With all the options available, and choices available, it can be tough to know where to start. A couple of popular choices for an eCommerce solution are WooCommerce and BigCommerce which both have their positives and negatives.
WooCommerce is a free, open-source WordPress plugin—ideal for those who enjoy flexibility and have the technical know-how to customize their store. BigCommerce’s hosting is included so they take care of the technical components. If you want a less-than-hassle setup, BigCommerce could be a great choice.
1. Pricing
Cost is a critical consideration when it comes to selecting an eCommerce platform. While there are definitely cheaper platforms; many of those platforms have hidden costs when it comes to hosting, add-ons or transaction fees that you may not realize. Let’s look at the potential differences between WooCommerce and BigCommerce.
The good news is WooCommerce is free to install and you’ll have the ability to spend small amounts in the beginning, just to get started, and only add on later as the business grows. It’s great for the beginner or low-budget person.
That’s also why there are so many store owners now using experienced WooCommerce plugin developers, because they help you identify and customize plugins that are suitable for your store without spending useless amounts of money on plugins and add-ons you do not actually need.
BigCommerce hosting, security, and built-in features are included at that price. So that means no surprises. Although you are going to be paying more for BigCommerce initially; it really gives you the solid reliability and support without worrying about additional costs.
2. Ease of Use
Setting up an online store should be as easy as possible, especially if you’re not a techie! Let’s look at how easy it is to use these two platforms.
WooCommerce gives you tons of flexibility because it works with WordPress, but if you are new to WordPress, there is a learning curve. You will have to figure out installation, make design enhancements, and work with the plugin support on your own.
WooCommerce plugin development is typically the fastest and best method for stores to get a unique experience and an opportunity for them to add features and functionality that will improve user experience or a back-end process that fulfills specific business needs.
BigCommerce simplifies it all. The store is just one or two clicks away once you access the BigCommerce dashboard. Their dashboard is simple to use, and launching a store can happen fairly quickly, especially with a drag-and-drop store builder and guided how-to’s. And when you use BigCommerce, there’s no hosting, security or upgrades to worry about, so there’s a level of comfort about working without technology headaches!
3. Features
Both platforms pack serious eCommerce power, but in very different ways.
WooCommerce is like a blank canvas – it starts simple but can do almost anything with plugins. The free core handles basic selling, but the real magic happens with extensions. Want to sell subscriptions? Offer local pickup? Connect with accounting software? There’s likely a plugin for that. Since it’s part of WordPress, you also get amazing content tools for blogs and marketing pages. Just be ready to install and configure these extras yourself.
With BigCommerce you get abandoned cart recovery, product reviews, multi-channel selling (Amazon, eBay, etc.) without adding anything else. Built-in SEO tools, secure payments, wholesale features – even less time looking for extensions. You can customize things as well, but BigCommerce tends to be more about providing you the robust features you need without the hassle of having to set everything up..
WooCommerce will give you endless options and customizations if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty managing a bunch of plugins. If you want everything ready to use and don’t want to deal with the DIY work and setting everything up, BigCommerce has all the powerful features without the work involved. Your choice is whether versatility is more valuable to you than simplicity.
4. Add-ons
All online stores require additional software and apps to operate properly whether it be payment options, shipment options, or growth tools. Each platform will provide plugins or apps to fulfill this need. Here we will look at WooCommerce and BigCommerce’s approach to apps and plugins.
When it comes to optionality, WooCommerce is unbeatable. There are thousands of free and paid plugins (many of them specifically built for WooCommerce) that you can install to add just about any feature you can think of: membership, custom checkout processes, AI product recommendations, etc. Developers can create plugins tailored to your unique requirements simply because WooCommerce is open-source. The trade-off? More plugins bring more to manage—extra tasks, frequent updates, compatibility checks, and those all-too-familiar tech hassles.
BigCommerce has a more limited but efficient approach to additional tools. BigCommerce app store has less than 1,000 apps in total (while WooCommerce has 50,000!), BigCommerce reviews each app in the store for quality and security. Many of the primary functions are there as you would expect; POS systems, email marketing integrations, inventory management, etc. The biggest difference is that you won’t have to read dozens of different offerings to find tools you need. The trade-off is that you may not find the odd niche tool you are looking for, but you will get a more stable platform with less upkeep.
5. Scalability
As your online store grows, your eCommerce platform should scale smoothly—without lagging or crashing under pressure. Let’s take a look at the differences in growth scalability between WooCommerce and BigCommerce.
WooCommerce can scale but it takes work. With the right hosting plan, caching plugin, CDN service, and database specifications, your store can manage a lot of traffic and many products. However, you need to be sure that you will monitor, maintain and update things related to your hosting, or be ready to hire someone who can do it for you.
BigCommerce is a fully hosted solution, it automatically manages server capacity for you when you add more traffic or products to your store. Features like unlimited products, built-in CDN, and enterprise-based infrastructure mean that as you scale, your store will naturally be fast and stable – no technical management required.
6. Payment methods
Choosing the right payment methods can be the determining factor in whether you make a sale or not – particularly for international sales. Let’s take a closer look at how WooCommerce and BigCommerce differ in terms of payment methods.
WooCommerce has limitless options for payments. Being open-source, you will have no trouble finding a plugin for almost everything. Including global payment processors like PayPal (for international sales) and Stripe (for international debit and credit cards), regional payment processors, and even cryptocurrency options. The downside to WooCommerce? Each payment gateway needs to be installed and set up manually, adding to the workload. This can get a little technical as the number of payment methods increase.
BigCommerce is straightforward but powerful with payment methods. The site has built-in payments (including Shopify Payments, PayPal, Apple Pay, and 65 reputable payments) and makes it easy to access over 65 gateways in their app store. This means that you have less payment methods to choose from compared to WooCommerce, but the trade off is how easy it is to set up, and you have some great built in features such as multi-currency support “out of the box”.
If you need to accept specialized payment methods, or your customers only use local payment options, WooCommerce starts to make sense, as it does have more options for payment methods. However, if you want to setup with commonly recognized global processors to save you time and headache, BigCommerce is your better choice. In simple terms, it comes down to having the type of variety you want for payment messages or convenience.
Conclusion
In choosing WooCommerce or BigCommerce, an important consideration is your requirements as a business, as well as how much you want to be involved in the platform itself. If you like the extra work, and enjoy creating your own solution and customizing it, then WooCommerce would be a good option.
WooCommerce is cost-effective, infinitely customizable, and the best choice for businesses that want to manage every element of their online store. As long as you are comfortable managing (or ‘tinkering’ with) your plugins, web hosting, and optimizations, then WooCommerce is an excellent choice.
Conversely, if you do NOT want to deal with a tedious tech setup, and prefer to simply develop your offer and start selling, then BigCommerce is best. BigCommerce is built for that purpose. BigCommerce is about making selling online quick and easy. With built-in features that provide solid support and a smooth solution for scalability, BigCommerce also means that you don’t have to babysit it.
