eCommerce

BigCommerce in 2026: when it fits, compared with Shopify

9 min readBy Jaskirat Singh Talwar

Two cardboard shipping boxes, one taped in blue and one in orange, on a wooden table

BigCommerce fits stores that sell to both consumers and businesses, need customer groups and custom pricing, want to use their own payment provider without a platform fee, or plan a headless Next.js storefront. Shopify usually fits stores that want the simplest admin, in-person sales on the same system and the widest choice of ready-made themes and apps. Both are hosted platforms with real strengths; the deciding factors are your sales volume, how you take payments and how much B2B selling you do.

Key takeaways

  • As of October 2026, BigCommerce's plans start at $39 a month (US dollars, or $29 billed annually) and move up automatically as your trailing-12-month sales grow; Shopify's plans are priced by feature set, and its Canadian page starts at $49 CAD a month ($37 billed yearly).
  • Payment fees matter as much as the plan price. BigCommerce charges no extra fee with its embedded payment providers and a plan-based fee with others; Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee when you do not use Shopify Payments.
  • BigCommerce includes customer groups from its Growth plan and sells a B2B Edition with company accounts, quotes and purchase orders. Shopify B2B is available on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus, with features that depend on the plan.
  • Both support custom themes (Stencil on BigCommerce, Liquid on Shopify) and headless builds (Catalyst on BigCommerce, Hydrogen on Shopify).
  • Pick on cost at your expected volume, payment set-up and catalogue needs, not on feature lists alone.

What has changed since this post was first written?

This post first appeared in 2013, when BigCommerce was mostly sold as an affordable template-based cart. A few things still hold: it is a hosted platform, it has an admin that non-technical staff can run, and it has built-in customer groups, coupons, gift certificates and marketing tools. Building a customer base through accounts, segments and repeat purchases is still the point of most of those features.

What has changed is the pricing model, the company and the technology. In July 2025 the company renamed itself Commerce (Commerce.com, Inc.), with BigCommerce, Feedonomics and Makeswift kept as product brands. The 2026 plans are tied to sales volume and to which payment provider you use. Storefronts can now be built either as Stencil themes or as headless sites on Catalyst, an open-source framework built on Next.js.

How do the plans and fees compare as of October 2026?

Prices change and differ by country, so check the vendor pages before you decide. The figures below were read from each vendor's pricing page on 29 October 2026. BigCommerce shows US dollars; Shopify shows prices by country, and we quote its Canadian page.

BigCommerce (USD) Shopify (CAD, Canadian page)
Entry plan Core: $39/mo, or $29/mo billed annually, up to $30K trailing-12-month sales (GMV) Basic: $49/mo, or $37/mo billed yearly
Mid plan Growth: $105/mo, or $79/mo billed annually, up to $100K Grow: $132/mo, or $99/mo billed yearly
Upper plan Scale: $399/mo, or $299/mo billed annually, for $33,333/month GMV, with 0.9% on GMV above that Advanced: $517/mo, or $389/mo billed yearly
Enterprise Performance: custom pricing, starting at $1,499/mo billed annually Plus: starts at $3,400 CAD/mo
Extra fee when you use another payment provider Open Payment Provider Fee: 2.0% (Core), 1.0% (Growth), 0.6% (Scale), 0.0% with contract (Performance); $0 with embedded payment providers Third-party transaction fee: 2% on Basic, lower on higher plans
Does the plan change with sales? Yes: Core and Growth upgrade automatically when you pass their sales limit Not tied to a sales band on the pricing page

Two points are easy to miss. On BigCommerce, a store that grows past its plan limit is moved up a plan, so model next year's sales, not this year's. On both platforms, the payment set-up can cost more than the plan: a store using its existing gateway pays the BigCommerce Open Payment Provider Fee or Shopify's third-party transaction fee, on top of the gateway's own card rates. Card processing rates for each platform's own payment service are listed on the same pricing pages and vary by country.

Agency and app costs are not publicly comparable, because they depend on the apps you install and the work you commission.

Where is BigCommerce stronger?

Customer groups and custom pricing. BigCommerce lists customer groups and segmentation from the Growth plan, for pricing, product access and promotions. Price lists with SKU-level pricing per customer group are listed on the Performance plan. That suits wholesalers, trade customers or members who see different prices.

B2B selling. B2B Edition adds company accounts with credit and net terms, a built-in quoting tool, purchase orders, buyer roles and shared shopping lists. If a large share of your orders are from business buyers, compare it line by line with Shopify B2B on the plan you would actually use.

Your choice of payment provider. Because BigCommerce's extra fee depends on plan and provider, a high-volume store on the Performance plan with a contract can use an outside provider without that fee. Check the current list of embedded providers on the pricing page.

