it is expected that more than 63% of the world’s population will purchase goods and services online, so why not have a share of this large market share?
Many entrepreneurs coming into e-commerce are confused about choosing the appropriate platform to create a professional online store to start in the world of online commerce. This is due to the multiplicity of platforms available for creating an online store and their differences in advantages and disadvantages.
In this article, we will go through a journey in which we will review a comprehensive comparison between the Bigcommerce platform and the Woocommerce plugin supported by WordPress. We will highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each platform in addition to the strengths that distinguish each platform from the other. This article will be your guide. Comprehensive guide to deciding whether to adopt one of the two platforms for your next online business venture.
Criteria for choosing the appropriate e-commerce platform
Before starting to compare the BigCommerce and WooCommerce platforms, we will discuss the most important criteria that must be taken into account before choosing the appropriate platform for your business project that will chart the path to success for it.
The criteria for choosing the appropriate e-commerce platform are the following points:
- Business project budget: The first criteria that any entrepreneur must take into account before launching his business project is the budget allocated to the project. It is necessary to calculate the total cost of building an online store of the size you plan, verify the monthly and annual expenses for it, and determine the budget allocated for this project, so that you can choose the platform that suits your budget.
- Payment methods: Before choosing the platform, it is necessary to know the payment methods available in your region or country. Each platform has payment methods that may differ from the other, and it should be noted that the more payment methods the platform supports, the better it is for the user.
- Ease of use of the platform: This is an invitation to choose the easy-to-use platform that enables the user to deal with his online store with complete flexibility, in addition to the ability to deal with problems and solve them easily.
- Technical support for the platform: When choosing the platform, you must first ensure the efficiency of the support team, the extent of its interaction, and the speed of its response to any inquiry or problem that arises with you.
- Scalability of the store: Here we invite users to use the scalable platform without significant additional costs or strenuous efforts, so that the user can expand his online store to meet his own growth needs.
- Platform-specific add-ons: This is an important standard that includes all the add-ons and features that your store needs to work effectively and reach the desired form.
There are many other criteria for comparing e-commerce platforms, such as product and merchandise management, search engine optimization, shipping processes, etc., but what we mentioned were the most important ones and what you need to know before choosing the right platform for you and starting your business project on the Internet.
Statistics about BigCommerce and WooCommerce
Both BigCommerce and WooCommerce platforms are in fierce competition with other e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify and other leading platforms in the field of e-commerce. In this paragraph, we will review the most prominent statistics for the BigCommerce and WooCommerce platforms.
According to the latest reports and statistics , WooCommerce is the most popular platform in the field of e-commerce, as it accounts for approximately 25% of the market share in all e-commerce.
While we find that BigCommerce is ranked fifth in terms of prevalence, covering 3% of the market share in e-commerce.
If we make a quick comparison using the terms (BigCommerce) and (WooCommerce) on Google Trends, we will see that the WooCommerce platform has witnessed significant growth in terms of search volume for it. We also find that BigCommerce has begun to enter the competitive market and catch up with other platforms.
After we reviewed the most prominent statistics on the famous e-commerce platforms, we will move on to talking about each platform separately.
BigCommerce platform
The BigCommerce platform is a famous e-commerce platform that offers users a wide range of services, such as website hosting, store interior design, a payments system, marketing features, and other good features that help in creating an integrated online store in simple steps and without the need for experience in programming or website design.
Therefore, the public called the WooCommerce platform the “all-in-one” platform, where you can create an integrated online store with ease by purchasing any subscription plan that suits you from the platform.
Despite the wide popularity and great features offered by this platform, there are some weaknesses, which are the lack of customization tools and features in it, as the platform provides users with the tools and options available in the platform’s basic system only.
On the other hand, users find that the best feature of this platform is its provision of the BigCommerce add-on for WordPress, which enables users to activate an integrated BigCommerce store on their sites’ WordPress system.
You can visit the official website of the BigCommerce platform from here .
WooCommerce platform
WooCommerce is the most popular and widely used plugin in the world of e-commerce, and it is one of the most prominent plugins on the WordPress platform. This add-on enables users to convert any website or blog into a professional online store on WordPress with ease and without the need for a programming background or experience.
