BigCommerce vs Shopify: Which Is Better in 2025?

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If you're searching for "BigCommerce vs Shopify," you're not casually browsing the internet. You're about to make a serious decision that could shape the next 3 to 5 years of your business.

Maybe you're launching your first proper online store. Maybe you're fed up with your current platform's limitations and you're ready to migrate. Or maybe you're a growing brand trying to figure out where to invest your time and money as you scale.

This guide was written for exactly that moment.

We're LinkShop, a Shopify-only app, so yes, we have bias. But we also work with merchants every day who are living with the real consequences of their platform choice, both good and bad. Our goal isn't to blindly push Shopify at you. It's to give you a decision you can defend to your future self.

You'll get:

A clear "who should pick what" answer based on your specific business needs

First principles explanation of how each platform actually works under the hood

Hard numbers on pricing, fees, and limits using the latest 2025 data

Concrete recommendations for different business types and revenue stages

Where LinkShop fits into your social commerce strategy if you choose Shopify

Important: All pricing and statistics in this guide come from sources updated in 2024-2025. Always double-check the official pricing pages before you commit actual budget numbers.

Who Should Choose Shopify vs BigCommerce?

If you only read one section, make it this one.

When to Choose Shopify Over BigCommerce

You're a new or growing brand that wants to launch fast, test offers, and iterate without hiring a development team. You don't want to spend weeks configuring complex features when you could be making sales.

Social and creator channels (Instagram, TikTok, influencers, UGC) are central to your sales strategy. Your customers discover products through Reels and Stories, not just Google searches.

You want access to the largest app ecosystem in ecommerce: more than 15,000 apps as of December 2025. If you need reviews, subscriptions, upsells, bundles, or loyalty programs, there's probably three competing apps for each use case. Check out our guide to the best Shopify apps to improve sales and growth.

You want a huge talent pool: over 5.5 million active Shopify stores globally in 2025. This means more freelancers, agencies, and employees with Shopify experience than any other platform.

You plan to use Shopify Payments, so platform transaction fees drop to 0% and you only pay standard card processing fees.

You want modern AI tools to write copy, generate layouts, and automate admin work. Shopify Magic and the new AI Store Builder can handle a surprising amount of the boring stuff.

When to Choose BigCommerce Over Shopify

You're already doing solid revenue and care more about operational control than design polish. You want to configure complex logic in the core platform, not juggle apps.

Your catalog is complex: many price lists, customer groups, or B2B contracts with tiered pricing and quote workflows.

You hate the idea of platform transaction fees and want 0% added payment fees on all plans, regardless of which payment gateway you use. BigCommerce doesn't charge platform fees.

You need native multi-storefront and B2B features and you're comfortable with a more technical, configuration-heavy environment.

You prefer more built-in features and fewer apps, with tradeoffs in simplicity and size.

The uncomfortable truth

For most small and mid-market brands, Shopify is the default choice. The talent pool, social integrations, and ease of use create a structural advantage that's hard to ignore.

BigCommerce becomes genuinely compelling when:

You sell B2B at scale with complex account structures and pricing rules

You manage several brands or regions from one backend using multi-storefront

You have strong technical partners and want fewer apps with more configuration in the core platform

If you're not sure which description fits you yet, keep reading. We'll build the decision from first principles instead of "pros and cons" fluff that doesn't actually help.

What You Need to Know About BigCommerce vs Shopify

When someone types this into Google, the visible question is simple:

"Which ecommerce platform is better?"

But the hidden questions underneath are what actually matter:

"Which one will give me fewer expensive surprises later?"

"Which one gives me the best chance to grow without rebuilding everything in two years?"

"How much will I actually pay when you add apps, payment fees, and 'oh by the way' upgrades?"

"Will my marketing team be able to run campaigns without begging developers for every tiny change?"

"If this goes well, will I regret not choosing the more scalable option from the start?"

This guide isn't just feature vs feature comparisons. We're going to treat Shopify and BigCommerce as systems for turning attention into revenue and look at:

How they make money (their pricing model and incentives)

How they expect you to extend them (apps vs built-ins)

How they expect you to grow (B2B, multi-storefront, headless, social)

Once you see those fundamental design choices, the decision becomes much easier.

