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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    BigCommerce

    Score8.3 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    BigCommerce is a SaaS platform that allows SMBs to develop eCommerce sites. Features include the capabilities to design the storefront, configure products, manage payments, generate traffic, and optimize conversion.

    $39

    per month

    Shift4Shop

    Score1.2 out of 10
    N/AShift4Shop (formerly 3dcart) is a customizable eCommerce platform designed to build an online store. Some features include Level 1 PCI security compliance, the same level used by banks and large financial institutions, along with search engine optimized templates and no transaction fees. The former 3dcart was acquired by Shift4 Payments in November, 2020.

    $39

    per month

    Pricing
    BigCommerceShift4Shop
    Editions & Modules
    Standard
    $39
    per month
    Plus
    $105
    per month
    Pro
    $399
    per month
    Enterprise
    Custom
    per month
    Platform Fee
    $39
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BigCommerceShift4Shop
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.Shift4Shop offers a free enterprise-grade plan for US customers who use their payment processing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BigCommerceShift4Shop
    Considered Both Products
    BigCommerce
    Chose BigCommerce
    Better at everything.
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    I looked at these companies and some others to see what they offered and for how much. After watching lots of videos and reading lots of pages, I started to narrow down the list. I was still unsure so took a chance and took the free trial with BigCommerce; right away I was …
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    BigCommerce is way better than 3dcart, it was comparable to Shopify but with the new product promotions available it is better than Shopify now. It is better than Magento in that you do not need dedicated programmers to make simple changes to your store!!! The best part about …
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    It is cleaner and easier but sacrifices apps and features. It includes SSL where 3dcart charges. Magento is just too bulky for one person to operate.
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    BigCommerce met more of the needs of our company than any other SaaS eCommerce option when I compared them on paper. Then I did a test of BigCommerce and 2 or 3 others, and there was no competition -- the customer service before the sale was exceptional with BigCommerce and …
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    When we started with BigCommerce we had to have a platform that would allow our customers to upload their images. This feature was not available on many platforms. Shopify was very feature rich but they had a transaction fee.
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    BigCommerce has no hidden fees like other services I have used, which is a big advantage.
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    I selected BigCommerce over competitors as the pricing seemed right for the options I received. BigCommerce seemed to have the best features and provided the best features.
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    BigCommerce was selected before my arrival. I believe Shopify likely has more robust capabilities. 3dcart is similar.
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    My personal business needs are small - I only sell 3 products (currently) online. Of the three solutions mentioned above that I interviewed, only BigCommerce provided me with a low cost, no fee shopping cart alternative that also gave me unlimited bandwidth, great support and …
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    BigCommerce is a robust machine. And that's what you need for your big business dreams. With all its advanced features, BigCommerce makes sure the learning curve is never steep. If you are new to e-commerce, that's the kind of platform that you need--the kind that offers an …
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    We have tried Yahoo, never again, the templates are boring and listing the products is a nightmare. We just tried 3dcart, again listing the products was not easy and it did not have as many good templates. But most of all, I noticed that most sites for the price we pay for …
    Incentivized
    Chose BigCommerce
    I have tried Volusion, 3DCart, Zencart. I have found BigCommerce to offer equal or better features, less bugs, and an all-around better daily experience than any of these at a better price point.
    Incentivized
    Shift4
    Chose Shift4Shop
    I would put 3dcart (now Shift4Shop) on the same level of AspDotNetStorefront. Its primitive, old hat, but still works. Lightspeed and Pinnacle cart are a little better, as they are a little more polished but also not as fine-tuned as an Enterprise System. Squarespace and WooComm…
    Incentivized
    Chose Shift4Shop
    While Shopify is pretty slick in operation, Shopify's fees are way, way, way too expensive compared to 3Dcart.
    Magento required a hefty redesign price Tag. BigCommerce seemed like overkill for our needs as an e-commerce company. Big Commerce has some very good material to help …
    Incentivized
    Chose Shift4Shop
    3dcart does not provide as much customization without having more knowledge of coding. The file structure takes some getting used to. Shopify is more of a jump start system. You can quickly get a Shopify website up and going in less than a day without any coding knowledge. BigCo…
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    86%
    Would buy again
    59 Answers
    0%
    Would buy again
    0 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    85%
    Delivers good value for the price
    57 Answers
    0%
    Delivers good value for the price
    0 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    61 Answers
    17%
    Happy with the feature set
    1 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    51 Answers
    0%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    0 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    88%
    Implementation went as expected
    53 Answers
    0%
    Implementation went as expected
    0 Answers
    Features
    BigCommerceShift4Shop
    Online Storefront
    Comparison of Online Storefront features of BigCommerce and Shift4Shop
