Starting an online store can be a thrilling journey, but tends to become complicated when deciding on the right platform to use. The platform needs to be easy to set up, affordable, visually appealing, aids in marketing, and scales with the business. Trusting the store owners around the world, Shopify and BigCommerce are two of the most popular options in the market. They both aim to simplify the complexities of ecommerce businesses but are different in their approaches, strengths, and idiosyncrasies.
In this article, I covered everything important, from the most critical pricing comparison to focus on: pricing, shop design, marketing, payment gateways, ecommerce growth, and customer service options—supporting analytics, security, and business intelligence tools, which I’ve simplified with plain language, a verbal comparison table, and an image placeholder throughout to make everything as simple as possible. No matter if you sell home-made products on the side or are a developing business with multi-million dollar sales ambitions—by the end of this article, you’ll be confident in knowing which platform meet your requirements.
Introduction: What Are Shopify and BigCommerce?
Both Shopify and BigCommerce are online store management platforms that provide tools to set up your ecommerce store without having heavy technical skills.
They take care of the hard work like setting up a website, handling payments, and keeping your store running online, so you can sell your products easily. They also help you sell physical items like clothes, jewelry, and furniture, digital goods like e-books and music, and even services like yoga classes.
In Canada, Shopify started in 2006. Its founders, Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake, tried selling snowboards but used poorly designed online selling platforms. They created Shopify, which as of 2025, is used by over 1.7 million businesses. Many well known companies and small startups like Gymshark, Allbirds, and others use it. Shopify as a business is known for its ease of use and a large app store that allows you to integrate almost any feature.
In 2009, BigCommerce started in Austin, Texas, led by Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper. Their aim was to develop a feature-rich platform that came pre-loaded with key utilities to control the excessive use of add-ons. Some of its users are small businesses and popular brands like Ben & Jerry’s and Skullcandy.
BigCommerce is ideal for businesses looking for an all-in-one solution with myriad features accessible from the start and with ample room for scaling.
Both platforms provide basic needs for a website like hosting, security, and maintenance which saves money on a needing a web developer. They also provide multi-channel selling straight from your website, social media, or any online marketplaces, and manage the entire order from processing to shipping. The platforms do differ on their pricing models, inclusions as well as their overall usability. Let’s go through everything step by step to determine which one’s best for you.
Pricing: How Much Do They Cost?
The pricing is one of the most crucial considerations, especially when looking for features to streamline the e-commerce processes. Finding the best fit for your online store involves considering both current and future needs. Store expansion potential in the event of increased demand after the store goes live on Shopify. In the next section, we discuss all the details, pricing options, and examples for both BigCommerce and Shopify.
Shopify Pricing
Shopify offers a range of plans to fit different business sizes:
- Basic: Available for $29 a month when paid yearly, or $39 month-to-month. Designed for beginners, Basic includes a website with a blog and sales channels like Facebook and Instagram, unlimited products, basic sales and visitor reports, and two staff accounts. It’s perfect for those just starting out, wanting a no-frills simple store.
- Shopify: $79 per month if paid annually, or $105 for monthly payments. This plan adds professional reports, shipping discounts, and five staff accounts. It’s good for expanding small businesses, as it provides enhanced management tools.
- Advanced: $299 per month when paid yearly, or $399 per month. This is targeted towards larger retail businesses, as it offers advanced reports, real-time shipping rates from UPS and FedEx, and 15 staff accounts. It is intended for businesses with high sales and complex operations.
- Shopify Plus: Starting from $2000 a month, this is for enterprise companies, surpassing $1 million annually. Plus offers custom pricing, dedicated support, custom checkouts, and more for high traffic.
The downside with Shopify is the transaction fees. If you choose not to enable Shopify Payments (their payment processing system), you will incur additional fees per transaction. These fees are set at: Basic 2%, Shopify 1%, Advanced 0.5%, and Plus (negotiated and lower). Consider this: selling a $1000 item on Basic will have Shopify taking an additional $20 on top of the usual credit card fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents. For many this will hurt as your sales grow.
Shopify does have a Starter plan at $5/month. However, this plan is very limited to selling through social media pages or embedding a “Buy” button on blogs. Full stores are not supported. They provide a 3−day free trial, then have a promotional offer of $1 per month for 3 months in 2025. This is a good way of testing the waters.
