BigCommerce vs Shopify: Which is Better in 2026?
Shopify and BigCommerce are the two most directly competitive hosted ecommerce platforms at the SMB-to-mid-market tier, and the choice between them is almost always a question of ecosystem versus built-in depth. Shopify wins on merchant count, app marketplace (17,600+ apps), and ease of setup; BigCommerce wins on native feature density, no historically-added transaction fees, and stronger out-of-the-box B2B tooling. The tension sharpened in June 2026 when BigCommerce introduced an Open Payment Provider Fee, partially eroding its transaction-fee advantage and sending some merchants to reassess. If you are choosing between these two today, read this to understand which cost structure and feature set actually fits your GMV, payment setup, and B2B requirements.
Bottom line: Shopify is our overall pick for e-commerce workflows. Pick BigCommerce if you need e-commerce platforms.
Short on time? Here's the quick answer
We've tested both tools. Here's who should pick what:
BigCommerce
Enterprise e-commerce platform
Best for you if:
- • You need e-commerce platforms features specifically
- • BigCommerce is an e-commerce platform for building online stores
- • It provides hosting, payment processing, and tools for selling across channels
Shopify
Launch and grow your online store with ease
Best for you if:
- • You need e-commerce features specifically
- • E-commerce platform
- • Online store builder
| At a Glance |  BigCommerce |  Shopify |
|---|---|---|
Starts at | $39/moStandard | $29/moBasic |
Best For | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce |
Rating | 4.3/5 | 4.5/5 |
Choose BigCommerce or Shopify?
Choose BigCommerce if
Enterprise e-commerce platform
- No transaction fees
- Built-in features
- B2B capabilities
- Your work is e-commerce platforms-shaped, not e-commerce-shaped
Choose Shopify if
Launch and grow your online store with ease
- Easy to use
- All-in-one solution
- Great app ecosystem
- Your work is e-commerce-shaped, not e-commerce platforms-shaped
| Feature | BigCommerce | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing Model | Paid | Paid |
| User Rating | ★4.3/5 906 reviews | ★4.5/5 12,959 reviews |
| Categories | E-commerce PlatformsSEO Tools | E-commerceWebsite Builders |
In-Depth Analysis
BigCommerce
Strengths
- +Historically zero transaction fees regardless of payment provider; the June 2026 Open Payment Provider Fee only applies to non-embedded gateways and at lower rates than Shopify's equivalent surcharges on lower plans.
- +Significantly more built-in features at each plan tier: up to 600 product variant combinations, native bulk pricing, customer groups, wishlists, and persistent cart without additional app spend.
- +Multi-Storefront support lets a single account power multiple distinct storefronts (B2B and B2C, different regions, different brands) from one backend, a feature Shopify only offers at Plus tier.
- +Headless-first architecture via Catalyst framework provides a production-ready Next.js starter with native B2B, multi-storefront, and multi-language support, reducing custom development time substantially.
- +Feedonomics integration (acquired by BigCommerce) is included at no extra cost on Pro/Scale and above, giving merchants enterprise-grade product feed management for Google, Meta, and marketplaces.
Weaknesses
- -App marketplace and partner ecosystem are substantially smaller than Shopify's, meaning niche integrations are harder to find or require custom development.
- -The June 2026 Open Payment Provider Fee (2.0% Core, 1.0% Growth, 0.6% Scale) materially narrowed BigCommerce's historical no-fee advantage for merchants not using embedded providers.
- -GMV caps on self-serve plans are strict after the June 2026 restructure: Core caps at $30K annual GMV and Growth at $100K, forcing plan upgrades sooner than many merchants expect.
- -Brand recognition and merchant community are much smaller than Shopify's, making it harder to hire experienced developers and find community-sourced troubleshooting help.
Best For
BigCommerce is the right pick for mid-market merchants with complex catalogs, B2B or wholesale requirements, multi-storefront needs, or merchants using non-embedded payment processors who want to minimize fee exposure.
BigCommerce offers a more feature-complete platform per dollar at mid-market scale, and its headless and B2B capabilities are genuinely superior for merchants who need them. The June 2026 pricing changes weakened its core fee-free narrative for merchants outside embedded payment providers, but for the right buyer (complex catalogs, B2B, multi-storefront) BigCommerce still delivers more native value than Shopify at equivalent plan tiers.
Shopify
Strengths
- +Largest ecommerce app ecosystem with over 17,600 apps and 50,000+ partner developers, covering virtually every niche use case with vetted, competitive solutions.
- +Shopify Payments eliminates transaction fees entirely on all plans (Basic through Plus), and is available in 20+ countries, making it the cleanest cost structure when you use it.
- +Fastest onboarding and lowest learning curve of any hosted platform at this scale; most merchants have a production store live within days, not weeks.
