BigCommerce vs WooCommerce 2026: Hosted Fee or Free Plugin?

Pick BigCommerce if you want one predictable bill and no server to manage; pick WooCommerce if you will run WordPress hosting yourself and want costs that do not climb with sales. BigCommerce costs $29 to $299 a month billed yearly, and its plan rises with your sales. WooCommerce is free, plus hosting that Woo puts at $25 to $350 a month and paid extensions. Prices checked on both vendors' pages, 19 October 2026.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracks 109 e-commerce platforms as of October 19, 2026, and 33% of them are free, freemium or open source. BigCommerce ranks third among the most compared tools in that category over the last 90 days, with 238 side-by-side comparisons, behind Shopify and NetSuite. Both products have Toolradar profiles: BigCommerce and WooCommerce.

BigCommerce vs WooCommerce at a glance

The table hides one structural point. BigCommerce prices by sales volume, while WooCommerce prices by infrastructure, so the cheaper option flips depending on how much you sell and how much you spend on hosting.

How each one charges you

BigCommerce chooses your plan from your sales. Core covers up to $30K of trailing 12-month GMV and Growth up to $100K, and the pricing page says the account auto-upgrades when you pass a cap. GMV is gross order value minus 10%, which lifts the real thresholds to about $33,300 and $111,100 of yearly orders. Scale includes $33,333 of GMV a month, charges 0.9% on GMV above that, and moves the account to Performance once trailing GMV reaches $2 million. The full ladder, including the monthly-billing prices, is broken down in our BigCommerce pricing guide.

WooCommerce charges nothing for the software and nothing on sales. Woo's pricing page lists no platform fee, no revenue share and no feature tiers, with unlimited products and orders in the free core. The bill comes from three places the merchant controls: a host, a payment processor and paid extensions. That also means the merchant owns updates, backups, security and speed, work a BigCommerce merchant never sees. Our WooCommerce pricing guide itemizes that stack line by line.

The practical difference is who carries the risk. BigCommerce's bill grows with revenue, while a WooCommerce store pays for capacity and maintenance whether sales rise or not.

What a store pays at $5,000, $20,000 and $60,000 a month

Retailpresso data: we priced one US store on both platforms at three sales levels, with a $75 average order, domestic card payments and yearly billing. BigCommerce runs on the plan its caps assign, through PayPal Braintree at the published 2.89% + $0.29, with Scale's overage added. The WooCommerce store uses WooPayments at 2.9% + $0.30, adds two Woo extensions for features BigCommerce Growth builds in (AutomateWoo for abandoned cart emails at $159 a year, Product Bundles at $79 a year), and carries hosting at both ends of Woo's own range. These are our calculations on published rates, not vendor quotes, and they exclude themes, developer time, shipping and tax.

The break-even is a hosting budget, not a sales figure. At $5,000 a month, WooCommerce stays cheaper only while hosting costs less than about $58 a month. At $20,000 the line moves to about $275, and at the top sales level it is roughly $451, above the top of Woo's own hosting range. That is the case for WooCommerce at volume: card fees are nearly identical on both, so BigCommerce's plan price and overage become the whole difference as sales grow.

The table flatters WooCommerce in one way. It counts no developer hours, and a store that pays an agency for updates and fixes can add more than the entire gap. A merchant without technical help should treat the high-hosting column as the realistic one.

Round 1: upfront and fixed cost. WooCommerce wins

WooCommerce costs nothing to install and keeps costing nothing at the software level, whether the store sells $500 or $5 million a year. The only fixed costs are hosting and whichever extensions you choose, and both can start small. Woo's extensions bill yearly, so the abandoned cart and bundles pair above adds about $20 a month.

BigCommerce's entry price is low, but it is not a choice for long. A store passing about $2,800 a month in orders crosses Core's cap and lands on Growth, and past roughly $9,300 a month it lands on Scale. Monthly billing costs more again: Core is $39, Growth $105 and Scale $399 when you skip the yearly commitment. For a free starting point on either side, the free ecommerce website guide compares the $0 routes.

Round 2: payment fees. Tie on cards, WooCommerce on flexibility

The card rates are a rounding error apart: 2.89% + $0.29 on BigCommerce through Braintree, against 2.9% + $0.30 on WooPayments for US cards. On 267 orders a month, the gap is under $5. Both add costs on the edges. WooPayments charges 1.5% more on international cards, 1% more for currency conversion and $15 per dispute, while Braintree's standard American Express rate on BigCommerce is 3.50% with no fixed fee.

The gateway rules differ more. BigCommerce charges an Open Payment Provider fee of 2% on Core, 1% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale for orders through any processor outside its embedded list. That list is long, covering Stripe, Adyen, Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, Amazon Pay, Checkout.com, Worldpay and PayPal's products, so most US merchants never pay it. WooCommerce charges no fee for any processor, which matters only if yours is not on BigCommerce's list.

Round 3: built-in features. BigCommerce wins

BigCommerce Core includes unlimited staff accounts, multi-currency in more than 100 currencies, more than 70 discount options, real-time shipping quotes, a blog, product reviews and free sitewide SSL. Growth adds customer groups, the abandoned cart saver, persistent carts and stored cards, and Scale adds product filtering and Google customer reviews. None of it needs an app, and none of it needs updating.