BigCommerce Pricing
BigCommerce has similar tiers but with a key difference:
- Standard: $29.95 per month billed annually (or $39.95 month-to-month). You get unlimited products, a website, sales channels, basic reports, and unlimited staff accounts. It’s very close to what Shopify Basic offers, but the extra logins for your team are a bonus if you have many helpers.
- Plus: $79.95 per month billed annually (or $105.95 month-to-month). This subscription tier adds customer group tagging (target specific shoppers, like “VIPs”) to product filtering (easier browsing), abandoned cart recovery, and additional analytics. This is ideal for stores that are gaining traction and would like to increase sales.
- Pro: $299.95 per month yearly (or $399.95 monthly). This is for growing businesses with more traffic. You get custom SSL (a security boost), advanced filtering, Google customer reviews, and higher limits (up to $400,000 in yearly sales before needing to upgrade). It’s ready for serious scale.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing usually starting in the thousands. This is for major players, like companies with multiple stores or millions in sales. It includes dedicated support, priority features, and custom integrations.
- The standout feature? BigCommerce charges no transaction fees on any plan, regardless of payment processor. PayPal, Stripe, or any other. You pay the standard rate (2.9% + 30¢). Sell $1000 with PayPal? You keep $1000 minus card fees—no additional charge from BigCommerce. This is awesome for high sales stores. They have a 15-day free trial, which is longer than Shopify’s standard offer, providing more time to test their features.
Pricing Table
Here’s how they compare at a glance:
Pricing Table
| Feature | Shopify | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $29/month | $29.95/month |
| Mid Tier Price | $79/month | $79.95/month |
| Top Standard Price | $299/month | $299.95/month |
| Enterprise Price | Custom (Shopify Plus) | Custom (Enterprise) |
| Transaction Fees | Yes (0.5%-2%) | No |
| Unlimited Products | Yes | Yes |
| Staff Accounts | 2-15 (plan-dependent) | Unlimited |
Pricing Scenarios
Pricing scenarios illustrate some cost possibilities and should not be used for marketing purposes.
- Tiny Store: Selling handmade soaps for $500 monthly yields $39 total on Shopify Basic ($29 + $10 fees which is 2% of sales). On BigCommerce Standard, you would be paying $29.95. Thus, BigCommerce is slightly cheaper.
- Small Business: Moving to $5000 a month in sales with T-shirt sales. Shopify Basic with PayPal is $29 + $100 fees = $129 and BigCommerce Standard $29.95. Now BigCommerce saves you nearly $100 here.
- Growing Store: Moving to $50,000 in sales with pet supplies. Shopify’s PayPal advanced account will be $299 and $250 fees (0.5%). BigCommerce Pro is $299.95 with no fees. That’s $250 in savings.
- Big Player: Shifting to selling $500,000 a month in electronics. Shopify Plus might cost $2000 and $1000 fees with a 0.2%. BigCommerce Enterprise (custom) and no fee puts them ahead by $1000.
Hidden Costs To Watch: Both companies need a domain which will cost $10−$20 a year. Shopify can stack on costs with $10 for SEO, $15 for reviews and $20 for shipping tools. $45 a month adds fast. BigCommerce offers a wider range of features like reviews and filtering, which could save you money on add-ons. On both platforms, you could pay $150−$350 for premium themes, or $150-$350 if you need additional features not provided by free themes. While Shopify Payments has its advantages, it has some shortcomings like not allowing you to switch payment processors. With BigCommerce, you can choose any payment gateway and there won’t be any penalties.
With comparison to others. Unlike other competitors, WooCommerce on WordPress is free, but has added costs of hosting ($5−$50/month) and plugins ($10−$100 each). This may be cheaper for people who have some technical knowledge, but it may be more difficult for others. Wix is a good option for smaller stores as their plans start at $17 a month. Shopify and BigCommerce are situated between them and more towards the middle, both affordable and robust.
Conclusion: Starting off, it makes more sense for beginners to sign up for Shopify due to its lower fees. However, as you start scaling, you won’t have to pay any fees with BigCommerce, making it more economicalommerce’s no-fee model saves big as you scale.
Ease of Use: How Simple Are They to Set Up and Run?
A platform that offers a difficult to grasp interface is a platform that you will not want to use. Fortunately, Shopify and BigCommerce have made it easy in this regard.
Shopify
So, how easy is Shopify to use? Its design and functionality is intended to be simple. After registration, it would be like someone is guiding you every step of the way. They prompt you with questions: “What’s your store name?” “What do you sell?” If we answer with “Jane’s Crafts” and “handmade bags”, we can have the system create a basic site in a few minutes. The dashboard is your commanding control station, and its neat and friendly towards the user.
