In 2021, brands are focusing more on owning an online store for their businesses as eCommerce is skyrocketing, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. Right from makeup, clothing, furniture to gadgets, almost all brands from all niches have their own online store to steal the show and sell their products successfully.
Moreover, building an eCommerce website for your business can’t get easy anymore. With website builders like Shopify and BigCommerce, you can construct an online store and start selling your products online almost immediately.
These website builders are ideal for business owners starting a new business venture with a tight budget. Yes, you need not spend an outrageous budget on web development. Plus, you do not have to code to build an effective eCommerce store.
With these tools, one can construct an online store by themselves by following a DIY approach. All you need is to pick a template, upload your products, set your prices, and you are almost good to go.
Both Shopify and BigCommerce are available as Software as a Service (SaaS) and can run in a web browser. That means you need no software to install on your desktop or laptop. You can manage your online store from anywhere, provided you have a stable internet connection.
Though both Shopify and BigCommerce are excellent in their own ways, you may get confused about which one to pick for your online store. So, here we will do a comparative study of Shopify and BigCommerce, including their features, pricing, ease of use, design options, and so on.
Read on to know which represents an ideal eCommerce platform for your business. Shopify or BigCommerce?
An Outline on Shopify
Shopify is an eCommerce platform that enables a business to develop its online store and sell its products to customers. The platform is known for its low startup cost and user-friendly interfaces.
Shopify allows various integrations that help in your business growth. Right from startups to large corporations can benefit from this platform. Shopify provides you with an admin panel to store data, delete or add products, and process orders.
An Outline on BigCommerce
BigCommerce is yet another eCommerce platform that facilitates business owners to establish their online store and sell products. It is a robust platform built with advanced technologies.
BigCommerce comes with powerful features like built-in professional web hosting services, payments integration, marketing tools, and security features.
Shopify vs BigCommerce: 13 Key Differences
1) Pricing
Pricing plays a vital role in picking the software. So, let us get started by comparing the price packages of these two platforms.
Shopify has three tiers. The very fundamental one is Shopify basic, which is available for $29 per month. It is ideal for selling on Facebook and Facebook Messenger.
The second one is Shopify Plus, which is apt for growing businesses. It comes at $ 79 per month. And, the third one is Advanced Shopify available, at $299 per month.
| Basic Shopify | Shopify Plus | Advanced Shopify | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $29 per month | $79 per month | $299 per month |
BigCommerce also has three main tiers and one advanced tier. That exclusive tier is for big enterprises that come with custom pricing. The three versions of BigCommerce cost more or less similar to Shopify.
The standard version is $29.95 per month, Plus is $ 79.95 per month, and Pro is $ 249.95 per month, whereas the enterprise is available at personalized prices.
| Standard BigCommerce | Plus BigCommerce | Pro BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $29.95 per month | $79.95 per month | $249.95 per month |
Pricing Verdict:
Both the companies stand the same on price. There is no massive difference when it comes to pricing.
2) Ease of Use
Both of these platforms are pretty easy to set up for beginners and new users. Of course, they both are similar, but let us dive deeper to understand the differences. We can figure out which is more user-friendly by analyzing several features like adding products and variants, shipping fees, etc.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Quick Tour option to help you get started. | No | Yes |
| Support Documentation | Yes | Yes |
| Adding Products and Variants | Simple and Straightforward | Need to make a few clicks. |
| Integrations with External Apps | Yes, It supports Quickbooks, Xero, and Freshbooks. | Yes, It also supports Quickbooks, Xero, and Freshbooks. |
Ease of Use Verdict:
With multiple options, beginners may find difficulty with the BigCommerce platform. Since Shopify allows users to add products and set up things quickly, it is the clear winner.
3) Templates and Theme Options
Themes or templates decide the look and feel of your online store. But, we cannot conclude which looks the best as the look and feel of the website is purely a personal aesthetic preference. However, we can compare the platforms by taking other few things into account.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Themes | 74 | 86 |
| Number of Free Themes | 10 | 12 |
| Industry Categories | 6 | 12 |
| Premium Themes Price Range | 140 to $180 | 170 to $235 |
| Themes General Style | Modern/Sleek | Traditional or Professional |
| Customizable Themes | With a live editor, you can see the changes with your actual content. | Yes, you can change pictures, logos, fonts using a live editor like Shopify. |
| Responsive Themes | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable Template Files | Yes | Yes |
Templates and Theme Options Verdict:
We vote for Shopify for its modern designs, cheaper premium ones, and live editor.
