When looking to start an e-commerce store, you may be overwhelmed by the number of different e-commerce platforms out there. That’s why it’s important that you not only find the best platform for you but one that is the complete e-commerce solution.
What that means is finding one that will not only host your website but also help you in the day-to-day operations and management of your store. One that will help you process payments and help with fulfilling orders.
In this e-commerce battle, we’ve identified two of the biggest e-commerce platforms today: BigCommerce and Shopify.
In this review of BigCommerce vs. Shopify, we’ll compare some of the most notable aspects and see how they stack up against each other. We’ll then choose a winner for each category and provide you with our overall winner at the end.
BigCommerce vs. Shopify – An Overview
For those unfamiliar with either BigCommerce or Shopify, here is a brief overview of these respective companies.
BigCommerce
- Was founded in 2009
- Was started in Sydney, Australia by Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper
- Also opened their first American office in 2009 in Austin, Texas
- In 2011, they raised $15 million in a Series A round of funding.
- In 2015, Brett Bellm replaced Machaalani and Harper as CEO.
- In 2016, they partnered with Amazon to provide retailers with inventory syncing capability.
- In 2020, they filed for an IPO and became a public company in August of 2020.
- Serves over 60,000 online stores across 120 countries
- Countries that use BigCommerce the most are the USA, Australia, UK, Brazil, and Canada.
Shopify
- Was founded in 2006
- Founded by Tobias Lütke and Scott Lake
- Origins of the company started in Ottawa, Canada.
- In 2013, launched Shopify Payments
- In 2015, they filed for an IPO and became a public company in May 2015.
- In 2017, they secured a key integration with Amazon.
- As of 2020, there are over 7,000 employees worldwide.
- In 2020, they announced the Alipay partnership for cross-border payments.
- As of May 2021, it has more than 1.7 million online stores across 175 countries.
- Generated $2.93 billion in revenue in 2020
- Countries that use Shopify the most are the USA, UK, and Australia.
- 25% of revenues come from the Shopify Plus pricing plan
User Experience And Overall Ease Of Use
One of the challenges with any tech platform is making it widely accessible while also making it easy to use. This is because not everyone is tech-savvy as some users can be vastly more experienced or less experienced than others.
Fortunately, BigCommerce and Shopify tend to both do well in ensuring that their platforms are relatively easy to use for everyone. On the whole, the interface for both platforms is intuitive and for areas that are perhaps more nuanced, they offer a short explanation.
Users that have experience with other content management systems (CMS), such as WordPress, will likely have a smoother user experience when using either platform.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce offers a good blend of colors and things are generally easy to find with their dashboard. Like many other CMS platforms, BigCommerce uses a column on the left side as the main navigation area. To the right of the navigation is where the main content will be displayed from clicking any one of the links in the navigation.
Everything you will need to access or find can be found in the navigation on the left. If you want to check your orders, add new products, review your store’s analytics, or even toggle the settings, all of it can be accessed in this navigation column.
If this is your first time building a BigCommerce store and you may not have a ton of CMS experience, BigCommerce helps to do that. They have a very handy drag-and-drop tool where you can easily add images, text, and more to your store by dragging and dropping it in. We’ll talk more about this in the Design section.
Shopify
If you were to only take a look at the dashboard between BigCommerce vs. Shopify, you might find it hard to notice a difference. They use fairly similar colors and the layout of their dashboard is eerily similar with the navigation on the left and the main content area on the right.
Also, when you take into account that both Shopify and BigCommerce are easy to use, it may be hard to choose which platform to select. However, Shopify’s dashboard is a little bit cleaner than BigCommerce’s. As you can see, there are fewer links to click on in the navigation area which can make the dashboard seem less overwhelming, especially to new users.
Having a clean and uncluttered dashboard can make the user experience more enjoyable for people creating a Shopify store. When adding a new product, Shopify’s interface makes the experience as seamless as possible by asking you to provide only the essential details. The same cannot be said for BigCommerce unfortunately, as the process to add new products can be quite tedious.
