Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce Enterprise: Battle Of The Demi-gods

Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce enterprise, which is better? Which one would keep my store’s profit figures pointing up? Which option is massively customizable?

These are questions many store owners with rapidly growing brands keep asking themselves. If you are shrewd like some us, you probably would love to compare all the features side by side before settling on one.

You have read and heard many online entrepreneurs support Shopify over other eCommerce platforms. We do too. But we also are aware that BigCommerce is a fierce competitor of Shopify and has some reliable features that make it a worthy contender.

Both Shopify and BigCommerce have starter plans that allow first-timers to launch their online ventures without investing a lot. The beauty of these eCommerce platforms is that they grow with your business. They are highly adaptable with massive room for effortless customization. However, they differ to some extent and the comparison that follows will help you discern the one that will meet most of your business demands.

Comparing Shopify Plus and BigCommerce Enterprise

If we discuss the features of these two eCommerce giants separately, you may not sport the difference because they are almost alike. But if we toss them side by side, you’ll be able to see the nuanced differences. The comparison will be based on the following features:

Headless Architecture

Headless commerce is the decoupling of your front end from the core infrastructure (back-end) to allow for multiple front ends. This architecture allows you to meet all the changing demands of your customers by fine-tuning or adding another front end functionality without affecting or stopping other functions.

The advanced nature of the headless approach means basic Shopify and Bigcommerce plans don’t have it. Only the advanced options (Shopify Plus and BigCommerce enterprise) have it. So how do they compare?

Both Shopify Plus and BigCommerce enterprise have extremely flexible front ends. However, the headless capability of the latter is nowhere as good as that of the former. 

The Bigcommerce team has pushed its commerce-as-a-service to a whole new level allowing its infrastructure to integrate with publishing platforms like WordPress, Acquia, and PWAs (Progressive web apps). This means, their sites are massively content-based which is exactly what most stores want.

B2B Establishment

B2B commerce is changing just as fast as B2C. It’s no longer about trust and transparency alone. Rather, speed and adaptability matter as well. But to transform that fast, you either need a Shopify Plus or BigCommerce enterprise plan.

Even though limited, Shopify Plus has some good native B2B functionalities. They include a wholesale channel and subdomain for a B2B store, setting quantity increments, set/disable minimum orders, password protection, branded experience and much more.

Thanks to its integration with other software and apps, you can meet all the demands of your customers quickly and on automation. In fact, you might not need to deal with coding.

But there are a few pitfalls of Shopify Plus when it comes to B2B. First, you can’t use multi-currency in a channel (wholesale included). That means you only have your store’s currency. The existence of your store on a subdomain level denies wholesale customers the superb experience retail customers get on your main store.

Secondly, while Shopify Plus allows customization that includes branded checkouts, logo addition, and accent color, it lacks editable theme files. On top of that, they restrict bulk pricing. 

BigCommerce enterprise, on the other hand, is more suited to B2B than Shopify. Like the latter, you can create price lists for various customers, and assign discounts based on many variants. 

It is way easier to create price lists on BigCommerce than Shopify. In fact, some people use APIs and others resort to import apps that upload a pre-created CSV file.

Also, BigCommerce enterprise allows you to expand its native B2B through external apps like B2B Bundle, PuchOut 2 Go, and Quote Ninja.

So if your forte is in B2B, you would benefit greatly from BigCommerce because it gives you a lot without sacrifice design.

Shipping

Shipping is not just about dispatching a product. It’s more detailed than that. That is why you must compare Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce enterprise features to see which one will result in exemplary shipping practices.

While on Shopify Plus, you get discounted rates for printing labels through Shopify. You can also customize shipping through Script Editor which can re-arrange shipping rates or disable some rates by location.

Here is where the rain starts to beat you. Script Editor runs on Ruby and not many programmers are familiar with it. This means spending some more on additional staff. 

Shopify Plus lacks a native app for adding dimensions to products and variants. This means installing another app. Also when it comes to checkout, they don’t have a one-page checkout -unless you install CartHook.

BigCommerce enterprise offers one-page checkout as part of the software. Shipping happens through ShipperHQ with advanced options like customized rates on customer groups, products, dimensions, etc. 

However, you may not be able to fully customize the checkout page like you would on Shopify Plus. So on shipping, these two demi-gods tie.

Product Management

This part is a little subjective because everyone prefers to have their data arranged in some way. Furthermore, the product catalog differs from one store to another. Nevertheless, Shopify Plus does not have the native tags and custom fields for handling complex product data. It can be a nightmare to assign proper attributes or define the scope of various products.

You’ll need tools like PIM (Product Information Manager or another similar app to manage complex product data. 

While not as good as Magento’s or Salesforce Cloud, BigCommerce handles complex data structuring natively. This means you can create custom fields, tags, choose the scope and even allocate pre-defined options. This sort of data structuring allows you to have different data for varying groups of products (shoe sizing vs. apparel sizing)

The bottom line here is, BigCommerce enterprise is capable of handling complex product catalogs without the need for third-party apps like PIM. It also offers more product filtering and the use of nicely configured price lists.

Pricing

To get started with Shopify Plus, you need a minimum of $2,000. This is for monthly software subscription and gets you a dedicated store manager, SSL, and free customer support.

Other functions like payment processing and maintenance will incur extra costs. The transaction fee is based on sales volume and whether or not you are using Shopify payments. The fee ranges between 0.15 and 0.25%

Bigcommerce enterprise, on the other hand, starts at $1,000 a month with transaction fees that depend on sales volume.

The monthly subscription fees stated above for both Shopify and Bigcommerce are base figures. That means things like customization charges, app subscription, and other developmental costs are not included.

Nevertheless, one fact is clear; out of the box, bigcommerce enterprise merchants get more features than Shopify Plus users. But for now, BigCommerce wins on pricing.

All in all, the subscription fee and transaction fee are not enough to determine which platform is the best. Sometimes things like the ease of app installation, developmental efforts or the cost of getting a developer/using your staff for each software need to be considered as well.

So take time and probably reach out to other Shopify Plus and Bigcommerce enterprise merchants to find out how things are on the ground. But for now, Bigcommerce wins on the initial pricing package.

Here is a tabled comparison of Shopify plus vs BigCommerce enterprise on a wide number of features:

Conclusion

So which is better when it comes to Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce? Well from a higher level, they are pretty much the same.

Shopify Plus is impressive and its ecosystem is extensive. Talk of massive integration, scalable tech, customizable features and drag, and drop functionality.

Besides being feature-rich, Shopify tends to be beginner-friendly which is why every Tom, Harry, and Mary resort to it. However, its “straightforward” nature renders it ideal for high volume B2C retailers.

On top of that, the platform has a massive number of users-well into millions. And that kind of following speaks volumes about the efficiency of an eCommerce service provider.

BigCommerce enterprise too is a strong option that leans more on extensibility. Out of the box, its ecosystem is full of useful apps that can start you off on a solid footing.

Its tech stack allows for a headless commerce approach that is ideal for big brands-B2B and rapidly growing B2C, in particular. So if you have a B2B business to run or a fast-growing retail store, you would be better off with BigCommerce enterprise.

***Planning to expand your Bigcommerce or Shopify-based business to a whole new level? Check out our eCommerce directory for top-level digital solution providers. ***