Shopify and BigCommerce get compared constantly because, on the surface, they solve the same problem in a similar way, both are hosted SaaS platforms, both remove the server management burden that Magento or WooCommerce carry, and both have credible track records running serious ecommerce businesses. The differences that actually matter are more specific than the generic “feature comparison table” content you’ll find elsewhere, so this post focuses on the ones that genuinely change a decision.
Native Features vs App Ecosystem: The Real Philosophical Split
This is the difference that shapes almost everything else. BigCommerce ships with more functionality built into the core platform out of the box, things like more advanced native product filtering, multi-currency, and certain B2B features have historically been included without needing a paid app.
Shopify’s philosophy is the opposite: keep the core platform lean, and rely on a very large, mature app ecosystem to add functionality. The practical result is that Shopify stores often end up running more third-party apps to get equivalent functionality, which is sometimes framed as a Shopify weakness.
In practice, this cuts both ways. Shopify’s app ecosystem is dramatically larger and more mature than BigCommerce’s, meaning for almost anything you want to add (subscriptions, loyalty, personalisation, advanced reviews, wholesale portals), there are multiple well-built, well-supported Shopify options to choose from, often with better UX and support than the BigCommerce equivalent. BigCommerce having a feature “built in” is only an advantage if that built-in version is actually good, and Shopify’s best-in-class apps frequently beat a platform’s native equivalent feature by feature.
Transaction Fees
This is a genuine, concrete difference worth knowing. Shopify charges an additional transaction fee on orders where you use a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments (this fee doesn’t apply if you use Shopify Payments, which is available and generally recommended for Australian stores). BigCommerce doesn’t charge platform-level transaction fees regardless of which payment gateway you use.
For a store using Shopify Payments, which most Australian merchants do, since it’s competitive and avoids the extra fee, this difference is largely moot. It only matters if there’s a specific reason to use a different gateway (multi-currency settlement needs, an existing merchant relationship, etc.).
Revenue-Based Plan Tiers
BigCommerce’s plans historically included annual sales thresholds, once a store’s revenue crossed a certain point, it was pushed into a more expensive plan tier regardless of whether it needed the extra features. This caught some fast-growing merchants off guard. Shopify’s plans are feature-based tiers rather than revenue-triggered, so growing sales alone doesn’t force a plan upgrade.
This is genuinely worth checking against BigCommerce’s current plan structure before deciding, since pricing models do get revised, but it’s been a recurring point of friction for BigCommerce merchants historically.
Multi-Channel and Marketplace Selling
Both platforms support selling across multiple channels (Instagram, Facebook, marketplaces, POS), but Shopify’s channel integrations tend to be more polished and more widely supported by third parties, simply because of Shopify’s larger market share, channel and marketplace providers build for Shopify first, and Shopify’s own native channel apps are generally well maintained. For a growing Australian store planning to sell on Amazon, TikTok Shop, or in-person via POS alongside the online store, Shopify’s ecosystem maturity here is a real practical advantage.
Theme and Design Ecosystem
Shopify has a significantly larger library of both free and premium themes, and a much bigger pool of developers and agencies experienced in Shopify theme development (Liquid). This matters practically: if you ever need custom theme work, finding skilled Shopify developers in Australia is considerably easier than finding equivalently experienced BigCommerce (Stencil) developers, simply due to relative market size. See our Shopify web design and development service for what that looks like in practice.
Ease of Use and Learning Curve
Both platforms are reasonably intuitive for day-to-day store management, adding products, processing orders, managing customers. Shopify’s admin interface is generally considered slightly more polished and has a larger body of tutorials, documentation, and third-party learning resources purely because of its larger user base, which matters when onboarding new staff.
Enterprise Path: Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce Enterprise
Both platforms have an enterprise tier aimed at larger merchants. Shopify Plus has become the more dominant choice among large Australian and global brands in recent years, partly due to its checkout extensibility, native B2B functionality, and the depth of its partner/agency ecosystem for complex builds. BigCommerce Enterprise remains a credible option, particularly for merchants who value more native functionality without app dependency, but it has a meaningfully smaller market share and partner ecosystem than Shopify Plus at the enterprise end.
