Many powerful e-commerce platforms, like Fynd, Shopify, BigCommerce, etc., are available. You should choose one from them as per your website requirements.
For instance, Shopify is a better option for larger stores, BigCommerce is ideal for growing online businesses, and Fynd helps you create a perfect e-commerce store according to your needs.
Here, we will make a detailed comparison of Shopify and BigCommerce. Before getting into deep, let’s take a quick look at each platform:
Overall Ratings
Shopify 4.6
BIGCOMMERCE 4.2
Note: Fynd platform has an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5.
Both these platforms lead the e-commerce market today. With our widespread research, the selection between BigCommerce and Shopify comes down to a website you need to make!
However, if you need somebody to tell you which platform is better, we are here to help you! Let’s start the comparison.
1. BigCommerce vs Shopify: A Comparison
Star Ratings (Out of 5) BigCommerce Shopify
Ease of Use 3.3 3.5
Design 4.0 3.9
Customer Score 3.1 4.6
Sales Features 4.6 4.5
Customer Support 3.4 3.8
Website Features 3.6 4.2
Pricing 3.0 3.0
Overall Score 4.1 4.6
2. BigCommerce vs Shopify: Pros & Cons
BigCommerce
Pros
- Sales Features: It comes with many in-built sales features without any installation needs.
- No Fees: No need to pay any transaction fees for any plan.
- Variations: You can include up to 600 variations for every product.
Cons
- Takes Time: You will need some time to learn advanced features.
- Limited Variations: You won’t get many variations between various store themes.
- Customization: The feature options aren’t as customized as Shopify provides.
Shopify
Pros
- Theme Options: You will get exclusive theme options, so you won’t need much design work.
- App Store: You will get a high-quality app store with thousands of tools.
- Easy Management: Website management is easy with an easy navigation dashboard.
Cons
- Poor Scalability: It has poor international scalability as it depends on third-party apps to provide multi-currency support.
- Fees: You need to pay transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments
- Hard to Switch: You must reformat your site if you switch between the templates.
Note: Fynd platform provides unlimited products, inbuild payment gateway options, and an in-house delivery partner. You will get professional themes and easy-to-use design tools to create responsive mobile apps and websites.
3. Which One Offers Better Pricing?
Regarding e-commerce site builders, the recurrent monthly cost is the most vital factor for the budget. Also, there will be extra costs, including transaction and credit card fees. Let’s compare the monthly plans and then clarify the additional charges you may need to bear with BigCommerce vs. Shopify.
Pricing Summary
Shopify and BigCommerce provide three price plans. BigCommerce’s plans range from $29.95 per month to $299.95 per month. Shopify’s plans range from $29 per month to $299. Both platforms provide discounts of around 10% if you pay annually.
Builder Basic Medium Advanced
BigCommerce $29.95 $79.95 $299.95
Shopify $29 $79 $299
(For large-size businesses, Shopify and BigCommerce also provide pricier and tailored solutions – Shopify Plus and BigCommerce Enterprise.)
Note: E-commerce platforms like Fynd Platform offer $7 per month!
Transaction Fees
A transaction fee is the revenue percentage that anywebsite builder gets from every sale made. BigCommerce charges no transaction fees for any plans, while Shopify charges 0.5% and 2% per your pricing plans. You can avoid transaction fees by using Shopify Payments.
Credit Card Fees
As transaction fees are a matter of you and your e-commerce platform, you need to pay credit card fees to a third-party payment processor while making a sale. There are many payment processors to select from, as BigCommerce provides more than 65 integrations, whereas Shopify offers more than 100!
Which One Offers More Value for Money?
In our study, Shopify and BigCommerce scored consistently for value for money as they scored 3 out of 5 stars!
BigCommerce relies less on third-party apps than Shopify, so BigCommerce includes more tools in the store cost. For instance, BigCommerce has an in-built drag-and-drop editor which helps you move and add content directly on any page.
Shopify helps you drag-and-drop elements on a homepage; however, to get the same amount of hands-on control for all other pages, you need to install another app called Buildify with the extra cost of $12.99/month.
Shopify vs BigCommerce: Pricing Verdict
Well, it’s a tie! BigCommerce provides a similar value for money with better tool selection and no transaction fees, while Shopify’s pricing is cheaper and discounts nonprofits and students.
Note: With the price range from $7 to $30 per month, the Fynd platform can be the best alternative to both these e-commerce platforms.
4. Which Is the Easiest to Use?
Let’s put the basics first. Shopify and BigCommerce use an easy content management system with an easy website editor and a contemporary dashboard.
Both the Shopify (right) and BigCommerce (left) dashboards are easily formatted, having so many valuable pointers and tools.
However, from the users’ point of view, Shopify is easier to use than BigCommerce as BigCommerce comes with more scalable features that are less suitable for beginners. In the meantime, Shopify is a somewhat less powerful platform.
In Shopify, product adding is as easy as filling out a form for every item!
BigCommerce provides more powerful sales features that need some more learning.
