BigCommerce vs Shopify: Which to Choose, and When to Move

BigCommerce vs Shopify comes down to three questions: how is your plan price set, how much of the store do you want to build and maintain yourself, and how much real B2B do you do? For most B2C brands I would pick Shopify. For a smaller group BigCommerce is the right answer, and I will say who they are.

We are a Shopify agency: that is why every price, fee and limit below comes from the official pages, shopify.com/pricing, bigcommerce.com/essentials/pricing and the documentation of both, read on 29 October 2026. Shopify shows euros, BigCommerce dollars, and I did not convert. Both change, so open the page before you sign anything.

This article decides. If you have already decided and want the how, read the BigCommerce to Shopify migration guide.

Which is better, BigCommerce or Shopify?

Shopify is the better default for a B2C brand; BigCommerce is the better answer when B2B Edition or an API-first build is already working for you. That is my judgement after more than 7 years of eCommerce projects.

BigCommerce vs Shopify pricing: what do the plans cost?

On 29 October 2026 [Shopify’s plans](https://www.shopify.com/pricing) cost €19, €56 and €289 a month on annual billing, with Plus from €2,100; [BigCommerce’s](https://www.bigcommerce.com/essentials/pricing/) cost $29, $79 and $299, with Performance from $1,499.

• Shopify (annual billing, monthly billing in brackets): Basic €19 (€27), Grow €56 (€74), Advanced €289 (€384), Plus from €2,100 a month. Trial: 3 days free, then €1 a month for 3 months. Source: shopify.com/pricing.
• BigCommerce (annual billing, monthly in brackets): Core $29 ($39), Growth $79 ($105), Scale $299 ($399), Performance custom, starting at $1,499 a month on annual billing. Trial: 15 days, no card. Source: bigcommerce.com/essentials/pricing.

Do BigCommerce plans have sales limits?

Yes: BigCommerce ties your plan to your trailing twelve-month sales, while Shopify’s pricing page lists no sales limit. This is the most useful thing to understand before you compare prices.

• Core covers up to $30K of trailing twelve-month GMV and upgrades you automatically to Growth.
• Growth covers up to $100K and upgrades you to Scale.
• Scale covers $33,333 a month of GMV. Above that BigCommerce charges **0.9%** on the excess, with no tier jump. At $2M of trailing GMV the account moves to Performance.
• GMV is not your revenue: BigCommerce defines it as gross order value minus 10%, and says its number may differ from your records.

A worked example, using only the numbers of the BigCommerce pricing page. A store with $250K of GMV in the last twelve months is above Growth’s $100K, so it is on Scale at $299 a month on annual billing. In a month with $43,333 of GMV it is $10,000 above the Scale cap, which adds $90 of overage. Nothing dramatic, but the price of the platform follows your growth, and it should be in your forecast.

On Shopify the plan is a feature choice, not a sales threshold: you move up for staff, locations, B2B catalogs or checkout, and Plus is a decision, not an automatic jump. My rule: on BigCommerce price the plan you will need in twelve months; on Shopify price the features you will need.

What are the transaction fees on BigCommerce and Shopify?

Both platforms charge an extra fee when you use a payment provider that is not their own preferred one, and the fee ladder is almost the same.

• Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee when you use a provider other than Shopify Payments: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus. With Shopify Payments the online card rate on 29 October was 1.8% + €0.30 on Basic, 1.6% on Grow, 1.5% on Advanced and 1.35% on Plus (all + €0.30).
• BigCommerce charges $0 on all plans with its Embedded Payment Providers (among them Stripe). For an Open Payment Provider it bills 2.0% on Core, 1.0% on Growth, 0.6% on Scale and 0% on Performance with a contract. Its page says card processing begins at 2.89% + $0.29 per transaction on all plans.

The honest summary: choose the payment provider you want, then read what each platform adds on top. Card rates depend on country and provider, so check availability for yours. On a €10 sale on Shopify Basic with Shopify Payments the fee is 1.8% + €0.30, which is €0.48; with another gateway Shopify adds 2%, or €0.20, and the gateway charges its own fee.

BigCommerce vs Shopify at a glance

This is the comparison in one list, row by row, with the source of every row in the section that follows or above.

Which ecosystem is bigger: apps and agencies?

Shopify’s ecosystem is much larger: its [App Store](https://apps.shopify.com/) lists over 16,000 apps and BigCommerce’s [marketplace](https://www.bigcommerce.com/apps/) over 1,200, both on their own pages on 29 October 2026. That is a fact, but not a verdict.

