BigCommerce Pricing: How Much Does a BigCommerce Website Cost in 2022?

This is your complete guide to BigCommerce pricing, plans, and features. Learn how much a BigCommerce website costs, plus pros and cons of each plan.

By Gentian Shero

BigCommerce Pricing Guide

Welcome to our complete guide to BigCommerce license pricing and BigCommerce website costs.  

In this guide, we will cover all you need to know about:

BigCommerce Pricing Explained

As you may know, BigCommerce falls into the “Software as a Service” (SaaS) category — meaning that its most direct competitor is Canadian giant Shopify.  Both require a monthly subscription for the privilege of using their platforms.  

Like Shopify, BigCommerce makes a distinction between the two levels of its product line. 

Plans marketed under the “Essentials” brand are available at three different price points, with an enterprise-grade option (called BigCommerce Enterprise, naturally) available for higher-revenue brands.  

bigcommerce enterprise
A few top brands on BigCommerce Enterprise

We’ll detail what you can expect at each of these four tiers in this guide, with a focus on associated costs.

Who This Guide Is For

If you’re reading this, you likely have at least a working knowledge of the basic concepts of eCommerce. 

Whether you’re an experienced merchant looking to migrate to a new platform, or a potential newcomer displaying due diligence, by the end of this guide you should have all you need to determine whether BigCommerce is right for you. Ready?

When pricing an eCommerce website build, it’s best to begin with your subscription, payment processing, and transaction fees — since these are going to be the easiest to predict. 

Following that, you will need to factor in things like design costs, hosting, security options, your domain name, and any third-party add-ons you may want.

BigCommerce Basic Fee Structure:

StandardPlusPro
Monthly cost$29.95$79.95$299.95
Credit Card Payment Processing Rates
Online rates (PayPal via Braintree, optional)2.59% + 49¢2.35% + 49¢2.05% + 49¢
Transaction Fees
Online rates 0.00%0.00%0.00%

Two things stand out here.

For one, BigCommerce offers a special pre-negotiated payment processing rate at each level through PayPal powered by Braintree

Moreover, BigCommerce does not charge merchants transaction fees

So let’s dive in to learn a little more about BigCommerce subscription costs.

BigCommerce License Fees

This is the amount you’ll pay each month just to keep your store running.  Note that the prices listed are for the monthly rate — Bigcommerce Plus and Pro users can save up to 10% by paying annually instead of monthly.

The BigCommere Enterprise version, covered in detail further down, is quoted on a case-by-case basis.  

Here’s a breakdown:

Monthly Equivalent Cost/Month When Buying AnnuallyPercent Saved
Standard$29.95$29.95N/A
Plus$79.95$71.9510%
Pro$299.95$269.9610%

It might not be a game-changer. But for those who have fully committed to eCommerce and are in it for the long-haul, the savings are worth considering.

BigCommerce Billing Cycles and Cancellation Policy

Each month is prepaid, meaning that you’ll pay up-front for the next thirty days. This is a nonrefundable fee. 

Should you wish to cancel your subscription, you’ll need to give BigCommerce at least two days’ notice in advance of your billing date.  

BigCommerce Free Trials

BigCommerce offers a risk-free 15-day trial, and the terms are fairly standard. 

Sign up for a trial and you’ll be able to build and set up a store of your own that is not accessible to the public. It gives you an opportunity to get a feel for the features and the interface. 

At the end of your 15-day trial, you’ll be prompted to choose one of the three paid plans, which brings your store live.

BigCommerce Payment Processing Fees

These are one of two charges that a merchant typically incurs when receiving online payments. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid such processing fees.   

payment processing
BigCommerce payments are easy and user friendly. (Image courtesy of BigCommerce.com)

Any online payment using a credit or debit card involves a number of different parties. 

For instance, when a customer’s bank partners with a card network to issue a credit card — they have a Bank of America account linked to their Visa card. 

When that customer makes a purchase from your store, both Bank of America and Visa must then get in touch with your own bank in order to complete the transaction. The network and the issuer each take their cut.

This whole exchange is done through a middleman: A payment processor. There are a lot of options: Square, Stripe, Amazon Pay, and dozens more, and each has their own fee structure to consider. 

With BigCommerce, your payment processing rates can be standardized by signing up for Braintree. If you do, you’ll be able to enjoy the favorable rates shown above, as well as add full support for PayPal. BigCommerce supports a wide variety of alternative payment processors, as well.

