Bigcommerce vs. Magento 2: Which one is best for my online start-up Business?

BigCommerce and Magento 2 are both major E-commerce platforms, where one is a SaaS, and the other is an open-source service. Both the platforms, Bigcommerce vs. Magento 2, have their own personal uses, specifications, and plans that will be discussed in detail as you move forward.

BigCommerce:

BigCommerce is an eCommerce platform that works as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). It is specially built for developing a web-based store online. It was founded in 2009 and is known to support all kinds of businesses: small, medium, and enterprise brands. Bigcommerce Development Company offers a cloud-based website solution to the businesses, along with multiple other offerings, such as product management, B2C and B2B functionality, omni-channel functionality, and much more.

What makes it one of the best online solutions is the fact that BigCommerce integrates well with popular apps; it accepts payments from a wide range of channels and gateways and coordinates all sorts of shipping and fulfillment operations.

BigCommerce accommodates B2C by letting already existing tangible stores develop an online platform for selling and purchase, or even new and solely online businesses to establish.

It also works for B2B companies in helping the merchants gain a specific competitive edge over their competitors with tools like easy B2B payment solutions, ERP and PIM integration, gaining and dealing with customer groups, and other such operations. It conducts this in the following ways:

• ERP and PIM:

BigCommerce integrates easily with different applications used in the business development process, like different marketing techniques, multiple automation tools, OMS solutions, PIM software, and even ERP suites.

• Customer Groups:

Bigcommerce web design company helps in the easy segmentation of the business’s customers, which is generally based on the nature of the business and its relationship with the customer pool. This helps the business in setting catalogs for customized products and has custom pricing options for its premium customers.

• B2B Payments:

BigCommerce has multiple payment options that are highly flexible and already built-in and can help with order purchases, different kinds of transactions, multiple currency options, credit, and debit card facilities and acceptance of payments from different gateways.

BigCommerce has a lot to offer to its users and has many advantages that make it one of the top eCommerce platforms, but it also has some drawbacks, which were gaged from BigCommerce Reviews and are presented below:

BigCommerce Advantages:

• Lower Cost:

BigCommerce has everything that is really needed already built-in the system, so that reduces a lot of technical and server costs that are present in other platforms. It is a known fact that SaaS eCommerce costs about 75% less than on-premise platforms, which makes BigCommerce a lot less costly than many others.

Moreover, BigCommerce also has multiple cost plans available for its users, making it easier to choose which category fits your budget, and sign up for that specific plan. You can also make a personal cost comparison and find out for yourself by using the BigCommerce cost comparison tool itself.

• Ease of Use:

In comparison to Magento, building a store on BigCommerce is significantly easier, and no prior experience or technical knowledge is required in this case. Additionally, the themes and typefaces present in BigCommerce are fairly simple and quickly decided by the users, not spending much time using and easily gets a website started in a day’s time.

Thus confirming that the back-end user experience is very quick and intuitive, and with the help of BigCommerce’s ever available online and technical support, businesses can easily maintain their websites pre and post the launch period with their minimal knowledge, too.

• Website Functionalities:

The good thing about Bigcommerce App Development is that it reduces costs of extensions and configurations as well, because most of it already in-built, and what is left out, does not cost much extra, leaving the business in safe and functionally effective hands.

Alternatively, users of the Magento platform need special extensions, and a license for the enhancement of their website, which can cost a lot of overtime.

• Powerful Engine:

BigCommerce has an engine, Stencil, that themes it, and provides quite a lot of flexibility to the platform. It gives customization offers to the users and is significantly powerful.

The choice is also made easier because pre-determined themes are already available to choose from, and the fact that the users can edit the functions, feel, and the look of the store gives them an upper hand.

Stencil, itself, has multiple advantages, such as users benefiting from automatic updates, higher mobile responsiveness and faster loading time, leaving no room for wastage of time, making BigCommerce even more successful in this regard.

• App Development:

BigCommerce has an API that encourages app development by any third party, without any issues, which is also the case in Magento, making them no different in this regard. But BigCommerce makes some extra effort to attract its users and gives them more security and stability overall.

This includes BigCommerce vetting apps in its own store, having developers available that can develop any kind of custom app for its users, and reduces the time and effort put in by the users themselves.

As far as app development is concerned, you can also opt for BigCommerce. This is because they can streamline the shop development while optimizing the functionalities and features. In addition, they can help design the online shop while keeping in mind your business niche.

• Security:

BigCommerce has a built-in powerful security system against online fraud and hacking. In addition, it is also PCI compliant and has the ISO/IEC 27001 certificate, rendering it in line with international standards of utmost security.

