BigCommerce vs WordPress: Ultimate Ecommerce Platform Guide

Over 43.6% of sites run on WordPress, it’s one of the most flexible and most used platforms to build websites and online stores. When it comes to BigCommerce vs WordPress, business owners are faced with a tough question: which one is right for your ecommerce store? 

WordPress with WooCommerce offers unlimited customization and control, BigCommerce offers a managed all in one ecommerce solution with built in scalability.

It’s not just about the features, it’s about aligning your choice with your business goals, technical resources and long term strategy. WordPress has full design flexibility, content driven marketing and advanced SEO optimisation. BigCommerce has hosting, updates, security and performance taken care of, so setup is faster and maintenance is easier.

For small to medium business owners and entrepreneurs it can be a tough choice. Do you want full control with ongoing management or a plug and play platform with ecommerce features built in? 

This guide goes through everything you need to consider: platform capabilities, pricing, scalability, SEO potential, migration options and long term costs. By the end you’ll have a framework to decide which is best for your business. 

Whether your priority is a quick store launch, content marketing, design freedom or robust scalability this comparison will give you the information to make an informed decision.

Before we get into features and pricing, let’s talk about where WordPress and BigCommerce sit in the market and what that means for you. Each platform has a different philosophy: one is all about flexibility and control, the other is about simplicity and ecommerce ease.

WordPress (WooCommerce)

WordPress powers over 43.6% of all websites and 68.7% of the CMS market. It’s open source so businesses can build any type of website for any niche or business model. When paired with WooCommerce, WordPress becomes a powerful ecommerce platform that can manage from small online stores to enterprise level stores.

Key Strengths:

• Flexibility: Full control over website design, functionality, and integrations.
• Content-Driven: Native blogging capabilities make it ideal for content marketing strategies.
• Developer-Friendly: Access to over 58,000 plugins and thousands of themes to extend your site’s capabilities.

But WordPress requires ongoing management: hosting, security, plugin updates, performance optimisation. The scalability of the platform depends on the hosting and technical setup.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a SaaS ecommerce platform with Approx 41776 stores worldwide and 1.0% market share of ecommerce platforms. Unlike WordPress, it’s built for ecommerce, a managed out of the box solution.

Key Strengths:

• Built-in Ecommerce Features: Inventory management, multi-channel selling, and secure checkout are included.
• Managed Hosting & Security: Automatic updates, PCI compliance, and SSL certificates reduce technical overhead.
• Scalability: Cloud-based infrastructure supports high traffic and large product catalogs without manual intervention.

BigCommerce is simple and reliable, but customization is more structured and content marketing capabilities are not as flexible as WordPress.

Choosing the right eCommerce platform depends on how each solution fits your specific business needs. Below is a side-by-side comparison of BigCommerce vs WordPress across essential factors:

Both BigCommerce and WordPress offer strong capabilities—but how easy are they to use? Let’s break down the user experience of our BigCommerce vs WooCommerce platform comparison.

Ease of use can make or break your experience managing an online store, particularly for newcomers. Both WooCommerce and BigCommerce approach usability differently, and your choice depends on how much control versus convenience you need.

WordPress Ease of Use

WordPress offers full control, but that control comes with setup responsibilities. You’ll need to have a WordPress website ready, then install the WooCommerce plugin and configure extensions, payment gateways, and product listings.

Many users see this flexibility as a benefit. WooCommerce allows you to design a highly tailored store that aligns perfectly with your brand and specific business needs. With the right hosting, WooCommerce stores can also achieve excellent speed and reliability, giving you a competitive edge.

BigCommerce Ease of Use

BigCommerce takes a different route—it’s an all-in-one hosted platform. Built-in features such as drag-and-drop store design, pre-configured payment options, and product management tools make setup simple. There’s no need to worry about hosting or installing plugins.

For users seeking a streamlined, ready-to-launch store, BigCommerce is ideal. But if you enjoy customizing every detail and are comfortable managing hosting, WooCommerce provides a more personalized experience.

Who Wins?

WordPress excels in customization, while BigCommerce wins on simplicity and speed to launch. For quick setup and a maintenance-free experience, BigCommerce is the go-to choice.

