You have finally decided to make the big launch online and take your products to the world. However, there’s always a question that bothers every marketer — which ecommerce platform to choose between BigCommerce vs Shopify?
It’s a debate every ecommerce entrepreneur faces as both platforms are packed with powerful features. BigCommerce boasts extensive built-in features and scalability, making it perfect for businesses poised for growth. Shopify has a user-friendly interface and vast app ecosystem, offering unmatched flexibility and ease of use.
Whether you’re launching your first online store or looking to switch to a more robust platform, understanding the nuances of each option will help you greatly in a decision making.
In this detailed comparison of BigCommerce vs Shopify, we’ll explore the key differences between the two, covering ease of use, design capabilities, ecommerce features, pricing, and customer support.
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Shopify is the better option overall if you’re a beginner. It’s more affordable and easier to customize than BigCommerce. It also offers a user-friendly interface with extensive support through its vast app integrations.
However, you can use BigCommerce if you’re looking for a platform with more storefronts and better scalability for growing businesses.
Shopify and BigCommerce both have similar pricing, with the paid plans starting at $39/month.
According to real-time market data from IRP Commerce, the average ecommerce conversion rate is 1.92%, as of June 2024, but it usually hovers between 2.5% and 3%. Impressively, BigCommerce’s flagship checkout boasted a 2.33% visit conversion rate in May 2023 and June 2023, according to Incisiv’s study commissioned by BigCommerce.
A study by Shopify done in collaboration with one of the ‘Big Three’ global management consulting companies, found that Shopify’s conversion rate is up to 36% higher than that of competitors and 15% higher on average. However, with a visit conversion rate 20% higher than the market benchmark, BigCommerce’s one-page checkout is helpful as well.
– Robust ecommerce features – Scales with your business – Extensive app store
– More cost-effective – Less downtime, more widely available – More secure
Cons
– High pricing and fees – Steep learning curve – Limited theme customization
– Can be complex for beginners – Limited customization in lower-tier plans – Higher cost on advanced plans compared to basic options on other platforms
Best for
Ecommerce businesses, large stores, scalability
Business owners with multiple brands, adding storefronts, scalability
Shopify is a favorable option in certain aspects when compared to BigCommerce. However, building a store was easier in BigCommerce, making it a solid choice for those without technical expertise.
– 2.59% + $0.49per credit/debit card transaction – 3.49% + 49¢ per PayPal Digital Payments transaction
There’s not much difference between BigCommerce plans vs Shopify plans, in terms of pricing.
The monthly prices for both starts at $39 per month, with the only difference being the annual cost, which is slightly lower for BigCommerce.
The cost of Shopify may seem similar to BigCommerce initially but it requires multiple app integrations that would make the total cost higher.
Overall, while Shopify and BigCommerce have similar monthly subscription costs, BigCommerce’s slightly lower yearly subscription fee and competitive transaction rates can lead to cost savings. This is especially true if you are handling a high volume of transactions.
I’ve found that both Shopify and BigCommerce offer distinct advantages depending on your business needs. The right choice ultimately hinges on your specific goals and transaction volume.
Evaldas Mockus, VP of Growth
Ease of use
Winner: BigCommerce
Shopify ease of use
BigCommerce ease of use
Learning curve
Moderate
Moderate
Customization
High
High
Overall UX score
8/10
9/10
When it comes to ease of use, BigCommerce takes over Shopify as the winner. Although both platforms have a moderate learning curve, they are manageable for most users with a little technical knowledge.
BigCommerce has a drag-and-drop feature that allows you to customize banners, fonts, images, and backgrounds. This has been designed to enhance the overall user experience with an easier approach.
The higher score reflects BigCommerce’s more intuitive design and user-friendly features that simplify store management and configuration. The tool also comes with easier access to key features like marketing, analytics, channel manager and more, which can enhance the user experience.
The Analytics dashboard also offers an overview of the store with quick information on average cart value, conversion rate, revenue, orders and customers. You can also see abandoned carts and purchase funnels under the same tab.
Shopify excels with its extensive options and flexibility in customization, allowing users to tailor their online stores to their specific needs. Under the analytics tab, you can easily sort the cards from sales, acquisition, finance, customer, inventory, and marketing and choose the ones you want to keep.
Overall, both Shopify and BigCommerce offer powerful ecommerce solutions with substantial customization options, BigCommerce’s superior overall UX score and slightly more accessible interface make it the preferred choice for those who value ease of use and a streamlined user experience.
Creating a website
Winner: BigCommerce
Shopify features
BigCommerce features
Drag-and-drop editor
No
Yes
Beginner-friendly
Yes
Yes
Number of themes
100+
170
Flagship theme
Dawn
Cornerstone
Having a drag-and-drop website builder is always a plus, which is where BigCommerce shines. It makes designing and customizing an online store a breeze, even for those new to website building for ecommerce. It’s no wonder why 41k+ customers are using BigCommerce for their business needs.