In order to be able to start your online store with the WooCommerce add-on, you must set up the domain and hosting for the website on WordPress while activating the WooCommerce add-on and the marketing and commerce tools you need. We have explained this in detail in: A step-by-step guide to creating an online store
Compare the selection criteria for both platforms
Now that we have defined each platform, we will review a detailed comparison between the WooCommerce and BigCommerce platforms, according to each of the criteria for choosing an e-commerce platform that we mentioned at the beginning of our article, which are:
- Business project budget
- payment methods
- Ease of use of the platform
- Technical support for the platform
- Scalability of the store
- Platform-specific add-ons
1. Budget – Which is better, BigCommerce or WooCommerce?
As we mentioned previously, choosing the appropriate platform to start a business requires calculating the budget you allocate for your project and the actual cost of creating the online store. Then you can choose the appropriate platform for the available budget, but on the condition that you have all the capabilities that allow creating a professional online store suitable for this business project.
This comparison between BigCommerce and WooCommerce platforms will include the actual cost of creating an online store on each platform, and in the end we will decide which one is better for the user in terms of cost.
The cost of using the BigCommerce platform
BigCommerce is an e-commerce platform that relies in its work on a monthly or annual subscription through a group of different packages in prices and features. Through the platform, we find that there are four packages, including 3 packages for small companies and a special package for institutions and large companies.
The lowest package in the platform’s offers is the “Standard” package at a cost ($29.95/month), but with this package the subscriber will not get a domain allocated to him, but rather a domain or subdomain name for the BigCommerce platform.
To clarify more about the subdomain name that BigCommerce provides for free with this package, here is the following link, which includes the site name and then the domain name suffix for the BigCommerce platform, as follows:
If you want to obtain a special domain name for your store, you will need to purchase the domain name or domain directly from BigCommerce for $12/month or through any other company that sells domains .
But for your information, all BigCommerce platform packages do not include unlimited fees for transactions, unlimited storage, or even an unlimited domain name, and these are exceptional features, meaning that the higher the price of your package, the more storage space, the lower the fees, and the more features, but there is no package that provides you with unlimited storage. .
If you are an e-commerce professional and have achieved significant sales, BigCommerce will automatically upgrade your online store to a larger package.
If you are subscribed to the largest actual package available on the platform, which is the ( Pro ) package, an additional $150 will be charged on top of the price of the actual package if you achieve large sales of up to $200,000. This strategy is one of the major drawbacks included in the platform.
In addition to all these costs that drain your budget, you will need more money if you want to use a premium add-on or application from the paid applications on the BigCommerce platform to improve your online store, and in this case the cost may reach at least $170.
Now that we have mentioned the actual costs of using the BigCommerce platform, it must be noted that despite the relatively large costs, what you will get is a professional store that distinguishes you from your competitors in the business market.
The cost of using the WooCommerce platform
As we mentioned earlier, WooCommerce is a plugin available on the open source WordPress platform; Meaning that any user can download and use it on any number of websites for free. However, you need some paid services to build your online store.
First we will need to purchase a domain name for the store and purchase a hosting SSL certificate. If we calculate the cost of each of them, we will find that the domain name will cost $14.99/year, in addition to the hosting will cost about $7.99/month and the SSL certificate will cost about $69.99/year.
If we calculate the total cost, we will find that the total amount is small for the budget of a small business, as it is about $15 per month, compared to the traditional BigCommerce subscription, which amounts to $30 per month. Thus, we find that WooCommerce provides hosting services for e-stores at affordable prices.
But if you want to use any premium and paid WooCommerce theme or add-on, the cost will rise and require an increase in your budget ceiling, but the good news is that there are many WooCommerce add-ons and themes available for free and any user can employ them in his online store.
Read also: Steps to create an online store from scratch until achieving sales
Conclusion : After making a quick comparison between the cost of creating a store on WooCommerce and its cost on BigCommerce, we find that the best platform in terms of cost and low budget for the user when starting his path in the world of e-commerce is WooCommerce.
2. Payment methods – in BigCommerce or WooCommerce
Although many website owners may find that the (payment methods) criterion is not the most important criterion, we added it, because the payment method plays an important role in the purchase decision. The payment method provided by the platform may not be available in the area of some users, so it is important to choose the platform that provides the available payment platform that is appropriate for the target customer segment of the store’s products.
Payment methods in BigCommerce
The BigCommerce platform offers many payment methods that the user can adopt during the purchase process within the platform, and among these methods are payment by PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize. net, Adyen, and many other payment methods.
Here we find that the fees charged to the credit card for payment start from 2.9% plus $0.3 for each purchase. This fee is variable but decreases as your online store grows on the platform.
The BigCommerce platform offers the ability to deal with some popular wallets (payment methods), such as PayPal, Amazon Pay, Masterpass, and Apple Pay, which facilitate purchases and payments for customers.
Payment methods in WooCommerce?
Here we find that the platform allows payment through PayPal and Stripe, but since the WooCommerce platform is an open source add-on provided for free, we find that the add-ons and features associated with adding WooCommerce to WordPress, in addition to all paid services, allow the purchase of the service through almost all payment gateways.
