Shopify vs BigCommerce vs WooCommerce: The Ultimate Comparison Guide

Before you can claim your piece of the ecommerce market, you need a store, and that means choosing the right ecommerce platform.

I’ve had plenty of opportunities to experiment with countless ecommerce platforms and website builders over the years, but there are three names that I tend to encounter more than most: Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.

Those three giants are responsible for a frankly incredible number of online stores. But each comes with its own benefits (and potential downsides to consider).

Today, I’ll be looking at these solutions side-by-side, to help you pick the right option for your business.

Shopify vs BigCommerce vs WooCommerce: Quick Overview

Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce are all popular e-commerce platforms or solutions, offering access to integrated (or proprietary) payment gateways, website building features, and a host of customization options, but there are some major differences between them.

Shopify: The User-Friendly Giant

Shopify is a platform I’ve recommended countless times to both new startups and established businesses alike.

Shopify is one of the most flexible and versatile platforms available, prioritizing omnichannel sales support, endless integrations (via a comprehensive app store), and exceptional platform customization options.

Shopify is one of the best platforms for companies getting started in online sales, because it has all the functionality you need to run your store, already built-in, including its own payment processor.

That’s probably why Shopify supports millions of merchants worldwide, across 170 countries.

Shopify is a SaaS platform, which means you pay a monthly fee to access all the software, and Shopify handles things like hosting and domain security on your behalf.

WooCommerce: The Customizable Contender

If you’re looking for complete control over your online store setup, your site’s appearance, and the functionality you can access, it’s hard to go wrong with WooCommerce.

While Shopify and BigCommerce are all-in-one ecommerce platforms, WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce plugin, designed for WordPress (the world’s most popular CMS).

To use WooCommerce, you need a WordPress website. The plugin instantly adds various ecommerce tools, such as payment processing and checkout capabilities, to your WordPress store.

Because it’s open-source, there’s no limit to the number of platform customization options you can access.

WooCommerce is definitely one of the best options out there if you’re interested in design freedom. But it’s also one of the more difficult platforms available if you don’t have any coding knowledge.

BigCommerce: The Scalable Solution

BigCommerce has a lot of overlapping features with Shopify. In fact, I’ve mentioned in previous reviews that the two platforms both take a similar approach to omnichannel sales, headless commerce, and even pricing.

However, while Shopify appeals to companies of all sizes, BigCommerce is intended more for larger companies with big product catalogs.

Like Shopify, BigCommerce is a SaaS platform, which means you pay a monthly fee to access all the features you need.

The platform is often praised for it’s robust feature set, which includes fantastic inventory management capabilities.

However, compared to Shopify, BigCommerce is a little tougher to use. The good news is that it’s excellent for companies who need a high level of platform scalability.

You even get unlimited user accounts on every plan.

 

When to Use Shopify vs BigCommerce vs WooCommerce

If you want to build an amazing ecommerce store, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Shopify are all excellent options.

However, there are different situations where it makes sense to use each platform. Here’s what you should know.

When to Use Shopify

I’d recommend Shopify to any company in search of an excellent all-round ecommerce solution. If you want to launch your business with minimal hassle, and scale with ease across multiple channels, from Amazon and Ebay, to social media, this is the platform for you. Choose Shopify when:

• You want access to a huge range of integrations
• You’re looking for a comprehensive selection of AI and automation tools
• You value exceptional theme and design options
• You’re happy to use Shopify’s integrated payment processor
• You want a user-friendly experience

When to Use WooCommerce

WooCommerce is my top choice for companies in search of unlimited design freedom and customization options.

If you already have the technical knowledge you need to create a custom ecommerce store, this is the best option. Choose WooCommerce if:

• You want unlimited freedom to customize your site
• You’re looking for great support and a community experience
• You already have fantastic coding knowledge
• You’re keen to create a unique online shopping experience
• You want a range of payment options

When to Use BigCommerce

Finally, I’d say it’s best to choose BigCommerce if you’re running a larger company, with specific inventory management needs, and a desire to scale. Choose BigCommerce if:

• You want to scale your business across multiple channels
• You’re interested in exceptional SEO and marketing tools
• You don’t mind a small initial learning curve
• You want to avoid unnecessary transaction fees
• You’re not worried about missing out on a mobile app

Ease of Use: Comparing Platform Simplicity

While the needs of any business comparing ecommerce solutions will vary, one of the top things virtually all companies will consider is ease of use.

The best ecommerce platform for you will generally be the one you don’t have to spend hours learning to navigate.

After spending time with all three options, I can safely say that Shopify is the simplest platform to use, and according to user reviews, most customers agree with me.

Shopify goes above and beyond to make building your store as straightforward as possible.

Not only does it simplify things like product page development and theme customization with drag-and-drop tools and simple instructions, but it provides constant step-by-step guidance to business owners.

