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With the number of global online shoppers expected to reach around 3.9 billion by 2029, the opportunity for online businesses keeps growing – but so does the competition.
If you’re planning to launch an online store, choosing the right eCommerce platform can make a big difference in how quickly your business grows. Two of the most popular eCommerce platforms, BigCommerce and Shopify, offer powerful tools to build, manage, and scale an online store.
In this BigCommerce vs Shopify comparison, we break down pricing, features, and ease of use to help you decide which platform is the better fit for your business.
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What is BigCommerce?
BigCommerce is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) eCommerce platform that helps businesses build, manage, and scale an online store without handling infrastructure or hosting. The platform includes built-in sales features, customizable storefronts, and tools to manage products, payments, and orders from a single dashboard.
BigCommerce powersover 36,000 active websites worldwide, mostly serving businesses with large product catalogs and multiple storefronts. Major brands like Ted Baker and SportsShoes are part of its user base.
Unlike some eCommerce platforms that rely heavily on third-party apps, BigCommerce offers many features directly within its core platform, giving merchants morebuilt-in functionality for running their eCommerce business.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is a hosted SaaS eCommerce platform widely used by entrepreneurs, direct-to-consumer brands, and rapidly growing online retailers. It caters to those looking for an easy-to-use platform with strong design flexibility and a large app ecosystem.
The platform is known for its extensivethird-party integrations, allowing businesses to expand their store functionality with marketing, automation, and sales features.
Today, close to 7 million websitesrun on Shopify, including international brands like Red Bull and Gymshark, making it one of the largest eCommerce platforms in the world.
At a glance: Shopify vs BigCommerce
| BigCommerce | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Starts at $29/month (15-day free trial), no transaction fee | Starts at $19/month (3-day free trial), plus a 2.4% to 2.9% + 30¢ transaction fee for online payments |
| Ease of use | Slightly steeper learning curve | Relatively beginner-friendly with a guided setup |
| Customization | 290+ themes | 1,000+ themes |
| Marketing | Promotions, discounts, gift cards, and abandoned cart recovery Extra marketing features via apps | Email, SMS campaigns, audience targeting, and automation Extra marketing features via apps |
| eCommerce | Unlimited products and staff accounts, built-in multi-storefront tools, and core eCommerce features designed for larger teams | Unlimited products with strong reporting tools, flexible inventory locations, and options for multilingual and international selling |
| Search engine optimization (SEO) | Strong technical SEO, offering more control over URLs and metadata | Built-in SEO tools with automatic XML sitemaps and SEO-friendly themes |
| Scalability | 1,300 apps available | Over 16,000 apps available |
| Point of Service (POS) solutions | Requires third-party apps via API | Shopify POS Pro (add-on, available at $89/month/location) |
| Security | SSL, PCI compliance, secure payment integrations, user roles and permissions, GDPR compliance, Cloudflare CDN | SSL, PCI compliance, secure payment processing, user roles and permissions, GDPR compliance, Cloudflare CDN |
| Customer support | Phone support (business hours), 24/7 live chat and ticket system, BigCommerce Community | 24/7 support via email, live chat, and callbacks, Help Center |
BigCommerce vs Shopify: A detailed comparison for your business
Both BigCommerce and Shopify offer powerful tools to run an online store, but they differ in pricing, customization, and built-in features. Let’s compare them across the key factors that matter most for your business.
1. Pricing
BigCommerce and Shopify offer tiered subscription plans designed for different business sizes. Comparing their core pricing helps you understand what features and limits you get at each level before considering additional tools or integrations.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce’s pricing includes three core plans ranging from $29/month to $299/month, billed annually. The entry plan suits individuals and small brands, while higher tiers add features like abandoned cart recovery and advanced product filtering for businesses with larger product catalogs.
Businesses with more advanced needs can upgrade to BigCommerce Enterprise, which offers custom pricing and tailored solutions. This plan caters to B2B companies and established brands looking to scale.
BigCommerce doesn’t charge transaction fees across any plan, even with its 55 supported payment providers. However, processing fees for debit and credit cards starting from 2.35% + $0.49 per transaction may apply.
New users can explore the platform with a 15-day free trial before committing.
Shopify
Shopify plans range from $19/month to $299/month when billed annually. Enterprise stores with complex requirements can upgrade to Shopify Plus, which starts at $2,300/month. A 3-day free trial is available, after which you pay $1 for the first month before committing to a full plan.
