The monthly bill lands, the store has grown past the plan it started on, and the fees on every order keep climbing. That is when most store owners start asking how to switch from Shopify to BigCommerce, and the question is worth asking properly. Shopify is the easiest platform to start on, and its app store covers almost anything a store might need. BigCommerce is built for stores that sell in volume, with more selling features included in the base price and no extra fee when a customer pays through an approved gateway.
The two platforms charge in the same range at the entry level, so the switch is rarely about the headline subscription price. Shopify Basic costs 39 dollars a month on monthly billing, or 29 dollars a month on annual billing. BigCommerce Core costs the same, 39 dollars a month monthly or 29 dollars a month annual. The difference shows up in the fees around the subscription.
Shopify charges 2 percent on every order when the store uses a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, and 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on card payments through its own gateway on Basic. BigCommerce charges no transaction fee on orders processed through its approved embedded payment providers, though a separate open payment provider fee applies on other gateways.
This guide covers how to switch from Shopify to BigCommerce in eight steps, with the real prices on both sides, a clear account of what moves and what does not, and a pre-launch checklist. The migration itself is one of the better supported moves in ecommerce, because BigCommerce offers a free data migration app that pulls products, customers, and orders directly from Shopify. The work that takes time is everything around the data, which is the theme, the redirects, the payment setup, and the testing. Follow the steps in order, run the new store beside the old one, and the move stays calm. Rush it, and the store can lose search rankings, customer passwords, and a weekend of sales.
Why Stores Switch from Shopify to BigCommerce
Fees are the first reason, and the math is easy to check. A store on Shopify Basic that takes 10,000 dollars a month through a third party gateway pays 200 dollars a month in extra transaction fees on top of the 39 dollar subscription. The same store on BigCommerce Core pays no transaction fee on orders through an approved embedded provider.
Since June 2026, BigCommerce does charge an open payment provider fee of 2 percent on Core, 1 percent on Growth, and 0.6 percent on Scale for orders through gateways outside its approved list, so the saving depends on which gateway the store uses. Any store doing the sums on how to switch from Shopify to BigCommerce should start with the gateway, not the subscription. A store that already takes payments through PayPal or another approved provider keeps the full saving, while a store on an unapproved gateway should price that fee before deciding.
Variant limits are the second reason. Shopify allows 100 variants per product, which forces stores with many sizes, colors, and materials to split one product into several listings. BigCommerce allows 250 variants per product, so a store can merge those split listings back into one product page. That single change can clean up a catalog, improve the product pages, and cut the time spent managing inventory. Stores that sell apparel, furniture, or anything with many options feel this limit every week, and the extra headroom is a genuine reason to move.
The third reason is what comes included. BigCommerce includes abandoned cart emails, customer groups and segmentation, and persistent carts on its Growth plan at 105 dollars a month, or 79 dollars a month on annual billing. On Shopify, several of those features arrive through paid apps, each adding a monthly charge. A store that pays for three or four apps to cover the same ground can find that BigCommerce costs less in total even when the subscription prices look identical. Add up the app bill before comparing the two platforms, because the subscription is only part of what Shopify costs each month.
The fourth reason is the sales cap, which cuts the other way and deserves a plain warning. BigCommerce ties each plan to trailing twelve month sales, and the caps tightened in June 2026. Core now covers up to 30,000 dollars in trailing twelve month inclusive sales, Growth covers up to 100,000 dollars, and Scale covers up to 400,000 dollars a year before a 0.9 percent overage applies above 33,333 dollars a month.
Cross a cap and the plan upgrades automatically. A store doing 35,000 dollars a year cannot stay on Core, even though the same store could stay on Shopify Basic at any volume. Check the trailing twelve month figure before choosing a BigCommerce plan, because the cap can push the bill higher than the Shopify equivalent.
