WooCommerce vs. BigCommerce: Differences, pros and cons in 2024

Business owners have a seemingly unlimited amount of options when it comes to choosing a website building platform. Two standouts among the competition in recent years are WooCommerce and BigCommerce. After conducting our own research and scouring through other professional reviews, we’ve determined which platform is best in different categories. 

In this WooCommerce vs BigCommerce review, we’ll look at what sets these two e-commerce platforms apart – from pricing to web editors, e-commerce functionality, marketing and SEO. 

WooCommerce vs. BigCommerce: Quick overview

WooCommerce is a free plugin that can be added to WordPress sites and BigCommerce plans start at $39 per month. BigCommerce offers four plans to choose from, while WooCommerce’s plugin can be added to any WordPress plan. Both companies have e-commerce functionality, blogging capabilities, a free SSL certificate and a mobile app.

Pricing and value

Verdict: WooCommerce

Because WooCommerce is built into WordPress, it offers more customizable options that might include inexpensive and free add-ons to build your site and save money in the long run. 

WooCommerce pricing and value

WooCommerce is a free, open source plugin, as is the WordPress software that it relies on. You will need a hosting service to host your site, however, and that will cost you at least a few dollars per month to start. WordPress.com has a range of plans that offer support for WooCommerce shops.

BigCommerce pricing and value

BigCommerce offers four different monthly plans with more available features at each tier:

• Standard: $39 – Sell online and manage your online store with BigCommerce’s basic e-commerce features. 
• Plus: $105 – Designed to grow your online business with marketing tools proven to increase conversion, including customer groups and segmentation and abandoned cart saver.
• Pro: $399 – Allows you to scale your growing business with a comprehensive set of features that include Google customer reviews, custom product filtering and up to eight storefronts.
• Enterprise: Pricing upon request – Designed to power your team’s success with a full-service open platform with customized features built to your needs. 

You can try out BigCommerce for free with a 15-day trial. Also of note, when your store reaches certain revenue levels, BigCommerce automatically upgrades your account. 

Web editor

Verdict: WooCommerce

WooCommerce is built on WordPress websites, so it uses WordPress’s web editing features to create and build websites. BigCommerce has its own stand-alone drag-and-drop editor with many useful features. 

With WooCommerce operating on WordPress – the most popular content management system on earth – it’s difficult to overlook those intuitive editing features that make website building simple for the greenest of beginners. 

WooCommerce web editor

As a plug-in for WordPress, WooCommerce users can easily access all the standard features that come with operating a WordPress site. The platform offers three free theme templates as well as more than 80 paid options. 

Through WordPress, users can create interactive content with the block editor, which they say makes the editing interface easier to manage posts and products and more customizable and dynamic. 

BigCommerce web editor

BigCommerce offers its own built-in drag-and-drop web editor that makes it fairly easy for business owners to build a website without any coding or HTML knowledge. The platform also offers 12 free theme templates for online stores, as well as hundreds of paid options in varying categories. 

BigCommerce’s features are highly scalable, which may make them a little more complex and less suited for beginners, according to professional reviewers. BigCommerce also integrates with WordPress. 

E-commerce functionality

Verdict: BigCommerce

Both WooCommerce and BigCommerce have e-commerce functionality, but BigCommerce’s built-in, useful features put it over the top. 

WooCommerce e-commerce functionality

With the WooCommerce plugin, you can turn your website into a online store that sells everything from physical products to downloadables. Users can customize their shops, utilize marketing tools and own all their own store data.

With WooPayments, WooCommerce’s free payment plugin, users can accept online and in-store payments, track revenue and manage all payment activity from their dashboard. Online transaction fees start at 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.

BigCommerce e-commerce functionality

BigCommerce’s Standard monthly plan offers a solid starting point to build your online store and sell unlimited products with up to three storefronts. It comes with unlimited storage, single-page checkout and product ratings and reviews. 

The higher-tier, more expensive plans offer an even more robust variety of e-commerce features, such as abandoned cart saver, Google customer reviews and custom product filtering. 

Additionally, BigCommerce’s higher-tier plans allow for up to eight storefronts and up to $400,000 of online sales per year. 

Blogging

Verdict: WooCommerce 

Again, with WooCommerce being built on the WordPress platform, it’s hard to ignore the amount of powerful blogging tools available to WooCommerce users. While BigCommerce offers a built-in blog that will complement your online store and help build SEO, the WordPress platform allows WooCommerce to stand out here. 

WooCommerce blogging

Through WordPress, WooCommerce makes it incredibly easy to add a blog to your online store, build your brand and leverage the power of SEO to reach a wider audience. The web editor allows you to seamlessly move around content with the WordPress block functionality. 

The WordPress integration allows you to easily add and edit posts and images, create categories, schedule posts and even allow users to subscribe and receive email notifications when new posts are made. 