- +Shopify POS is the most mature omnichannel retail integration in the market, deeply syncing in-store and online inventory, staff permissions, and reporting.
- +Shopify Markets and built-in currency/tax localization make cross-border DTC expansion significantly easier than on BigCommerce without added app spend.
Weaknesses
- -Third-party payment gateway fees remain a structural penalty: 2.0% on Basic, 1.0% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus. At scale with a specialist processor this is a material margin hit.
- -Many features that BigCommerce ships natively (advanced product filters, wishlists, bulk pricing, persistent cart) require paid apps on Shopify, creating compounding monthly costs as the store grows.
- -B2B capabilities below Shopify Plus are limited; while April 2026 changes opened some B2B features to all plans, wholesale-grade tools like company-level price lists and net payment terms are still Plus-only.
- -Product variant limit of 100 per product (3 options, 100 combinations) is a hard ceiling that forces workarounds for merchants with large configurable catalogs.
Best For
Shopify is the right pick for DTC brands, high-growth consumer retail, omnichannel merchants with physical stores, and any business that will use Shopify Payments as its primary processor.
Shopify is the dominant consumer ecommerce platform because its ecosystem, polish, and Shopify Payments economics are genuinely hard to match. The platform's weakness is structural: it monetizes non-Shopify-Payments merchants through transaction fees and app dependency. For pure DTC on Shopify Payments, it is close to unbeatable. For complex B2B or merchants committed to third-party gateways, the costs compound faster than the ecosystem benefits justify.
Head-to-Head Comparison
Pricing and total cost
TieBoth platforms start at $39/month on monthly billing (Shopify Basic, BigCommerce Core). Shopify's cost is lower only when using Shopify Payments; otherwise its third-party gateway fees (up to 2.0% on Basic) exceed BigCommerce's new Open Payment Provider Fee (2.0% Core, 1.0% Growth) at comparable plan tiers. For merchants on embedded providers, BigCommerce's lower GMV caps can force earlier plan upgrades that close the gap.
Built-in features
BigCommerce winsBigCommerce ships more at the core: 600-combination variant support, native bulk pricing, customer groups, persistent cart, and wishlists are included on all plans. Shopify merchants routinely pay $50-200/month in apps to replicate these, and the cumulative app bill at mid-market scale is a genuine cost center. BigCommerce's built-in catalog and pricing tools are a concrete advantage for merchants with complex product or pricing structures.
App ecosystem and integrations
Shopify winsShopify's 17,600+ app marketplace is four to five times larger than BigCommerce's catalog, with far more vetted options in every vertical. The depth of Shopify's ecosystem means a merchant can almost always find a mature, supported app rather than building custom. BigCommerce's smaller marketplace is a real operational risk for niche requirements, particularly for marketing automation and post-purchase flows.
B2B and wholesale
BigCommerce winsBigCommerce includes customer groups, price lists, bulk order forms, and quote management natively across multiple plan tiers, including its B2B Edition for enterprise. Shopify opened some B2B features to all plans in April 2026, but company-level accounts, net payment terms, and wholesale-grade price controls remain largely gated to Shopify Plus at $2,300/month. For dedicated B2B merchants, BigCommerce offers comparable functionality at a fraction of the cost.
Ease of use and onboarding
Shopify winsShopify's admin interface, onboarding flows, and theme editing experience are consistently rated easier by merchants switching from any platform. BigCommerce's admin is capable but less intuitive, and the platform's feature depth can overwhelm new users. For small merchants and first-time store builders, Shopify's learning curve is materially lower, which translates to faster time-to-revenue.
Headless and developer experience
BigCommerce winsBigCommerce's Catalyst framework provides a production-ready Next.js headless storefront with native B2B, multi-storefront, and multi-language support out of the box. Shopify Hydrogen is a strong headless option but requires Shopify-specific Remix conventions that some development teams find restrictive. BigCommerce's open API philosophy gives developers more flexibility in front-end stack choice, making it the stronger platform for teams prioritizing headless architecture.
Migration Considerations
Switching between these platforms requires rebuilding theme customizations, recreating discount codes and gift cards from scratch, and manually handling customer passwords; product, customer, and order data transfers cleanly via tools like LitExtension. Lock-in risk is moderate on both sides: Shopify's proprietary Liquid templating and app ecosystem create soft lock-in, while BigCommerce migrations are similarly non-trivial for stores with custom checkout or multi-storefront configurations.
Pricing: BigCommerce vs Shopify
| Plan | BigCommerce | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | $39 Standard | $29 Basic |
| Tier 2 | $105 Plus | $79 Grow |
| Tier 3 | $399 Pro | $299 Advanced |
| Tier 4 | Enterprise | $2,100+ Plus |
Pricing verified from each vendor's public pricing page. Compare in detail on BigCommerce pricing and Shopify pricing.
