Big Cartel vs. Shopify

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Big Cartel
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Big Cartel is an eCommerce platform built for artists, such as artists, designers, and musicians, to build an online store.
$9.99
per month
Shopify
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Shopify is a commerce platform designed for both online stores and retail locations. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, and the Shopify POS application to power retail sales.
$29
per month
Pricing
Big CartelShopify
Editions & Modules
50 Products
$9.99
per month
250 Products
$19.99
per month
500 Products
$29.99
per month
5 Products
Free
Shopify Lite
$9
per month
Basic Shopify
$29
per month
Shopify
$79
per month
Advanced Shopify
$299
per month
Shopify Plus
2,000
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Big CartelShopify
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Big CartelShopify
Considered Both Products
Big Cartel

No answer on this topic

Shopify
Chose Shopify
I have used bigcartel in the past. This was a good platform for what we initially needed it for - but Shopify was far superior because of its integrations and ability to support shipping and fulfillment seamlessly. Another similar site was Etsy. This is a great platform that …
Features
Big CartelShopify
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
Big Cartel
10.0
1 Ratings
25% above category average
Shopify
8.4
147 Ratings
8% above category average
Product catalog & listings10.01 Ratings8.9147 Ratings
Product management10.01 Ratings8.3145 Ratings
Branding10.01 Ratings8.5144 Ratings
Mobile storefront10.01 Ratings9.0140 Ratings
Product variations10.01 Ratings8.1137 Ratings
Website integration10.01 Ratings8.7138 Ratings
Visual customization10.01 Ratings8.5144 Ratings
Bulk product upload00 Ratings8.5124 Ratings
CMS00 Ratings7.7116 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
Big Cartel
10.0
1 Ratings
27% above category average
Shopify
8.4
139 Ratings
10% above category average
Checkout user experience10.01 Ratings8.7137 Ratings
Abandoned cart recovery00 Ratings8.2129 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
Big Cartel
10.0
1 Ratings
19% above category average
Shopify
9.5
141 Ratings
14% above category average
eCommerce security10.01 Ratings9.5141 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Big Cartel
10.0
1 Ratings
27% above category average
Shopify
8.4
144 Ratings
10% above category average
Promotions & discounts10.01 Ratings8.9138 Ratings
Personalized recommendations00 Ratings8.432 Ratings
SEO00 Ratings7.9133 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
Big Cartel
10.0
1 Ratings
23% above category average
Shopify
8.0
145 Ratings
1% above category average
Order processing10.01 Ratings9.0142 Ratings
Inventory management10.01 Ratings7.5141 Ratings
Shipping10.01 Ratings8.1133 Ratings
Custom functionality10.01 Ratings8.7134 Ratings
Multi-site management00 Ratings6.719 Ratings
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Big CartelShopify
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Big CartelShopify
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.4
(160 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(16 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.4
(14 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Big CartelShopify
Likelihood to Recommend
Big Cartel LLC
It's well suited for simple e-commerce and basic inventory management needs.
Read full review
Shopify
Shopify allowed us to handle matrix items and combined listings. Both of which we could not do on our previous platform. There was some customization involved but overall, it did what we needed it to. The one downside was that if we want to change anything we would have to reload the entire set of matrix items manually.
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Pros
Big Cartel LLC
  • It's very easy to use and does not require a lot of configuration or setup.
  • It has been extremely reliable. Clients never have issues with purchasing from it and it has always has been up for us.
  • It's very fast. It loads quick both on the consumer/front end and also admin/backend.
  • Pricing model is flat, not percentage of transactions.
Read full review
Shopify
  • It's base security and integration with trusted security partners (such as NoFraud) is a game-changer when it comes to reliability and a "hands off approach" for our IT department. The up-time is also very good.
  • It offers a wide range of verified plugins that are (for the most part) easy to install and use for any specific scenario you're looking for.
  • It's Analytics area in the admin is actually nice and offers a wide variety of reports that you can run.
Read full review
Cons
Big Cartel LLC
  • For our needs I really can't think of anything!
Read full review
Shopify
  • I would love it if Shopify built an in house app which helped us post UGCs and social proof from platforms such as Instagram, Youtube etc. more seamlessly on our website. Right now, we are able to do it through third party apps but the look and feel is just okay.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Big Cartel LLC
No answers on this topic
Shopify
Nothing we have used in the past or have seen thus far even comes close to offering what we get with Shopify Plus, especially for the price. You cannot even come close to getting what we are getting at the price we pay. We are beyond thrilled and Shopify Plus meets and exceeds all of our needs and expectations. We love it!
Read full review
Usability
Big Cartel LLC
No answers on this topic
Shopify
