Should You Build Your E-Commerce Website Using Shopify or BigCommerce?

Setting up of an e-commerce website requires a series of precise considerations. For instance, set up of an e-commerce site requires quick and easy solutions. Especially when it comes to launch your first ever digital store, it becomes very hectic to manage everything because of lack of experience. This is where the pre made e-commerce software like Shopify and BigCommerce come to rescue. That’s why almost every online retailer aka e-tailers consider Shopify or BigCommerce to power their e-commerce store.

While both of them are highly trusted and have been used by big fishes also in the online market, they have some minor setbacks too that we will discuss later in this article only. As both of these e-commerce platforms are hosted solutions, so you will have to pay a monthly fee which becomes a huge annoyance for those who are still new and can’t afford to pay monthly charges.

Though they have upper-hand too in many case. One of them being these e-commerce are hosted solutions which means that Shopify and BigCommerce will host your store and software which gives you peace of mind that your store is up to date and secure.

We have put together this article to answer some common queries for those who want to start their own e-commerce store.

Which platform is better Shopify or BigCommerce ?

Let’s start with knowing a little bit about both Shopify and BigCommerce as well as their pros and cons.

Shopify

It wouldn’t be unfair to say that Shopify has become a leading and favorite hosted eCommerce platform recently. Freelancers and website developers prefer Shopify over competitors as it is very easy to create an e-commerce website using Shopify. Playing with the look and feel of an e-commerce website powered by Shopiffy has never been a piece of cake before.

Pros of using Shopify:

• Speed and bullet-proof security – Shopify comes with integrated payment providers which allow customers to pay with blazing fast loading speed. It boasts solid layers of security to be PCI compliant and to process card payments securely.

• Design and UI – You can customize the look and feel of your store using free themes and numerous custom-built premium themes offered by Shopify.

• Marketing made easy – Shopify allows the insertion of custom Title tags and meta descriptions on every category page for SEO purpose. It also allows you to build custom squeeze pages/landing pages for marketing purpose.

• App Store – Shopify App store has all the features that are required to run an online store. It provides various free and paid Apps which add flexibility for the brands having an online presence all around the WWW (world-wide-web).

Cons of using Shopify:

• Hard to customize – Shopify uses a different architecture to customize their themes which is way too different than PHP. It could be a troublemaker for first timers on Shopify.

• Average content marketing possibility – As Shopify has excellence in the e-commerce field, their blogging platform is not as great as WordPress. It provides just a basic layout for blogging.

• Migration unfriendly – Shopify simply deletes your online store permanently when you close your account. Hence, shifting from Shopify to another platform may not be a very smooth journey.

• Pricing – Shopify’s subscription plans are so costly that they won’t fit in the budget of most of the users. Their basic plan starts from $29/month, average plan is for $79/month, and advanced plan is for $299/month.

BigCommerce

You must have heard about Amazon? BigCommerce is the best platform if you want to create a shopping site like Amazon. BigCommerce is a much similar platform to Shopify in many ways. Though, it is a little bit less flexible to customize as compared to Shopify. Source code management to get your desired brand/theme is more restricted than Shopify. Don’t let this discourage you, as it still allows you to achieve amazing designs with clean and mobile responsive layouts. If you have decided to design and develop your store using BigCommerce then there are plenty of pre-built themes available on the internet. Unless you wish to create your own theme which is good for branding then we would recommend you to hire a web developer or agency for this.

Pros of using BigCommerce:

• No Hassle Speed & Security – Speed of a website matters a lot. That’s why every major internet giant such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. have dedicated teams to reduce page load time. The next challenge for online stores is that you need uncompromised security.

• Intuitive Built-in Features – An online store is basically a website with shopping cart functionality and the ability to accept payments. One huge advantage of using BigCommerce is that they have mostly everything integrated into their software.

• Built-in Marketing Features

• Helpful Customer Support Service – Almost immediately after you sign up, you’ll be contacted by their “eCommerce consultant” over email and phone.

Cons of using BigCommerce:

• Expensive for the lower options

• Availability of Add-ons is a rare thing

Conclusion : Shopify or BigCommerce ?

BigCommerce will be a great fit for you if you are looking for all-rounder eCommerce solution, tons of built in features, and simply works with no technical knowledge. But if you are looking for something more versatile, and don’t mind a little bit more technical know-how, then you should go with Shopify. That was a sweet and straightforward conclusion of this article. Now everything depends on you, your skills, and your actual need. So, think carefully before going any further.

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