Moving elements on the page, adjusting layouts, and seeing real-time changes without diving into code made the whole experience easier. This hands-on approach greatly simplifies the process of creating a professional-looking store and is helpful for retail, food and beverages, wholesale, automotive, health and wellness, and other verticals.
Image via BigCommerce
On the flip side, Shopify provides a more traditional setup without a drag-and-drop editor. While Shopify’s interface is intuitive and beginner-friendly, it focuses mostly on pre-designed themes and customization options.
The flagship theme, Dawn, is sleek and modern, fitting a range of industries, but working in a more structured framework compared to BigCommerce. However, owing to the generous image limit Shopify is mostly preferred by the clothing, jewelry and skin care brands. Businesses can add a lot of product pictures to build their online stores.
Gif via Shopify
Both platforms cater well to popular ecommerce sectors. However, BigCommerce is great for stores with large inventories or more complex store setups due to its flexibility and ease of customization.
BigCommerce’s drag-and-drop editor stands out in this BigCommerce vs Shopify comparison. Although Shopify has a user-friendly interface with plenty of customization options, BigCommerce is taking the lead when it comes to creating a personalized online store with minimal hassle.
Advanced SEO apps, detailed analytics, customizable settings
Robust built-in SEO capabilities, more technical SEO features available without apps
Shopify has a slight advantage over BigCommerce because of its advanced SEO capabilities and comprehensive app ecosystem. Shopify’s app store is a powerhouse for SEO enthusiasts, boasting 303 SEO apps and over 8,000 apps for customizing your store.
Even without these apps, Shopify automates several essential SEO tasks, such as generating sitemaps, optimizing URLs, and adding alt text to images. However, to gain better control and access detailed reports, you’ll have to download an SEO app from a Shopify app store.
With 135 SEO apps specifically designed for Shopify, integration is seamless, and these tools provide an in-depth overview of your site’s performance through comprehensive dashboards.
For businesses with dedicated SEO teams or those committed to learning the ropes, Shopify offers unparalleled flexibility and control. This makes it an ideal platform for optimizing your online presence and boosting your store’s SEO performance.
Image via Shopify
BigCommerce also offers solid SEO capabilities with robust built-in features. It supports automatic SEO settings, such as automated URLs. Other features include customized URLs, unique URLs, enhanced listings, automated redirects, increased site speed, and simplified Robot.txt editing.
The basic functionalities make BigCommerce an excellent choice for those who prefer to handle SEO within the platform’s native environment. Its built-in features offer the right start for businesses looking for a streamlined approach to SEO without relying heavily on third-party apps in the initial few weeks.
Image via BigCommerce
Shopify’s extensive app selection and advanced capabilities give it an edge over BigCommerce for those who want in-depth customization and detailed analytics. For beginners and mid-sized stores, Shopify offers a more versatile approach to SEO, making it the preferred choice.
When it comes to ecommerce features, Shopify takes the lead with a more comprehensive suite of tools that cater to a variety of business needs.
Shopify stands out with over 100 payment gateways and provides flexibility for businesses to choose the most suitable payment options for their customers. This can significantly enhance the shopping experience and potentially increase conversion rates.
Shopify’s abandoned cart recovery feature is particularly advanced, offering automated emails and customizable reminders to help recover lost sales. This feature is crucial for maximizing revenue and improving overall sales performance.
Shopify also offers comprehensive tools that allow detailed tracking and management of stock levels, variants, and SKUs. This is particularly beneficial for businesses with large inventories or those that require complex inventory control.
Image via Shopify
BigCommerce also offers unique discounts and abandoned cart recovery but lags behind Shopify in terms of payment gateways, offering support for 65+ options.
While this is still a decent number, we’ve ranked Shopify higher because of the broader range of options it provides. This is great for businesses operating in diverse markets or those looking for specific payment solutions.
BigCommerce provides basic inventory management, which may be sufficient for smaller businesses or those with simpler inventory needs. But for businesses looking to scale or those with complex inventory requirements, Shopify’s advanced inventory management capabilities offer greater control.
However, BigCommerce matches the advanced features of Shopify with abandoned cart emails. You can easily add various email templates and have up to three abandoned cart emails enabled at any point in time.
Image via BigCommerce
Overall, Shopify’s advanced features, extensive support for payment gateways, and sophisticated inventory management make it the superior choice for businesses seeking a powerful ecommerce platform.
The ability to accommodate more product variations and images can be a game-changer for ecommerce businesses. That’s why BigCommerce comes out on top, particularly for businesses with extensive product catalogs and varied product attributes.
Shopify offers no limit on the number of products you can have in your store, which is excellent for businesses planning to expand their inventory extensively. However, Shopify has a limit of 100 SKUs per product, which might be restrictive for businesses that sell products with many variations, such as different sizes or colors.
Additionally, Shopify allows up to 250 images per product, providing ample visual choices for most ecommerce needs.