Shopify vs BigCommerce Side by Side
| Feature | Shopify | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Basic 39 dollars a month, 29 dollars annual | Core 39 dollars a month, 29 dollars annual |
| Mid plan | Grow 105 dollars a month, 79 dollars annual | Growth 105 dollars a month, 79 dollars annual |
| High plan | Advanced 399 dollars a month, 299 dollars annual | Scale 399 dollars a month, 299 dollars annual |
| Enterprise | Plus from 2,300 dollars a month | Performance from 1,499 dollars a month |
| Variants per product | 100 | 250 |
| Transaction fee, approved gateway | 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on Basic | 0 percent |
| Extra fee, other gateway | 2 percent on Basic | 2 percent on Core, 1 percent on Growth, 0.6 percent on Scale |
| Sales cap | None | 30,000 dollars a year on Core, 100,000 dollars on Growth |
| Staff accounts | 1 on Basic, 5 on Grow, 15 on Advanced | Unlimited on all plans |
| Free trial | 3 day trial, then 1 dollar a month for 3 months | 15 day free trial |
Shopify charges no extra fee when a store uses Shopify Payments, and its card rate falls as the plan rises, from 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on Basic to 2.5 percent plus 30 cents on Advanced. BigCommerce charges no transaction fee at all on approved embedded providers, which include PayPal and the major card processors on its list. The practical rule is simple. A store that uses Shopify Payments and stays under the BigCommerce sales cap gains little on fees and should switch for features, not price. A store that uses another gateway, or pays for several Shopify apps, can save real money on BigCommerce.
Before You Switch. The Honest Comparison
A switch guide that only lists the savings is not honest, so this section states the trade plainly. Shopify has the larger app store, the simpler admin, and the bigger community of developers and agencies. A store that needs a niche app, a specific integration, or a developer on short notice will find all three faster on Shopify. BigCommerce has fewer apps and fewer developers, and a store that depends on an unusual Shopify app may find no equivalent at all. List every app the store uses today, and check each one against the BigCommerce marketplace before committing to the move.
The theme is the second trade. A Shopify theme does not transfer to BigCommerce, so the store needs a new theme, a redesign, or a custom build. BigCommerce themes are capable, and its Stencil framework gives a developer full control, but a store with a heavily customized Shopify theme should budget real time and money for the rebuild. The design will not look the same on day one unless someone rebuilds it deliberately. That rebuild is also an opportunity, since a migration is the best moment to fix a tired design, but it is not free.
The sales cap is the third trade, and it is the one that surprises stores most. Shopify never forces a plan upgrade based on sales volume. BigCommerce does, automatically, and the caps dropped in June 2026, with taxes and shipping now counting toward the total. A store growing fast can find its plan upgrading twice in a year, and each upgrade adds to the monthly bill. The cap is not a reason to avoid BigCommerce, but it is a reason to forecast twelve months of sales before choosing a plan, and to keep the Shopify store running until the new plan is confirmed.
The app bill is the fourth trade, and it favors BigCommerce more often than stores expect. Shopify Basic includes one staff account, while BigCommerce includes unlimited staff accounts on every plan. A store with three people managing the shop pays for extra seats on Shopify Grow or Advanced, or works around a single login, while BigCommerce charges nothing extra for the team. Count the staff, count the apps, count the gateway fees, and the comparison becomes a real number instead of a feeling. That number is also the best guide to how to switch from Shopify to BigCommerce without overspending on the new platform. That number, not the headline price, decides whether the switch pays.
How to Switch from Shopify to BigCommerce in 8 Steps
Step 1. Audit the Shopify store and back everything up
Open the Shopify admin and list every product, collection, customer, order, discount code, page, blog post, app, and integration. Export the products, customers, and orders as CSV files from their sections in the admin, and keep those files as the backup even though the migration app will do the transfer. Note the renewal date and whether the store is on an annual plan, because cancelling early can forfeit prepaid months. Record the current theme name, the apps installed, and the payment gateway in use, since each of those needs a decision in the steps below.