If you prefer the “Product Information” menu on the left side, there are many factors of concern. Still, if you’re ready to invest some time, the customers will value the categorisation and data from the BigCommerce store.
In addition, BigCommerce has made some new improvements. BigCommerce’s drag-and-drop builder outplays Shopify in design flexibility, as all you need to do is choose a page element and insert it wherever you need it.
Meanwhile, Shopify doesn’t provide a similar hands-on editing experience to BigCommerce. Using Shopify, it’s easy to switch the sequence of page elements from the list; however, you can’t drag & drop the feature anywhere you wish on the page.
Shopify vs BigCommerce: Usability Verdict
Shopify is easier to use than BigCommerce, making that the best option for beginners. BigCommerce is very powerful, but it’s not an easy platform to control – though its drag-and-drop builder is certainly giving Shopify stiff competition.
Note: If you are looking for an easy-to-use yet powerful platform, you should go for a new platform called Fynd.
5. Which One Offers a Better Design?
Free Themes
Both BigCommerce and Shopify provide a lean number of free themes – to be precise, you will get 12 in BigCommerce and 9 in Shopify.
Shopify is easy to use compared to BigCommerce, so any beginner can make a nice-looking storefront here. However, BigCommerce scores a bit higher than Shopify in design – BigCommerce scores 4 stars while Shopify scores 3.9 – so you might get BigCommerce themes that are more pleasing to customize.
Though Shopify’s free themes are less preferable, you won’t need to change much. Either way, these platforms will help you succeed in the market where 38% of visitors stop engaging a website if the layout or content is not attractive!
Free themes are an easy way for new businesses to cut costs. However, most mid-to-large-sized online stores quickly expand these basic styles and require upgrading to paid themes that better reflect the brand.
Paid Themes
Shopify provides more than 70 paid themes with the price range of $100-$180. Definite articles are accessible for all industries, from home & garden to food & drink. You may also search using layout style, total products, navigation menu style, etc.
Most themes are available with 2-3 different styles and color options to select from. Let’s go through this example:
Similarly, BigCommerce provides more than 150 paid themes with one-time payments ($150 to $300) that you can search by catalog size, industry, layouts, etc. Like Shopify, every theme has some style palettes.
BigCommerce provides over double the amount of themes compared to Shopify; some BigCommerce themes are only slight differences from the similar “family.” For example, the Geneva template.
All these are variations of a similar layout; however, they provide four different templates. Therefore, BigCommerce delivers an equal amount of template styles like Shopify.
Shopify vs BigCommerce: Design Verdict
BigCommerce offers better design functionalities than Shopify. Although Shopify offers more unique designs than BigCommerce, BigCommerce offers excellent customization options if you can handle it yourself.
Note: Fynd platform offers easy-to-use designing tools and beautiful themes to create responsive mobile apps and websites.
6. Which One Comes with the Finest Sales Features?
BigCommerce was in the first position in the research for sales features; however, Shopify was also in second place. Both BigCommerce and Shopify provide essential elements at a standard like:
- Elementary shipping tools – Set shipping places, adjust rates as per order value or weight, and print shipping labels
- SSL certificate – Known as Secure Sockets Layer, SSL certificate defends your store and authenticates it as a safer place to make online payments
- Multi-channel selling – Selling across different platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram
BigCommerce: Best In-Built Features
BigCommerce has many sales features in-built for any store from the start. Its app store is much smaller than Shopify’s, as you don’t need to download many apps to add functionalities to your BigCommerce store.
BigCommerce comes with some most helpful features in-built that Shopify offers using separate apps:
- Reviews and Ratings– Let customers give product reviews straight onsite
- Actual shipping quotes from third-party carriers – Provide customers with the most precise shipping data available
- Unlimited accounts for staff– Give access to the website admin to add unlimited staff members
Many features come in-built with Shopify and BigCommerce however, BigCommerce has some more advanced features. For instance, platforms help you provide variations for a similar product, like a sweater in different sizes and colors. However, as Shopify only provides 100 variants for every product, BigCommerce provides 600 variants for every product!
Shopify: Best Option for Customized Features
To get the same number of features in a Shopify store, you need to use the Shopify app store.
Adding features to Shopify needs more effort compared to BigCommerce. Though Shopify’s app store is significantly bigger than BigCommerce’s, it will offer many valuable tools, and you can choose from many options.
Just remember that some plugins are free, but most charge additional fees that won’t get included in the monthly cost of the Shopify plan. Usually, paid Shopify apps to cost $0-$200+ per month, and this huge price demonstrates that there are best-fit apps accessible for all types of e-commerce stores.
Shopify vs BigCommerce Sales Feature Verdict
BigCommerce knocks Shopify out in sales features because it comes with more in-built tools. The sales features of Shopify are more customized; however, BigCommerce provides more valuable features. Both provide all the features that any online store needs!
Note: Fynd platform comes with in-built marketing and promotional tools which help you get more sales.