The range of features—both built-in and through extensions—is a critical factor in choosing an eCommerce platform.

WordPress Features and Functionality

WordPress shines with its massive ecosystem of plugins. The base plugin is free, but you can extend it with thousands of add-ons for SEO, inventory management, advanced payment options, and more.

It also supports advanced tools like subscription management, custom checkout flows, and CRM integrations. Whether you sell physical goods, digital products, or services, WooCommerce allows near-limitless customization, and combining it with high-performance hosting ensures smooth operation even as your store grows.

BigCommerce Features and Functionality

BigCommerce provides most essential features out of the box. From product catalog management to shipping options, multi-channel selling, abandoned cart recovery, and analytics, you get a comprehensive platform without extra installations.

It integrates with major marketplaces like Amazon and Facebook, and supports multiple payment gateways—all pre-configured. For those who want robust features immediately without plugin management, BigCommerce offers a hassle-free solution.

Who Wins?

WordPress is better for those who want maximum flexibility and advanced custom features, while BigCommerce is ideal for a fast, fully-featured setup.

A visually appealing store impacts conversions and user experience. This comparison focuses on design flexibility and theme options.

WordPress Design and Themes

WordPress integrates deeply with WordPress, giving you access to hundreds of free and premium themes designed specifically for eCommerce. You can customize layouts, colors, and functionalities fully, tailoring your store exactly to your brand.

With professional hosting and performance optimization, your customized WooCommerce store can also load quickly, improving customer experience and SEO.

BigCommerce Design and Themes

BigCommerce offers responsive, mobile-optimized themes that are ready to launch. While you can customize layouts using the drag-and-drop editor, flexibility is limited compared to WooCommerce.

For users who want a polished, functional store with minimal setup, BigCommerce themes are ideal. Designers and developers, however, will find WooCommerce more accommodating for advanced customization.

Who Wins?

WordPress takes the lead in design freedom and flexibility. BigCommerce is best for a ready-made, mobile-friendly store without extensive effort.

When your store grows, performance and scalability become essential. Both platforms handle this differently.

WordPress Scalability and Performance

WordPress is self-hosted, meaning you control your server environment. With the right hosting, such as Rocon, you can scale resources, optimize caching, and use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for faster page loads. This control allows you to manage traffic spikes and ensure smooth customer experiences.

The tradeoff is that you’ll need to handle optimization and server configuration yourself. But for businesses that value flexibility and want to fine-tune performance, WooCommerce offers unmatched control.

BigCommerce Scalability and Performance

BigCommerce handles scaling automatically. Server resources, bandwidth, and security updates are managed behind the scenes, ensuring consistent performance as traffic grows. There’s no need to worry about server tuning or optimization.

This approach is perfect for users who want a reliable, low-maintenance platform without technical overhead.

Who Wins?

BigCommerce wins for effortless scalability. WordPress offers superior control and potential for performance optimization, especially when paired with high-performance hosting.

Understanding cost is key when choosing an eCommerce platform. Both use different pricing models.

WordPress Pricing

WooCommerce is free, but you’ll need to budget for:

• Hosting: $1.99/month for Rocon Launchpad hosting, up to $16.99/month or more for high traffic sites.
• Domain: $10–$15/year.
• SSL: Free with most hosts.
• Premium Themes: $59–$129/year.
• Plugins/Extensions: $50–$300/year depending on functionality.
• Developer Costs (optional): $10–$100/hour.

Total annual cost ranges from around $150 for a basic store to $1,000+ for a fully-featured, scalable setup.

BigCommerce Pricing

BigCommerce uses a subscription model, including hosting and features:

• Standard: $29–$39/month, up to $50,000 annual sales.
• Plus: $79–$105/month, up to $180,000 sales, includes abandoned cart recovery.
• Pro: $299–$399/month, up to $400,000 sales. Extra fees apply beyond that.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for high-volume stores.

No extra platform fees, though standard payment processing charges still apply.

Who Wins?

WordPress is best for cost flexibility and scalability. BigCommerce offers predictable monthly costs with minimal setup.

