WooCommerce vs BigCommerce

by Gralio Feb 27, 2025

WooCommerce and BigCommerce are both popular ecommerce platforms, but cater to different needs. WooCommerce is better suited for smaller businesses or those already invested in the WordPress ecosystem, valuing flexibility and cost-effectiveness. BigCommerce is a better choice for businesses prioritizing scalability, comprehensive features, and a simpler setup, even with the associated costs.

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 2859 reviews and 60 websites, saving 16 hours, 23 minutes of reading.

WooCommerce

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BigCommerce

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About

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.

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

WooCommerce is a free and open-source platform ideal for businesses already using WordPress, offering deep integration and extensive customization through its vast plugin library. BigCommerce is a paid, hosted platform providing a more comprehensive and scalable solution with built-in features, making it suitable for rapidly growing businesses needing less technical setup.

Relative strengths of WooCommerce (compared to BigCommerce)

Free and open-source, offering greater flexibility and control over costs.
Seamless integration with WordPress, benefiting existing WordPress users.
Large community and extensive plugin library for diverse functionalities.

Relative weaknesses of WooCommerce (compared to BigCommerce)

Can become complex to manage and require technical expertise.
Scalability can be challenging compared to hosted platforms like BigCommerce.
Reliance on plugins can introduce compatibility and performance issues.

Who should use WooCommerce VS. BigCommerce

WooCommerce is a popular, free, open-source platform for building online stores on WordPress. Users praise its ease of use and integration with WordPress, along with the extensive plugin options. Some users find the paid plugins pricey and note potential site slowdown. Best for small to medium e-commerce businesses already using WordPress.

BigCommerce is a leading ecommerce platform ideal for businesses of all sizes seeking growth and scalability. Users praise its intuitive interface, customization options, and robust SEO tools. However, some find the pricing structure complex and note limitations in native integrations and the mobile app. It's best for businesses needing extensive customization and integrations, especially those in manufacturing, retail, or consumer goods.

Best for small to medium businesses (1-100 employees), especially e-commerce.
Ideally suited for E-commerce and Retail industries using WordPress.

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.

WooCommerce 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

Smart Shipping Management

Supported

WooCommerce offers various tools and integrations for managing shipping, including cost optimization and process simplification.

Supported

BigCommerce offers smart shipping management with built-in features and integrations.
Marketing Order Attribution

Supported

WooCommerce supports marketing order attribution via its built-in Order Attribution Tracking feature.

Partially supported

BigCommerce supports marketing order attribution through integrations like Google Analytics.
Fully Customizable Online Store

Supported

WooCommerce allows extensive design and functionality customization through themes, plugins, and a built-in customizer.

Supported

BigCommerce offers extensive design and functionality customization, including themes, page builders, and APIs.
Headless or low/no-code hosting

Partially supported

WooCommerce supports headless hosting but not low/no-code hosting.

Supported

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

Supported

WooCommerce allows creating websites with product catalogs.

Supported

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

Partially supported

WooCommerce supports one-click checkout via plugins.

Partially supported

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

Qualities

Value and Pricing Transparency

No data

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Customer Service

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Ease of Use

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Reliability and Performance

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Ease of Implementation

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Scalability

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WooCommerce and BigCommerce Pricing

No data

We couldn't find a pricing page for WooCommerce.

No data

See full Pricing page

WooCommerce and BigCommerce review insights

Users love

Easy to setup and use, especially if you are already familiar with WordPress
Free and open source
Wide range of plugins and extensions
Integrates seamlessly with WordPress
Large community support

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

Some of the "good to have" plugins officially are at high price.
Can be confusing for beginners to have to use WooCommerce together with WordPress
Can slow down a website because WooCommerce is itself a plugin
Limited customization options with the free version
Mobile app is a bit laggy

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.

WooCommerce and BigCommerce Ratings

G2

4.4/5

(1167)
Capterra

4.6/5

(896)
Glassdoor

4.1/5

(406)

G2

4.2/5

(530)
Capterra

4.4/5

(263)
TrustPilot

1.4/5

(20)
Glassdoor

4.0/5

(430)

Company health

Employee growth

No change in the last year

5% decrease in the last year

Web traffic

2% increase in the last quarter

1% decrease in the last quarter

Financing

November 2020 - $986M

January 2018 - $224M

How customizable is BigCommerce compared to WooCommerce?

Both BigCommerce and WooCommerce offer extensive customization options. WooCommerce, being open-source, allows for deep code-level customization and benefits from a vast library of plugins and themes. BigCommerce, while not open-source, provides a highly flexible platform with APIs and a theming engine, allowing for significant customization without requiring as much coding expertise. Therefore, while WooCommerce offers potentially greater customization at the code level, BigCommerce provides substantial customization through its platform and integrations, making it arguably easier to customize for non-developers.

Which platform offers better built-in features for scaling an online store?

BigCommerce offers better built-in features for scaling an online store. Its description explicitly highlights features designed for growth and handling larger businesses, including multi-storefront management, flexible payment integrations, and headless commerce capabilities. While WooCommerce is adaptable through extensions, BigCommerce's native features suggest a more streamlined and robust approach to scaling for larger operations and diverse needs.

What are the advantages of WooCommerce?

WooCommerce's advantages include its free and open-source nature, seamless integration with WordPress, a vast library of extensions and themes for customization, and a large, supportive community. This makes it particularly appealing to businesses already using WordPress or those prioritizing cost-effectiveness and flexibility.

What are the disadvantages of WooCommerce?

WooCommerce can slow down websites, especially with numerous plugins. Essential plugins often come at a high cost, increasing overall expenses. While touted as easy to use, managing both WordPress and WooCommerce can confuse beginners. Customization options are limited in the free version, necessitating upgrades or workarounds. Finally, users report a laggy mobile app experience.

Alternatives to WooCommerce and BigCommerce

Shopify

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.

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.

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.

Ecwid

Ecwid is an e-commerce platform designed for small to medium-sized businesses. It allows you to easily add an online store to your existing website or social media pages. You can manage sales, inventory, payments, shipping, and marketing from a single platform. Ecwid offers a free plan with paid options available for expanded features and sales volume. They are known for their ease of use, strong customer support, and integrations with popular platforms.

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.

Sellfy

Sellfy is an all-in-one e-commerce platform designed for creators to sell digital and physical products, subscriptions, and print-on-demand merchandise. It includes marketing features like email campaigns and affiliate programs. Sellfy handles the technical side of running an online store, allowing you to focus on your audience. It offers various pricing plans starting at $29 per month with no transaction fees.

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.

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