BigCommerce Transaction Fees

In short, BigCommerce has no transaction fees, which is one of the biggest differentiators with Shopify who charges a transaction fee for every order.

If you’re already on the hook to the payment processor for each transaction made, what could possibly be the purpose of a transaction fee?  

The answer: While the processing fee is due to a third party for a specific service provided, your transaction fee goes to your platform itself. 

When your store experiences a surge of activity — during a sale, or a product launch, say — it puts a greater amount of stress on your platform’s hosting servers, as well. 

In addition to your monthly subscription fees, most platforms typically assess a transaction fee in order to defray these costs; the more you sell, the more you’ll end up paying.  

However, BigCommerce has a way of making up for this, as we will see shortly.

BigCommerce Themes

bigcommerce design
BigCommerce sites are highly customizable. (Image courtesy of bigcommerce.com)

BigCommerce, like other SaaS programs, requires the use of themes (as opposed to building from the ground-up).

A theme is a design package for your store’s front-end. It dictates things like user experience (UX), browsing, navigation, and more.  

As of this post’s publication, there are 12 free themes and around 180 paid themes available direct from BigCommerce. 

bigcommerce theme store
BigCommerce’s Theme Store offers an array of free and paid themes.

Each theme is available in a couple of customizable styles, allowing for some cosmetic variation. Paid themes from the BigCommerce Theme Store range from $150-$300, but the cost of themes from third-party sources is much more difficult to predict.

Your theme is a one-time cost. Customization is possible to an extent. If you want to build your dream store, you’ll need a team with experience in web development to make full use of the Stencil CLI.

BigCommerce Hosting and Security Options

As mentioned above, BigCommerce is a SaaS eCommerce solution. This means that BigCommerce’s only product is their self-hosted software at the top of the stack. 

With Magento or WordPress, you’ll have to host the application on a hosting company’s servers. With Bigcommerce you don’t have to worry about hosting as it is covered under your monthly fee. This also means that the merchant takes on no additional responsibilities apart from building and running their business. 

Server administration, maintenance, and security patches or version updates are all handled by Bigcommerce. This also includes PCI compliance which can be troublesome at times if you host your own website.

BigCommerce does offer you a choice with respect to your security certificate. Subscribers at the BigCommerce Pro and Enterprise levels can import their own SSL’s from a third party, but most merchants will be satisfied with one of the options provided by the company.

Encryption EverywhereGeoTrust Quick SSL® PremiumGeoTrust True BusinessIDGeoTrust True BusinessID with EV
Price (annual)Free$59$159$299
Sitewide https with padlock iconYesYesYesYes
Site sealNoneStaticDynamicDynamic
ValidationDomainDomainDomainExtended Validation
Time to issueInstant<10 minutes1-2 days1-10 days
WarrantyNone$500,000$1.25M$1.5M

Https and the padlock icon are all standard. Site seals are badges you can display on your site to further boost customer confidence, with dynamic seals staying updated to indicate that your SSL certificate remains in good standing. Paid plans offer customers protection in the event of a breach with available warranties.  

bigcommerce security
BigCommerce offers certified security with 99.99% uptime and backup data centers. (Image courtesy of bigcommerce.com)

All things considered, your decision here will likely be decided by the size of your operation. The bigger you get, the more credentials your customers will expect.  

BigCommerce Apps and Add-ons

We mentioned before that SaaS solutions like BigCommerce are “lightweight.” The actual software itself — the company’s primary product — in reality, isn’t terribly complex. 

However, it often also means that additional features and functionality are offered by third-party developers via the BigCommerce app marketplace

If there is a functionality you need for your store that is not part of the core platform, you’ll most likely find it in the marketplace. Some of the most popular apps include ShipperHQ, Yotpo, Klevu, Klayvio, Shogun’s page builder, and more.

bigcommerce app store
BigCommerce offers a variety of apps to enhance your website.

BigCommerce Analytics

A final thing worth considering when pricing your BigCommerce store is the eCommerce Insights feature.

bigcommerce insights
Premium insights and built-in analytics.

Unlike Shopify, which will gradually unlock its full complement of data reports as you ascend its subscription structure, BigCommerce offers complete access to their analytics suite from the very beginning.  However, that’s not the whole story.

BigCommerce also offers a premium subscription-based analytics service called eCommerce Insights. This is where you will find the more sophisticated stuff like customer behavior reports and detailed product conversion rate tracking.