Unlike BigCommerce, Shopify charges additional transaction fees, between 2.4%-2.9% + $0.30 per online transaction, depending on the plan. Additional third-party fees of 0.5%-2% may apply if you don’t use Shopify Payments.
Verdict
Shopify and BigCommerce’s pricing is competitive. BigCommerce provides predictable costs with no transaction fees, while Shopify is initially cheaper but may incur extra fees for sellers not using Shopify Payments. The best choice depends on your online store’s needs and scaling plans.
2. Ease of use
Both Shopify and BigCommerce users can build an online store without coding. The main difference lies in the learning curve and the resources available to help merchants get started and manage their stores.
BigCommerce
With BigCommerce, sellers don’t need to worry about hosting, server management, or performance. A guided setup wizard and drag-and-drop page builder help new users launch and customize their storefront.
Merchants can then manage their products, orders, and store performance from a user-friendly dashboard, where most core tools are easily accessible.
Shopify
Like BigCommerce, Shopify is a hosted platform that takes care of the backend responsibilities for its users. Sellers can quickly set up Shopify stores using a guided onboarding flow and a built-in website builder to customize pages code-free.
There’s also Shopify Magic, the platform’s AI tool that helps generate product descriptions and other store content. Once live, Shopify merchants can manage everything from a simple Shopify dashboard that adapts as new apps are added.
Verdict
Both Shopify and BigCommerce are accessible platforms that cater to sellers of all skill levels, including beginners. With guided setup, hosted infrastructure, and intuitive dashboards, either option makes it possible to launch and manage an online store without technical expertise.
3. Customization
How your store looks shapes the first impression customers have of your brand. Let’s compare Shopify and BigCommerce to see how each platform helps you design your storefront.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce offers more than 290 customizable themes for different industries and business sizes, including 12 free options. Paid themes range from $99 to $400.
You can also uploadthird-party themes for more flexibility when designing your storefront. The built-in page builder is sufficient for basic customization, while advanced users can edit the theme template files to make more technical design changes.
Shopify
Shopify’s theme store has more than 1,000 themes, including 24 free options. The marketplace lets you filter by functionality and industry, a useful feature since each theme offers different capabilities.
Premium themes are priced similarly to BigCommerce, ranging from about $100 to $400. Shopify customers can also edit theme files or install third-party themes to create a more customized storefront.
Verdict
While both offer a customizable platform, Shopify wins when it comes to the size of its theme marketplace. More themes, including more free options, make it easier to find a design that fits your brand and launch quickly.
Shopify’s larger user base also means it’s generally easier to find developers who can build a custom-made theme if you want a fully tailored design.
4. Marketing
While marketing your website largely comes down to the strategies you implement, the right SaaS platform can make the process easier. Both BigCommerce and Shopify offer built-in marketing features to support your efforts.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce includes plenty of built-in marketing tools to promote products and drive sales. Merchants can set up automatic promotions, coupon codes, discounts, and gift cards to attract and retain customers.
These tools are available in all core plans. Additional features like email marketing, social marketing, and affiliate programs can be added through third-party apps.
Unfortunately, customer groups and segmentation, as well as abandoned cart recovery,are only available on the Plus plan and higher.
Shopify
All Shopify plans get Shopify Email and SMS marketing. Merchants can also set up abandoned checkout recovery, create discount codes, and sell gift cards as part of their marketing strategy.
Targeting specific audiences is easy with customer segments, while built-in marketing automations support campaigns across unlimited contacts.
If these features aren’t enough, merchants can expand their toolkit with thousands of Shopify apps available in the platform’s app marketplace.
Verdict
While both platforms provide solid marketing capabilities, Shopify outperforms BigCommerce thanks to its broader marketing toolkit. Access to abandoned cart recovery and customer segmentation allows sellers with limited budgets to get started easily.
5. eCommerce
When comparing Shopify vs BigCommerce, there’s significant overlap in their eCommerce features. Both support multichannel selling, multi-currency payments, and basic shipping and inventory management. The key difference is in accessibility and growth analytics.
BigCommerce
One of the reasons BigCommerce appeals to medium and large businesses is its unlimited products and staff accounts, making it easier for larger teams to manage operations. It also supports multiple inventory locations, with up to four locations on the Standard plan and eight on the Pro plan.
