BigCommerce pricing: Should you stick with Standard or opt for Plus or Pro?

BigCommerce’s trio of pricing plans start out at a reasonable cost, but rise sharply for a more comprehensive set of features. If you’re new to ecommerce and simply wanting to start an online store, the Standard plan should suffice. However, for more control over how you operate your online store, you’ll need to step up to the Plus or Pro plans.

So which package is right for you? The BigCommerce Standard plan has all the necessary tools for a small business selling lots of low-cost items, with sales of $50,000 a year or less. You can add as many products as you want and don’t need to worry about any storage limits. However, this plan could prove restrictive if you have a lot of high-ticket price items.

As your business grows and revenues expand you can move up to the next tiers, which retain all the features of the Standard plan but include some essential extras. We suggest you take up the free 15-day trial, learn the ins and outs of the back-end, to help you decide if the Standard plan will fulfil your needs.

If you’re not sure if BigCommerce is the right service for you, read our comprehensive guide to the best website builders.

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What does BigCommerce offer and why should I choose it?

BigCommerce is built for ecommerce. If getting an online store up and running is your number one priority, then you should give the tool serious consideration. One big plus of BigCommerce is that it offers unlimited storage and bandwidth, and has no limits on the number of products you can add on all plans.

Where BigCommerce differs from a lot of other ecommerce website builders is that it bases its plans on annual sales. The Standard plan allows up to $50,000, while the Plus and Pro plans set their limit at $180,000 and $400,000 respectively. If you do cross the threshold of a plan, you’ll be moved to the next plan automatically.

In reality, BigCommerce isn’t for those businesses whose inventory runs at less than 100 products; in this case, you should consider Shopify or even Squarespace as an alternative. That’s not to say you can’t use BigCommerce for small stores – especially if you have big plans for future expansion – but it’s likely to be overkill, with the other options mentioned better suited for your needs.

Conversely, if you’re looking for an ecommerce solution that can cope with hundreds, or even thousands, of products then this is where BigCommerce excels. Its back-end product and inventory management features are impressive and comprehensive. It offers a great set of tools for organising, filtering and tagging products. Plus, if you’re looking to sell both physical and digital products, you can do this with ease from within BigCommerce.

Payment providers are crucial to successful ecommerce, and BigCommerce recommends the hugely popular PayPal as a solution. Nevertheless, it also works with a wide range of other popular payment providers including Stripe, Barclaycard, Apple Pay, Amazon Pay and Google Pay.

Beyond the back end, BigCommerce’s approach to design is best described as functional. You don’t get the creative control of Squarespace, but you still get a decent – if a little generic – end product.

The way your site looks will depend on the theme you choose. Go for one of the free options and you’ll get a site that does the job. Those wanting more design flexibility will need to splash out on a paid theme. These typically contain two or more styles, allowing you to switch colours and fonts, and add additional widgets such as galleries. You can even connect to your social media accounts.

There’s more than enough to bring your products to life and give customers the information they need to make a purchase – the ultimate goal for any ecommerce platform.

Here’s a quick look at some of the essential ecommerce features that BigCommerce provides:

• Free site-wide HTTPs and a free dedicated SSL
• Unlimited products, file storage and bandwidth
• 55 payment providers, with no additional fees
• POS integration with Square, Vend, Clover and more
• User-friendly promotion tools without a third-party app
• 24/7 technical support via phone, chat and ticket

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Which BigCommerce plan will work for me?

This will depend on your ecommerce needs and how much you want to spend. Here we take a look at each of the plans BigCommerce has to offer.

BigCommerce Standard: $29/mth (annually) or $39/mth (monthly) The best-value BigCommerce plan, Standard, is a good choice for the more casual ecommerce entrepreneur who doesn’t need a raft of powerful tools to analyse their sales. It still includes all the necessary components needed to set up an online store, such as unlimited products and storage, a host of popular payment providers, and strong inventory management.

The key restriction of this plan is the online sales cap of $50,000 per year. To remain on this plan, sales will need to sit below this figure.

BigCommerce Plus: $79/mth (annually) or $105/mth (monthly) If your sales are on the up, sailing past the $50,000 mark, then Plus will be the best fit for your business. It retains all the essential elements needed to run and manage your store, but provides greater control and added functionality to help increase sales. For example, there’s group segmentation so you can tailor promotions to customer groups, and an abandoned cart saver that sends out emails to encourage customers to complete their purchase.

BigCommerce Pro: $299/mth (annually) or $399/mth (monthly) This plan is for those who are making serious inroads into online sales. If you have gone past the Plus plan limit of $180,000 worth of sales, you’ll appreciate the tools on offer to help you reach the Pro limit of $400,000. Here, you get all the features and tools of the Standard and Plus plans, but with added extras such as product filtering and the addition of Google customer reviews.

Can I try BigCommerce for free?

BigCommerce doesn’t provide a free plan, but it does offer a 15-day trial through which you can gain an insight into what the ecommerce platform has to offer. Simply enter a few personal details, come up with a site name, and classify the size of your business; don’t worry, there is an option for those who haven’t started yet. Once the store is created, there are three further questions to answer – and that’s it. And the best bit is that you don’t have to enter any credit card details.

READ NEXT: BigCommerce Esstentials review

Does BigCommerce come with a free domain name?

No, but like most website builders, your store will be allocated a sub-domain – for example, https://yourstorename.mybigcommerce.com. If you don’t own a domain name then you can buy and register one through your BigCommerce control panel. Alternatively, check prices at other domain sellers. If you already own a domain name then you simply need to point it at the BigCommerce servers.

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What add-ons and apps does BigCommerce offer?

BigCommerce is an impressive ecommerce package, but it may not fit your exact requirements in every area. If this is the case, you can choose from hundreds of apps and integrations across nearly 20 categories. With the help of free and paid apps you’ll be able to manage sales and marketing activities, improve customer service, add additional payment gateways, tackle site optimisation tasks, introduce different style reviews, tweak inventory, and much more.

BigCommerce’s resource selection doesn’t stop at apps and integrations. There’s a Themes directory that can help you build a bespoke store front. You can choose from over 250 different themes, with a small selection available for free. Prices start at $150, with the most expensive hitting almost $400; they typically range from $200- $250.

Plus, you can get ecommerce help from a selection of certified experts and partners to improve, extend and maintain your web presence.