Step 2. Set up BigCommerce and pick the plan by sales volume
Create the BigCommerce store and choose the plan from the trailing twelve month sales figure, not from the monthly subscription price. Core covers up to 30,000 dollars a year, Growth covers up to 100,000 dollars, and Scale covers up to 400,000 dollars before overage applies. A store at 28,000 dollars a year that is growing fast should start on Growth rather than Core, because crossing the cap mid year triggers an automatic upgrade anyway. Start the 15 day free trial, confirm the plan, and do not cancel Shopify yet. The two stores will run side by side until the new one is ready to take orders.
Step 3. Move the catalog with the free data migration app
Install the BigCommerce Data Migration app, which is free and moves products, categories, customers, orders, reviews, and coupon codes from Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, Volusion, and ZenCart, up to 500,000 total records. Connect the Shopify store, choose what to migrate, and run the import. Check the error report the app produces after the import, because failed rows are listed there and need fixing by hand. Verify a sample of products for titles, descriptions, SKUs, prices, images, and variant counts, and confirm that products split by the Shopify 100 variant limit can now be merged under the 250 variant limit where that helps.
Step 4. Rebuild the theme and the storefront pages
Choose a BigCommerce theme and rebuild the storefront, because the Shopify theme does not transfer. Set up the homepage, the navigation, the product page layout, and the checkout settings, and recreate the content pages and blog posts by hand, since the migration app does not move web pages or blog content. Match the brand colors, fonts, and logo from the old store, and test the new design on a phone, since most shoppers will see it there first. A store that skips this step and launches with a default theme will look unfinished, and the first impression is hard to recover.
Step 5. Reconnect payments, shipping, and taxes
Set up the payment gateway in BigCommerce, and check whether it sits on the approved embedded provider list, since that decides whether the open payment provider fee applies. Reconnect the shipping carriers and rates, set the tax rules for each region the store sells to, and run a test order with a real card for a small amount, then refund it. Confirm the order confirmation email, the shipping notification, and the tax line on the receipt all read correctly. Payment and tax mistakes are the most expensive errors a new store can make, and a test order catches them before a real customer does.
Step 6. Set up redirects and protect the search rankings
Map every important Shopify URL to its new BigCommerce URL and create 301 redirects for each one. Product and collection URLs change between platforms, and without redirects the store loses the search rankings those pages earned. Submit the new sitemap to Google Search Console, and check that the homepage, the top ten product pages, and the top five collection pages all resolve correctly. Keep the Shopify store live until the redirects are tested, because a redirect can only be verified against a live old URL.
Step 7. Recreate discounts, apps, and customer accounts
Recreate the discount codes that matter, and check whether the migration app carried them across, since coupon codes move through the app but not through CSV import. Replace each Shopify app with its BigCommerce equivalent or a native feature, and reconnect the email marketing tool, the accounting tool, and any marketplace channels. Tell customers they will need to reset their passwords on the new store, because passwords cannot be migrated for security reasons, and send that notice before launch so the first login is not a surprise. A password reset email sent on launch day reads as a problem, while one sent a week earlier reads as a plan.
Step 8. Run a soft launch, then cancel Shopify
Open the BigCommerce store to a small group of customers first, or run it quietly for a week while Shopify still takes orders, and watch the first real orders end to end. Check the payment settlement, the shipping labels, the stock levels, and the customer emails for each order. Once a week of clean orders is in the books, point the domain at BigCommerce, confirm the site loads on the live domain, and cancel Shopify before the next renewal date. Keep the Shopify CSV exports and the old order history for at least a year, because the old store is the only record of past sales, refunds, and tax filings.
Pre Switch Checklist
Use this checklist before starting step 1, and do not skip a line.
- Export products, customers, and orders from Shopify as CSV files and store them safely. – Record the trailing twelve month sales figure and choose the BigCommerce plan from it. – List every Shopify app and check for a BigCommerce equivalent. – Note the Shopify renewal date and any annual commitment. – Confirm the payment gateway sits on the BigCommerce approved provider list.
- List the top twenty product and collection URLs for redirects. – Plan the theme rebuild and who will do it. – Draft the customer password reset notice before launch. – Set a switch date in a quiet sales week, not during a promotion. – Tell the team the switch date and the new workflow before step 1.