Shopify’s user experience is catered to all users of different technological experiences. For example, when creating your Shopify store, it walks you through all the steps you need to do to properly set it up. What’s great is that it does this in a way that isn’t complicated or overwhelming at all.
The Victor: Shopify
Shopify’s clean aesthetic and dashboard wins this battle round. It was a close contest as BigCommerce’s interface and dashboard are also very good. We also think the drag and drop builder is unique to BigCommerce and will go a long way in helping new users build their first store.
However, on the whole, Shopify offers a much cleaner dashboard that is easier to navigate. The onboarding process is also unique in that it helps you set up your store step by step.
Design Themes
When it comes to the overall look and feel of your e-commerce store, it can be hard to pin down exactly what it is. If you’re not sure, you can browse through the many templates or themes available to both Shopify and BigCommerce users.
These themes are basically packaged designs that you can dress your online store with. They are all easy to edit and all you have to do is replace the elements in a template with your own content. Unless you’re a web developer too and don’t mind coding your own online store, selecting one of the themes is usually the way to go.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce themes are aplenty and right off the bat, you get 12 free themes to choose from. If your online store is of a particular niche, you can also look for themes within that niche by selecting your most applicable industry.
The free, BigCommerce themes are good at providing you with just the basics. However, if you’re looking for something more feature-rich and flexible, your best bet would be to try browsing through their paid themes.
Paid themes offer more styles of each template and before purchasing, you can choose to view a demo of the theme. Doing so will show you exactly how the page will appear and you can interact with the demo to see all of its functionality.
Depending on the paid theme you select, you can expect to pay anywhere between $150-$300 for a BigCommerce theme. If that price is a bit too steep for you or if you’re not completely satisfied with the selection, there are third-party websites that offer paid, BigCommerce themes.
We briefly mentioned that BigCommerce offers an intuitive and helpful drag and drop page builder in the previous section. This is great for beginners or people with little experience in page building. It helps them design the landing page they want to design without needing any coding experience to create it. From adding images to re-arranging products as they appear on your page or including that extra call-to-action button, you can do it all with BigCommerce page builder.
Shopify
Like BigCommerce, Shopify offers a range of themes both free and paid. Shopify offers only ten free themes, two less than BigCommerce.
Despite the limited selection of free themes, Shopify does have significantly more paid themes to select from than BigCommerce. This is probably due to the fact that Shopify is a bigger platform and has more cumulative users than BigCommerce.
You can browse through Shopify themes via a number of different categories. On top of choosing the industry your online store falls under, you can also browse by the layout style, the number of products displayed, and product page types, to name a few. This is good for users that have selected their industry but want their page to fall under a specific style.
If Shopify store owners feel that a paid theme is better, they can expect to pay anywhere between $180 to $350 for it. However, similar to BigCommerce, there are other third-party websites that sell Shopify themes for much less.
The Victor: BigCommerce
One of the biggest issues with the free themes is that they offer the basics and not much else. Therefore, online store owners need to be wary that if their store becomes too big, they can easily outgrow the free themes.
If that’s the case, users are better off finding a paid theme that works best for them. Although there are far more paid Shopify themes available, both in Shopify and from third-party websites, we think that BigCommerce wins this battle.
The paid designs are fairly comparable between both Shopify and BigCommerce and therefore, the deciding factor is its ease of use. Having a drag and drop editor is a game-changer for both new and experienced users alike. Adding, moving, or re-arranging items by dragging and dropping them will save you plenty of time and is a helpful design feature to have.
Analytics
When it comes to analytics, merchants need to know how well their online store is performing. Without solid analytics that display good and accurate sales metrics, merchants would not know their stores are performing.