Every section of the Shopify admin interface comes with links to resource you can use to learn more about the tool.

Not to mention, with the addition of Shopify’s new AI features, you can even generate product descriptions and access real-time suggestions from an AI app in seconds.

BigCommerce certainly isn’t overly complex, but it’s not as intuitive as Shopify. With BigCommerce, you get a more powerful platform, with a lot more granular options for how you alter your site’s appearance and functionality.

This means you’re going to have more of a learning curve.

Something as simple as uploading a product page to BigCommerce can take a long time if you’re not familiar with the process already.

WooCommerce is by far the most difficult of the trio to use. While using WordPress is relatively easy, WooCommerce adds a level of complexity to the CMS that can be difficult to navigate if you don’t already know how to experiment with code.

Although WooCommerce offers beginners a handy setup wizard to walk them through the process of creating pages and setting up payments, you’ll probably find yourself searching for developer help a lot faster than you would with Shopify or BigCommerce.

Build Time and Design Flexibility

So, how long will it take to design the ultimate ecommerce site with BigCommerce, WooCommerce, or Shopify?

Once again, since Shopify is the easiest platform to use by far, it’s also the quickest to set up.

You’ll be able to launch a Shopify store within a day if you don’t have too much information to upload, or too many pages to customize.

Shopify and BigCommerce are both hosted platform options, so you don’t have to waste time searching for the right hosting providers, or implementing new tools.

This means they can both help you set up a store pretty quickly.

However, I did find it a little more time-consuming to complete certain tasks with BigCommerce, like setting up product pages with variants and other factors.

A WooCommerce store will take you the longest to set up and optimize. You’ll need to install WordPress before you can start developing your store, choose a hosting provider, find the right payment processor, install the WooCommerce plugin, and so on.

All of this adds a lot of extra hassle onto your store development process. Once you’ve gotten everything set up, you then have to deal with actually customizing your store, which as I mentioned above, can be tricky if you don’t have the right technical knowledge.

Design Flexibility, Themes and Templates

Speaking of customizing your store, the approach each platform takes to supporting ecommerce design is pretty different too.

Both BigCommerce and Shopify give you either “templates”, or “themes” you can use as the initial foundation for your store’s appearance.

Shopify offers access to around 9 free themes, and dozens of premium options, which can cost as little as $100.

I’d definitely recommend at least considering the premium themes if you want more functionality from Shopify. You can also work with a developer to customize your store yourself.

Once you’ve chosen your theme, you can customize it with Shopify’s simple “theme editor”.

This is a brilliant tool that makes it easy to organize every section of your store, and add your own branded elements. It also comes with Shopify’s AI tools built-in, for content generation.

BigCommerce offers about a dozen free themes, and more than 100 premium templates to choose from, with prices starting at $150.

The BigCommerce design editing tools have definitely come a long way in recent years, making it a lot simpler to customize different elements of your store.

However I felt the templates weren’t quite as flexible, or as intuitive as the ones you get from Shopify. You’ll typically need to dive into code to make any extensive changes.

Finally, design is where WooCommerce really stands out from the crowd. There’s ultimately no limit to what you can accomplish with the open-source plugin.

You can design your own theme, and wow your customers with completely bespoke functionality.

Plus, there’s the WordPress built-in theme customizer to help you with things like creating custom menus and organizing content.

Compared to BigCommerce and Shopify, WooCommerce also gives you a lot more freedom to adjust the checkout experience for your customers.

The only downside is that to take full advantage of the customization level offered by WooCommerce, you’re going to need some technical skill (or professional help).

E-commerce Tools and Features

A stunning website can only accomplish so much on its own. Once you’ve designed the perfect website, you need to ensure you can access the right ecommerce features.

The good news is that WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify all come packed with useful capabilities.

All three platforms include access to:

• Marketing tools: Built-in features or integrations for email marketing, social media advertising, pay-per-click advertising, loyalty program creation and more. All three options also have their own content management systems, and SEO capabilities.
• Payment processing: All platforms will allow you to accept a wide range of credit card and debit card payments, either through a payment processor like Square, PayPal, or Stripe, or through a built-in solution like Shopify Payments. You can also sell in multiple currencies.
• Options for selling any kind of product: You can use both your ecommerce platform and third-party apps to sell digital products, subscriptions, physical items, services, and so much more through all of these platforms.
• Inventory management tools: All three platforms will allow you to access tools for managing and tracking your inventory, and syncing information across channels. BigCommerce and Shopify also have integrated shipping features.
• Analytical and reporting tools: With all three solutions, large and small businesses can create reports offering insights into their financial health, popular products, customers, and a range of other factors.

