You’ve come to the right place if you want to find the best e-commerce platform possible for your business. In this BigCommerce vs WooCommerce comparison, we’ll compare two of best solutions available.
Continue reading if you are unsure which option is best for your company.
BigCommerce vs WooCommerce. The main differences
BigCommerce and WooCommerce are different in that BigCommerce is an fully-hosted eCommerce website builder . It has helped almost 100,000 entrepreneurs to build their online stores!
An ecommerce website builder is a software program that allows you to create and manage an online store. BigCommerce offers a wide range of e-commerce tools, including some of the most comprehensive. BigCommerce offers everything you need to launch, scale, and design your online business. BigCommerce claims that they can help users grow by 28% per year!
WooCommerce, on the other hand, is an open-source WordPress plugin which allows users to sell online. Automattic, the web development company behind WordPress, created WooCommerce. WooCommerce is the ideal solution if you have a WordPress site and want to add an online shop.
WooCommerce can be customized in many ways. You can also keep your branding consistent across your website or e-store if you have some technical knowledge.
BigCommerce vs WooCommerce Features
BigCommerce
BigCommerce, as we’ve said, offers a wide range of marketing functions and features.
- An SSL security certificate: This small padlock symbol is displayed next to your URL. It signifies that your store can accept and process online payments.
- Analytical tracking tools and reporting tools: This allows you to monitor the performance of your site by reviewing its sales, sessions, emails, and other metrics. This information will help you identify areas for improvement and improve the quality of your marketing.
- Integrations for Omnichannel Selling: Your website can be linked to digital marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, or social media networks such as Facebook.
- Tools to recover abandoned carts: Customers can receive automatic emails reminding them if they abandon your online shopping cart but have not purchased the items. This is a great way to encourage customers to make their purchases. BigCommerce claims that this feature recovers on average 25% of lost sales.
This is also true for:
- Marketing tools to create and manage promotional codes and discounts
- There are 12 templates available for free.
- You can sell unlimited products (physical or digital), and you can categorize them however you wish.
- You can choose your shipping rates.
- You have access to a drag and drop web page editor and builder
- Integration with Paypal
- There are no limits to the number of staff accounts you can create.
- Access to a content management system
- High-quality SEO features available, including automated image optimization via Akamai Image Manager
- Integrations with many email marketing tools, including Constant Contact, iContact and Mailchimp.
- You can modify the CSS and HTML code if you have the correct coding skills.
WooCommerce: What’s the Deal?
While WooCommerce may not offer as many features than BigCommerce, there are still some useful tools that WooCommerce offers. WooCommerce includes:
- A built-in blog makes it easy to write, publish, and share articles.
- Unlimited customization: Your imagination and time are your only limitations. Unlimited customization is possible, so you can modify every aspect of your online shop.
- One-click refunds: Customers can get their money back in just one click.
- WooCommerce’s relationship to WordPress is that WooCommerce inherits all of the perks WordPress offers. WordPress, for example, offers an easy way to upload and manage videos. This is a major advantage over other ecommerce platforms. Let’s suppose you want to embed a YouTube clip into one of your WooCommerce product pages. Simply add the URL to the product description and it will appear. This same procedure applies to embedding rich media from Vimeo and Viddler, Instagram. Flickr. Spotify. SlideShare. Tv, Imgur, Hulu, Twitter, etc.
- Shortcodes – For those who don’t know, shortcodes can be bits of text that you insert into a webpage to add some content. If you want to add a product to your landing page, all you have to do is copy and paste a shortcode. WooCommerce has many shortcodes that make it easy to insert products, tracking information, and user data.
- There are many extensions. There are literally tens of thousands (and this is not an exaggeration). There’s a likely app that will allow you to add a particular function to your WooCommerce store. Because WordPress is open-source, it’s easy to create custom WooCommerce plugins. Your WooCommerce store can be extended in an almost limitless way.
- Join a vibrant community. You can connect with thousands of WooCommerce and WordPress users via the WordPress forum. This forum is a great place for store owners to exchange their experiences, ask questions and get useful tips and tricks.
Their Pros and Con
Let’s first take a look at BigCommerces pros…
The pros of BigCommerce
- We’ve already mentioned BigCommerce a few times. ).
- It is easy to sell across multiple channels including Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram.
- BigCommerce stores typically have fast loading speeds so you don’t need to worry about caching apps and the like.
- Bigcommerce takes care of all your compliance and security needs.
- Bigcommerce templates are beautiful right out of the box. You have a variety of responsive themes that you can choose from. They are easy to install and modify. BigCommerce allows you to easily access the code if you are familiar with HTML and CSS. You can then modify it as many times as you wish.
BigCommerce and the Cons
- BigCommerce does not offer a mobile application, making managing your store from the road a difficult task.
- BigCommerce’s editing interface can be difficult to use (compared to other SaaS-based e-commerce builders), so users who are new to the platform may have a hard time navigating it.
- BigCommerce’s app market is smaller than WooCommerce. BigCommerce doesn’t offer the same number and variety of extensions that WooCommerce offers.
