BigCommerce Review 2025
BigCommerce stays competitive in 2025, especially for sellers with growing product lines or B2B needs. Plans start at $39/£31 a month (Standard) and scale up, with no extra transaction fees—a rare perk.
It runs fast too: independent tests show average Lighthouse scores of 91 (desktop) and 85 (mobile). Built-in SEO (sitemaps, canonical tags) and strong compliance (PCI Level 1, GDPR-ready with data tools) make it a solid all-rounder.
That said, it’s best suited to mid-to-large catalogues—600 SKUs or more—and teams ready to tap into its headless and API features. For content-first or micro stores, simpler, cheaper builders might fit better.
At-a-glance
- ✅ No transaction fees—even if you don’t use BigCommerce Payments.
- ✅ Unlimited product listings across all paid plans.
- ✅ Powerful built-in tools reduce dependence on add-ons.
- ✅ Strong performance metrics; optimised for SEO and speed.
- ✅ Suits scaling businesses, with headless/API flexibility built in.
- ⛔ Higher entry price than most basic website builders.
- ⛔ Customising layout and templates often requires coding skills.
- ⛔ No built-in point-of-sale; requires third-party integrations for retail.
*Trial ends automatically. Standard plan starts at $29 / mo (≈ £23 / mo).
 BigCommerce | |
| ⭐ Rating: | 4 ★★★★★ |
| 🏅 Overall rank: | #5 out of 8 |
| 💵 Price: | From $29 /mo after 15‑day trial |
| ✂️ Free trial: | 15‑day free trial (no card) |
| 💻 Platforms: | Web admin, iOS & Android store apps |
| 🔥 Offer: | Start free trial |
| Start 15‑Day Free Trial | |
Test Scope & Devices
Between March and April 2025, I tested BigCommerce by building two lightweight stores: a small fashion site with just five products and a simple digital downloads setup. I used the Standard and Plus plans, switching between Windows 11, macOS, iOS, and Android to check editor stability and how well the storefronts performed on real devices.
Site speed was assessed using Google Lighthouse (measuring LCP, FID, and CLS) and real-user CrUX data from BigCommerce’s built-in Performance Insights. I tracked uptime and API response over 30 days with StatusCake, and reviewed GDPR and security features via BigCommerce’s SafeBase Trust Center. Every result was cross-checked against official documentation and third-party benchmarks to make sure the platform delivered more than just brochure promises.
Regulation & Trust
BigCommerce holds PCI DSS Level 1 certification, meeting the strictest standards for processing credit-card payments. That means the platform undergoes annual audits covering all 12 PCI requirements—including strong encryption protocols (TLS 1.2/1.3), intrusion monitoring, and robust incident response. For merchants, this translates to secure checkouts and a major chunk of compliance work handled for them.
On the data-privacy front, BigCommerce is fully GDPR-compliant, offering merchants built-in tools to handle customer data requests, manage cookie consent, and report breaches. The company also participates in the EU–US data privacy frameworks and has published its International Data Transfers whitepaper, which shows it uses EU-approved Standard Contractual Clauses when transferring personal data outside the EEA .
Trust is further reinforced by a suite of third-party certifications—including ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 22301, and SOC 1/2/3—all verified through external audits (via Coalfire among others). These attest BigCommerce’s commitment to information security, privacy management, and business continuity. They also publicly share a detailed PCI DSS v4.0.1 Shared Responsibility Matrix, so merchants know exactly which controls the platform covers and where they need to take charge.
Test‑drive enterprise‑grade selling with a 15‑day BigCommerce trial — no card required. Launch a full storefront, then upgrade from just $29 / mo (≈ £23) when you’re ready to sell.
Fees & Specifications
BigCommerce offers a tiered pricing model designed to scale with your store’s growth. Each plan builds on the last, offering more advanced tools for marketing, SEO, and operational efficiency. What’s notable is that even the entry-level Standard plan includes essentials like unlimited staff accounts, full API access, PCI DSS Level 1 security, and zero transaction fees. You’re not gated out of critical infrastructure just because you’re starting small.
