Magento Vs BigCommerce: Know Your Options For Ecommerce App Development

If you are a new entrepreneur who just entered the eCommerce business world and want to switch to another eCommerce platform than your existing one, the process may feel intimidating. Whether you are running a small business or plan to scale up your existing business, it is crucial to choose the right platform. Some of the popular eCommerce platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, BigCommerce, and OpenCart are chosen by many eCommerce businesses, but choosing the right one for your business depends on a number of factors. In this blog, we have chosen two such platforms – Magento Vs BigCommerce.

Magento is an open-source eCommerce platform based on PHP, which is well-equipped with various unique features like a huge number of extensions and easy customization. It is also a platform designed for complex stores and used by top brands like Samsung, Nike, Coca-Cola, and more.

BigCommerce, on the other hand, was founded in 2009 and supports small, medium, and large enterprises with cloud-based websites and product management services. It is a popular eCommerce solution that empowers more than 60,000+ merchants and serves 150+ countries. BigCommerce is ideal for businesses looking for ways to grow at an expedient rate. It offers varied features like standard and scalable pricing plans for online stores of all sizes and experiences.   

Now that we are familiar with two of the most popular eCommerce platforms, Let’s compare them on common features ground.  

Magento Vs BigCommerce Comparison  

The major difference between Magento Vs BigCommerce is their usage policies. Where Magento is offered as Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) BigCommerce is offered as Software-as-a-service(SaaS). Magento is more expensive, yet it is twice more popular as BigCommerce.   

1. Ease of use  

Setting up a Magento store may feel challenging with the steps involved in the installation, setting up FTP, and so on. Enterprises can integrate and customize the extensions with the help of a professional Magento development agency or hire Magento developers from a trusted one. It will make a hassle-free experience as the professionals take care of your website.   

BigCommerce, on the other hand, is easier for beginners as it provides a clean dashboard for the users. The platform offers step-by-step instructions and facilitates the store owners to manage the store with zero to less technical skills. This eCommerce platform also has in-built features like marketing tools, payment gateways, and more. Above all, it offers more than 100 add-ons for a feature-rich website development process.   

Result: BigCommerce is easier than Magento, but the latter offers added benefits in the long run.  

2. Pricing  

Magento provides three editions – Magento Community, Magento Enterprise, and Magento Enterprise Cloud. Where Magento Commerce and Magento Commerce Cloud have no license fees, Magento Enterprise Edition and Magento Commerce Edition charge a hosting fee that may range from $4 to $1000.   

BigCommerce, on the other hand, provides varied pricing plans starting from $29 to $299. It also offers a 10% additional discount on annual payments. There are multiple packages with feature-rich options to help enterprises run their online store effectively.

This eCommerce platform also offers Enterprise plans that are highly advanced and has a custom pricing range. Such plans are supported by experts and are best suited for complex stores that grow fast.  

Result: The pricing plans for both Magento Support Service and BigCommerce platforms are almost the same, but each comes with custom packages for beginners and store owners depending on their needs.   

Also Read- 5 Tips to Choose a Significant Magento Support Team

3. Themes and Templates  

An attractive design with visually-appealing graphics will attract more customers to your online store. These designs help online enterprises build brand identity and create a good impression in the minds of the customers. Both Magento and BigCommerce provide free design templates and are mobile-friendly too.   

Magento facilitates customization and creates store designs exactly as you imagined. On the other hand, BigCommerce provides free themes and many paid options that require less customization and an easy design process.   

4. Extensions and apps  

Magento offers varied built-in features like integrated checkout, payment, shipping, catalog management, and more. It provides numerous third-party extensions with more than 5000 Magento 2 extensions. Such feature-rich Magento extensions can get integrated with ease at the Magento backend and developed based on numerous factors like boosting sales, improving user experience, and more.  

BigCommerce, on the other hand, is well-equipped with various in-built features that help store owners to perform better. It eventually helps to reduce abandoned carts and improves the website’s performance. Also, it helps to expand various store functions and supports more than 600 apps with unique functionalities.

Mail Chimp app is one of the most popular extensions, which is also free to install. The purpose of this module is automatic product recommendations on the basis of the customer’s past purchase history.   

5. Support  

Whether you are running an online store or a newbie in the field, there are times when you may require the help of an expert. Thus, customer support service is a crucial factor to look out for. With Magento Commerce and Magento Cloud Edition, users can get support from the developers via live chats and emails.   

BigCommerce, on the other hand, provides great support through live chat and phone 24×7, email, and can contact the community for help. Also, users can schedule an appointment for a 10-minute call to discuss various business strategies that may help them succeed in their online business.  

6. Payment methods  

Magento offers PayPal and Braintree by default and can also get added via Magento Connect. Other Magento 2 payment gateway extensions offer their customers payment options without any extra charges.   

BigCommerce, on the other hand, offers approximately 65 payment gateways to its users. Some of the most popular ones are PayPal, Stripe, Square, and more. There are no transaction fees associated with BigCommerce. The users need to pay credit card rates, and the higher the plan you select, the less you pay on the credit card charges.   

7. SEO features  

SEO optimization is crucial for every eCommerce website and helps in building trust among customers. Magento is the most popular platform when it’s to SEO capabilities. It is a powerful tool, well-equipped with various default functionalities, and helps in optimizing their visibility on search engine rankings. Also, Magento offers great options like managing promotions, communications, and content.   

BigCommerce offers advanced features like Microdata that help improve the appearance of the websites on a search engine in an informative way by using robots.txt or Google sitemap. It facilitates the users to access a program called Social Shop that helps with post promotions on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.   

8. Security

Security is paramount to protect the data against security risks like data loss and always stays at the top to keep a hold on updating the security patches. Each security patch aims at fixing vulnerabilities and helps in removing potential risks to keep your eCommerce websites secured.   

Magento offers the most powerful security features that help in improving the performance of your site. There are third-party tools and Magento security extensions available to check the website’s security level. Magento also supports advanced technologies like Zend Framework, Composer, and SSL Certificate.   

BigCommerce is PCI level 1 certified and ISO certified ensuring that financial transactions get encrypted. They provide both paid and free SSL certificates too. The platform provides multiple access to security and prevents unauthorized access.   

Summary  

In this blog, we have discussed the top comparison parameters of Magento Vs BigCommerce, which brings us to the conclusion that Magento offers better scalability and features than BigCommerce. It may cost you an expensive plan, but in the long run, Magento offers great opportunities and help excel your brand value.  

Are you looking for a Magento 2 development company? We are here to help. Hire Magento developers from our trusted organization and we shall assist you with the right eCommerce solutions.   

FAQs  

1. Is Magento the best eCommerce platform?  

Magento is best known for its flexibility and feature-rich potential in the eCommerce market. Also, it works on all types of online businesses.   

2. Why Magento is preferred for eCommerce app development?  

Magento offers free and paid extensions for customer support. Payments, security, marketing, accounting, shipping, and website optimization, you will find various customized features to upscale your business.

3. Which programming languages are used by BigCommerce?  

BigCommerce uses CSS, JavaScript, and HTML languages to build unique styles, colors, and interactive elements of the website.