Here is a glimpse of Google Trends comparison for Shopify and BigCommerce popularity in the past five years.
Popularity may be a deciding criterion for some of us when considering hiring a Shopify expert or BigCommerce for our eStore.
But apart from that, there are a plethora of other factors that can help facilitate the decision.
Let's understand Shopify and BigCommerce individually.
The Best and Not-So-Best Of BigCommerce
Founded in 2009, BigCommerce is a public company that provides a SaaS eCommerce platform. Since its launch, BigCommerce has aced three areas where most eCommerce platforms fell short;
APIs: Since you don't have access to the source code when working with most SaaS platforms, APIs are how you get your website to function better and add cutting-edge features. The difference remains when merchants try to access the APIs. BigCommerce allows merchants to lodge 400 requests per second, contrary to many other platforms that offer in single digits.
Product Variants & Options: BigCommerce allows you to include up to 250 product options as opposed to other eCommerce platforms. It is not advisable to exhaust all the limits, but it's always nice to know that you have options.
Additional Functionalities: BigCommerce generously offers a plethora of additional functionalities such as in-built marketing and analytics tools to categorize customers according to multiple verticals created from their sales pattern.
BigCommerce is considered a powerful eCommerce platform because of its versatility and ability to handle complex websites efficiently.
Having said that, there are a few significant disadvantages that come with BigCommerce.
Cost and Limitations: As rational business owners, our goal is to minimize cost and acquire something that has good RoI. But with BigCommerce, when you choose a basic plan, you have a selling limit of $50,000 per annum. In addition to the plans, BigCommerce offers themes at a slightly higher price than any other eCommerce platform.
Community: BigCommerce's community is not very vast and might not be the right choice for considering dropshipping. Shopify's dropshipping is perhaps the best when compared to other eCommerce platforms. The reason for that is its vast community that grows by the day.
Steeper learning curve: BigCommerce might appeal to the DIY crowd, but the most challenging aspect of BigCommerce is its theme editor and the admin panel. It might work with first-time users since they haven't seen or worked with a much simpler version. But for the ones that have seen a few eCommerce platforms, BigCommerce is undoubtedly tricky.
The Best and Not-So-Best Of Shopify
Shopify began in 2004 and took shape as a full-fledged eCommerce store by 2006. The founder, Tobias Lütke, identified a gap in the market looking at the poor online shopping experience. And thanks to that, we have Shopify to revolutionize the eCommerce arena.
Let's look at three superlative reasons why Shopify is the BEST eCommerce platform. Be warned - these reasons are persuasive enough to get you to hire yourself a Shopify expert and have your eStore up and running!
Dropshipping: Dropshipping is a fulfillment model for over 33% of the online sales industry. Shopify has adopted and encourages the dropshipping model across its merchant base to appreciate the use of this cost-effective method. When closely look any Shopify eStore, you'll stumble upon two things; a) It has exemplary features, a vast plugin store, and appeals to the DIY crowd. b) It has a robust community spread across the globe - meaning more contacts. Hence, Shopify allows you to reach out to merchants and wholesalers worldwide and take you and your product places!
Automatic Abandoned Cart Functionality: Now, to make the comparison fair, BigCommerce also has this feature but at a much higher cost than Shopify. In Shopify, you get this feature at USD 29/month, whereas in BigCommerce, you get it at USD 79.95/month - round it about to $80 per month. So, at a difference of $50, you still have some essential features missing.
Ease Of Use And Flexibility: Shopify is a super-easy platform to work with; even a ten y/o can efficiently work with it and not face major technical issues. BigCommerce has more robust functionality, which might add to the complexity of your eStore - making it challenging for the DIY crowd. Shopify allows easy plugin integration, and since it has a vast app store, all you've got to do is choose and install.
Like any other eCommerce platform, Shopify has its disadvantages. But as rational business owners, you should only let these affect you if it affects your business.
Scalability: When considering Shopify, you must be careful about the estimated size of your eStore. What's common between BigCommerce and Shopify is that they're both well suited for small to medium-sized businesses. While you can tweak BigCommerce to work for large companies with high sales volume, you cannot do that with Shopify.
Search & Filter: Shopify's search & filter aren't as robust or multi-layered as other eCommerce platforms. If you're looking for a guitar on a Shopify hosted eStore, chances are that you will only get results for a guitar without further specs into what kind. As merchants, if you wish to add in a specific layer, you might have to create a separate page or scower through the app store to find the right one to help you.
The Ultimate Winner
Let's be specific here - if you're looking for an eCommerce platform for a small to medium-scaled business at an affordable cost with a lot of features, then Shopify is your lord and savior! Shopify is a boon to the DIY crowd, and when you hire Shopify experts, you can have yourself a unique website with a lot of flexibility.
BigCommerce requires less third party integration because things are already coded in, but it is an expensive solution for small to medium-scaled businesses.
So, if you're a start-up or a medium scale business, then hands down, Shopify should be your only choice.
If you’re still looking for someone to explain it better, ask for a consultation from an expert team of Shopify developers at ZealousWeb!
Top comments (2)
Thank you for this article!
As for me, Shopify is one of the most prominent online store frameworks that is ideal for small and medium businesses. But there are still other platforms that will be good online stores. In this article, I described and compared Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and BigCommerce platforms soft-loft.com/shopify-woocommerce-...
Wish it will be helpful!
The API rate limit differences between the two platforms were a key factor that pushed my team over to BigCommerce (BC).
We’re doing a headless shop with BC as the order processing solution and the number of times you can hit your Shopify backend endpoints per hour are much more stringent than the same with BC which gives a far more generous rate limit, both on the basic ~$25/mo plans