There are no hidden menus within the interface making it easy to navigate to Products to add items to sell, Orders to track sales, Customers to see the buyers, and Settings to adjust everything.
Within three minutes, you can add a product. Click on “Add Product,” enter “Leather Tote Bag,” set the price to $25, upload a photo, and enter a description “Stylish and Durable.” With the editor, you can drag and drop pictures and add buttons with no coding required. It is so simple people are able to launch their stores the same day they sign up.
All plans have 24/7 email and chat support, with phone support for advanced ($299) and up. The help center has “How to Add Products” articles and step by step videos. There are also user shared tips in forums and Facebook groups dedicated to them. If your store is refusing to load, chatting with support can help you resolve it in around 10 minutes.
BigCommerce
It offers quite a bit more to explore but is still user friendly. With your store name and a description of your products, it automatically builds your site. Products, Orders, Marketing, Analytics, and Settings are a few sections of the modern dashboard.
For new people, everything is user friendly, but filters and customer groups setup might take about an hour to understand.
Uploading new products is similarly simple: find “Add Product,” type in “Wooden Coaster Set,” set the price to $15, upload an image, and write a short description “Perfect for coffee lovers,” and click save. The description box is drag and drop too, which means one can select a banner, place it at the top, drop a product list beneath, and adjust the font. Coding is not required, unless one wishes to spend time on the advanced features, which can be coded into.
Support shines here: 24/7 chat, email, and phone on every plan—even Standard ($29.95). Shopify saves phone support for pricier plans, so BigCommerce feels more accessible. Their help center has guides like “Setting Up Your First Product” and other helpful video tutorials. Unsure? Make a call and the issue is settled shortly.
Step-by-Step Scenario
Let’s say you sell candles:
Shopify: 9 a.m., signup, done. “Glow Haven” is the name. 9:10, select a theme out of the available free ones. 9:15, “Lavender Candle” for $10 and “Vanilla Candle” for $12, done. 9:25, a picture is dragged to the home page. 9:30 “Launch” was clicked. Ready to sell by 9:35.
BigCommerce: 9 a.m., signup, done. 9:05 “Candle Cozy” is the name. 9:10, pick a theme and done. 9:20, the candles are added. 9:30, explore filters (like “Scent”) and set one up. 9:45, put the banner up. 9:55, the event starts. Start selling by 10.
With Shopify, it takes 30 minutes, and with BigCommerce, it takes an hour. While BigCommerce takes an hour, it does add invaluable additional steps, with filtrations.
With the revive and backlog: Shopify user: Sarah, a baker, says, “I had my cookie store up in an hour. The dashboard’s so simple, I clicked around and figured it out. I have never seen such ease when establishing a storefront.”
BigCommerce user: Mike, a toy seller. Says “I had a day to get user friendly with the site, and I particularly liked the phone support. Now I love the additional features.”
Comparative Ease: WooCommerce requires knowledge of WordPress, and plugin installation, which could take hours or days for a novice. Wix, with its drag and drop feature, is user friendly for small to mid-sized websites. Shopify and BigCommerce have a blend of ease and complexity, with Shopify edging out for speed.
Summary: While BigCommerce is easier and provides more support options, Shopify takes the cake when it comes to a simpler and easier to start out.
The paid options like “Prestige” which is perfect for Fashion or “Broadcast” which is bold for Tech add layouts and effects like slideshows and hover animations.
The editor is drag and drop. If you want a big photo of your product, you drag it to the top. If you need a “Buy Now” button, you can choose a red one and drop it to the preferred location. Picking up to 2 and a half themes to customize is not bad for the price. Shopify does not require any coding to set your theme up, but if you do know any HTML or CSS, Shopify uses a coding language named Liquid to allow you to customize to the very pixel. Responsive designs are imperative since 50%+ of shoppers tend to use mobile devices. Shopify implements them all mobile, tablet and laptop ready.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce paid themes are set to a very affordable price of $150 to $350 which is similar to Shopify. They offer 150 available themes to choose from 12 free ones. Simple and versatile free options like “Cornerstone” are great for clothes, food, or gifts. Paid ones like “Vault” which are sleek for tech or “Fortune” which are sharp for big stores offer extras like product zoom or multi-column layouts.