It’s worth pointing out that many of the premium reports available in the Insights suite are eventually available as standard features in the Shopify subscription setup.  

Here’s what you’ll pay if you want to add Insights to your monthly plan:

Base Monthly CosteCommerce Insights Monthly CostTotal Monthly Cost w/ Insights
Standard$29.95$49$78.95
Plus$79.95$49$128.95
Pro$299.95$99$398.95
Enterprise[varies]$249[varies]

As you can see, knowledge is power, and power is expensive. If you want to stay competitive, take a moment before deciding whether you can or can’t afford having the clearest possible picture. 

So, you’ll definitely be on the hook for a subscription fee and your payment processing. Potentially, you’ll be springing for a paid theme, a better security certificate, a comparatively light load of application subscriptions, and premium analytics. 

Now, let’s break down each BigCommerce plan and look at the features available at each tier, so you can make the right choice for your vision.

BigCommerce Standard Plan Review

Monthly Cost: $29.95 ($78.95 w/ eCommerce Insights)
Payment Processing Fees: 2.59% + 49¢
Annual Sales Limit: $50,000

One thing that you’ll notice is the listing of an annual sales limit.  BigCommerce, unlike Shopify, places a limit on the number of sales possible for a given subscription rate. 

Earlier, we mentioned that BigCommerce had a way of offsetting the cost of its lack of transaction fees — this is it:

If you exceed the limit for your plan (calculated on a trailing 12-month basis), you’ll simply be bumped up to the next tier automatically. 

If you are on the BigCommerce Pro plan, exceeding the annual limit will lead to an increased monthly subscription fee for the next year, instead.

BigCommerce Standard Benefits:

BigCommerce Standard is the entry-level plan. You’ll get a hosted store with some of the signature BigCommerce features: no transaction fees, full access to standard data reports, unlimited staff accounts, built-in support for product reviews, and real-time shipping quotes without the use of a third-party app.  

1. Built-in Functionality

BigCommerce allows you to do a couple of things out of the box that other SaaS platforms don’t. 

BigCommerce has its own page builder application available standard at all tiers. This is a drag-and-drop customization tool that allows users to make basic modifications to their site without the help of a web developer.

When logged into the control panel, the admin bar at the top of the screen gives the option to design a page. (Image courtesy of BigCommerce.com)

You can do this with most SaaS platforms, provided you download an app from a third-party developer. But BigCommerce is unique in that their page builder is proprietary and custom-built for use with their product.  

Similarly, if you want to include product ratings and reviews for a store on another platform like Shopify, you’ll have to install an app, too. The same is true for real-time shipping quotes (such as, a line item for shipping costs in your cart that automatically updates based on cart contents and user geolocation). 

Both features come stock with any BigCommerce plan, as does a conversion calculator for multi-currency support.

2. Product Options

Typically, when you select a product in an online store, you’ll be presented with a couple of choices on its product page. Click on a sweatshirt, for instance, and there may be one drop-down menu allowing you to specify the color you want, one for your desired size, and a third for you to indicate the material you want.

BigCommerce stands out in that it allows for significantly more customizable options on its product pages compared to its competitors—up to 250 different sets. Shopify limits you to three.  

This allows you to add a much wider range of variants for each product you sell, but there are other implications as well. 

For example, suppose a florist wants to add the option to include a personalized message card with a customer’s purchase. With BigCommerce, that’s as easy as a few menu clicks. Other platforms will require the installation of more apps and inconvenient workarounds.

BigCommerce Standard Challenges:

1. Making Use of Your Data

The BigCommerce Standard plan has one critical shortcoming: A lack of meaningful tools for translating analytic insights into increased revenue.

BigCommerce almost hints at this fact in their official promotional copy.  Their tagline for the Standard plan: “Sell online with your own beautiful store.” 

For the Plus plan, it’s “Grow your online business with marketing tools proven to increase conversion.”  

In other words, you will need to upgrade to a Plus account or higher before you can make use of cart recovery, credential storage, market segmentation, or customer grouping. 

More about those in the next section.

The Takeaway:

BigCommerce Standard offers some unique perks that make it worth considering for those just looking to dip their toe into the eCommerce pool. 

BigCommerce Standard comes with a respectable set of features, without the need to pile on outside apps, and without the transaction fees common to other platforms.