Since the users do not have to pay extra for this feature, as opposed to many other eCommerce development platforms(such as Woocommerce development company and Salesforce Commerce Cloud), they are attracted to this gold standard of protection that BigCommerce offers, as the customer feel secure about their data with this enhanced security.

• Reduced Time:

BigCommerce websites are developed in a considerably lesser time than other eCommerce platforms especially Magento. Any project on BigCommerce, to be fully functional, takes about 3 – 4 months, whereas, for Magento, time taken could exceed even a year to reach full completion.

Moreover, the fact that BigCommerce is easier to use has most functions and features already built into it, has pre-made theme options available for its users, and has to offer great customer and technical support, making it a quicker option to start an online business.

BigCommerce Disadvantages

• Sales Cap:

BigCommerce does offer multiple pricing options to users, but each one has a certain cap on the online sales conducted per year. If sales in a certain year exceed the cap limit of your business’s pricing plan, BigCommerce prompts you to subscribe to a higher costing plan, which is not always a convenient option for the user.

BigCommerce believes that if the business is conducting more annual sales than the set threshold of the plan, the upgraded plans will help the business by giving them additional functionality options, and leverage, which could help them expand their business and earn more, which is not always the case, either.

• Limited Free Items:

BigCommerce offers only seven pre-made and free themes to its users, which are great as a starting point for the users, but not all businesses want or match the same outlook of their online stores.

This results in businesses having to seek custom Big Commerce designing options, which will have to be paid for either through the platform itself, or any third-party agency or designer. Smaller companies would not mind using the already given options, but medium-sized companies and enterprises do want to have an edge over others, and thus, they should always consider extra costs when evaluating their eCommerce platform options.

• Blogging:

BigCommerce does support native blogging, but the blogging is always hosted on different platforms by the users, for example, on WordPress or HubSpot, which creates a little hindrance for BigCommerce, because it has to be integrated with those blogging platforms, which needs extra plugin options and could cost a little extra finances and time.

Also, the fact that Bigcommerce Integration gives that integration option to its customers, people do take undue advantage and choose BigCommerce as an eCommerce engine for the back-end support, and use other frontend CMS and platforms of their choice, giving BigCommerce a back seat and not bringing it up front.

Magento 2:

Magento was founded in 2008, and has since become a popular eCommerce platform for businesses, especially retailers, around the world. Magento 1 was highly powerful in its functionality and was pretty customizable as per its framework, which really helped the platform towards its rise and widespread adoption.

Magento was acquired by Adobe, and they announced that its version 1 of the product will come to an end by 2020. Following this notion, they also released the news that with more improvements and extra support, there will be a Magento 2, which they claimed would be the latest and the most powerful version of Magento to date.

People and users think this would be beneficial for all, as it makes complete business sense and seems like a total upgrade. Though, Magento 2 Reviews has presented a mixed discussion of its advantages and disadvantages that are discussed in further detail below:

Magento Advantages

• Multiple SKUs:

Magento 2 is the right choice for your business in the Ecommerce industry if your product catalogue is between 10,000 – 100,000+ products, and has a large amount of SKUs.  Magento 2 is an expert platform in managing safely at least 100,000 – 200,000 SKUs, and that too, without much care and hosting support, additionally.

Moreover, Magento is an on-premise platform, and this can benefit many businesses in certain situations where there is need of features scalability and flexibility, which is definitely more in on-premise platforms that SaaS ones.

• Multi-Store and Multi-Country Features:

Since the occurrence of globalization, every economy has multiple businesses that are simultaneously operating from different areas of the world, and even for different regions and markets across the globe.  This has resulted in multi-store as an essential feature of any Ecommerce website and platform.

Many online retailers, internationally, are working on this phenomenon, and Magento 2 has surely made their tasks easier. Magento 2 enables an owner to manage, from the same panel, multiple storefronts, and does not need multiple instances for each storefront like the other platforms do.

Magento 2 also has multi-country functions and along with the multi-store options, businesses can now host stores on many different domains and are not restricted to one, they can use different languages to support different countries, and even offer different methods of payments, according to the regions being covered.

This makes the system more centralized and accumulated at only one place, which reduces the headache for entrepreneurs, brands and businesses that have to or want to manage multiple stores all over the world.

Magento Disadvantages

• Cost & Technical Debt:

As discussed earlier, SaaS platforms like BigCommerce cost lower than on-premise ones, which makes Magento 2 75% more expensive as an Ecommerce solution. In addition, not everything is in-built or free in Magento, which adds up more cost eventually.

