Shopify vs BigCommerce: a 2026 comparison

Plans, fees and features are from BigCommerce’s pricing pages, developer documentation and press releases, and from Shopify’s pricing pages and help centre, checked on 30 October 2026. BigCommerce changed its plans on 1 June 2026, so older comparisons that use the names Standard, Plus, Pro and Enterprise are out of date. Check the sources listed at the end before you decide.

BigCommerce is the platform most like Shopify. Both are hosted software, both serve brands from start-ups to large retailers, and both sell direct and to trade. The differences are in how each charges as you grow, how open the storefront and checkout are, and how much is built in. This guide compares the two as they stand in 2026, after BigCommerce renamed its parent company and rebuilt its pricing.

The short answer

• BigCommerce and Shopify are both hosted platforms that handle hosting, security and upgrades for you.
• BigCommerce plans are capped by your sales over the past 12 months, and stores move up a plan automatically when they pass the cap. Since June 2026, BigCommerce’s self-serve plans also charge a fee on orders paid through payment providers outside its list of 21 embedded providers.
• BigCommerce has fuller B2B tools in its B2B Edition, including quotes, buyer approvals and a buyer portal, and an open-source headless storefront, Catalyst.
• Shopify has a far larger app ecosystem, a hosted checkout that Plus brands can customise without taking on PCI scope, and around 50 times BigCommerce’s share of ecommerce sites. For most direct-to-consumer and mixed D2C and trade brands, it is the safer long-term choice.

BigCommerce and Shopify in 2026

BigCommerce Holdings changed its name to Commerce.com, Inc. in July 2025, and its Nasdaq ticker moved from BIGC to CMRC. Commerce is now the parent of three brands: BigCommerce, the Feedonomics product feed service and the Makeswift visual editor. In April 2026 Rezolve Ai said in a US filing that it had made an all-share offer for Commerce.com and that the board had rejected it. We found no later agreement.

Shopify vs BigCommerce at a glance

Source: BigCommerce pricing page and plan update notice, BigCommerce developer documentation, Shopify UK pricing page and help centre, and W3Techs, 30 October 2026.

Plans, fees and growth

This is where the two now differ most. On 1 June 2026 BigCommerce replaced Standard, Plus, Pro and Enterprise with Core, Growth, Scale and Performance. Each self-serve plan has a limit on gross merchandise value over the trailing 12 months. Core and Growth move up automatically when a store passes the limit, Scale charges 0.9% on sales above its monthly cap, and stores move to Performance once trailing sales reach a set level. Performance has its own monthly cap, with 0.6% charged on sales above it. BigCommerce publishes its prices in US dollars only, including on its UK site, so UK brands should allow for exchange rates.

BigCommerce used to say it charged no transaction fees. Since June 2026, its self-serve plans charge an ‘Open Payment Provider Fee’ on orders paid through a provider outside its list of 21 embedded providers, which includes Adyen, Checkout.com, Klarna, PayPal, Stripe and Worldpay. Performance has no such fee.

Shopify’s Basic, Grow and Advanced plans are not capped by sales. You choose a plan for its features and move up when you need to. Shopify Plus starts at a fixed monthly fee, and some higher-volume businesses pay a variable fee instead. Shopify charges a transaction fee only if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, falling from 2% on Basic to 0.2% on Plus. Shopify publishes its prices for each country in local currency (see Shopify vs Shopify Plus).

For a growing brand, the practical question is what each platform charges at your sales level next year, not this year. On BigCommerce, the plan is set by your sales. On Shopify, it is set by the features you need.

Storefronts and design

BigCommerce offers two ways to build the storefront. Stencil is its traditional theme engine, based on Handlebars, and the quickest route to launch. Catalyst is an open-source headless storefront built as a standard Next.js application, which can be hosted on Vercel, with BigCommerce’s own storefront hosting in closed beta. Makeswift, BigCommerce’s visual editor, works with Catalyst so marketers can edit pages without a developer.

Shopify themes are built in Liquid and edited in the theme editor, with sections and blocks that marketers can rearrange. Hydrogen is Shopify’s headless framework for brands that want a custom front end. For most brands, a native Shopify theme is faster to build and cheaper to run than a headless store. We moved Allbirds’ Canada and South Korea stores from headless back to native Shopify. See headless to native Shopify.

Checkout and PCI compliance

BigCommerce lets developers build their own checkout with its Checkout SDK, using its open-source checkout as a starting point. That gives more freedom than Shopify’s checkout. BigCommerce validates as a PCI DSS service provider each year, but says a merchant whose custom storefront or checkout changes how card data flows must keep its own PCI certification with a qualified assessor.

Shopify hosts its own checkout and is certified as a Level 1 PCI DSS provider. On Shopify Plus, brands customise the checkout with checkout extensions, Shopify Functions and the Checkout Branding API, without taking card data into their own code. Shopify Payments and Shop Pay are built in.

B2B

BigCommerce’s B2B Edition is its strongest ground. BigCommerce describes it as its enterprise-level B2B offering, sold through its sales team. It covers company accounts with several tiers, buyer roles, quotes raised by sales staff, a buyer portal, purchase orders, shopping lists, price lists, approval controls and an invoice portal.

Source: BigCommerce B2B Edition support article and app listing, and Shopify help centre, B2B features by plan.

If your trade customers rely on formal quotes and multi-step approvals, check how a Shopify app would handle them before you choose. For most brands selling direct and to trade, Shopify’s built-in B2B covers what they use. Funkin Cocktails runs direct and trade sales on Shopify Plus. See Shopify B2B.

