BigCommerce, a fully hosted eCommerce platform with tons of built-in features, provides everything from design, extension, tools and scale to your online store.
WooCommerce, on the other hand, is an open-source WordPress plugin. With more than 400 variants of extensions and themes, it allows you to customize your online store according to your needs.
BigCommerce is an all-in-one package where you’ll find everything ready for you with a limited customization option. WooCommerce is 100% customizable and allows you to build and add features as your business requires. This blog will closely evaluate both platforms.
What Is BigCommerce?
BigCommerce is a hosted eCommerce solution that lets you set up an online store without paying extra for web hosting. It’s all-in-one platform provides hosting, SEO, payment handling, design and content to create an eCommerce store.
Therefore, it is called software as a service (SaaS), where you need to pay a monthly fee to use it. If you are growing your online business, BigCommerce is a fantastic choice. It manages everything from backups, security and scalability without any hassle.
BigCommerce also offers you a built-in array of functions like omnichannel selling integrations, analytical tracking tools and an SSL certificate. With BigCommerce, you will not have to worry about your website maintenance.
What Is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is a self-hosted and open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress. WooCommerce inherits WordPress’s limitless customization options.
If you are booting off your business and don’t want to spend a fortune on the eCommerce platform, WooCommerce might be the best for you. You can create your custom-style store with very little eCommerce knowledge and investment.
It’s massively popular as 28% of all online stores are powered by WooCommerce. Its user-friendliness, tons of free extensions, straightforward process, themes and templates are the primary reasons behind its popularity.
BigCommerce vs. WooCommerce
If you’re trying to find the best eCommerce platform for your business, read on as we discuss WooCommerce vs. BigCommerce. You’ll learn which platform offers the best features suited for your business.
Which fares better when it comes to flexibility?
WooCommerce is much better suited for flexibility as it works great for various business needs. It’s massively popular due to its user-friendliness, scalability, themes, templates and commendable extensions. With WooCommerce, you can effortlessly create a custom-style online store.
On the other hand, BigCommerce lacks the flexibility of WooCommerce. It is a hosted eCommerce platform that combines all the elements of an eCommerce platform like hosting, support, payments, etc., into a single service. Moreover, when you want to transfer your store to a different platform, there are pretty high switching costs.
Overall, WooCommerce has the upper hand in terms of flexibility. It’s 100% customizable and scalable.
Best: WooCommerce
Which has the better plugins?
BigCommerce comes with more built-in features, so it has less need for add-ons and extensions. Yet, you can pick from hundreds of third-party add-ons to add more robust features such as shipping essentials, marketing, payments, analytics and reporting.
WooCommerce doesn’t come with many built-in features as BigCommerce. However, you can install plugins specifically as you need. It has a marketplace full of extensions ranging beyond the reach of BigCommerce. It offers free and paid extensions. The paid ones can range from $30 to $250 per year.
BigCommerce provides primary built-in apps with less need for extensions. Whereas, no surprise, WooCommerce offers endless plugins and integrations to enhance your store with new functionalities.
Best: WooCommerce
Which platform provides better templates?
Themes and templates indeed are the perfect way of welcoming your potential customers. A user-friendly, responsive and visually appealing theme leaves a good impression.
WooCommerce offers a superb themes collection with a lot more customization options. You can also use any WordPress theme or choose from Storefront, which is specifically designed for WooCommerce. Like the plugins, you can choose from free and premium theme templates. The paid themes start at $39 per license, which is a lot less than BigCommerce’s template.
BigCommerce also lets you pick from both free and paid templates. However, their paid templates have a starting price of $120 per license. Plus, these templates can be more rigid compared with WooCommerce. Hence, it still has quite a way to go to match WooCommerce.
Best: WooCommerce
Which provides more value for money?
BigCommerce is a subscription-based eCommerce platform. You have to pay a fee for the features you want in your BigCommerce hosted eCommerce website. It has three core pricing plans to choose from Standard ($29.95 per month), Plus ($79.95 per month) and Pro ($299.95 per month). For much larger organizations, they offer an enterprise plan.
Whereas WooCommerce is an open-source WordPress plugin, so you can download and install it free of cost. But, you’ll need to pay for other services like the theme ($0- $150), hosting (starting at $6.95 per month) and SSL Certificate (starting $9 per year). If you factor in the cost of maintenance and security, managing a WooCommerce website might cost more.
In contrast, BigCommerce covers anything under one fee and reduces hassle for hosting, themes, security and maintenance.
Best: BigCommerce
Which has better SEO?
SEO is crucial in determining how high your website will rank on the search engines. It directly impacts your web traffic.
WooCommerce has an outstanding track record of SEO performance. Undoubtedly, it offers immeasurable SEO potential. It lets you edit meta information, add image Alt text, get keyword support and more.
On the other hand, BigCommerce has more in-built features to uphold SEO. It encloses all the SEO features, just like WooCommerce. Plus, you won’t need to pay extra for additional SEO analytics tools, which can cost more.
Best: BigCommerce
Which platform has better support?
BigCommerce being a fully hosted platform, comes with around-the-clock customer support. When you need instant help, you can access the support option right from your BigCommerce dashboard or 24/7 support via phone, email and live chat.
WooCommerce has very little in terms of customer support. Still, you can get assistance through the community forum or an online help center where you can find tons of handy self-help documentation. You can also seek the help of your hosting service provider for server issues.
Undoubtedly, BigCommerce wins the support round with excellent support options via multiple channels. WooCommerce offers pretty sparse customer support with limited text and ticket-based help.
Best: BigCommerce
Final Takeaway
WooCommerce and BigCommerce are two powerful platforms to start-off your eCommerce store. You’ll need to consider performance, price, extensions, plans, etc. to pick from these two.
In a nutshell, WooCommerce is ideal for startups and small businesses with lower investment. It gives you complete control over customization. Plus, it is integrated into the best CMS in the world. The sheer number of extensions and theme choices makes it a top-notch platform that is no match for BigCommerce.
Conversely, BigCommerce is perfect for fast-growing or larger businesses. It has incredible built-in features which support and manage every aspect of your eCommerce site. You don’t have to spend time maintaining and setting up your eCommerce business; you can kick start your business in a flash and quickly scale up your business with BigCommerce.
