Shopify

Top 10 BigCommerce Alternatives in 2026

31 July, 2026 • 7 min, read

Table of Contents

Introduction What Changed on BigCommerce in June 2026 (Read This First) The 10 Best BigCommerce Alternatives and Competitors in 2026 Comparison Table Why Merchants Actually Leave BigCommerce in 2026 Which Alternative Should You Actually Choose? The Bottom Line Frequently Asked Questions

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Introduction

Quick answer: The strongest all-around BigCommerce alternative for most stores is Shopify, especially since its April 2026 update added B2B tools to every plan starting at $39/month. WooCommerce is the better fit if you want full code ownership and lower long-term cost.

Adobe Commerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud remain the standard enterprise picks, while Medusa and Saleor are the developer-first, fully composable options. Which one actually fits depends less on features and more on a factor most comparisons undersell: how BigCommerce's pricing has changed in 2026, covered first below.

Most "BigCommerce alternatives" guides list the same ten platforms with the same one-line descriptions. What they're missing is timing: BigCommerce quietly overhauled its entire pricing structure on June 1, 2026 new plan names, a new payment fee, and lower revenue ceilings that push merchants into upgrades faster than before.

If you're comparing alternatives to BigCommerce based on pricing you read even six months ago, you're comparing against numbers that no longer apply. This guide covers that change first, then the 10 BigCommerce competitors worth evaluating against it.

What Changed on BigCommerce in June 2026 (Read This First)

On June 1, 2026, BigCommerce renamed its plans and restructured how costs scale with revenue: Standard became Core, Plus became Growth, Pro became Scale, and Enterprise became Performance. Base subscription prices at the entry tiers stayed roughly the same ($29/month for Core, annual billing), but three real changes moved underneath that sticker price:

Lower revenue ceilings before an automatic plan upgrade. Core's GMV cap dropped from the old Standard plan's $50,000 to $30,000. Growth's cap dropped from Plus's $180,000 to $100,000. The same trailing-12-month sales now push you into a pricier tier sooner than it would have a year ago.
A new Open Payment Provider Fee. For merchants not using BigCommerce's own embedded payment provider, a new fee now applies on top of standard processing: 2.0% on Core, 1.0% on Growth, 0.6% on Scale, and 0% on Performance. This is a genuinely new cost that didn't exist before June 2026, and it specifically affects stores using a non-embedded gateway.
Scale's overage math changed shape. Rather than the old Pro plan's per-$200,000-block surcharge, Scale now applies a flat 0.9% fee on monthly GMV above $33,333, auto-upgrading to Performance at $2 million in trailing-12-month GMV.

Current pricing, post-overhaul: Core around $29/month (annual) up to $30K GMV, Growth around $79/month up to $100K GMV, Scale around $299/month up to roughly $400K GMV before the new overage math kicks in, and Performance custom-priced, typically starting near $1,499/month for negotiated B2B and enterprise contracts.

Why this matters for choosing an alternative:

A store doing $60,000–$150,000 in annual GMV squarely mid-market now hits an automatic upgrade a full tier earlier than it would have under the pre-June structure. If you're evaluating alternatives specifically because BigCommerce's pricing feels unpredictable, that unpredictability got measurably worse this year, not better, which is the opposite of what a lot of older "why leave BigCommerce" content still describes.

The 10 Best BigCommerce Alternatives and Competitors in 2026

1. Shopify - Best all-around alternative for most stores

Shopify remains the most commonly chosen BigCommerce alternative, and its April 2026 update closed one of BigCommerce's traditional advantages by adding B2B company profiles, catalogs, volume pricing, and payment terms to every plan starting at $39/month, with a three-catalog cap below Plus and unlimited catalogs on Plus and above.

Its app ecosystem (21,000+ apps) dwarfs BigCommerce's roughly 1,200, and pricing isn't tied to revenue thresholds the way BigCommerce's is a Shopify store doing $500,000 a year pays the same subscription as one doing $100,000, aside from payment processing.

Where BigCommerce still wins: BigCommerce has no fixed per-product variant cap issue the way Shopify historically did though Shopify raised its own variant limit to 2,048 per product in 2026, which closes most of that gap for all but the most complex catalogs.