However, each platform shines in its own distinct area. For instance, Shopify is excellent for omnichannel selling, with a built-in POS solution (called Shopify POS), connectors to marketplaces and social media apps, and multi-market currency options.

It also has its own payment processor, integrated shipping and fulfillment tools, and access to a range of dropshipping apps.

In fact, the Shopify app store is home to dozens of apps that are perfect for boosting your sales potential.

BigCommerce is ideal for larger businesses with more complex inventory requirements. I consider the inventory management tools on BigCommerce to be some of the best around, giving you granular insights into all of your inventory across multiple channels.

BigCommerce also offers phenomenal Search engine optimization features, with built-in tools for optimizing your store’s technical performance.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, thrives in terms of customization. You can access basic automated tax calculations, live shipping rates, and more without making many changes to the plugin’s code.

However, you’ll need to dive in and get creative if you want to unlock the full potential of this self-hosted solution, which can be a problem for small businesses.

Pricing Plans and Transaction Fees

Here’s where comparing BigCommerce vs Shopify vs WooCommerce can get complicated. At a glance, WooCommerce probably looks like the best “low-cost” option.

After all, it’s a free plugin that lets you turn any WordPress site into an ecommerce website.

However, WooCommerce isn’t as “free” as it appears. You’ll still need to pay for your own web hosting, and domain name, as well as any SEO tools, plugins, or apps you want to leverage. You’ll be responsible for paying for developers if you need help upgrading your site’s appearance or responsiveness.

Plus, you’ll still have credit card processing fees to pay, depending on the payment processor you choose.

BigCommerce and Shopify have a selection of very similar pricing plans to choose from.

Shopify has a 3-day free trial, and an option to extend your trial for the first month for $1. There’s also the Starter plan (if you want to add ecommerce functionality to an existing store or sell through messenger apps), for only $5 per month.

The main plans include:

• Basic Shopify: $39 per month. Online payment processing fees of 2.9% plus 30 cents.
• Shopify: $105 per month. Online processing fees of 2.6% plus 30 cents.
• Advanced Shopify: $399 per month: Online processing fees of 2.4% plus 30 cents.
• Shopify Plus: Prices starting at $2000 per month, with custom transaction fees.

All Shopify plans support the sale of unlimited products, but some plans (like Advanced and above), come with extra features, like lower credit card rates and shipping discounts.

BigCommerce gives beginners a 15-day free trial, and has 3 core pricing plans to choose from, as well as an enterprise plan:

• Standard: $39 per month: Sell up to $50k annually
• Plus: $105 per month: Sell up to 180k annually
• Pro: $399 per month: Sell up to $400k annually.
• BigCommerce Enterprise: Custom pricing (no sales limits).

All BigCommerce plans include unlimited bandwidth and have zero transaction fees. However, the standard plan doesn’t include abandoned cart recovery features.

All three platforms can incur “additional” fees, such as the credit card processing fees for the payment process you choose, and the cost of paying for premium apps and plugins.

Security and Customer Support

Finally, let’s take a look at the security and customer support options for each platform.

From a security perspective, BigCommerce actually comes out on top for me. While both Shopify and BigCommerce offer access to SSL certificates, PCI compliant payment options, and fraud protection for online shopping, BigCommerce goes a little further.

For instance, you can create a custom SSL certificate, leverage firewalls, and take advantage of various types of intrusion detection software.

Of course, you can always look for ways to upgrade your Shopify security on the Shopify app store.

WooCommerce is a bit problematic in this area because you’re fully responsible for managing security yourself.

Since the WordPress plugin is self-hosted, you need to ensure you have the right protections, SSL certificates, and secure payment processing systems in place.

In terms of customer support, all three companies do reasonably well. Both BigCommerce and Shopify offer 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support, and they both have excellent forums for connecting with other customers, and self-help resources.

However, I do think Shopify’s guides, videos, and courses are a bit more comprehensive than the ones you’ll get from BigCommerce.

WooCommerce takes customer support even further, with a dedicated team of experts committed to supporting your business.

Plus, you also get to take advantage of the customer support offered by your chosen hosting provider.

FAQ

Conclusion: Making Your Choice

Overall, Shopify is still my number one pick for the “best ecommerce platform” around. It’s a fantastic all-in-one platform that offers exceptional ease of use, fantastic design tools, and a huge range of advanced features (including integrated AI tools).

Plus, it supports end-to-end omnichannel selling, and even has it’s own point of sale software and hardware solutions.

However, BigCommerce and WooCommerce have their merits. BigCommerce is certainly a great option for scaling companies with complex inventories and large teams.

WooCommerce is brilliant if you want excellent design and customization freedom, and don’t mind a little coding work.

Ultimately, all three options come with “free plans” you can use to test out the functionality for yourself, so I recommend taking a trial run yourself before making your choice.