BigCommerce Pricing: How Much Does BigCommerce Cost?

As a subscription-based ecommerce platform, BigCommerce offers pretty straightforward pricing. The fee for this SaaS platform starts at $29.95/month and grows alongside added features in your plan and… your annual income.

That’s right, with BigCommerce, you’ll be forced to upgrade to the next highest plan as soon as your company hits a certain sales threshold. But higher revenues mean the need for more features, so such a tiered pricing model seems logical for businesses planning to scale. 

In this article, we’ll reveal the true BigCommerce cost and the features covered in its pricing plans. You’ll see which one is best for you, what are the hidden costs of developing and maintaining a BigCommerce store, and how BigCommerce compares to one of its biggest competitors in the market — Magento. 

Read more: How Much Ecommerce Website Costs: Set the Right Budget for Your Project

BigCommerce Pricing Overview

BigCommerce Essentials pricing has four tiers: the Standard one will cost you $29.95/month, the Plus one comes for $79.95/month, the Pro plan sells for $299.95/month, and the Enterprise plan has custom pricing. The Plus and Pro plan prices go down by 10% if you pay annually rather than monthly.

Now, the trickiest part about BigCommerce price lists is its income-based strategy. Annual sales thresholds (including tax) for each tier go like this: 

• <$50k for a Standard plan;
• <$180k for a Plus;
• <$400k for a Pro. 
• > $400k for an Enterprise.

If you make less than $50k/year, you can still purchase more advanced plans. However, if you hit the >$180k/year, don’t even look into a Standard plan because you’ll be redirected to a Plus package anyways.

A 15-day free trial comes with each of the pricing plans, so you can give the platform a test run before paying. But let’s look closer into what comes included in each tier and who it suits best.

BigCommerce Standard ($29.95/month; $50k in annual sales)

BigCommerce Standard is an entry-level package advertised for merchants who are only starting out in ecommerce. Even though the plan targets small retailers with <$50k in annual revenue, its set of features is rather lavish for such an affordable price of $29.95 per month.

• The file storage, number of products, and staff accounts are unlimited.
• A customizable checkout allows you to adjust anything — from the background images to the number of steps to complete the purchase (hello, one-page checkout!).
• You get access to real-time shipping quotes.
• Coupons, discounts, and gift cards can be added to your store.
• Point of sale (POS) support allows you to easily integrate sales from brick-and-mortar stores.
• Other sale channel options include your online storefront, Amazon/eBay/Walmart, social media, and Google Shopping.
• Professional reporting tools, 100+ currencies, and drag-and-drop page builder, among other features are available.

On top of that, you pay absolutely no BigCommerce transaction fees. So if you’re a first-timer in ecommerce, work with no dream team on standby, or run on a tight budget, BigCommerce Standard plan is definitely for you.

BigCommerce Plus ($79.95/month; $180k in annual sales)

As soon as you hit that $180k/year mark in sales, you will be upgraded to BigCommerce Plus. You’ll get all the features present in the BigCommerce Standard plan, plus the following ones:

• Customer groups and segmentation.
• Abandoned and persistent shopping carts.
• Credit card storing.

That’s pretty scant for almost a triple of the Standard plan pricing, huh? Indeed, quite a few merchants report that extra features don’t justify the BigCommerce monthly cost. 

Sending automated emails to the customers who abandoned their carts or storing users’ card details safely can surely improve customer experience and sales. However, you can have the same (if not more powerful!) features having integrated some best ecommerce tools, like Klaviyo or MailChimp. So not many people actually recommend the Plus package unless you have grown past the income threshold. 

BigCommerce Pro ($299.95/month; $400k in annual sales)

BigCommerce Pro is priced at a whopping $299.95 per month and piles up on the sets of features present in the previous two plans. With BigCommerce Pro, you will additionally get:

• Google customer reviews.
• Dynamic and custom product filtering.

Here, the pricing situation is similar to BigCommerce Plus: it’s too expensive for what’s offered. Obviously, there’s no escape from the Pro plan if you’ve surpassed $400k in sales per year. But this package looks less appealing in comparison with more flexible and cheaper ecommerce solutions (read on to see the BigCommerce vs Magento pricing).

BigCommerce Enterprise (custom pricing; unlimited sales)

Finally, we’ve got to the last but probably most powerful BigCommerce Enterprise plan for high-volume businesses. BigCommerce Enterprise pricing is bespoke, meaning you’ll have to call up the provider and talk to the sales rep. 

BigCommerce Enterprise suits best the merchants making >$400k per year. Some sources say you can estimate the cost by adding $150 extra a month to the price for each additional $200k in yearly revenues. So if you generate more than $600k annually, expect to pay about $299.95 per month with this planning.

This plan includes all the features of the aforementioned packages in addition to:

• Custom price lists for B2B and B2C clients.
• Unlimited API calls for third-party systems integration.
• Express routing, priority support, and customer success management.

This ecommerce solution may seem a bit pricey; yet, it includes all resources the BigCommerce team has to offer.

Extra BigCommerce Fees to Watch Out For

The popular belief goes that merchants don’t incur any extra costs with SaaS platforms. Indeed, you’ll save on hosting, website architecture, basic features, and even support that come included in a chosen pricing plan.

Still, even the merchants of such SaaS solutions as BigCommerce aren’t immune to extra costs. As Phil Wainewright, chief executive officer of Procullux Ventures, puts it

Where extra costs do apply, they tend to be for capacity or services that are beyond the scope of an average implementation, in which case it doesn’t make sense to include them in the fixed monthly or annual fee.

Let’s unmask some hidden fees you should keep an eye on while developing and maintaining your BigCommerce store.