How BigCommerce and Shopify Actually Work

An ecommerce platform has to do three basic things:

Core Function	What It Means
Store products and prices	Your catalog needs to live somewhere with inventory tracking
Take orders and payments	Customers need to complete purchases securely
Shape the buying experience	You need to customize how products are presented and sold

Shopify and BigCommerce solve this problem in fundamentally different ways.

Shopify: The opinionated approach

At a high level, Shopify optimizes for:

Fast start for non-technical merchants who want to sell today, not in six weeks

A huge app network to fill gaps instead of building everything into the core

Consistent, stable core that rarely changes in breaking ways

Key signals that show this philosophy in action:

Shopify is a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce, ranked highest for "Ability to Execute." This isn't marketing speak. It means Shopify consistently ships features and maintains infrastructure at scale.

Over 5.5 million active stores and roughly 9 million total sites using Shopify as of 2025. That's not just a big number. It's gravity. More stores means more apps, more agencies, more tutorials, more talent.

The app store exploded to about 15,600 apps by December 2025. That's a 43% year-over-year increase, which tells you things are still accelerating, not plateauing.

Shopify App Store: The 15,000+ App Ecosystem

The Shopify App Store offers apps for every use case imaginable, from reviews and subscriptions to social commerce tools like LinkShop. This network effect creates a structural advantage that's hard for competitors to match.

The Shopify model: Use core features for the basics, layer apps for specialized needs, and let Shopify's own products (Shopify Payments, Shop Pay, Shopify Markets, Shopify Fulfillment) handle more of the stack over time.

This makes the platform feel cohesive and modern. But it can also pull you deeper into the Shopify world, which might lock you in or increase app costs as you grow.

BigCommerce: The open, feature-heavy toolbox

BigCommerce optimizes for a different merchant profile:

Lots of advanced features built directly into the core platform, so you configure instead of installing apps

Open APIs and integrations with serious back-office systems (ERP, PIM, CRM)

Multi-storefront and B2B features available from relatively low pricing tiers

Key signals:

BigCommerce is a Challenger in Gartner's 2025 Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce. Challenger isn't a bad thing. It means BigCommerce executes well but operates in a more focused niche than Shopify's broad market.

Around 130,000 merchants and roughly 40,000 live storefronts as of 2025. That's still a healthy number, but it's 35x smaller than Shopify's merchant base.

A marketplace of around 1,000 to 1,300 apps, much smaller than Shopify's, but with more features built into the core platform.

BigCommerce App Marketplace: Smaller But Curated

While BigCommerce's app marketplace is significantly smaller than Shopify's, it compensates with more capabilities built directly into the core platform. This means fewer apps to manage but potentially more upfront configuration complexity.

The BigCommerce model: Configure powerful built-in features like flexible promotions, customer groups, price lists, and multi-currency. Integrate with external systems through APIs. Use fewer apps, but rely more on implementation partners for complex setups.

This makes BigCommerce attractive to teams that think in terms of "systems" rather than "apps." If you're the kind of operator who wants to understand exactly how discounts stack, how price lists cascade, and how customer groups inherit rules, BigCommerce's admin will feel like home. If you just want to install an app and move on, it might feel overwhelming.

BigCommerce vs Shopify Pricing (2025)

This is where things get interesting. Surface-level plan prices look similar, but the total cost of ownership diverges significantly based on how you actually use each platform. For a deep dive into Shopify's specific costs, see our guide on how much it costs to sell on Shopify.

Both platforms advertise similar starting prices, but the real differences emerge when you factor in transaction fees, revenue caps, and app costs.

Plan pricing in 2025 (USD)

Below are typical monthly prices when billed monthly, based on 2025 comparison tables. Exact pricing can vary slightly by country and discounts.

Plan Level	Shopify	BigCommerce
Entry	$5/month (Starter)	$39/month (Standard)
Basic	29 annual)	29 annual)
Mid-tier	79 annual)	79 annual)
Advanced	299 annual)	299 annual)
Enterprise	~$2,300/month (Plus)	Custom (Enterprise)

At the surface level, the "shelf prices" look very similar.

The real differences show up in:

Transaction and payment fees

Revenue thresholds and forced plan upgrades

App costs and implementation costs

Transaction and payment fees

There are two layers you need to separate in your head:

Card processing fee: What Visa/Mastercard/Rails and your payment provider take for moving money. This is unavoidable no matter which platform you use.