Best for: most stores leaving BigCommerce for cost predictability, ecosystem breadth, or B2B features without enterprise pricing. (If you decide on this move, see our best Shopify migration apps guide for the actual switch.)

2. WooCommerce - Best for full code ownership and lower long-term cost

WooCommerce, the free WordPress ecommerce plugin, remains the leading choice for merchants who want to own their entire technical stack rather than rent a hosted platform.

Unlike BigCommerce's GMV-based plan structure, a self-managed WooCommerce store's cost is tied to hosting and plugins, not revenue, a real advantage for a high-volume store that would otherwise be pushed into BigCommerce's pricier tiers automatically. The tradeoff is the same one that applies to any self-hosted platform: you or a developer own security, updates, and hosting reliability.

Best for: stores wanting maximum control and a cost structure that doesn't scale with sales volume.

3. Adobe Commerce (Magento) - Best for deep enterprise customization

Adobe Commerce remains the standard choice for large brands needing extensive customization beyond what any hosted SaaS platform allows, particularly when paired with Adobe Experience Manager for content-heavy, personalization-driven storefronts.

It requires significantly more development investment than BigCommerce or Shopify, but the ceiling on what can be built is correspondingly higher.

Best for: large, well-resourced brands with in-house or agency development support and complex customization needs BigCommerce's SaaS model can't accommodate.

4. Salesforce Commerce Cloud - Best for existing Salesforce ecosystems

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is the natural alternative for retailers already running Salesforce for CRM, marketing, or service, where deep integration across the existing Salesforce stack matters more than the commerce platform being evaluated in isolation. It's an enterprise-tier commitment in both cost and implementation complexity.

Best for: large retailers already inside the Salesforce ecosystem who want commerce, CRM, and marketing data unified under one vendor.

5. OroCommerce - Best purpose-built B2B alternative

Where BigCommerce's B2B Edition is B2C-first with B2B features layered on top, OroCommerce is built B2B-first from the ground up designed specifically for wholesalers, manufacturers, and distributors needing bulk ordering, complex catalogs, tiered pricing, and multi-step approval workflows as core functionality rather than add-ons.

Best for: B2B-heavy businesses that have hit the limits of BigCommerce's B2B Edition and need wholesale-native functionality without stitching together third-party apps.

6. commercetools - Best fully composable, MACH-native option

commercetools is a cloud-based, API-first commerce platform built around MACH principles (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless), letting enterprise teams assemble a best-of-breed stack from independent services rather than relying on one vendor's bundled tools.

This is a meaningfully bigger architectural commitment than switching to another hosted SaaS platform, and it requires real implementation budget and expertise.

Best for: enterprise teams wanting full architectural flexibility and willing to invest in the development resources a composable stack demands.

7. Medusa - Best open-source, developer-first alternative

Medusa is a fast-growing open-source commerce engine built on a modular, API-first architecture, giving development teams full control over checkout flows, pricing logic, and integrations without being locked into a rigid SaaS system. It has no licensing cost, which appeals to teams with strong in-house engineering capability who want to avoid BigCommerce's revenue-based pricing model entirely.

Best for: startups, agencies, and scaling brands with real development resources who want a fully custom backend without SaaS constraints.

8. Wix - Best for new or small stores wanting fast, easy setup

Wix is the more approachable choice for merchants launching their first store or selling a small catalog, with a much gentler learning curve than BigCommerce and website-building tools that go well beyond what a commerce-first platform typically offers.

Best for: new store owners or small catalogs prioritizing ease of setup over deep ecommerce functionality.

9. Squarespace - Best for design-led, content-first brands

Squarespace sits a notch below BigCommerce on pure ecommerce depth but a notch above on default design quality, combining a polished drag-and-drop editor with built-in blogging, scheduling, and content tools in one platform.

Best for: design-conscious or content-first brands where storytelling and visual presentation matter as much as the storefront itself.

10. Swell - Best for subscription-heavy and headless-ready brands

Swell combines commerce-as-a-service flexibility with a native subscription engine handling flexible billing intervals, mixed carts of subscriptions and one-time purchases, and dunning management natively, where BigCommerce and Shopify both typically require a third-party app like ReCharge for the same functionality. It charges 0% transaction fees on external payment gateways, with percentage fees applying only above certain revenue ceilings.

