Pricing
free trial
Best For
Growing stores tired of paying for Shopify apps to get basic features
Rating
8.2/10
Last Updated
Mar 2026
TL;DR
BigCommerce is what you pick when you're tired of paying for Shopify apps. It ships more features out of the box than any competitor — real-time shipping quotes, faceted search, multi-currency, and B2B all included. No transaction fees on any plan. The trade-off? Fewer themes, a smaller app ecosystem, and annual revenue caps that force you to upgrade plans.
What is BigCommerce?
The Feature-Rich Alternative
BigCommerce has been around since 2009 and went public in 2020. It powers around 60,000 stores including brands like Ben & Jerry's, Skullcandy, and Burrow. While Shopify gets the headlines, BigCommerce has quietly built a platform that includes most features merchants actually need without requiring paid apps.
What Comes Included
This is BigCommerce's strongest selling point. Features that cost $30-100/month in Shopify apps are baked in: faceted product filtering, real-time carrier shipping quotes, multi-currency support, abandoned cart recovery (from the Standard plan), and native B2B/wholesale pricing. The SEO tools are genuinely better than competitors — customizable URLs, automatic 301 redirects, and microdata markup. You won't need an SEO app.
The Revenue Cap Problem
Here's the gotcha. BigCommerce enforces annual revenue limits per plan: $50K on Standard, $180K on Plus, $400K on Pro. Exceed the cap and you're auto-upgraded. A store doing $200K/year is forced onto the Pro plan at $299/month. This annoys successful merchants who feel punished for growing. Shopify doesn't have revenue caps.
Headless Commerce
BigCommerce has invested heavily in headless architecture. You can use the BigCommerce backend for products, orders, and payments while building your frontend in Next.js, Gatsby, or any framework. The API is well-documented and robust. For developers building custom storefronts, it's arguably a better headless backend than Shopify's.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Zero transaction fees on every plan — you only pay your payment processor
- More built-in features than any SaaS competitor: faceted search, multi-currency, B2B pricing included
- SEO capabilities are the strongest among hosted platforms — customizable URLs and automatic 301s
- Headless commerce API is excellent for developers building custom React or Next.js frontends
- Supports 65+ payment gateways natively without extra fees or plugins
Cons
- Annual revenue caps ($50K-$400K) force plan upgrades as your store grows
- Theme marketplace is small — roughly 200 themes vs Shopify's 190+ free and 1,300+ paid
- App ecosystem has ~1,300 apps compared to Shopify's 8,000+ options
- Dashboard UI feels dated compared to Shopify and Squarespace
- Checkout page customization is limited unless you use the headless Checkout SDK
BigCommerce Pricing
Standard
- Unlimited products
- Unlimited staff
- Multi-currency
- Faceted search
- Abandoned cart saver
- Up to $50K annual revenue
Plus
- Everything in Standard
- Customer groups & segmentation
- Stored credit cards
- Persistent cart
- Up to $180K annual revenue
Pro
- Everything in Plus
- Google customer reviews
- Custom product filtering
- Custom SSL
- Up to $400K annual revenue
Enterprise
- Everything in Pro
- Unlimited API calls
- Priority support
- Custom facets
- Price lists
- No revenue cap
Pricing last verified: March 25, 2026
Who is BigCommerce Best For?
- Growing stores tired of paying for Shopify apps to get basic features
- B2B and wholesale businesses needing customer-specific pricing without add-ons
- SEO-focused merchants who want granular control over URLs and structured data
- Development teams building headless commerce with modern frontend frameworks
Technical Details
The Bottom Line
BigCommerce scores 8.2/10. It stands out for zero transaction fees on every plan — you only pay your payment processor. Best suited for growing stores tired of paying for shopify apps to get basic features. Keep in mind that annual revenue caps ($50k-$400k) force plan upgrades as your store grows.
Frequently Asked Questions
Based on editorial analysis