Platform transaction fee: What Shopify or BigCommerce takes on top of card processing for using a third-party gateway.

BigCommerce's story is simple

BigCommerce charges 0% platform transaction fees on all plans. You only pay the card processor (PayPal Braintree or another gateway).

Shopify's story depends on whether you use Shopify Payments

If you use Shopify Payments:

You pay a card fee, typically in the 2.4% to 2.9% plus 30¢ per online transaction range in the United States, depending on plan

You do not pay additional platform transaction fees

If you use a third-party gateway (Stripe, PayPal, etc.):

You pay the gateway's card fee

Plus a platform fee to Shopify:

Starter: roughly 5%
Basic: 2%
Grow: 1%
Advanced: about 0.5%
Plus: 0%

What this means in practice

Say your store does $300,000 per year in online sales and you insist on using a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments.

Extra platform fee paid to Shopify on that gateway:

Basic plan at 2%: $6,000 per year

Grow plan at 1%: $3,000 per year

Advanced plan at 0.5%: $1,500 per year

BigCommerce platform fee on the same volume: $0.

That's before apps, before card processing, before anything else. This is why you'll see BigCommerce marketing hammering the "no transaction fees" angle, especially against Shopify.

On the flip side, Shopify will argue that if you're happy to use Shopify Payments (and many merchants are) then you pay no platform fee, get solid card rates, and unlock Shop Pay's higher checkout conversion. Shopify's own comparison material claims a 12% higher checkout conversion rate for Shop Pay relative to other checkouts, though this is Shopify-supplied data rather than independent research. For more details, check out our article on how much does Shopify take per sale.

Revenue thresholds and forced upgrades (BigCommerce)

BigCommerce introduces revenue caps per plan. As of 2025:

Plan	Revenue Cap
Standard	Up to $50,000/year in online sales
Plus	Up to $180,000/year
Pro	Up to 150/month per additional $200k
Enterprise	Custom, for seven-figure+ revenue

If you cross the cap for your current plan, BigCommerce will automatically push you to a higher tier. You don't get a choice.

Shopify does not have revenue caps on standard plans. You can run $1 million through Shopify Basic if you want. The platform doesn't force you to upgrade based on sales volume, although transaction fees and operational limits usually nudge you upward before that.

App and implementation costs

This is where total cost of ownership starts to diverge in ways that aren't obvious from pricing pages.

Independent comparisons in 2025 often argue that Shopify offers better overall TCO when you factor in implementation and maintenance, even if app costs stack up, while BigCommerce shines when you use its built-in capabilities deeply and keep apps to a minimum.

Key facts:

Shopify's app network is huge: roughly 15,000 apps as of December 2025, up about 43% year over year.

BigCommerce's app marketplace is much smaller, around 1,000 to 1,300 apps.

The pattern:

On Shopify you often start cheaper and grow into more app spend as you add reviews, subscriptions, upsells, bundles, loyalty, and so on. A typical store can easily spend 200 per month on apps, sometimes more.

On BigCommerce you pay more in base subscription sooner (because of revenue caps) but potentially spend less on apps if you lean into built-in promotions, B2B features, and multi-storefront.

Which Is Easier to Use: Shopify or BigCommerce?

Both platforms let you start a free trial, pick a theme, add products, connect a domain, and go live without writing code. But they feel different.

Shopify's Homepage and Brand Experience:

BigCommerce's Homepage and Brand Experience:

These homepage experiences reflect each platform's core philosophy—Shopify optimizes for speed and simplicity, while BigCommerce emphasizes power and configuration.

Setup experience

Shopify:

Strong focus on non-technical merchants. The themes and Online Store editor are very visual. You can drag sections around and see changes instantly.

The new AI Store Builder lets you type a few keywords and get three complete store layouts generated for you, including copy and images.

Shopify Magic writes product descriptions, emails, and basic SEO text inside the admin. It's not perfect, but it's surprisingly useful for bulk tasks.

BigCommerce:

Setup is straightforward but feels more like enterprise software. The theme editor is less flexible and a bit more intimidating for non-technical users.