Best for: brands built around recurring revenue or subscriptions that want that functionality native rather than bolted on.

Comparison Table

Platform	Type	Pricing model	Best for
Shopify	Hosted SaaS	Flat, not GMV-based	Most stores leaving BigCommerce
WooCommerce	Self-hosted, open-source	Hosting + plugins, not revenue-based	Full code ownership, lower long-term cost
Adobe Commerce	Enterprise, self-hosted or cloud	Custom/high	Deep enterprise customization
Salesforce Commerce Cloud	Enterprise SaaS	Custom/high	Existing Salesforce ecosystems
OroCommerce	B2B-native SaaS	Custom	Wholesale/distribution-first B2B
commercetools	MACH-native, composable	Custom, usage-based	Fully composable enterprise stacks
Medusa	Open-source, self-hosted	Free license + hosting	Developer-first, full control
Wix	Hosted SaaS	Flat, tiered	New/small stores
Squarespace	Hosted SaaS	Flat, tiered	Design-led, content-first brands
Swell	Commerce-as-a-service	Flat + tiered fees above ceilings	Subscription-heavy brands

Why Merchants Actually Leave BigCommerce in 2026

Beyond the June pricing overhaul itself, a few recurring reasons show up across real merchant feedback:

Revenue-based auto-upgrades feel unpredictable. Even before June 2026, BigCommerce's model of tying plan tier to trailing-12-month GMV made cost planning harder than a flat-fee platform and the lowered thresholds this year made that worse, not better.
The 600-variant-per-product ceiling. BigCommerce caps products at 600 variants, Shopify raised its own cap to 2,048 in 2026. For merchants selling highly configurable products (apparel with many size/color combinations, custom-built items), this is a real functional constraint, not just a pricing one.
A smaller app ecosystem than Shopify's. BigCommerce lists roughly 1,200 apps, Shopify's app store runs over 21,000. For a specific, narrow business need, the odds of finding a purpose-built app are simply lower on BigCommerce.
Newer, less mature headless tooling. BigCommerce's headless framework, Catalyst, is newer relative to purpose-built API-first alternatives like commercetools or Medusa, which have had more time to mature specifically around headless/composable use cases.
Discontinued native integrations. BigCommerce's native Ads and Listings on Google integration was discontinued as of March 2, 2026, with BigCommerce now directing merchants to a third-party tool (Feedonomics Surface) for the same functionality, a small but real example of native capability shrinking rather than growing.

Which Alternative Should You Actually Choose?

Leaving primarily over pricing unpredictability: Shopify, since its plans aren't tied to revenue thresholds at all.
Want to own your stack and avoid revenue-based pricing permanently: WooCommerce or Medusa, depending on how much development resource you have in-house.
Need genuinely B2B-native functionality, not B2C-with-B2B-added: OroCommerce.
Building a fully composable, best-of-breed architecture: commercetools.
Subscriptions are core to the business model: Swell.
Design and content matter as much as the store itself: Squarespace.
Launching a first store or a small catalog, prioritizing ease: Wix.
Already deep in the Salesforce or Adobe ecosystem: Salesforce Commerce Cloud or Adobe Commerce, respectively, for the integration depth alone.

The Bottom Line

BigCommerce hasn't gotten worse across the board in 2026 but its June pricing overhaul made the platform's core tradeoff (built-in features vs. revenue-based cost unpredictability) more pronounced, not less, which is exactly the moment more merchants start seriously evaluating alternatives to BigCommerce.

Shopify remains the default answer for most stores prioritizing ecosystem size and pricing predictability, WooCommerce and Medusa for those wanting to own their stack outright, and OroCommerce, commercetools, Adobe Commerce, or Salesforce Commerce Cloud for the specific enterprise or B2B needs BigCommerce's SaaS model can't fully accommodate.

Whichever of these BigCommerce competitors you're weighing, the right choice still comes down to your actual revenue trajectory and catalog complexity, not which platform has the longest feature list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What is the best BigCommerce alternative overall?

A: For most merchants, Shopify is the most commonly recommended alternative, largely due to its much larger app ecosystem, pricing that isn't tied to revenue thresholds, and B2B tooling added to every plan as of April 2026. The better fit still depends on catalog complexity, B2B needs, and whether code ownership matters more than convenience.

