BigCommerce vs Shopify

Shopify Or BigCommerce: Find Out Who Is Better

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When you want to start a store and need to choose between all of the different ecommerce platforms, it can be hard to determine which is better for your business. There are so many options out there with various features, pricing, and more. Two of the most popular ecommerce platforms are Shopify and BigCommerce. Both are more than capable of helping you create a successful ecommerce website and have plenty of the necessary features needed to run an online store.

So, which is better? In short, Shopify is the best. These two ecommerce platforms are in very close competition with one another regarding features, price, and integrations. In this article, we’ll go over the pros and cons of both platforms so you can decide which best fits the needs of your business.

BigCommerce vs Shopify – Who Is #1 In Ecommerce

Is BigCommerce better than Shopify? Depending on who you ask, you will get totally different answers. What one online store needs in terms of features and the personal preferences of the ecommerce store owner can vary greatly. Comparing Shopify vs BigCommerce is tricky because they’re both great at what they do: helping you build a successful online store.

Shopify is a comprehensive ecommerce platform that offers everything you need to create and run a successful online store. It’s simple to use, has plenty of features, and is scalable as your business grows.

BigCommerce is another popular ecommerce platform that also offers a complete solution for online stores. It’s slightly more complex than Shopify and is aimed at larger businesses but can be used for smaller and midsized stores as well.

So, between Shopify or BigCommerce: who is #1 in ecommerce? The answer is: it depends. It depends on your needs, your budget, and what you’re looking for in a platform. The good news is that neither of them is a bad choice, so you really can’t go wrong. However, finding the right fit is still essential since you’ll be building your entire business on the platform you choose. Below we’ll compare Shopify vs BigCommerce so you can decide which is the best ecommerce platform for your business.

BigCommerce vs Shopify – Comparison

Which one is better? Bigcommerce or Shopify? There are many factors to consider when choosing an ecommerce platform: features, price, integrations, and more. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest factors that you will need to consider in your decision making process.

Pricing

The first factor that most people looking to start an ecommerce website consider is pricing. Because you’re just starting out, understanding the pricing for both BigCommerce and Shopify is important. However, don’t just look at the beginner plans and pricing. Ensure that you consider how the cost will rise as your business grows as well.

Luckily, the monthly plans for Shopify and BigCommerce are actually pretty similar in price, so pricing doesn’t have to be a huge factor in deciding between these two powerful ecommerce platforms. Additionally, both Shopify and BigCommerce offer a free trial before you get charged, so it would be wise to take advantage of that and use the platforms as much as possible during that trial period to ensure you’re making the best decision for your business.

Shopify Pricing & Fees

  • Basic: $29/month (with a 2.9%+.30 per online transaction fee)
  • Shopify: $79/month (with a 2.6%+.30 per online transaction fee)
  • Advanced: $299/month (with a 2.4%+.30 per online transaction fee)

BigCommerce Pricing & Fees

  • Standard: $29.95/month (with a 2.59%+.49 per online transaction fee)
  • Plus: $79.95/month (with a 2.35%+.49 per online transaction fee)
  • Pro: $299.95/month (with a 2.05%+.49 per online transaction fee)
  • Enterprise: Contact sales for a custom quote

Integration

To have a successful ecommerce website, you need to make sure that it integrates well with other platforms and services that you need to run your business. This is important for things like accounting, shipping, customer relationship management (CRM), and more. Having the right integrations will help simplify your marketing and sales, thus allowing your store to be up and running sooner.

Shopify integrates with some of the most popular services and shopify apps with an app store of over 4,000 available to add to your store. In addition, you can also integrate a point of sale if you decide to do face-to-face sales as well as online sales.

With BigCommerce, you’ll have access to over 1,000 apps that can be added to your ecommerce website to help you with things like checkout, accounting, payment, security, and more.

The bottom line as far as integration goes is that both Shopify and BigCommerce integrate with plenty of other services. So either can be an excellent choice to build your ecommerce store on, but you’ll need to take a look at the app and integration lists yourself if you have specific needs.

Customer Support

One feature that often gets overlooked when looking for an ecommerce platform is customer support. Knowing that you have access to tech support can truly make a difference when you’re starting an online store. Because there are endless issues that may come up, make sure you sign up with an ecommerce platform with a customer support team that is always available to help you with any questions or technical issues you may have.

For the most part, when it comes to Shopify vs BigCommerce in the support category, you’ll get a lot of the same features. Both include 24/7 phone support and live chat, a help center, email support, plenty of video tutorials and a help center. However, there are some small differences that might be worth considering.

Shopify Support

Shopify covers the basics like phone and chat support but is also pretty well known for its well-built, easy-to-understand knowledge center. It covers everything from checkout troubleshooting to help with products, payments, shipping, and more. This often allows Shopify users to quickly and efficiently problem solve on their own before needing to get in contact with customer support.

BigCommerce Support

Aside from the basics like phone support and live chat, BigCommerce takes it a step further and provides new sign-ups with a 10-minute call. The point of this call is for BigCommerce to get to know your business and help you get started.

Themes

Themes and templates are what give your ecommerce website its look and feel. This is important because it’s often the first thing potential customers will see when they visit your site. If it’s not up to par, it could mean losing out on a customer. Since most people starting ecommerce businesses aren’t designers, you’re left relying on templates and themes to ensure your website looks good and is easy to navigate. But which has the best themes: Shopify or Bigcommerce?