You get more options in the admin for promotions, customer groups, and catalogs, which is powerful but adds cognitive load. If you're not familiar with ecommerce terminology (what's a "price list" vs a "customer group" vs a "discount rule"?), you'll spend more time Googling.

If your internal champion is a marketer who thinks in campaigns instead of schemas, Shopify will probably feel friendlier on day one.

Running the store week to week

Shopify's admin leans on clean UX, inline help, and automation tools like Shopify Flow and built-in reports.

BigCommerce's admin leans on more granular control inside the core product: complex discounts, customer segmentation, and catalog logic that you would often outsource to apps on Shopify.

Shopify vs BigCommerce Features Comparison

Built-in features where BigCommerce wins

On a pure feature checklist, BigCommerce often looks more generous out of the box, especially on mid-tier plans. For example:

Advanced promotions with more than 70 discount conditions built in

Customer groups/segmentation on Plus and above

Persistent carts and stored credit cards

Built-in product ratings and reviews

Multi-storefront support on all plans, with paid add-on storefronts even outside Enterprise

Strong native multi-currency and tax handling

Headless ready with open APIs and unlimited API calls on Enterprise

On Shopify, you can achieve most of this with apps plus some native features, but it's more "compose your own stack" than "all in the box."

Built-in features where Shopify wins

Shopify leans hard into:

Checkout experience: Shop Pay, accelerated wallets, and a battle-tested checkout that has handled Black Friday/Cyber Monday peaks of more than $4 million per minute.

A unified platform across online store, POS, and Shop app. If you sell in-person and online, Shopify's inventory sync and customer profiles work across channels seamlessly.

AI tools for content and design as part of Shopify Magic and Editions 2025.

Massive sales channel coverage: Amazon, Walmart, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google, and more from within the admin.

The invisible feature: talent availability

Many retailers also care about talent availability. It's much easier to hire freelancers, agencies, and employees with prior Shopify experience than with BigCommerce, simply because Shopify has millions more stores and partners.

If you need to hire someone to fix a theme bug or set up a new sales channel, you'll find 10 Shopify specialists for every 1 BigCommerce specialist. That's not a knock on BigCommerce. It's just the reality of size.

B2B Ecommerce: BigCommerce vs Shopify

This is the area where BigCommerce most often beats Shopify for the right customer profile.

BigCommerce for B2B and multi-storefront

BigCommerce B2B Edition layers B2B features on top of the core platform. Highlights as of late 2025:

Company account structures with multiple buyers

Custom catalogs and price lists per account

Quote management and request-for-quote flows

Shared address books, invoice portals, and credit limits

Native integration with ShipperHQ for complex B2B shipping rules

Multi-storefront that lets you run multiple brands, geographies, or customer segments from one backend

Independent reviews point out that B2B Edition is powerful but still feels like B2B added on top of a DTC engine rather than a completely separate B2B-native platform. For many mid-market brands, though, it's more than enough.

Shopify for B2B and multi-storefront

Shopify's B2B story is split:

On standard plans (Starter through Advanced):

You can hack together B2B with apps and price rules, but it gets messy. You'll end up with separate customer tags, discount codes, and possibly a second storefront built in a separate Shopify account. Not ideal.

On Shopify Plus:

You get a dedicated B2B feature set built into the admin: company profiles, customer-specific catalogs and pricing, payment terms, and wholesale buying flows from the same storefront that serves DTC. To learn more about the differences between standard Shopify and Plus, see our Shopify vs Shopify Plus comparison.

Multi-storefront:

Shopify Plus can run multiple stores and markets, but traditionally is more "multi-store" than "multi-storefront from a single instance." Architectures are flexible, though, and newer releases keep closing that gap.

First principles takeaway

If you are B2B-first and know you need contract pricing, quotes, and multi-storefront in the next 12 to 24 months, BigCommerce jumps up your shortlist.

If you are DTC-first and might add B2B later, Shopify gives you a smoother path from zero to "serious brand," with the option to graduate to Plus when B2B becomes a major revenue stream.

Now we get to the part that matters a lot if you live on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube and care about your link in bio.

