sale transactions, thanks to its Shopify Payments processing tool, but that might not be ideal for everyone.
BigCommerce is able to reel in Shopify, simply because many features which can help supplement the sales journey – such as customer reviews and coupon codes – come built-in.
Shopify Is Easier To Use
Shopify is delightfully simple to use, with intuitive menus and a straightforward design. BigCommerce, on the other hand, isn’t bad, but it can’t quite match Shopify for pure simplicity.
Finding your way round Shopify’s menus is a piece of cake thanks to the useful setup tour you’re given. This simplicity will help you save time, and probably money, further down the line.
Shopify Has Better Help and Support
The help and support offered to customers by Shopify is one area where it starts to pull away from BigCommerce. The Shopify online knowledge base is packed with detail that BigCommerce’s simply cannot match.
While BigCommerce’s support staff were keen to pick up the phone and guide us through the early days of our site, it felt like they were over-compensating. We were able to create a shop easily with Shopify’s builder, without having to look at its support pages once.
Shopify Overview
The best ecommerce platform on the market
As we mentioned above, Shopify is our favorite ecommerce platform. It excels across the board in our testing, especially so when it comes to its sales features.
Shopify also has brilliantly-designed online store templates and a variety of customization options, which will help make websites unique – BigCommerce’s designs, on the other hand, aren’t quite as slick. This is especially useful given that more than half of all online transactions will take place on mobile devices by next year. Having a well-designed store could make the difference between a sale and a bounce.
Shopify also has a comprehensive app store which can help augment the already sizable list of features on offer. For example, you can add apps which let customers track the progress of their orders.
Shopify Integrations
You’ll be able to integrate loads of different sales channels into Shopify's platform, including everything from eBay and Amazon to Instagram and even real-life sales. Fortunately, Shopify’s straightforward and intuitive UI and reporting tools ensure that all of this functionality is easy to manage and optimize.
Pros
- Unmatched sales and reporting features
- Simple to set up, use and edit your store
- Excellent and varied support options
- Fantastic design options
Cons
- Can become more expensive than rivals
- Charges transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments
BigCommerce Overview
A great Shopify alternative
While Shopify is our favorite ecommerce builder, BigCommerce does run it very close for the top spot. Unfortunately, it lets itself down in a couple of key areas when compared to its rival.
Let’s start with the positives, though. BigCommerce is an excellent sales platform that can build you an impressively-featured online store, and help you manage lots of disparate sales channels. BigCommerce doesn’t charge transaction fees, either, and will let you use a variety of payment processors to help your site function – unlike Shopify.
However, it’s not all good news. While your BigCommerce online store will be replete with features and functionality, it won’t look as good as a Shopify store, let alone a Squarespace one. Simply put, BigCommerce’s templates aren’t as good, and its customization tools aren’t as extensive as Shopify’s. We also found BigCommerce’s help and support functions to be lacking when compared to Shopify.
BigCommerce Features
BigCommerce also has a large roster of built-in features – product reviews and coupon codes, for example – which on some rivals would have to be installed via an app store. This makes the whole experience of setting up your store easier, and saves you time right out of the gate.
Pros
- Free Trial
- Integrates loads of sales channels
- No transaction fees
- Lots of built-in features
Cons
- Limited choice of website themes
- Restrictive storefront editor
- Places a cap on the value of sales you can make
Shopify Is Our Favorite Ecommerce Platform
BigCommerce is a good option, but its customer support and design options can’t match those of its competitor.
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