WooCommerce or BigCommerce?

This condensed guide gives you ultimate confidence to determine the best fit for your website going forward.

Introduction
Comparing the Platforms
Other Guides
Introduction to SwiftOtter

Are you ready for an honest comparison of these two platforms?

You are likely to be a representative of one of the six million-plus websites that utilize WooCommerce. This is testimony to the flexibility that WooCommerce provides. WooCommerce represents an easy pathway to go from the ubiquitous WordPress content platform to enable eCommerce capabilities. However, is it possible that this platform also brings along a ceiling?

We set out to answer this question in our exploration of WooCommerce as we evaluate over 100 features in comparison to BigCommerce. We invested many hours to bring you answers and help you make the best decision for your destiny. Is WooCommerce the best? Will BigCommerce serve us better?

Our freely downloadable book answers this question.

Why BigCommerce?

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has gained tremendous popularity with merchants in recent times. Merchants are looking for a stable website that won't "go down", all with minimal maintenance costs. SaaS generally delivers on these promises.

The bigger question ends up being: which SaaS platform? Shopify is often considered, but it has several significant detractors. BigCommerce is regularly our choice as it's highly flexible yet retains the security and maintainability of a SaaS platform. The Gartner Magic Quandrant names BigCommerce as a Challenger. Thus, BigCommerce is the platform we most regularly reach for.

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We have chosen to put this material in a freely available (no email required) ebook because this gives us the flexibility to present the content in an easily digestable format. Please download and reference at your leisure.

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The Comparison

This high-level view of BigCommerce and WooCommerce will help you understand the value that both platforms bring.

What about plugins? You'll notice many items in the feature lists below mention "Plugin necessary". On the surface, a plugin satisfies the requirement, let's install it and move on? This can work for basic websites, but starts running into challenges as a website grows. If a feature is included natively, generally speaking, this means it will be:

built to a higher standard because it's used by more merchants
maintained and kept up to the latest guidelines through version upgrades
supported by the SLA you have with the platform

None of these points are universally present for plugins. A developer might build a plugin, but then they move onto another phase of life—and the plugin is no longer supported.

Anytime "natively supported" is listed for a feature, you are in good hands.

	BigCommerce	WooCommerce
Cost to Operate (Yearly)	No costs due to upgrades or hosting—only licensing fee.	Might be surprised as to how much regular maintenance, upgrades, and deployments costs.
Build costs	$$$--	$$$--
Platform Style	Hosted in the cloud—no concern over traffic rushes after sales email.	Hosted wherever you wish—but make sure you have enough horsepower to handle traffic rushes.
Security	Handles almost all security, included in licensing fee.	You are responsible to maintain security. Plugins make this risky.
Multiple storefronts	Good native capabilities, but products must have same price across websites (at this point).	Requires plugin to make functional.
Ability to handle large influx of traffic	Outstanding. A 99.99% uptime guarantee.	It is up to you to ensure website stays up through heavy traffic.
Native feature support	Major functions are natively included. Apps are available to fill in additional requirements.	Many aspects need a plugin: many of which are not well supported.

	BigCommerce	WooCommerce
Pre-orders	Natively supported	Additional plugin needed
Downloadable Products	Natively supported	Natively supported
Gifting	Natively supported	Plugin needed
Rich attribute types (product specifications)	Only text-entry fields.	Different types of values allowed.
Price Lists	Natively supported	Natively supported
Product Relationships	Automatic or manual associations—only one type.	Cross-sells, up-sells and related products.
Category permissions	Per customer group	Per customer group
Auto-assembled categories	Associated with brand	By product type, category, vendor, tag, etc.
Content Builder	Drag/drop interface baked into the frontend.	Rich editor in the admin panel.
Inventory Quantity Thresholds	Natively Supported	Natively Supported
Backorders	No backorders	Natively supported

	BigCommerce	WooCommerce
Frontend Impersonation	Natively supported	Paid plugin necessary
Customer Groups	Natively supported	Paid plugin necessary
Custom Fields	Natively supported (B2B)	Natively supported
Wishlists	Natively supported	Natively supported

	BigCommerce	WooCommerce
Order Address Autocomplete	Natively supported	Plugin necessary
Multi-address orders	Natively well-supported	Plugin necessary
Shipping Methods	Natively supported—ShipperHQ integration	Plugins necessary
Currency Handling	Natively well-supported	Plugin necessary
Return Authorizations	Natively supported	Plugin needed
Resend order email	Natively supported	Natively supported
Order view extensibility	Can add new windows, API support to rebuild	Open-source, so reasonably easy to change
Custom Shipping Rates (Admin)	Natively supported	Plugin necessary
Order view extensibility	Extension points and API to rebuild view if necessary.	Everything can be changed to a minute level

	BigCommerce	WooCommerce
Address Management	Natively supported	One user per company, not supported
Payment Method Restrictions	Natively supported	Not controllable per company
Order approvals	Natively supported for junior buyer to pass order to senior buyer to purchase	Not supported
Pay on account/terms	Natively supported, including paying invoices online	Not supported
Quick Order	Natively well-supported	Plugin necessary
Sales staff assignment	Natively supported	Plugin necessary
Ordering lists	Natively supported	Plugin necessary

Our other comparisons

This isn't all we've done, check out what else will help you make a more informed decision.

An Introduction to SwiftOtter

Excellence in Ecommerce Experiences—since 2012.

As you can see with this guidebook, SwiftOtter believes in education and enablement (we have also built a significant training practice). Getting into a full-site migration may seem scary.

But with us at SwiftOtter, it's not. We will walk you through the process you will read about in this quickstart guide.

We learn the key points of your needs and give you a rough order of magnitude for cost and timeline.
We enter a paid discovery to understand what needs to be built: the scope.
Once we agree on the scope (price), we begin work.
We involve you through the development process to ensure it's exactly as you need.

SwiftOtter is a Certified BigCommerce Partner. We are also a Commerce-specialized Adobe Partner. We know the best of both worlds and have put this knowledge into building this quickstart guide for you.

Learn more about SwiftOtter