    Feature
    BigCommerce
    7.9
    424 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Shift4Shop
    1.0
    9 Ratings
    155% below category average
    Product catalog & listings8.3420 Ratings1.09 Ratings
    Product management8.2417 Ratings1.09 Ratings
    Bulk product upload7.5317 Ratings1.07 Ratings
    Branding8.0368 Ratings1.08 Ratings
    Mobile storefront8.1408 Ratings1.09 Ratings
    Product variations8.6394 Ratings1.09 Ratings
    Website integration8.4348 Ratings1.09 Ratings
    Visual customization7.8410 Ratings1.09 Ratings
    CMS6.4302 Ratings1.08 Ratings
    Online Shopping Cart
    Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of BigCommerce and Shift4Shop
    Feature
    BigCommerce
    8.0
    410 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Shift4Shop
    2.0
    9 Ratings
    117% below category average
    Abandoned cart recovery7.7368 Ratings2.07 Ratings
    Checkout user experience8.3405 Ratings2.09 Ratings
    Online Payment System
    Comparison of Online Payment System features of BigCommerce and Shift4Shop
    Feature
    BigCommerce
    8.4
    406 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Shift4Shop
    2.0
    9 Ratings
    122% below category average
    eCommerce security8.4406 Ratings2.09 Ratings
    eCommerce Marketing
    Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of BigCommerce and Shift4Shop
    Feature
    BigCommerce
    7.9
    411 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Shift4Shop
    1.7
    9 Ratings
    128% below category average
    Promotions & discounts7.8387 Ratings1.09 Ratings
    Personalized recommendations7.5323 Ratings2.98 Ratings
    SEO8.5382 Ratings1.09 Ratings
    eCommerce Business Management
    Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of BigCommerce and Shift4Shop
    Feature
    BigCommerce
    8.0
    416 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Shift4Shop
    2.9
    9 Ratings
    94% below category average
    Multi-site management8.4191 Ratings1.04 Ratings
    Order processing7.9395 Ratings6.88 Ratings
    Inventory management7.9351 Ratings1.07 Ratings
    Shipping7.8356 Ratings4.98 Ratings
    Custom functionality7.9351 Ratings1.08 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BigCommerceShift4Shop
    Small Businesses
    Ecwid by Lightspeed
    Score10 out of 10
    Ecwid by Lightspeed
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Shopify Plus
    Score9 out of 10
    Shopify Plus
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM Digital Commerce
    Score9 out of 10
    IBM Digital Commerce
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BigCommerceShift4Shop
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.6
    (443 ratings)
    1.0
    (10 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (53 ratings)
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (26 ratings)
    4.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    2.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.1
    (25 ratings)
    4.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (13 ratings)
    2.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.7
    (349 ratings)
    2.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BigCommerceShift4Shop
    Likelihood to Recommend
    BigCommerce
    Big Commerce is great for managing our items for sale all while serving as a home base for our customers. - Whether they want to buy PPE, learn about PPE or have any questions or concerns, they know they can come to our site and get the service/product they need!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    At this point I would recommend looking elsewhere - 8 years with a platform and finally have to switch due to the unreliability is not something a business likes to do! They should sell the platform to a company that actually cares about owning an ecommerce builder. Research Shift4 - the parent
    Read full review
    Pros
    BigCommerce
    • They are "SUPPOSEDLY" better for SEO but we have not gotten data on that yet
    • Sales guy was good at what he does (no value to our website though)
    • No fear they will go out of business anytime soon
    • Customer support is generally available, in my opinion, just not very helpful
    Read full review
    Shift4
    • In my opinion, charge you too much for what it is worth
    • In my opinion, tech support is always blaming client and end up fixing it own issues
    • In my experience, make you believe client is important
    Read full review
    Cons
    BigCommerce
    • Better and easier localisation for stores outside the US
    • Speed - it is not the fastest
    • Make sure that third-party theme developers update regularly and use best practice
    • Consider EU and country-specific rules and legal obligations and make customers aware of whether BC is actually fully compliant
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    • Page structure is all over the place. It can be difficult to find where to go to make page edits.
    • Base platform isn't very robust and requires multiple add-ons in order to add CRM, Taxes, and other capabilities
    • Reporting isn't very strong, necessitating outside analytics
    • File system is also pretty wonky and feels very primitive
    • Customer service and technical help leaves MUCH to be desired.
    • Not as many supported add-ons/plug-ins as other platforms, and many of them cost additional fees. Many of them also don't seamlessly integrate, meaning you'll need to dev the integration yourself.
    • In general, what you see in the WYSIWYG is not what you get.
    • Order System is not very intuitive for the modern era
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    BigCommerce
    I personally would not even consider another e-commerce website platform.
    Bigcommerce may have the same (or close to the same) functionality and integrations as other SaaS platforms but they excel at customer service and tech support. At the end of the day you need a company that will answer the phone in less than a minute especially if you're having a 5 alarm issue. That said, we hardly ever have any issues. The site was down for a few minutes one time 5 years ago. Sometimes we have issues with coding or apps and they help me with that too. They even walked me through installing our new theme when the contracted developers told me that wasn't included in the development of our new website.