Image via Shopify
BigCommerce, on the other hand, sets a limit of 30,000 products in a store. While this limit might seem restrictive compared to Shopify’s no-limit policy, it is more than sufficient for most businesses, especially small to mid-sized ones.
BigCommerce outshines Shopify because it allows 600 SKUs per product, making it far more accommodating for businesses that offer numerous product variations. Furthermore, BigCommerce supports up to 1,000 images per product, which is ideal for businesses that rely heavily on visual content to showcase their products.
For industries like fashion, electronics, or home decor, where detailed product listings with multiple variations and images are crucial, BigCommerce provides a significant advantage. The higher SKU and image limits ensure that businesses can offer comprehensive product listings without hitting any roadblocks.
Image via BigCommerce
BigCommerce’s higher limits on SKUs and images per product make it the better choice for businesses with complex product catalogs.
Customer support
Winner: Shopify
Shopify features
BigCommerce features
24/7 support
Yes
Yes
Live chat
Yes
Yes
Phone support
Yes
Yes
Support resources
Multiple
Multiple
Shopify takes the lead with customer support because of its ease of access and efficiency in providing assistance. Both Shopify and BigCommerce offer 24/7 support, live chat, phone support, and multiple support resources, ensuring that help is available whenever needed. However, our experience with Shopify’s support has been notably smoother.
With Shopify, reaching a support advisor is straightforward and quick. Whether through live chat or phone, we were able to get prompt responses and solutions to our queries. The process of contacting support is user-friendly and does not require multiple steps, making it ideal for those who need immediate help.
BigCommerce, while offering comprehensive support, introduces a slightly more cumbersome process. To contact support, users need to fill out a form and authenticate with a support PIN.
This additional step can feel time-consuming, especially when urgent assistance is required. Although BigCommerce’s support team is knowledgeable and helpful, the initial barrier can be a bit frustrating when quick help is needed.
Both platforms provide extensive support resources, including documentation, tutorials, and community forums. However, Shopify’s support resources are more easily accessible and better integrated into its platform, making it simpler for users to find the information they need.
The ability to quickly reach a support advisor without extra steps ensures that issues can be resolved efficiently, which is crucial for maintaining smooth business operations. For those prioritizing ease of access to customer support, Shopify is the clear winner.
Security features
Winner: BigCommerce
Shopify features
BigCommerce features
Encryption for data protection
Yes
Yes
Two-step authentication
Yes
Yes
Anti-DDoS protection
No
Yes
SOC and SIEM
Yes (SOC)
Yes (SOC 2)
If you were to compare Shopify and BigCommerce on security, BigCommerce has a slight edge due to its more comprehensive protection measures.
Shopify excels in security, offering encryption for data protection and two-step authentication to keep your account safe. Adhering to SOC (System and Organization Controls) standards, it provides a reliable foundation for secure data management and compliance.
However, Shopify doesn’t have built-in Anti-DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection, which can be a key concern for businesses wary of cyber-attacks.
The use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) secures connections to your Shopify admin and your store. The SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 reports ensure continuous monitoring, giving you peace of mind that any threats can be efficiently detected and managed.
For those setting up their ecommerce store, here are some basic configurations you can manage under the My Store tab.
Image via Shopify
In contrast, BigCommerce partners with Cloudflare to offer Anti-DDoS protection as part of its security and performance suite. This partnership includes SSL termination and static image management, enhancing both security and performance.
Depending on DNS settings, Cloudflare may be automatically enabled on your BigCommerce store, or you might need to configure it. This additional layer of security helps protect your store from DDoS attacks, ensuring consistent uptime and reliability.
The combination of two-factor authentication through an authenticator app, SOC 2 compliance, and Cloudflare’s Anti-DDoS protection makes BigCommerce a more secure choice for businesses that prioritize comprehensive security measures.
Image via BigCommerce
Shopify vs BigCommerce: FAQs
1. Which ecommerce website builder is better for beginners?
For beginners, Shopify is a better choice because it’s more user-friendly with its intuitive interface and extensive app ecosystem. It simplifies the setup process and provides ample resources, making it easier for new users to get their online stores up and running quickly.
2. Shopify or BigCommerce: Which is better for dropshipping?
Both Shopify and BigCommerce support dropshipping, but Shopify offers a wider range of dropshipping apps and easy integrations. Shopify’s extensive app store offers numerous dropshipping solutions, making it a preferred choice for those starting a dropshipping business.
3. Is it possible to easily migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify and the other way around?
Yes, migration is possible. BigCommerce offers a dedicated app for migration and Shopify provides comprehensive migration options. External services or third-party apps can also assist in migrating data between the two platforms.
Other helpful resources for you to grow your new store:
Bernard is the Sr. Director of Communications & Creative at Omnisend, with a passion for good research, helping ecommerce businesses with their marketing automation needs, and beating absolutely everyone in Mario Kart 64.
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