Choosing the best eCommerce platform is crucial for opening an online store or upgrading the one you already have. With an eCommerce platform, you can easily create an online store and manage your business, marketing, and sales.
WooCommerce and BigCommerce are two of the most known web-builders in the market. They are equipped with many plugins and extensions that add functionality to your business website and elevate the online shopping experience. But how do you know which one is better for you? Let’s compare and find out!
WooCommerce vs BigCommerce: Overview
Before we move on to the WooCommerce vs BigCommerce discussion, let’s learn a little about both platforms and what they have to offer.
WooCommerce is a free self-hosted plugin for WordPress, thus it is necessary to install WordPress to use it. WooCommerce is a leading eCommerce platform and powers more than half of the business websites. It is completely customizable and supports many free plugins and extensions to enhance your website and add features like shopping cart, wishlist, live chat, payment gateways, and much more.
As it is a self-hosted platform, you need to find a hosting provider according to your requirements. With WooCommerce, you can easily change the hosting service by migration. You can also take advantage of advanced features from third-party sources, either free or paid. It is a flexible platform and is compatible with many themes and designs as well.
BigCommerce is a hosted eCommerce platform. It is a flexible open SaaS platform that enables you to create, customize, and grow your website. It offers you a wide variety of services in their basic plan including hosting, security, content, design, SEO tools, and much more. Although, BigCommerce lacks the freedom of customization as it has limited plugins and extensions available. This problem can be solved by the BigCommerce WordPress plugin that is designed to integrate your business website with WordPress.
You can check out the official websites:
1. WooCommerce
2. BigCommerce
Pros And Cons
WooCommerce
Pros
- Free self-hosted eCommerce platform.
- Most customizable option for WordPress sites.
- Enjoys accessibility and features of WordPress.
- Supports unlimited plugins and extensions such as payment gateways, marketing tools, email marketing, etc.
- Compatible with third-party products.
- Seamless integration and easy setup.
- Works with all WordPress themes.
- Supports powerful SEO tools.
- Supports migration.
Cons
- Relies heavily on plugins and extensions for eCommerce features.
- Steep learning curve.
- Increases overall cost of business website with hosting, domain, security, and plugins.
BigCommerce
Pros
- Provides managed hosting.
- Easy to add products and showcase them in different styles.
- Suitable for small and large businesses.
- Contains many features and plugins in its basic plan.
- Easy to create and customize fields.
- Includes many shipping options and software.
- Fast loading speed.
- Excellent customer support.
Cons
- Not suitable for non-developers.
- Built-in content is simple and difficult to customize.
- Yearly sales threshold upgrades to expensive plans if annual sales are exceeded.
- No mobile application to manage your website.
- Limited themes and designs are available.
WooCommerce vs BigCommerce: Detailed Comparison
WooCommerce and BigCommerce are both powerful platforms for building websites and offer many benefits to their users. Then how can one decide which is better? We are going to analyze both platforms on different features and see which one lands higher on the scale.
1. Pricing
WooCommerce is available for free to install, along with WordPress. WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform, which means you need to buy a reliable and reasonably priced hosting provider, domain, SSL certificates, etc. It is also equipped with unlimited, free or paid, extensions and plugins which you can choose according to your requirements. With WooCommerce, it is easier to manage your budget and pay for products that you want.
BigCommerce is a hosted platform and thus provides many pricing plans according to the size of your business. This includes Standard ($29.95/mo), Plus ($79.95/mo), Pro ($299.95/mo), and Enterprise for custom pricing. All these plans include unlimited bandwidth, accounts, mobile app, payment gateways, and much more. Unfortunately, if your annual sales exceed the current plan, you are automatically upgraded to a higher plan.
The comparison between WooCommerce and BigCommerce in pricing, WooCommerce wins. It just provides you more control over your budget, you can create a flexible plan for yourself, and no hidden costs.
2. Ease of Use
As WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform, it has a steep learning curve. The installation and setup are very easy, especially with the wizard setup that guides you along the way. Unfortunately, setting up hosting, security, domain, etc is difficult for beginners and thus requires prior experience. With WooCommerce, you have to take care of the technical aspects of the website as well.
BigCommerce, on the other hand, is a fully hosted platform and handles all technical operations for you. It is easy to set up and create your website. It also has premade themes and designs available which you can customize, but the freedom is less than WooCommerce.
Although BigCommerce is the winner here, it also requires experience in coding and terminology to better understand the platform.
3. Customer Service
WooCommerce is the most popular plugin for the CMS platform out there. You can easily find detailed blogs, guides, and documentation on their official website about each plugin and extension. It also has dedicated experts answering your queries on community forums. WooCommerce customer support also depends on your hosting provider, such as with BlueHost, you can offer 24/7 customer support unparalleled to any other eCommerce platform.
BigCommerce also provides excellent customer support. You can find blogs and helpful guides on their website and community forums. They also provide 24/7 live call, chat, and email support.
WooCommerce or BigCommerce? Both platforms offer reliable customer support which is sure to help you in setup, errors, or troubleshooting.