Fortunately, both BigCommerce and Shopify provide excellent analytics for their users, albeit in different ways. BigCommerce offers users fairly rudimentary sales data and analytics that can be significantly upgraded but for an extra monthly charge.
Shopify’s sales data and analytics are presented well and neatly in their Analytics dashboard. Users are able to pull reports that can be distributed to other people to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Let’s take a look at both Shopify and BigCommerce’s analytics offerings.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce offers users a good dashboard of the metrics that matter to their users. To access the analytics dashboard, users can find the Analytics link in the left navigation. Once there, users should see a dashboard like this containing important sales metrics pertaining to their store.
On the surface, this dashboard does look busy and crowded. There is a level of customization you have as you can toggle between select dates. Since this dashboard is just meant to give online store owners a quick high-level overview of sales metrics, users can also request a much more robust analytics package.
BigCommerce calls this “Ecommerce Insights” and this feature is meant to provide merchants with a very detailed report of both metrics and insights. With this, merchants can glean insights such as which products deserve a better placement in your online store and customer lifetime value data by each product you sell.
Ecommerce Insights is a very important report for merchants to have, especially if their stores are generating a large volume of sales. Because it is such a detail-rich report, it is not a part of the BigCommerce paid plans and is an add-on cost.
BigCommerce customers of the Standard and Plus plans will have to pay an extra $49 per month, Pro plan users must pay $99, and Enterprise users will be billed an extra $249.
Shopify
Staying true to the Shopify user experience, their Analytics dashboard also offers users a clean look at the categories that matter to them and their online store.
To access their Analytics, users need to click on the Analytics link on the left-hand navigation and then Dashboard beneath it. Once doing that, you should then see something like this.
You’ll notice how remarkably clean and easy to read all of the data is on this dashboard. Users can filter the data by date or date range to illustrate your store’s metrics over time. The data is presented in different ways which are great for people that enjoy a visual representation of the data and those who just want the hard numbers.
This dashboard is great for Shopify users to get a snapshot of the day-to-day and longer-term online sales trends of their store. However, if users want more meaningful and data-rich analytics, they can also find that in reports.
After clicking on Analytics in the left-hand navigation, instead of clicking on Dashboard, users can click on Reports. There, they’ll be able to click View Report to get their hands on a specific report. Users can filter through the data sets to ensure that their report includes the necessary metrics they want to track. These reports are great for business owners to share with fellow team members or other partners.
The Victor: Tie
Analytics is an integral part of any online store’s success. The data in the analytics can be leveraged by merchants to help them increase revenue and efficiency. We think that both Shopify and BigCommerce have great analytics and call it a tie.
If you’re looking for a clean and easy-to-read dashboard of your most important metrics on a daily basis, Shopify is the better of the two. It gives you that 10,000-foot view of how your online store is doing without really getting into the nitty-gritty details.
If you are looking to drill down deeper into the data, especially for stores that produce a high volume of sales, then you might want to invest in a better analytics package. BigCommerce offers just that. With their Ecommerce Insights, you are able to really get data on just about anything pertaining to the products in your online store.
It contains a wealth of information that merchants can use to their advantage and outsell their competition. It does, however, come at a fairly steep price so you need to be sure that you need this data.
Point Of Sale (POS)
A point of sale (POS) is where you ring your customers up for their purchase. It’s the final point in the sales process whereby you let the customer know what the total amount their purchase will be.
A point of sale system often uses software and hardware to make a sale. However, for online stores, just the software is needed since the transaction is done digitally and not physically.
For people creating an online store on either BigCommerce or Shopify’s platform, a point of sale is the most important feature to have. Let’s take a look and see what these two platforms have to offer.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce does not have its own native point of sale system yet. However, they do offer integrations with some of the biggest POS platforms.