4) Product Presentation
Once you finalize your storefront, you will have to add your products. Isn’t it? Now, let us see what these platforms have in store for product presentation.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Product Display Options | Limited options. You can only add the title and description. | Excellent options. You can tick the options in your dashboard to display product weight, price, brand, rating, etc. |
| Product Variation Options | You can only choose size, color, and material. | You have numerous options. |
| Product Carousel | A smooth Carousel with a zoom feature. No video support. | Nice Carousel with video support. |
| Store Features | Limited options. You can add more features with the help of third-party apps at a cost. | Several options. You can have a wishlist, product comparison, search suggestions, bulk discount, etc. |
| Enable Product Reviews | No. Demands an external app. | Yes |
Product Presentation Verdict:
Undoubtedly, BigCommerce wins the game. With way more options and flexibility to present your products, you can maximize your sales with BigCommerce.
5) Payment Options
Payment integration and secure transactions are mandatory for any online store. Therefore, it is one of the vital criteria to finalize your eCommerce platform. Let us peek into the various options that these tools have to offer.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| PayPal | Yes | Yes |
| Credit Card Payment via Gateway Processors | Yes, more than 80 gateways. | Yes, 19 gateways. But, it still covers most credit cards. |
| Offline Payment like cash on Delivery | Yes | Yes |
| Sell via Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Amazon | Yes | Yes |
| Pos (Point of Sale) | Use Shopify PoS to sell in person anywhere. | You can integrate Square PoS. |
| Support Multiple Currencies | Yes. But, you need to integrate through code. It is quite a tedious process. | Yes. You can even offer an automatic exchange rate. |
| Transaction Fees | Yes. But, you can use Shopify Payments. Again it is not available everywhere. | No |
Payment Options Verdict:
Shopify lags here because of its transaction fees and complicated multiple currency integration. BigCommerce comes out as the clear winner.
6) Shipping and Carrier Integration
Logistics and shipping is another prime factor that comes with an eCommerce store. Both of these platforms have a lot many options, which you can refer to on the table.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Free Shipping, Flat Rates, and Ship By Weight. | Yes | Yes |
| Real-time Shipping Quotes from FedEx, USPS, and UPS. | Yes | Yes |
| Reveal users that the store does not support their geographical location. | Yes | Yes |
| Create Shipping Rules as per the US and the World. | Yes | Yes |
| Dropshipping | Oberlo is an excellent app of Shopify that supports dropshipping and connects with several providers. | You have to use external apps to connect with dropshipping providers. |
Shipping and Carrier Integration Verdict:
Both of them offer equally good shipping services. But if dropshipping is an integral part of your business, then Shopify has an efficient system.
7) Multilingual Services
Your online store opens up your business to a global audience. So, you would not want to miss your customers because of a language. Let us check how these platforms can help you in providing multilingual support and services.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Multilingual Themes | Yes, but they come at premium rates. | No, you have to manually translate your website and edit the code to support various languages. |
| Multilingual Apps | The cheapest app comes at the rate of $17.50 a month. | No |
| Add Google Translation | Enabling a Google Translate Widget is possible. But you would have to hire a developer to complete the tricky task. | You can do so with your BigCommerce Control Panel. |
Multilingual Services verdict:
To our disappointment, both of these platforms do not do well for multilingual support, but Shopify overtakes BigCommerce. However, you have alternate options like WordPress and WooCommerce to have multilingual stores.
8) Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
Secure pages are mandatory to earn the trust of your customers. Let us check the SSL of these two platforms.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | SSL for Secure Pages | Yes | Yes, using the BigCommerce shared SSL certificate. | SSL for the Whole Website | Yes | Yes |
|---|
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Verdict:
Both are equal in providing SSL for your eCommerce store.
