Shopify vs BigCommerce.
Shopify for most stores, because its plan price does not rise with your sales. BigCommerce when you want a payment provider other than Shopify Payments without a fee, several storefronts on one back end, or B2B price lists. BigCommerce renamed its plans on 1 June 2026 to Core, Growth, Scale and Performance and tied each one to a sales cap. Below is each platform on price, caps, payment fees, staff, B2B, storefronts, checkout, apps, SEO, migration and support, from the vendors' own pages on 10 November 2026.
Thirteen questions, two hosted platforms.
Prices are US list prices in US dollars, billed yearly unless a monthly figure is given. Both vendors price by region, so check the figure for your country.
| Question | Shopify | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A hosted commerce platform for online, in-person and marketplace sales, with its own payments (Shopify Payments), POS and app store. Plus is the top plan for larger businesses. | A hosted commerce platform it calls Open SaaS, with B2B tools, multiple storefronts and more than 20 built-in payment providers. Performance is the contract plan for larger businesses. |
| Plan prices | Basic $19, Grow $49, Advanced $299 a month billed yearly; $25, $65 and $399 billed monthly. Plus from $2,300 a month. | Core $29, Growth $79, Scale $299 a month billed annually; $39, $105 and $399 billed monthly. Performance is custom, from $1,499 a month billed annually. |
| Sales caps | None on Basic, Grow or Advanced. The plan price is fixed at any sales level. | Each plan has a cap on trailing-12-month GMV (gross order value minus 10%): Core $30K, Growth $100K, then an automatic upgrade. Scale covers $33,333 a month and charges 0.9% on GMV above it, and moves to Performance at $2M. |
| Fee on other payment providers | 2% of each order on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus when a third-party provider takes the payment. PayPal is exempt when Shopify Payments is your primary provider. | The Open Payment Provider Fee, since 1 June 2026: 2% on Core, 1% on Growth, 0.6% on Scale, none on Performance under contract. Orders through the Embedded Payment Providers (more than 20), including Stripe, Adyen, PayPal and Braintree, pay $0. |
| Card rates | Shopify Payments, US online: 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow, 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced. In person: 2.6%, 2.5% and 2.4% + 10¢. | Set by the provider you choose. The pricing page says PayPal Braintree card processing starts at 2.89% + $0.29 on every plan, with negotiated rates for US businesses on Growth and above. American Express online is 3.50%. |
| Staff accounts | None on Basic, up to 5 on Grow, up to 15 on Advanced, unlimited on Plus. | Listed on every plan with no cap given on the pricing page. The Performance page says unlimited. |
| B2B | On every plan: companies, net payment terms, PO numbers, draft orders and up to 3 active catalogs. Plus adds unlimited catalogs, catalogs assigned to specific companies, deposits and partial payments. | Customer groups for pricing and product access on Growth and up; Price Lists (SKU-level prices per customer group) on Performance. The B2B page also lists buyer portals, quotes, company hierarchies and net terms, without saying which plan includes them. |
| Multiple storefronts | A second store is a second plan on Basic to Advanced. Plus includes expansion stores. | Multi-Storefront add-on: $30 a month per storefront on Core (up to 3), $50 on Growth (up to 5), $100 on Scale (up to 8), through sales on Performance. All run from one control panel. |
| Checkout | One Shopify checkout on every plan. Shopify rates checkout customization as limited on Basic to Advanced and full on Plus. | A single-page checkout on every plan. The Performance page lists a fully customizable checkout. |
| Apps | The pricing page says you can integrate with thousands of apps from the Shopify App Store. | Over 1,200 apps in the BigCommerce marketplace, by BigCommerce's own count. |
| SEO | Sitemaps are generated and updated automatically. robots.txt can be edited through a robots.txt.liquid template, which Shopify calls an unsupported customization. Products and collections sit under fixed /products and /collections paths. | URL structure for products, categories and pages can be changed, with SEO Optimized (Short) as the default. Renaming a product sets up a 301 redirect automatically. robots.txt is editable, and product pages carry rich-snippet microdata. |
| Migration | Shopify's guide offers its Store Migration app, CSV imports, other migration apps, a Shopify Partner or a custom build on its APIs. Import products first, then customers, then orders. | BigCommerce sells migration services and says it adds no platform charge for a migration; the cost depends on scope. Its site names Shopify, WooCommerce, Salesforce and Magento as sources. |
| Support | Live chat on Basic and Grow, enhanced live chat on Advanced, priority 24/7 phone support on Plus. | 24/7 chat and email on every plan. Phone support is $29 a month on Core and included on Growth and up; express routing ($99) and priority support ($199 on Scale) cost extra. |
Read on each vendor's own pages on 10 November 2026; the sources are listed below. Prices are US dollars and billed yearly unless a monthly figure is given. For Shopify's top plan, see Shopify vs Shopify Plus, and for BigCommerce's full price list and caps, see BigCommerce pricing. Plans change often, so check the source before you budget.