Through the BigCommerce app store, you will find all of the merchants that BigCommerce supports POS integration with. Some of the biggest names you will find include:
- Square
- Heartland Retail
- Cloer
- Hike
- ConnectPOS
If you also manage a physical store, you can sync your POS with your online store as a way to manage inventory and have one centralized POS system to manage all the sales. Your physical store will also need to have POS hardware in order to integrate it with some of these third-party platforms.
Shopify
The Shopify POS is a completely different system from BigCommerce and is where they really separate themselves. Shopify has its own native POS system that allows business owners to sync both their online and physical store sales with Shopify POS.
It might be an understatement how important it is for Shopify to have its own POS system. For business owners, it means having one unified and centralized place where you can ring up your sales. It also means not having to use third-party applications, which can complicate things.
For serious online business owners, an in-house POS system just means fewer headaches and a much more streamlined experience. With a single POS system, you get uniform reporting across both your online and physical store and you can also conduct inventory forecasts and create purchase orders when inventory is running low.
The Victor: Shopify
Hands down, when comparing BigCommerce vs. Shopify for the best point of sale system, Shopify easily wins this round. There’s not much more we can say by having an all-in-one POS solution with the same platform that your online store is run on. It gives business owners a leg up when it comes to centralizing their inventory, sales, reports, and overall customer experience.
Mobile App
With the world rapidly moving, things are always constantly being done on the go. So, why can’t you take your online business with you while you’re commuting to your next meeting?
Mobile apps have become such a large part of the way we interact with our mobile devices. As such, it’s vitally important that both BigCommerce and Shopify have functional and easy-to-use mobile apps.
Let’s see what each mobile app offers.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce allows you to virtually bring your online store with you on the go. BigCommerce merchants will be able to track their store’s performance, manage their orders, and track customer details and order history.
Once a purchase is made by a customer, you will receive a notification from the BigCommerce app so that you can view and fulfill the order right away.
If you want to stay on top of your sales metrics and trends, you can access your store’s sales metrics and see how they are tracking. The mobile app also allows you to compare sales trends between different time periods.
Shopify
Shopify also features a handy and robust mobile app and one that slightly offers more functionality than BigCommerce’s. Online merchants will be impressed by this mobile app’s ability to help them manage their Shopify stores.
With the Shopify app, you can manage the day-to-day operations of your business. If you want to add a new product, you can also upload the product pictures and add all of the relevant details, including pricing.
Shopify’s app also allows you to fulfill orders in real-time so that your store never misses a beat. If you’re looking for analytics, Shopify’s app also provides great sales and marketing data. From tracking sales to store visits, this mobile app is terrific at providing high-level data.
The last feature that really stands out in the Shopify app is the ability to run last-minute promotions. You can create a Facebook and Instagram ad or even establish a Google Shopping campaign with the app. All from the Shopify mobile app!
The Victor: Shopify
In this BigCommerce vs. Shopify mobile app battle, the clear winner is Shopify. Shopify’s mobile app just packs much more of a punch than BigCommerce. That’s not to say that the BigCommerce mobile app is bad, because it isn’t.
Shopify’s mobile app is simply much more polished and provides users with much more features and value. We especially love that you can put a 30% sale of all the products in your store from your seat on the train!
BigCommerce and Shopify both do an admirable job at putting forth an excellent mobile user experience. Users can manage their online stores easily on both apps but BigCommerce should be taking steps to try and provide their merchants with more value and functionality going forward.
App Stores
Like any good content management system (CMS), the level of add-on value through extensions or apps can often provide users with a significant boost in user experience. For example, there may be some features that users are looking for that BigCommerce or Shopify may not offer or may not offer very well.
For that, that’s often where third-party apps come into play to help salvage and enhance the overall experience. An example of this would be email marketing. Email marketing can be seen as a huge part of sales and marketing and getting the word out about your store and products. BigCommerce doesn’t have its own built-in email marketing tool in its platform (yet). Users may think this is a big disadvantage because they’re unsure of how they’ll be able to engage with their contacts. However, through third-party apps in BigCommerce’s app store, they can find their email marketing software and sync it to their BigCommerce.