Here’s the cool part: You’ll have access to more data with this plan than any competing one at a comparable price point — even without the Insights add-on. 

However, you’ll still have issues converting that actionable data into, well, action. 

You can split your customers into as many micro-categories as you like, but it’s really more of a mental exercise if you can’t meaningfully target those categories. 

But, if you can’t even remember the items in their cart or the numbers on their credit card, there probably won’t be enough high-value returning customers to worry about anyway.

The sales limits set by the company should be a rough guide for you when determining the right plan. In the event you start doing too well and exceed their cap, they’ll go ahead and make that call for you.

If you’re still a relative newcomer, or you have too much going on in your life to spend all day managing an online store, this plan is worth a look. 

If you’re more serious than that, you probably want to keep searching.

BigCommerce Plus

Monthly Cost: $79.95 ($128.95 w/ eCommerce Insights)
Payment Processing Fees: 2.35% + 49¢
Annual Sales Limit: $180,000

BigCommerce Plus Benefits:

Start turning data into profit.

This is the key selling point for the BigCommerce Plus tier — you’ll unlock some powerful new toys that will help you grow your business.  

1. Persistent Cart and Abandoned Cart Recovery

On the BigCommerce Standard plan, your customers’ cart contents will not be saved should they leave your site before checkout. Seems like a small matter, but it’s definitely the kind of tedious setback that negatively affects your customer experience. 

However, Plus subscribers and above enjoy the persistent cart feature, so they won’t have to worry about it.

bigcommerce persistent cart
Checking the Persistent Cart option allows customers to access items in their shopping cart across multiple devices.

Persistent cart support enables abandoned cart recovery, which is critical for better customer experience. 

Customers who leave your store with a full cart will receive up to three automated follow-up emails reminding them that they haven’t checked out. 

These emails, which you can schedule at custom intervals, are more effective than you may realize. SalesCycle, a behavioral marketing firm, has found that one in three recipients will click the link; more than a quarter of those who click, buy. 

That’s about as close to a layup as you’ll find in this line of work.

2. Customer Groups and Segmentation

BigCommerce Plus allows you to create Customer Groups to segment your customer base and focus your marketing efforts. 

With this feature, you can:

  • Set up a tax-exempt group for nonprofits or government organizations
  • Conduct wholesale/business-to-business (B2B) operations by offering products and discounts hidden from your retail customers
  • Restrict certain products and offers to registered members only
  • Create a loyalty program and extend exclusive discounts to select customers 

This last one is the most important. BigCommerce’s substantial customer reports allow you to precisely identify specific market segments with confidence and ease.

customer reports
Customer Insights provide weekly and monthly reporting. (Image courtesy of BigCommerce.com)

With customer grouping, targeting one of those segments couldn’t be simpler. 

Is a customer’s loyalty beginning to falter?  Reach out with a deal to bring them back into the fold. 

Having trouble moving some high-value, high-margin inventory? Set up a group of your most loyal customers according to highest average order value (AOV) and see if one might take a shot.

3. Credit Card Storage

This is pretty simple. BigCommerce Standard won’t let you keep a customer’s card on file; Plus and above plans will. 

This underlines, even more, the key difference between these two plans: Plus is all about customer acquisition and retention.  

BigCommerce Plus Challenges:

1. Monthly Cost

BigCommerce Plus, at first glance, seems like a direct counterpart to Shopify’s $79 monthly plan. The subscription fee is nearly identical, and you can expect to pay around the same amount for payment processing fees as well. 

However, this plan is designed with an additional eCommerce Insights subscription in mind. The whole point, which is stated outright, is to allow you to convert your analytics into revenue. 

So really, the plan has a higher monthly base cost. While it’s true that you’ll recover some of that by relying on fewer apps for important store features, keep in mind that you have a sales limit, as well.  

The Takeaway: 

This is the most popular plan offered by BigCommerce, and it’s easy to see why. 

You get the BigCommerce greatest hits — thoughtful built-in functionality, attractive payment and transaction rates, and powerful (if pricey) analytics tools — plus some simple-yet-effective options for targeted marketing efforts. 

Make sure to factor in the necessary additional cost of an eCommerce Insights subscription if you are thinking of migrating from another platform.

If your business is making north of $50,000 in annual revenue, but you’re not yet committed to eCommerce as your single income source, consider this plan.

