BigCommerce vs commercetools

“BigCommerce is the most trusted B2C and B2B commerce solution provider.” (The Forrester Wave™) We are a MACH Alliance pioneer built for enterprise complexity — equipped with native features, flexibility and scalability you won’t find anywhere else.

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BigCommerce vs commercetools: Why businesses are making the switch

BigCommerce makes it simple for Enterprise brands of any size to adopt modern, API-first commerce — giving you the flexibility to create and control differentiated experiences quickly.

Lower TCO, More Commerce Functionality

While commercetools positions itself as a cost-effective solution, their total cost of ownership can be extremely high over time, since most features and integrations must be built from scratch. BigCommerce, however, takes care of the heavy lifting. As a business- and developer-friendly solution, BigCommerce offers core back-end commerce functionality, reducing the need for development resources spent on non-revenue generating activities and high operating costs, so you can focus on revenue-driving innovation and experiences.

Flexibility to Future-Proof Your Business

As an API-first platform — rather than API-only — Bigcommerce combines all of the benefits of a SaaS platform with the flexibility and extensibility to create custom integrations and functionality faster. By offering native functionality and best-in-class APIs, BigCommerce allows merchants to easily integrate their existing systems and future-proof their business, ensuring they can always support customers wherever they shop.

Greater Usability with Less Complexity

The downside of an API-only solution, like commercetools, is that most features and integrations must be built from scratch — which often means less control for marketing and business users. With out-of-the-box functionality and over 600 pre-built integrations, BigCommerce makes it easy for business users and technical users alike to quickly, easily and cost effectively make site changes.

Open Innovation with Speed to Market

With commercetools, setting up and maintaining a website is often an extensive process requiring heavy reliance on developers — which means slower time to market. BigCommerce comes with the native functionality needed to seize market opportunities and unleash new experiences at the speed of your business.

BigCommerce Success Stories

“We wanted something that was going to be largely plug and play with other systems. Should we want to use them, we could seamlessly use existing integration tools to expand the functionality of our website.”

Shaun PriceHead of Customer Acquisition, MitoQ

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Common BigCommerce vs commercetools questions

What is the difference between commercetools and BigCommerce?

commercetools is a cloud-based, headless commerce platform with a 100% API-driven approach — which means most ecommerce functions need to be custom built and maintained. For this reason, implementation time can be extensive and often requires heavy dependency on web developers. Ultimately, this can result in a slow speed to market and inhibit control for non-technical users.

As an Open SaaS solution, BigCommerce combines the best of a SaaS platform with API-enabled openness to give merchants more flexibility in customizations and integrations. With over 600 pre-built integrations and native ecommerce functionality, BigCommerce allows merchants to integrate with existing systems, easily create new customer experiences and go to market faster.

What is the price comparison between BigCommerce and commercetools?

As an API-only solution, commercetools can adjust their pricing based on GMV, orders, number of APIs and/or API usage — meaning the more you scale, the more you pay. Additionally, the total cost of ownership for commercetools is much higher after merchants factor in license fees, implementation costs and specialized developer resources.

BigCommerce, however, provides tailored pricing to meet each merchant’s needs at any stage of growth. We take care of the heavy-lifting with core back-end commerce functionality, reducing the need for development dependency to build out your site. With no additional costs or website downtime for automatic platform updates, feature releases and enhancements, you can focus on what matters most — helping your business succeed.

If you’re interested in specific pricing for your business, talk to a BigCommerce expert.

Which platform is better for B2B: commercetools or BigCommerce?

commercetools lacks multiple out-of-the-box features for B2B customers and customer organizations that come natively on BigCommerce. First, there is no way for a merchant to declare an organization as a customer with multiple user accounts and roles. Second, commercetools projects do not have a concept of multiple catalogs assigned to specific customers, which can make building out this experience more difficult for developers. Lastly, commercetools is extremely limited in its ability to offer customer-specific pricing.

BigCommerce, however, provides all of these features out-of-the-box, as well as robust sales features including POS and ERP integrations and B2B-specific payment features.

Is there a difference in PCI compliance on BigCommerce and commercetools?

With commercetools, the merchant is responsible for PCI compliance. Technical users may initially be attracted to commercetool’s 100% API approach, but over time, lots of resources are spent on upgrades, integrations, maintenance, PCI compliance and security — all of which are taken care of for you on BigCommerce.

BigCommerce stores are ISO/IEC 27001:2013 & PCI DSS 3.2, Level 1 certified. When it comes to building and managing your ecommerce store, merchants using BigCommerce don’t have to worry about staying up to date and keeping their site secure. Since updates happen automatically, it's easy to always be on the latest version of BigCommerce.

Plus, there are no security patches or updates that require certified developers to install and manage. This gives non-technical merchants the ability to focus on core business activities rather than worry about the upkeep of their website.

Which platform is more intuitive to use: BigCommerce or commercetools?

When building and managing an ecommerce store, you need to consider the ease-of-use not only for technical, but also non-technical users, such as business and marketing users.

The downside of an API-only solution, like commercetools, often means greater reliance on developers and less control for non-technical users. If business users want to launch a new promotion, campaign or front-end experience, they are completely reliant on the technical team to build and manage it.

The native functionality and pre-built integrations of BigCommerce make managing an online store easy and intuitive for business users and technical users alike. As an API-first platform (and not API-only), Bigcommerce combines all of the benefits of a SaaS platform with the flexibility and extensibility to create custom integrations and functionality faster — no matter your technical background. And since BigCommerce is a MACH alliance pioneer, you never have to compromise on micro-service, API-first, cloud native or headless capabilities.

Do BigCommerce and commercetools offer apps and integrations?

As an API-only solution, most features and integrations on commercetools must be built from scratch. Its app marketplace only has a limited number of integrations — half of which are not pre-built, including payment gateways.

In contrast, BigCommerce offers an extensive app marketplace and over 600+ pre-built integrations, including single-click apps, 55+ global payment gateways. In addition, BigCommerce boasts a large partner ecosystem. From marketing and design to front- and back-end integrations, our best-in-class providers can meet any needs you have in terms of resources, strategies or tech.

How do I migrate from commercetools to BigCommerce?

BigCommerce allows merchants to migrate with as little friction and disruption as possible with expert support. In our app marketplace, you’ll find a variety of apps dedicated to data transfer and migration services, or you can get in touch with our Data Migration Services team who can help you seamlessly migrate and launch your store on BigCommerce.