7. Which One Offers the Finest Marketing Features?
BigCommerce – Marketing Features
Each BigCommerce plan consists of the following:
- Automatic sitemaps with customized URLs, metadata, title tags, etc., for the finest SEO practices
- The capability of creating discount codes for the shoppers
- One-click integration for Google Shopping
- Specialized reporting tools
BigCommerce has some advanced plans that offer segmentation tools for helping you personalize the customers’ shopping experience and the ability to send auto-discarded cart recovery emails to customers that have discarded the shopping cart during checkout.
Shopify – Marketing Features
Each Shopify plan is available with the following:
- The ability to create gift cards and discount codes
- Automatic sitemaps with custom headers and URLs
- Finance summaries and product performance analytics
The basic plan of Shopify provides deep insights about product performance so you can recognise how particular products have been selling; however, this doesn’t come with the analytics you might need. For instance, you’ll need to upgrade to a superior Shopify plan to access profit and sales reports.
Shopify vs BigCommerce Marketing Features Verdict
This contest also ends in a draw. Being powerful platforms, both BigCommerce and Shopify know the significance of online store marketing, offering excellent tools to get your website noticed.
Note: Fynd platform helps you create and customize your product collection. You can also make your coupons from different examples.
8. Which One is More Suitable for Enterprise E-Commerce?
For enterprise e-commerce, both BigCommerce and Shopify provide customized plans to prepare your store with innovative support and tools. BigCommerce Enterprise and Shopify Plus are accessible to help larger businesses maximize their online ability.
Pricing
BigCommerce Enterprise and Shopify Plus are based on customized quotes adjusted to your annual revenue. Shopify Plus charges a minimum of $2,000 monthly, whereas BigCommerce Enterprise charges around $500-$15,000 monthly.
Characteristics
BigCommerce Enterprise offers a much more extensive range of in-built tools than Shopify Plus, which offers its app market for all customisation. As powerful apps usually cost significantly, larger businesses might save around $30,000 yearly from app subscription costs if they use BigCommerce rather than Shopify.
Shopify vs BigCommerce: Enterprise E-commerce Verdict
It depends on what business you have. Shopify is the best option for more prominent firms, and BigCommerce is a better option for very large-size stores which sell online. Both these platforms offer powerful and tailor-made solutions; however, BigCommerce is well-equipped to deal with bigger-scale omni-channel growth.
Note: Fynd platform is suitable for all – small-size, bigger-size, and very large-size e-commerce businesses.
9. Which One Offers Better Security and Support?
Shopify vs BigCommerce: Security
As mentioned earlier, Shopify and BigCommerce provide free SSL certificates for all plans. You may also upgrade with a superior SSL certificate (well-equipped with warranties and site seals) with BigCommerce. BigCommerce’s paid range of SSL options comes at $59-$299.
Shopify and BigCommerce are PCI DSS-compliant service providers, so they meet all the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard requirements for protection against all credit card breaches.
Shopify vs BigCommerce: Support
No matter if you select BigCommerce or Shopify, you’ll get access to the following:
- 24/7 call support
- 24/7 chat support
- Help Center
- Community forum
- Email support
- Video tutorials
The help center of BigCommerce provides valuable information. 24/7 live chat and phone support are standout tools, but helpful knowledge centers make the difference also.
However, what we loved about Shopify is that valuable prompts through the website dashboard link directly to a relevant page in the Shopify knowledge center. It is a wonderful feature for people looking to know more about themselves.
For both these platforms, upgrading to the maximum plan offers priority support. For Shopify, it means getting access to a devoted support agent on a Shopify Plus plan. Using BigCommerce, you’ll have an onboard consultant in the BigCommerce Enterprise plan and get priority treatment if you ask for phone support.
Shopify vs BigCommerce Security and Support Verdict
Both Shopify and BigCommerce have secured e-commerce platforms, and Shopify provides better customer support than BigCommerce. Both platforms provide 24/7 phone and live chat support, but Shopify offers ‘out of the world’ knowledge center tips.
Conclusion: Which is Better, Shopify or BigCommerce?
The BigCommerce vs Shopify clash gives a different winner and relies on who is evaluating the fight. Both are big competitors; therefore, you get outstanding service, whichever you select. However, there are a few vital differences, so let’s check them out.
You Should Choose BigCommerce if:
- You enjoy additional design functionalities for your store branding
- You have an online business and want to grow in multiple channels
- You need in-built features without any hassle of installments or paying them distinctly
You Should Choose Shopify if:
- It would help if you had additional control over the website features
- It would help if you had maximum options available between all third-party apps
- You run a more significant business with complex inventories
Note: Platforms like Fynd are also getting very popular because of their world-class technology and infrastructure. The powerful solution for omnichannel business is a one-stop solution that helps brands make web stores online, take COD and online payments, and use affordable delivery partners to provide products globally. It comes with true omnichannel potential, which leverages different multi-channel platforms.
Has this article cleared all your queries? Give us your comments and let us know which one you choose – we would love to hear about your experiences!