BigCommerce Pro

Monthly Cost: $299.95 ($398.95 w/ eCommerce Insights)
Payment Processing Fees: 2.05% + 49¢
Annual Sales Limit: $400,000 (note: there is an extra $150/month added to the subscription fee for every $200,000 in revenue over this limit)

BigCommerce Pro Benefits:

This is the top of the BigCommerce Essentials product line. You’ll get everything we mentioned in previous plans, with a couple of new perks:

1. Google Customer Reviews

This feature allows customers participating in Google’s Customer Review program to rate and review your site. These ratings contribute to your Seller Rating, which in turn can help increase conversions and have a significant effect on your treatment by Google’s algorithm.  

2. Faceted Search and Product Filtering

BigCommerce Pro will allow customers to filter their search results by parameters such as color and brand, which can increase conversion rate by as much as 10% (according to BigCommerce). This faceted search functionality pairs well with BigCommerce’s support for an extensive array of product options.  

3. Payment Processing Fees

BigCommerce Pro’s 2.2% processing fees (when using PayPal Powered by Braintree) won’t really get beat by any other comparable monthly plan in this price range.  

4. Custom Security (SSL) Option

Finally, you’ll have the option at this level of uploading your own third-party SSL certificate. One of the four options that we detailed earlier should be enough for most merchants, but you’ll be able to shop around if you want once you reach this tier.

BigCommerce Pro Cons:

1. Value

We probably know what you’re thinking. And yes, BigCommerce Pro will run you an additional $220 a month, basically just for Google reviews and filtered searches. With Insights included, you’re looking at around $400.

The Takeaway:

BigCommerce Pro is intended for those merchants who are routinely working with annual revenues in the mid-six-figure range. 

It will give you enough firepower to operate comfortably in this space, but the annual sales limit penalty may make this plan a lot less attractive.

If your annual revenue — actual or projected — would place you over the sales limit for this tier, then it is well worth your time to schedule a consultation about working with a BigCommerce Enterprise build instead.  

BigCommerce Enterprise

Monthly Cost: Highly variable, determined by BigCommerce based on your projected annual sales. Generally from $450 up to $15,000 (+$249 w/eCommerce Insights)
Payment Processing Fees: 2.05% + 49¢ (or lower)
Annual Sales Limit: Custom

BigCommerce Enterprise Benefits:

If you skipped directly to this part of the guide, then you are likely the owner of an established brand who knows what they want out of an enterprise-grade eCommerce platform. 

Obviously, BigCommerce Enterprise retains every feature of the previous plans, while adding a few new ones to bring it in line with other enterprise-grade software. We’ll detail these new perks below, and save our comparative discussion for the Takeaway section.

BigCommerce Enterprise has a couple of direct upgrades to features introduced in their mid-market Essentials plans. Sellers with a BigCommerce Plus plan or higher can use the Customer Groups feature to offer product and category discounts to specific market segments. 

The Enterprise-exclusive Price Lists tool takes that functionality one step further, allowing you to actually set a custom override for the catalog price of specific products in your store. In other words, two visitors might see two totally different prices listed on a given product page—depending on their customer group. 

This is especially useful for B2B transactions, where pricing is often more complex and based on prior negotiation. It’s certainly a more elegant solution.

BigCommerce Pro’s faceted search feature gets a similar upgrade. Make the jump to an Enterprise subscription, and you’ll be able to set custom parameters for those filtered searches. 

We mentioned earlier that BigCommerce supports a huge number of product options. With the capacity to offer so many different product variants, effective filtering is essential for your customer experience.

2. Unlimited API Calls and Preferred Technical Support

BigCommerce Enterprise has no API limits. In the event that you need to contact technical support, you’ll enjoy what BigCommerce calls “express routing”. That basically means you’ll cut to the front of the line.

3. Consultancy

BigCommerce makes a number of experts, coaches, and managers available to their Enterprise account holders. They help with your data migration, the launch process, and with setting and reaching your company’s growth goals.

Now, these services are not free, of course. And maybe we’re a little biased when we say that better eCommerce consultation options exist (we offer these services, ourselves). It is worth noting, though.

4. B2B Edition powered by BundleB2B

We love it when two of our partners work together, and for the Enterprise-only B2B Edition offering, BigCommerce teamed up with BundleB2B to offer a special package for B2B sellers.

This offering allows businesses to streamline operations and improve customer experience.

Features of B2B Edition include…

  • B2B-optimized Stencil themes
  • Enterprise features like Product Filtering, priority support, and customer success management.
  • Corporate Account Management with multiple tiers of buyers who have specific roles and permissions.
  • Sales Representative Masquerade – Sales agents can place orders on behalf of consenting companies.
  • Sales Representative Quoting – Sales agents can create and share quotes and provide additional discounts to customers
  • Shared Shopping Lists and Buy Again – manage and save multiple shopping lists, retrieve these for future use, and purchase previously saved products.
  • Invoice Portal – Allows companies to view their invoice history and pay off their balance.
  • Payment Method Visibility Control – Add, edit, show, or hide approved payment options for companies
  • Quick Order Pad – Allows users to add products using partial SKUs
  • Company Address Book Management – Set up billing and shipping addresses for companies at their request.

BigCommerce Enterprise Challenges:

1. Lack of Better Payment Processing Fee

Upgrading from BigCommerce Pro to BigCommerce Enterprise does not guarantee a better payment processing fee, only the possibility of one. The rate itself is not really the issue—it’s the fact that someone paying $5,000 a month might not have a rate any lower than someone only paying $400.

The Takeaway:

BigCommerce imposes annual sales limits on each of its Essentials plans.  This makes it sort of difficult to meaningfully discuss BigCommerce Enterprise in relation to BigCommerce Pro—it’s a pretty linear decision based on your annual revenue. 

BigCommerce Enterprise vs Shopify Plus

In this section, we’ll focus on what BigCommerce Enterprise does right and where it could stand improvement as a top-flight eCommerce platform vs. its competitors.

Native Functionality Vs. Apps

This is one of the most important distinctions separating BigCommerce apart in the SaaS eCommerce field.  

Almost all of the BigCommerce features we have discussed up to this point are achievable using other platforms as well. Shopify has an enormous community of users and developers.

For every built-in BigCommerce perk, there’s likely a Shopify app that can replicate or outperform it.

When you are operating internationally, for instance, or even just managing multiple stores domestically, each one of those bells and whistles in your Shopify build becomes a variable.

Here’s what to consider:

  • Does the app travel well, or is it geographically restricted? 
  • Will you be assessed a subscription fee for each store on which it’s installed? 
  • Will your store’s response time be negatively affected if one or more of your apps malfunctions? 
  • Might your store even have to go offline while the issue is being addressed?

Keep in mind, BigCommerce touts its industry-leading uptime rate of 99.99%

Sometimes, the best ability is reliability.

B2B Functionality

BigCommerce Enterprise uses price lists and customer groups to provide B2B functionality, while Shopify Plus provides merchants with a “wholesale channel” totally separate from their retail store. 

Ultimately, the difference isn’t drastic, but if you’re reliant on B2B for a substantial or primary portion of your revenue, then the better custom pricing solutions offered by BigCommerce could make the difference for you. 

Better SEO

BigCommerce Enterprise offers better SEO potential than other SaaS platforms in its class. 

Notably, you aren’t locked in to a preset URL structure, and you’re able to edit the robots.txt file; the stuff you can’t change is built in accordance with SEO best practices in mind. 

Platform Flexibility

A SaaS solution like BigCommerce can lack the totally customizable nature of an on-premise platform such as Magento by Adobe Commerce. This is a feature, not a bug. You’d go with SaaS in large part because you don’t feel the need to hire an entire development team to build and maintain your store. 

By off-loading services like hosting and data storage, you can pare down your operation and keep costs low.  In return, you surrender a lot of control over the product.

Interestingly, recent developments suggest that BigCommerce has warmed to the idea of increased user customization.

The platform already allows for custom checkout pages and  URL structures — both of which are achievable only through workarounds when using Shopify. Now, it’s clear that BigCommerce wants to be a major player in the future of headless commerce as well.  

If you are looking to go the headless route, you should take a close look at BigCommerce. They are well ahead of Shopify in terms of building out their APIs, and they recently released BigCommerce for WordPress, signaling their committed support for the headless movement.

Shero Commerce offers three different development packages for merchants interested in building a store using BigCommerce. 

These packages are inclusive and will take you from the drawing board all the way through your launch date. 

The Plus Package

Price: $20,000
BigCommerce Plan: Plus/Pro
Consultation / Website Discovery: 4 hours
CMS Page / Templates: 1
Product Inventory Setup: 500 SKUs
Additional Costs: Subscription fees; any third-party services; security certificate; domain name

This package provides you with everything you’d need to get started. After a consultation, an expert team of BigCommerce specialists will assist in selecting your theme, configuring your store’s layout, organizing your product catalog, optimizing your search ranking, setting up your email marketing, and more.  

