Last updated on May 23rd, 2023
The eCommerce systems Magento and BigCommerce are extensively used by international retailers. While procedures like BigCommerce and Magento are generally known for their extensive capabilities, WooCommerce and Wix are less well-known for their wealth of integrated features. Look into the argument between BigCommerce vs Magento; it’s fascinating.
This information will benefit you if you’re unsure which platform is best for your beloved company.
Overview of BigCommerce
BigCommerce is an entirely hosted online marketplace that aids entrepreneurs in launching their online ventures.
When a platform is fully hosted, it implies that it contains all the features and resources you’ll need to launch your online business, including hosting, website design, payment processing, promotion, and SEO tools.
Because BigCommerce is a popular Saas, or Software as a Service, provider, starting a new business is made simpler because the platform handles all the hosting and software.
Overview of Magento
Owners of online stores with prior coding or website-building skills can use the open-source Magento platform.
Open-source software gives users complete control over their website’s appearance, features, content, and other elements using various tools and capabilities. Magento, which specializes in eCommerce stores and provides functionalities, is owned by Adobe.
Magento is a platform that can be customized and is better suited for more established eCommerce companies with technical expertise.
BigCommerce vs Magento- Detailed Comparison
Their usage regulations are the primary distinction between Magento and BigCommerce. While BigCommerce is supplied as software-as-a-service, Magento is offered as a platform-as-a-service (Paas). Despite being more expensive, Magento is twice as popular as BigCommerce.
Let’s dive deeper and get an in-depth view to settle the debate against BigCommerce vs Magento forever.
1. Liberty to customize
All e-commerce systems provide some level of customization since the standard architecture of an e-commerce application framework will not be sufficient to suit your needs. Unfortunately, because e-commerce software systems like BigCommerce are based on the SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) paradigm, their amount of customization is somewhat constrained.
As a result, the fundamental features of the shopping process and the cart’s operation cannot be changed. There is narrow scope for user interface and installable themes to get customized.
A few themes can be customized, although the options are still somewhat restricted. On the other side, Magento offers practically complete frontend and backend customization. The only restriction you can have with self-hosted and open-source Magento is the need to employ a professional Magento development firm.
2. More popular platform
An eCommerce platform’s popularity partly reflects its strength and dependability. Despite being top choices for eCommerce business owners, BigCommerce and Magento still have different user bases.
There are 163,300 active Magento websites. Nike, Coca-Cola, Urbanista, and Christian Louboutin are well-known companies that utilize Magento. Currently, BigCommerce’s platform has 50,014 active sites. BigCommerce is used by well-known companies, including SkullCandy, Sony, Ford, and Toyota.
3. A Better Choice for Payments
The best alternative for payment choices is BigCommerce. More than 65 major payment service sources, including mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, are connected to the eCommerce platform. Additionally, there are no transaction costs associated with using these services.
BigCommerce offers a variety of offline payment options, including cheques, bank deposits, cash, and cash upon delivery.
But by default, Magento only accepts payments through PayPal and Authorize.net. As a result, you must rely on extensions if you wish to utilize another third-party payment method. The site does not charge you; depending on the payment providers, you could have to pay some processing costs.
Magento provides the same advantages as BigCommerce offline, plus the capacity to take purchase orders. This is appropriate for companies whose average order value or volume is high.
Both BigCommerce and Magento have incredible capabilities. While BigCommerce makes interface with various sale networks and payment gateways simpler, Magento is superior for managing many stores and on-site marketing.
We call it a draw in the fierce rivalry between BigCommerce vs Magento.
4. Hosting
One of the essential elements for managing a prosperous e-commerce business is hosting. The outcome of the performance depends on it. The hosting service is in charge of the functioning, speed, security, and many other aspects of the website. Because Magento 2 is self-hosted, you must interact with third parties like SiteGround and HostGator to obtain the hosting.
BigCommerce offers a hosted service that is free of charge and already incorporated. Good hosting, however, is never free. You must work around BigCommerce’s limitations in this particular aspect.
5. Customer Support Service
There will be occasions when you require professional guidance to resolve website-related issues, regardless of your level of experience with online businesses. As a result, you should give the platform’s customer support service carefully.
BigCommerce offers all plans round-the-clock assistance by phone, online chat, emails, and help center. Additionally, you receive an email when users sign up for the free trial, providing a 10-minute phone session to evaluate your business and how BigCommerce may help you flourish.
While exploring Magento Open Source, users can only discover solutions on the Magento Forums from other knowledgeable users and developers. More help is available via live email and online chat when you join up for Magento Cloud and Magento Commerce Edition.
6. Options for adding templates and themes
One of the crucial tasks for your online marketplace is to have an attractive appearance for your eCommerce website. These designs might assist in establishing company identification and leave clients with a favorable impression. These two eCommerce systems are both mobile-friendly and provide free design themes.
BigCommerce offers both numerous free themes and premium choices. These themes are simpler to build and need less tweaking.
Magento makes customization easy and lets you build your store precisely as you want. To create a theme for a Magento 2 shop from zero and ensure that the store’s appearance and feel are consistent, you need to have a solid understanding of coding. To make your Magento 2 shop attractive and feature-rich, you may also use premium themes from ThemeForest or TemplateMonster.
Important Article: Why is Magento Best For Ecommerce Website Development?
Pricing Structure: BigCommerce vs Magento
No conversation on BigCommerce vs. Magento is complete without discussing the pricing structure. When choosing the e-commerce software platform for your company, the cost might be a key factor if you are new to the e-commerce market.
-
BigCommerce’s price range:
BigCommerce offers four distinct price tiers called Standard, Plus, Pro, and the last one, Enterprise Plan.
The Standard plan will cost you $29.95 per month; the Plus will cost around $79.95 per month, and the Pro comes at $299.95 per month.
Enterprise is the most sophisticated strategy. Custom pricing is used, and it is based on customers’ online sales. It not only includes everything covered by the previous plans, but it also grants some additional powers. Additionally, if you run into any problems, the specialists will provide you with priority help. Therefore, the Enterprise Plan should function effectively with businesses that move quickly.
You will instantly be enlisted in the pro plan if your annual sales total more than 125,000 USD. The cost changes to the volume of orders. The less expensive plans have fewer features.
-
Magento’s price range:
Because Magento is open-source, using it is free. Just the hosting fee is required to operate the online business. Free is the Community edition. You may select the hosting based on how much traffic you need. The cost of hosting can range from $4 each month to $100 each month. We advise adopting the premium enterprise edition if you want greater scalability. You must speak with their sales team to get the price.
In our opinion, executing a Magento store seems more cost-effective than running a BigCommerce store.
Related Article: Shopify Vs Magento: Which platform is best for ECommerce Web Development
Do You want to build an eCommerce Store from scratch?
The level of your coding or website-building experience will ultimately determine whether you choose BigCommerce or Magento. If you want to avoid paying high beginning expenses for your BigCommerce shop, for example, and you’re a novice in the eCommerce sector, you should go with BigCommerce.
For businesses with a track record in the eCommerce industry and coding or technical know-how, Magento is still a great choice.