Placeholder: Instagram Link in Bio ExampleURL: Instagram profile showing single link constraintLocation: Social Commerce sectionInstructions: Manual screenshot needed—Instagram requires login for profile viewing. Capture a popular creator/brand profile (iPhone 15 Pro viewport) showing the single "link in bio" that LinkShop helps merchants optimize. See clients/LinkShop/blogs/bigcommerce-vs-shopify/web-screenshots/captures/SC-08.md for detailed instructions.

Placeholder: TikTok Link in Bio ExampleURL: TikTok profile showing single link constraintLocation: Social Commerce sectionInstructions: Manual screenshot needed—TikTok requires login for profile viewing. Capture a popular creator/brand profile (iPhone 15 Pro viewport) showing the single "website" or "link" that social merchants must optimize. See clients/LinkShop/blogs/bigcommerce-vs-shopify/web-screenshots/captures/SC-09.md for detailed instructions.

What both platforms provide

Both Shopify and BigCommerce integrate with:

Facebook and Instagram Shops

TikTok for catalog sync and ads

Other social sales channels via apps and partners

So at a basic level, you can sync products to social catalogs, run dynamic product ads, and add "View shop" or product tags on posts.

There are a few structural reasons Shopify tends to be the home base for social-driven brands and creators:

1. Depth

TikTok, Instagram, and influencer tools almost always build a Shopify integration first. There are thousands of apps and services targeting Shopify merchants who sell mostly through social and content.

2. Creator-friendly starter plan

Shopify Starter at $5/month lets creators sell with simple product pages and links, without building a full store. This is perfect for Instagram-first creators who don't need a full ecommerce site yet.

3. AI and automation for content

Shopify Magic and the AI Store Builder make it easier to ship new product pages, landing pages, and experiments even if you're a solo operator.

4. Link-in-bio and social storefront tooling

Shopify has native social selling features, plus third-party apps like LinkShop that turn your link in bio into a true mini-storefront running on Shopify's checkout.

BigCommerce has decent social integrations and there are apps that pull in feeds and connect to TikTok and Instagram, but the density and variety of social-first tooling simply isn't comparable to Shopify's world.

This is exactly the environment LinkShop is built for: turning that single link in your bio into a Shopify-native mobile storefront where visitors can browse, add to cart, and check out without bouncing through three different sites.

Instead of Instagram → Generic link list → Homepage → Product → Cart → Checkout, you get Instagram → LinkShop → Checkout. Fewer steps, higher conversion. Learn more about how to sell on Instagram with Shopify.

SEO and Headless: Shopify vs BigCommerce

From a first principles standpoint, both platforms need to load pages fast, allow good URL structures and meta tags, and support modern frontends if you go headless.

SEO and performance

Recent independent reviews of both platforms find:

Both can deliver fast, SEO-friendly stores with good themes and proper optimization.

BigCommerce's core platform includes strong SEO features and is praised for its technical robustness, especially when paired with good hosting and CDN.

Shopify's performance depends heavily on theme choice and app discipline. Shopify's own updates in 2024-2025 have focused on performance improvements and more efficient theme architecture.

You can rank and scale on either. Your content, technical execution, and link profile matter far more than the logo in your admin bar.

Headless and composable

Headless commerce means the backend handles products, pricing, and checkout while the frontend is a custom application (React, Vue, native app, etc.) that talks to the backend via APIs.

Both Shopify Plus and BigCommerce Enterprise support headless architectures:

BigCommerce has positioned itself as an API-first, "open SaaS" platform with strong headless support and unlimited API calls on Enterprise.

Shopify Plus offers Hydrogen, Storefront API, and a large network of headless agencies. It's excellent for "headless-lite" and high performing DTC frontends, but still keeps some backend constraints that very complex enterprises sometimes bump into.

If headless is already a hard requirement, you probably have an agency guiding you. In that case, the decision comes down to which platform your implementation partner has deeper experience with, where your stack will plug into ERP/PIM/CDP/CRM systems, and licensing/SLA negotiations.

For most merchants reading this guide, headless is a future option, not a day-one decision maker.

Network Effects and Market Position

When you choose a platform, you're not just buying software. You're buying into a world.

Scale and gravity

Some 2025 stats:

Shopify has about 5.54 million active stores, with the United States alone hosting more than 2.6 million.

BigCommerce powers a little over 130,000 merchants and around 40,000 live storefronts.

Shopify has roughly 15,000+ apps; BigCommerce has around 1,000 to 1,300 apps.