    Bigcommerce comes out with new innovations every year, not including apps that other people write for the platform, and there are a lot of those and new ones all the time. And there are a LOT of awesome themes to choose from (Halothemes are the best).
    And the price is reasonable!
    I'd give Bigcommerce my business any time and recommend them to anyone looking to run an e-commerce website. You could even use them for a non-shopping site, we have one of those too!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    Not applicable - as a franchisee, the franchiser took over the web site and shopping cart capabilities, so I no longer need the tool. But I would recommend it.
    Read full review
    Usability
    BigCommerce
    I think that overall it has a great front end for the customer. On the back end, it takes a little spin-up time, but in just a couple of hours you can really have your head wrapped around everything you're going to need 99% of the time. It takes me about 5 minutes to train a new user on how to interact with customer orders.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    If you are looking for ultra basic interface ...
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    BigCommerce
    So far in my time with BigCommerce I have not had any down time when it comes to my webstore or accessing it at any time I need to. Knowing that they have such a good uptime, it makes me feel comfortable that my customers can access things anytime, but also keep sales going 24/7
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    regular updates braking our site
    Read full review
    Performance
    BigCommerce
    I have not had any issues with pages loading slow or any real other issues, not that I have encountered so far. Speed of the site and images loading are fantastic and everything just seems to work nicely, which may seem like a simple thing to say about things, but when something just WORKS! Its rather nice vs fighting with things to work right.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    BigCommerce
    Because they are always there no matter how simple or complex the question is, if they don't know the answer they don't fake it and just make you go away feeling frustrated.. they get you to someone that does know the answer. I always appreciate their help and their honesty!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    You always manage to fins someone, but, in my experience, resolving issues are not an easy task. Why do we pay for a service , and then spend time trouble shooting constantly with them ?? In my experience, they eliminate features , send you an email what you can use instead, with instructions most people cant do without an IT guy . It feel more like an open source than a true integrated service.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    BigCommerce
    They have a comprehensive online help file system that makes it easy to do almost anything. They cover just about everything you'd want to do with your online store with images, clear descriptions and in some cases video. I will, however, say the videos should be a little more professorially done and not sound like the employees are doing it in their cubical.
    Read full review
    Shift4
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    BigCommerce
    A certified BigCommerce design and solution partner will usually comprise a team of highly experienced designers, developers and marketers. It is our view that in the vast majority of cases, this will pay dividends in the long-term - especially for those teams that could use the extra support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    Initially it was difficult to manage the UI to the client, and then hard to change anything , unless you used the boring and too generic templates . Their template selection is very limited , that are basically all the same with different background images and colours . If you are unfortunate to have been a long-time client, you will have to completely rebuild your store, because old templates are not supported anymore
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    BigCommerce
    We switched from Shopify due to the restrictions they implemented on our industry. While we spent tens of thousands of dollars investing in our Shopify store, we can't have them cutting us off anytime they want. We reviewed WooCommerce, but didn't like the storefront or backend. Plus it seems like Wordpress/WooCommerce runs into tons of hacking issues and bugs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    We used them for 2 years and had minor problems up until the end. For the last 2 months, customers were unable to checkout, or connect to our payment processor. We put in like 3 to 5 hot tickets to get fixed and day after day nothing was fixed and support got ruder and ruder with us! We lost thousands of dollars online with this company and now they are chasing us for a renewal payment! Simply put, this is bad software with a poor customer care staff!
    Read full review
    Scalability
    BigCommerce
    I believe after seeing all of the parts of this platform, one is able to develop the business and keep adding on select features for the business. There are multiple options for purchase with the various platforms once the business grows more. The different features being offered by the platform can lead us to scalability.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    BigCommerce
    • Provides a robust platform to sell a high-risk product.
    • Page Builder saves you time and money by negating the need to buy a template.
    • Includes robust promotion settings that allow for codes and automatic discounts, bulk discounts, and customer groups (i.e. military discount), all native options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Shift4
    • We have seen an increase in sales of 440% since starting with 3D cart.
    • We find that the 3D features of promotions, coupon codes, rewards points all make customers want to come to us or come back to us.
    • They made mobile conversion pretty easy, and our mobile traffic went from 33% to 54%.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    BigCommerce Screenshots

    Screenshot of enterprise ecommerce for high-volume brands like Skullcandy.Screenshot of the integration that lets you list products on Amazon directly from the BigCommerce control panel, with centralized inventory and order processing and fulfillment.Screenshot of where to customize the look and feel of a storefront.

    Shift4Shop Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshot