BigCommerce Pricing 2024: The Complete Guide

Do BigCommerce pricing plans offer good value for money?

How do you choose which plan is right for you, and what kind of additional fees do you need to pay?

If you’re thinking of using BigCommerce as your ecommerce platform solution, these are the questions I'm going to answer.

It’s not just new customers that can benefit from a deeper understanding of BigCommerce costs either.

If you’re thinking of upgrading your plan, it’s important to ensure you can compare your options effectively. The good news is that BigCommerce does offer decent value for money.

As a comprehensive ecommerce platform, BigCommerce offers more built-in features than many other competitors, from impressive sales tools, to website building resources.

Plus, there are various pricing options to choose from, ranging from $29 per month to custom-priced plans for enterprises.

Here’s everything you need to know about BigCommerce pricing.

Key Takeaways

• BigCommerce is a robust and reliable ecommerce platform that offers a huge range of features to business owners of all sizes.
• There are various BigCommerce pricing plans available, tailored to the specific requirements of different companies.
• BigCommerce doesn’t charge any transaction fees when you use leading payment gateways, but there are still credit card processing rates to consider.
• Like many ecommerce vendors, BigCommerce does offer discounts on annual plans, so you can save money on your solution of you switch to an annual subscription.
• There may be some additional costs to consider for your BigCommerce store, alongside monthly plan fees, such as the cost for domain names, themes, and apps.

BigCommerce Pricing Overview: Plan Comparison

BigCommerce offers a 15-day free trial to beginners on the ecommerce platform, as well as four pricing tiers to choose from, tailored to businesses in specific phases of development. Annual plan subscriptions include a 25% discount. The tiers include:

• Standard: $39 per month (or $29 per month paid annually). This plan is intended for beginners in the ecommerce landscape, selling up to $50k annually.
• Plus: $105 per month (or $79 per month paid annually). This plan is for scaling business, who make up to $180k in sales per year.
• Pro: $399 per month (or $299 per month paid annually). This option is for larger companies, processing up to $400k in annual sales.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing, for enterprise-level businesses who need significant scale and broad customization options.

Notably, none of the plans include transaction fees, and they all come with unlimited products, file storage, and bandwidth.

You also get real-time shipping quotes, responsive website templates, and single page checkout options on all plans, as well as 24/7 customer support.

The BigCommerce Standard Plan: $29/$39 per month

Best for: New or small online stores.

The Standard BigCommerce plan is intended for companies who are just getting started in ecommerce. It allows you to make up to $50k in annual sales, and comes with unlimited staff accounts, and integrations with leading payment gateways.

You also get special credit card rates via PayPal (powered by Braintree), integrations with social media channels and marketplaces for omnichannel selling, POS integrations, and a free SSL.

Plus, you’ll be able to access real-time shipping quotes, the BigCommerce mobile app, and tools for collecting product ratings or reviews, or issuing gift cards, discounts, and coupons.

The BigCommerce Plus Plan: $79/$105 per month

Best for: Growing your ecommerce business.

The Plus plan offered by BigCommerce is one of the most popular options offered by the vendor. It includes all the features of the Standard plan, as well as unique tools for sales and marketing. Plus, it allows you to process up to $180k in transactions per year.

As well as the features you get from the BigCommerce Standard plan, you’ll also gain access to:

• Customer groups and segmentation for personalized marketing campaigns.
• Abandoned cart saver tools, to help win back lost sales.
• Persistent cart options to allow users to save their carts to their account.
• Stored credit cards for a quicker and more convenient transaction process.

This plan is a great option for small but growing business looking to improve customer experiences, increase sales, and reduce the risk of lost opportunities.

The BigCommerce Pro Plan: $299/$399 per month

Best for: Scaling businesses in search of comprehensive tools.

The BigCommerce Pro plan is designed for companies looking to take the next step in their growth strategy. With this plan, you can process up to $400k in sales per year, and access all of the tools you already get from the BigCommerce Plus plan.

The offering also comes with discounted credit card rates via PayPal (compared to the previous two plans), as well as solutions like:

• Google customer reviews to improve social proof.
• Product filtering and faceted search options to enhance the customer journey.
• A custom SSL which can be imported from another store

All of these features make the Pro plan a popular choice for scaling an already established online store.

