Shopify vs BigCommerce

Shopify vs. Bigcommerce — Which Is the Better Ecommerce Platform in 2024?

Shopify is the solution millions of merchants trust with their business today and to keep up with the world of commerce tomorrow.

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Shopify vs BigCommerce

Key features
All themes are mobile responsiveBigCommerce
Shopify
App storeBigCommerce
<1000 apps
Shopify
>6,000 apps
Sales reportingBigCommerce
Limited
Shopify
International payment methodsBigCommerce
Shopify
Blog CMS capabilitiesBigCommerce
Shopify
Drag-and-drop store builderBigCommerce
Shopify
Fraud analysisBigCommerce
Shopify
Transaction feesBigCommerce
0%
Shopify
0% with Shopify Payments
Custom online storeBigCommerce
Shopify
Reliable hostingBigCommerce
Shopify
Custom domain nameBigCommerce
Shopify
Multimedia support on product pagesBigCommerce
Image, GIF, video
Shopify
Image, GIF, video, 3d models, augmented reality
Point-of-sale solutionBigCommerce
Shopify
Business loansBigCommerce
Shopify
Send email campaignsBigCommerce
requires 3rd party app
Shopify
with Shopify Email
Secure payment gatewaysBigCommerce
over 65
Shopify
over 100
Fully-featured mobile appBigCommerce
No store editor access
Shopify
Product limitsBigCommerce
Unlimited
Shopify
Unlimited
Storage limitBigCommerce
Unlimited
Shopify
Unlimited
International customer supportBigCommerce
Shopify
In 21 Languages
Discounted plansBigCommerce
up to 10% on annual plans
Shopify
25% discount on yearly plans

Start selling with Shopify today

Try Shopify for free, and explore all the tools and services you need to start, run, and grow your business.

Try Shopify free for 3 days, no credit card required. By entering your email, you agree to receive marketing emails from Shopify.

8 Things Shopify Can Do vs BigCommerce

Easy-to-use store editor

Both Shopify and BigCommerce have drag-and-drop store editors. However, Shopify’s intuitive “sections” makes it easy to edit, show, hide, and rearrange sections to create the optimal online shopping experience for your customers without design or coding experience.

The latest sales channels

Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, Walmart, Google, Pinterest, TikTok—Shopify has a growing list of integrations and partnerships to help you sell where your customers are. The sheer size of the Shopify ecosystem compared to BigCommerce makes it an attractive platform for developers and partners to prioritize building upon.

Built for bigger commerce

Some of the biggest celebrities and brands are on Shopify. You can start a small business on Shopify and grow it into an enterprise-level brand.

Over 6,000 Shopify apps

With the variety of apps in the Shopify App Store (over 3,000 of which are free), you can customize Shopify to meet your unique business needs. Improve your conversion rates with social proof pop-ups, automate customer support to save time, implement a loyalty program—the choice is yours.

Shopify POS

BigCommerce integrates with many of the same 3rd party POS systems as Shopify, but it primarily focuses on the online store. Shopify has a fully integrated point-of-sale solution that lets you connect offline and online sales in a single place with built-in in-store pickup and local delivery options, tipping, and other must-have functionality for retail stores.

A faster-loading store

A fast website isn’t just ideal for SEO, it also saves sales you might lose to slow load times. Shopify is committed to making sure your store loads quickly by compressing all your images to the WebP format and providing a store speed report to find opportunities to make it even faster.

Shopify Payments and Shop Pay

Shopify Payments (available in 22 countries around the world) is Shopify’s own payment gateway that supports most major payment options with 0% transaction fees. With it, you can enable Shop Pay: Shopify’s accelerated checkout option, which allows customers to opt in to have their information prefilled at checkout and is proven to make online checkout 4x faster.

Features for today and tomorrow

BigCommerce and Shopify are great choices for modern ecommerce websites. But Shopify is also building a platform for the way commerce works tomorrow and around the world. When the pandemic changed retail almost overnight, Shopify quickly launched new features to support merchants, such as curbside pickup. Shopify even has native support for 3D models and AR on product pages, which are gaining in popularity.