Domain Names

Even though BigCommerce will host your website and take care of PCI compliance, it will be your responsibility to take care of a domain name. You can purchase a domain name directly from BigCommerce. It will cost you about $12.27/year and include a free, dedicated SSL certificate. If you’re interested in more advanced domain capabilities or other top-level domains (TLDs), you can register your domain elsewhere (prices vary depending on a registrar).

Apps & Themes

When you decide to extend your store functionality, third-party integrations are your way to go. BigCommerce has a rich marketplace for that. Many apps are available for free, although get ready to fork some money out for the paid extensions. The price for some top BigCommerce integrations, like ShipStation or Klaviyo, ranges from $9 to $350+ per month.

The same works for themes. You can choose from a vast selection of free and paid themes, the price for the latter being $150 — $300. If web responsiveness is your concern, you’ll also have to spend extra and even partner with BigCommerce web designers. Only two responsive designs come free. So you’ll need to either develop your own team (Elogic can help you with that!) or purchase one.

Read also: Magento Mobile App Development Cost

Card Processing Fees

Credit and debit card processing fees are something no ecommerce merchant can escape from. With BigCommerce, they start at 2.9% + $0.30 per order for US-based businesses.

However, the good news is that BigCommerce doesn’t charge any commission fees if you’re using one of its 65 pre-integrated online payment gateways. These include Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Authorize.net, Stripe, checkout.com, among others. 

The only exception is PayPal powered by Braintree. BigCommerce transaction fees for PayPal depend on your chosen pricing plan and go down as you upgrade:

• Standard Plan – 2.9% + $0.30¢ per transaction
• Plus Plan – 2.5% + $0.30¢ per transaction
• Pro Plan – 2.2% + $0.30¢ per transaction
• Enterprise Plan – 2.2% + $0.30¢ or lower per transaction

Partner Support

Your business might grow into an unmanageable mess. Your website may experience technical glitches. You might need an extraordinary third-party system integration BigCommerce doesn’t provide. The reasons for hiring a BigCommerce development agency are numerous.

So consider hiring a BigCommerce developer or adding ecommerce partner services to your ecommerce budget. Expect to pay $15 to $90 per hour depending on a developer’s location.

BigCommerce Pricing vs Magento Pricing

When it comes to choosing the right ecommerce platform, BigCommerce and Magento make the top of the merchants’ lists. And BigCommerce often takes over for the matters of pricing.

But is BigCommerce really cheaper than Magento? Let’s take a closer look.

The pricing of the two platform providers follows completely different models. BigCommerce rates start at $29.95/month and grow alongside your store sales. The basic set of built-in features and hosting are enough to build a decent small store. However, as you scale, you’ll spend more on subscription fees as well a theme, third-party apps, and custom development which is not an easy task given the closed nature of the system. 

Magento entry fee is completely free, meaning you can download the source code and start building your store. Another thing is that you’ll need to hire a Magento developer unless you’re a fan of programming yourself. With Magento Open Source, you’ll need to spend extra on hosting, SSL certificates, feature development, etc. (basically everything included in BigCommerce pricing plans). But with Magento Commerce and Commerce Cloud you won’t have to deal with such development issues: many advanced functionalities are included in the license fees.

Choosing between BigCommerce vs Magento shouldn’t be a matter of pricing because, in the end, their TCOs may be the same. Instead, look into your business strategy and choose the platform based on your needs. 

If you’re only starting in ecommerce or running a business all by yourself, BigCommerce will be more affordable for you. But it will be a poor match for organizations looking to customize and implement bold ecommerce solutions. In such cases, Magento can give you all the freedom to twist and turn the code and create a store with unique design and features for future sales.

Is BigCommerce Really Worth It?

BigCommerce is worth every single penny if you’re looking for an easy-to-implement hosted solution. Here’s a quick recap:

• The Standard pricing plan for $29.95/month has a robust set of features sufficient to start and run a store even without an established ecommerce team.
• The Plus plan costs $79.95/month for merchants making $180k in annual sales and seeking to advance their marketing campaigns.
• The Pro plan sells for $299.95/month for retailers earning $400k yearly and looking to improve customer experience with reviews and product filtering.
• The Enterprise plan with custom pricing can meet the needs of large-scale businesses that are looking into standard designs and ecommerce functionalities.

Our final recommendation is: try before you buy. Who knows, maybe after a 15-day free trial you’ll switch to a different platform because your store needs more customization. Or, vice versa, you’ll decide to upgrade the BigCommerce plan for more marketing features. 

Think of Elogic once you make up your mind! Use our BigCommerce development services to make your website mobile-friendly, develop a custom theme, or apply a headless approach.

BigCommerce Pricing FAQs

What are BigCommerce transaction fees?

BigCommerce charges zero transaction fees if you use one of its 65+ pre-integrated payment gateways. However, your chosen payment gateway provider will take card processing fees, such as 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the case of PayPal or Stripe. So you will have to pay no transaction fees to BigCommerce but only to the payment gateway provider.

What’s BigCommerce headless pricing?

If you decide to build a headless store with the BigCommerce back-end, you’ll still have to pay the usual monthly rate in line with the chosen pricing plan. BigCommerce supports and integrates with the leading commercial CMSs, including Acquia, Adobe Experience Manager, Bloomreach, Drupal, Sitecore, and WordPress. If you don’t have an existing BigCommerce store at the time of the headless integration, the plugin will create a trial store for you.

If BigCommerce is a SaaS platform, why should I hire a developer?

The beauty of BigCommerce is its drag-and-drop page builders, easy-to-install themes and apps, as well as hosting, so you may start a simple store on your own. However, you will need to hire a professional developer in case of any complex third-party system integrations, custom theme development, or the need for ongoing support.