Working on Magento, the business needs to pay technical debt which is accumulated due to ongoing hosting charges and regular maintenance fees. As the values and costs add up, businesses start to feel that Magento 2 is actually a pretty expensive option, and not their first choice, mostly.

This is the reason that people prefer BigCommerce, as a one-time monthly payment option including all facilities sounds much better than regular fees for different features.

• Non User Friendly:

Magento 2 is a platform that requires prior technical knowledge if the business wants to succeed in its mission. So, if they are not a developer, maintaining the platform and regularly updating it becomes a challenge, and more of a hassle than a reliever.

There is a lot of operational strain connected to Magento 2 too, where even some minor tasks and security areas require much development knowledge and support. Furthermore, there are no out-of-the-box features like SaaS in Magento 2, and that makes it a little less appealing than SaaS.

Thus, if you are planning to work with Magento 2, you need to understand that it comes with a package of quite some financial investments and a significant amount of time requirement in order to make it a successful venture for you.

• Up-Time and Reliability:

On-premise solutions, as discussed earlier, require separate payments for hosting fees as well as security on the platform, which means that security is only available when you pay for it.

It is inevitable that either the developer himself or a separate contractor will have to take the responsibility for up-time of the server and its scalability, which could lead to the need for more knowledge if you are doing it, or an added cost of the contractor, and will definitely take up more time than if it were a SaaS platform.

This reduces performance and causes much lapse in delivery, as compared to BigCommerce, which, since the past 4 years, has been offering a 99.99% uptime otherwise and a 100% uptime from Cyber Week.

Magento 2 vs BigCommerce: Pros and Cons:

Magento 2: Pros and Cons

Pros (141)	Cons (161)
§  Free: Since Magento is an open source platform, it is free to use by any kind of system and software, and blends with all sorts of businesses easily. There are also no hidden costs behind this ecommerce platform that the business needs to worry about.	§  Prior Knowledge: It is very important for Magento users to have prior knowledge about coding and designing before starting to use Magento, as it could get very technical at times. This is the reason that many people do not recommend to use this if you are a beginner in the ecommerce industry.
§  Support System: Magento has a great technical support system and a very large customer support community that is available at your service all the time through many different ways online. This helps all kinds of users (new and old) in taking their business forward easily.	§  Time Consuming: The fact that Magento is an easy going and flexible ecommerce platform to use, it also makes it very time consuming, because people, if given too many options like Magento does, can get easily confused, and take too much time in the designing phase itself, being unable to move on further.
§  Flexibility: Magento is one of the most flexible ecommerce platforms to work with. Not only in the designing phase of the themes, but in editing, adding images and other forms of graphics, the use of different typeface, updating product information, all that is very easy and flexible.	§  Payment: Magento does not have any hidden costs, but all Magento users do know from before that if they want to use Magento through the app or need hosting from Magento, they have to pay certain charges for it that are already mentioned earlier, and may differ as per the user’s needs.

BigCommerce: Pros and Cons

Pros (149)	Cons (169)
§  Distribution Channels: BigCommerce is widely known for its compatibility with all kinds of software and any back-end program, leading it to be widely sold by multiple different channels, and across many different people.	§  Editing: Once you have made a website on BigCommerce and have started functioning on it, to edit it again or make any further changes can get a little complicated, and is not quite recommended. It is better to be perfect the first time around.
§  SEO Functions: BigCommerce has great SEO functions and marketing techniques, because it does not only let you edit the URLs, images, meta titles and descriptions to fit the keywords trending on SEO outlets	§  No Mobile App: Though BigCommerce websites have options such as Amazon, Facebook, and other social media and selling app options to makes sales through, it still lacks any mobile app for its own self, making it difficult to navigate on the go.
§  Built-in Features: BigCommerce websites for all businesses come with multiple, already built-in features, such as an SSL certificate, themes, typefaces, and many other options that a business needs in order to develop the website in the best possible way. These websites also have a separate option for blogs and reviews, where ratings for the businesses’ products can be displayed in order to help consumers choose their type of product or service.	§  Complex Terminology: It is true that one does not need to be too technologically advanced to make a website on BigCommerce, and it is a great base for beginners as well, there is, however, some complex terminology that is used by BigCommerce that one needs to be familiar with, or else, they could get lost and need to rely on technical and customer support most of the time, and that can be very time consuming in starting your business.

BigCommerce vs Magento Enterprise:

BigCommerce vs Magento 2 both have its good and bad sides as we have seen in all the above discussions, but they are still different and fit for different kinds of businesses, depending on the nature of the work, the kind of features and facilities required, and what comes under the budget in the most effective manner.

