BigCommerce Pricing Plans 2026: Complete Cost Breakdown

What BigCommerce Actually Costs in 2026

BigCommerce pricing looks straightforward on the surface: three main plans with clear monthly prices. But the real cost of running a BigCommerce store depends on your sales volume, the features you need, and how your business grows over time. The good news is that BigCommerce includes more features in its base plans than most competitors, which means fewer add-on costs.

At E-Commerce Paradise, I have set up and managed stores on BigCommerce for years. I am going to break down every cost you will encounter so there are no surprises. Whether you are launching your first store or evaluating BigCommerce against other platforms, this guide gives you the complete financial picture.

If you are still exploring which platform is right for your high-ticket dropshipping business, understanding pricing across all platforms helps you make an informed decision.

BigCommerce Plan Overview

Standard Plan: $39 per Month

The Standard plan costs $39 per month when billed monthly or $29 per month when billed annually. This plan supports up to $50,000 in annual online sales before BigCommerce requires you to upgrade. For a store just getting started, this plan includes everything you need: unlimited products, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited staff accounts, multi-channel selling, and built-in reviews.

What makes the Standard plan stand out compared to competitors is that features like product reviews, real-time shipping quotes, and professional reporting are included at no extra cost. On Shopify, you would need to pay for third-party apps to get equivalent functionality, which often adds $50 to $150 per month in app fees.

Plus Plan: $105 per Month

The Plus plan costs $105 per month when billed monthly or $79 per month when billed annually. It supports up to $180,000 in annual online sales. In addition to everything in Standard, you get customer segmentation, abandoned cart recovery, persistent cart (customers’ carts are saved across devices), and stored credit cards for faster repeat purchases.

The abandoned cart recovery feature alone can justify the upgrade. For high-ticket stores, recovering even one or two abandoned carts per month at $1,000 or more per order pays for the plan difference many times over.

Pro Plan: $399 per Month

The Pro plan costs $399 per month when billed monthly or $299 per month when billed annually. It supports up to $400,000 in annual online sales. The Pro plan adds Google customer reviews, custom SSL certificate, and advanced product filtering (faceted search). The faceted search feature is particularly valuable for stores with large catalogs because it lets customers filter products by multiple attributes simultaneously.

Enterprise Plan: Custom Pricing

For stores exceeding $400,000 in annual sales or needing advanced B2B features, BigCommerce offers custom Enterprise pricing. Enterprise includes everything in Pro plus priority support, custom pricing for B2B customers, advanced API calls, and dedicated account management. Pricing typically starts around $1,000 per month but varies based on your specific requirements and sales volume.

The Sales Volume Threshold: What You Need to Know

BigCommerce is unique among hosted platforms in that each plan has a maximum annual sales threshold. This is important to understand because it affects when you are required to upgrade.

Standard maxes out at $50,000 per year. Plus maxes out at $180,000 per year. Pro maxes out at $400,000 per year. Enterprise handles unlimited sales volume.

If your store exceeds the threshold for your current plan, BigCommerce will contact you to upgrade. This is worth planning for because a store doing $60,000 per year cannot stay on the $39 Standard plan and must move to the $105 Plus plan. For high-ticket dropshipping stores that sell $1,500 or more per item, you can hit $50,000 in annual sales with just 33 orders, which many stores achieve within the first few months.

This forced upgrade based on sales volume is one of the most common criticisms of BigCommerce. Other platforms like Shopify do not have sales-based plan limits, so you can stay on the Basic plan regardless of how much you sell. Factor these thresholds into your financial projections when choosing a plan.

Transaction Fees: BigCommerce’s Biggest Advantage

BigCommerce charges zero transaction fees on all plans. This is a significant advantage over several competitors. You still pay payment processing fees to your payment gateway (Stripe, PayPal, etc.), but BigCommerce itself takes nothing extra per transaction.

Compare this to Shopify, which charges a 2% transaction fee on Basic, 1% on Shopify, and 0.5% on Advanced if you use any payment gateway other than Shopify Payments. For a high-ticket store doing $200,000 per year, a 1% transaction fee means $2,000 going to the platform on top of your subscription. With BigCommerce, that $2,000 stays in your pocket.

Payment processing fees through popular gateways on BigCommerce typically run 2.59% plus $0.49 per transaction with PayPal powered by Braintree (the default option) or 2.9% plus $0.30 with Stripe. BigCommerce supports over 65 payment gateways, giving you flexibility to choose the best rates for your business.