The multi-storefront setup allows brands to create tailored experiences for different markets or customer groups. Additional storefronts start at $30/month per storefront on the lower-tier plan.
The platform includes professional reporting tools across all plans to help you track store performance, with 11 built-in reports covering areas such as merchandising performance and shopper behavior.
Shopify
Shopify allows merchants to sell unlimited products, though team access depends on the Shopify plan. Staff accounts start at the Grow plan and are capped at 15 users on the Advanced plan. You can only create unlimited staff accounts with Shopify Plus.
Businesses with multiple warehouses can manage stock across 10 inventory locations regardless of the plan. Shopify also makes it easy to track performance with over 200 real-time reports and custom analytics tools.
For global selling, multi-storefront setups are possible through the API and can be paired with built-in translation tools to create multilingual stores. Shopify offers two free automated translations, with the ability to add more languages using apps or manually.
Verdict
Both platforms offer strong eCommerce capabilities for growing businesses. BigCommerce supports larger teams with unlimited staff accounts and built-in multi-storefront tools, while Shopify stands out with more inventory locations, advanced reporting, and flexible solutions for global commerce.
6. Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization helps your store appear in search results, making it easier for customers to find your products online. Having access to SEO tools can help your business grow organically.
BigCommerce
All BigCommerce plans support basic blogging, which can help businesses publish content consistently and improve search visibility. Product ratings and reviews also strengthen search relevance while building customer trust.
BigCommerce automatically generates SEO-friendly URLs for product, category, and other pages, which you can customize as needed. Meanwhile, automatic redirects and URL rewrites ensure you don’t lose SEO value when updating or moving pages.
Shopify
Like BigCommerce, you can build a simple blog on Shopify. Shopify Magic and tons of content generation apps help you produce content quickly and optimize it for search engines.
For stronger regional visibility, merchants can assign local domains to target specific geographic markets. Shopify stores also connect with Google Search Console to monitor search performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
It’s also possible to integrate apps to improve Shopify’s SEO even further, like optimizing images and improving site speed.
Verdict
Shopify and BigCommerce offer basic SEO features and handle many technical SEO tasks behind the scenes. Their blogging tools are sufficient for building search visibility through content marketing.
That said, Shopify wins by having more SEO apps to expand optimization capabilities.
7. Scalability
Scalability determines how well your platform can support growth as your business expands. As sales increase and operations become more complex, having access to flexible tools, integrations, and automation helps you add new features without rebuilding your entire store.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce’s app marketplace features around 1,300 apps that extend store functionality. Many offer free versions, while paid tiers usually run on a subscription model. Some premium apps have custom pricing.
Shopify
The Shopify App Storeoffers more than 16,000 apps covering a wide range of functions. Many are available in free and paid versions, with premium apps usually offering tiered plans that scale with your business.
Verdict
BigCommerce includes many built-in capabilities, which can reduce the need for additional tools early on.
However, Shopify grows more easily with your business thanks to its much larger app ecosystem. With thousands of apps, merchants have more opportunities to introduce new functionality and expand their toolkit as their needs evolve.
8. Point of Service (POS) solutions
POS tools matter for businesses that sell both online and in person, such as retailers with physical stores, pop-ups, or event sales. Both Shopify and BigCommerce support omnichannel selling, though at different scales and price points.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce doesn’t have a native POS system. Instead, its POS functionality relies on third-party integrations, partnering with solutions like Hike, Clover, and ConnectPOS.
Because of this, POS works as an add-on. Some integrations offer free versions, but others require a subscription, depending on the provider. For example, the Hike POSapp is free, while ConnectPOS starts at $49/month.
If your preferred provider doesn’t offer a free plan, this can increase your operational costs over time.
Shopify
All Shopify plans include Shopify POS Lite at no extra cost. It’s designed for in-person sales at pop-ups, markets, and events, and can accept payments through Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android or via a compatible card reader.
For more advanced retail needs, Shopify POS Pro is available for $89/month per location. It adds features like in-store inventory management, customer exchanges, and local pickup or delivery options, making it easier to manage both online and in-person sales from a single integrated system.
Verdict
Shopify has the advantage for businesses that want a built-in POS system that works seamlessly with their store. BigCommerce, however, offers more flexibility through third-party integrations, which can be useful if you already use a specific POS provider or want lower-cost options.
