BigCommerce and Magento are very different platforms.
At a high level, Magento — and we specifically mean Magento Open Source — is built for businesses who need to customize their graphic design, user experience, back-end integrations, and administrative functions.
BigCommerce is built for businesses who want to focus on selling and are happy leaving the detailed technical side to the BigCommerce experts.
As we dig a little deeper, we can see a few more differences worth noting.
This is where we find the biggest difference between the two platforms. In the BigCommerce SaaS model, you will pay more as your business grows and utilizes more resources on their platform. Magento grows with you and you keep the revenue.
Out of the box, Magento and BigCommerce both deliver on the promise of scalability. BigCommerce has streamlined the process of getting it all to work as efficiently as possible for you as long as you stay within the framework they built. The Magento core is similarly streamlined and you can also take advantage of existing extensions to help improve each aspect of scalability. Beyond existing extensions, your Magento team can help you tweak and customize server settings to further optimize your particular site needs.
Magento 2 is fully scalable, apt for medium and large stores. If it does not have the desired feature out of the box, it can be easily added, making it very versatile. It is ready to increase the number of products or categories.
BigCommerce is fine for startups or beginners, though it may grow as your business requires. However, it features an annual sales limit. Should you exceed this limit, you will be automatically promoted to the next level, which will come at an additional cost. With faster-growing businesses, this new cost may pile up sooner than you might expect.
Built-in features and the possibility of enhancing the UX and functionality by means of extensions or add-ons make these two platforms equally desirable. However, Magento offers more design flexibility than BigCommerce.
If your digital business demands specialized design or functional customization, Magento will likely meet your needs better than BigCommerce. However, BigCommerce is the most powerful SaaS solution with a lower total cost of ownership and faster time to market than Magento.
Built-in features and the possibility of enhancing the UX and functionality by means of extensions or add-ons make these two platforms equally desirable. However, when it comes to expanding its opportunities, Magento 2 has a definite edge. From design flexibility to future-proofing your store, Magento has much more to offer.
You want to be able to customize your store to meet each of your needs, so you must ensure that the platform you choose will allow you to do so, especially if you want to sell B2B. Being open-source, Magento 2 can accommodate truly complex requirements, while BigCommerce is more of a come-as-is solution which, even though powerful, may cause you delays if a needed extension does not yet exist.
Most Magento implementations are supported by an internal team or a partner agency. In either scenario, the site can be maintained and optimized as demanded by your unique business needs. Additionally, Magento has an active community of users and developers around the world who are available on various forums to answer questions and troubleshoot.
BigCommerce offers an extensive library of support documentation and training online called BigCommerce University. They also offer phone, email, and chat support 24/7 on all BigCommerce solutions.
A robust and very active support community has developed for Magento due to the large number of users. And, since it is open-source, there are multiple forums where users and developers are willing to answer your questions and help make this a better platform. Also, customer support is available by the hour for a fee.
In the case of BigCommerce, the best source of support is BigCommerce University. There is also phone, email, and chat support 24/7 on all their packages.
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