Security is critical when handling customer data and transactions.

WordPress Security and Compliance

Being self-hosted, WooCommerce requires you to manage SSL certificates, backups, and updates. You’ll need a secure hosting provider and possibly security plugins. This allows full control over security measures, but also requires diligence.

BigCommerce Security and Compliance

BigCommerce includes built-in SSL, PCI compliance, and automatic updates. It ensures your store meets industry standards without manual intervention.

Who Wins?

BigCommerce is ideal for users who want peace of mind. WooCommerce gives flexibility but requires active management.

Driving traffic depends on strong SEO practices.

WordPress SEO-Friendliness

Built on WordPress, WooCommerce integrates with plugins like Yoast SEO. You can optimize URLs, meta tags, sitemaps, and content for maximum search engine visibility. Full control over structure and content makes WooCommerce ideal for long-term SEO strategy.

BigCommerce SEO-Friendliness

BigCommerce has built-in SEO features like optimized URLs, sitemaps, and meta tags. It works well for basic SEO but lacks the advanced flexibility WooCommerce provides.

Who Wins?

WordPress is better for users wanting full SEO control. BigCommerce simplifies SEO for beginners.

Support can make or break your experience.

WooCommerce Customer Support and Community

Support comes mainly from the WordPress and WooCommerce communities. Forums, documentation, and tutorials are plentiful, but there’s no centralized support. Many users rely on extension developers and hosting providers like Rocon for help.

BigCommerce Customer Support and Community

BigCommerce provides 24/7 support via live chat, email, and phone. It also has a rich knowledge base and active user community.

Who Wins?

BigCommerce wins for direct, real-time support. WooCommerce is community-driven and ideal for self-starters who prefer troubleshooting independently.

WordPress Pros

• Complete control over customization and design
• Seamless integration with WordPress
• Vast plugin and theme ecosystem
• Full SEO control
• Flexible, scalable costs
• Open-source ownership

WordPress Cons

• Requires technical setup and maintenance
• Dependent on hosting quality
• No centralized support
• Regular updates and backups needed

BigCommerce Pros

• Fully hosted, low-maintenance platform
• Built-in features for selling and analytics
• Transparent pricing with no extra platform fees
• 24/7 dedicated support

BigCommerce Cons

• Limited design flexibility
• Fewer plugin and theme options
• Higher costs as business scales
• Advanced features locked in premium plans

Who Wins?

For full control, scalability, and customization, WordPress wins. For an easy, maintenance-free experience with strong support, BigCommerce is the better option. Your choice depends on your technical comfort level and business goals.

Choosing the right platform isn’t just about features – it’s about matching your business goals, technical abilities and growth plans. Here’s how BigCommerce and WordPress (with WooCommerce) stack up in different scenarios.

Choose BigCommerce If:

1. Rapid Launch Priority

   • Need to get online quickly without technical complexity.
   • BigCommerce provides fully hosted, SaaS-based solutions—no need to manage servers, updates, or security.

2. Scaling Ambitions

   • Planning to handle high-volume sales, traffic spikes, or sudden seasonal demand.
   • Cloud infrastructure automatically scales to meet traffic surges.

3. Limited Technical Resources

   • If you don’t have an in-house developer or technical team, BigCommerce’s managed environment removes the burden of maintenance and security.
   • Automatic updates, backups, and PCI compliance reduce operational headaches.

4. International Expansion

   • Multi-currency support, global shipping calculators, and built-in integrations with international payment gateways make global selling straightforward.

5. Focus on Selling

   • Business owners who want to concentrate on revenue and growth, rather than managing servers, plugins, or theme compatibility.

Choose WordPress If:

1. Design Control

   • Need unlimited customization and unique branding to create a standout online presence.
   • Full code access and extensive plugin ecosystem allow you to tweak every detail.

2. Content Marketing Focus

   • Planning extensive blogging, lead magnets, or content-driven marketing campaigns.
   • WordPress’s native blogging capabilities make it perfect for SEO and inbound marketing.

3. Budget Flexibility

   • I want to start small and scale gradually, managing hosting and plugin costs according to growth.
   • While BigCommerce has fixed monthly fees, WordPress can be tailored to a specific budget.