This is just one example but there are countless other ones out there that allow online business owners to leverage these apps to their advantage.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce’s apps page offers plenty of third-party integrations that all provide great benefits to BigCommerce merchants.
When you land on the page, BigCommerce has a sliding widget of different featured apps and integrations. By no means, you are required to use any of these but they are there to provide exposure.
BigCommerce does, however, recommend a few apps in the next section. These are apps that they have reviewed themselves and think a lot of their users would really gain from using them with their BigCommerce store.
The third section shows BigCommerce’s top free apps, the top paid apps, and the newest apps.
This section is likely for users that just want to know apps other people are using on BigCommerce instead of searching for ones to use.
We should also point out that if you have a specific app in mind, you can look for it using the search bar at the top of the page or by viewing through the different categories.
Shopify
Shopify’s app store is laid out a bit differently than BigCommerce’s. While it does the job of presenting some of the apps, the apps here are presented in a format that seeks more engagement with their users.
Unlike BigCommerce, Shopify’s app store provides categories that some users may find are right for them. For example, Shopify store owners that are struggling with making their products seem more attractive might be inclined to look at the apps that Shopify recommends in their “Make your products pop” category.
Shopify supports and adds to this page through their own apps, too. Shopify apps are advertised on this page in the “Made by Shopify” section and these are apps they think their users would benefit from using.
On top of these engaging categories, users can also search for a specific app in mind by searching for it in the search bar. They can also browse the different apps under the categories tab at the top.
The Victor: Shopify
Hands down, Shopify is the clear-cut winner in this BigCommerce vs. Shopify battle. Not only does Shopify have way more apps to explore than BigCommerce, but the way they laid out their apps really also induces more excitement and engagement from users.
The unique categories presented on the Shopify app store entice users to stay on their app page longer and scroll down further in the hopes of discovering new apps that perhaps they didn’t know they needed for their store.
Since there are so many more Shopify apps to discover and use, it gives users more time to tinker and experiment with them
Transaction And Credit Card Fees
When it comes to any e-commerce platform, let alone BigCommerce, Shopify, or any other one, there usually is the extra cost of doing business. This additional cost often comes in the form of transaction fees and credit card fees.
A transaction fee is typically a small percentage of money from each sale that would go to the e-commerce platform. Depending on what e-commerce platform you register with, transaction fees can vary.
However, we’re glad to say that not all e-commerce platforms charge a transaction fee!
A credit card fee is another added cost that does not involve BigCommerce, Shopify, or other e-commerce platforms. These fees are also determined by taking a percentage of the sale. Credit card fees aren’t fixed and they can vary depending on where you are located and what pricing plan you’re on with your e-commerce platform.
BigCommerce
One of BigCommerce’s best features is that they don’t charge any transactions fees. Zero! It doesn’t matter which payment gateway you use either. If you use PayPal, Stripe, or Square, the transaction fees will still amount to zero. Thus, when you make a $10 sale on your BigCommerce website, you will keep $10.
Another huge feature of using BigCommerce is the low credit card fees. Credit card fees are completely different from transaction fees since these charges are through credit card companies, where banks collect the money. Simply put, there’s no way around not paying credit card fees.
However, as we said already, BigCommerce’s credit card fees are among the lowest in the business but only if you accept your payments through PayPal. If you do, you can expect to be charged the following rates:
Shopify
Shopify also charges zero transaction fees…but there’s a catch. You will only be charged zero dollars if you use Shopify Payments. The Shopify Payments system is Shopify’s own internal payment gateway that they use to process credit card transactions.
The one downfall to using Shopify Payments is that it is not available for use in all countries. While it is available for use in most developed countries, there also are some exceptions. One of them being that Shopify Payments is available in the USA but not in any American territories. Thus, if you were using Shopify in Guam, you would not be eligible to use Shopify Payments.
