What is the Difference Between Shopify and Bigcommerce: Which One is Easier to Use?

Two of the most popular platforms are Shopify and BigCommerce. Both offer powerful tools, features, and flexibility, but each caters to different user needs. This blog post will explore what is the difference between Shopify and Bigcommerce, particularly focusing on ease of use, to help you decide which one is better for your business.

What is the Difference Between Shopify and Bigcommerce? Step-by-Step Guide

Overview of Shopify and BigCommerce

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a well-established eCommerce platform that enables businesses to create and manage online stores without requiring advanced technical skills. Shopify is known for its simplicity and ease of use, making it popular among small businesses, entrepreneurs, and beginners in the eCommerce space. The platform offers a wide range of customizable templates, an intuitive interface, and a robust app ecosystem that allows you to extend the functionality of your store easily.

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What is BigCommerce?

BigCommerce is another powerful eCommerce solution designed for businesses of all sizes. While it’s often regarded as a platform for growing and larger businesses, it still offers flexibility and scalability for small to medium-sized enterprises. BigCommerce provides a more feature-rich, out-of-the-box experience with fewer dependencies on third-party apps. It’s known for being highly customizable and offering more advanced features for those who want deeper control over their online store.

The Common Ground

Both Shopify and BigCommerce are hosted platforms, meaning they handle the technical aspects like security, updates, and performance optimization, so you don’t have to worry about managing servers. Both also offer multi-channel selling, letting you connect your store with social media platforms and marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Instagram. They each provide essential features such as customizable themes, payment gateway options, and customer support, but their differences in usability and specific capabilities could influence which one you choose.

User-Friendliness: The Most Important Factor

Ease of use is one of the most critical factors when selecting an eCommerce platform, especially for people without a technical background. Let’s break down how Shopify and BigCommerce compare in this area.

Shopify’s Ease of Use

Shopify is often praised for its simplicity & user-friendly design. The platform is built with non-technical users in mind, creating it extremely easy to get started.

Setup and Onboarding

From the moment you sign up, Shopify guides you through the process of setting up your store. The step-by-step instructions make it easy to add products, customize your store’s design, and configure basic settings like shipping and taxes. Its clean and intuitive dashboard is perfect for beginners, allowing you to manage your store without feeling overwhelmed.

Themes and Design Customization

Shopify offers a wide range of pre-built themes, both free and premium, to help you get your store up and running quickly. Customizing these themes is simple thanks to Shopify’s drag-and-drop editor, which requires no coding knowledge. For more advanced users, the Shopify platform allows access to HTML and CSS for greater customization.

App Integrations

One of the fabulous features of Shopify is its app marketplace. Shopify offers over 6,000 apps that allow you to add additional functionality to your store with a few clicks. The marketplace includes tools for marketing, customer service, inventory management, and more. This enables you to scale your store as your business grows without needing to be a developer.

Customer Support

Shopify provides 24/7 support through live chat, email, and phone. It also offers a comprehensive help center with guides, video tutorials, and an active user community where you can find answers to common questions.

BigCommerce’s Ease of Use

BigCommerce is often seen as more complex compared to Shopify, but it also has its strengths, especially for more experienced users or those with larger stores.

Setup and Onboarding

BigCommerce’s onboarding process is straightforward, but it can feel more complex than Shopify’s. It offers a wide range of features right from the start, which can be overwhelming for beginners. However, for users with some experience, the setup process allows for deeper customization and more control over how your store operates. BigCommerce’s dashboard is well-organized, but it has more technical settings, which could be confusing for non-experienced users.

Themes and Design Customization

BigCommerce also offers a variety of free and paid themes, but its theme customization is slightly more technical than Shopify’s. While it provides drag-and-drop features, users may need to dive into the code more frequently to make the exact changes they want. This can be a pro for users who want complete control over their design but a con for beginners who prefer simplicity.

Built-In Features

One of the main advantages of BigCommerce is its extensive range of built-in features. While Shopify relies on third-party apps to extend functionality, BigCommerce offers more built-in tools like advanced SEO options, product review features, and discount options right out of the box. This means fewer apps to manage, but it also adds complexity to the setup process.

App Integrations

BigCommerce offers fewer third-party app integrations than Shopify, but it compensates for this by including more built-in features. However, if you need additional apps for niche functionality, BigCommerce’s marketplace still offers a decent selection, although it is not as extensive as Shopify’s.

Customer Support

Like Shopify, BigCommerce offers 24/7 support through live chat, email, and phone. It also has a help center with articles, guides, and video tutorials. However, BigCommerce’s support is often geared towards more experienced users, making it slightly less beginner-friendly.

Pricing Comparison

While this article focuses on ease of use, pricing is another key consideration. Shopify offers three main pricing tiers, starting at $39 per month, with an additional Shopify Plus option for enterprise users. BigCommerce offers similar pricing, with its standard plan starting at $39 per month as well.

However, BigCommerce includes more features in its standard plans, while Shopify users often rely on third-party apps, which can add to the cost over time. Depending on your needs, BigCommerce’s built-in features may save you money, but Shopify’s app ecosystem could be more flexible.

Which One Is Easier to Use?

Now that we’ve broken down the differences, it’s clear that both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to ease of use.

• For Beginners: If you’re new to eCommerce, Shopify is likely the better option. Its intuitive design, simple setup process, and user-friendly customization tools make it ideal for those who want to launch a store quickly without dealing with technical complexities.
• For Experienced Users: If you’re looking for a platform that offers more built-in features and deeper customization options without relying on third-party apps, BigCommerce could be the better choice. While its interface is slightly more complex, the extensive range of built-in tools makes it powerful for larger businesses or those looking for a more all-in-one solution.

Conclusion

Choosing between Shopify and BigCommerce ultimately depends on your specific needs and level of technical expertise. If ease of use is your top priority and you’re looking for a platform that makes it simple to launch and manage your store, Shopify is probably the better option. However, if you’re more comfortable with technology and prefer a platform with more built-in features, BigCommerce might be the right choice.

Both platforms offer free trials, so the best way to decide is to try them out and see which one feels more intuitive for you.