Who Should Use What?
On a budget?
Both are paid. Compare plans on their websites.
Go with: Shopify
Want the highest-rated option?
BigCommerce: 4.3/5 (906 reviews). Shopify: 4.5/5 (12,959 reviews).
Go with: Shopify
Value user reviews?
BigCommerce: 906 reviews (4.3/5). Shopify: 12,959 reviews (4.5/5).
Go with: Shopify
3 Questions to Help You Decide
What's your budget?
Both are paid. Pricing won't help you decide here.
What's your use case?
BigCommerce is a e-commerce platforms tool. Shopify is in e-commerce. Pick the category that matches your needs.
How important are ratings?
Shopify is rated higher: 4.5/5 vs 4.3/5.
Key Takeaways
Shopify
- Higher user rating: 4.5/5 vs 4.3/5
- Larger review base (12,959 reviews)
- Our pick for this comparison
BigCommerce
- Better fit for e-commerce platforms
The Bottom Line
Choose Shopify if you are a DTC brand, a physical retailer needing unified POS, or any merchant who will use Shopify Payments as the primary gateway. The ecosystem depth, ease of use, and fee-free economics on Shopify Payments make it the default winner for consumer commerce at most scales. Choose BigCommerce if you have complex B2B or wholesale requirements, need multi-storefront management below Plus-tier pricing, or are committed to a payment provider outside Shopify's ecosystem where Shopify's gateway surcharges would cost more than BigCommerce's plan. The June 2026 BigCommerce Open Payment Provider Fee narrowed the fee gap for non-embedded processors, but BigCommerce still wins on native feature depth and B2B tooling for the merchants who need those capabilities. For straightforward DTC stores on Shopify Payments, the decision is Shopify; for mid-market complexity and B2B, BigCommerce remains the stronger value.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does BigCommerce still have no transaction fees in 2026?
Partially. BigCommerce charges no transaction fees on orders processed through its Embedded Payment Providers (including Stripe, Braintree, and its native checkout options). However, starting June 1, 2026, orders processed through Open Payment Providers (any gateway not on the embedded list) incur a fee of 2.0% on Core, 1.0% on Growth, and 0.6% on Scale. Merchants using PayPal, Authorize.net, or other non-embedded gateways are now subject to this fee, which significantly reduces BigCommerce's historical no-fee advantage.
What are Shopify's transaction fees in 2026?
Shopify charges 0% transaction fees if you use Shopify Payments. If you use any third-party gateway, Shopify adds a surcharge on top of that gateway's own processing fees: 2.0% on Basic, 1.0% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus. Using Shopify Payments eliminates this surcharge entirely, which is the primary reason most merchants on Shopify adopt it as their default processor.
Which platform is better for B2B ecommerce?
BigCommerce is the stronger choice for B2B at non-enterprise plan tiers. It includes customer groups, price lists, bulk order forms, and quote management natively on its Growth and Scale plans. Shopify's equivalent B2B features (company accounts, net payment terms, wholesale price lists) are primarily locked behind Shopify Plus at $2,300/month. BigCommerce's B2B Edition for enterprise adds further depth. Unless you are already on Shopify Plus, BigCommerce offers more B2B functionality per dollar.
How do Shopify and BigCommerce compare on product variants?
BigCommerce supports up to 600 variant combinations per product (across multiple option types), while Shopify caps at 100 combinations (3 option types, 10 values each). For merchants selling configurable products (apparel with many size/color/style combinations, custom goods, or industrial parts), BigCommerce's native variant capacity is a concrete advantage. Shopify merchants who hit the limit must use third-party variant apps or restructure product listings.
Which platform has a larger app marketplace?
Shopify's app marketplace is substantially larger, with over 17,600 apps as of early 2026, compared to BigCommerce's significantly smaller catalog. Shopify's 50,000+ partner ecosystem means virtually every marketing, fulfillment, loyalty, and analytics tool has a native Shopify integration. BigCommerce covers the major platforms but niche integrations often require custom API work. For merchants who rely on a broad set of third-party tools, Shopify's ecosystem is a meaningful operational advantage.
What happened to BigCommerce's pricing in June 2026?
BigCommerce restructured its self-serve plans on June 1, 2026, renaming them (Standard became Core, Plus became Growth, Pro became Scale) and lowering GMV caps: Core now caps at $30K annual GMV (down from $50K) and Growth at $100K (down from $180K). It also introduced the Open Payment Provider Fee for non-embedded payment gateways (2.0% Core, 1.0% Growth, 0.6% Scale) and changed how GMV is calculated, using gross GMV multiplied by 0.90 rather than the prior 0.97 factor.