However, not all Shopify users are forced to use Shopify Payments. In fact, you don’t have to at all. Just know that if you opt not to use it, you will be charged transaction fees. The percentage you will be charged is dependent on the type of pricing plan you’re on with Shopify.
As for credit card fees, if you’re using Shopify Payments, the fees you incur will depend on the Shopify pricing plan you’re on. Take a look at the graphic below and you will see the percentage and fixed fee you will be charged by each Shopify plan.
The Victor: BigCommerce
BigCommerce is the big winner here simply because their no transaction fees come with no strings attached. You’re not required to be on any type of plan with BigCommerce and offers users more flexibility.
On top of that, their credit card fees, when partnered up with PayPal, are slightly cheaper than the credit card fees attached to Shopify Payments.
Customer Support
Customer support is a critical feature to have for platforms where, with one simple click of your mouse, something can easily go wrong. The level of customer support can vary between different companies and so for e-commerce stores, you’ll want to find a platform where customer support is excellent. We can easily say that BigCommerce and Shopify offer top-notch customer support for their users.
BigCommerce
The BigCommerce customer support prides itself on 24/7 customer support whether that’s through the phone or via live chat. After all, they service customers around the world and it’s only fair that customers in all regions are serviced if they need assistance.
While the 24/7 support is great, BigCommerce takes it a step further with its Help Center page. This page is for users that may just want to poke around and see if they can find the answers to their issues instead of seeking out a live customer support agent.
This page can best be described as a BigCommerce community of users all looking to help each other while getting access to the resources they need. Users will find different modules that will help them find the answers they want and learn more about how they can best leverage the BigCommerce platform.
They have a “Trending Now” section that shows users what the most popular groups are, the most recent questions asked, and recent news and updates. Overall, it’s a great community support system and another excellent resource for BigCommerce users to have access to on top of their already stellar 24/7 customer support.
Though it’s not customer support, when new users sign up to use the platform, a BigCommerce sales agent will give you a quick, 10-minute call. This call is intended to welcome you to the e-commerce platform and to also get an idea of what your business goals are. It’s a nice onboarding gesture that helps make new users feel welcome.
Shopify
To the surprise of no one, Shopify also offers 24/7 customer support via phone and live chat.
If users prefer not to contact a live customer agent, they can also turn to the Shopify Help Center page. This page is similar to the one that BigCommerce with the exception being that the Shopify page does not include community members.
In fact, it’s just a simple page where you find the category your issue may fall under and hope that your answer is there. We say “hope” that your answer is there because this Help Center is not very robust at all and may not tackle some of the technical issues users may have.
We should note that Shopify has a community page, but it is not connected to their Help page.
The Victor: BigCommerce
When it comes down to BigCommerce vs. Shopify’s customer support, the clear-cut winner is BigCommerce. First, they take the time, even if it’s just 10 minutes, to get to know you and what your goals are with your e-commerce store. This is something that Shopify does not do.
Second, their help page is a significant step above Shopify’s because they include their community on this page. Engaging the BigCommerce community makes it a platform for everyone and users are able to see the questions and issues some users are having. If they are unable to resolve their issue on this page, other BigCommerce users can step in and help answer questions for them if they know it.
Both BigCommerce and Shopify are great with their live customer support that is available 24/7. However, BigCommerce’s community-building aspect on their help page is what seals the deal for us.
Pricing
As many shoppers know, the final decision can often come down to pricing. After all, people want a good deal and don’t want to overpay on something where the value may not be there.
Fortunately, both BigCommerce and Shopify have plenty of excellent features and offer great value for your online store. As you’ll see, the pricing of both platforms is identical. However, there are some minor differences between the two.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce pricing gives users a choice to pay either monthly or annually. When paying annually, users of the Plus and Pro plans can expect to receive a 10% discount on their plans. A 15-day free trial is also offered for people who aren’t sold on a paid plan yet.