4. Payment Options and Fees
WooCommerce is compatible with over a hundred payment gateways. It provides multiple payment options and accepts cash, credit and debit cards, bank transfers, and digital payments. The major payment gateway includes Stripe, PayPal, Square, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, etc. It also has its own payment gateway, WooCommerce Payments, which charges no setup or monthly fees.
BigCommerce also offers integration with multiple payment gateways such as PayPal, Square, CyberSource, Authorize.net, etc. It also accepts major credit and debit cards and charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. BigCommerce also supports digital payments like Venmo.
WooCommerce vs BigCommerce in payment options? WooCommerce wins due to its diverse range, flexibility, and no charges when using third-party payment gateways.
Best WooCommerce Payment Gateways might be something of your interest.
5. Extensions/Plugins
There is no doubt that WooCommerce consists of unlimited free plugins and extensions. WooCommerce supports more than 50,000 plugins, free and paid, regarding contact forms, product management, shipping methods, SEO tools, email marketing, and much more. WooCommerce relies heavily on plugins and thus you need them to create and customize your business website.
BigCommerce also offers numerous plugins and extensions on their website. They also support third-party plugins. Their plugins are mainly associated with payment gateways, shipping methods, email marketing, and tax.
WooCommerce is the clear winner here. It has a wide range of plugins available which are easily integrated. You can also easily customize or make new plugins if you are familiar with WooCommerce coding.
We have compiled 30+ Best WooCommerce Plugins to enhance your online store.
6. Security
WooCommerce is a safe and secure platform to deal with confidential information. It is the perfect solution for your eCommerce business. It is built upon the strong core of WordPress and prevents hacking. You can add SSL certificates and PCI compliant with the help of security plugins and extensions. WooCommerce security is largely dependent on the hosting providers as well.
BigCommerce provides top-notch security to its clients. It’s a level 1 PCI DSS compliant platform and makes sure that the card information of customers is protected. It monitors your website and maintains a secure network.
Both WooCommerce and BigCommerce provide reliable security to their customers and provide a secure platform to run their business.
7. Scalability
WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform and thus its scalability depends on you. It is capable of handling small to large businesses. It can be easily scaled up as your business grows with the help of hosting, plugins, and extensions. But keep in mind that you have to take care of security, backup, and restoration as well.
BigCommerce is a hosted eCommerce platform, which means you don’t have to worry about scaling up. As your business grows and revenue is increased, you are automatically upgraded to a higher plan, which might be costly, but worth it.
Both eCommerce platforms are easy to scale up. With WooCommerce you can control the budget but if you have the money, go for BigCommerce.
8. Design and Themes
WooCommerce is a flexible and versatile platform. It is compatible with hundreds of themes available in the WordPress directory or by third-party sources. You can easily customize the themes according to your preference, although coding experience is required. WooCommerce has both free and paid themes available ranging from $30 to $150.
BigCommerce also provides an efficient number of themes, free and paid, both. Their premium themes are costly and the freedom of customization is less than WooCommerce. Although, they have an editing panel that makes it easier to customize the placement, size, and text.
WooCommerce or BigCommerce? WooCommerce wins again due to its numerous options and unlimited customization.
Choose the Best WooCommerce Theme for your online store.
9. Marketing Plugins and Tools
Marketing your business is the key to its growth. You can retain loyal customers, attract new customers, and increase the conversion rate. With WooCommerce, you can add many marketing tools such as email marketing, coupons, gift cards, referrals, and social media integration. Unfortunately, you have to buy all of these plugins which vary in their prices but they do provide you the ease of customization.
With BigCommerce, you don’t have to worry at all. It has many marketing tools built-in in all its plans. These include social media integration, product ratings and reviews, coupons, and much more. You can also add third-party plugins easily.
BigCommerce vs WooCommerce? Here BigCommerce wins by a little margin due to their built-in marketing products.
10. SEO
If you want to increase traffic on your website, then you need to use SEO tools. SEO tools ensure that your business website ranks higher in search engines like Google. WooCommerce offers a wide variety of SEO tools such as Yoast SEO that offers keyword optimization. You can also add meta description, text on an image, and much more to boost your site. Although, many of these plugins are not available for free.
With BigCommerce you can avail SEO tools pre-built in their monthly price plans. You can add meta description, customize URLs, add text on images, and much more without buying additional plugins. It also provides SSL certification which lets customers know your website is secure.
Conclusion: WooCommerce vs BigCommerce
WooCommerce vs BigCommerce: who’s the winner? This competition between the two most powerful eCommerce platforms is tough to decide but does have a clear winner.
BigCommerce is a hosted eCommerce platform that provides you various pricing plans to create a site according to your budget and business requirements. It provides you many built-in features such as security, SEO, and customer support. It is great for beginners. Although, it does lack the degree of customization provided by WooCommerce and thus is rigid in its operation. It is also costly and for larger businesses, premium plans are necessary.
With WooCommerce, you can enjoy the strong core and intuitive interface of WordPress. It also easily integrates numerous plugins and extensions without affecting performance. WooCommerce allows you to scale up your site easily, although prior coding experience is required. You are also in full control of your website and can customize it freely. And in the end, it might be cheaper than BigCommerce. Due to all of these factors, we have to crown WooCommerce the winner.
