WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce: Which Is Better In 2023?

If you are willing to start a scalable online business and are stuck between WooCommerce and Bigcommerce platforms, this article is a must-read for you!

Although there are many options for building your eCommerce store, WooCommerce and BigCommerce are market giants. They each have their own set of abilities and serve a specific audience. One thing that both platforms have in common is that they both help businesses scale. Besides that, they have several differences. 

I have written WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce comparison article to assist you in identifying all the differences and selecting the best platform for your business. This article compares the WooCommerce and Bigcommerce platforms. Read the article to the end to understand the differences completely.

WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce- In A Nutshell,

There is no doubt that BigCommerce and WooCommerce provide a wide range of features that have made them one of the most popular eCommerce solutions in the past few years. 

BigCommerce is preferred by large-scale businesses that want all the inbuilt features required for scaling. Whereas WooCommerce is preferred by businesses that need a fully customized and scalable eCommerce store.

Main differences between WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce

The two most popular eCommerce platforms are WooCommerce and BigCommerce. Both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages, but the competition is fierce. In order to understand how both platforms differ, let’s take a closer look at them.

Quick overview of WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce

Particulars	WooCommerce	BigCommerce
Ease of Use	Setup and use require slight technical knowledge.	There is a learning curve, but it is easier than with WooCommerce.
Pricing	Pricing is customizable pricing according to the plugins and features you use.	Bigcommerce charges a standard plans with fixed pricing that are pricey compared to WooCommerce.
Integration	A large number of free and paid extensions are available in WooCommerce’s marketplace.	It has a lot of built-in features, but you can also add third-party integrations through its app store.
E-Commerce features	The features are decent, but you need to add more for a complete ecommerce platform.	There are a lot of world-class tools and features built into the platform, ready for use at the click of a button.
Payment Gateway	More than 100 payment options compared to BigCommerce.	It supports a number of major payment gateways, and it doesn’t charge transaction fees.
SEO Features	WooCommerce offers SEO features but needs technical expertise to utilize fullest.	Easily customize meta titles, descriptions, and URL slugs.
Support	WooCommerce support is available via support forums, live chat, and email,	There is 24×7 support via phone, email, and live chat, as well as a forum.

1. WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce- Ease of Use 

There are many benefits to choosing a platform that is easy to use. It allows you to rapidly make changes or fix issues, allowing you to spend more time growing your business. 

WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform. It is an open-source eCommerce plugin that must be installed on a WordPress website. It requires some technical knowledge to set up and use. Unless other eCommerce platforms, Bigcommerce requires you to put effort into registering a domain, choosing website hosting, etc. Designing a store, adding products, and setting up various settings are difficult to figure out for not tech people. 

Whereas starting a Bigcommerce store is a simple process. It requires you to add information about the store to signup, and your store will be ready to design. After designing the store, adding products, and setting up payment gateways and shipping settings, you are ready to go. You can manage orders, products, customers, marketing, analytics, apps, and more using the admin panel without any hassles.  

Final Verdict: Bigcommerce can be operated by a nontech person without any hassles due to its easy interface. Considering this, BigCommerce is easier to use and set up compared to WooCommerce.

2. WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce- Pricing

The cost of starting and maintaining your eCommerce store is another important factor to consider. Let us now compare the pricing of both platforms. 

The pricing for the WooCommerce platform is customizable, and you do not have to pay a fixed amount every month. In WooCommerce, you will be charged based on the additional features or plugins you use.  There are a few recurring and one-time charges in WooCommerce that you can check below table:

Particulars	Pricing
Hosting plan	$4 per month to $5,000
Register your domain	around $15 per year
Themes	$0-100 per year
Plugins	$0 – $1,000 (paid monthly or yearly)

Whereas, BigCommerce works on a subscription model. It offers a 15-day free trial option for its customers. The pricing plans of Big Commerce are given below:

Bigcommerce plans	Pricing
Standard	$29.50/month
Plus	$79.50/month
Pro	$299.95/month

Final Verdict: In terms of pricing, both platforms have distinct advantages that benefit various businesses. Both platforms have reasonable pricing for what they provide.

3. WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce- Integration 

There will always be a limit to the inbuilt features provided by the eCommerce platforms, regardless of how powerful an eCommerce platform is. Let us look at the different integration options available in Woocommerce and BigCommerce. 

If you want to design a  customized eCommerce store in terms of features, WooCommerce is the best option. You have multiple extensions and plugins for all the needed features, such as marketing, shipping, payment gateways, etc. You can get both free and paid extensions for the WooCommerce platform. 

You can choose from over 55,000 free and premium WooCommerce plugins. 

With BigCommerce, you can integrate hundreds of third-party apps and features to enhance your store’s capabilities.

Both free and paid add-ons are available in the BigCommerce app market. App collections are organized into six categories: must-haves, shipping essentials, marketing, design, and payments.

4. WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce- Which platform has the best E-Commerce features?

Both platforms offer a wide variety of features; therefore, choosing while considering the requirements of nature and business purpose is vital. Let us compare and analyze which platform works best fit. 

Customization Feature 

Every business has different customization needs for their online store per the requirement. It is better to choose the platform that offers better customization options.

Woocommerce offers free and paid themes to design the online store. It allows you to use hundreds of free and paid extensions, themes, and plugins, allowing you to add any features per your needs. 

One hundred seventy free and paid themes are available in BigCommerce for you to customize your store. You can easily edit the text size and font, page layouts, navigation options, and a few other aspects.

Verdict:  Compared to Bigcommerce, Woocommerce is more customizable. 

Blogging Feature

Blogging is one of the strongest methods for improving the website’s organic traffic. Therefore the e-commerce platform that you choose must be a blogging-friendly tool.  

The WooCommerce platform offers a blogging feature where you can add a post from the WordPress admin dashboard to create a WooCommerce blog.

Bigcommerce also offers a built-in blog option that allows users to write, edit, use SEO features, and publish content seamlessly. 

Verdict: Bigcommerce has an inbuilt blogging feature, which makes things easier for bloggers; therefore, it wins here. 

Abandoned cart recovery

It is a critical feature for recovering lost sales from prospects. It is handled by sending the abandoned cart reminder emails to store visitors who added products to their cart but left without purchasing.

All Bigcommerce plans include Abandoned Cart Recovery features. Whereas in WooCommerce, this option requires the use of a third-party plugin.

Verdict: Unlike WooCommerce, BigCommerce provides built-in abandoned cart recovery without additional costs or risks, so I consider BigCommerce the winner here.

Multi-Channel Integration

An e-commerce marketing plan is spread across different platforms to increase sales. Therefore the e-commerce platform you choose must support your business’s marketing goals. 

Using WooCommerce Multi-Channel, you can sell on Google, Amazon, and eBay directly from WooCommerce without creating or managing listings from any other platform.

Similarly, In BigCommerce, in addition to your website, you can sell your products on Facebook, Amazon, and eBay directly from your site.

Verdict: Since both platforms provide Multi-Channel Integration to support sales through various channels, they are considered the best at Multi-Channel Integration.

SSL Security

E-Commerce websites should be able to handle sensitive information, So SSL is crucial to their security. It protects your users’ websites and personal information while providing privacy, security, and integrity.

WooCommerce provides free SSL certificates for WordPress users through their hosting partners. You can install it with just a few clicks.

BigCommerce issues the SSL certificate and ensures that your store’s URL will display an encrypted padlock symbol, indicating that it is secure for accepting and processing online payments.

Verdict: The winner here is BigCommerce, as it provides this feature for all users and keeps the installation simple and user-friendly. 

Analytical Tracking & Reporting Tools

In Woocommerce, you can use the WooCommerce Google Analytics plugin to track basic information about stores like orders, revenue, products, categories, coupons, taxes, downloads, and stock.

Similarly, BigCommerce can monitor the performance of your website with the Analytics feature. You can track Store Overview, Merchandising, Marketing, Carts, Orders, Sales Tax Reports, and more with BigCommerce.

Verdict: Bigcommerce offers better analytics and reporting functionality than WooCommerce without additional plugins.

Final verdict: When it comes to eCommerce features, BigCommerce has the most ecommerce features built in. In contrast to WooCommerce, you must use a third-party plugin to add features.

5. WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce- Payment Gateway 

E-Commerce businesses require payment gateways to receive payments. Therefore, online businesses must offer payment gateways that are feasible for customers. Let’s compare payment gateway options between BigCommerce and WooCommerce payment gateway integrations. 

WooCommerce is integrated with several payment gateways, such as Paypal, Stripe, WooCommerce Payments, Payoneer Checkout, Eway, etc. A transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction is charged for US credit cards and one percentage point for those issued outside the US. It is the same as BigCommerce but offers more than 100 payment methods.

Bigcommerce is integrated with over 100 Payment gateways, and the company imposes no transaction fees. Some of the payment gateways that BigCommerce supports are Afterpay, Amazon pay, Authorize.net, Barclaycard Smartpay Advance, Checkout.com, and more.

6. WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce- SEO Features

SEO and marketing are vital if you want your online business to succeed. In an ideal world, you would have the best products, but without knowing how to push them on SERPs, what would happen? 

If you decide to use either WooCommerce or BigCommerce, you’ll have access to powerful SEO and marketing tools.

Let us see the major highlights of both platforms in terms of the SEO tools they offer. 

The WooCommerce backend lets you edit meta titles, descriptions, URL slugs, and alt text for images. However, it lacks in-built extras, such as SSL security. When you have an SSL certificate, Google knows your site is safe for users.

In contrast, BigCommerce allows you to Edit Meta Titles and Descriptions, Customise URL Slugs, Add Image Alt Text, Get Keyword Support, etc. With BigCommerce, you can edit your URL slugs to reflect your page accurately. 

Final Verdict: Bigcommerce and WooCommerce have strong SEO features that help them rank higher in Google searches. However, Bigcommerce has more built-in functionality, making it simple to edit and use.

7. WooCommerce vs Bigcommerce- Customer Support

While selecting an eCommerce platform, you should consider its support. Without quick solutions, the flow of business would be hampered. Let us compare the support offered by both platforms. 

To help you find solutions by yourself, the WooCommerce website has a comprehensive support page with extensive documentation, tutorials, and guides. 

BigCommerce provides an excellent support facility to users. It provides its users 24/7 email, phone, and live chat support. You can use the help center to clear all your doubts and FAQs. You can contact the support team using the help section to resolve them. 

Final verdict: Both Bigcommerce and Woocommerce offer excellent customer service. BigCommerce wins when you need a quick response from the team.

WooCommerce vs BigCommerce: Pros & Cons

Here are the benefits & drawbacks of using WooCommerce and BigCommerce.

WooCommerce Pros

• It is an open-source platform, so customization possibilities are endless.
• Access to all the features & tools of WordPress.
• You don’t need to invest much to get started with WooCommerce; all you need is hosting and a WordPress website.
• You can sell any type of product with WooCommerce, and there’s no limit to adding products.
• Accept payment with any payment method you want.

WooCommerce Cons

• There is not much technical & customer support available on WooCommerce.
• You need to manage the updates on your website on your own.

BigCommerce Pros

• You get most of the features in-built on BigCommerce than any other eCommerce builder.
• BigCommerce lets you sell on multiple platforms at once, such as Amazon, Instagram, and Facebook.
• The loading speed of a BigCommece store is much better than any other eCommerce platforms store.
• BigCommerce handles the security of your website, so you don’t need to.
• The templates of BigCommerce are out of the world, and you can create an attractive store with them.

BigCommerce Cons

• There is no mobile app available on BigCommerce, so you can’t manage your store on the go.
• You can transfer your store to any other eCommerce platform from BigCommerce.

Conclusion: WooCommerce vs BigCommerce (2023)

There is fierce competition between these platforms, but BigCommerce and WooCommerce have distinct advantages and disadvantages. It is important to focus on what solution is most suitable for your online business rather than calling out a winner between BigCommerce vs. WooCommerce. 

Choose WooCommerce if you want to start a unique business and require a more customized website in terms of design, cost, features, and so on.

Choose Bigcommerce if you want to start a business that requires all of the features to be available in a single dashboard without needing external plugins or customizations. However, both platforms facilitate you in scaling your business to its full potential.

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