More apps means more choice and also more things that can slow a store down. My rule: count jobs, not apps. List what the store has to do (reviews, subscriptions, search, loyalty, B2B pricing) and ask, for each, whether the platform does it natively, an app does it, or code does it. BigCommerce does more natively on paper: its pricing page lists customer groups and the abandoned cart saver, but not on Core. Shopify often leaves more to apps, and the ecosystem of agencies and developers who know them is where the real advantage sits: easier to hire, easier to replace.

How do the two platforms handle B2B?

BigCommerce documents quotes, invoices on net terms and a buyer portal in one B2B product, and that is the best single reason to stay on it.

BigCommerce’s B2B Edition offers company accounts, sales quotes with negotiated pricing, invoices for purchase orders on net terms, user roles, sales agents and a Buyer Portal. You install the B2B Edition app and contact support; the documentation does not state a price, and on the pricing page Price Lists for customer groups are on Performance only.

Shopify B2B is available on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. You set customers up as companies, and catalogs control the products and prices each one sees: up to 3 catalogs on the standard plans and unlimited on Plus, per the pricing page. Many B2B needs fit here. Before you decide, write down the steps of your real B2B order (quote, approval, invoice, net terms) and check each one on Shopify’s page. We cover where Plus changes this in Shopify Plus: when it is worth it.

Which is better for multiple stores and countries?

For several countries in one store, Shopify includes Markets on every plan; for several separate brands, both platforms have a paid answer.

• BigCommerce adds storefronts to one account for $30 a month on Core (up to 3), $50 on Growth (up to 5) and $100 on Scale (up to 8); Performance is a sales conversation.
• Shopify lists Markets as included on every plan. For separate stores it offers expansion stores on Plus: up to ten stores on the contract at no extra cost, with apps billed per store and a theme license for each.

What about catalog size, variants and technical SEO?

Shopify allows up to 2,048 variants per product and three options; BigCommerce says up to 600 variant SKUs, and its modifiers cannot be variants. Both numbers come from the platforms: Shopify’s variants documentation and BigCommerce’s comparison page.

Notice what that page says about Shopify: that it supports up to 100 variants per product (page read on 29 October 2026). Shopify’s help center says 2,048. That is why I do not trust any vendor page for its competitor’s facts. On BigCommerce the other catch is modifiers: engraving text or a gift-wrap checkbox are not variants, and they become line item properties on Shopify.

For technical SEO, BigCommerce’s page claims customizable URLs and built-in redirects. Shopify’s paths are fixed: you cannot redirect /products or /collections, and a standard store can hold up to 100,000 redirects. Neither makes a store rank by itself. It matters in a move, because almost every URL changes: see the Shopify 301 redirects guide.

AI: Shopify Sidekick or BigCommerce Companion?

Both platforms include an AI assistant in the admin, and both are changing fast, so they should not decide your platform.

Sidekick is included with your Shopify plan, with features and usage limits that vary by plan; it works with your store’s data and follows staff permissions. Companion is built into the BigCommerce control panel, included with the store, and makes changes only after you preview and approve them. For agents that shop, BigCommerce documents an MCP server with B2C and B2B storefront tools, and Shopify lists agentic storefronts on its comparison page.

I use Shopify Magic and Sidekick in projects, always with clean data first and human review after. My rule is the same for both vendors: the assistant is only as good as your catalog. Read Shopify Magic and Sidekick and agentic commerce on Shopify for the detail.

How should you read the two vendors’ comparison pages?

Use them for facts you can check, like prices and limits, and never for outcomes.

BigCommerce’s page cites a 2023 Forrester study with a 211% ROI within 8 months and a 30% increase in site conversion. Shopify’s page says its checkout has a 12% higher conversion rate, from a study completed in April 2023, and a total cost of ownership 31% better, from research commissioned by Shopify on 250 enterprises with revenue of $10 million or more (December 2023 to January 2024). Each is the vendor’s own study. Neither tells you what happens on your store, so I would not build a decision on them.

When should you stay on BigCommerce?

Stay on BigCommerce when it already does the job you are paid for and you can name no pain a move would fix.

• B2B Edition runs your sales: quotes, invoices on net terms and the buyer portal are in daily use and your buyers like them.
• You have an API-first build that your team maintains and that performs well: rebuilding it costs more than it saves.
• The numbers work: at your sales level the plan, the payment fees and the extra storefronts cost less than the same store on Shopify with its apps. Do the math in the sheet below.
• The store converts and the team is happy. If you cannot say in one sentence what hurts today, do not migrate. A migration is a project, not a reward.

When should you move to Shopify?