Several storefronts. Multi-storefront is an add-on on Core, Growth and Scale, with a limit on the number of storefronts per plan, so one catalogue and back office can serve several brands or regions.

Headless on Next.js. Catalyst is BigCommerce's composable storefront framework, built on Next.js and React and using the GraphQL Storefront API. It suits teams who already work in Next.js; see our Next.js development page for what that involves.

Where is Shopify stronger?

Simplicity and ecosystem. Shopify is built for merchants to run themselves, with a theme store and an app store covering most common needs. For a direct-to-consumer brand with a straightforward catalogue, that keeps later changes cheap, because many of them need an app setting rather than a developer.

Selling in person. Shopify POS runs in-store sales on the same system as the online store, with POS Pro priced per location on its pricing page.

B2B on smaller plans. Shopify's help centre says B2B is available on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus; the Canadian pricing page lists up to 3 B2B catalogs on lower plans and unlimited catalogs on Plus.

Built-in tools. The pricing page lists its Sidekick AI assistant, selling on social channels and marketplaces, and selling in AI chats as included features. Shopify Payments keeps payments, fraud analysis and payouts in one place.

Headless on React. Hydrogen is Shopify's headless toolkit, and Shopify's documentation uses Oxygen, its own hosting, as the deployment target. For a theme build, Shopify uses Liquid templates and JSON templates made of reusable sections.

When does BigCommerce fit, and when does Shopify?

Your situation Usually the better starting point
Wholesale and retail from one store, with group pricing BigCommerce (customer groups, price lists, B2B Edition)
You must keep an existing payment provider Compare the BigCommerce Open Payment Provider Fee with Shopify's third-party fee at your volume
One brand, consumer sales, small team Shopify
Shop plus physical retail on one system Shopify (POS)
Several brands from one catalogue and back office BigCommerce multi-storefront add-on; on Shopify, compare the regional selling features of the plan you would use
Headless storefront Catalyst (Next.js) or Hydrogen (React): pick by your team's framework
Sales rising fast Model BigCommerce's automatic plan upgrades against Shopify's plan prices

If neither fits, for example you need full control of the code and hosting, WooCommerce or Magento may be the better base. Our ecommerce development page covers those platforms, and the step-by-step plan for building a store covers the decisions that come before the platform.

What should you check before you move a store?

  1. Total cost at next year's volume: plan, payment fees, apps, and themes or development.
  2. Payments: which providers you need in each country, and the fee each platform adds.
  3. Catalogue: variant counts, product options, custom fields and filtering.
  4. B2B rules: price lists, quotes, payment terms and buyer roles.
  5. Integrations: ERP, accounting, shipping and fulfilment, and marketing tools.
  6. SEO during migration: a full URL map and 301 redirects from every old product, category and content URL. Our redirects guide explains how.

How can Impinge help?

We build and customise BigCommerce stores: Stencil themes, store set-up, apps and integrations such as shipping and fulfilment, and migrations from other platforms. We also build Shopify themes and apps and run Shopify migrations. You own the theme code and customisations we write for you. See BigCommerce development to talk through your store.

FAQ

Is BigCommerce cheaper than Shopify?

It depends on your sales and payment set-up. As of October 2026, BigCommerce's entry plan is $39 USD a month and Shopify's Canadian entry plan is $49 CAD a month, but BigCommerce moves you up a plan as sales grow, and both platforms add a fee when you use an outside payment provider. Compare total cost at your expected volume.

Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees?

As of October 2026, there is no extra fee for orders through its embedded payment providers. Orders through other ("open") payment providers carry an Open Payment Provider Fee of 2.0% on Core, 1.0% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale, and 0.0% on Performance with a contract.

Which is better for B2B?

Both support B2B. BigCommerce offers customer groups from Growth, price lists on Performance and a B2B Edition with company accounts, quotes and purchase orders. Shopify B2B is on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus, with more catalogs on Plus. Compare the exact features on the plan you would buy.

Can I build a headless store on either platform?

Yes. BigCommerce offers Catalyst, an open-source framework on Next.js; Shopify offers Hydrogen, its headless toolkit, which can deploy to Shopify's Oxygen hosting. Headless adds development and hosting work, so use it when a theme cannot do what you need.

Can I move from Shopify to BigCommerce, or the other way?

Yes. Products, customers and orders can be migrated, but themes and apps must be rebuilt or replaced, and every old URL needs a 301 redirect to keep search traffic.

Is BigCommerce still BigCommerce after the Commerce rebrand?

Yes. The company became Commerce.com, Inc. in 2025, and BigCommerce continues as its ecommerce platform brand alongside Feedonomics and Makeswift.

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