Therefore, if we compare each of the two platforms, we will find that they are both equal in terms of payment methods and there are no problems in terms of this standard for any user.
3. Ease of use of the platform – which is better, BigCommerce or WooCommerce?
An important criterion that must also be taken into account, especially for beginners in the field of e-commerce, is the ease of use of the platform, which affects the speed of work and the efficiency of site management in general.
The importance of this standard lies in its use by beginners who do not have sufficient experience and knowledge in matters of programming and designing websites, so that they can choose the easiest-to-use platform to manage the online store without hiring developers and bearing the large costs of their wages.
Ease of use of the BigCommerce platform
For your information, the BigCommerce platform is a platform completely hosted by the parent company’s website, meaning that you will not need to set up hosting or install any software related to this matter, nor will you need to think about security issues, backups, and general store performance, as all these details will be prepared. It is pre-configured by the platform administration.
The platform enables you to start working on your online store directly after subscribing to the package suitable for you. You will be able to set up your online store in just 3 steps, entering your email, the name of the store, and some additional details about the store.
Now we see that setting up an online store with BigCommerce will only take the user a few minutes, and once completed, the user will be able to enter his control panel, explore the options, modify and customize the store as appropriate for him, and add products and other details of the online store.
In addition, users can access all other settings and options available on the platform, such as order, product and customer management, marketing tools, store sales analysis tools, etc.
Ease of use of the WooCommerce platform
WooCommerce, as we mentioned, is a WordPress add-on that specializes in creating an online store, so you need to install WordPress on your site’s hosting , by purchasing a domain name first, then purchasing hosting for the site. After that comes the installation process for WordPress.
After completing the WordPress installation process, we will go to the Control Panel, then (Add-ons), then we will search for the WooCommerce add-on, then download and activate it on WordPress for your site.
If you are using private hosting, such as Bluehost hosting, you will not need to install the add-on as it comes installed with the hosting on your WordPress system.
Once you install the plugin on your WordPress system, you can set up your store as you would any website or blog on WordPress by creating pages, payments, customers, and more.
Once you have completed the overall setup of the store, you can add products to the store and start the world of e-commerce.
We can say that creating a store using the WooCommerce plugin on WordPress will be easy for all WordPress users and those who are proficient in it, as the store will not take a few minutes to create, but it requires more effort and work to make the store stronger and more effective.
Here, any other design theme or any WooCommerce plugin can be used to add more options and features to your store, in addition to that you will need to take care of the security, backup, and performance aspects yourself.
In the end, it can be said that the WooCommerce platform will require more learning from you to achieve the desired form for your store using WordPress, unlike the BigCommerce platform, which provides you with an easier system for managing your store.
So BigCommerce is the best in terms of ease of use.
4- Technical support for the store owner
Technical support is an essential criterion that many website owners overlook while choosing the right e-commerce platform. Every user needs quick technical support at any moment to receive complaints and solve problems that may occur to him on his site, so in this section we will compare the technical support for both the BigCommerce and WooCommerce platforms.
Technical support work for the BigCommerce platform
In addition to the fact that the BigCommerce platform is a fully hosted platform, and we have previously explained the meaning of it being hosted, we find that it has excellent technical support, which includes support via phone and support via email, in addition to support via direct interviews via social media and others.
We also find that support for the platform is available, and we also find that the Help Center is useful for users in order to answer their questions and inquiries about how to use the platform’s features and various tools to achieve a goal or overcome a specific obstacle. In addition, the BigCommerce platform has its own blog on which it displays the latest Platform news and updates.
Technical support for the WooCommerce platform
Since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, support for it is only available on the WooCommerce Support Forum on WordPress.org, which gives you access to previously resolved issues with the plugin and new issues that are constantly being added and addressed by experts and other users themselves.
You can also contact the support team through the WooCommerce online platform, through which you can access educational lessons and solutions to all problems that you may encounter while working on WooCommerce.
You can also access many educational programs about adding WooCommerce and its problems by searching for the problem online and you will certainly reach its solution because many websites and blogs specialize only in solving WooCommerce problems and answering user inquiries.
Therefore, technical support must be provided by the website owner or by some WordPress developers due to the popularity of the system, and you will not receive technical support directly from the platform itself.
5. Scalability – Which is better, BigCommerce or WooCommerce?
The scalability criterion for the store is one of the basic criteria for its growth and development, so we will conduct a comprehensive comparison between both the WooCommerce and BigCommerce platforms in terms of the scalability of each of them.