- Lock-in: DISCLAIMER – This drawback isn’t unique to BigCommerce. It applies to all SaaS-based ecommerce builders. Your BigCommerce e-commerce store makes it difficult to move your site to another platform. If this is something you need or want to do, it will be a costly task.
WooCommerce: The Pros
- You can create anything you want, provided you have the right information
- Access to WordPress’s powerful SEO tools will be granted
- WooCommerce can be downloaded for free, so you can start your online business without any investment.
- There are many product categories that you can add to your product list. You have the option to sell physical, digital, or downloadable products.
- Almost any type of payment can be accepted.
WooCommerce The Cons
- WooCommerce does not provide complete customer support. You will need to rely on your knowledge and the assistance of developers and other users on the WooCommerce forum.
- Some users feel that WooCommerce’s wishlist functionality can be a bit difficult to use.
- You will need to have a lot of technical knowledge to fully enjoy WooCommerce’s full potential.
- You must manage your website updates (which WordPress allows you to do).
- WooCommerce makes it difficult to launch a multi-currency website.
BigCommerce vs WooCommerce, Ease of Use
Website builders such as BigCommerce are generally easier to use than plugins such as WooCommerce.
Let’s find out if this holds true for these two ecommerce solutions…
BigCommerce
Sign up for a free trial to get started with BigCommerce. In just three simple steps, you can launch your online store.
- Enter your email address
- Plugin your store’s Name
- Please provide some details about your brand.
In just a matter of minutes, your BigCommerce shop can be up and running. Once your BigCommerce shop is up and running, you will see your BigCommerce dashboard. You can view your store and add products.
Many BigCommerce customers report that the onboarding process at BigCommerce is easy and transparent. You are given a short tour that explains where you can find specific features and how to customize them. BigCommerce encourages you to take the same tour and also invites you ask any questions in their “help” section.
BigCommerce themes already include many of its features, which is a plus for users. This makes it easier to access and use BigCommerce’s tools.
BigCommerce also offers users a website domain, a hosting platform and security certificates, which is a big advantage over WooCommerce.
Despite this, BigCommerce users who are new to digital marketing or entrepreneurial space may struggle to understand the terminology. This can make users feel out of their depth until they get comfortable with the terminology.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is slightly more difficult to use than BigCommerce. It’s more technical than BigCommerce, so this is understandable. WooCommerce is not for everyone. However, you don’t need to be Steve Jobs.
If you don’t have your own domain or hosting provider, you will need to buy one. It’s important to note that WooCommerce works well with Bluehost.
Bluehost gives you the following features:
- WooCommerce auto-install
- Free consultation to help you establish an online store
- Free domain name and SSL Certificate
- WooCommerce’s Storefront theme already installed
- Bluehost’s in-house WordPress specialists provide 24/7 customer support
Bluehost is a partner with WooCommerce so you don’t have to manually install WordPress or the WooCommerce plugin. Your hosting service will come pre-installed with WooCommerce.
No matter what route you choose, once the WooCommerce plugin is installed, you are able to launch WooCommerce’s setup wizard. You can set up WooCommerce stores quickly and easily with this wizard. In a matter of minutes, you can create pages and set up your payment settings, currency, shipping, tax, and other basic functions.
After weighing both platforms, it seems that BigCommerce is easier to use than WooCommerce. This is due to the fact that it offers excellent onboarding and a multitude of built-in features. It also provides high-quality customer service (more details in a moment). WooCommerce, on the other hand, is better for those who are more tech-savvy or have a good understanding of WordPress’s interface.
BigCommerce vs WooCommerce: Pricing
Let’s look at what BigCommerce and WooCommerce will cost you.
BigCommerce Plans
BigCommerce offers a free 15-day trial, so don’t hesitate to give it a shot. This is the best way to find out if BigCommerce is right for you and/or your business.
All BigCommerce plans include unlimited bandwidth and staff accounts. You don’t have to pay transaction fees. Hosting, a domain name, and an SSL security cert are all included, as we have already mentioned.
BigCommerce offers three pricing options:
- Standard ($29.95/month). Side note – This plan is about the same as Shopify, Volusion and Squarespace when it comes to entry-level SaaS e-commerce plans. However, this is a better deal than Shopify, Volusion, and Squarespace.
- Plus ($79.95/month)
- Pro ($299.95/month).
For larger companies, there is also an Enterprise plan. If you are interested in this plan, please contact BigCommerce for a quote.
The Standard Plan
The Standard plan gives you the following:
- You can create a digital store that sells unlimited products
- Unlimited file storage
- Gift cards can be created and managed by you
- Customers can leave reviews and ratings.
- Access to professional reporting tools
- Automated image optimization
- All web pages can be accelerated to mobile pages
BigCommerce’s Standard plan has one major drawback: you won’t have access to the abandoned cart saving tool.
The Plus Plan
You’ll also get the Standard Plan and the PLUS Plan.
- A cart-saver tool
- The ‘persistent Cart’ feature (which saves products to customers’ carts even if they click away, regardless of what device they are using).