Shopify Themes

Themes are one of the categories where Shopify tends to outshine BigCommerce. With over 70 free and paid themes, plus the ability to use their drag and drop editor, you can customize your store to look great and provide your customers with a good user experience. In addition, all of Shopify’s themes are mobile-friendly, which is essential in today’s world where more people are shopping through their phones than ever.

BigCommerce Themes

BigCommerce does have a handful of themes to build your website, but in comparison to Shopify, the free themes aren’t quite as clean and modern. That being said, they are customizable, and most of them are mobile responsive, ensuring that your visitors can easily shop your store through their phones.

Payment Gateways

A payment gateway is what allows you to process payments on your ecommerce website. It’s important to have a payment gateway that is secure, efficient, and easy for customers to use.

Both Shopify and BigCommerce integrate with most of the most popular payment gateways available like Paypal, Stripe, and Square. However, Shopify also offers its own built-in payment gateway that is already fully integrated into your Shopify store upon setup. This is a pretty big advantage because it can mean easy setup and approval as well as no extra fees that other payment gateways may charge you.

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a type of ecommerce business model where you sell products that you don’t physically have in stock. When an order comes in, the dropshipping supplier ships the product directly to your customer on your behalf. This can be a great way to get started with ecommerce because it doesn’t require a lot of up-front investment.

But how well do Shopify and BigCommerce work for dropshipping stores? Both Shopify and BigCommerce do have integrations with dropshipping apps, however, Shopify’s app store provides much better options for dropshippers when compared to BigCommerce. For example, Shopify integrates with two of the biggest dropshipping apps: Oberlo and Shopify’s own Dropify.

BigCommerce Vs Shopify – Is Shopify Payments Worth It?

Now that we’ve briefly touched on some of the main features that you’d want to compare when you’re looking at using Shopify or BigCommerce to build your store, there’s one main feature that deserves a bit more of a highlight and that’s Shopify Payments.

Shopify Payments is a built-in payment gateway that comes with every Shopify store. This means that once you set up your Shopify store, you’re automatically able to start processing payments without signing up for a third-party payment gateway. And since it’s already integrated with your store, it makes the setup pretty seamless.

One thing to note is that although Shopify Payments is powered by Stripe technology, it is its own payment processor. This means that rather than routing your customer’s payment through a third party payment gateway, Shopify Payments will collect payments for orders and send them directly to your account without having to go through another company.

With Shopify Payments, your customers can pay via almost any payment method, including credit and debit cards, accelerated checkout buttons (like Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Paypal), as well as Pay Later with Shop Pay. It supports over 130 currencies and is available in 17 countries. The transaction fees vary based on your plan and vary from 2.9% + .30 per transaction down to 2.4% + .30 per transaction.

To keep your customer safe, Shopify Payments comes with fraud analysis which automatically runs during each transaction to detect suspicious activity, protecting you from fraud or fake transactions.

In the end, Shopify Payments is one of the most significant benefits of choosing Shopify over BigCommerce. While BigCommerce does integrate with the most popular payment gateways, it just can’t compare to having a payment gateway already fully integrated into their platform. The convenience and security that Shopify Payments offers to online store owners is really unmatched.

BigCommerce Vs Shopify – Pros & Cons

Now that we’ve gone over some of the key features of Shopify and BigCommerce, let’s take a look at a quick list of pros and cons of each platform.

Shopify Pros

  • Free extended 45 day trial with this link
  • Professional, easy to customize themes
  • Thousands of apps available for integration
  • Built-in payment processor (Shopify Payments)
  • Shopping cart abandonment tools included in all plans
  • Easy to use knowledge base
  • Easier to use than BigCommerce
  • Access to top dropshipping tools like Oberlo and Dropify
  • Affordable plans to get started
  • No selling limits

Shopify Cons

  • Transaction fees if you use a 3rd party payment provider
  • Basic plan doesn’t include reports
  • Not as many SEO features as BigCommerce

BigCommerce Pros

  • Transaction fees are slightly lower than Shopify
  • Free 15 day trial before you pay
  • Marketing tools available
  • Hundreds of apps available for integration
  • More built-in functionality, reducing the need for additional apps
  • Gift card feature available
  • Affordable plans to get started

BigCommerce Cons

  • Selection of available themes aren’t as good as Shopify
  • Not as user friendly as Shopify
  • Selling limits on plans

BigCommerce Vs Shopify – Which To Choose From? Shopify

So who is the final winner: Shopify or BigCommerce? Both platforms are more than capable of helping you build a successful online store. While there is no real winner or loser because they are both pretty comparable as far as pricing and features go, we think Shopify does have a slight advantage over BigCommerce.

Between having an easier-to-use platform, better themes, and most importantly, an integrated payment processor that makes things easier for beginners, Shopify may be the best choice for most aspiring ecommerce entrepreneurs. Although BigCommerce’s transaction fees are slightly lower, the fact that Shopify has a built-in payment gateway (Shopify Payments) makes it the better choice in our opinion.

In the end, what matters is choosing the best ecommerce platform for your business. So be sure to do your research and decide which one is right for you. If you’re still undecided, we recommend starting with the free trial that both Shopify and BigCommerce offer so you can get some hands-on experience with each platform before making any decisions.

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Cam Morales
Cam Morales

Cam is the Founder & CEO of Brandafy.com, Bix Marketing.com and EcomUpstart - he built two 7 figure businesses since he started his entrepreneurship journey in 2016. He now helps others launch ecommerce stores and other online businesses.

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