Each is the right answer for someone.
Choose Shopify when
FitsYou take payment through Shopify Payments, want a plan price that stays the same as sales grow, and sell in person as well as online. Basic to Advanced cover most single stores.
Watch forBelow Plus, a third-party payment provider costs 0.6% to 2% of sales on top of its own fees (PayPal is exempt alongside Shopify Payments), and product and collection URLs keep Shopify's fixed paths. Checkout changes beyond apps need Plus.
Choose BigCommerce when
FitsYou want Stripe, Adyen, Braintree or another provider on BigCommerce's embedded list with no platform fee, several storefronts from one back end, or B2B price lists per customer group.
Watch forThe plan follows your sales: past $100K a year in GMV you are on Scale at $299 a month, with 0.9% on monthly GMV above $33,333. Price Lists need Performance, which is a contract from $1,499 a month.
Choose by B2B needs when
FitsWholesale is a real share of sales. Shopify gives every plan companies, terms and three catalogs. BigCommerce puts customer groups on Growth and SKU-level Price Lists on Performance.
Watch forCompare at the plan you would actually need: Shopify Plus from $2,300 a month for company-specific catalogs, BigCommerce Performance from $1,499 a month for Price Lists.
Stay where you are when
FitsYour store works, the fees are known and the problem is traffic or conversion. A team that runs the store month to month usually earns more than a move.
Watch forA replatform moves products, customers, orders, URLs and every integration, and each has to be checked. Do it for a reason you can write down.
What one store pays on each, as an example.
Our arithmetic on the prices above, checked on 10 November 2026, for a store with $1,000,000 a year in gross online sales spread evenly over the year. It is an example, not a quote.
$588 or $8,088 a year
Shopify Grow stays at $588 a year at any sales level; Advanced is $3,588. On BigCommerce, $1,000,000 gross is $900,000 of GMV, which puts the store on Scale: $3,588 a year plus 0.9% on about $41,667 a month above the cap, so about $8,088 a year. A $250,000 store ($225,000 GMV) is also past Growth's cap and pays $3,588 on Scale.
Where BigCommerce gets it back
If the same store takes every order through a third-party provider, Shopify Advanced adds 0.6%, or $6,000 a year, before that provider's own fees. On BigCommerce, a provider on the embedded list (Stripe, Adyen, Braintree and others) carries no platform fee. On Shopify Payments the Shopify fee is $0 too, so the gap matters only if you have a reason to keep another provider.
The build is quoted separately
A store build with us on Shopify or BigCommerce starts at $9,000 fixed, from 6 weeks; Shopify Plus, B2B and multi-storefront builds are quoted higher, as a fixed price. A move from one platform to the other starts at $7,000 fixed, with every old URL redirected. Ongoing development is an embedded team at $3,000–$7,500 per engineer per month. What each includes.
Where each fact came from.
All read on 10 November 2026.
