When building your business, you must sift through each portion. Similar to baking a cake, the quality (and how much) of each ingredient must be considered. You wouldn’t use expired eggs to bake a cake nor choose a poorly managed eCommerce software to support your online store, right? The best eCommerce software for your business depends on your preferences and needs.
Both WooCommerce and BigCommerce are quality and respected eCommerce platforms — choosing between the two requires a thorough look into how each platform will work for you and which most closely meets your vision for your brand. Need more information to help make your decision? Here we’ve put together a comparison of WooCommerce and BigCommerce to help you make an informed choice between the two so you have the most mouthwatering eCommerce storefront possible.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce began as WooThemes in 2008, but the company switched to focusing exclusively on eCommerce in 2017. Its mission is to democratize commerce and put you in control of your own business and livelihood. They are an open-source commerce solution that works as a plugin for WordPress. As of January 2022, WordPress powers over 5,000,000 live websites. Many business owners use this plugin, but it has both pros and cons for you to consider.
Price
WooCommerce payment is a bit more complex than BigCommerce. It’s a free WordPress plugin, so there are no costs to obtain the software. However, there are costs associated with using it. You will need to purchase a theme ($0 – $39), hosting ($83/year), and SSL security ($9/year), all separately, but they can be obtained from other sources. These options allow you to customize your services and, therefore, your cost.
WooCommerce does not charge transaction fees, so the only extra fees that apply will come directly from card companies or gateways. Along with all the major payment options, WooCommerce supports payment from over 100 different payment gateways. It also provides its own payment gateway, WooCommerce Payments, allowing you to manage all of your costs in a single location.
Usability and Customizability
Considered user-friendly even for beginners, WooCommerce has a helpful setup wizard that explains payment setup, shipping and tax options, creating pages, and more. Though the usability is high during setup, it does get more complicated since you have to set up the technical aspects of your store yourself.
WooCommerce allows for a high degree of design customization. You have the option to build your site with WordPress page builders, but the more tech-savvy users will have even more customization options available to them through HTML/CSS editors.
Conversion Rates
Conversion tracking must be set up with WooCommerce to know what and how many consumers are making a purchase. The best route to tracking WooCommerce conversions is through Google Analytics. The average conversion rate across eCommerce platforms is between 2% and 3%. WooCommerce does not provide information on the conversion rates for its users.
Customer Support
WooCommerce itself has extremely limited customer service options, with written documents providing most of their support. However, choosing a separate web host affords you their customer service. Ultimately, WooCommerce’s customer support options are primarily dependent on the support provided by your web host.
BigCommerce
Founded in 2009, BigCommerce is an Australian company first created under the name Interspire. This company has grown to reach the United States and aims to help merchants from small startups to large enterprises sell their products at every growth stage. BigCommerce is an excellent full-service eCommerce software that allows you more time to dedicate to other areas of your business.
Price
BigCommerce’s pricing structure allows for predictable budgeting, as all their services are included in a single fee. It offers three regular pricing plans: Standard ($29.95/month), Plus ($79.95/month), and Pro ($299.95/month), with a fourth Enterprise plan that you must directly contact BigCommerce to receive a quote for. Another pricing benefit is an option to pay annually, scoring you a 10% discount on their services.
If you’re unsure about BigCommerce, they offer a free 15-day trial with no obligation to continue use. Like WooCommerce, they do not charge any transaction fees. BigCommerce supports the use of all the major payment platforms but does not support many other options.
Usability and Customizability
BigCommerce is a complete service with a hosted platform. Zero coding knowledge is required because they handle the domain, security certificates, and hosting. The onboarding process is insightful and clear, but there is a learning curve with some technology and terminology. Because of the education required to understand the program, BigCommerce is more challenging to set up, but hosting your eCommerce site makes up for this drawback by hosting your eCommerce site.
There are tons of super sweet design options when you choose BigCommerce — you should be able to find a theme that matches your feel for your business. There are over 12 free themes and more than 50 themes for a one-time cost between $150 and $300.
Conversion Rate
On par with the average for other eCommerce platforms, BigCommerce users report a conversion rate between 2% and 3%. BigCommerce recommends placing your goal at a 3% conversion rate.
Customer Support
BigCommerce provides customers with 24/7 support through a phone, email, or live chat function. Users will also gain access to a support forum and a help center with many helpful guides to assist with managing your eCommerce platform. BigCommerce’s support is significantly more helpful than WooCommerce’s, but the scale can tip towards WooCommerce depending on the host used for the website.
Choose the eCommerce Platform Best For You.
So which is better, WooCommerce or BigCommerce? The platforms are very similar in many aspects, so choosing the best one for you means evaluating the big differences and determining which most closely fits into your business strategy. WooCommerce is highly customizable and user-friendly, but you will need technological knowledge for the whole experience. BigCommerce is not as user-friendly, but it is a full-service platform with good customer service to make up for the setup difficulties.
If you need help getting the most out of your eCommerce business, CakeCommerce is here to help you get the sweetest results. CAKE offers assistance with both WooCommerce and BigCommerce, taking away some of the worries you may be experiencing due to your online store, and instead instilling feelings of calm and capability. Contact us today to get started on whipping up the perfect online store.