Move to Shopify when what hurts is the ecosystem around the store: apps, people and tools, not a missing feature.

• You keep paying for gaps: custom development or apps for what you want to change every week, and developers who are hard to find.
• You want more markets in one store, or you are heading to a multi-store setup with Shopify Plus.
• Your price should not move with sales. A plan chosen for features, not for a revenue threshold, is easier to forecast.
• Your team wants to edit without a ticket: the admin and the theme editor, with an app for the rare special case.
• You want the store ready for AI shopping: Sidekick for your team, agentic storefronts for your customers.

What does the three-year cost sheet look like?

Count seven lines for each platform, then multiply by 36 months; the plan price is the smallest one.

• 1. Plan for the sales you expect in twelve months (BigCommerce) or the features you need (Shopify).
• 2. Extra storefronts or stores, if you need them.
• 3. Payment fees on your real mix of providers and countries.
• 4. Apps for what the platform does not do natively.
• 5. Developer hours and agency retainer, from your last twelve months.
• 6. Migration, once. What a migration costs shows how to count; the Shopify Launch Sprint is €5,800 under €2M of revenue, €8,800 from €2M to €20M, €12,800 above €20M, VAT excluded, in 4 installments.
• 7. Redirect monitoring in the first 90 days after go-live.

How does the move work, and what does it cost?

You move with the old store selling until the domain switch, a mapping sheet for every object and a tested redirect map.

The Shopify Launch Sprint is a migration to Shopify in 14 days with our Custom AI System, go-live between day 15 and day 30, 90 days of support and 4 written guarantees. Store ready on day 14 or we refund the first installment. The method is the same on every platform: see how it went at Cumini, live on Shopify on 19 May 2025, and at Nazzi, live on 19 July 2026. If you are comparing providers, read how to choose a Shopify migration agency.

What moves and what is rebuilt, from modifiers to customer groups, is in the BigCommerce to Shopify migration guide; the general method is in our guide to migrating to Shopify.

Next step. Send us your store: apply to the Shopify Launch Sprint and we reply within 48 hours with your tier, the price and the first available kickoff date.

Frequently asked questions

Is BigCommerce cheaper than Shopify?

It depends on your sales, not only on the plan price. On 29 October 2026 BigCommerce lists Core at $29 a month on annual billing and Shopify lists Basic at €19, but BigCommerce moves you to a higher plan as your trailing twelve-month sales grow, while Shopify’s pricing page lists no sales limit. Compare the plan you will be on in twelve months, in your own currency.

How much does Shopify take from a €10 sale?

On the Basic plan, Shopify Payments charges 1.8% + €0.30 on an online card sale, which is €0.48 on €10 (rates vary by country). If you use another payment provider, Shopify adds a 2% third-party transaction fee on Basic, €0.20 on €10, and your provider charges its own fee on top.

How much does BigCommerce cost per month?

On 29 October 2026 BigCommerce lists Core at $39 a month ($29 billed annually), Growth at $105 ($79), Scale at $399 ($299) and Performance from $1,499 a month on annual billing. The plan follows your trailing twelve-month sales, so the right one is set by your revenue.

Is BigCommerce or Shopify better for B2B?

BigCommerce documents native quotes, invoices on net terms and a buyer portal in B2B Edition. Shopify has B2B on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus, with companies and catalogs. If quotes and invoicing are your daily B2B work, check each step on Shopify’s B2B page before you move.

Which is better for SEO, BigCommerce or Shopify?

Neither wins on SEO by itself: rankings come from content, speed, structure and links. A difference that matters in a move is URLs: Shopify’s paths such as /products/ and /collections/ are fixed and cannot be redirected, so a store that moves needs a full 301 map.

Can I move from BigCommerce to Shopify without losing sales?

Yes, with the old store selling until the day you switch the domain and a tested redirect map. Our guide to the BigCommerce migration covers what moves and what gets rebuilt, and the Shopify Launch Sprint runs it in 14 days with 4 written guarantees.

Decide on the pain you can name

BigCommerce and Shopify are both good platforms, and most of the comparison articles online hide the only useful question: what hurts today? If the answer is the ecosystem, the people and the cost of every small change, Shopify fixes it. If the answer is nothing, stay, and spend the migration budget on growth.

The Shopify Launch Sprint moves your store to Shopify in 14 days with our Custom AI System: a fixed calendar, a public price and 4 written guarantees.

Antonio Manitta

Founder & eCommerce Manager at NoProb Agency

For over 7 years I have helped fashion, supplements, and DTC brands scale their eCommerce. I work in long-term partnership with three brands at a time, building stable systems that compound.

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