It is fairly easy to use Shopify regardless of what task you are attempting to perform. Most things are customizable to a degree without requiring coding ability. I have very limited coding experience and have still been able to navigate my way around changing features of the website that require edits to the code with the use of AI and trial-and-error. This previously wasn't possible with the WooCommerce platform.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Big Cartel LLC
No answers on this topic
Shopify
Shopify support is always available when you need them.
Read full review
Performance
Big Cartel LLC
No answers on this topic
Shopify
Shopify website speed is quite impressive. Even if we integrate couple apps, it does not hamper the site speed.
Read full review
Support Rating
Big Cartel LLC
No answers on this topic
Shopify
In terms of support I give Shopify a 9 out of 10 because they're always very friendly and thorough, and they personally can't solve my problem for me they always point me in the proper direction with the proper information I need to move forward
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Online Training
Big Cartel LLC
No answers on this topic
Shopify
Shopify offered us several trainings to setup a Shopify store, how to build a brand, SEO, product photography etc. All this content have been super helpful in our journey.
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Implementation Rating
Big Cartel LLC
No answers on this topic
Shopify
Just start now and make the switch, the sooner the better. You will love it and it is really a simple process
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Big Cartel LLC
No answers on this topic
Shopify
Big Commerce and SAP Hybris are two other platforms we've investigated and Shopify is by far easiest to use and customize. While it doesn't do everything out of the box, the apps do fill in many gaps. The cost however, is probably the biggest selling point against these other two options.
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Scalability
Big Cartel LLC
No answers on this topic
Shopify
Shopify has basic to high-end plans. The plans grow with the brand`s growth and I love that about Shopify.
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Return on Investment
Big Cartel LLC
  • The basic plan at $10/month easily saves us that in time from having to manage our own e-commerce system on our own site.
Read full review
Shopify
  • It got the store up quickly so the client could start selling. She was previously selling products on Etsy and Facebook and wanted to consolidate everything onto one website, so the main thing Shopify solved was to reduce the store owner's time in managing all her products on multiple sites. Also, we had previously built a website on Wix with all the custom functionality and branding she needed - a truly great, high-end website - but it performed so slowly that it was unusable. So the speed at which Shopify can be set up and then works on the page is appreciable.
  • The website was manageable by the client - she could figure the system out herself after a while so she saved money on costs for hiring developers. She did have to hire developers to customize some of the plug-ins but costs are all relative; it wasn't a high investment compared to building a full e-commerce website. With the complexity and size of her product base and the functionality and branding she wanted to have in a website, and the potential of her business, she would have needed to invest well over $10,000 to get to where she really needs to be. In the end she kept the budget under $5000.00.
  • Costs kept climbing with plug-ins having to be added with everything. My client became more involved in building the website and began to try multiple plugins, and she did not have the skill base to evaluate the plugins functionalities so she chose plugins that did not do everything she needed, and then ended up paying the plugin developers to customize the plugins. So on one hand, it's pretty amazing to be able to bring up an e-commerce website as quickly as a week or so, but on the other hand if you need anything customized or deeper functionality in regards to product searching and filtering on the web page, and management on the backend, it quickly goes beyond the skills of the average person to manage, and above their expected budget as well. In the end my client really did not get anything close to the functionality for the website we had originally envisioned.
  • Shopify was the easiest way we could find to bring the client's products to a global market. We evaluated several other platforms and the functionality simple did not seem to be adequate, so Shopify seemed like the only solution that could do enough of what we needed and still stay within this client's budget. Really the problem in this project was not platform per se but that the budget wasn't large enough. Shopify managed to provide a solution for an ecommerce store with thousands of products on a tiny budget, so in the sense of pure functionality it provided the best value of all the platforms we evaluated. The solution still isn't big enough for this client's business though so, without having insights into this client's post-build sales results, my guess is that because her new website did not make her products easier to sort through, and she likely didn't have much more budget left to invest in SEO and other marketing of the website, her sales probably didn't increase substantially as a result of having built the website. So I think this project all in all did not likely have a high ROI.
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ScreenShots