BigCommerce blogging

All of BigCommerce’s pricing plans include a built-in blog that allows you to market your brand to potential customers. 

Though BigCommerce does integrate with other platforms like WordPress, it does not have an included RSS feed – which is a great way for other websites to pick up your content. In all, BigCommerce offers some basic blogging features that will allow you to use content marketing to your advantage. 

Marketing and SEO

Verdict: BigCommerce

Both the WooCommerce and BigCommerce platforms come with marketing and SEO features, but the amount of built-in options BigCommerce offers gives it the edge in this category. 

WooCommerce marketing and SEO

In addition to WooCommerce’s wide range of paid theme options to make your online store stand out, the platform allows you to showcase your products through its blocking features. You can also segment your customer base with detailed analytics.

When it comes to SEO, WooCommerce offers many downloadable extensions that will allow potential customers to discover your website. 

BigCommerce marketing and SEO

When it comes to marketing and SEO features, BigCommerce really stands out. It allows you to customize your website URLs, keeping them short to match SEO best practices.

BigCommerce also offers built-in metadata and the ability to customize your robots.txt file, which allows search engines to know which pages to index and which to avoid. Additionally, all of BigCommerce’s monthly plans provide thorough reporting features for your store. 

Performance and security

Verdict: BigCommerce

In terms of security, BigCommerce offers plenty of built-in measures to keep your site safe. With WooCommerce, on the other hand, it’s up to you to make sure your website includes safe SSL certificates. 

WooCommerce performance and security

In terms of a secure SSL certificate, which is fairly basic across the industry, WooCommerce users will need to turn to their hosting providers. 

And since WooCommerce is a plug-in for WordPress, you’ll also rely heavily on your host for performance issues. This means performance can vary widely based on which host you choose. 

BigCommerce performance and security

All of BigCommerce’s security features are built-in, so no plugins are needed here. All traffic on your BigCommerce site is over HTTPS and comes with a free dedicated SSL certificate. 

The platform is also PCI DSS compliant, which means it has met requirements to protect against data breaches. They also offer a fully managed and secure cloud-based hosting solution. 

Mobile app

Verdict: WooCommerce

Both WooCommerce and BigCommerce have useful mobile apps that help you stay in touch with your online store, even when you are on the go. However, WooCommerce offers slightly more features and has more positive reviews overall, giving it the edge. 

WooCommerce Mobile app

WooCommerce has a well-reviewed mobile app that allows users to track key stats in real-time, create products, process orders and take contactless payments. Using an extension, the app also allows you to receive notifications every time you make a sale. If you run more than one store, the app easily allows you to toggle between multiple stores. 

The WooCommerce app receives good reviews on both the Apple App Store (4.7 out of 5) and the Google Play Store (4.5 out of 5). Customer reviews generally indicate the WooCommerce app works well for small business owners.

BigCommerce Mobile app

BigCommerce’s mobile app allows you to view and update orders, check key performance metrics and manage customers while away from the office. You can also send notifications to your customers through the app. 

The app receives generally positive ratings with a 4.5 out of 5 on the Apple App Store, as well as 3.6 out of 5 on the Google Play Store. Some users do complain that the app is difficult to use, lacks features and can be buggy.

Final verdict

Winner: WooCommerce

In an incredibly tight comparison, we give WooCommerce a very slight edge over BigCommerce. 

While BigCommerce is a clear winner when it comes to e-commerce functionality, security, marketing and SEO, we give WooCommerce the overall edge because of its pricing, web editor, blogging and mobile app features. 

Who is WooCommerce best for?

WooCommerce is best for business owners who already have a basic understanding of WordPress and need a starting point for an online store to sell their products. It also works great for users who want a basic web editor with many blogging features to help spread their brand’s message. 

Who is BigCommerce best for?

BigCommerce is ideal for business owners who want a robust set of built-in e-commerce, marketing and SEO features, as well as some of the best security features of any website-building platform. Because BigCommerce is built to scale, it may require a little more technical expertise than some other competitors.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Is BigCommerce or WooCommerce better?

We give WooCommerce a slight edge because it is built on the WordPress platform and offers an excellent web editor, blogging features, fair pricing and a very useful mobile app. 

BigCommerce still shines when it comes to e-commerce functionality, security and marketing and SEO features.

What's the best e-commerce hosting platform?

BigCommerce is an excellent option when it comes to e-commerce hosting. The company offers a thorough set of built-in e-commerce features and some of the best security of any platform, as well as excellent built-in marketing and SEO capabilities.

What are the cons of WooCommerce?

Because it is built on WordPress, WooCommerce relies heavily on plugins and extensions to service its customers. While some competitors offer built-in features, such as security and SEO, you’ll need to trust the quality of the plugin provider when using many of the features that are offered through WooCommerce.