Q2: Who are BigCommerce's biggest competitors?

A: Shopify is the most widely adopted competitor, followed by WooCommerce for self-hosted merchants and Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and commercetools for enterprise-scale needs. OroCommerce is the leading purpose-built alternative specifically for B2B wholesale and distribution.

Q3: What changed with BigCommerce's pricing in 2026?

A: BigCommerce renamed its plans (Standard to Core, Plus to Growth, Pro to Scale, Enterprise to Performance) on June 1, 2026, lowered the revenue thresholds that trigger automatic plan upgrades, and introduced a new Open Payment Provider Fee for merchants not using BigCommerce's embedded payment gateway. Base subscription prices at the entry tiers stayed close to their prior levels, but the effective cost for growing, mid-market stores increased.

Q4: Is Shopify cheaper than BigCommerce?

A: It depends on revenue and payment setup rather than the subscription price alone. Shopify's plans aren't tied to GMV thresholds, so a fast-growing store avoids BigCommerce's automatic tier upgrades, but Shopify's per-transaction fees differ from BigCommerce's model, particularly if BigCommerce's Open Payment Provider Fee applies to your payment setup. Comparing total cost at your actual expected revenue, not just the listed monthly price, is the only reliable way to answer this for a specific store.

Q5: Is WooCommerce a good BigCommerce alternative for a small store?

A: Yes, particularly if minimizing recurring platform cost matters more than convenience. WooCommerce's cost is tied to hosting and plugins rather than revenue, so it doesn't carry BigCommerce's automatic upgrade structure, though it does require more hands-on technical management than a fully hosted platform.

Q6: Does BigCommerce still make sense for anyone in 2026?

A: Yes, BigCommerce still offers no core platform transaction fee (aside from the new Open Payment Provider Fee for non-embedded gateways), unlimited staff accounts across all plans, and stronger built-in features at its entry tier than some competitors' equivalent plans, including real-time multi-carrier shipping rates. It remains a reasonable choice for merchants comfortable with its embedded payment provider and revenue profile, particularly those who value built-in features over app-store breadth.

Choosing the right BigCommerce alternative requires weighing your catalog complexity, B2B needs, and revenue trajectory against unpredictable platform pricing models. Whether you decide to switch to Shopify for predictable monthly costs, move to WooCommerce for total technical ownership, or adopt an enterprise B2B platform, executing a seamless platform migration is critical to protecting your SEO, order history, and product data. Planning to migrate away from BigCommerce? Webgarh provides end-to-end e-commerce migration services, ensuring a smooth, zero-downtime transition tailored to your business needs. Get a Free Migration Quote from Webgarh Today.

Webgarh Shopify Team

The Webgarh Shopify team works with brands that need more than a standard storefront. From store builds and redesigns to migrations, integrations, custom apps, and long-term growth support, the team focuses on creating Shopify systems that are built around how a business actually operates.

Webgarh’s approach combines commerce strategy, technical execution, and operational thinking. That means projects are not treated as isolated design or development tasks. Every engagement is shaped around business goals, customer experience, data quality, scalability, and the systems that support day-to-day operations.

The team has experience across Shopify, Shopify Plus, headless commerce, B2B workflows, subscriptions, multi-store setups, ERP and CRM integrations, analytics, automation, and AI-enabled commerce experiences.

Webgarh also works with brands that have outgrown native Shopify capabilities. In many cases, that means designing custom functionality, connecting multiple systems, replacing manual workflows, improving reporting, or building features that standard apps cannot support effectively.

For migration projects, the team follows a structured, audit-first process designed to reduce risk around SEO continuity, data mapping, integrations, redirect planning, analytics tracking, and post-launch stability. That helps businesses move platforms without losing visibility, operational control, or customer experience. The team’s work spans a wide range of industries, including fashion, health and wellness, electronics, home, manufacturing, B2B, and D2C. Across these sectors, the focus remains the same: build systems that are easier to manage, designed for growth, and capable of supporting the next stage of the business.

Through Webgarh, the Shopify team regularly shares practical insights on Shopify development, migrations, store performance, integrations, CRO, AI visibility, and commerce operations — helping founders, operators, and digital teams make more informed decisions with fewer surprises.

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