Theme and Design Costs

Free Themes

BigCommerce offers 12 free themes with multiple variations, giving you roughly 30 free design options. The Cornerstone theme is the most popular and serves as the foundation for most BigCommerce stores. These free themes are well-designed, mobile-responsive, and suitable for most stores. Many successful stores run entirely on free themes with minor customizations.

Premium Themes

BigCommerce’s theme marketplace includes premium themes ranging from $150 to $400 as a one-time purchase. Premium themes offer more design options, additional layout configurations, and features like mega menus and advanced product page layouts. Unlike monthly app fees, theme purchases are one-time costs.

Custom Design

If you need a fully custom design, expect to pay $2,000 to $10,000 for a professional BigCommerce theme built by a developer. BigCommerce uses a templating system called Stencil, and finding developers experienced with Stencil is somewhat harder than finding Shopify Liquid developers, which can affect pricing. For most stores, a free or premium theme with customizations is more than sufficient.

App and Integration Costs

One of BigCommerce’s strengths is that many features other platforms charge for through apps are included natively. That said, you may still need some third-party apps depending on your business requirements.

Apps You Likely Will Not Need

BigCommerce includes these features that competitors charge extra for: product reviews and ratings (built-in on all plans), real-time shipping quotes (built-in on all plans), professional reporting and analytics (built-in on all plans), multi-channel selling (built-in on all plans), persistent cart and stored credit cards (Plus plan and above), and abandoned cart recovery (Plus plan and above).

Apps You Might Need

Common BigCommerce apps and their typical costs include email marketing integrations like Klaviyo (free to $20 per month for the connector, plus Klaviyo’s own pricing), subscription and recurring billing ($50 to $100 per month), advanced shipping rules ($10 to $50 per month), live chat ($0 to $50 per month), and loyalty and rewards programs ($50 to $200 per month).

The BigCommerce app marketplace is smaller than Shopify’s but covers the most important categories. Expect to spend $0 to $200 per month on apps, significantly less than the $100 to $400 many Shopify stores spend on apps for equivalent functionality. Browse the niches that work best on BigCommerce in our high-ticket niches list.

Domain and SSL Costs

BigCommerce does not include a free domain with any plan. You need to purchase a domain separately, which costs $10 to $20 per year from registrars like Namecheap, Google Domains, or GoDaddy. If you already have a domain, you can connect it to BigCommerce at no additional cost.

SSL certificates are included free on all BigCommerce plans. On the Standard, Plus, and Pro plans, you get a shared SSL. The Pro plan and above include a dedicated custom SSL certificate, which displays your domain name in the security certificate rather than a BigCommerce shared certificate. For most stores, the shared SSL is perfectly fine. The custom SSL on Pro is a nice branding touch but not a necessity.

Real Cost Scenarios for Different Store Types

Scenario 1: New Store Under $50K Annual Revenue

Plan: Standard at $29 per month (annual billing). Domain: $15 per year. Theme: free. Apps: $50 per month for email marketing. Payment processing: 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. Total monthly cost: approximately $80 plus payment processing. This is very competitive for a full-featured ecommerce setup.

Scenario 2: Growing Store at $100K to $180K Annual Revenue

Plan: Plus at $79 per month (annual billing). Domain: $15 per year. Theme: premium at $250 one-time. Apps: $100 per month for email, subscriptions, and loyalty. Payment processing: 2.59% plus $0.49 per transaction. Total monthly cost: approximately $180 plus payment processing. The abandoned cart recovery and customer segmentation on the Plus plan directly contribute to revenue growth.

Scenario 3: Established Store at $200K to $400K Annual Revenue

Plan: Pro at $299 per month (annual billing). Domain: $15 per year. Theme: premium or custom. Apps: $150 per month. Payment processing: negotiated rates (typically lower for higher volume). Total monthly cost: approximately $450 plus payment processing. At this revenue level, the advanced filtering and custom SSL on the Pro plan provide meaningful value.

BigCommerce vs. Competitor Pricing

BigCommerce vs. Shopify

Shopify Basic costs $39 per month (same as BigCommerce Standard) but charges 2% transaction fees on third-party gateways and includes fewer built-in features. When you factor in apps for reviews, real-time shipping, and advanced reporting on Shopify, BigCommerce often comes out cheaper for feature-equivalent setups. However, Shopify’s larger app ecosystem and the ability to stay on Basic regardless of sales volume are advantages.

