Shopify vs. Bigcommerce: Which One for Dropshipping in 2024?

There's no doubt that dropshipping is an invaluable business model for digital entrepreneurs. In terms of dropshipping platforms, there are plenty, but which one should you choose?

Shopify and BigCommerce are two of the most popular ecommerce platforms for dropshipping.

Shopify has earned a market share of at least 29% in the US. BigCommerce is a bit smaller but also noteworthy.

The main difference between Shopify and BigCommerce is that Shopify is more beginner-friendly and offers additional services related to shipping and payments next to its ecommerce platform, while BigCommerce uses built-in features instead of third-party apps and offers best-in-class SEO features.

The bottom line is that we will discuss the head-to-head Shopify vs. BigCommerce for dropshipping differences in the later sections.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Overview

Shopify and BigCommerce are excellent subscription-based dropshipping platforms.

Take a look at BigCommerce vs. Shopify's pros and cons in the table below:

Shopify		BigCommerce
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
Offers thousands of apps in its app store	You depend on third-party apps for currency support	Advanced built-in features with automatic installation	Requires learning curve for advanced features
Unique and simple theme design	Lacks international standards in different functions	Add up to 600 variations for every product	Features options aren’t that customizable
Easy to manage the website, with straightforward navigation	Templates switching requires you to reformat the entire site.	Transaction fees are not needed for any plan	Lacks variations in different store themes

With the pros and cons in hand, we can summarize which dropshipping platform fits you best:

We recommend you to choose Shopify if:

• You want a straightforward process that makes your work more beginner-friendly.
• You want more customizable and essential features for store protection.

We recommend you to choose BigCommerce if:

• You want more appealing features, tools, and functionalities to form your dropshipping store.
• You want built-in features and fewer additional costs to maintain your store.

Note: Wondering if BigCommerce is a great fit for you? Check out their website here!

Furthermore, you need to remember that this was just a quick overview. If you want to learn more about BigCommerce or Shopify, read on!

If you want to save it for later – check out our infographic below:

Why do you need Shopify or BigCommerce for your dropshipping store?

Shopify and BigCommerce are undoubtedly two of the biggest names for managing your dropshipping store.

So, you can realize how these online platforms are essential for many business owners.

But why are these giants so popular?

Shopify and BigCommerce are popular dropshipping platforms due to their simple user interface and many functionalities.

Keep in mind that dropshippers don't own or stock any product. When customers place an order, the dropshipper forwards the product purchase information to the dropshipping supplier, and the supplier later ships the product to the customer.

So, why do you need Shopify or BigCommerce?

These platforms are there to help you build an online store and manage your dropshipping business. You can also use their built-in tools and add-ons to improve your visitor's online store experience.

Both are subscription-based online platforms, and Shopify or BigCommerce offers excellent advantages for dropshippers. If you want unlimited storage facility, bandwidth, ecommerce sales channels, customer support, and gift cards, these platforms are there for you.

Let's take a look at what they generally offer to their customers:

• Simple shipping tools
• SSL certificate that protects users' payment
• Lots of essential ecommerce features and third-party apps
• Responsive and customizable themes
• Affordable pricing structures
• Mobile-friendly user interface
• 24/7 Customer support

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Pricing

Pricing is the most significant factor when you purchase a service. You need to pay for different plans and services, so you need a productive solution that fits your budget.

Let's take a look at the table below for both of these pricing comparisons:

Shopify			BigCommerce
Plans	Price	Cr. Card Price	Plans	Price	Cr. Card Price
Lite	$9	2.9% + 30¢ USD	Standard	$29	2.5% + 30¢ USD
Basic	$39	2.9% + 30¢ USD	Plus	$79	2.5% + 30¢ USD
Shopify	$105	2.6% + 30¢ USD
Advanced	$399	2.4% + 30¢ USD	Pro	$299	2.5% + 30¢ USD

You can see both of these platforms offer quite similar pricing plans. Their pricing structure ranges from $29 to $399. Although their pricing structure is quite similar, they still have several differences.

The main differences between the pricing plans are related to the features that exist on each plan.

On Shopify, there's an abandoned cart recovery system in all plans. In comparison, you need the plus plan on BigCommerce to use it.

On the other hand, BigCommerce does have the advantage of a standard plan, where you will have infinite staff accounts.

However, Shopify offers limited staff accounts, unlike BigCommerce, with restrictions and limitations. There will be additional transaction fees with few staff accounts in every plan.

