WooCommerce vs BigCommerce
WooCommerce is open source software you host and maintain in WordPress; BigCommerce is a hosted service from 39 dollars a month with customer groups and product filtering in its higher plans. WooCommerce takes no share of revenue; BigCommerce charges up to 2% outside its embedded payment providers. The split: a technical person on hand, or a plan rising with sales.
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Choose WooCommerce ifyour site already runs on WordPress, someone technical owns the hosting and updates, and you want full ownership of the store with a cost that does not track your sales.
Choose BigCommerce ifyou have a mid-size catalogue, want customer groups, filtering and extra storefronts without assembling extensions, and have nobody to patch a server.
WooCommerce and BigCommerce side by side
| WooCommerce | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Our ecommerce platform rank | #1 of 14 | #2 of 14 |
| Established in | United States | United States |
| Pricing | Free plugin; you pay for hosting and extensions | Per month by plan, published; 0.6% to 2% fee outside embedded payment providers |
| List price, 30 September 2026 | Free plugin; Woo's own estimate for hosting is $25 to $350 per month for most stores | Core: $39 per month billed monthly, or $29 per month billed annually |
| Free tier | Yes | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | A team that already runs WordPress and has someone technical | A mid-size catalogue that would otherwise buy five Shopify apps |
| Not for | A non-technical owner who wants no maintenance | A first store with ten products |
Both are reviewed in full in our ecommerce platform ranking: WooCommerce and BigCommerce.
Where they differ
WooCommerce 3 · BigCommerce 2 · open 0- 01
Maintenance burden
With WooCommerce you choose the hosting, apply the updates and own the security. BigCommerce is rented, so upgrades happen without you on every plan. A team with no technical person should treat this as decisive; a team that already maintains WordPress carries little extra weight.
Edge: BigCommerce
- 02
How the bill moves when sales rise
WooCommerce takes a 0% revenue share; its costs are hosting, which Woo puts at 25 to 350 dollars a month depending on traffic, and extensions. BigCommerce moves Core to Growth automatically above 30,000 dollars of trailing annual sales and Growth to Scale above 100,000, and adds 2%, 1% or 0.6% on orders through payment providers outside its embedded list.
Edge: WooCommerce
- 03
Features before you add anything
BigCommerce includes multi-currency on all plans, customer groups from Growth and product filtering from Scale, with extra storefronts as paid add-ons. WooCommerce is a plugin whose functionality you assemble from hundreds of extensions, which Woo prices at 29 to 299 dollars a year each. For a mid-size catalogue the hosted product starts further along.
Edge: BigCommerce
- 04
Ownership and control
WooCommerce is open source, which Woo describes as complete ownership of your store, inside a site you already run. BigCommerce is a service whose roadmap and deprecations are decided for you, and its theme ecosystem is on the thin side. Buyers who put control first land on WooCommerce.
Edge: WooCommerce
- 05
Wholesale pricing
BigCommerce offers customer groups for pricing and product access from its Growth plan at 105 dollars a month, but SKU-level price lists only on Performance, which starts at 1,499 dollars a month. On WooCommerce, the B2B for WooCommerce extension by Addify costs 156 euros a year and adds role-based prices, customer-specific prices, quote requests and catalogue visibility rules.
Edge: WooCommerce
When neither fits
A small existing site that only needs a shop added needs neither a WordPress build nor a mid-size platform: Ecwid drops into the page you already have. A first store with ten products that must launch fast is Shopify territory.
WooCommerce or BigCommerce: questions
4 answersDo WooCommerce and BigCommerce charge transaction fees?
WooCommerce charges none and takes no share of revenue; you pay your payment gateway. BigCommerce charges nothing for its embedded payment providers, such as Stripe, Adyen and PayPal, but 2% on Core, 1% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale for orders through other providers.
Is WooCommerce or BigCommerce better for a team without a developer?
BigCommerce. With WooCommerce the hosting, updates and security are yours, so it does not suit a non-technical owner who wants no maintenance. BigCommerce is hosted and has a 15-day free trial, though it is not meant for a first store with ten products.
Which handles B2B better, WooCommerce or BigCommerce?
It depends on depth. BigCommerce gives customer groups from Growth, but individual SKU-level price lists sit on the Performance plan from 1,499 dollars a month. WooCommerce reaches customer-specific prices and quotes with a paid extension at 156 euros a year, provided someone maintains it.
What does each cost to start?
The WooCommerce plugin is free; Woo estimates hosting at 25 to 350 dollars a month for most stores. BigCommerce lists Core at 39 dollars a month, or 29 on annual billing, for stores up to 30,000 dollars in trailing annual sales.
Sources
Checked 30 September 2026- WooCommerce pricing page: WooCommerce 0% revenue share, hosting and extension cost estimates.
- WooCommerce features page: open source ownership claim and size of the extension marketplace.
- WooCommerce Marketplace: B2B for WooCommerce: price and features of the B2B for WooCommerce extension.
- BigCommerce pricing page: BigCommerce plan prices, sales caps, open payment provider fees, plan features and trial.