Data from late 2025 shows thousands of merchants switching to Shopify from other platforms in a 90-day window, including a few hundred from BigCommerce.

This has second-order consequences:

More tutorials, courses, meetups, agencies, and job applicants on Shopify

Faster app innovation where there are more merchants to sell to

More resilience for a merchant network if one specific vendor or app disappears

Reliability and outages

Both platforms experience occasional outages. Shopify's Cyber Monday 2025 outage was a painful reminder that even giant SaaS platforms can have bad days. Merchants lost access to admin, POS, and some APIs for several hours on one of the most important sales days of the year, although storefronts largely kept taking orders.

BigCommerce has not had a similarly high-profile outage in 2025, but no SaaS platform is immune. It's more realistic to plan around mitigation: keep redundant reporting paths, use email and SMS to communicate during incidents, and plan campaigns with some margin for platform issues.

Strategic direction

Recent moves suggest:

Shopify is doubling down on AI (Shopify Magic, AI Store Builder), global commerce, and deeper first-party tools for tariffs, duties, and logistics.

BigCommerce is doubling down on enterprise, B2B, multi-storefront, and headless flexibility.

If those directions align with how your own business will grow, that's a strong signal.

Real Scenarios: Which Platform Should You Choose?

Getting concrete. Imagine yourself in one of these.

Scenario 1: Creator or micro-brand, under $20k/month

You're heavy on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. Maybe digital products, maybe physical, maybe both. Limited budget, no full-time developer.

Pick: Shopify, usually Starter or Basic.

Why:

You can be selling this week without hiring anyone. Starter at $5/month is enough to sell via social links if you don't need a full theme yet.

You get direct integrations with social platforms and an app network built around creator-driven commerce.

LinkShop can turn your TikTok link in bio or Instagram link in bio into a shoppable Shopify storefront so your social traffic lands on a tailored mobile page that goes straight to checkout rather than a generic homepage. Check out our link in bio examples for inspiration.

If your entire acquisition strategy is "post content, link in bio, swipe ups," Shopify is built for you.

Scenario 2: Growing DTC brand, 300k/month

You have a 3 to 10 person team, usually a marketer plus founder driving the site. Mix of paid social, email, and maybe wholesale or small B2B. You want to iterate promos, bundles, and landing pages fast.

Default pick: Shopify Grow or Advanced, unless you're very B2B heavy.

Why:

You get a mature, flexible checkout and a massive network of apps for reviews, subscriptions, funnels, and analytics.

Your marketing team can own most changes without devs, especially with AI Store Builder and Shopify Magic.

Upgrading from Grow to Advanced is one click; no revenue caps.

BigCommerce is worth a serious look here only if:

You already know you want its B2B features soon

You feel strongly about 0% platform fees with a third-party gateway and are willing to accept sales caps and a more complex admin in exchange

Scenario 3: Complex B2B or multi-brand company

Several brands or regions. B2B contracts, price lists, quote workflows. Existing ERP, PIM, and CRM stack. Internal IT or a strong agency partner.

You should evaluate both seriously.

BigCommerce advantages:

B2B Edition with robust account structures, pricing, and quoting out of the box.

Multi-storefront for multiple brands or regions within one BigCommerce instance.

Open SaaS approach and strong API capabilities at Enterprise level.

Shopify Plus advantages:

Industry leading DTC experience plus integrated B2B features within the same admin and storefront.

Very strong partner network and agencies that specialize in complex Plus builds.

How LinkShop Works With Shopify

LinkShop Homepage: Turning Your Link in Bio Into a Shopify Storefront

LinkShop is a Shopify-native app that turns the single link in your social bio into a shoppable storefront that:

Lives on your own Shopify domain

Pulls products and inventory directly from your store

Lets customers browse, add to cart, and check out without leaving the "link in bio" experience

Some specific ways it helps if you pick Shopify

1. Fixing the "traffic leak" between social and store

Instead of Instagram → Generic directory → Homepage → Product → Cart → Checkout, you can send people to a focused, branded, mobile-first storefront that's built for fast purchase.

2. Starter and Basic merchants get a real storefront without custom theme work

This is especially powerful for merchants using Shopify Starter plus digital downloads. You don't need a full Online Store theme if LinkShop is your primary customer-facing page.