BigCommerce vs. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is free but hosting, premium plugins, and security management add up quickly. A comparable WooCommerce setup costs $100 to $400 per month when you include managed hosting, premium extensions, and security tools. The key difference is that WooCommerce costs are more variable and harder to predict, while BigCommerce is predictable monthly pricing.

BigCommerce vs. Squarespace

Squarespace Commerce plans start at $33 per month but include significantly fewer ecommerce features than BigCommerce. Squarespace charges transaction fees on their lower commerce plan and lacks advanced features like multi-channel selling and B2B pricing. For serious ecommerce businesses, BigCommerce provides substantially more value.

Hidden Costs to Watch For

The sales volume thresholds are the biggest “hidden” cost on BigCommerce. A rapidly growing store can find itself forced into a more expensive plan sooner than expected. Plan for this in your financial projections.

Payment processing fees are a cost that applies on every platform, but the specific rate you pay depends on your gateway choice and transaction volume. Negotiate better rates as your volume grows. Many payment processors offer reduced rates at $50,000 or more per month in processing volume.

Custom development costs can add up if you need functionality beyond what BigCommerce and its apps provide. Stencil theme development typically costs $100 to $200 per hour from experienced developers. Budget for customization needs upfront. For setting up your business foundation to support growth, our business formation checklist covers the financial planning essentials.

How to Save Money on BigCommerce

Pay annually instead of monthly to save 24 to 25% on plan costs. That saves you $120 per year on Standard and $312 per year on Plus.

Start with a free theme and only upgrade to premium when you have specific design needs that free themes cannot meet. Many six-figure stores run on customized free themes.

Take advantage of built-in features before paying for apps. BigCommerce includes reviews, abandoned cart recovery (on Plus), and reporting natively. Only add apps for functionality that is genuinely missing.

Negotiate payment processing rates as your volume grows. Contact your payment gateway directly when you are processing $25,000 or more per month and ask about volume discounts. Even a 0.2% reduction saves meaningful money at scale.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does BigCommerce offer a free trial?

Yes, BigCommerce offers a 15-day free trial on all plans. No credit card is required to start the trial. This gives you enough time to set up a basic store, explore the features, and determine if BigCommerce is right for your business. If you need more time, contacting their sales team can sometimes extend the trial.

Can I downgrade my BigCommerce plan?

Yes, you can downgrade your plan at any time through your account settings. However, you will lose access to features exclusive to higher-tier plans. If your sales volume exceeds the threshold for the lower plan, you may not be able to downgrade. Plan changes take effect at the next billing cycle.

Are there setup fees for BigCommerce?

No, BigCommerce does not charge setup fees on Standard, Plus, or Pro plans. Enterprise plans may have implementation fees depending on the scope of services included, such as data migration assistance, custom integrations, or dedicated onboarding.

What happens if I exceed my plan’s sales threshold?

BigCommerce will notify you when you approach your plan’s annual sales limit. You have a grace period to upgrade, but ultimately you will need to move to the next plan tier. There are no overage charges; you simply upgrade to the next plan.

Is BigCommerce worth the price compared to free platforms?

For serious ecommerce businesses, yes. The time saved on hosting management, security, and maintenance compared to self-hosted platforms like WooCommerce has real monetary value. BigCommerce’s zero transaction fees and built-in features often make it more affordable than it appears when compared to the true total cost of “free” alternatives.

Final Thoughts

BigCommerce offers competitive pricing with the significant advantage of zero transaction fees and more built-in features than most competitors. The sales volume thresholds require planning, but for stores that need professional ecommerce capabilities without a massive app bill, BigCommerce delivers strong value at every tier.

The best way to evaluate if BigCommerce pricing works for your business is to calculate your total cost including plan, payment processing, and any apps you need, then compare that to the same calculation on Shopify and WooCommerce.

If you want help choosing the right platform and plan for your store, our coaching program includes platform evaluation and cost analysis. For a done-for-you approach, our turnkey store service handles platform selection, setup, and optimization.

Connect with other store owners comparing platforms in the E-Commerce Paradise community. And for supplier strategies that work on any platform, check our complete supplier guide.