4. Technical Resources

   • You or your team have development skills or are willing to hire developers.
   • Handling updates, security, and optimization is feasible for technically capable teams.

5. Multi-Purpose Website

   • If your website needs to do more than just sell products—like portfolios, memberships, or community features—WordPress provides full flexibility to expand your site’s functionality.

Choosing the right platform is about matching the platform’s strengths to your business needs. Consider your technical resources, marketing goals, budget and long term growth plans before you decide.

Moving between ecommerce platforms is one of the biggest headaches for business owners. Choosing the right one from the start will save you time, money and stress. Here’s what you need to know about moving from WordPress to BigCommerce and BigCommerce to WordPress.

WordPress to BigCommerce Migration

1. Migration Services

   • Professional migration services simplify the process, ensuring data integrity and minimal downtime.
   • Services often include transferring products, customers, orders, and SEO settings, so your business operations continue smoothly.

2. Data Transfer

   • Products: Export WooCommerce product catalog with attributes, SKUs, pricing, and images.
   • Customers & Orders: Ensure all historical customer data, order history, and subscriptions are migrated.
   • SEO Settings: Preserve URLs, metadata, and redirects to maintain search engine rankings.

3. Timeline

   • Depending on store size, complexity, and the professional service you choose, migration typically involves 3–5 key steps: planning, export, import, testing, and go-live.
   • Minor adjustments post-migration may be needed to match BigCommerce’s layout or workflow.

4. Pros & Considerations

   • Pros: Managed infrastructure, built-in features, minimal technical maintenance.
   • Considerations: Loss of some WordPress-specific plugins or customizations; need to adapt to BigCommerce’s interface.

BigCommerce to WordPress Migration

1. Complexity

   • More technically challenging due to WordPress’s flexible and customizable structure.
   • Requires careful planning for plugin setup, theme design, and WooCommerce configuration.

2. Benefits

   • Gain full control over design, functionality, and content marketing capabilities.
   • Reduce long-term platform costs and unlock unlimited customization options.

3. Data Migration

   • Products, customer lists, orders, and essential SEO data must be exported from BigCommerce and imported into WooCommerce.
   • Plugins like Cart2Cart or custom scripts are often used for efficient migration.

4. Considerations

   • Requires technical expertise or a developer to handle database adjustments, plugin compatibility, and staging site testing.

Ongoing maintenance, security updates, and backups are now your responsibility.

It’s not just about features, it’s about choosing the one that helps your business grow.

If you want customization, flexibility, and full control, then WooCommerce gives you the tools to build the store you imagine. For a faster, plug-and-play experience with minimal setup then BigCommerce is a reliable all-in-one solution.

BigCommerce vs WordPress – whichever one you choose, make sure it fits how you work and how you plan to grow.

Build your WooCommerce store on a foundation of speed, security, and scalability. With Rocon managed WordPress hosting, you get performance optimisation, built-in security, hassle-free setup, and the ability to scale as your business grows.

For scaling businesses, downtime isn’t just a technical glitch—it’s lost revenue and a damaged reputation. Protecting your customer data requires more than just a standard SSL certificate. By migrating to a highly secure WordPress hosting platform, you ensure your business is protected by isolated container technology and real-time monitoring, giving you the peace of mind to focus on growth instead of server logs.

1. Does BigCommerce use WordPress?

No. BigCommerce is a standalone SaaS ecommerce platform, but it can integrate with WordPress using the BigCommerce for WordPress plugin.

2. Is BigCommerce better than WooCommerce?

BigCommerce is better for fully hosted, low-maintenance ecommerce, while WooCommerce is better for flexibility, customization, and full control within WordPress.

3. Which platform is better than WordPress?

No platform is universally better than WordPress. Alternatives like BigCommerce, Shopify, or Webflow may suit specific use cases, but WordPress offers unmatched flexibility and ownership.

4. Is BigCommerce good for SEO?

Yes. BigCommerce includes built-in SEO features like clean URLs, customizable meta data, and fast hosting, but advanced SEO control is more flexible in WordPress.