Shopify vs BigCommerce

BigCommerce, in US dollars: Core is $39 a month ($29 on annual billing), Growth $105 ($79 annual), Scale $399 ($299 annual), and Performance starts at $1,499 a month, billed annually. Shopify, in euro from our connection: Basic at €19 a month on annual billing (€27 monthly), Grow at €56, Advanced at €289, and Shopify Plus from €2,100 a month.

The trap on the BigCommerce side is the sales ceiling. Each plan carries a trailing-twelve-month GMV cap - Core covers up to $30,000 in sales, Growth up to $100,000 - and when you pass it, the plan upgrades automatically. Your success raises your bill without you clicking anything. Scale caps at $33,333 of sales per month and charges 0.9% on sales above that.

The trap on the Shopify side is fees: third-party payment providers cost an extra 2% per transaction unless you use Shopify Payments, and apps from the app store quietly become a second subscription. BigCommerce advertises zero transaction fees with its embedded payment providers.

Choose on where your risk is. If your risk is complexity - you want the largest theme and app ecosystem, the most tutorials, the easiest hiring of freelancers - Shopify is the safe pick and the reason it is the default. If your risk is fees at volume - high sales, third-party payment needs, no appetite for per-transaction charges - BigCommerce's zero-fee stance and built-in features cost less at scale.

Run the arithmetic at your own numbers: a store doing $80,000 a year sits in BigCommerce Growth at $79-105 a month with no transaction fee, against Shopify Basic or Grow plus 2% if you keep your own payment provider. The 2% is usually the bigger number.

Both offer a way to try before paying: BigCommerce with a free trial, Shopify with a 3-days-free-then-€1-a-month-for-3-months promotion at the time of checking. The promo is not the price; budget on the standing rates above.