Let's jump into more of their differences in brief:

• The $105 upgrade on Shopify provides you with professional reports and gift cards. On the other hand, BigCommerce offers customers group and segmentation settings and abandoned cart savers.
• Once you earn more than $125,000, BigCommerce tells you to upgrade to an Enterprise plan that costs more than $1,000 per month. Shopify also recommends upgrading with Shopify's Plus feature, but Shopify's pricing plan is cheaper.

Pro tip: When you consider building an ecommerce platform, you need to spend at least $30 per month on either of these ecommerce platforms. Also, observe the transaction fees, especially the credit card fees, ranging from 2.2% to 2.9%+ 30¢ USD on every transaction.

Also, don't forget that both ecommerce platforms have a free trial for you available:

• Shopify currently offers a free 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months. Learn more about the Shopify trial here!
• BigCommerce offers a 15-day free trial. Learn more about the BigCommerce trial here!

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Themes

There are some distinct differences in theme selection between Shopify and BigCommerce.

Although both provide a different set of free themes, BigCommerce provides 12, and Shopify gives you nine free themes.

Let's jump into more differences between these two in terms of design and themes:

• BigCommerce includes 271 paid themes; the price range is from $150 to $300; on the other hand, Shopify has 80 paid themes that range from $180 to $350. You can search themes based on industry-specific styles, sizes, and layouts.
• Both Shopify and BigCommerce focus on design. The templates are modern and stylish, but Shopify exceeds BigCommerce in mobile UX.

See the comparison point Table of themes, design, and prices.

Platform	Themes Paid	Premium Themes Price	Free Themes
Shopify	80	$180-$350	9
BigCommerce	271	$150-$300	12

Pro-Tip: Your template or design is only a part of your store for visual appeal. You need to maintain the product images and descriptions to make your store look perfectly designed.

Shopify vs. BigCommerce: Features

Shopify's and BigCommerce's features are the main things to consider for your online store. You need to decide which one would be your first choice.

Shopify has a significant advantage due to its easy-to-use interface. Any beginner will understand the themes and built-in features.

On the other hand, BigCommerce is one of the leading Shopify alternatives. It consists of features and prices that are comparable to Shopify.

Both of these giants offer all the essential features of every standard ecommerce platform. See the features these giants offer:

• The infinite number of products, orders, disk space, and bandwidth
• 24/7 customer support with live chat
• Online store website and shopping cart with all the primary functions
• The attractive visual representation and a lot of tools to work
• Credit card, online gateways, shipping methods, and customer accounts
• Inventory managing, sales reports, and SSL integration are free of cost
• Point of sale – use the online set-up in a brick-and-mortar store

Whether BigCommerce or Shopify, both of these ecommerce platforms provides lots of functions and features for ease of shopping. They are constantly adding new features to their website. 

But what are the differences between these two?

Shopify offers simpler and multilingual set-up options with proper usage of built-in tools for dropshipping. In contrast, BigCommerce has stronger hosting security options and DDOS protection for your store. 

Moreover, in terms of performance reports, Shopify is a bit ahead due to in-depth analysis, and BigCommerce provides business performance and website-traffic performance reports. 

If you want a system that lets you manage your physical store and online store, Shopify is the best choice. On the other hand, BigCommerce is slightly ahead in terms of creating powerful online stores and having excellent product management.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an ecommerce company established in 2006. It is a platform created to help you run a successful business.

Shopify is a shopping cart solution that enables you to build an online store.

You can start a Shopify store without being an expert in the field. Just create a website and use their shipping methods to start your ecommerce business immediately. Any user can own a Shopify store within 15 minutes.

The pros of Shopify

Want to try Shopify right now? Let's dive into the advantages before.

• The platform's ease of use. As we discussed earlier, Shopify has one of the best user interfaces, making it the perfect dropshipping platform for beginners.
  
  Also, Shopify's user-friendly interface and easy process for onboarding let you handle your store more conveniently.
• Help center. In Shopify, different sections are mentioned in detail. Shopify provides social media support, whereas BigCommerce doesn't offer such customer service.
  
  When you opt for help in the Shopify editor, it directs you to the Shopify knowledge center.
• Customizable themes. If you aren't satisfied with the theme set-up, you could customize the whole theme. The customizable website builder is a great help in this case. The theme allows you to edit, add, move or remove any feature.
• Marketing makes it easier. Worried about the marketing of your store? Shopify provides the advantage of search engine optimization for improved search results.
  Shopify includes lots of SEO marketing tools to optimize your store for marketing.
  