The Pro Package 

Price: $30,000
BigCommerce Plan: Plus/Pro
Consultation / Website Discovery: 6 hours
CMS Page / Templates: 7
Product Inventory Setup: 1,000 SKUs
SEO Migration Audit: 8 hours
Additional Costs: Subscription fees; any third-party services; security certificate; domain name

Our most popular development package. This plan is ideal for growth-focused online merchants who know that they’ll need some room to expand. 

We design four strategic customer groups for you, so you can plan and deploy marketing campaigns with precision. We’ll set up ShipperHQ and TaxJar/Avalara to keep you both on-time and tax-compliant, no matter how wide your customer base grows. We’ll even build two different custom apps for your site, tailored to your specific needs.

And with more than half-a-dozen different content page templates, you’ll be ready for the Pivot-to-Whatever.

The Enterprise Package

Price: Contact sales
BigCommerce Plan: Pro/Enterprise
Consultation / Website Discovery: 16 hours
CMS Page / Templates: 14
Product Inventory Setup: Unlimited SKUs
SEO Migration Audit: 12 hours
Additional Costs: Subscription fees; any third-party services; security certificate; domain name

This package is designed to meet the unique demands and challenges of operating an enterprise-grade eCommerce business. 

If you know, you know. The Enterprise Package is for our customers who don’t exactly buy off-the-rack.  

The two major themes here are “custom,” and “unlimited” — custom entry fields on everything, custom contact forms, custom coupon codes, twice the custom apps; unlimited SKU’s, unlimited customer groups, unlimited payment gateway setups. 

You’ll get up to eight hours of consultation on how to level-up your store’s rank on Google’s Shopping results. We’ll assist you in building and implementing a PPC marketing strategy, and you’ll even get help with video content and product photography. 

What could you achieve with a team who works as hard as you do? Contact us to find out.

What You Were Waiting For

The total cost of ownership (TCO) for a given BigCommerce build is tricky to estimate, for reasons that should by now be clear, but hopefully this guide has been helpful so far. Now, we are going to offer some rough estimates for a couple of different scenarios to at least give you some ballpark figures.  

Example 1: The Complete Newbie
(<$50,000 annual sales)

Up-front costs:

  • Theme ($0-140)

Recurring costs:

  • BigCommerce Standard, no eCommerce Insights ($29.95/month)
  • Registering your domain ($15/year)

Example Cost Outlook: Minimal up-front, unless you decide on a paid theme. Annually, $400-$600, minimum; with Insights, at least $1,000 to $1,300.  

Example 2: The Mid-Market Veteran
($120,000-$180,000 annual sales)

Up-front Costs:

  • Plus Package site build from Shero Commerce ($20,000)

Recurring costs:

  • BigCommerce Plus with eCommerce Insights ($170.95/month when buying annually)
  • Security through GeoTrust True BusinessID ($159/year)
  • Registered domain name ($15/year)
  • Customer support LiveChat app ($16/month)
  • Omnisend Standard email marketing ($16/month)

Example Cost Outlook: Following initial build costs, a site set up this way would cost just under $3,000 annually to run.

Example 3: The Next Big Thing
($350,000-$500,000 annual sales)

Up-front Costs:

  • Pro Package site build from Shero Commerce ($30,000)

Recurring Costs:

  • BigCommerce Pro with eCommerce Insights ($368.96/month when buying annually)
  • Security through True BusinessID ($159/year)
  • A registered domain name ($15/year)
  • Customer support LiveChat app ($16/month)
  • Klevu Premium email marketing ($499/month)
  • ShipperHQ Standard ($91.67/month when buying annually)

Example Cost Outlook: Following initial build costs, a site with this feature load-out would cost about $11,900 annually to run.

Total Cost of BigCommerce Enterprise 

The cost of an enterprise-grade BigCommerce website is dependent on too many variables to calculate a meaningful estimate. Get in touch with our experts for a free initial consult and we would love to give you a better sense of what to expect. 

Or, you could use the rough TCO calculator provided on BigCommerce’s website—just keep in mind that it’s only built to provide a very general estimate.  

Takeaway: Only with a more in-depth conversation can we give you a more targeted quote for your specific situation. 