Moving to the Plus or Pro plans adds serious business tools—like abandoned cart recovery with up to three emails, B2B pricing support, and richer SEO features. Pro also raises your sales threshold and unlocks multi-storefront functionality. Enterprise is fully custom and suits large-scale sellers that need headless commerce, custom support, and advanced backend control.
| Feature | Standard ($39/£31 mo) | Plus ($105/£84 mo) | Pro ($399/£319 mo) | Enterprise (custom) |
| Monthly Fee | $39 / £31 | $105 / £84 | $399 / £319 | Custom |
| Annual Fee (≈16% off) | $29 / £23 | $79 / £64 | $299 / £240 | Custom |
| Transaction Fees | None | None | None | None |
| SKU Cap (Variants) | 600 SKUs | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Staff Accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| APIs & Headless | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SSL & CDN | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Page Builder | Stencil (no-code) | Stencil (no-code) | Stencil (no-code) | Stencil + custom |
| SEO Tools | Auto sitemaps, canonical tags | + Rich snippets, multi-store SEO | + Advanced redirects | Custom SEO solutions |
| B2B/Wholesale | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Abandoned Cart Saver | ✓ (1 email) | ✓ (3 emails) | ✓ (3 emails) | Custom |
| Payment Gateways | 65+ (PayPal, Stripe, Square) | 65+ | 65+ | 65+ |
| Uptime SLA | 99.99% | 99.99% | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| 24/7 Support | Email & Chat | Priority Chat + Phone | Priority Chat + Phone | Dedicated CSM |
| GDPR Compliance | Built-in tools | Built-in tools | Built-in tools | Built-in tools |
| PCI DSS Level 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
If you’re running a modest operation with a handful of SKUs, the Standard plan offers a solid foundation without locking you out of key features. Just keep an eye on the 600-SKU limit—which includes product variants, not just product count. On the other end, Pro and Enterprise are built for high-growth brands that need speed, control, and scalability. Whichever plan fits, BigCommerce earns points for transparency—there are no hidden fees, and core functionality isn’t held hostage behind pricey upgrades.
Product Features
Storefront & Theme Editor
BigCommerce’s Stencil framework powers a drag-and-drop Page Builder that works out of the box but also supports full HTML/CSS/Handlebars overrides for developers. Merchants access 12 free and 150+ premium themes, all mobile-responsive and optimized for SEO, including AMP-compatible templates. The visual editor lets you adjust layout, colours, fonts and header/footer elements in real time, while advanced users can inject custom CSS/JS or override templates to achieve pixel-perfect designs.
Product & Catalog Management
- SKU Limits: Standard permits up to 600 SKUs, while Plus, Pro and Enterprise remove this cap entirely.
- Product Types: BigCommerce supports simple, configurable, bundle, digital and subscription products, all manageable through a unified catalog interface.
- Bulk Operations: Import/export CSV files of any size, update prices, inventory, categories or custom fields in bulk.
- Category Trees: Unlimited nested subcategories, custom filters and faceted search enhance navigation for large catalogs.
Cart & Checkout
BigCommerce’s checkout process is hosted on your domain, ensuring consistent branding and SSL encryption via TLS 1.3. The platform integrates with 65+ payment gateways—including PayPal, Stripe, Klarna and Apple Pay—without charging additional transaction fees. Abandoned Cart Saver sends one recovery email on Standard, and up to three on Plus and Pro plans, recovering as much as 15 % of lost orders. The One-Page Checkout and Accelerated Checkout (Amazon Pay, PayPal Express) options minimize friction and boost conversion rates.
Marketing & SEO Tools
BigCommerce’s built-in SEO suite generates sitemaps, canonical tags, robots.txt and editable meta titles/descriptions for every page and product. Google AMP support speeds mobile pages, while rich snippets increase SERP visibility. Marketing integrations include coupon codes, gift certificates, abandoned cart campaigns and seamless connections to Mailchimp, Klaviyo, and HubSpot. Multi-channel selling via Facebook, Instagram, eBay and Amazon channels expands reach without additional apps.
API & Headless Commerce
BigCommerce’s REST and GraphQL Storefront APIs enable fully headless implementations, powering custom front ends built in React, Vue or native mobile apps. The Checkout SDK and Cart API allow secure, embedded checkout experiences across any touchpoint. Webhooks, middleware support and comprehensive developer documentation foster real-time sync between ERP, CRM and other backend systems.
B2B & Wholesale Capabilities
Plus and above plans unlock advanced B2B features:
- Customer Groups & Price Lists for tiered pricing models
- Bulk Pricing rules and Minimum Order Quantities
- Custom Registration Forms and Tax Exempt statuses for qualified buyers
- Pro includes multi-storefront support and Google Customer Reviews integration, ideal for brand and regional store management.
Security & Compliance Tools
Within the Control Panel, merchants can configure GDPR data-subject tools—export, erasure and portability—triggered via the storefront or admin panel, with audit logs for each action. BigCommerce auto-provisions TLS 1.3 certificates, maintains PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, and offers an optional Data Processing Addendum (DPA) covering EU-US transfers under Standard Contractual Clauses.
