BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a hosted platform for building and operating online stores with multichannel, B2B and composable-commerce tools. It is strongest for growing merchants that need coordinated selling across regions, marketplaces or customer types. The trade-off is that sales-volume ceilings and provider surcharges make the plan choice part of the operating cost.

Overview

BigCommerce combines storefront management, inventory, payments and channel administration in one hosted service. Drag-and-drop editing, templates, real-time collaboration and full storefront customization let a conventional ecommerce team work visually, while Catalyst offers a Next.js and React route for developers who want a headless storefront with Makeswift editing and API integration. The latter is powerful for a custom front end but is a more specialized undertaking than the standard hosted approach.

A single product source can feed Google, Meta, TikTok, Amazon, eBay and other channels. Digital products, abandoned-cart recovery and support for eight inventory locations cover practical operating needs. The ecosystem advertises more than 1,200 apps and integrations. Payment coverage is unusually broad: 250+ local methods in 100+ countries, 65+ payment providers and 20+ embedded providers without added fees. Open Payment Provider charges on the paid tiers still affect the economics of using an external provider.

Key features

Commerce operations

B2B functions include customer-specific pricing, quoting, purchase orders, invoicing, net terms, buyer accounts and company hierarchies. These are meaningful for wholesale workflows that need account-level rules rather than a retail-only catalog. Multi-storefront management keeps brands, regions and customer segments under one backend, reducing the need to run separate administrations.

AI and custom storefronts

AI tools cover product-content generation, discovery through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot, agentic checkout, conversational shopping and the BigCommerce Companion assistant. Catalyst, built on Next.js and React, connects visual Makeswift editing to BigCommerce APIs for teams that need a composable presentation layer. The free iOS and Android app handles metrics, orders and customer information, useful for mobile oversight rather than replacing the full administration experience.

Security and support

BigCommerce reports Level 1 PCI DSS attestations as both merchant and service provider, alongside SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, GDPR and CCPA coverage in its Trust Center. Every plan includes 24/7 chat and email support; Growth, Scale and Performance add 24/7 live phone support.

Pricing

A 15-day trial requires no paid plan, but after it ends BigCommerce retains store data for 90 days before automatic deletion if you do not upgrade. There is no free plan.

PlanPrice and limitsBest fit and trade-offsCore$29 a month, billed monthly, billed annually; up to $30K TTM GMV; 2.0% Open Payment Provider fee; auto-upgrades to Growth.An entry point for smaller stores. The lowest price comes with the highest provider fee and an automatic tier change as sales rise.Growth$79 a month, billed monthly, billed annually; up to $100K TTM GMV; 1.0% Open Payment Provider fee; auto-upgrades to Scale.Better for established merchants needing lower provider charges and phone support, but the GMV ceiling still governs expansion.Scale$299 a month, billed monthly, billed annually; $33,333/month GMV; 0.9% overage on GMV above cap; 0.6% Open Payment Provider fee.Suited to higher-volume operations that can budget for the monthly fee and overage. Its lower provider charge offsets some transaction cost.PerformanceStarting at $1,499 a month, billed annually; custom pricing, custom GMV and custom inventory locations.The enterprise tier for businesses needing negotiated volume and location capacity; it is not a transparent budget option.Platforms

BigCommerce is hosted and runs on web, iOS, Android and API surfaces. The mobile applications support operational monitoring and updates, while the API and Catalyst framework enable custom storefront architectures.

Who it's for

Choose BigCommerce when one organization must manage omnichannel sales, B2B account rules, multiple storefronts or international payment methods from a shared backend. It is less suitable for a small shop that wants a permanently free plan, or for a business whose sales may quickly exceed a tier's GMV allowance without room for fee and overage planning.

Pros and cons

Pro: Broad payment and channel coverage supports international, marketplace and social selling from one catalog.

Pro: B2B pricing, quoting, terms and company structures address wholesale processes directly.

Pro: Visual editing and a React/Next.js headless option accommodate both managed and composable builds.

Con: Core and Growth auto-upgrade at their GMV thresholds, making rising sales an automatic pricing event.

Con: Open Payment Provider fees range from 2.0% to 0.6%, and Scale adds a 0.9% overage above its monthly GMV cap.

Con: Trial data is deleted after the 90-day post-trial retention period unless you upgrade.

Alternatives

Spwig is a freemium option with a Community plan spanning storefront, admin, page builder, POS UI and providers across web, mobile, desktop and self-hosted deployments.

Big Cartel is better for a small catalog seeking a free tier: Gold supports five products and one customizable template, while Platinum costs $15 a month.

Spree Commerce suits teams wanting open-source, self-hosted DTC, B2B and marketplace software.

Lightspeed eCom offers a free-forever account with no credit card requirement.

Liferay Commerce provides a free DXP tier for exploration, development and pre-production on self-hosted-capable infrastructure.

Wix eCommerce is the alternative for free hosted site building with drag-and-drop design, templates and no-code tools.

Shoptet offers a free plan limited to 10 products, with larger catalog tiers.

Bagisto is a free open-source download for teams prepared to self-host a PHP and MySQL or MariaDB stack.

Verdict

BigCommerce is a strong choice for scaling retailers and B2B operators that need omnichannel synchronization, international payments and multiple storefronts in one hosted system. Choose it for that breadth and its flexible storefront architecture; look elsewhere if a free plan, fixed predictable fees or self-hosted control matters more than integrated scale.