BigCommerce and Shopify sit closer together than most platform comparisons, both are hosted SaaS ecommerce platforms, both handle security and infrastructure for you, both have mature app ecosystems. That makes this a genuinely harder decision than, say, WordPress to Shopify. There’s no obvious pain point pushing you out the door. So the real question isn’t “is BigCommerce broken”, it’s “does Shopify actually solve a problem you have, or is it just familiarity and market share pulling you across?”
This post gives a straight comparison across the areas that actually matter for a switch, and where the decision genuinely could go either way.
What’s Actually Similar
Worth naming upfront: BigCommerce and Shopify are both capable, modern, PCI-compliant hosted platforms. Neither is going to fail you on core reliability, uptime, or basic ecommerce functionality. If your BigCommerce store runs well today, you’re not migrating away from a broken platform, you’re migrating toward specific advantages Shopify offers that matter more for some businesses than others.
Where Shopify Tends to Win
App ecosystem size and depth
This is the most consistently cited reason merchants move from BigCommerce to Shopify. The Shopify App Store has a considerably larger number of actively developed, well-supported apps across nearly every category, reviews, subscriptions, loyalty, personalisation, upsells. BigCommerce’s marketplace is smaller, which sometimes means fewer options or apps that are less actively maintained for niche needs.
Ecosystem and developer availability
Because Shopify has a larger merchant base, there’s a correspondingly larger pool of developers, agencies, themes, and community knowledge (tutorials, forums, Liquid documentation) available. Practically, this tends to mean faster hiring, more competitive rates, and more available theme options when you need custom work done.
Checkout customisation (on Shopify Plus)
BigCommerce has historically offered more checkout customisation on its standard plans than standard Shopify does, this is genuinely a point in BigCommerce’s favour for merchants who need checkout flexibility without moving to an enterprise tier. If checkout customisation matters to you and budget is tight, this is worth weighing carefully; Shopify only opens up full checkout extensibility at the Shopify Plus level.
Native B2B and wholesale functionality maturity
Both platforms have invested in B2B, but Shopify’s B2B functionality (particularly combined with Shopify Plus) has matured into a genuinely strong offering for wholesale and B2B merchants, see our B2B ecommerce solutions for more detail.
Theme quality and design flexibility
Shopify’s Liquid templating language and theme architecture generally give designers and developers more granular control over storefront presentation, and the pool of high-quality themes (both free and premium) is larger.
Where BigCommerce Holds Its Own (or Wins)
No transaction fees on external payment gateways
Historically, Shopify charged additional transaction fees for merchants using a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, whereas BigCommerce doesn’t charge platform-level transaction fees regardless of gateway. This has narrowed as Shopify Payments has become the default for many merchants, but it’s worth checking current terms against your specific payment setup before assuming cost parity.
Built-in features that require apps on Shopify
BigCommerce natively includes some functionality (certain product filtering, faceted search, and multi-currency features) that Shopify merchants often need an app to replicate, which can mean lower app-subscription overhead on BigCommerce for stores that rely heavily on those specific features.
Product variant limits
BigCommerce has historically supported a higher number of product variant combinations natively than Shopify’s standard variant limits. For merchants with genuinely high-variant products (think: highly configurable furniture or made-to-order goods), this is worth checking against current platform limits before assuming Shopify handles it identically.
What Doesn’t Change Either Way
Site speed, security, and uptime are broadly comparable between the two platforms at a baseline level, neither is meaningfully “faster” or “safer” out of the box in a way that should be the deciding factor. If someone tells you to switch platforms purely for speed, dig into what’s actually causing your current slowness first; it’s often theme bloat or excessive apps rather than the platform itself.
A Note on Multi-Currency and International Selling
If your BigCommerce store sells internationally and relies on its native multi-currency display, it’s worth understanding how the equivalent works on Shopify before assuming direct feature parity. Shopify handles international selling primarily through Shopify Markets, which manages localised pricing, currency conversion, and region-specific storefront experiences from within the core platform on eligible plans. For most merchants this is a genuinely capable replacement, but the configuration approach is different enough from BigCommerce’s native multi-currency settings that it’s worth mapping out explicitly during migration planning rather than assuming a like-for-like settings transfer, particularly if you have region-specific pricing rules or tax logic tied to your current multi-currency setup.
The Real Decision Framework
Ask these questions honestly before deciding:
- Are you actively struggling to find or afford BigCommerce apps you need? If yes, Shopify’s larger app ecosystem is a real, tangible gain.
- Do you need checkout customisation and don’t want to pay for Shopify Plus? If yes, standard BigCommerce may actually serve you better than standard Shopify.
