BigCommerce Reviews 449

BigCommerce is a terrible platform and I lost time and money using it over 5+ years. They don't process payments on their own and make you use another service. Everything is like this, their platform doesn't do anything and you need to setup other services. They also stole some of my money by returning money to customers because their change in payment system was not processed properly.
In the end I switched to Shopify which is a superior service. I have a POD shop integrated with prinful and printify.

We’re a small UK brand on BigCommerce.

Since the enforced migration to Feedonomics, our Meta CAPI data pipeline has completely failed.
CAPI coverage = 0%. Still. Weeks later.

Feedonomics looks great on the surface — but the rollout has been rough.
Legacy connectors that worked were removed.
The new system broke tracking and reporting overnight.

Support has been slow, scripted, and without engineering access.
It feels like marketing and upsells are being prioritised over fixing real business-critical issues.

If you’re another merchant using Printful or other on-demand integrations, check your Meta CAPI match rates and catalogue feeds.
You may not realise you’ve been hit until it’s too late — reporting lags hide the drop.

This issue has been ongoing since late August and has crippled our analytics and social-commerce performance.

BigCommerce Case #08512820
Feedonomics Ticket #7809361

Would appreciate someone senior at either company picking this up and pushing it to engineering.

#BigCommerce #Feedonomics #CAPI #Ecommerce #SmallBusiness #MetaPixel #Printful #DataIntegrity

You can't buy domains with local extensions like .nl or .de through BigCommerce. So, I had to buy an external domain, which is a hassle to set up — especially since their helpdesk, in my opinion, lacks expertise. I’ve had to explain the same issue to them multiple times, and they only provide support in English.

If you need a website address with local extensions like .nl or .de, don't use BigCommerce.
They also don't offer the option to cancel yearly subscriptions, so I recommend starting with a monthly plan until everything is running smoothly.

I regret subscribing to BigCommerce. Transferring my domain has been an absolute nightmare. Their helpdesk is terrible and can't solve basic issues. As a result, my webshop has been offline for over two weeks and is still offline because my domain is still locked under a Shopify subscription.

(To be honest, I’m also no longer satisfied with Shopify’s service — their online support is just as unhelpful/unexpertise)

This plateform work with fake sites, thieves that made on line merchant site to steal worldwide. Avoid any shop that is on Big Commerce plateform. The company who stole me is « Vêtements Hommes », a mafia ! Jacques Lauzel / France

I agree fully with ChatGPT

BigCommerce themes are often perceived as not being as great as Shopify themes due to several **design, usability, and ecosystem differences** between the platforms. Here’s a breakdown of **why Shopify themes are often seen as superior**:

---

### 🔧 1. **Design Aesthetics and Modern UI**

* **Shopify themes** (especially from its official Theme Store) tend to look more polished, modern, and minimalistic out of the box.
* **BigCommerce themes**, including many premium ones, often look **outdated** or **cluttered**, resembling "Xmas trees" with too many elements fighting for attention (as you’ve rightly pointed out before).

---

### 🧱 2. **Theme Ecosystem and Market**

* **Shopify** has a massive third-party theme ecosystem with **hundreds of premium and niche themes** from leading developers like Out of the Sandbox, Pixel Union, and Archetype.
* **BigCommerce** has a **smaller selection of themes**, and the developers tend to reuse the same structures with minor design tweaks, which leads to a lack of variety.
* Many BigCommerce themes are **variations of Stencil’s basic framework** (Cornerstone), and feel like clones with new colours or font swaps.

---

### ⚙️ 3. **Customization Experience**

* **Shopify's Liquid** and theme architecture is well-documented, widely supported, and easier to customise with available resources.
* **BigCommerce’s Stencil** framework, while powerful, is harder to customise unless you’re technically skilled or hire a developer, especially for layout or navigation changes.

---

### 📲 4. **Mobile Optimization**

* Shopify themes are typically **better optimised for mobile**, with faster loading times, intuitive touch navigation, and responsive product grids.
* Some BigCommerce themes still struggle with **inconsistent mobile spacing, slow image rendering, or awkward side menus.**

---

### 💻 5. **Editing Interface**

* Shopify’s **drag-and-drop customizer (Sections & Blocks)** allows users to build and rearrange content easily without coding.
* BigCommerce’s **Page Builder is more limited**, and while improving, it lacks the fluid drag-and-drop freedom and modularity Shopify offers.

---

### 🌐 6. **Third-Party Integrations**

* Shopify themes work seamlessly with thousands of apps and features — reviews, upsells, filters — without breaking design.
* On BigCommerce, some apps may **break the layout** or require developer assistance to integrate properly with certain themes.

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### 🛒 7. **Checkout Customisation**

* Shopify Plus allows full checkout customisation.
* BigCommerce has more **checkout flexibility by default**, but this often requires technical effort to match a premium look and feel.