Performance Metrics
Core Web Vitals & Real-User Data
BigCommerce’s Performance Insights dashboard surfaces Chrome UX Report field data for LCP, FID and CLS across store pages. Testing a 100-product Standard store, we saw:
- LCP: ~1.9 s (Good < 2.5 s)
- FID: ~55 ms (Good < 100 ms)
- CLS: ~0.05 (Good < 0.1)
Lighthouse Lab Scores
Independent Google Lighthouse 10 tests returned 90/100 on desktop and 83/100 on mobile. These high scores reflect BigCommerce’s built-in Akamai CDN, asset minification, and image compression.
Uptime & SLA
BigCommerce guarantees 99.99 % uptime, issuing service credits if monthly availability dips below the SLA. A 60-day StatusCake monitor (5-minute checks) recorded 100 % uptime, confirming the platform’s reliability.
Integrations & Ecosystem
BigCommerce backs its “open SaaS” tagline with more than 1,200 marketplace apps, spanning marketing, fulfilment, accounting, and AI tooling—roughly an order of magnitude bigger than many mid-market rivals. Merchants also get 65+ native payment gateways covering 230 countries and 140 currencies, so cross-border checkout rarely needs a plug-in. Because each connector is pre-vetted and version-controlled by BigCommerce, installation takes minutes and updates are silent in the background.
Under the bonnet, a REST and GraphQL API layer keeps those integrations humming. Standard and Plus stores can fire off 20 k calls per hour, Pro jumps to 60 k, and Enterprise clients can request an unlimited plan—generous ceilings that let busy stores sync inventory or prices in near real-time. The dev centre’s rate-limit tables, sample 429 responses, and sandbox tokens make it clear how to build resilient automations before launch. For no-code users, BigCommerce’s Channel Manager surfaces sales, ads, and social connectors (Amazon, eBay, TikTok, Facebook) in one panel, so products hit multiple storefronts without CSV gymnastics.
The ecosystem isn’t just breadth; it’s depth. Email specialists like Klaviyo and SMS tools such as Omnisend plug straight into the API, passing order and browse data back for personalised flows—one reason BigCommerce apps capture higher average order values in case studies. On the operations side, ShipStation, QuickBooks, and Xero integrations push real-time fulfilment and finance data into the mix, trimming manual reconciliation. Finally, headless builds using Contentful or WordPress showcase that BigCommerce can act purely as a back-end engine, freeing brands to lead with content-driven front ends.
Quick-hit takeaways
- 1,200+ apps: biggest marketplace in its price tier.
- 65+ gateways / 140 currencies: global-ready payments out of the box.
- API quotas: 20 k (Standard/Plus) → 60 k (Pro) → unlimited (Enterprise) calls per hour.
- Channel Manager: one dashboard for Amazon, eBay, Facebook, TikTok and more.
- Headless-friendly: REST + GraphQL let WordPress, Contentful, or custom React fronts run commerce logic.
Together, these connectors and developer tools mean merchants can build a best-of-breed stack today and swap parts tomorrow—without another replatforming headache.
Use code TRYBC at BigCommerce checkout to lock in your first month for just $1 (≈ 80 p) on any Standard plan — perfect for stress‑free store testing.
Use Cases
BigCommerce’s open-SaaS core flexes from solo shops to multi-brand giants. The entry-level Standard plan tops out at 600 SKUs (product variants), a ceiling most niche stores never hit. Step up to Plus or Pro and that limit disappears—those tiers allow unlimited products and file storage, so growth is gated only by sales volume, not catalogue size. On the backend, every plan exposes the same REST and GraphQL endpoints, meaning you can start small and re-skin or scale later without rewriting the plumbing.
- Growing retailers & SMBs – Standard comfortably handles boutiques up to the 600-SKU mark, while Plus/Pro remove the cap entirely, letting merchants ride from a dozen products to tens of thousands without changing platforms.
- Headless & Omnichannel – BigCommerce’s REST/GraphQL APIs and Checkout SDK make it straightforward to bolt a React, Vue or native-mobile front end onto the same commerce core; the same pipes also feed products into Amazon, eBay, TikTok and other sales channels for true omnichannel reach.
- Multi-brand & Enterprise – Pro and Enterprise tiers unlock Multi-Storefront plus multi-currency pricing, so global brands can run region-specific sites and localised checkouts from one dashboard, slashing overhead for teams managing several labels.
- B2B & Wholesale – With customer groups, company accounts, price lists and B2B-optimised checkout baked into Plus/Pro (and expanded further in BigCommerce’s dedicated B2B Edition), wholesalers can offer negotiated pricing, net terms and volume discounts without third-party hacks.
In short, BigCommerce scales sideways as easily as it scales up—you can start as a pocket-sized retailer, layer on headless or B2B features when the business demands it, and graduate to multi-storefront empire status without a replatforming headache.
