Shopify vs BigCommerce

by Gralio Feb 27, 2025

Shopify and BigCommerce are both popular e-commerce platforms catering to businesses of all sizes. Shopify is better for those prioritizing ease of use and a wide range of apps, while BigCommerce is better for those needing greater flexibility and customization. Both offer features for online sales, website building, and team collaboration.

At Gralio.ai we help to simplify your decision-making process by offering detailed, side-by-side software comparisons like this one, to help you confidently choose the tool that aligns with your business goals.

This comparison was created by analysing 5687 reviews and 60 websites, saving 1 day, 8 hours, 5 minutes of reading.

Shopify

Website LinkedIn Twitter

BigCommerce

Website LinkedIn Twitter

About

Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform that provides businesses of all sizes with the tools to create and manage online stores. From website design and product listings to payment processing and shipping, Shopify offers a comprehensive suite of features. It also provides additional tools for marketing, inventory management, and customer relationship management. Shopify is known for its user-friendly interface, scalability, and extensive app store, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced online retailers.

BigCommerce is a popular e-commerce platform designed for businesses of all sizes, though its advanced features are particularly attractive to larger businesses. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools to build and manage your online store, including features for both B2C and B2B selling. BigCommerce stands out for its flexibility and open approach, allowing extensive customization and integration with other business systems. The platform promises reliability, scalability, and robust security to support business growth.

Summary

Main difference

Shopify is a user-friendly platform known for its ease of use and extensive app store, making it ideal for businesses prioritizing quick setup and diverse integrations. BigCommerce excels in flexibility and customization, offering more control over the storefront design and integrations for larger businesses with complex needs.

Relative strengths of Shopify (compared to BigCommerce)

Easier to use with user-friendly interface and extensive app store.
Offers a wider range of themes and templates for storefront design.
Provides integrated payment gateway (Shopify Payments) for seamless transactions.

Relative weaknesses of Shopify (compared to BigCommerce)

Can become expensive with monthly fees and app costs.
Limited customization options without coding knowledge.
Customer support can be slow and less responsive.

Who should use Shopify VS. BigCommerce

Shopify is a user-friendly e-commerce platform praised for its ease of use and extensive app store. However, some users find the pricing high and customization options limited. It's ideal for businesses of all sizes seeking a scalable platform with seamless payment processing.

BigCommerce is a robust ecommerce platform ideal for businesses of all sizes seeking growth and scalability. Users praise its intuitive interface, extensive customization options, and robust SEO tools. However, some find the pricing structure complex and note limitations in native integrations and mobile app functionality. It's best for established brands looking to expand their online presence or enhance existing ecommerce operations, particularly in industries like manufacturing and retail.

Ideal for businesses of all sizes, from startups to enterprise-level companies.
Suitable for a wide range of industries, including retail, e-commerce, and consumer goods.

Ideal for small businesses (1-100 employees), medium businesses (101-1000 employees), and large enterprises (1001+ employees).
Best fit for Manufacturing, Retail, Consumer Goods, Healthcare, Wellness & Pharma, and Automotive, Aerospace & Defence.

Shopify and BigCommerce features

Supported

Partially supported

Not supported

Type in the name of the feature or in your own words tell us what you need

Online Sales

Supported

Shopify supports online sales via websites, social media, and marketplaces.

Supported

BigCommerce supports online sales across websites and marketplaces, with tools for product and order management, and sales tracking.
International Sales

Supported

Shopify supports international sales with currency conversion, translations, and shipping logistics.

Supported

BigCommerce supports international sales with multi-currency, multilingual features, and streamlined cross-border shipping.
Headless or low/no-code hosting

Partially supported

Shopify supports headless commerce via APIs and Hydrogen framework, but not no-code hosting.

Supported

BigCommerce supports headless commerce, reducing coding needs for frontend and integrations.
Website builder

Supported

Shopify allows the creation of a product catalog website with its native features and integrated apps. It provides features for catalog creation, assignment to companies/customers, custom B2B pricing, and app integrations for enhanced catalog management, online/PDF catalog generation, automated updates, and more.

Supported

BigCommerce allows creating websites with product catalogs.
One-click checkout

Supported

Shopify supports one-click checkout through its Shop Pay feature.

Partially supported

BigCommerce supports one-click checkout through the integration with Bolt.
Team Collaboration

Supported

Shopify enables team collaboration on order management through features like customizable order views, bulk actions, real-time visibility, and integrations with third-party tools.

Supported

BigCommerce enables team collaboration on order management through features like assigned staff roles and a centralized order and inventory management system.

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

No data

No data
Customer Service

No data

No data
Ease of Use

No data

No data
Reliability and Performance

No data

No data
Ease of Implementation

No data

No data
Scalability

No data

No data

Shopify and BigCommerce Pricing

No data

See full Pricing page

No data

See full Pricing page

Shopify and BigCommerce review insights

Users love

User-friendly interface praised for its ease of use.
Wide variety of themes and templates available.
Extensive app store for added functionality.
Shopify Payments integrated for seamless transactions.

