BigCommerce vs WooCommerce

Running it yourself, or paying for it built in

WooCommerce and BigCommerce sit at opposite ends of control. WooCommerce is free, open-source and yours: it runs on your WordPress site, charges no platform fee on any payment provider, and can be customized without limit. The price is running it yourself: hosting, updates, extensions at $29 to $299 a year each, and security. BigCommerce is hosted and built for scale, with B2B tools, multiple storefronts and headless commerce included.

For a merchant already on WordPress, or one who needs unusual checkout logic, WooCommerce is hard to beat on cost and freedom. For a growing B2B business that would rather not manage servers, BigCommerce includes what WooCommerce assembles from extensions. Remember that its plans rise automatically with sales, from $29 a month up to $30,000 a year in sales to $299 a month on Scale. Compare WooCommerce's hosting and extensions with BigCommerce's plan at your real sales volume, not the headline prices.

BigCommerce

Each BigCommerce plan comes with a sales ceiling measured over the trailing twelve months. Core covers up to $30,000 a year and upgrades automatically to Growth; Growth covers up to $100,000 and upgrades to Scale. Scale includes $33,333 a month in sales and charges 0.9% on anything above that, with no jumps between tiers, and once you pass $2 million a year the account moves to Performance, which starts at $1,499 a month.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce publishes its own cost model, and it is open about where the money goes. The core platform costs nothing. Hosting runs from about $25 to $350 a month for most stores, depending on traffic and how much performance you need. Extensions, which is where features like subscriptions, bookings or advanced shipping live, cost $29 to $299 a year each. Payment processing is whatever your chosen provider charges, with no extra fee from WooCommerce on top.