9. Security
Since both platforms are fully hosted, most security responsibilities are handled for you. This section highlights the built-in protections and compliance standards each platform provides to keep stores and customer data safe.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce includes several native security features and works with the cybersecurity platform Reflectiz to regularly scan checkout pages for malicious scripts or suspicious activity that could compromise customer data.
All users get SSL certificates to encrypt data during checkout, two-factor authentication (2FA) for safer logins, and user roles and permissions to control access. The platform is also PCI-compliant, following industry standards to securely handle payment information.
BigCommerce helps merchants stay compliant with global regulations, supporting GDPR and CCPA and offering secure payment gateway integrations. You can find all the compliance details in thePlatform Trust Center.
Shopify
Shopify includes similar native security features, such as SSL certificates, 2FA, and user roles and permissions. The platform complies with major security and privacy standards, including PCI, GDPR, and CCPA, protecting payment data and customer information.
Shopify also provides public documentation through its Transparency Report and Compliance Report, where merchants can review the platform’s security practices and regulatory compliance.
Verdict
When it comes to security, Shopify and BigCommerce don’t cut corners. With core protections and regulatory compliance handled by the platform, merchants can focus on growing their brand instead of managing technical security.
10. Customer support
Reliable customer support makes a big difference when running an online store. Quick access to help can resolve issues faster, prevent downtime, and reduce the risk of lost sales or frustrated customers.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce provides toll-free phone support during business hours, along with 24/7 live chat and a ticket system to help merchants resolve issues quickly.
There’s also the BigCommerce Community, a forum where merchants can ask questions, share advice, and learn from others’ experiences.
Shopify
Shopify provides 24/7 support through email, live chat, and callback requests. Sellers can also refer to the Help Center for guides, tutorials, and troubleshooting resources.
Since Shopify is widely used, it’s also easy to find additional tutorials and community resourcesonline.
Verdict
BigCommerce stands out by offering phone support, a feature not many eCommerce platforms provide and one that can be valuable when issues need quick clarification.
Shopify, however, benefits from its large user base, meaning tutorials, guides, and experts for hire are widely available online.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
BigCommerce is best for established eCommerce businesses that need advanced built-in features and flexibility. Brands with extensive product catalogs, multiple storefronts, or international sales operations benefit the most from its robust eCommerce features.
The platform also suits wholesalers who want built-in sales tools over third-party apps.
Shopify is ideal for entrepreneurs, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, and fast-growing online retailers that want a quick and easy way to launch an online store.
It’s especially popular with new print-on-demand sellers, thanks to its simple setup and large app ecosystem that makes it easy to add marketing, automation, and store features as the business grows.
The main difference between Shopify and BigCommerce is how they approach features and customization.
Shopify includes basic core tools most businesses need and expands functionality through a large app marketplace. BigCommerce, on the other hand, has more built-in eCommerce features, minimizing the need for apps.
Shopify can appear cheaper at first, starting at $19/month, compared to BigCommerce’s $29/month entry plan.
However, Shopify charges transaction fees (about 2.4%-2.9% + 30¢ per transaction), and extra features require apps starting around $5/month. Ultimately, the more affordable option depends on how you plan to operate and grow your online store.
BigCommerce can have a steeper learning curve compared to some other eCommerce platforms, especially for beginners launching their first store. While the platform includes many built-in features, its smaller app marketplace means fewer integrations than Shopify.
Some advanced capabilities may also require higher-tier plans, which can increase costs as your business grows.
Shopify’s main drawback is the potential for additional costs. While the core plans are affordable, transaction fees can apply if you don’t use Shopify Payments, and many advanced features require third-party apps that add monthly subscription costs.
The total cost of running a Shopify store can increase over time depending on the tools and integrations you use.
Final thoughts
Both BigCommerce and Shopify are powerful eCommerce platforms that help businesses launch and grow online.
BigCommerce stands out with its built-in features and tools suited for larger teams and complex catalogs, while Shopify offers a more beginner-friendly experience with a larger app ecosystem and flexible integrations.
Whichever platform you choose, you can start selling quickly by connecting your store to Printify. Our print-on-demand fulfillment integrates with both BigCommerce and Shopify, letting you create products, list them online, and start selling without managing inventory.