Why Merchants Prefer Shopify to BigCommerce

Trusted by millions of merchants

Shopify is one of the most popular commerce platforms around for good reason. Whether you’re starting a business with zero experience or growing a multi-million dollar brand, Shopify has the tools you need.

Built-in SEO functionality

You can easily edit alt tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and more on Shopify. Shopify’s blogging CMS allows you to create content to increase website traffic with ease.

Exclusive apps

In the Shopify App Store, you’ll find a variety of free Shopify apps, including many exclusive to Shopify, such as Shop for product discovery and order tracking, and ShopCodes for creating QR codes for your products.

Sell internationally

As Shopify expands its footprint around the world, it’s also expanding its options for global commerce and selling into specific markets with multiple currencies and various Shopify Apps to sell like a local on channels like WhatsApp and WeChat.

24/7 customer support

Shopify support is available 24/7, no matter which plan you’re on. You’ll also have access to help docs, webinars, blog posts, and online courses to guide you along the way.

Helpful community

The Shopify ecosystem includes forums, experts, resources, tools, partners, third-party groups, and more that are dedicated to helping you launch your new business and succeed on Shopify.

Discounted pricing plans

With Shopify, you can pay for a monthly plan or sign up to pay yearly for a discount of 25%.

No code or custom code

With Shopify, you can set up and launch your online store without touching a line of code. But you also have the freedom to edit the HTML and CSS for more control over the features and design, whether you do it yourself or hire a developer.

Marketing tools that make money

A blogging CMS, sales channels, automatic discounts, gift cards, Shopify Email—Shopify offers a wealth of marketing tools that help merchants deliver an exceptional shopping experience to their customers.

Secure for merchants and customers

Shopify not only includes an SSL certificate as a security signal today’s shoppers look for, but also has a built-in fraud analysis tool that helps protect store owners from fraudulent orders and chargebacks.

We’ve been able to build something in 3 years that a lot of brands haven’t actually gotten to in 10 years.

  • Cee Cee’s Closet NYC
  • Chioma

Learn More About Shopify

Compare Shopify

See how Shopify compares to other platforms

Shopify Community

Learn from business owners on the Shopify forums

Shopify Help Center

Find answers to all your Shopify questions fast

Start selling with Shopify today

Try Shopify for free, and explore all the tools and services you need to start, run, and grow your business.

Try Shopify free for 3 days, no credit card required. By entering your email, you agree to receive marketing emails from Shopify.

FAQs

Which is better for ecommerce: BigCommerce or Shopify?

BigCommerce is an ecommerce platform for your online store. Shopify is a commerce platform for your online store, in-store sales, offering financial services, educational resources, Shopify Experts, and more.

What is a good alternative to BigCommerce?

When it comes to BigCommerce alternatives, there are several options. However, Shopify is often considered the #1 choice for businesses looking for a reliable and user-friendly ecommerce platform. Some reasons why Shopify is a great alternative to BigCommerce are ease of use, customization, scalability, security, and support. Overall, Shopify is a great alternative to BigCommerce for businesses of all sizes.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: which is more expensive?

BigCommerce and Shopify have similar pricing with plans ranging from $39.00 USD/month to $399.00 USD/month. If you use Shopify Payments, you can secure 0% transaction fees on Shopify with the ability to enable Shop Pay, an accelerated checkout that’s been shown to outpace other accelerated checkouts by at least 10%. BigCommerce also offers 0% transaction fees no matter what payment gateway you use. Both Shopify and BigCommerce charge credit card processing fees for transactions.

What is the difference between BigCommerce and Shopify?

Shopify and BigCommerce have similar out of the box features for their online stores, including built-in SEO functionality, order management tools, and sales channels. The two biggest differences are Shopify’s more fully-featured mobile app, which you can use to run your store almost entirely from your smartphone, and Shopify POS, which directly integrates with your Shopify store to consolidate your offline and online business.

Page last updated: November 24, 2023

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