It’s editor is also drag and drop. Moving a “Sale” banner up, stacking product images below, and changing the font to bold is all super easy. If you are a coder, you will find yourself extremely comfortable with BigCommerce as it uses Stencil, a coder-friendly framework like Liquid. You are not limited to coding within “Page Builder” as you can stack sections to create pages free of any restrictions and additional costs. You will also find the themes are responsive and your store on any screen will perform admirably.
Image Placeholder
Visualize this with two laptops side by side.
On the left, you can see a Shopify store with a bright colorful theme selling flowers. It features huge images, pink buttons, and floral embellishments. The right side displays a modern and sleek themed gadget store on BigCommerce with a dark background, sharp outlines, and blue highlights. Caption: “Shopify and BigCommerce both offer eye-catching designs to match your vibe.”
Customization Walkthrough
Let’s say you sell coffee:
Shopify: Select “Dawn.” Drag a coffee bean picture to the header. Place a green “Shop Now” button. Change the background to brown and add a grid with products. Done in 20 minutes.
BigCommerce: “Cornerstone” is your pick. Have a banner that reads “Fresh Brews” stacked. Have a product list slide in. Change the font to “Coffee Vibes” and add a footer with your logo and you are done in 25 minutes.
Shopify’s app store has Shogun for $39 a month where you could get extra design features while BigCommerce has more included in Page Builder like custom banners or testimonials and they are less expensive.
Theme shopping tips: For your convenience, Shopify’s theme store has been sorted into categories like fashion, tech and health, so you can find what you’re searching for more easily. BigCommerce has the same, with the added perks of free, paid, or mobile responsive. Both offer real-time previews of their themes so you can see how “Dawn” or “Cornerstone” will look with your products before making the purchase. The free themes are simple yet practical, while the paid themes come with additional features and a streamlined look.
Design Compared to Others: The themes for WooCommerce on WordPress vary in price from free to $100, with the caveat that you will need some tech skills to customize them. Wix has over 800 free templates which are easy to edit, but are not focused on e-commerce. Shopify and BigCommerce both have e-commerce focused templates.
Takeaway: BigCommerce has more themes but both platforms have eye catching and adaptable designs.
Sales and Marketing Tools: Getting and Retaining Customers.
Selling products has different aspects and this mainly focuses on advertising. Let us look at what BigCommerce and Shopify have to offer.
Email Marketing
Shopify: A basic email marketing tool is included. With Shopify email, send “Thank you for purchasing!” or “New stock available!” emails. Free for 10,000 emails a month. After that, it’s $0.001 for each email sent ($10 for 10,000 more). Email segmentation requires additional programs like Hat Lovers Club with Mailchimp for $13 or $20 for Klaviyo.
BigCommerce: Built in email features come with BigCommerce. Automated order confirmation or welcome emails can be sent on all tiers. Plus $79.95 and above can create customer groups like “Frequent Buyers” or “First Timers” and send custom for that group. It also connects with Mailchimp or Klaviyo, but the built in stuff might be enough.
Recovering Abandoned Carts
Shopify: For a fee, you can send a custom email to those who added items to cart, but for sent automation messages like “Your socks are waiting!” you need to pay for more apps. “RecoverMyCart” ($15/month) activates an email system that sends out 10% off codes and monitors who re-engages with the offer.
BigCommerce has an Abandoned Cart Saver feature included on the Plus ($79.95) plan and higher. It sends “Did you forget something?” emails with customizable content and discounts. It also displays statistics on sales recovered without the need for an app.
Selling on Social Media
Both platforms link to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest. Shopify has apps like “Facebook Shop” for $10 a month that allow users to place “Buy” buttons and run ads. BigCommerce has this feature built-in: they allow you to sync your products to Instagram and sell. Both platforms allow you to control social sales from the dashboard.
SEO and Advertising
SEO is critical for getting found on google. Both allow you to add keywords like “best running shoes” to titles and descriptions. Shopify apps like “SEO Booster” for $19 a month help optimize. BigCommerce comes with strong built-in tools for editing urls, meta tags, and more. For ads, both platforms connect with google, but Shopify’s app ecosystem has more advertising tools.
Marketing Scenario
Selling phone cases:
Abandoned Cart: A customer adds the item “Galaxy Case” to their cart but does not purchase. BigCommerce sends “15% off! Still want this?” Shopify users need “RecoverMyCart,” but the same automation works once it’s set up. Email: a customer sends a promotional email with the title “Winter Sale”. Shopify Email broadcasts to all customers. BigCommerce segments “Top Spenders” and sends them a 20% off email. Social: Post on Instagram. Shopify adds a “Shop Now” link automatically and so does BigCommerce, but they give you differing options for marketing.