Intuitive and user-friendly interface for managing products and orders.
Extensive customization options for themes and storefront design.
Robust SEO tools and features to enhance online visibility.
Excellent customer support with responsive and helpful representatives.

Users dislike

High monthly fees are a common complaint.
Limited customization options, especially without coding knowledge.
App reliance for key features leads to additional costs.
Customer support can be slow and unresponsive.

Pricing tiers can be expensive and increase quickly with sales volume.
Limited native integrations require reliance on third-party apps for advanced features, which can become costly.
Difficulties with product variant setup for complex products.
Mobile app functionality is limited.

Shopify and BigCommerce Ratings

G2

4.4/5

(2547)
Capterra

4.5/5

(2373)
Glassdoor

3.3/5

(3293)

G2

4.2/5

(530)
Capterra

4.4/5

(263)
TrustPilot

1.4/5

(20)
Glassdoor

4.0/5

(430)

Company health

Employee growth

18% increase in the last year

5% decrease in the last year

Web traffic

10% increase in the last quarter

1% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

September 2013 - $122M

January 2018 - $224M

How customizable is BigCommerce versus Shopify's app-based approach?

BigCommerce is generally considered more customizable than Shopify. While Shopify relies heavily on its app store for extended functionality, BigCommerce offers more built-in customization options and a more open platform for developers. This allows for deeper changes to the core functionality and storefront design without relying as much on third-party apps. However, this also means that BigCommerce may require more technical expertise for advanced customizations compared to Shopify's simpler app-based approach.

Which platform better supports scaling B2B sales, Shopify or BigCommerce?

BigCommerce better supports scaling B2B sales. While both platforms offer features for online sales, BigCommerce is explicitly designed with B2B functionalities in mind, including features like flexible payment gateways, custom pricing, and quote management. Additionally, BigCommerce's headless architecture allows for greater customization and integration with existing B2B systems.

What are the advantages of Shopify?

Shopify is known for its user-friendly interface, making it easier to set up and manage an online store, especially for beginners. It offers a wide variety of themes and templates, allowing for greater design flexibility. Shopify also boasts an extensive app store, providing access to a wide range of additional functionalities to enhance the store's capabilities. Its integrated payment gateway, Shopify Payments, streamlines transaction processing.

What are the disadvantages of Shopify?

Shopify's disadvantages include high monthly fees, limited customization options without coding, reliance on apps (which adds costs), and potentially slow customer support. Users often find themselves needing to pay for apps to achieve desired functionality, increasing overall expenses.

Alternatives to Shopify and BigCommerce

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free and popular platform for building online stores, specifically designed to work with WordPress websites. It's a popular choice, powering a large portion of all online shops. WooCommerce is known for being highly customizable and adaptable, offering a wide range of extensions and themes to tailor the functionality and design of your store. While it's free to use, additional extensions and themes may come with costs. WooCommerce is suitable for both small businesses starting out and larger companies needing more advanced features.

Salesforce Commerce for B2C

Salesforce Commerce for B2C is an e-commerce platform designed to help businesses of all sizes sell online. It offers tools to create and manage online stores, connect with customers across multiple channels (web, mobile, social media), and streamline operations like marketing, order fulfillment, and customer service. The platform stands out with its focus on personalization, using data and AI to tailor shopping experiences. Salesforce Commerce for B2C promises to help businesses grow profitability by increasing sales and improving customer satisfaction.

ShopWired

ShopWired is a UK-based e-commerce platform that helps businesses build and manage online stores. It offers tools to create storefronts, sell across multiple channels (web, mobile, social media, marketplaces), and manage operations like inventory, orders, and customer data. ShopWired emphasizes reliability and scalability, using Amazon's hosting platform (AWS). It also provides various integrations with third-party apps for marketing, accounting, shipping, and more. Primarily serving the UK, US, and Europe, ShopWired powers thousands of stores.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is an e-commerce platform that lets you create and manage your own online store. It's highly customizable, with thousands of themes and add-ons to make your store unique. PrestaShop is designed to scale with your business, whether you're just starting out or processing millions in sales. It's used by over 300,000 businesses worldwide, from small startups to large companies. PrestaShop also boasts a large community of users and experts for support.

Shopware

Shopware is a flexible e-commerce platform designed for mid-sized and larger businesses. It allows you to manage your online store, personalize shopping experiences, and scale your business. Shopware is open-source, meaning you can customize it extensively. It's known for its user-friendliness and focus on automation, helping you streamline operations. Shopware is a global company with a strong presence in Europe and a growing footprint in North America.

Magento Open Source

Magento Open Source is a free and adaptable platform for building online stores. It gives businesses complete control over their website design, functionality, and data. While technically skilled to set up, it's a popular choice for companies who want a customized online store without being locked into a rigid software solution.

Page co-authored by

Michal Kaczor

CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

Tymon Terlikiewicz

CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

How are we doing?

Is this information helpful to you? Is there anything we are missing?

Did this help you select your product?

Other issues? Vote & Let us know