With numerous eCommerce platforms available, it can be overwhelming to find the perfect one for your eCommerce store. Magento 2 is a leading eCommerce platform and is mostly preferred by eCommerce developers and businesses worldwide. In fact, every 1 out of 4 eCommerce sites and more than 250,000 retailers are leveraging the benefits of Magento 2 development. We’ve closely compared Magento 2 with other popular eCommerce platforms like Shopify, PrestaShop, ZenCart, etc. to help online retailers gain a deep understanding of what suits best to their online stores. Here in this blog, we have compared Magento 2 vs BigCommerce, the two most highly in-demand eCommerce platforms.
Magento is a PHP-based, open-source eCommerce platform that powers more than 250, 000 online stores across the globe. BigCommerce, on the other hand, powers more than 150,000 eCommerce websites. So, which eCommerce platform is the best for eCommerce businesses? This article highlights the key comparison parameters of each eCommerce platform including popularity, features, pricing options, etc. Take a look!
Magento vs BigCommerce
- Popularity
The popularity of each eCommerce platform may tell you which eCommerce platform is leading the competition. Considering the top million and the top 100K eCommerce websites, here’s what statistics say:
- 14% of the Top Million eCommerce websites are powered by Magento 2 whereas only 4% of online stores are built using BigCommerce.
- In the top 10k eCommerce websites, users of both Magento 2 Community and Enterprise Edition account for 20% while BigCommerce users are only 1%.
So, here, Magento 2 is the clear winner. Although Magento 2 defeats BigCommerce in popularity, it still has to stay ahead of other leading eCommerce platforms like Shopify.
You may also read: Magento 2 vs Shopify Comparison
- Pricing Scheme
Based on your budget, differences in pricing schemes between eCommerce development platforms can play a significant role in decision-making.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce stores that sell over $250,000 per annum often opt for pro plans. Also, the prices depend on the number of orders in your store. Plans with lower costs have limited features. The standard plan does not come with an abandoned cart saver, product filtering, fraud monitoring, and additional features for your store. The pro plans for BigCommerce start at $299.95 per month for less than $400k in online sales, plus $150 per month for each additional $200k in eCommerce sales.
BigCommerce pricing schemes also offer various credit card processing rates. So, you need to add this extra cost to the monthly charge to use the platform. The standard plan is 2.9% + 0.3 USD per card transaction. This transaction fee may increase if your store makes enormous online sales.
Magento 2
Magento is open-source and so it is free to use. You only need to pay for hosting to host your online store.
- Magento 2 Community Edition: FREE
- Hosting Cost: $4-$100+ per month
- Enterprise Edition: It comes with a customized price based on your business needs
If you hire Magento developers to work on or manage your project, then you need to consider the cost of their services as well.
So, building an online store on Magento 2 can be more cost-effective than building on BigCommerce. Costs for Magento 2 can be lower once the platform’s monthly price packages and transactions are included.
- Design
When it comes to design, both Magento and BigCommerce offer free design templates. BigCommerce offers 7 free, sleek design templates along with paid ones with prices starting from $145 to $235. Magento being an open-source platform offers more themes available from Magento Connect and third-party websites.
Magento 2 also offers many customization options to help you design your store exactly the way you want. As a leading Magento 2 development company, we can help you customize your Magento store to meet your business-specific needs and goals. BigCommerce only offers limited design options and therefore, the website that you will create will need a lot of customization ability.
Both Magento 2 and BigCommerce offer responsive design templates to deliver a mobile-friendly shopping experience. As more and more people prefer to shop on-the-go through their mobile devices, offering mobile-responsive design is a plus point for both eCommerce platforms. There are also other eCommerce platforms like Prestashop, OpenCart, etc. that offer responsive eCommerce platforms.
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So, in this Magento 2 vs BigCommerce comparison, Magento 2 is the winner again.
- Ecommerce Features
When comparing Magento 2 vs BigCommerce based on eCommerce features, both eCommerce platforms offer effective built-in features and the ability to integrate new features with custom add-ons.
BigCommerce comes with effective marketing tools, many standard payment gateways, social selling, etc. However, Magento is known for offering the most powerful features including catalog management, customer accounts, product browsing, etc. Also, the latest Magento 2 version comes with new checkout upgrades that let customers quickly and conveniently checkout out on a single page.
BigCommerce, on the other hand, offers more than 100 different add-ons, along with paid features with monthly charges. Since Magento is an open-source platform, there are numerous add-on extensions available from third-party developers at different price rates. So, with Magento 2 development, users can add many more features to their online store to deliver a delightful shopping experience. You can hire Magento developers from us who can help you build, integrate, or customize Magento extensions for your store.
As BigCommerce is a simple platform, it comes with limited functionalities. Pro users or store owners looking for advanced functions may face difficulty in creating a store that matches their requirements and goals.