- Customers can keep their card details safe with you
- Segmenting customers can be useful for creating more targeted marketing campaigns.
Please Note: After you generate more than $180,000 per year, you will need to upgrade to the Pro plan.
The Pro Plan
The Pro plan allows you to generate up to $400,000 in online sales. There is an additional $150 per month for every $200k of sales.
Google Customer Reviews will also be available to you. This allows you to collect feedback from customers and display it. If someone buys something from your Bigcommerce shop, they will be asked to review it via Google. Google will email them a survey to complete if they consent to review the item on Google. An optional Google Customer Reviews badge will publish your average rating on your site.
Access to advanced product filtering and the ability to use a custom SSL certificate through a third party are also available.
Bigcommerce Enterprise
BigCommerce Enterprise is designed for larger businesses that generate more than $1,000,000 annually. It’s also tailored to better meet your selling needs.
The following are available to you:
- Advanced product filtering allows visitors to search your store using your custom fields.
- Pricing rules can be created based on customer groups.
- Unlimited APIs
- Access to Bigcommerce consulting and account management as well as priority support (including API).
Bigcommerce Enterprise’s annual sales limit is negotiable, which will please you.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce, as we have said, is a free WordPress plug-in. To get Woocommerce up and running, you will need to buy a few items.
- You can get a theme for around $40
- A SSL security certificate costs $9 per year (approximately).
- Hosting web $10 per year (approximately).
As you can see, WooCommcerce’s pricing is more complicated than BigCommerce. You pay one price per month for all the services you use.
You have the option to pick your own domain, hosting, and theme. You could pay less per month with BigCommerce than you would with BigCommerce.
BigCommerce vs. WooCommerce: Design and templates
These stats speak by themselves – design matters!
- Two thirds of people enjoy browsing beautiful websites.
- 75% of web browsers form opinions about websites based on their aesthetics.
- 94% of the first impressions on websites are design-related.
It is crucial to create a professional-looking online shop. Let’s now take a look at BigCommerce’s and WooCommerce’s design capabilities.
Please Note: All themes of BigCommerce and WooCommerce are mobile-responsive.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce offers 12 themes for free and approximately 130 premium templates. These premium templates can be purchased for a one-time fee of $145 to $300. These premium themes are sometimes available for as low as $99, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled! There are many themes to choose from, as each one comes with multiple variants.
While BigCommerce’s themes aren’t as customizable as WooCommerce, it’s much easier to modify their templates. You can easily modify things like text size, fonts and page layouts.
BigCommerce’s editor is easy to use. You can also see how your site will look on tablet and mobile screens. BigCommerce’s editor is easy to use, so you don’t need to make any changes until you are 100% satisfied.
We’re pleased to report, all of BigCommerce’s free themes are contemporary and professional-looking, making them an excellent starting point for building an online store.
The main complaint BigCommerce users have is that some templates are very similar to each other.
BigCommerce’s free themes are also limited in font options, compared to other ecommerce website builders. There are only three to four font options available for some templates. It is easy to add your own font to a template file. It isn’t quite as simple as being able use your preferred font right away.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce offers 14 storefront themes for a single cost of $39. WooCommerce offers 14 storefront themes for a one-off cost of $39.
However, WooCommerce’s design capabilities are best used by someone with technical knowledge.
Customer Support
There’s a chance that you will need assistance with any online venture. You’ll need to be able to rely on the support of a customer service team in case you need it.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce provides 24/7 customer support through a variety of communication channels including email, phone, and live chat. You can also access a forum and an online help centre, which offer tons of self-help resources.
BigCommerce Enterprise plans include an onboarding consultant and an account manager who will help you with any issues.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce has a much more limited customer support. WooCommerce Docs is an online help centre that provides a lot of information about the platform. Access to the WordPress forum is also available. This forum allows you to ask questions of other users. WooCommerce does not offer any assistance.
WooCommerce vs BigCommerce Payment Options
BigCommerce and WooCommerce both accept major credit cards and debit cards. They work seamlessly with the largest international payment gateways including:
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Apple Pay
- Square
BigCommerce allows you to accept credit cards through Paypal. It’s a simple setup and you will have access to BigCommerce’s prenegotiated credit card transaction rates. They will vary depending on which pricing plan you choose.
- Standard: 2.9% + 30c
- Plus: 2.5% + 30c
- Pro: 2.2% + 30c
- Enterprise: 2.2% + 30c (or less, depending on the terms you negotiate).
You can also use a third party payment processor. There are approximately 65 options, depending on where you live. You may be charged transaction fees and monthly fees depending on the payment gateway you choose. These are set by the payment gateway provider, so contact them directly to get more information.
BigCommerce and WooCommerce do not have their own transaction fees. Any additional processing costs will be borne by your chosen payment gateway.
WooCommerce supports more than 100 payment gateways, such as Authorize.Net.
BigCommerce has a slightly smaller selection, so WooCommerce is a better option if you need broader options.
