Perhaps the most important decision you will ever make for your eCommerce store is choosing the appropriate eCommerce platform. You can be a small business aiming to grow fast, or you may be a well-establish and huge enterprise already; the right software is always a game-changer.
During your quest for the perfect eCommerce platform, you will surely come across big names like Bigcommerce and Shopify. In this article, we’re going to provide a comparison of the two to help you with your decision.
Bigcommerce vs Shopify
1. Pricing Plan
The very first you consider when you’re opting for a software service is how you will have to pay for it. Let’s take a look at pricing plans of our two options here.
Bigcommerce
You get four pricing plans by Bigcommerce. These include:
- Standard pricing- $29.95 every month
- Plus pricing- $79.95 every month
- Enterprise pricing- this varies as per your requirements
- Pro pricing- $299.95 every month
When you look at the three cheapest price ranges by Bigcommerce, you know you are looking at this tool’s “Essentials.” This lower price range has a sort of distinct marketing, whereas the Enterprise plan has an entirely different marketing scheme in comparison.
Let’s take a look at the pricing plan by Shopify now:
Shopify
You can get five pricing plans with this tool. They include:
- Shopify lite- $9 every month
- Shopify basic- $ 29 every month
- Shopify- $79 every month
- Shopify advanced- $299 every month
- Shopify plus- the price of this plan varies as per your needs
The advantage of both these tools is that they give you a free trial of fourteen days. However, a summary of the above tells us that Shopify offers you a cheaper plan because the “Lite” category costs only $9 a month.
However, it is important to note that this plan may be cost-friendly, but it comes with certain limitations. Hence, you will not have a fully functional store with this option.
2. Transaction Fees
As an e-store, you would surely want to know how many cuts your eCommerce platform gets from your sales. We are talking about the transaction fees here, and both Bigcommerce and Shopify have their own rules in this regard.
Bigcommerce can be beneficial in this regard because it has zero transaction fees on all its plans, meaning you get to keep all the profits of your sales to yourself. With Shopify, there are also no transaction fees, but that is only applicable if your card transactions use the “Shopify Payments” transactions. In case of using another payment gateway, you will have to settle for other transaction fee rules.
This means you will have to incur transaction fees of 2% with Lite, 1% fees for Basic and O.5% for advanced. You must also note that Shopify makes its Shopify payments available for only certain countries, so if you are not on that list, you will have to choose an external payment gateway.
3. Credit Card Fees
Software providing companies also charge credit card fees in addition to transaction fees. If you use a third-party app for your credit card payments, then the fees will be as per the rates your provider chooses.
Both Bigcommerce and Shopify offer recommend processors for payments that not only lessen the fees but also make setting up payment processing easier for you. Shopify uses Shopify Payments for this fee with certain determiners, including:
- Whether you will sell in person or online
- Where you live
- The plan you use
Bigcommerce uses PayPal for card transactions powered by Braintree. Depending on your plan, you may have to pay around 2.2 or 2.9%. By comparison, we feel that Bigcommerce falls cheaper in terms of credit card fees than its Shopify counterparts. This is especially true for the more expensive plans.
4. Discounts
In terms of discounts, both our software providers give a 10% discount for paying upfront for their services for a year. However, if you’re using Bigcommerce, then you must know that this discount only applies to Pro and Plus plans.
With Shopify on the other hand, you get a 20% discount straight if you commit to paying upfront for two years. This rule is applicable to all their plans.
Final Thoughts
Bigcommerce and Shopify are both affordable and convenient eCommerce solutions for all eCommerce stores. They may vary in price points, annual sales limitations and other factors, but at the end of the day, you can rely on these software providers for giving your e-store a great boost and a far greater chance of growth.