Moreover, the fact that some people may be beginners in this field and others may have technical knowledge also helps you understand which kind of Ecommerce platform is best-suited to your needs.

Following are some of the more practical differences between the two, Magento vs BigCommerce, that would help you and your business determine what you need and give you a clearer picture before you choose the perfect platform for your online business.

Features	BigCommerce	Magento 2
Popularity	BigCommerce is a very famous platform, though its usage has seen to be only 4% in the top 1 million Ecommerce websites by the users.	As Google Trends have shown Magento has more online searches than other platforms, and forms about 14% of the top 1 million Ecommerce websites.
Ease of Use	BigCommerce is easier to use as everything is available right in front of you. The only confusing thing about BigCommerce is that it is divided into 2 parts: the storefront, which is what the customers visiting your website will see, and the bigcommerce inventory integration, which is its back-end functioning. Also, if you do not know what SKUs or CSV files stand for, the terminology could get a little complicated. Though, it gives the user keyboard shortcuts, and has recently also introduced a store design option, whereby you can view any changes or edits that you have recently done, and how they would look to the customers.	Magento is similar to BigCommerce in the regards that it also uses complicated terminology which can highly confuse the user. Though, it is much harder to use, overall, than BigCommerce because it needs coding and technical knowledge as a pre requisite. The tools that are available to use are also difficult to understand, and without help or customer support, you will find yourself in problems more or less at every level while using Magento 2. Thus, it is not an easy to use platform at all.
Design and Themes	BigCommerce offers only 7 themes that are free and easy to design by its users, with simple clicks and not much effort. If paid, many more themes can be bought ranging from a budget of $145 to $235 per theme. The good thing about this is that not much time would be used up by the user to choose a theme and design it. Though, since not many themes are available, there is hardly a chance for a business to be different with its outlook without spending money on customized themes.	Magento 2 provides about 12 themes in total, including both, free and paid. But, if you have enough technical knowledge or can hire someone with technical knowledge of this platform, you can make a whole brand new theme from scratch. That theme would be highly personal to your business, and gives you utmost flexibility to make whatever and do as you please, according to your own liking. This is a highly customizable option and much preferred by people in the Ecommerce industry. The only drawback is that the user can take up a lot of time in making a customized theme, so it is a time consuming task.
Project Development Duration	BigCommerce is a highly easy to use platform, and everything that you need to build an online website is available for you under one place, so it is much easier to build a website on Ecommerce. This compliments the fact that, due to no need of prior coding knowledge either, BigCommerce websites can be up and running in just a few hours, facing no complications as such.	Magento takes a lot of time to develop a project website and then run it. This is because coding knowledge and technical demands exist, along with high customization options, leading to it taking much more time than BigCommerce. Also, once the store is made, you have to get it connected to a host, because that facility is not in-built in Magento like it is in BigCommerce, which would take it more time to establish.
Ecommerce Features	BigCommerce takes the biggest share of being the best Ecommerce platform that has the maximum amount of features already in-built into it. Moreover, it is the only platform that lets the online business sell physical goods, services and digital items. Bigcommerce Support Services also lets you access more than 600 apps, and has an already built-in power to support it. Some of its best features are the: ·         Abandoned Cart Recovery ·         Analytic Tools and Reporting ·         SSL Certificate BigCommerce takes the lead in this regard over Magento 2 and other platforms.	Magento 2 also has its own, large set of features that make it one of the top Ecommerce platforms as well. It enables you to sell physical and digital goods, and shipping services to multiple areas in one order. It also picks from more than 3,000 different extensions, both free and paid. The best features that exist in Magento’s extensions and apps include: ·         Adding Custom Coupon Codes ·         Inserting Advertising Banners ·         Integrating Pre-Ordering Features
Payment Gateways and Fees	BigCommerce supports a lot of payment options, including known names such as: ApplePay, Square and Stripe. It also does not charge any transaction fees on its price plans and has pre-negotiated rates with PayPal, which saves even more money for the users. As we know, also, that BigCommerce is easily integrated with each gateway, so the payment rate is faster than other platforms.	Magento is the harder platform in order to earn money because it needs other apps to integrate with for processing payments. Integration itself takes a lot of time, as there are about 148 apps for payment procedures. However, one good thing is that Magento 2 has gateways that support different languages in different countries, making it ideal for international businesses and cross-country payments.
Pricing	BigCommerce pricing plans is on monthly basis which include different features and as you go higher, the annual sales threshold keeps rising. The monthly plans are: ·         Standard – $29.95 per month ·         Plus – $79.95 per month ·         Pro – $249.95 per month ·         Enterprise – which is a customized BigCommerce plan for its users. BigCommerce also offers a 15-day free trial option so that people can try it out and get familiar with before purchasing a plan.	Magento 2 also has different options to choose from, but with each option, some features would have to be bought from a third party as Magento does not provide it. The plans are as follows: ·         Community Edition – free of cost ·         Hosting Charges – range from  $4 – $100 or more per month ·         Enterprise Edition – just like BigCommerce’s Enterprise plan, this is also a custom plan that sets they cost according to customers’ needs. Magento users who are not familiar with technicalities and coding should also consider developer costs who would set up and manage the store.
Marketing Tools and SEO Optimization	BigCommerce is big on Marketing and is known by most of the people working in the Ecommerce industry, and it’s SEO optimization is also great where it lets you change meta titles, descriptions, URLs, etc. and has been ranked number 4 in worldwide rankings of online searches for different platforms.	Magento 2 is fairly new, but the fact that Magento had already announced its release to the public, and Magento is a highly searched platform, it crept up in the lists of online searches really fast and optimizing its SEO capabilities. In addition, Magento is ranked number 1 in the online searches worldwide rankings.
Customer Help and Technical Support	BigCommerce has a large help centre for technical assistance and customer support, which is available 24/7 through phone, email and live chat to all the users, meaning that you can ask for help any time of the day. If you choose the Enterprise plan, one of its features is to give priority support to its users, so that your issue will be resolved at utmost priority.	Magento does not have a support centre, rather, it relies on its user forum for solutions to different problems. Along with the help of other Magento users, there are also tutorials available to help you through different processes. Though, the 24/7 support and help is missing, and FAQs are your best shot for getting any answers to your questions.
Multi-Channel Integration	BigCommerce, again, has its integrations in-built, with different categories and big names like: eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and many more. This really helps the user in taking the opportunity to manage their sales as well as use the data reporting tools that these outlets offer.	Magento has a huge marketplace that helps in multi-channel integrations. Though, for selling through different channels, extensions need to be added. All major brands, for e.g. Facebook, eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and others have extensions available for using them.
Mobile Responsive- ness	Bigcommerce templates are all highly mobile responsive and it also gives you an option to see how the themes would look like on a mobile device.	Out of the 12 themes that Magento 2 has available, only 10 are mobile responsive. And even the themes you make from scratch depend on how great your coding and technical work is, so that can be customized.