3. Your marketing team can treat the link-in-bio page as a campaign surface

Swap out hero products, pin bundles, add UGC blocks, or run seasonal collections without touching your main theme. Update your bio link page in minutes, not hours.

In that case, this guide should still help you decide whether it's worth moving to Shopify's world just to unlock more social-commerce tooling like LinkShop, or whether BigCommerce's strengths match your business better.

You can explore the app and demo at LinkShop.

LinkShop on the Shopify App Store:

LinkShop has earned the "Built for Shopify" certification, which requires meeting strict performance, UX, and integration standards. The 5.0/5 rating from merchants reflects the quality of the experience.

For background on Shopify itself, these resources pair nicely with this article:

What Is Shopify and How Does It Work?

Best Shopify Apps to Improve Sales and Growth (2025)

How to Promote Your Shopify Store

How to Increase Sales on Shopify

Common Questions About BigCommerce vs Shopify

Which is cheaper, BigCommerce or Shopify?

It depends on your sales volume, whether you use Shopify Payments, how many apps you need, and how soon you cross BigCommerce's revenue caps.

Rough patterns:

If you plan to use a third-party gateway and quickly grow beyond six figures, BigCommerce's 0% platform fee can save you thousands per year in transaction fees.

If you're happy to use Shopify Payments, then platform fees disappear and TCO is driven by subscription plus app costs. In exchange, you get Shop Pay, AI tools, and a massive network.

There's no universal winner. You have to model your actual scenario. For detailed breakdowns, see our guides on how much does it cost to sell on Shopify and how much does Shopify take per sale.

Which has better SEO?

Neither platform guarantees rankings. With solid themes, clean URLs, good content, and competent technical setup, both can rank extremely well. Independent reviews praise BigCommerce for strong built-in SEO features and Shopify for a good baseline plus a rich SEO app network.

Which is better for B2B?

For heavy B2B with complex contracts and catalog logic, BigCommerce B2B Edition is extremely strong, especially when combined with multi-storefront.

For DTC-first brands adding B2B on top, Shopify Plus gives you a unified DTC/B2B experience under one roof. Learn more in our Shopify vs Shopify Plus comparison.

Shopify, almost always, because:

Network density around social and creator tools

Starter plan at $5/month

Shop Pay checkout

Shopify-native link-in-bio tools like LinkShop

BigCommerce is perfectly capable of selling products to traffic that comes from social. It just doesn't have the same gravity around social-first brands.

How to Make Your Final Decision

If you want a practical decision process, do this:

1. Write down your next 24 months of must-haves.

B2B? Multi-storefront? International? Social heavy? Marketplaces?

2. List the systems you already have or plan to have.

ERP, PIM, CRM, WMS, CDP, email, subscriptions

3. Decide whether you're a "configure the core" or "build with apps" team.

If you like deep configuration of one main system, BigCommerce fits that mindset.

If you like assembling best-of-breed tools, Shopify is your playground.

4. Run basic TCO scenarios.

Take your expected GMV and do platform fee math for each platform. Add realistic app and implementation costs.

5. Talk to two agencies or implementation partners, one from each side.

Ask them to walk through one or two of your flows (for example, "B2B customer with tiered pricing ordering from mobile"). Listen to how they think more than what they say.

At the end of that process, you'll usually feel a very clear pull toward one platform.

Important Notes About This Comparison

All pricing, feature descriptions, and statistics in this article are based on sources from 2024 and 2025, with a particular focus on content updated in mid to late 2025. Platform pricing, features, and fee structures do change, sometimes quietly.

Before you sign a contract:

Confirm plan pricing and limits on the official Shopify and BigCommerce pricing pages

Confirm card processing fees and platform transaction fees with your payment provider and the platform docs

For enterprise or B2B situations, get written quotes and SLAs from both vendors

If you decide Shopify is the right move and social is a big part of your funnel, LinkShop can help you turn that one precious link in your bio into a real storefront.

If you decide BigCommerce is a better fit, that's still a win if you made the choice deliberately. The worst outcome isn't picking the "wrong" platform. It's picking any platform without understanding how its incentives and design will shape your business in three years.

For more platform comparisons and ecommerce insights, explore our other guides:

Shopify vs Etsy

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