Probably the most brewed misconception about Magento, Shopify and BigCommerce is that these three platforms are very similar. The truth is that even though all three of them serve the same purpose, they are quite different in almost every aspect. This includes their core structure, payment options, the way they handle extensions, and many other functionalities and capabilities.

Magento is an open-source eCommerce platform based on PHP. It is equipped with many unique features, having a huge number of extensions and even customization is possible as needed. It is a platform designed for complex stores and is used by top brands like Samsung, Nike, Coca-Cola, and many more.

BigCommerce was founded in 2009 and supports small, medium, and enterprise brands with cloud-based websites and product management services. BigCommerce is a popular eCommerce solution that provides power to more than 60,000+ merchants and has served over 150+ countries. BigCommerce is ideal for businesses looking to grow fast. It has a huge range of features including standard and scalable pricing plans for online stores of most sizes and experiences.

This article will walk you through the differences between the two platforms in terms of their ease of use, design flexibility, security, and price among others, so you can find the right one for you.

BigCommerce Vs Magento – A Quick Comparison

BigCommerce Pros Magento Pros
·         Rich Built-in features

·         High loading speed

·         Ease of use

·         High customizability

·         Lots of solid SEO features

 

 ·         Fully customizable

·         Feature-rich

·         Scalable
BigCommerce Cons Magento Cons
·         Extra fees for high-volume store

·         Difficult for beginners to use

·         Not easy to create Multi-lingual stores

 

 ·         Complex to develop

·         Time-consuming to customize

·         Expensive

Taking a Closer Look at BigCommerce and Magento

1. Ease of use

BigCommerce store setup is much easier than that of Magento. No knowledge of programming is required; you only have to follow on-screen step-by-step instructions and drag & drop the components of your future website.
Building an ecommerce store on Magento requires the technical expertise of the platform and profound knowledge in HTML, CSS, PHP, Java, and JavaScript programming languages.

2. Hosting

BigCommerce is a hosted platform running on Google Cloud, so you don’t need to worry about seeking the right BigCommerce hosting provider. It goes similarly with downtime because BigCommerce has an average uptime of more than 99.99%. With BigCommerce hosting, you get faster page load time and spend less time maintaining your website.

Magento can be hosted on-site, in the cloud, or through a third party. With Magento Commerce Cloud, your website is fully hosted and run by Magento. If you choose Magento Open Source, you will have to purchase your domain and hosting.

3. Maintenance

Magento sellers are responsible for all infrastructure and administration set up of their platform. After licensing the software, sellers choose their Magento hosting providers. They are also responsible for fixing any bugs in the software or upgrading their software, when needed. If your site goes down, you must fix the problem yourself since you manage the hosting.

BigCommerce takes care of hosting for you. They also update your software automatically after new releases. BigCommerce also advertises 99.99% server uptime. If there are any problems, their team fixes the issue. They offer SLA’s to ensure trust with their merchants.

4. Pricing

Magento provides three editions: Magento Community, Magento Enterprise, and Magento Enterprise Cloud. There are no license fees associated with Magento Commerce and Magento Commerce Cloud. But, both Magento Enterprise Edition and Magento Commerce Edition require a hosting fee that might range from $4 to $1,000.

BigCommerce offers 4 pricing plans, BigCommerce Standard, Plus, Pro and Enterprise ranging from $29 to $299. And, it even offers a 10% additional discount on paying annually. There are several packages available with varied features that help to run your online store effectively. The Enterprise plan is the most advanced plan and has custom pricing. In such plans, support is provided by the experts and is best suited for complex stores that are growing fast.

5. Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is important because it gets your store found on Google. Fortunately, you have the native SEO tools in both BigCommerce and Magento to rank high on Google.

6. Scalability

Magento is the most scalable platform, making it one of the ideal solutions for large-scale online stores. It allows smooth scale-up of catalogues and products in stores with a great inventory management system.
However, if you decide to scale up with BigCommerce, you will need to move to higher plans.

7. Support

BigCommerce supports 24/7 through phone and live chat, email, and help centre for all plans. Also, when you sign up for a free trial, you get an email offering an appointment for a 10-minute call to discuss your business and how BigCommerce can help you succeed. Especially with enterprise plans, you’ll get priority support.

Magento doesn’t provide a variety of support types like BigCommerce. If using Magento Open Source, you can only find answers from other experienced users and developers on Magento Forums. When you sign up for Magento Commerce and Magento Cloud Edition, you’ll get more support through live chat and email.

8. Multi-Channel Integration

Multichannel Selling tactic is a marketing strategy in which retailers can interact with potential buyers via several important social media and Marketplaces. Both BigCommerce vs Magento is offering the ability to sell products on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, eBay, Amazon, etc by default. While these sales channels are available in the BigCommerce platform, Magento requires a multi-channel selling tool to integrate with marketplaces.

In Conclusion

Everyone has different criteria with which they judge their needs or wants. For some businesses, cost is the final deciding factor, for others it was the built-in omni-channel, and yet for others, 24/7 tech support is a big issue.

BigCommerce comes with lower monthly costs and easy installation. You can have your online store up and running in a couple of hours. However this ecommerce platforms lack freedom of customization. Hence, you may need to move to a self-hosted ecommerce platform once your store starts to get traction.

Magento might still be a significant investment, even though it doesn’t offer a monthly subscription model. More importantly, it offers incredibly powerful features and complete freedom of customization as well as the scalability needed to grow your online store in the future.

When choosing between BigCommerce vs Magento, we strongly recommend finding an agency partner to help your eCommerce business grow. Contact Agilis World Inc. to become your perfect partner today!