Here are the BigCommerce pricing plans on a monthly basis.
Here are the BigCommerce pricing plans on an annual basis.
Shopify
Shopify features three paid plans that are only offered on a monthly payment cadence. The least expensive is the Basic Shopify plan which is $29 per month while for $299 per month you can get the Advanced Shopify plan.
On top of this, you are also entitled to a 14-day free trial that does not require you to enter your credit card!
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus is an enterprise plan that is primarily exclusive to online stores that generate a ton of volume and sales revenue. It offers users much more flexibility in terms of the apps that are available to them, customer support, and more.
Its pricing is different from the regular plans in that you are charged on a sliding scale which can range from $2,000 to $40,000 per month. This range is very wide because it is dependent on how many resources and the bandwidth your online store uses.
Shopify Lite
Shopify Lite is a watered-down version of Shopify’s offerings where you can use some of Shopify’s features but you can’t build your online store with it. This plan is intended for people who want to sell their products in person but don’t want to use all the features in a regular Shopify plan. If you already have an existing e-commerce store, you can also purchase the Shopify Lite plan to add a buy button to your website.
Shopify Lite will only cost you $9 per month.
The Victor: Shopify
It’s tough to pick a winner in the BigCommerce vs. Shopify pricing debate since both of their paid plans are identical. However, the features offered in Shopify outweigh the features you get in BigCommerce and even offset the 10% discount you receive on annual plans in BigCommerce.
Shopify’s pricing is also more flexible than BigCommerce. They have plans for users that want to use some (but not all) of their features and for users that already do massive amounts of volume and sales revenue per month.
Therefore, Shopify is the clearcut winner in the pricing debate.
What Are The Pros And Cons Of BigCommerce?
Like any e-commerce platform, BigCommerce has its pros and cons.
Pros
- No transaction fees for online merchants
- Low credit card fees but only when partnered up with their preferred vendor, PayPal
- Good selection of third-party apps to integrate with
- Terrific selection of free templates to help you get started
- Easy to find design themes based on your store’s category or niche
- Excellent reporting with the Ecommerce Insights package
- The drag-and-drop editing feature is easy and time-saving for beginners.
- Excellent customer support and community-building aspect when looking for BigCommerce help
Cons
- Ecommerce Insights reporting can be expensive depending on your BigCommerce plan.
- Third-party theme offering is not as plentiful as Shopify’s.
- The dashboard can be overwhelming to use for beginners to content management systems (CMS).
- Does not have its own POS system
- Heavy reliance on third-party applications to get the most out of BigCommerce
What Are The Pros And Cons Of Shopify?
Here are the key pros and cons of using Shopify.
Pros
- Has a very clean and intuitive interface and dashboard
- Offers a great variety of flexible pricing plans
- Shopify Payments is a groundbreaking way for users to control the entire sales process inside of Shopify.
- Good variety of free and paid design themes
- Has a vast community of third-party applications and themes that Shopify users can purchase and use
- Superior marketing and sales functionality from its mobile app
- Good 24/7 customer support
Cons
- High transaction fees unless you opt to use Shopify Payments
- High credit card fees
- Switching templates can cause formatting issues to your site.
BigCommerce vs. Shopify: And the Winner is…
While both BigCommerce and Shopify have plenty of features to help online business owners sell their products, we think Shopify is the overwhelming winner in this battle of BigCommerce vs. Shopify.
Shopify is simply a much more polished platform between the two. In terms of e-commerce solutions, Shopify is probably among, if not the best in the market today.
Their platform and dashboard are easy and intuitive to use and they offer a good selection of free themes to get you started. Since it’s such a widely used e-commerce platform, there are many themes you can also find on third-party websites.
Lastly, when it comes to payment, Shopify makes the experience seamless by offering their Shopify Payments. This path provides merchants with a singular way to process sales, check inventory, and ring up sales, all from our POS system.