App Ecosystem and Third-Party Support in Australia
Beyond raw app count, there’s a practical local dimension to this comparison. Because Shopify has a substantially larger merchant base in Australia, local integrations that matter to Australian merchants specifically, Australia Post, Afterpay, Zip, Xero, MYOB, local shipping aggregators like Shippit and Starshipit, tend to have more mature, better-supported Shopify apps than BigCommerce equivalents, and the developers building and maintaining them are more likely to be responsive to local support requests. This isn’t a knock on BigCommerce’s core platform quality, but it’s a real practical difference for a business that needs these specific local integrations to just work.
Search and Filtering Out of the Box
BigCommerce has historically shipped with more capable native product filtering and faceted search than Shopify’s default theme search, which was a genuine BigCommerce advantage for larger catalogues. Shopify has closed much of this gap through Shopify Search & Discovery (a native app) and a strong field of third-party search apps (Boost AI Search, Searchanise and similar), which now generally match or exceed BigCommerce’s native filtering once properly configured. The practical difference today is less about which platform starts ahead and more about whether the site’s search and filtering has actually been configured properly for the catalogue, a common gap on both platforms when it’s left on default settings.
Payment Gateway Flexibility
BigCommerce has historically supported a wider range of built-in payment gateway options without the transaction fee complication Shopify applies to non-Shopify-Payments gateways. For most Australian merchants using Shopify Payments this is moot, as covered above, but for a business with a specific existing gateway relationship it can’t or won’t change, perhaps for multi-currency settlement reasons, or an existing merchant services contract, BigCommerce removes that friction entirely. It’s a narrow use case, but a genuine one worth naming rather than dismissing outright.
Where BigCommerce Genuinely Has an Edge
To be balanced: BigCommerce can be a reasonable fit for merchants who want more native, no-extra-app functionality (particularly around multi-currency and certain B2B catalogue features in some historical plan tiers), who want to avoid Shopify’s third-party gateway transaction fee for a specific gateway need, or who are already invested in a BigCommerce build with a working team behind it and no strong reason to move. It’s a smaller ecosystem, but it’s not a bad platform.
Checkout Customisation Compared
Both platforms allow checkout customisation at their respective enterprise tiers, but the depth and ecosystem support differ. Shopify Plus’s checkout extensibility (built on Shopify Functions) is now a mature, actively developed part of the platform, with a large and growing set of apps and agency expertise built specifically around it. BigCommerce’s checkout customisation capability is real but has a smaller pool of specialists and pre-built solutions to draw on, simply due to relative market size. For a business planning meaningful checkout customisation as part of its growth strategy, this ecosystem depth difference is worth factoring in beyond the raw technical capability comparison, since finding people who’ve actually built complex checkout customisations before matters as much as whether the platform technically supports it.
A Practical Decision Framework
- Check whether you’ll use Shopify Payments, if yes, the transaction fee point is moot and the comparison shifts toward ecosystem and features.
- List the specific “native” features you think you need, then check whether a well-reviewed Shopify app already covers each one just as well.
- Think about how many channels you’ll sell on beyond your own site, Shopify’s channel maturity is a real advantage here.
- Consider how easily you can hire or contract developer help in each ecosystem if you need custom work down the line.
- Factor in growth, if you’re planning meaningful scale, check both platforms’ current plan/pricing structures against your 2-3 year revenue projection.
FAQ
Does BigCommerce really have no transaction fees?
Correct, BigCommerce doesn’t charge its own transaction fee regardless of payment gateway. Shopify only charges an extra fee if you use a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments; using Shopify Payments avoids that fee entirely, which is what most Australian merchants do.
Which platform is better for a store planning to sell on multiple channels?
Shopify generally has the edge here due to a larger, more mature set of channel integrations (social selling, marketplaces, POS) and more third-party support building for its platform first, simply because of its larger market share.
Is BigCommerce cheaper than Shopify overall?
It depends on the specific store, BigCommerce can save money if a store would otherwise need to pay for several apps to replicate BigCommerce’s native features. But Shopify’s larger app ecosystem often means better, more cost-effective solutions are available per feature than the comparison suggests at first glance.
Can I migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify without losing SEO?
Yes, with a properly planned migration that includes 301 redirects for every important URL and preserves on-page SEO content and metadata. See our BigCommerce to Shopify migration page for how this is typically approached.
Next Step
For a deeper feature-by-feature breakdown, see our Shopify vs BigCommerce comparison, or if you want a straight answer for your specific business, book a call and we’ll help you work out which platform actually fits.