Ability to expand on the BigCommerce platform
We find that the experience of working with BigCommerce is more flexible and easier, as there is no need to worry about the technical details of managing and saving the store’s content, such as backup, updates, security, etc., as all of these details are done automatically by the platform without your intervention. But as we mentioned previously, as your business grows, you will need to upgrade your plan. As for all the other details and technical steps, you can leave it to the BigCommerce platform to handle them, and you can focus on developing and managing your store.
In general, the Commerce platform provides you with the ability to develop and expand your online store easily, but you need to pay additional costs to develop your subscription to the platform.
But in return, you do not get the source code for your store, and therefore you are limited to the options that BigCommerce provides you and you cannot migrate to another platform, for example.
The extent of scalability on the WooCommerce platform
On the other side of the comparison, we find that the WooCommerce platform leaves the user to manage his entire store and puts on him responsibility for backup, security, updates to the store on WordPress, and other technical details.
On the other hand, the add-on is open source and you have full authority over the code of your store and the code of the installed add-on, and therefore you have the freedom to make any modification or development on your site with the possibility of even moving the store to special programming easily.
Result : We find that both platforms have an independent system and method regarding the possibility of expanding the store, but we find that Wocommerce offers its users the best option as it is open source, but it requires some additional technical skills from you.
6. Platform-specific plugins – BigCommerce or WooCommerce?
E-commerce platforms in general have many features, but they do not cover all the needs and requests of users, so every entrepreneur or startup needs some additions, features, or additional functions on the main platform, such as email marketing, store analytics, delivery services, etc. In order for the online store to work more effectively.
In this paragraph, we will highlight the additions and integrations for each platform separately.
BigCommerce add-ons and extensions
The BigCommerce platform comes with many add-ons and integrations that help the user add many features and characteristics to his online store, and we find some of them paid and some of them free in the BigCommerce add-ons market.
The add-ons store in BigCommerce includes six groups, including: shipping basics, design, marketing, payments, and more important add-ons for the online store.
We also find that there are some useful integrations (additional utilities), such as: accounting, analytics, customer service, and other tools and features necessary for the growth, expansion, and development of the online store.
WooCommerce add-ons and extensions
The WooCommerce plugin is an open source WordPress plugin; So any user can develop a specific tool, add-on, or feature and then display it to other users in the add-on store, whether free or paid. The result: more than 55,000 free add-ons on WordPress that will help you manage and develop your online store.
You can access the available plugins through the Plugins section on WordPress. org or directly through the WooCommerce platform, the WooCommerce plugin store includes more than 250 free premium plugins for your online store.
Therefore, with all these free and distinctive add-ons, you will find plenty of room to choose the add-on that suits you. This huge free market for tools and add-ons gives the WooCommerce platform a great advantage over other competing e-commerce platforms.
There are many add-ons that you can invest in your store, for example: search engine optimization tools, performance improvement, analytics management, and other great features.
After this lengthy comparison round, we find that the WooCommerce platform wins the competition in this criterion due to its many add-ons and integrations, in addition to the fact that it is completely free.
Conclusion: BigCommerce vs WooCommerce- Which Platform is Better?
If you have read the article and reached this point, I think you have established your own vision for the platform that suits your needs and requests to start your journey in the world of online commerce and create your online store. Both platforms are unique and can be used flexibly and effectively.
If you are still confused about choosing between the two platforms yet, we can simplify the matter for you. How? Well it depends on your technical skills, budget and personal preferences.
We find that the BigCommerce platform is easier to use for beginners who do not have sufficient experience in programming matters, and it is also a comprehensive and simple solution. You will not need to use your talent or experience to set up anything in your store, as the platform takes care of doing most of the technical work for you, From backup, security, scalability of your website, etc., so the BigCommerce platform is a good solution for beginners who have no problems paying additional costs for the platform to take care of the technical details of the store.
However, we find that one of the drawbacks of the platform is that your control over your site is limited, the pricing of the platform’s packages is fixed, the applications and add-ons for the store are somewhat limited, and users will not be able to use any tool outside the BigCommerce platform.
As for the WooCommerce plugin for WordPress, it enables you to create an integrated online store that gives you comprehensive control over your online store settings. Therefore, you can prepare a good plan for the prices of everything related to your store using WooCommerce, which improves the costs consumed from your budget, as well as the possibility of completely controlling the source code of the add-on.
Conclusion
In the end, we provided you with a comprehensive guide detailing all aspects of comparison between the WooCommerce and BigCommerce platforms, and we highlighted the advantages and disadvantages of both platforms. The ball is now in your court, and the choice is yours. Choose the platform that suits your plans and ambitions to start in the world. E-commerce more effectively and make money online.
