BigCommerce vs Magento 2: what to choose for your online store

Say, you decided to launch an online store. E-commerce solutions offer multiple platforms for a website, and it’s hard to choose which one will suit better for your needs. In this article, we’ll compare Magento 2 and BigCommerce in the following parameters:

• Hosting;
• Price;
• Customization options;
• Security;
• Scalability.

Thus, you can make an informed decision about what platform is best for you.

BigCommerce vs Magento 2: a short overview

Hosting

• Magento 2 is a self-hosted platform. That means you’ll need to find paid hosting suitable for your website. But it gives you more freedom to choose the server and make the changes if you need to improve website performance.
• BigCommerce vise versa is a hosted solution. So you don’t need to find anything additionally, but at the same time, you’ll have less control in your hands.

Price

• Magento 2 is free and open-source.
• BigCommerce's starting price is $29.95, and it charges a processing fee at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

Customization options

• Magento 2. As an open-source solution, Magento 2 allows you to customize every pixel of your website and make it look and work as you want. But for this, you will need to have good technical skills or hire a developer. Moreover, there are over 5000 free and paid extensions that you can implement in your store.

Note: We developed 150+ Magento 2 plugins that you can use for store customization, but if you are looking for a unique solution, we’re always here to help you with custom development → 

• BigCommerce offers you a bunch of pre-made solutions starting from free design templates and ending with paid plugins with custom features. This platform has limited opportunities and customization may be expensive.

Security

• Magento 2 development team constantly releases new security patches and updates to keep your store safe. Also, it uses technologies and components like PHP 7, Composer, Zend Framework, Symfony, and the integration of SSL Certificate to increase customers’ trust.
• BigCommerce is level 1 certified PCI compliant and supports free and paid SSL Certificates.

Scalability

• Magento 2 will grow together with your business. It allows you to add new products, new stores, languages, currencies, shipping, and payment methods. Scalability is one of the strongest sides of this platform.
• BigCommerce is more suitable for small businesses. Its plans have annual sales limits, and if you exceed, you will be automatically upgraded to a higher plan.

Magento 2 vs BigCommerce: final thoughts

It’s up to you to decide which one to choose. We hope that now you have a clear idea of these platforms and understand the difference between Magento 2 and BigCommerce.