Do not choose on the headline plan price. Write down your yearly sales, the payment provider you want to keep, how many storefronts you need and whether wholesale buyers need their own prices, then price both platforms for that. We are a Shopify Partner and not a BigCommerce partner, and we build on both, so we will tell you when BigCommerce is the better fit.
Shopify vs BigCommerce
Shopify vs BigCommerce: which is cheaper?
It depends on your sales. Checked on 10 November 2026, Shopify's plan price is fixed: Grow is $49 a month billed yearly at any sales level. BigCommerce moves you up as sales grow: past $100K a year in GMV you are on Scale at $299 a month plus 0.9% on monthly GMV above $33,333. On our arithmetic a $1,000,000 store pays about $8,088 a year on BigCommerce Scale against $588 on Shopify Grow, before payment fees.
What are BigCommerce's new plan names?
On 1 June 2026 BigCommerce renamed Standard to Core, Plus to Growth, Pro to Scale and Enterprise to Performance. Core and Growth kept the old prices ($29 and $79 a month billed annually), Scale kept Pro's $299 base price, and Performance starts at $1,499 a month on a contract. The sales caps changed at the same time, and a fee on Open Payment Providers was added.
Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees?
Not on orders through its Embedded Payment Providers, a list of more than 20 that includes BigCommerce Payments, Stripe, Adyen, PayPal, Braintree and Klarna. Since 1 June 2026, orders through any other provider pay an Open Payment Provider Fee of 2% on Core, 1% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale; Performance under contract pays none. Your payment provider's own processing fees are separate.
Does Shopify charge transaction fees?
Not on Shopify Payments. When a third-party provider takes the payment, Shopify charges 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, on top of that provider's own fees. PayPal orders are exempt when Shopify Payments is your primary provider. Shopify Payments' US online card rates were 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic to 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced.
Is BigCommerce or Shopify better for B2B?
Both sell B2B. Shopify gives every plan companies, net terms, PO numbers and up to three active catalogs, and Plus adds unlimited catalogs and catalogs assigned to specific companies. BigCommerce puts customer groups on Growth and up and SKU-level Price Lists on Performance, and markets buyer portals, quotes and company hierarchies. Price the plan your wholesale rules actually need on each.
Which is better for SEO, Shopify or BigCommerce?
Both generate sitemaps and let you edit robots.txt. BigCommerce lets you change the URL structure for products, categories and pages and sets up 301 redirects when you rename a product. Shopify keeps products and collections under fixed /products and /collections paths, and redirects only work from URLs that no longer resolve. Rankings depend far more on content and links than on either platform.
Can I run several stores on one account?
On BigCommerce, yes: the Multi-Storefront add-on costs $30 a month per storefront on Core (up to 3), $50 on Growth (up to 5) and $100 on Scale (up to 8), all managed from one control panel. On Shopify, each store below Plus is its own plan; Plus includes expansion stores.
What does Gigabit charge to build or migrate a store?
A store build on Shopify or BigCommerce starts at $9,000 fixed, covering a custom theme, up to 500 products, payments, shipping, tax and up to three integrations. Shopify Plus, B2B and multi-storefront builds are quoted higher. A migration between the two starts at $7,000 fixed. We are a Shopify Partner; platform fees are paid to the vendor.
Where to go next.
BigCommerce
Store builds, B2B set-ups, multi-storefront and migrations onto BigCommerce.
BigCommerceShopify
Store builds, theme work, apps and migrations onto Shopify, from a Shopify Partner.
ShopifyBigCommerce pricing
Every BigCommerce plan, cap and fee, and what a store pays at each sales level.
BigCommerce pricingGigabit for Ecommerce
For a store already live: one team that runs its search, marketplaces and upkeep on a flat monthly plan.
Gigabit for Ecommerce
Price both platforms for your sales, not the headline.
Thirty minutes on your yearly sales, payment provider, storefronts and wholesale rules, and which of the two fits them.