The BigCommerce Enterprise Plan: Custom Pricing

The Enterprise plan offered by BigCommerce is custom priced to address the specific needs of your business. It supports companies making more than $400k in sales per year, and provides access to additional service and support features.

Alongside all the features of the Pro plan, the enterprise plan also includes:

• Advanced and custom product filtering tools.
• Comprehensive price lists for different target customer groups.
• Unlimited API calls for automation and integrated workflows.
• Express routing and priority support from the BigCommerce team.

Big Commerce Additional and Hidden Costs

Whether you’re choosing an ecommerce platform for your online store, or upgrading to a new plan, it’s important to know that there may be additional costs beyond the price you pay for a monthly subscription.

While these fees aren’t necessarily “hidden” by BigCommerce, they’re easy to overlook.

Some of the core extra fees you’ll need to think about include:

Prices for Domain Names

If you want to give your store its own unique domain name (which is always a good idea), you’ll need to pay for your domain.

You can buy a domain directly from BigCommerce, for a price of around $12.27 per year. This is on-par with the domain prices offered by Shopify and similar vendors.

There’s always the option to consider purchasing a domain name from a different domain registrar and importing it into your store too.

Credit card Rates

Although BigCommerce doesn’t charge transaction fees on any of its plans, there are still credit card fees to pay whenever you process an online payment.

The price you pay for processing payments depends on the solution you choose.

BigCommerce offers “discounted credit card” rates through PayPal. Depending on the plan you choose, this means you can pay anything from 2.2% plus 30 cents, to 2.9% plus 30 cents for each transaction. This is once again on par with what you can expect from vendors like Shopify.

Theme and Templates Costs

Like many ecommerce platforms, BigCommerce does offer a small selection of free themes and templates you can use to design your online store.

However, premium themes do offer more functionality, and can give you a way to differentiate your brand.

Premium themes range in price from around $135 to $300, and you’ll only have to pay that cost once.

Although paying for a premium theme can seem like an unnecessary additional expense when you’re starting your store, it can give you more flexibility when your business begins to grow.

App Fees and Subscriptions

While BigCommerce comes with a lot of valuable tools and features already built-in (more than many other ecommerce platforms), it still gives you the option to extend your store’s functionality.

You can use BigCommerce’s app market to access integrations for other tools and plugins that can help with things like marketing, sales strategies, SEO, and business management.

Some of the apps available to add to BigCommerce are free, or have free plan options. However, many of the most popular apps, such as Google Shopping or ShipStation, have monthly fees ranging from $9 to $50 per month.

It’s worth checking the pricing for each app you want to integrate with your store when you’re planning your ecommerce budget.

BigCommerce Partner Fees

Sometimes, you’ll need a little extra help when it comes to customizing your store, unlocking additional revenue, or upgrading your website.

For this, BigCommerce offers its “BigCommerce Partner” network, featuring more than 4,000 agency partners.

These partners specialize in everything from web design to marketing, and charge different fees depending on the services they offer.

In some situations, you might find it’s cheaper to seek out an external contractor or freelancer to help with your store.

Cancellation Fees

BigCommerce offers both monthly and annual plans to business owners. If you opt for a monthly plan, you can easily switch between plans or cancel your subscription whenever you want.

However, if you don’t cancel your plan two days before your term ends, then you will continue to pay the charges for another month.

With this in mind, it’s important to make sure you cancel your subscription as early as possible, if you want to avoid incurring additional fees.

Comparing BigCommerce Pricing to Competitors

BigCommerce isn’t the cheapest ecommerce platform available today, but its certainly not the most expensive solution either.

The pricing for the company’s standard plan is a little higher than the industry average, but it’s worth remembering you do get a lot of features you wouldn’t be able to access from other ecommerce platform vendors.

Let’s compare BigCommerce’s pricing to some other leading vendors.

Shopify Pricing vs BigCommerce Pricing

Shopify is the closest competitor to BigCommerce in terms of overall product features, and pricing structure. Both companies charge the same fees for most of their plans.

