1 Answers
Hi Al,
We tackled that very question in this video:
https://wp101.com/tutorial/bigcommerce-vs-woocommerce/
It's not a simple matter which one is better, BigCommerce or WooCommerce? They're both very capable ecommerce plugins for WordPress, so you should choose the one that best fits your particular needs!
One of the biggest differences between the two is that BigCommerce is a ‘headless’ solution. That means you'll sign up for a BigCommerce account on their site. You'll log into their site to create products and manage orders. Then, you'll install the BigCommerce for WordPress plugin, and add a few shortcodes to specific pages on your site where you want your products to appear.
When your visitors view a product catalog on your site, the products are dynamically displayed in real-time, being pulled from BigCommerce's servers. Likewise, when your visitors make a purchase, that transaction will be processed on their servers, not your own.
So, much of the BigCommerce experience is actually powered by their servers, not the server where your WordPress site is hosted. And that will make your site load faster, since the heavy lifting is actually being done on BigCommerce's servers.
With WooCommerce, everything from customer checkout to order management and reporting is processed inside WordPress, on your web server. That means your server can slow down for you and your customers.
On the other hand, WooCommerce allows you to start selling products on your site for free, and grow your store as your business grows.
It's also by far the most popular ecommerce plugin for WordPress. BuiltWith reports that as of January, 2020, a total of 3,876,748 websites use WooCommerce. A whopping 26% of all ecommerce sites are powered by WooCommerce!
That means there are also thousands of third-party add-ons, and expert developers who specialize in WooCommerce, so it's fairly easy to find someone to help you customize your online store.
BigCommerce has an all-in-one, hosted approach. With WooCommerce, you'll need to install a number of third-party add-ons and additional plugins to create the online store you want. And all those moving pieces can slow down your site and result in multiple points of failure.
If you're just starting out, I'd recommend you take a look at BigCommerce. You may find that it covers all your needs, even as your store grows.
But if you want the most flexibility and control over your site down the road, you'll want to consider WooCommerce.
Hope this helps!