Data Migration. What Transfers and What Does Not
Products, categories, customers, and orders transfer through the free BigCommerce Data Migration app, which handles up to 500,000 total records across those three groups. Product titles, descriptions, SKUs, prices, and images move across, and the app produces an error report listing any rows that failed, so the team can fix them by hand. Reviews and coupon codes also move through the app, though coupon codes do not move through CSV import, so the app is the safer route for a store that relies on discount codes. Orders cannot be imported by CSV at all, which is why the app matters, and BigCommerce recommends keeping a CSV export of order history for tax purposes either way.
Customer passwords do not transfer, and this is the single fact most stores forget. Passwords cannot be exported from Shopify for security reasons, so every customer account arrives without a password and each customer must reset it on first login. Plan the notice, send it early, and expect a short rise in support messages from customers who missed it. Customer contact details, addresses, and marketing preferences do transfer, so the store keeps its customer list intact.
The theme does not transfer, and neither do web pages or blog posts. Content such as pages and blog posts is not included in the migration app or in CSV import, so the team recreates those by hand. Gift card balances and store credit need a manual plan, and the store should decide before launch whether to honor old gift cards through a code list or a manual credit.
Payment tokens do not transfer through the app or CSV, so saved cards cannot be carried across, and subscriptions or saved payment methods need rebuilding with the new gateway. The catalog moves cleanly. The storefront around it is rebuilt. That split is the heart of how to switch from Shopify to BigCommerce without losing a sale.
Cost Comparison. What the Switch Actually Saves
The saving depends on the gateway, the app bill, and the sales volume, because the two platforms charge in different places. A store on Shopify Basic taking 10,000 dollars a month through a third party gateway pays 39 dollars for the subscription plus 200 dollars in transaction fees, a total of 239 dollars a month before apps. The same store on BigCommerce Core through an approved embedded provider pays 39 dollars a month with no transaction fee, a saving of 200 dollars a month, or 2,400 dollars a year. Through an unapproved gateway, BigCommerce Core adds a 2 percent open payment provider fee, which wipes out the saving entirely, so the gateway choice decides the outcome.
The app bill changes the picture further. A store paying 60 dollars a month for Shopify apps that BigCommerce includes natively saves another 720 dollars a year on top of the fee saving. A store with no apps and all payments through Shopify Payments saves nothing on fees, and the switch only pays if the extra variant headroom or the included features matter. The sales cap can also erase the saving.
A store at 35,000 dollars a year must sit on BigCommerce Growth at 105 dollars a month, against Shopify Basic at 39 dollars, which is 66 dollars a month more before any fee saving is counted. Count the gateway fees, count the apps, check the trailing twelve month sales against the cap, and the answer will be a number, not a guess. Run that sum before committing to how to switch from Shopify to BigCommerce, and the decision makes itself.
What to Test in the First Two Weeks on BigCommerce
The parallel run only helps if the team tests the right things, so set the tests before the first BigCommerce order goes out. Place test orders for a single item, a multi item order, a discounted order, and an order to each shipping region the store serves, and confirm the payment settles, the stock drops, and the confirmation email arrives. Then compare the BigCommerce order totals against the Shopify figures for the same basket, checking the tax line and the shipping charge in particular, since those are the lines that drift between platforms.
Test the customer account flow next, because that is where migrations break quietly. Create a new account, reset a password on a migrated account, and place an order while logged in, then check that the order history shows correctly. Also test a discount code from the old store and a gift card if the store honors them, since codes that fail at checkout cost sales immediately. A test plan that covers ordering, payment, accounts, and discounts in the first week leaves the second week for fixing what failed, which is exactly how a quiet switch is supposed to work.