- Is your team already fluent in Shopify from other projects, or struggling to find good BigCommerce developers? Ecosystem size and talent availability is a legitimate, practical factor.
- Do you rely on high-variant-count products? Confirm current limits on both platforms before committing either way.
- Is the switch actually about a specific pain point, or about chasing what a competitor uses? Be honest here, “everyone else is on Shopify” isn’t itself a business reason.
A Closer Look at the App Cost Trade-Off
The “BigCommerce includes more natively” point is worth unpacking further, because it’s easy to state as a fact without pricing what it actually means for your budget. If your BigCommerce store leans heavily on native faceted search, built-in multi-currency, or specific built-in promotional rules, replicating that on Shopify may mean one or two additional monthly app subscriptions, commonly somewhere in the range of a modest additional monthly spend per app, though pricing varies by app and store size. That’s a real ongoing cost, but it needs to be weighed against what you gain: a larger pool of apps means more competition, generally better support, and more frequent feature updates than a smaller marketplace can sustain across every category.
The practical exercise worth doing before switching: list every BigCommerce-native feature you actually use day-to-day (not features you have access to but never touch), and price out the Shopify App Store equivalents against your current BigCommerce plan cost. For many stores, the total cost difference is smaller than expected once you’re comparing like-for-like usage rather than headline feature lists.
Migration Risk Profile Compared to Other Platforms
Because BigCommerce and Shopify both structure catalogue data (products, variants, categories) in broadly comparable ways, and both are already hosted, PCI-compliant SaaS platforms, this migration carries meaningfully lower technical risk than migrating off a self-hosted platform like Magento or a heavily customised WooCommerce build. The main risk areas specific to this migration are subtler: BigCommerce’s native multi-currency and faceted search behaviour needs to be explicitly replicated (not assumed to transfer), and any BigCommerce Stencil template customisations need a genuine redesign rather than a direct port, since the two templating languages don’t translate directly.
If You Decide to Switch
The mechanics of a BigCommerce to Shopify migration are generally more straightforward than migrations from self-hosted platforms, because both platforms structure product, customer, and order data in broadly similar ways. The main work is:
- Mapping BigCommerce’s category structure to Shopify’s collections
- Rebuilding your theme (BigCommerce’s Stencil templating and Shopify’s Liquid are not interchangeable)
- Auditing and re-integrating your app stack against Shopify equivalents
- Mapping and redirecting your full URL structure to protect SEO
Typical timeframes sit toward the shorter end of platform migrations given the structural similarity, though this varies significantly with catalogue size and customisation.
When to Bring in a Specialist
If your BigCommerce store is small and relatively simple, a careful DIY migration is realistic. Once you have meaningful app dependencies, custom theme work, or organic search traffic you’re protecting, a managed migration reduces the risk of losing functionality or rankings in the switch, this is exactly the scope a proper Shopify migration engagement is built to handle.
A Final Word
Because this migration decision is genuinely closer than most platform comparisons, it’s worth resisting pressure to decide quickly either way. Take the time to price out your actual app usage, confirm your variant and checkout needs against current platform limits, and be honest about whether the switch solves a real problem or just follows a trend. A platform switch made for the right specific reasons tends to go smoothly; one made on vague momentum tends to surface regrets six months in, once the novelty of a new admin panel wears off and the actual day-to-day differences become clear.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Shopify definitely better than BigCommerce?
No, “better” depends entirely on your specific needs. Shopify tends to win on app ecosystem size, developer availability, and theme flexibility; BigCommerce holds genuine advantages in built-in feature depth and, historically, transaction fee structure. The right platform depends on which of these matters more to your business.
How long does a BigCommerce to Shopify migration take?
Generally on the shorter end of platform migrations due to structural similarities between the two platforms, though catalogue complexity and custom theme requirements still drive timeframes, see our broader guide on Shopify migration timelines.
Will I lose my BigCommerce SEO rankings if I switch?
Not if the migration is handled with proper 301 redirects and metadata preservation. This is true of any platform migration, the risk comes from execution, not from BigCommerce or Shopify specifically.
Do BigCommerce and Shopify have similar pricing?
Both operate on tiered subscription pricing that scales with features and, in some cases, revenue thresholds. Exact current pricing should be checked directly against each platform’s published plans rather than assumed, since both change pricing structures periodically.
Can I trial Shopify before committing to a full migration?
Yes, Shopify offers trial periods that let you explore the admin, theme editor, and app store before committing, which is a reasonable way to get a feel for the platform’s day-to-day usability compared to BigCommerce.
Next Step
If you’re genuinely torn between staying on BigCommerce or moving to Shopify, a Shopify audit can help clarify what you’d actually gain based on your specific store, rather than generic platform comparisons.