FAQs:

1) Should I use BigCommerce or Magento for my start-up business?

If it is start-up business, you should more likely go for bigcommerce headless commerce and your Ecommerce platform, as it is a great starting point for beginners.

The themes are ready-made and available, the options are simple and clear, though terminology will be a bit complexed in places, it is still an easier base to start building up from.

BigCommerce also has all the features already built-in into the system, so extra extensions and plugins are not required, making it easier to use BigCommerce for a start-up business.

2) Is Magento cheaper than BigCommerce?

BigCommerce has preset pricing plans that you can choose from, except the Enterprise plan that will be of a custom price according to the needs of your business.

Whereas Magento pricing is affordable with more customizable options but it’s all depends on your extensions and willingness to spend. So Magento can prove to be cheaper than BigCommerce if you spend miserly on extensions and options, or it can be highly expensive if you buy top-of-the-line features and extensions for it. It all depends on you and your business’s needs and wants.

3) Magento or Bigcommerce: Who are the best hosting providers?

BigCommerce has a built-in hosting plan as it a hosted solution, so this feature automatically comes with all its pricing plans.

Magento is a self-hosted platform, which means it does not provide any hosting services of its own. Magento users will have to find third party hosting plans to work with Magento.

4) Who has the best mobile web eCommerce platform?

BigCommerce has a higher mobile responsiveness for all its themes, but it does not have a dedicated mobile app for itself.

Magento has mobile responsiveness for only 10 out of its 12 themes, but it has a specialized app for all its operations to be conducted on a mobile device.

5) Is it difficult to switch from BigCommerce to Magento while the e-commerce store is active?

Migration from BigCommerce to Magento 2 is fairly simple and can be done while the Ecommerce store is active, though, there will be some problems in this case.

That is because Bigcommerce vs Magento 2 have different technicalities involved. So, the switch may be successful, but some areas may be affected, like the loading speed of the website could reduce, you could miss out on clients and sales during the process, and even the maintenance and hosting may create a little hindrance in the way, though it is possible.