Common Switch Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
The first mistake is choosing the BigCommerce plan from the subscription price instead of the sales cap. A store at 32,000 dollars a year that starts on Core will be upgraded to Growth automatically, and the surprise shows up on the invoice. Check the trailing twelve month figure first, and start on the plan the sales volume actually requires. The second mistake is cancelling Shopify before the redirects are tested. A store that cancels on day one loses the old URLs it needs to verify, and broken redirects cost search rankings for months.
The third mistake is forgetting the customer passwords. A store that launches without telling customers will face a wave of failed logins and support tickets on the first day, and some of those customers will simply shop elsewhere. Send the reset notice a week before launch, and put a clear reset link on the login page. The fourth mistake is skipping the theme rebuild budget. A store that assumes the design will carry across discovers on launch week that it has a default theme, and the rebuild then happens under pressure, which is the worst time to design a storefront.
The fifth mistake is importing the catalog without checking the error report. The migration app lists failed rows, and a store that ignores that report launches with missing products or wrong prices. Read the report, fix the rows, and verify a sample of products by hand. The sixth mistake is forgetting the app replacements. A store that relies on a Shopify app for reviews, email, or accounting will lose that function on launch day if no replacement is connected. List every app, find its replacement, and connect it before the first real order, because learning how to switch from Shopify to BigCommerce is only half the job, and running the new store is the other half.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to switch from Shopify to BigCommerce?
Most small stores finish the switch in two to four weeks. The data migration takes a day, the theme rebuild takes one to two weeks, and the testing week catches the problems while Shopify is still available. A store with a large catalog or a custom theme should budget four to six weeks. Do not promise a one week switch, because the theme rebuild and the redirect work are what make the move safe.
Will I lose my products when I switch from Shopify to BigCommerce?
No, products transfer through the free BigCommerce Data Migration app, which moves products, categories, customers, and orders up to 500,000 total records. Check the error report after the import, because failed rows need fixing by hand. Products can also be imported by CSV, though orders and coupon codes cannot move by CSV, so the app is the better route for most stores. That is the safest path for how to switch from Shopify to BigCommerce with a large catalog.
Will my customers need new passwords?
Yes. Passwords cannot be migrated for security reasons, so every customer must reset their password on first login to the new store. Send the notice a week before launch, and put a clear reset link on the login page. Customer contact details, addresses, and order history do transfer, so the accounts themselves survive the move.
Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees like Shopify?
BigCommerce charges no transaction fee on orders through its approved embedded payment providers. It does charge an open payment provider fee of 2 percent on Core, 1 percent on Growth, and 0.6 percent on Scale for orders through gateways outside the approved list. Shopify charges 2 percent on Basic for third party gateways, and 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on card payments through Shopify Payments. Check the gateway before comparing the fees.
Can I keep my search rankings when I switch from Shopify to BigCommerce?
Yes, with 301 redirects. Map every important Shopify URL to its new BigCommerce URL, create the redirects before launch, and submit the new sitemap to Google Search Console. A store that launches without redirects will lose rankings on product and collection pages, and recovering them takes months. Keep Shopify live until the redirects are tested.
Verdict. Who Should Switch and Who Should Stay
Switch to BigCommerce if the store sells in volume, pays transaction fees on a third party gateway, hits the Shopify variant limit, or pays for several apps that BigCommerce includes. A store taking 10,000 dollars a month through an approved provider can save 200 dollars a month on fees alone, and a store with many product options gains real headroom from the 250 variant limit. For those stores, the migration app does the heavy work, and the switch pays for itself within a few months.
Stay on Shopify if the store depends on niche Shopify apps with no BigCommerce equivalent, if the sales volume sits above the BigCommerce plan cap, or if the theme is heavily customized and the rebuild budget is not there. A store that uses Shopify Payments, has no app bill, and stays under 100 variants gains little from the move, and the redesign cost will outweigh the saving.
The decision rule is simple. Count the gateway fees, count the apps, check the trailing twelve month sales against the cap, and run the two totals. If BigCommerce covers the storefront the business actually runs and costs less, switch in a quiet week and follow the eight steps. If Shopify covers a workflow that BigCommerce cannot, stay and renegotiate the Shopify plan instead.
