BigCommerce review: Exploring features, pricing, and more

Our Verdict

Our Verdict

BigCommerce is a popular e-commerce platform that allows businesses to create online stores and sell products or services over the internet. It provides a range of features and tools to help users build and manage their online stores, including customizable website templates, payment processing, inventory management, and marketing tools. BigCommerce is known for its scalability, making it suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises. It offers a range of pricing plans to accommodate different business needs.

Pros

• It integrates with a variety of top payment gateways.
• It includes a free dedicated SSL for site-wide HTTPS
• Every package includes unlimited staff accounts, making it ideal for teams
• There are no platform fees, commission fees, or transaction fees on any plan
• It offers integrations with marketplaces and social media platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Facebook

Cons

• Some features may incur additional costs
• Beginners may encounter a slight learning curve
• Revenue-led billing could pose challenges for some companies
• Small-scale sellers might perceive the product as overly complex

4.4

Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$39 per month

Unlimited bandwidth

Yes, with all plans

Templates

Yes, however, not all are free

How BigCommerce works?

BigCommerce is a comprehensive e-commerce platform that enables users to create online stores without needing to code. It allows connectivity to multiple inventory locations and offers unlimited product listings. It encompasses essential elements for building, managing, and expanding an online store, such as web hosting, blogging capabilities, SEO features for better search engine rankings, built-in security measures, and various tools to enhance online sales efficiency.

BigCommerce core features

BigCommerce focuses on aiding small businesses in improving their online sales directly from their own website, without requiring coding skills. It offers pre-designed templates, a user-friendly site editor, integrated SEO tools, and various sales-oriented features.

Template variety

BigCommerce provides a diverse template library, referred to as a "marketplace," with numerous well-crafted e-commerce templates covering various categories like electronics, fashion, food, health, beauty, automotive, and sports. While the platform offers a good range of templates, it has limited free options. The free templates are notably less impressive compared to the premium ones, which range from around $100 to over $300. This cost for premium templates might surprise users accustomed to free options from other website builders.

Drag-and-drop site editor

While BigCommerce does offer a drag-and-drop site editor, it is quite different from others in the market. It is notably limited in design customization because it constructs your site using your products. For instance, any changes to the copy would require edits to the product listing itself. Similarly, users cannot customize the menu or use product categories as menu options directly from the editor. Additionally, while users can adjust the size of the logo, they cannot change it from the site editor.

Sales channels

BigCommerce is tailored to integrate your online store with major marketplaces like Amazon, Amazon Prime, Facebook, Walmart, and eBay. However, it lacks integration with several other significant platforms such as Etsy, Redbubble, and Zazzle, which may disappoint users who rely on these channels for sales.

Product reviews

BigCommerce includes a feature for product ratings and reviews, allowing customers to share feedback publicly. Customers can leave reviews from the live product page, which businesses can then approve or disapprove before publishing. The platform also offers integration with Google Reviews on its Pro plan, although this may not be highly useful for most businesses, as Google Reviews typically cover overall business ratings rather than specific product reviews.

Product library and inventory management

No e-commerce platform is complete without a product library and inventory management system. BigCommerce offers a straightforward navigation system, and its templates include demo content that users can customize. However, it may not be the most intuitive system available.

Setting up new products in BigCommerce is more akin to using WordPress than other website builders like Squarespace or Wix. Users need to configure components of a product listing outside of the actual listing. For instance, when creating a T-shirt listing, users must add variables such as size and color as individual variants, which are then added to the product listing, rather than creating these variants within the product listing itself.

What makes BigCommerce stand out?

BigCommerce distinguishes itself from most other website builders with its extensive e-commerce features and tools designed to simplify online selling. It appears tailored to businesses focused on online sales, offering a user-friendly platform that minimizes the need for extensive site management.

BigCommerce pricing and plans

Standard

The BigCommerce Standard plan starts at $29 per month with annual billing or $39 per month with monthly billing for businesses with up to $50,000 in revenue per year. It includes access to its template library, which offers about a dozen free templates and hundreds of paid templates for more unique web designs. The plan includes unlimited storage and bandwidth, unlimited products, and no additional transaction fees. It also provides features like real-time shipping quotes, product ratings and reviews, and the ability to offer coupons, discounts, and gift cards.

However, it lacks some features like abandoned cart recovery, custom product filters, and the ability to store credit cards, which may be important for businesses with specific needs or a varied product catalog that requires customized filters for a better user experience.

