There are many things to consider when starting an e-commerce store.
First of all, I should point out that there are two types of e-commerce platforms:
- Hosted
- Self-hosted
Hosted means the e-commerce platform provider is hosting your store for you.
Self-hosted means the platform will allow you to use their software, but you’ll have to buy your own hosting separately, somewhere else.
The BigCommerce vs. WooCommerce debate is one I hear a lot from new entrepreneurs starting e-commerce stores.
They don’t know which one to choose.
In this article, I’ll address that.
The one you choose will depend on your needs and preferences.
Firstly, let’s talk about BigCommerce.
BigCommerce
Bigcommerce is an all-in-one, fully hosted e-commerce solution that comes with a robust set of tools for managing your online store. It falls into the hosted category.
It is similar to other hosted e-commerce solutions like Shopify and Squarespace.
They claim their hosting has over 99.99% uptime.
The software lets you customize your site, manage shipping and payments, and list your products on Amazon, all without leaving BigCommerce.
BigCommerce provides you with everything you need to run your store.
WooCommerce
Now, let me introduce you to WooCommerce, and explain why it’s so different to BigCommerce.
WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress. That means WordPress has to be the content management system (CMS) of your site before you can use it.
Note that we’re talking about WordPress.org, not WordPress.com.
As you may already know, WordPress.org is a widely used content management system in the world.
It’s no wonder, according to BuiltWith, WooCommerce powers 11% of the world’s e-commerce shops, while BigCommerce only powers 1%.
WooCommerce popularity doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better than BigCommerce.
You’ll conclude that after reading this article.
The fact is that you can’t use WooCommerce if your website itself is not built with WordPress. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress.
That means you’ll have to be a WordPress user to be able to use WooCommerce. But you don’t need WordPress to use BigCommerce.
Anyone can use BigCommerce with ease and enjoy high profits.
According to research by Ipsos, BigCommerce merchants grow 28% year over year, nearly 2x the industry average.
Both e-commerce platforms offer the same functionalities.
For example, J Hornig uses WooCommerce.
And Kelty, online sports, and outdoor retailer uses BigCommerce.
As you can see above, there’s really no big difference in the way that both look and function.
So, why do entrepreneurs find it difficult to choose between these two?
Let’s find out.
Hosting
With BigCommerce, your e-commerce hosting is handled for you.
BigCommerce makes a big promise that they deliver an unmatched experience with 99.99% uptime.
Your site address automatically has “https:” in front of it, which tells web users that your site is safe to use.
You don’t have to run your website. BigCommerce does that for you.
Your time can then be spent in marketing and sales, instead of worrying about your e-commerce store.
But with WooCommerce, your site has to be in WordPress before you can use their platform. Then, you’ll need to host your WordPress site somewhere before you can install WooCommerce.
Finding the perfect hosting company and plan for you can be a very long and boring task.
BigCommerce wins in this case because you don’t have to worry about hosting.
Speed
Speed is an important aspect when selling online.
If your e-commerce store doesn’t open within the first 2 – 4 seconds, you start losing potential customers.
Web users hate slow sites, and your store isn’t an exception.
Using WooCommerce means you’ll have to find a perfect web hosting company for your store. Speed is the most critical thing to worry about when choosing a web host.
Usually, you get what you pay for. So, you should stay away from cheap web hosting companies.
But with BigCommerce, you don’t have to worry about speed because they take care of that for you.
BigCommerce boasts that sites that use their platform are very fast, and their customer support service is always available during major events like the Holidays to help you handle your tech needs.
They also have a fast content delivery network (CDN) that delivers your content to potential customers no matter where they are around the world.
Security
Security is a big issue for me when selling online.
Your e-commerce store should be safe and secured 24/7.
BigCommerce handles the security aspect of their service. They offer DDOS protection that prevents attacks against your site.
They offer multi-layered security to prevent unauthorized access to your account.
BigCommerce also offers HTTPs across your entire site. That lets shoppers know that your online store is secure from the first page they visit through checkout.
Although, these are things that can be well-handled by a professional web hosting company when you’re using WooCommerce.