WooCommerce's free core covers unlimited products and orders plus checkout, then hands everything else to extensions. Abandoned cart emails (the tactic our cart abandonment guide explains), bundles and recurring billing are paid add-ons, and WooCommerce Subscriptions costs $279 a year on its own. The upside is choice, and Woo's pricing page lists unlimited product variants in the free core. The downside is that every extension is one more thing to update and one more possible conflict.

Round 4: control and ownership. WooCommerce wins

A WooCommerce store is your code on your server. You can move hosts, edit any template, change the checkout and keep every order record without asking a vendor. That control is why agencies like it for unusual catalogs and custom flows.

BigCommerce limits that freedom in exchange for running the platform. The store lives on BigCommerce's servers and inside its template system, and the vendor handles hosting, updates and SSL. For many merchants that trade is the point, because nobody on their side has to patch a server at midnight.

Round 5: growth and multi-location. Depends on the business

BigCommerce caps inventory locations at 4 on Core, 5 on Growth and 8 on Scale, and adds extra storefronts for $30, $50 or $100 a month by plan. A merchant running several brands from one admin gets that without building anything. WooCommerce has no plan caps, but multi-store and multi-location setups mean more extensions or a WordPress multisite build, with the developer cost that implies.

At the top end, BigCommerce Performance starts at $1,499 a month on an annual contract and brings price lists and advanced promotions for B2B. WooCommerce reaches large stores through hosting and engineering spend instead of a plan change, which is cheaper on paper and heavier on staff.

Who should pick BigCommerce

• Merchants without a developer. The vendor runs hosting, updates and security, so a platform problem is BigCommerce's to fix, not a freelancer's invoice.
• B2B and multi-brand sellers. Customer groups from Growth, extra storefronts on every self-service plan and price lists on Performance.
• Stores under about $9,000 a month that value time over money. Growth's bill sits inside Woo's hosting-dependent range, with nothing to maintain.

Our BigCommerce review covers the product beyond price, and Shopify vs BigCommerce compares it with the other hosted option.

Who should pick WooCommerce

• Stores already on WordPress. The shop sits inside the existing site, with no second platform and no migration.
• High-volume stores with technical help. No overage, no revenue share and no plan jumps, so the bill tracks infrastructure instead of sales.
• Merchants who want full control. Any processor without a gateway fee, any template change and data that never leaves your server.

The product verdict is in our WooCommerce review, Shopify vs WooCommerce compares it with the market leader, and the best ecommerce platforms ranking places both in the wider field, with more hosted options in our Shopify alternatives roundup. Toolradar keeps a data view of this matchup at BigCommerce vs WooCommerce.

How we compared

We read BigCommerce's US pricing page with its feature and payment tables, Woo's pricing page, the WooPayments fee schedule for US merchants and the AutomateWoo, Product Bundles and WooCommerce Subscriptions product pages on 19 October 2026. Scenario totals are our arithmetic on those published rates, with GMV at 90% of gross orders as BigCommerce defines it, and hosting set at the two ends of the range Woo publishes. We did not run a store on either platform for this page. Toolradar figures come from its e-commerce platforms category as of the same date. Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, edited it, and we re-check when either vendor changes a plan, cap or fee.

FAQ

Is WooCommerce cheaper than BigCommerce?

Usually at higher volume, not always at low volume. In our scenario a $60,000-a-month store pays about $2,451 on BigCommerce Scale against $2,025 to $2,350 on WooCommerce, depending on hosting. At $5,000 a month BigCommerce Growth's $243 sits inside WooCommerce's $210 to $535 range, so cheap hosting decides it.

Is WooCommerce really free?

The plugin is free to download and use, with no platform fee and no revenue share. A working store still pays for hosting, which Woo puts at $25 to $350 a month for most stores, card processing at 2.9% + $0.30 through WooPayments, and any paid extensions, which Woo sells as yearly licences.

Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees?

Not for orders through its embedded payment providers, a list that includes Stripe, PayPal Braintree, Adyen and Klarna. Orders through other processors carry an Open Payment Provider fee of 2% on Core, 1% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale. Scale also charges 0.9% on monthly GMV above $33,333.

Which is easier to run, BigCommerce or WooCommerce?

BigCommerce, because hosting, security updates and SSL come with the plan and its 15-day trial needs no credit card. WooCommerce needs a WordPress host and someone to handle plugin updates, backups and conflicts between extensions, which is easy for a developer and a real burden for a solo merchant.

Can I move from WooCommerce to BigCommerce?

Yes, and BigCommerce's 15-day trial can take live orders once a payment provider is connected, so you can rebuild and test before switching. A WordPress theme and Woo extensions are WordPress software, so budget for rebuilding the storefront and replacing each extension with a built-in feature or an app.

Which is better for a subscription business?

WooCommerce has a first-party route: WooCommerce Subscriptions at $279 a year, and Woo's pricing page lists no extra subscription processing fee. BigCommerce's plan feature table lists no subscription billing, so recurring orders need an app, and its price belongs in the comparison.

Cite this: Retailpresso, "BigCommerce vs WooCommerce 2026: Hosted Fee or Free Plugin?", October 2026.

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