Plus

The Plus plan costs $79 per month with annual billing, totaling $948 per year, and accommodates businesses with up to $180,000 in annual revenue. This is a significant jump in price for businesses just exceeding the $50,000 per year threshold of the Standard plan, making BigCommerce a pricier option for small businesses aiming to scale affordably. The Plus plan includes additional features such as up to five storefronts and inventory locations, abandoned cart recovery, the ability to store credit cards, and customer segmentation.

Pro

The Pro plan starts at $299 per month with annual billing or $399 per month with month-to-month billing for businesses with up to eight storefronts and inventory locations. It includes all features from the Plus plan and accommodates a maximum online sales limit of $400,000. The plan offers features to enhance the shopping experience, including custom product filtering and integration with Google reviews. Most businesses typically find the Plus plan sufficient and upgrade to the Pro plan when they exceed the $180,000 maximum annual online sales limit of the Plus plan.

BigCommerce setup

Setting up your online store with BigCommerce is simple. Like with other website builders, users need to provide basic information to create an account. Once the account is created, users are taken to their new account dashboard. Here, they are presented with a step-by-step list of tasks to complete, such as adding products, selecting a shipping company, connecting a bank account, and setting up taxes.

To customize the appearance of your online store, known as the "storefront" in BigCommerce, navigate to "Storefront" in the left-hand vertical menu. From there, you can customize your template or choose a new one from the "Theme Marketplace."

BigCommerce ease of use

While BigCommerce may not be as user-friendly as some of its competitors, it provides thorough guidance for setting up essential elements of an online store. While other website builders may offer easier design processes, they often lack the same level of assistance for setting up crucial functions such as shipping, payments, and taxes.

In our experience, BigCommerce prioritizes the creation of a fully functional e-commerce site over simply creating an aesthetically pleasing online store that may lack proper functionality.

BigCommerce security

In general, BigCommerce is considered a secure platform for building websites. In addition to its built-in security features, it provides users with several options to enhance security for site visitors and customers. For instance, users can set up automatic customer logouts after a specified period, customize the display of the cookies banner, enable reCAPTCHA, and establish a limit on login attempts. This level of security customization exceeds what is typically offered by other website builders, which usually focus on features like two-factor authentication and user management with permissions.

BigCommerce customer service and support

Technical support is accessible round-the-clock via phone, live chat, and email. It is not only available 24/7 but also highly praised for its helpfulness, as per user reviews. Additionally, support can be easily accessed from within the user dashboard, eliminating the need to navigate to another platform for assistance.

Alternatives to BigCommerce and their comparisons

BigCommerce vs. Shopify

Shopify is BigCommerce's primary competitor, especially in the realm of e-commerce website building. Both platforms are not particularly user-friendly in terms of web design compared to other generic website builders. However, they excel in simplifying the process of creating online stores. While neither platform is the easiest to use, users generally find Shopify more user-friendly than BigCommerce. This is partly because BigCommerce offers more advanced features, leading to a steeper learning curve. For a comprehensive comparison of Shopify and BigCommerce, consider exploring their features in detail.

BigCommerce vs. Wix

Wix is a highly popular website builder known for its user-friendliness, even for e-commerce. Unlike BigCommerce, Wix is much easier to use and offers a vast template library, providing users with more design options. Another significant difference is that all Wix templates are free, whereas BigCommerce largely offers paid templates. Additionally, Wix doesn't have revenue caps like BigCommerce. However, Wix has lower storage limits, which might not be suitable for content-heavy online stores with large product galleries or libraries.

BigCommerce vs. Squarespace

Squarespace is a prominent website builder that also offers e-commerce features, though not as extensive as BigCommerce. Squarespace, however, is more user-friendly than BigCommerce, provides a wide range of free templates, and has a lower starting price of $23 per month (when billed annually), compared to BigCommerce's $29 per month. Generally, small businesses might find Squarespace more suitable, while larger e-commerce businesses may prefer BigCommerce for its more comprehensive feature set.

Who does BigCommerce cater to the most?

BigCommerce is the perfect choice for online businesses seeking to create and manage a website without needing to code, all while accessing a wide range of advanced e-commerce features and tools.

In summary, although BigCommerce is a well-regarded e-commerce solution, it may not be the ideal choice for every online store or business. Despite its code-free setup, it isn't especially beginner-friendly and requires a learning curve. Customizing web pages and product listings can also be more challenging compared to other website builders. Nevertheless, its advanced features cater to online retailers, making the learning curve worthwhile for those intending to leverage its full capabilities.