Setting-up HTTPs these days is super easy with WordPress.
Some web hosts allow you to use Let’s Encrypt, a service that offers free SSL/TLS certificates that makes your site displays HTTPs.
Security is very important when shopping online.
Before I start giving you my personal and payment details, I want to ensure that your site is safe to browse.
No service is perfect when it comes to security online.
Because of the complexity of setting up a WordPress site that uses WooCommerce, and the different plugins and services you use, I’ll say WooCommerce beats BigCommerce when it comes to security.
If you’re using BigCommerce, one big hack into their database will expose your customers’ details to scammers and spammers.
Development Cons and Pros
Building a WordPress site that uses WooCommerce takes a lot of time and money.
You want to ensure that you have the best theme that doesn’t look like any of your competitors.
There are also other plugins and services you may need for your e-commerce store.
You may need an expert that understands WordPress and WooComerce.
But with BigCommerce, you don’t spend a lot of time and money developing your e-commerce store.
This is something you can do all by yourself in the BigCommerce dashboard.
You can access WooCommerce in your WordPress dashboard.
Using WooCommerce is more expensive, but it gives you more freedom to customize your store development however you like it.
Content
BigCommerce is built specifically for e-commerce. It lacks many of the content options you’ll get from WooCommerce when using WordPress.
BigCommerce tool lets you create and edit categories, collections, pages, product pages, and your homepage.
They have some sort of blogging tool, but it only works well for news and product updates.
If you want to focus on content beyond product promotion and sales, you can’t achieve that with BigCommerce because it’s not built for that.
If you want to tap into the power of content marketing to sell your products, I recommend you use WordPress.
You can create and publish anything with WordPress.
WooCommerce is clearly the winner when it comes to content marketing.
SEO
BigCommerce takes care of everything related to SEO. They have technical and advanced tools that deal with Schema, Sitemaps, and SSL.
With WordPress and Woocommerce, you can work with anything you want.
There’s plugin for everything (free and paid).
For example – you can use Yoast SEO plugin, the Redirection Plugin, or any of the other plugins.
You can set the keyword for every page on your site using Yoast SEO if you’re a WordPress user.
When it comes to SEO, choosing WooCommerce and WordPress is the best combination.
Tools
No doubt, WordPress gives you more tools than BigCommerce.
WordPress is a big community of web developers joining together to build great tools and options that power WordPress sites.
But, most times, this can also be a curse for many e-commerce store owners.
I’ve seen entrepreneurs playing with these WordPress tools most of the day instead of getting those sales.
With BigCommerce, it’s simple. You don’t have many tools to play with.
If you’re an advanced web user and like to have the freedom to play with many valuable tools, I’ll advise that you use WooCommerce.
WooCommerce is just one of those tools WordPress users take advantage of to sell online.
In this regard, BigCommerce is the clear winner for newcomers who are just getting used to the web.
Advanced web users should choose WordPress and WooCommerce.
Protecting the future of your business
Any sensible entrepreneur wants to protect the future of their business.
By using BigCommerce, you’ll be at risk of putting all your eggs in one basket.
Anything could happen to BigCommerce tomorrow. The future of your business shouldn’t depend on one e-commerce platform.
Using WooCommerce helps you leverage WordPress, which has a big community built around it.
If you really want to be in business for a very long time without worrying about migrating between services, you should choose WooCommerce.
What is the best option?
WooCommerce + WordPress is my favorite.
But if you’re hell-bent on using BigCommerce, I strongly advise you use it for your e-commerce store and use WordPress for the blog.
That helps you kick-start your content marketing campaign, which will help you gain more visitors to your site.
Whatever the platform you choose for your e-commerce business, you need GrowthFunnel to help you grow your business even faster.
GrowthFunnel will help you turn visitors into leads and customers.
I’m more of a WordPress guy and prefer to use it for my every project. I’ve used Woocommerce and it worked flawless and was customizable af.
Thanks for comparing it with BigCommerce, now I have more options for my next project, lol.
Regards.
Shafi Khan