That said, you can probably see the appeal of SaaS solutions even with these rough sketches above. The overhead costs are simply too attractive to ignore, even when you take into account that this only represents the costs associated with the website itself.  

When everything is taken into consideration, BigCommerce builds tend to be rather close to their Shopify counterparts as far as TCO goes. 

BigCommerce’s decreased reliance on apps and lack of transaction fees, when compared to Shopify’s more forgiving pricing model, more or less washes out in the end.

The next section’s a bit of a palate cleanser. We’ll clear all these commas and cash signs from the mind momentarily with a few practical reminders.

Here is a list of our best tips and practical reminders for anyone thinking about choosing BigCommerce.

Anticipate pricing fluctuations

BigCommerce’s pricing structure is set up so that your real monthly costs may end up higher than you’d expect. Sure, they waive your transaction fees, but they make up for it by automatically bumping up your subscription fee once you start making enough sales. Plan accordingly. 

Plan for third-party integrations

You will still need apps with BigCommerce. The built-in features are great, and they help set BigCommerce apart from the field. That said, the value they add diminishes significantly as your business expands. After a certain revenue peak, your competitors will all be using powerful third-party premium solutions for features like cart recovery or email automation. You’ll end up springing for at least some of these if you want to stay relevant.

Consider whether BigCommerce is right for you

You should make sure that you fit BigCommerce’s target market. Shopify’s rapid ascent has led to BigCommerce rethinking their niche in the market to avoid getting crushed. Your vision and theirs should align.

BigCommerce B2B Benefits

BigCommerce has targeted brands that encounter payment processing issues when using other platforms, such as the cannabis industry. They have targeted merchants who depend on B2B sales, so if you’re a mid-market B2B seller, they’re one of the only games in town. Maybe most of all, though, they want to be the platform of choice for content-forward brands.

Headless Commerce for BigCommerce Stores

Being content-forward often means using your own CMS, such as WordPress, while letting your platform handle all the eCommerce stuff under the hood. Headless architecture, as this configuration is known, has been a serious focus for the company as of late. If you are interested in using your own CMS to design your store’s front-end, BigCommerce is more than happy to help, and anyone intending on using this architecture may find BigCommerce to be the best choice.

Find an agency that becomes your long-term partner

Flexibility and adaptability are important for success in eCommerce generally. This is especially true with respect to SaaS. If you intend to out-compete the most nimble, digitally-native brands around, you’ll need two things: a good SaaS solution and even better help. When choosing your partners, you’ll want to make sure that they’re as driven and competent as you are. Trust us, nothing is more maddening than having to switch agencies mid-build in order to bail out a failing project. We’d know—we’ve had to rescue plenty of them ourselves.

What to look for in an eCommerce agency

Understand that this is a young and booming industry. That means it can be an exciting world to be a part of, but it unfortunately also means there’s room for dishonesty, as well. Vet your partners and consultants carefully—before cutting a check. If they don’t pass the smell test, it’s probably for a good reason.

Seek experienced eCommerce web developers.

It is technically true that SaaS platforms are designed to allow those with little or no prior programming knowledge to build their own website. Really, though, eCommerce is still a highly-technical field. You won’t need to retain a specialist developer at $150+ an hour, true. Things like SEO and PPC are still quite complex, and reliable expertise is in high demand. These services can command a pretty penny, and it’s likely you’ll end up paying that penny sooner or later. 

Know your budget

This should be clear by now, but smart budgeting is critical for success in this field. Variance is unavoidable: volatility is not. Make sure that you’re in a better position to withstand the unanticipated than your competition. You might end up being the last one standing.

Bonus tip for migrations:

If you want to re-platform your store, and need all the help you can get, reach out to my friend Paul Rogers. He is an expert in platform selection and will work with you to decide which solution is perfect for your business.

Conclusion

So, now you have an idea of what costs you’ll encounter with a BigCommerce store. We told you what you’ll get for those costs, and then drew up a couple of hypothetical examples.

BigCommerce’s website publishes a ton of content related to the eCommerce world: blogs, webinars, and so on. 

If you think a BigCommerce website might be right for your business, head over there and take a look at some of the customer examples or view successful case studies

If you like what you see, get in touch with us for a free consultation.

Chief Strategy Officer at

Gentian, CSO and co-founder of Shero Commerce, guides the company and client digital strategies. He's an expert in technical SEO, Inbound Marketing, and eCommerce strategy.