How it works
How to work out your BigCommerce cost
Pick your plan
Standard ($39/mo) caps at $50K/year. Plus ($105/mo) caps at $180K/year and adds abandoned cart recovery plus customer segmentation. Pro ($399/mo) caps at $400K/year and adds faceted search.
Enter revenue and orders
Total monthly revenue and order count. Payment processing is charged per transaction (percentage + flat fee), so both numbers matter.
Pick payment gateway
Default is BigCommerce Payments (rates decrease on higher plans). Or pick any approved third-party gateway (Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.net). BigCommerce charges zero platform transaction fees on approved gateways.
BigCommerce vs Shopify, key cost differences
BigCommerce's pricing model is fundamentally different from Shopify's. Knowing the differences saves you money or changes your platform choice.
No platform transaction fees
Unlike Shopify (which charges 0.5-2% extra if you don't use Shopify Payments), BigCommerce charges zero additional transaction fees on any approved gateway. For stores using Stripe or PayPal, this is a real savings of 0.5-2% of revenue.
Revenue caps per plan
Standard is capped at $50K annual revenue. Hit that and you're auto-upgraded to Plus ($105/mo). Plus caps at $180K, then Pro at $400K. Above $400K you move to Enterprise with custom pricing. Plan your upgrade triggers ahead of growth.
Fewer apps, cleaner stack
BigCommerce has a smaller app ecosystem than Shopify. More features come built-in (abandoned cart on Plus+, product reviews, faceted search on Pro). Less monthly app spend, fewer integrations to manage, but also less flexibility for niche use cases.
Headless-friendly by default
BigCommerce's APIs support headless commerce natively without extra fees or tiers (vs Shopify's Storefront API which requires Hydrogen or Advanced plans for full flexibility). For brands planning a custom frontend, BigCommerce is often 20-30% cheaper than Shopify Plus equivalents.
Review integration is included
Basic product reviews are native on all BigCommerce plans. For advanced features (photo/video reviews, AI summaries, Google Shopping feed, automated translation) you still want a dedicated review platform like WiserReview, which integrates natively with BigCommerce.
More free tools
All tools →FAQ
Questions, answered
No, zero additional platform transaction fees when using any of their approved gateways (BigCommerce Payments, Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.net). This is a major difference from Shopify which charges 0.5-2% extra if you don't use Shopify Payments.
Standard at $39/month, capped at $50K annual revenue. Above that, you auto-upgrade to Plus ($105/mo). Standard is fine for stores doing under $4K/month. Above that, Plus enables abandoned cart and customer segmentation worth the price difference.
Standard plan: 2.59% + $0.49 per online card transaction. Plus: 2.35% + $0.49. Pro: 2.05% + $0.49. Debit cards and certain card types are slightly cheaper. Rates for card-present (POS) transactions are lower on all plans.
Yes. BigCommerce supports 65+ approved payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.net, Adyen. No platform transaction fees on any of them. You pay only the gateway's own processing rate.
BigCommerce auto-upgrades you to the next plan tier at the start of the following month. They notify you in advance. Your store doesn't go offline. You can also manually upgrade earlier to enables features before hitting the cap.
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