- Hosting
Another major Magento 2 vs BigCommerce comparison factor to consider is hosting. Magento is a self-hosted platform that is Magento users will need to choose and pay a third-party company for hosting services. This cost may be as little as $2.75 a month from leading hosting companies such as HostGator and SiteGround. However, it is an additional cost to consider and a perfect option for more advanced eCommerce businesses.
BigCommerce is a hosted eCommerce solution which means you don’t need to worry about searching and paying for hosting. BigCommerce takes care of everything which makes it an ideal option for startups or small eCommerce businesses.
Although Magento 2 development includes hosting costs and maintenance packages, it’d be wrong to consider it as a drawback. Self-hosting allows store owners to select relevant features in a hosting plan and pay for hosting accordingly.
- Ease of Use
Ease of use is another major factor that can help you choose between Magento 2 and BigCommerce. BigCommerce is more beginner-friendly than Magento 2. Magento is a large, complex software that is perfect for professional developers.
BigCommerce is simple to use as it comes with a clear, clean dashboard that allows users to launch their site in lesser time. The platform guides the users with step-by-step instructions once they open up the dashboard. BigCommerce also provides a website builder to help users create and manage their online stores without requiring any coding knowledge.
- Search Engine Optimization
About 93% of online purchases are made through online searches; therefore, SEO is a crucial factor for any eCommerce store.
Based on the ranking of the best eCommerce platforms for SEO as per the key SEO ranking factors, Magento holds the first position while BigCommerce comes in the fourth position.
When comparing Magento 2 vs BigCommerce based on the SEO functionalities, Magento is the clear winner as it has the SEO capabilities to boost your store traffic and visibility.
- Marketplace Functionality
If you’re planning to build an eCommerce store, you need to decide whether you want to create a marketplace allowing many vendors to sell products or just an eCommerce store. Marketplaces can be the most effective way to boost eCommerce sales and business success.
So, if you’re looking to integrate the world’s leading marketplaces like Amazon, Google Shopping, eBay, etc., BigCommerce is powered by these capabilities. However, there is no option to create a marketplace within a BigCommerce store.
Magento, on the other hand, comes with numerous multi-vendor marketplace extensions that can be seamlessly integrated to create a successful marketplace enriched with advanced marketplace functionality such as dropshipping, front-end vendor product uploading, admin management, etc.
So, Magento 2 beats BigCommerce in this round as well.
- Community Support
Good and reliable support for an eCommerce platform is essential for every store owner. If you’re looking to learn how to boost sales with BigCommerce, then there is a BigCommerce University available.
Magento, on the other hand, has a vast, robust community. It also has forums where developers address all your questions and endeavor to make Magento a better eCommerce platform than other leading platforms like Salesforce, SAP Hybris, OpenCart, Prestashop, etc. You can also find support from the add-on extension developers if you’re using any third-party extensions. If you’re looking for more advanced and professional Magento 2 support services, you may hire Magento developers for the required service.
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Magento 2 vs BigCommerce – Pros and Cons
Here are some of the pros and cons of each eCommerce platform to give a clearer idea of whether you should hire Magento developers or BigCommerce developers for your eCommerce project.
BigCommerce
| Pros | Cons |
| Stylish and responsive free + paid design templates | Limited customization options |
| Simple and easy-to-use, Beginner-friendly | Can be costly |
| Solid SEO features |
Magento 2
| Pros | Cons |
| Open-source, Free to use | Not beginner-friendly, it is ideal for experienced developers. |
| Greater scalability | Need to find and pay for hosting |
| Powerful SEO functionalities | |
| Marketplace functionality | |
| Advanced eCommerce features with add-ons | |
| Vast developer community | |
Wrapping Up
Choosing the right eCommerce development platforms largely depends on the size, nature, features, and budget of your eCommerce project. Also, what may suit one store may not be ideal for another store.
When comparing Magento 2 vs BigCommerce, you need to consider several factors including features, pricing, design, SEO-friendliness, and many more. If you’re just starting with your business, then BigCommerce might be an ideal option. However, if you’re looking for an enterprise-level solution with greater scalability, flexibility, and customization, then Magento 2 can be your best bet.
If you have a Magento 2 project in mind, you may request a free consultation and hire Magento 2 developers for your eCommerce project.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Q.1. Can you help me migrate my store to Magento 2 from a different eCommerce platform?
Yes, of course. You can hire Magento developers from us for fast, smooth, and reliable Magento 2 migration services with zero disruption and data loss.
Q.2. Do you provide post-development support for my Magento store?
Yes. As a full-service Magento 2 development company, we offer dedicated Magento 2 support and maintenance services to keep your Magento 2 store always up and running.
Q.3. Is Magento 2 similar to WordPress?
Just like WordPress, Magento 2 is an open-source platform. The Magento interface also enables users to create complex content pages, menus, and version control like WordPress. However, Magento is more secure than WordPress third-party extensions.