Shopify and BigCommerce Payments Marked Out: BigCommerce takes the lead for WooCommerce’s needing paid plugins for the carts and emails. We saw Wix provide emails, but they lacked recovery options. Shopify and BigCommerce take the lead, the former with application-based growth and the latter with built-in options.
Last Thoughts: BigCommerce has paid and Shopify has more application budgets, which takes the lead in options.
Payments: Seamless Monetization
Your payment receiving journeys: Fees need to be effortless and skimmed clean for you, and straightforward for buyers. This is how they operate.
You have over a hundred payment gateway options with Shopify like PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, Google, and even Shopify Payments. With Shopify Payments you pay 2.9% and 30 cents for online, and 2.7% for in-person sales. Alternative PayPal payment gateways (Basic: 2%, Shopify: 1%, Advanced: 0.5%) for minimal charge payment gateways during sales. Marketing them for basic accounts (Commercial End: PayPal) brings about 2% plus 30 cent loss.
Big Commerce payments PayPal, Stripe, Square, and even international payments. Big Commerce offers 100 gateways and does not charge any for them. Their account charges the standard payment processors for 2.9% and 30 cents for processing. Big Commerce accounts payable also have pre-marked sales, so not only do you maintain the 100 PayPal gateways but also do not pay any for them.
Payment Examples: Selling $5000 gives PayPal clients luxury Shopify Payments pricing. You pay 2.9% and 30 cents for the first 5k sales. PayPal with basic charges you 20%. BigCommerce pays you back the $145 they overcharge you for PayPal payments.
Selling 50k with GoDaddy PayPal gives Shopify Advanced account pricing. You pay the 2.9% and 30 cent mark for account onward and add $250 to fees so you end up paying $1745. BigCommerce = $1495
Checkout Process: Shopify checkout is quite quick: name, address, card, done. It is customizable for logos on Shopify Plus. BigCommerce is also smooth; guest checkout is available on all plans, so no account is needed.
Take away: BigCommerce saves on fees, while Shopify’s Shopify Payments is slick if you use it.
Scalability: Grow Without Limits
Your platform must handle growth: more products, more traffic. Let’s take a look at how they scale.
Shopify: Shopify’s all plan includes unlimited products and bandwidth. It is hosted on Google Cloud, so it is fast even during Black Friday rushes. Inventory is maintained through apps like Stocky ($29/month), and brands like Nestlé rely on Shopify Plus for multi-million sales.
BigCommerce: BigCommerce also offers unlimited products and bandwidth with 99.99% uptime. Multi-storefront feature (multiple shops, one account) starts on Pro ($299.95). Enterprise plans power giants like Toyota.
Growth Story: Begin with 10 hats. Scale to 1000 products and $100,000/month. Shopify scales with apps; BigCommerce utilizes built-in tools like filtering.
Take away: Both scale well, BigCommerce is more enterprise-ready.
Customer Support: Help When You Need It
Support matters when things go wrong, and here’s what you are provided.
Shopify: All plans receive 24/7 chat and email, with phone support available on Advanced ($299) and above. The help center, videos, and vast community offer solid support.
BigCommerce customers receive 24/7 chat, email, and phone support on all plans, even the Standard $29.95 one. There are guides and videos that assist, as well as community support.
Support Example: Shipping breaks. Shopify chat fixes it in 15 minutes (phone on higher plans). BigCommerce phone support sorts it in 10.
Take away: BigCommerce has more support options.
Security: Keeping It Safe
Both Shopify and BigCommerce are equally secure, as both offer the same free SSL, are PCI DSS compliant, and host on Google Cloud. BigCommerce does offer free SSL, is PCI DSS compliant, and has ISO 27001 which does grant them more cred.
Take away: Both are secure, but BigCommerce has more certifications.
Brand and buyer data guides the decision for a business. Here is how they help:
Shopify provides basic reports on lower plans and advanced stats on Shopify $79 tier and up. Reports are furthered by apps.
BigCommerce provides detailed reports on all plans which include sales, customers, and trends.
Take away: BigCommerce gives more data upfront.
Conclusion: Your Choice
If you’re a beginner or love apps, then Shopify is for you. Small to medium stores thrive with ease. BigCommerce suits high-volume or growing businesses with no fees and built in tools. Make sure to test their trials, then pick your fit.gh-volume or growing businesses with no fees and built-in tools. Test their trials and pick your fit.