Several stores and countries

BigCommerce runs several storefronts from one store, each with its own currency, price lists, checkout, payments, shipping and tax, with extra storefronts charged on each plan. Multi-language storefronts became generally available in August 2026. Selling in several transactional currencies needs a Stencil theme, BigCommerce’s one-page checkout and a payment gateway that supports it.

Shopify Markets sells in other countries from one store with local currencies, languages, domains and prices, on every plan. Shopify Plus adds up to nine expansion stores for separate brands, countries or wholesale. Ceva runs four brands, more than 20 sites and eight countries on one Shopify Plus codebase that we built. See international expansion.

Apps and integrations

BigCommerce lists over 1,200 apps. The Shopify App Store lists over 16,000. Most email, subscription, review, loyalty and search tools support both. Check that every app you rely on today has a version on the platform you choose.

API limits matter for brands with an ERP, warehouse or product data system. BigCommerce’s Scale plan allows 60,000 API requests an hour and Core and Growth 20,000, with Performance limits set per plan and resource. Shopify Plus allows 1,000 GraphQL points a second on its Admin API, ten times the standard rate. See ERP integration.

Peak trading

BigCommerce says it has delivered 100% uptime during every Cyber Week since 2016, and 99.98% or better since 2009. Over Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025, Shopify served more than 81 million shoppers and peaked at 489 million requests a minute at its edge. On both platforms, peak capacity is the platform’s problem, not yours.

What it costs to run

Compare the two at the sales level you expect in two or three years, not today:

• Plan fee, and where your sales put you on BigCommerce’s caps
• Overage charges above the cap
• Fees for your chosen payment provider
• Payment processing rates
• Apps, and any features that need an app on one platform but not the other
• Extra storefronts or expansion stores
• Build, support and your team’s time

Our Shopify Plus total cost of ownership calculator adds up the Shopify side.

When BigCommerce still makes sense

• Your trade customers need quotes, approvals and a buyer portal built into the platform.
• You want to build your own checkout and can take on the PCI work that comes with it.
• You want a headless Next.js storefront and like Catalyst’s open-source starting point.
• You want to use a payment provider from BigCommerce’s embedded list without a platform fee.

When Shopify is the better fit

• You sell direct to consumers, or direct and to trade.
• You want to choose your plan by the features you need.
• You rely on apps for subscriptions, loyalty, reviews or retention.
• You want a hosted checkout that converts well and stays out of your PCI scope.
• You want the largest pool of partners, developers and apps to choose from.

Moving from BigCommerce to Shopify

A BigCommerce to Shopify migration moves products, customers, historical orders and content, and sets up a redirect from every old URL so you keep search rankings. Shopify’s free Store Migration app does not support BigCommerce, so larger moves use a tool such as Matrixify, which connects to the BigCommerce API, or a custom script. Order history needs its own export. Reviews, wishlists and loyalty points live in apps and need separate steps.

Customer passwords cannot be moved. Shopify’s new customer accounts sign shoppers in with a one-time code sent by email, so no password is needed.

Shopify’s own case studies include Lull and Crossrope, both of which moved from BigCommerce. We have moved brands to Shopify from Magento, WooCommerce, Visualsoft and custom platforms, including LSA International in six weeks. See Shopify migration.

Questions to ask before you choose

• What will your sales be in two years, and which BigCommerce plan would that put you on?
• Which payment provider do you use, and is it on BigCommerce’s embedded list?
• Do your trade customers use quotes and approvals, and how often?
• How much do you want to change the checkout, and who will own its PCI compliance?
• Which apps do you rely on, and do they work on both platforms?
• How many stores, countries and languages do you need?

FAQs

Who owns BigCommerce?

BigCommerce is a brand of Commerce.com, Inc., listed on the Nasdaq as CMRC. The company was called BigCommerce Holdings until July 2025.

What are BigCommerce’s plans in 2026?

Core, Growth, Scale and Performance. They replaced Standard, Plus, Pro and Enterprise on 1 June 2026.

Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees?

Since June 2026, its self-serve plans charge a fee on orders paid through a provider outside its 21 embedded payment providers: 2.0% on Core, 1.0% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale. Performance has no such fee.

Is Shopify better than BigCommerce?

For most direct-to-consumer and mixed D2C and trade brands, yes: it has more apps and partners, a hosted checkout and plans chosen by features rather than sales caps. BigCommerce suits brands that need built-in B2B quoting and approvals or want to build their own checkout.

Is BigCommerce cheaper than Shopify?

It depends on your sales and payment provider. BigCommerce plans are set by sales over the past 12 months. Compare both at the sales level you expect in two or three years.

Will we lose SEO rankings moving from BigCommerce to Shopify?

Not if the migration maps every old URL to a redirect, keeps page titles and content, and is checked in Search Console after launch.

Can customers keep their passwords?

No. Passwords cannot be moved from BigCommerce to Shopify. With Shopify’s new customer accounts, customers sign in with a one-time code by email.

Sources

Checked on 30 October 2026: BigCommerce pricing, 2026 plan and pricing updates and self-serve pricing changes; Commerce launch press release and FAQ; Rezolve Ai’s April 2026 filing; BigCommerce developer documentation on Catalyst, storefronts, the Checkout SDK, PCI compliance, currencies, multi-storefront and API rate limits; BigCommerce B2B Edition, apps, site performance and multi-language storefronts; Shopify UK pricing, Plus pricing, security, BFCM 2025 data, BigCommerce migration guide, Lull and Crossrope case studies; Shopify help centre pages on B2B plan features and importing customers; Shopify Store Migration app; Shopify App Store; W3Techs usage statistics for BigCommerce and Shopify.