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BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus: Pros, Cons, and Differences [Comparison]

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BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus: The global e-commerce market is expanding rapidly, with several large platforms having most of the market share for hosting e-commerce sites. Two main players are BigCommerce and Shopify Plus, which contain many differences, similarities, pros, and cons. 

In this article, we dive into Shopify vs BigCommerce, in the hope that you can decipher which platform best meets your e-commerce needs. 

What is Shopify Plus?

Shopify Plus is Shopify’s enterprise version. It has access to more powerful features and integrations than other Shopify plans, and is designed for established brands who are selling on a large scale or may have outgrown their regular Shopify plan. 

What is BigCommerce?

BigCommerce is an Open SaaS solution that provides you with all the e-commerce flexibility and control you could ever need. This platform offers out-of-the-box functionalities and integrations, and guarantees 99.9% uptime. It handles massive traffic to give you the best conversion rate and provide you with a seamless hosting experience.

The key concept behind both platforms is that you build an online store without writing any code. You select a template from the options, upload your products, set your prices, and you’re ready to go.

BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus
Source: https://www.bigcommerce.com

BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus Plans and Pricing

When looking for the best e-commerce platform, the first thing to consider is BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus pricing. Another thing to consider is the available plans per platform.

For BigCommerce, your sales volume determines the price you pay. The cost of this plan depends on your revenue, but merchants should budget around $1,500 per month to cover hosting costs. For a more accurate price, please get in touch with the BigCommerce sales team. 

When using BigCommerce, business owners might need to upgrade at a certain dollar threshold. Businesses on the Plus plan are upgraded to the Pro plan after generating $150,000 in sales volume in 12 months. Also, they can reach $400,000 in annual sales. For every additional $200,000 in online sales, they’ll need to pay an extra $150 per month.

For Shopify Plus pricing, the minimum fee is $2,000 monthly. When a company earns $800,000 or more per month, they convert the fee to a revenue-based model. They will then be required to pay 0.25% of their monthly income. 

Third-party solutions (such as apps) and payment fees can (and will) raise monthly costs – this is certainly something to keep in mind when considering establishing your e-commerce store on Shopify Plus.

BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus: Three Key Differences

What are the key differences of BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus? Let’s concentrate on three that stand out the most and are crucial to business owners in the e-commerce space.

#1 Flexibility

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus has a 100 variant limit and three product configuration options. On the other hand, BigCommerce allows for up to 600 product options. 

Shopify Plus merchants can optimize inventory and edit meta tags. In addition, if you change the name of your store, Shopify Plus will generate redirects. 

BigCommerce

BigCommerce Enterprise has a checkout API and integrations in place. These are WordPress and Acquia integrations. It allows users to create a content-driven online store with a customizable front-end design.

BigCommerce Enterprise’s SEO functionality opens up new opportunities for optimizing your store’s SEO. Compared to Shopify Plus, merchants have more control over URLs. Also, there are no forced directories, and merchants can change the URL structure for different pages.

What’s more, you can also use directories in URLs by editing the robots.txt file. It is simple to handle things like canonical URL logic, structured data, and so on. BigCommerce also allows for the management of accelerated mobile pages and redirects.

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#2 Functionality for B2B transactions

Customers who buy in bulk are common in large corporations. As a result, business management must have a solution that improves B2B transaction success. Here, we’ll compare Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce B2B functionality.

Shopify Plus

The e-commerce giant provides three options for managing a B2B storefront:

  • A Shopify Wholesale Channel based on your primary store and sharing the same data
  • Customized theme for various groups of tagged customers
  • A Shopify store to open a separate store that provides a unique customer experience

BigCommerce

This e-commerce platform caters primarily to B2B enterprises. It enables merchants to manage large catalogs. BigCommerce includes built-in B2B-specific features such as:

  • Customer-specific pricing
  • Management of purchase orders and credit terms
  • Catalogs tailored to each customer, shipping options, availability, payment methods, and more
  • Customer segmentation characteristics
  • Features for advanced product management

#3 Security (BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus)

Comparing BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus security, both platforms deliver the same protection level. So rest easy because your customer’s data is secured.

Multiple security layers protect every store to avoid unauthorized access. And the framework that does this is PCI DSS 3.2 authorized at Level 1. So that means the platforms never store financial data within the platform, meaning you’re not an easy target for hackers.

Although both provide their SSL certificate, the main difference is that BigCommerce users can purchase premium third-party SSL certificates. On the other hand, Shopify only permits SSLs bought via Shopify.

Advantages of BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus

Before choosing a platform, consider the advantages of BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus.

For Shopify Plus:

  • It has a variety of theme options, meaning that less time is spent on design
  • Merchants also gain access to an app store with a wide range of tools to choose from
  • Shopify Plus includes an easy-to-use web management dashboard

For BigCommerce:

  • Built-in sales features and variable pricing for different customers
  • On any plan, there are no transaction fees
  • Can accommodate up to 600 product variations

Limitations of BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus

In terms of limitations, Big Commerce:

  • Has limits on annual online sales
  • Free themes are, in many cases, alike
  • Finding dropshipping apps is difficult
  • You must pay to use the abandoned cart function
  • The homepage carousel needs a bit of work to make it perfect

For Shopify Plus:

  • Needs a certain skill level which can require coding knowledge or hiring an expert
  • Multi-currency support is provided by third-party apps
  • There are transaction fees to be paid unless you use Shopify Payments
  • Restricted backend customization
  • Reformats your site when templates are changed

How to Migrate to Shopify Plus

The best thing about migrating to Shopify is that it takes a few minutes. Plus, you don’t lose any useful information like images, product details, and orders. Here is how to move your shop from BigCommerce to Shopify in simple steps.

  • Create a Shopify Account and tell Shopify about your store
  • Choose a plan and select a theme
  • Install a migration application and start the migration process
  • Select your domain options and edirect old links to send customers to the new page
  • Put your Shopify Plus site to the test
  • Launch your website and invite customers to visit it

BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus: Which is Better?

Both Shopify Plus and BigCommerce Enterprise are robust platforms. But BigCommerce Enterprise is gaining traction in terms of flexibility, product options, and B2B functionality. Nevertheless, Shopify Plus provides the best integrations and support that a business needs.

So it is over to you…

With the features, pros, and cons discussed in this article, we are confident that you will make the best choice.

Learn more on the PickyStory blog.

Good Luck!

Read more: Upsell On Shopify: How To Upsell, Best Practices, Examples (+Pro Tips)

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