BigCommerce Review 2026

BigCommerce's entry plan looks cheap, but the real bill is decided by two other things: the sales cap that moves you to a pricier plan, and the fee on any payment provider outside its embedded list.

This review covers what each plan includes, how the sales caps are measured, where the payment fees apply, and where BigCommerce falls short. We price a sample store at $5,000 a month in sales and show where the costs step up. Every BigCommerce figure below comes from its own pricing page, read in October 2026.

If you are comparing it with the rest of the field, our best ecommerce platforms ranking puts it next to the other hosted options.

The category is crowded: Toolradar data: of the 104 e-commerce platforms we track, 33 percent are free, freemium or open source, and the median cheapest paid plan is $42 a month. BigCommerce has no free plan, only a trial.

BigCommerce is a hosted ecommerce platform. You do not run servers, patch software or manage security, and the store sits on BigCommerce's infrastructure behind one monthly bill. Its pricing page lists over 1,200 apps, more than 70 discount options built in, and selling in over 100 currencies through the payment provider you choose.

It also markets migrations from Shopify, WooCommerce, Salesforce and Magento, which matters if you are leaving one of them. For the comparison with the market leader, read our Shopify review. For the full Toolradar listing, see its BigCommerce profile.

The 15-day free trial needs no credit card, and you can launch a store and take payments during it once you connect a payments partner. If you do not upgrade when the trial ends, BigCommerce keeps your data for 90 days and then deletes the store.

Core, Growth and Scale have no contract, and cancelling stops billing immediately. Compare that with the free ecommerce website options, which cost nothing up front but charge you elsewhere.

The plan you pick is not fixed. BigCommerce measures your trailing 12-month GMV, notifies you when you pass a plan limit, and upgrades you automatically. That step is easy to miss, and it is the first thing to model before you choose.

Support also depends on the tier: Growth, Scale and Performance include 24/7 phone support, while Core gets chat and email, and BigCommerce lists a Core phone add-on as coming soon.

The top tier works differently. Performance starts at $1,499 a month billed annually under a contract, and it adds a dedicated customer success manager and custom payment terms. The page asks for a demo rather than a card, so expect a sales conversation before you see a final price.

BigCommerce publishes its plan prices in US dollars on its pricing page, which we checked in October 2026. Core is $29 a month billed yearly or $39 monthly, Growth is $79 billed yearly or $105 monthly, and Scale is $299 billed yearly or $399 monthly.

The page advertises 25 percent off for yearly billing, and prices exclude tax. Performance starts at $1,499 a month billed annually under a contract, which is at least $17,988 a year.

Core and Growth are sized by trailing 12-month GMV, which BigCommerce defines as gross order value minus 10 percent. Core covers up to $30,000 of GMV a year, which is about $33,333 of gross sales. Growth covers $100,000 of GMV. Scale is measured by the month instead: it covers $33,333 of GMV a month, with a 0.9 percent overage above that line.

Before you budget, convert your monthly sales into trailing GMV by multiplying by 12 and by 0.9, then check which cap that figure sits under.

The open payment provider fee is the cost most buyers overlook. BigCommerce bills it monthly on Core, Growth and Scale for orders processed by a provider outside its embedded list: 2.0 percent of that GMV on Core, 1.0 percent on Growth, 0.6 percent on Scale, and 0 percent on Performance with a contract. It is separate from the fee your processor charges.

Methodology: we read BigCommerce's pricing page in October 2026, priced a sample store at $5,000 a month in sales, and quote no competitor price unless it is confirmed in US dollars on that vendor's own page.

BigCommerce suits a store that will grow past a few thousand dollars a month and wants payments with no platform fee on the major gateways. It is a weaker fit for a store that depends on a large third-party app library, needs phone support on the cheapest plan, or sells through a gateway outside the embedded list.

If your trailing sales sit near $30,000 of GMV, model the Core cap before you commit. Three costs catch buyers out. The first is the open provider fee, which adds $540 a year to a $5,000-a-month store on Growth. The second is the cap jump: once trailing GMV passes Growth's cap, the bill moves to Scale at $3,588 a year.

The third is the trial clock: a store that does not upgrade keeps its data for 90 days and is then deleted, so set a launch date before the 15 days run out. For the rival's full listing, see its Shopify profile on Toolradar.

Smaller stores with limited volume should compare it with cheaper Shopify alternatives before deciding.