9) SEO Capabilities
Let us see how they can help you rank on top of the search engine result page and close more sales.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Customize Your PageTitle | Yes | Yes, for all pages except blog posts. With blog posts, Bigcommerce uses the title of your main header and your store name. |
| Customize Description | Yes | Yes |
| Customize URLs | Yes, but Shopify adds extra terms to the URL, which you cannot remove. | Yes |
| Modify Existing URL | Yes | Yes |
| Modify the robots.txt | No | Yes |
| Modify Search Engine Instructions | You can do so with the help of third-party apps. It will cost you around $1 to $4 a month. | Yes |
| Integrate with Google Analytics | Yes | Yes |
| Sitemap | You can find it under yourdomian.com/sitemap.xml | You can find it under the server section. |
SEO Capabilities Verdict:
Shopify instantly structures your URL and does not let you tweak the robots.txt. Hence, BigCommerce gains a few points.
10) Page Speed
Page speed plays a crucial role in SEO ranking, but it also plays an essential role in your customer’s shopping experience. No one prefers a slow-loading site as it drastically affects their shopping experience. Let us see how these eCommerce platforms cope up with the page speed.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| GT Metrix Test Score | Loading Time: 1s PageSpeed Insights: 85% Yslow Score: 91% | Loading Time: 1.5 s PageSpeed Insights: 82% Yslow Score: 84% |
| Webpagetest.org | Loading Time: 1.6s | Loading Time: 2.3s |
| Pingdom Test | Loading Time: 323ms Performance Grade C(75) | Loading Time: 989ms Performance Grade B(82) |
| CDN | All accounts enabled. | All accounts enabled. |
Page Speed verdict:
Shopify overtakes the ride and wins the game in a split hair. However, the difference is meager, and you cannot discard BigCommerce for its page speed.
11) Market Place
You can buy additional features from the app stores of both Shopify and BigCommerce to enhance your online store. Though many may get confused that it is another venue for money-grabbing, most excellent apps are free. Let us check.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
| 3rd Party Apps | Out of 1500 apps, around 597 of them are free. | Around 360 free apps. |
| Apps Scope | It supports marketing, sales, social media, shipping, etc. | They have apps that support exciting features like loyalty programs, live chats, and more. |
Market Place Verdict:
Though both app stores have you covered, Shopify stands tall mainly because of its broader developer community.
12) Customer Support
Building a shopping cart can be a daunting task, especially if you are doing it for the first time. Both Shopify and BigCommerce provide excellent customer support in your website building process, tweaking it or increasing its reach through extra resources.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
| 24/7 Customer Support | Yes | Yes |
| Written Tutorials | Yes | Yes |
| Community Forums | Shopify has the largest community. You can find answers to most of your questions over there. | Yes, but it is not as big as Shopify. |
| Additional Resources | Marketing blogs of Shopify are an excellent source of Ideas and Techniques. | The community offers all kinds of topics, including marketing. They do provide support links when you edit your website. |
Customer Support Verdict:
Both Shopify and BigCommerce are equally excellent in offering outstanding customer support.
13) Customer Logins and Checkout Options
Enabling your customers to log in to buy your products can give you access to more data, but it can turn some people off. Let us see how the two platforms let you manage your customers.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
| No customer account is needed. | Yes | Yes |
| Compulsory Sign-in to buy. | Yes | Yes |
| Optional Sign-in to buy. | Yes | Yes |
| Add Customers Manually. | Yes | Yes |
| Import Customers List Through CSV. | Yes | Yes |
| Export Customers List Through CSV. | Yes | Yes |
| Offer Customers store credit. | Yes, but demands a paid app. | Yes |
Customer Logins and Checkout Options Verdict:
Again, that is a tie. Shopify is slightly easy to use. But, BigCommerce has two additional options, including store credit and exporting your customer lists.
Final Comparison
Now, after a detailed comparative study, we can say for sure which platform offers what.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for |
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| Not recommended for |
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Conclusion
Both Shopify and BigCommerce have their own set of pros and cons. There is no one correct answer for the best website builder or which one you should leverage for your online store. It depends on your personal preferences, business needs, and customer behavior.
Hopefully, this detailed comparative study has helped you to understand the pros and cons of these popular eCommerce platforms. Thus, you can make informed decisions while building your store online.
Moreover, both Shopify and BigCommerce offer a free 14-day trial that you can utilize before investing in them. If you still have any doubts or queries, you can connect with us at Cypherox Technologies. Our technical team will be happy to clarify your questions and guide you on building your eCommerce website for your business.
