BigCommerce vs. Shopify Plus

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BigCommerce
Score 8.2 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
Shopify Plus
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Shopify Plus is an eCommerce solution built for enterprise-level companies that enables them to sell online and offline across social channels like Facebook , Pinterest, and marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.
$2,300
per month
Pricing
BigCommerceShopify Plus
Editions & Modules
Standard
$39
per month
Plus
$105
per month
Pro
$399
per month
Enterprise
Custom
per month
3-year term
$2300
per month
1-year term
$2500
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BigCommerceShopify Plus
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BigCommerceShopify Plus
Features
BigCommerceShopify Plus
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
7.8
Ratings
0% below category average
Shopify Plus
8.6
Ratings
9% above category average
Product catalog & listings8.20 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Product management8.10 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Bulk product upload7.40 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Branding7.80 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Mobile storefront8.00 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Product variations8.50 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Website integration8.30 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Visual customization7.70 Ratings9.20 Ratings
CMS6.50 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
8.0
Ratings
4% above category average
Shopify Plus
8.4
Ratings
9% above category average
Abandoned cart recovery7.70 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Checkout user experience8.20 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
8.2
Ratings
1% below category average
Shopify Plus
9.6
Ratings
15% above category average
eCommerce security8.20 Ratings9.60 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
7.8
Ratings
1% above category average
Shopify Plus
8.3
Ratings
7% above category average
Promotions & discounts7.70 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Personalized recommendations7.40 Ratings8.30 Ratings
SEO8.40 Ratings7.80 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
7.9
Ratings
1% below category average
Shopify Plus
8.5
Ratings
6% above category average
Multi-site management8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Order processing7.80 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Inventory management7.80 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Shipping7.70 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Custom functionality7.80 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BigCommerceShopify Plus
Small Businesses
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus
Score 9.0 out of 10
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BigCommerceShopify Plus
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BigCommerceShopify Plus
Likelihood to Recommend
The ONLY reason we left Volusion was fear that Volusion was going to go out of business and our website/data would all be lost. I feel BigCommerce is lightyears behind Volusion in website/inventory control. In our experience, BigCommerce customer service severely lacks knowledge, at least compared to what we had in our 7-1/2 years with Volusion. There were times Volusion even helped us with stuff BigCommerce could not understand. I just feel sick about moving and that should not be the case. In my opinion, I downgraded heavily for the feeling BigCommerce would not be going out of business. I just feel sick.
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Shopify Plus makes order management simple and less error prone. Connecting our ERP allows us to seamlessly manage our product listings, fulfill orders, and sync customer data. Limitations to the number of product variants requires attention from our staff to make sure our products sync without issue. Other than being arbitrary, there's really no need to limit the number of product variants.
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Pros
  • SEO - fast loading speeds, helps us rank on Google
  • Product customization - allows us to customize templates to our needs to fit all viable information
  • Integration with other platforms - seamless connection to other properties like Google Ads and Analytics
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  • Scales incredibly well. Forget about hardware concerns, load balancing, downtime, etc. and focus on eCommerce. We've seen merchants go from a few thousand dollars per month to having million dollar days, all on Shopify without having to worry about performance or scaling systems.
  • Great new features consistently being added, ahead of the curve on almost everything
  • Solid API to build on and work with, a few annoying quirks here and there for super complex use cases but overall very well documented and works well
  • Most Merchant Success Managers are good and genuinely want to be helpful
  • A fantastic user interface, very logical and easy to use
  • Tons and tons and tons of out of the box integrations. Easily the best integration marketplace of the e-commerce platforms. There's an app for that.
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Cons
  • 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
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  • The Account Managers/Reps have become more scripted and seem like they are busier and handling more clients than before. It doesn't seem as personal and special anymore like when we first upgraded to Plus.
  • Shopify still has missing features in their software that might not have an app in their app marketplace available that fills this void.
  • The 24/7 support doesn't seem as dedicated as they once were.
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Likelihood to Renew
BigCommerce is a great platform! It does the job and has a very good API set. I would definitely recommend it to others, but I would warn them about the cost associated with BigCommerce. There are lower cost solutions, but definitely not as feature rich as BigCommerce. It's definitely not perfect, and has a few wrinkles to iron, but nothing is ever perfect. It does the job for us and I do enjoy using the platform!!
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No answers on this topic
Usability
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.
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Shopify Plus is intutive as stated previously. It's easy to find what we want and edit (reports, products, online store theme, etc...) You dont need to have a ton of coding experience to be able to get a website up and running on Shopify Plus. The reason I wont give a 10/10 and gave an 8 is because I do think it is heavily realiant on app and it can open up a can of worms with the amout of apps that are out there, their costs, and which one to chose. There are also some internal limitations as stated previously with discounts and personalized message for different customer groups. But overall, it is a good platform that I recommend.
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Reliability and Availability
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
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No answers on this topic
Performance
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.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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!
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Always are quick to answer our questions and help us find a solution
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Online Training
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.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Big Commerce is definitely king in comparison to EvoX. Not only is Big commerce easier to use, it's also just a more powerful platform with many more capabilities (for example, EVOX has analytic capabilities but, nothing to the extent of Big Commerce's google analytics integration. EVOX's data is very base level and does not provide much customer insight besides visits/pages viewed.
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Shopify Plus is an all in one service. You are able to keep track of invoices and payments. Shopify Plus also offers options for shipping and connects your tracking number to you order which allows for easy tracking. Your tracking number is also a link which makes it even easier.
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Scalability
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.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • 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.
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  • Definitely makes selling on multiple platforms easy, saving us time and effort.
  • Keeps all of our business in one place, saving us money on other apps to manage each aspect.
  • Automatically flags potential fraudulent orders, preventing us from accidentally shipping to a scam.
  • During our busiest months, we don't see any slowdowns, which allows us to go full throttle with all ads and marketing without worrying about whether or not the software can handle it.
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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.

Shopify Plus Screenshots

Screenshot of The home screen of your Shopify admin, including proactive home cards and reporting and live view insights.Screenshot of Your Shopify Plus store is ready for mobile commerce. Customers can browse and buy from your store with an optimized experience on device.Screenshot of Editing products across sales channels.Screenshot of Easily edit colours, typography, settings, and drag and drop sections for each of your store's templates with the theme editor.