For instance, Shopify charges $29/$39 per month for its Basic plan, $79/$105 per month for Shopify, $299/$399 per month for Shopify Advanced, and a custom price for Shopify Plus (starting at $2500).

However, Shopify also has a dedicated “Starter” plan for $5 per month for companies who don’t need a website builder.

Plus, it’s worth noting that it also charges transaction fees on all of its plans, which vary according to the subscription package you choose.

Additionally, Shopify charges an extra fee to users who want to use third-party payment processors like Square or PayPal, instead of Shopify Payments. These fees range from 0.5% to 2% per transaction.

Wix Pricing vs BigCommerce Pricing

Compared to BigCommerce, Wix’s plans are a little cheaper. The entry-level plan costs $27 per month (When paid annually), compared to BigCommerce’s $29 per month plan. The Wix Unlimited plan costs $32 per month, and the Business Elite plan costs $159 per month (both paid annually).

Additionally, like BigCommerce, Wix doesn’t charge transaction fees on its plans. One way Wix sets itself apart from BigCommerce is by not placing limitations on the revenue you can receive each month on any given plan.

However, you don’t get a lot of the features you’d get from BigCommerce on most Wix plans. The reporting tools are less advanced, there’s limited storage space for your website (depending on the plan you choose), and marketing options are a little restrictive.

Squarespace Pricing vs BigCommerce Pricing

Squarespace is often considered one of the best website building platforms for creators and service providers. The rates this company charges for its ecommerce plans are a lot cheaper than those offered by BigCommerce.

The entry-level Business plan costs $23 per month, the Basic Commerce plan costs $27 per month, and the Advanced Commerce plan is $49 per month (all paid annually).

Unfortunately, some of Squarespace’s commerce plans do include transaction fees of up to 3%. Additionally, it’s worth noting that while Squarespace offers excellent design tools, and fantastic ease of use, it’s ecommerce functionality is limited.

The solution only offers basic tools for business and transaction management, and there aren’t a lot of options for integrating your site with a wide range of different tools.

Is BigCommerce Pricing Good Value for Money?

To determine whether BigCommerce offers good value for your ecommerce business, you’ll need to think about a few things, including which plan you’re going to use, how large your company is, and how much you’ll pay for additional things like themes, apps, and domain names.

Overall, we do think BigCommerce offers decent value for money. Although it is more expensive than some alternative platforms, it also offers a lot of features you wouldn’t get from other basic ecommerce solutions. Plus, you get the benefit of paying no transaction fees on any plan.

While there are website builders out there that offer more attractive templates, or more user-friendly tools, BigCommerce has a lot of great benefits to offer.

BigCommerce gives you a robust toolkit for building an effective business, similar to competitors like Shopify.

If you’re not sure whether BigCommerce is right for you, we recommend the “try before you buy” approach. Test out the platform with BigCommerce’s 15-day free trial, and use your insights to decide which plan is best for your needs.

BigCommerce User Reviews and Feedback

Notably, to gain a comprehensive insight into how effective BigCommerce is for business leaders, we did look at some reviews from existing customers.

The feedback customers give about BigCommerce varies drastically. For instance, on TrustPilot, the company only has an average rating of 1.5 out of 5 stars, with customers complaining about poor customer service and unexpected forced upgrades.

Alternatively, on G2, BigCommerce has an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, with many consumers saying the platform offers excellent functionality, ease of use, and scalability.

We think BigCommerce is a good platform, but we’d rate it slightly lower in terms of value and functionality than other competitors like Shopify.

Should You Use BigCommerce for your Business?

If you’re looking for a robust and scalable e-commerce platform, BigCommerce could be an excellent choice.

It makes it relatively simple to create and run your online store, integrating with various payment gateways as well as marketing and sales tools.

The platform also comes packed with options for extensibility, connecting to POS solutions like Vend and Clover, as well social media and marketplace sales channels.

The credit card rates offered by the company are relatively low, thanks to the company’s partnership with PayPal and Braintree.

Plus, there are plenty of ways to save money on your plans, by using an annual billing structure, or taking advantage of limited-time deals.

However, you may find BigCommerce is a little too expensive for your needs if you’re running a particularly small ecommerce company.

FAQ