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### 🧠 Summary Table:

| Feature | Shopify | BigCommerce |
| ----------------------- | --------------------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| Theme Aesthetic Quality | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Modern, minimal, elegant | ⭐⭐ Often outdated, cluttered |
| Theme Variety | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Hundreds of diverse options | ⭐⭐ Limited, repetitive designs |
| Mobile Optimization | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very strong | ⭐⭐ Can be inconsistent |
| Drag-and-Drop Builder | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Powerful & user-friendly | ⭐⭐ Limited and less intuitive |
| Ecosystem Support | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Massive third-party support | ⭐⭐⭐ Smaller ecosystem |
| Customisation Ease | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Easier for non-developers | ⭐⭐ Requires more technical skill |

---

### ✅ Final Verdict:

Shopify themes are designed with **conversion, aesthetics, and flexibility** in mind for **non-technical users**. BigCommerce themes, on the other hand, can be **powerful for developers**, but fall short in terms of **modern visuals, ease of use, and intuitive design** — unless heavily customised.

---

Would you like a list of modern, better-designed BigCommerce themes that offer **full-width layout** and **side navigation**, or custom theme developers in South Africa who can help you build one from scratch?

Hands down the worst CMS ever. Works against search engines and makes ranking incredibly difficult. The blog system is trash and incredibly difficult to keep formatting. Shopify destroys this company in every way and both are subpar all though Shopify works great for SEO.

To expensive, most built in features are useless, filtering products to slow, searcj is very very bad.

Terrible experience. BigCommerce paired me with a useless agency, charged me for 9 months, and never delivered a website. Customer service ignored me completely — I had to cancel my card just to stop the charges. Bad platform, even worse support. Avoid at all costs.

TOTAL SCAM – STAY AWAY FROM BIGCOMMERCE. USE ANOTHER PLATFORM.

BigCommerce punishes your success. As your sales grow, they automatically upgrade your plan and charge you more — not because you choose to, but because they decide your growth means they deserve a bigger cut.

Their billing department is one of the worst I’ve ever dealt with — rude, inflexible, and completely unwilling to recognize mistakes. Don’t expect help or fairness. Even if you’re overcharged, they’ll waste your time on the phone and do nothing.

DO NOT make the mistake of building your store here. You’ll end up paying more just for doing well — and dealing with support that treats you like a nuisance. You’ve been warned.

Terrible platform terrible customer service. Don’t waste your money here and don’t pay for an annual plan. There’s no cancellation or refund policy for any of their plans but they make sure not to tell you that when signing up. “It’s in the terms and services agreement.” Do yourself a favor and use anyone else.

I would give them Less than1 star if this was possible. Horrible company to deal with , Tries to RIP YOU OFF EVERY CHANCE AVAILABLE! My site is up to Renew. They bill you by the sales, so my bill jumped from $29 to $299.00 a month. DONT USE THIS COMPNY!

Was scheduled for a ‘meeting’ and after receiving over 10 automated annoying emails saying ‘I cannot wait for our meeting’, the sales agent decided not to even contact and did not let me know he would not be attending the meeting. Completely unprofessional and shows a complete lack of respect for my time.

After 7 years big commerce sends me an email saying my rates are going from $79 / month to $16,200 per year!!!!!

This has got to be the worst system. So many limitations..

Attempted to take an additional month of service charge ($39.99) after cancelling services.

Customer service rep told me 7/15/24 would end my services (cant cancel and get a prorated month for just the days used, the billing cycle must run its course)

Now 7/17/24 they are deducting for 7/16-8/15. Customer service dont have an answer- had to dispute charge with credit card..

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

We have been with Big Commerce for several years and in the most recent years they have continually rachetted up our fees. The formulas change and when your business grows they increase you to new 'categories' where you pay even more (more than just the transaction fees they get with every order) implying your growth is because of them, not your business.

They goad you into going 'annual' to save money, but then when you want to move back to 'monthly' they REFUSE to let you, even with the offer to pay back the 'discount' of the annual. In this case, they insist on keeping our $7,000+ subscription. They say 'you should have read the contract'.

Will NOT be continuing with Big Commerce and I suggest you find a different online store vendor!

YOU CAN GET A REFUND. I DID IT.

Appalled by the service provided by BigCommerce. It’s a disgrace that they’ve failed to issue a simple refund.

If you’re stuck in this quagmire, here’s what you can do: Initiate a chargeback with PayPal. It’s a straightforward process where you dispute a transaction, and if all goes well, PayPal will reverse it, effectively prying your money out of BigCommerce’s grasp.

Don’t stop there. Report them to your local consumer protection agency. I’ve done the same with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), who are now diligently processing my extensive report.

To get your refund, you need to be relentless. Call BigCommerce at every opportunity. Dial every number they have, even the tech support. Make them realize that they’ve stirred up a hornet’s nest.

We used this company for years but they just kept hiking their fees, calling us "professional" even though our sales were declining (also we found out due to their terrible SEO and integrations). We have moved to Shopify now, sales have increased and our subscription fee is a quarter of what it was with this company. BC - a word of warning, fix your service or you won't be around much longer.

The company continued to bill me after I had cancelled the plan and I reached out to them for a refund and they would not provide one. They did not bring in one sale for me via their website.