  With inventory management, you can easily handle and manage the inventory, the sales channels allow you to track orders, products, and customers, and point of sale provides apps to manage your sales.

The cons of Shopify

Wait for a moment; you also need to look at some drawbacks. Check them out:

• Very basic tools. Shopify includes very basic and elementary-level marketing tools that many complain about; a feature like order editing and customer credit functionality requires adding a paid app on Shopify.
  
  Besides, Shopify free themes include basic functions that require adding multiple third-party apps to build your store.
  
  Although it undermines the platform's potential, it depends on the ecommerce store you want to build.
• Inconvenient to move on. Like every other ecommerce solution, Shopify also includes a lock-in feature that restricts you from migrating to another ecommerce platform as they mostly only offer backups and exports in a CSV format.
• Pay for every little feature. Shopify offers a lot of add-on apps to optimize your store. For example, showing a bar at the top will cost you over $4.00 per month, or gaining access to social login costs you $9.00 per month.
  
  In the future, Shopify may get even more expensive in every little thing. 

What is BigCommerce?

BigCommerce lets you set up businesses with a visual online store, customize your preferences and sell infinite physical, digital, and service-based products. Starting in 2009, they have grown reliability among many online business owners.

BigCommerce is an all-in-one ecommerce solution used to build an online store and offers built-in functionalities.

You can quickly build and manage the store with an internet connection and browser.

There are different customizable templates to showcase and design your online BigCommerce store.

The pros of BigCommerce

Let's check out the advantages you get from BigCommerce.

• Functionality and customization. BigCommerce offers various built-in features that may allow you to save money as you won't have to pay for third-party apps (like on Shopify). Cart level discount is one of them. Shopify has discounts and coupons but lacks cart-level discounts or automatic discounts.
  
  For this reason, merchants depend on third-party paid apps for cart-level discounts on Shopify. BigCommerce lets you easily have cart-level discounts while adding and scheduling discounts automatically.
  
  Also, the range of templates and customizable shopping provides convenience for creating an attractive online store.
• Customer support. Although Shopify dominates over BigCommerce in terms of customer service, BigCommerce is no exception in providing reliable customer service.
  
  As Shopify provides more extended support through social media, Shopify exceeds BigCommerce here.
  
  Both have 24/7 customer support that will provide you with any help regarding your store issues.
• SEO benefits. BigCommerce introduces a content delivery network that optimizes your website speed; also, BigCommerce functionality prevents the risk of getting 404 errors, and the themes ensure the URLs are unique in every way to provide higher reach.
  
  All of these help you to get better results on Search Engines.

The cons of BigCommerce

Let's see if we can find out some drawbacks this time.

• Hard to understand for beginners. BigCommerce contains many tech-heavy languages that you or any beginner would find difficult to understand. Users with no experience will find it more complicated.
  
  So, in this case, you may switch to Shopify as an alternative.
• Restrict the annual sales. BigCommerce limits the annual sales volume once you reach their suggested range. These certain restrictions prevent businesses from being developed further.
  
  Moreover, Shopify has no limits on yearly sales. You can choose Shopify as an alternative here as well.

Final thoughts

In this article, we have compared Shopify and BigCommerce as ecommerce platforms for a dropshipping business. While choosing between the two, make sure you understand the differences in features.

While Shopify provides simpler and more opportunities to begin from scratch, BigCommerce lets you start with its advanced and more powerful features.

We hope our comprehensive guide will help you find out the better one. But the last piece of advice from us:

While choosing Shopify, remember that it includes many simple tools to start your online store, but BigCommerce lets you begin with advanced in-built tools that would be more productive.

So, consider Shopify if you want to start as a beginner or, BigCommerce if you want advanced and more features for your store.

Spend some time before choosing which one will be perfect for your business. If you opt for BigCommerce, make sure you have a chance to switch to Shopify.

Want to learn more about dropshipping?

Ready to move your dropshipping store to the next level? Check out the articles below:

• How to Start a Shopify Store: The Definitive Guide (2024)
• 27 Best Shopify Themes for Your One-Product Store (2024)
• DSers vs. Spocket: Which One to Pick in 2024? (A Comparison)