Customer Support & Resources
BigCommerce pairs round-the-clock human help with a deep self-service library and an active peer network, so merchants aren’t left Googling in the dark when something breaks at 2 a.m. Below you’ll find how those layers stack up—from live agents to developer Slack channels—so you can gauge whether the platform’s support culture fits your risk appetite.
Live Support
All plans get 24/7 access to email, chat and phone agents, with regional toll-free numbers published for North America, Europe and APAC. Enterprise clients upgrade to Priority Support and a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) who acts as a strategic growth adviser once the store is live. Response times aren’t publicly guaranteed, but community threads report sub-five-minute chat pickups for Plus users during US business hours—a practical win when a flash sale goes sideways.
Self-Service Knowledge & Community
The Help Center houses hundreds of how-to articles and videos covering everything from theme tweaks to performance tuning. Developers can dive deeper via the BigCommerce Dev Center, which offers exhaustive REST and GraphQL references, webhooks, and SDK examples. If you prefer crowd-sourced wisdom, the Community Forum counts 20 000+ members, while the invite-only BigCommerceDevs Slack delivers real-time code reviews and plugin tips from thousands of builders. Quarterly Town Hall Q&A sessions add direct product-team face time and roadmap visibility—handy when you need to plan migrations around upcoming features.
Training & Partner Ecosystem
For structured learning, BigCommerce University offers live webinars and on-demand courses on topics such as B2B workflows, headless builds and SEO hygiene. When DIY stops scaling, the Partner Directory lists hundreds of certified agencies, app developers and system integrators—all sortable by budget, vertical and region. Merchants can therefore move from scrappy in-house builds to enterprise-grade roll-outs without ditching the platform—or their sanity.
Quick take: you get human help on tap, a rich knowledge base for weekend tinkering, and a partner bench if you outgrow your own elbows. For most store owners, that’s the support trifecta.
Final Verdict
BigCommerce’s core appeal is structural: zero transaction fees on every plan keep margins clean, while transparent pricing—Standard at $39/£31, Plus at $105/£84 and Pro at $399/£319—lets merchants budget for growth without unpleasant surprises. Couple that with a headless-ready, API-first architecture (REST and GraphQL) and you have a platform that can slot behind a React storefront today or power a mobile app tomorrow with minimal refactor. Security keeps pace: BigCommerce maintains PCI DSS Level 1 status and is already rolling out controls for PCI 4.0, adding password-hardening and audit trails that many rivals still treat as wish-list features.
Where the platform really stretches its legs is in mid-market to enterprise use cases. Plus and Pro unlock unlimited SKUs, multi-storefront management and advanced SEO controls, while the optional B2B Edition adds contract pricing, company accounts and re-order dashboards out of the box. Global brands benefit from built-in multi-currency support and 65-plus native payment gateways, ensuring regional checkouts feel local without middleware bloat. Factor in class-leading uptime guarantees and an ecosystem of 1,200-plus apps and you have a stack that scales sideways as fast as it scales up.
The trade-offs are real but predictable. Smaller, content-led sites may balk at paying commerce-grade fees for features they won’t touch, and the learning curve on theme customisation can feel steep beside plug-and-play page builders. Yet for any merchant whose roadmap includes SKU expansion, channel diversification or B2B sales, BigCommerce delivers growth headroom, compliance peace of mind and operational agility in one subscription. In short: if your business plan is bigger than your launch budget, BigCommerce is still the smart bet for 2025 and beyond.
*Enter code TRYBC at checkout. Renews at £23 /mo thereafter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees?
A. No. BigCommerce does not impose additional transaction fees, no matter which payment gateway you use.
Q. Is BigCommerce GDPR-compliant?
A. Yes. The platform includes built-in tools for data export, erasure and portability, and provides a Data Processing Addendum so merchants can meet GDPR obligations.
Q. What is BigCommerce’s uptime SLA?
A. BigCommerce guarantees 99.99 % uptime and issues service-credit refunds if availability drops below that threshold.
Q. Can I build a headless storefront on BigCommerce?
A. Absolutely. BigCommerce exposes REST and GraphQL Storefront APIs, plus Checkout SDKs and webhooks, so you can power decoupled web or mobile front ends.
Q. What support does the Enterprise plan include?
A. Enterprise merchants receive 24/7 priority support, a dedicated Customer Success Manager, quarterly business reviews and custom SLAs.
Q. Does BigCommerce offer a free trial?
A. Yes. BigCommerce provides a 15-day free trial with no credit card required, giving you full dashboard and storefront access before you commit.
Q. How many payment gateways does BigCommerce support?
A. Out of the box, the platform integrates with more than 65 payment gateways, supporting 250+ local methods across 100+ countries.
Q. Can BigCommerce handle multi-currency checkout?
A. Yes. Stores can display prices and accept payments in over 100 currencies, letting shoppers pay in their local currency at checkout.