Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BigCommerce
Score 7.2 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
BigCommerce is a SaaS platform that allows SMBs to develop eCommerce sites. Features include the capabilities to design the storefront, configure products, manage payments, generate traffic, and optimize conversion.
$29.95
per month
Square Online
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Square Online (formerly Weebly) is a basic content management system with blogging and eCommerce features. It can be utilized for building standard websites or specialized webpages for online stores.
$6
per month
Pricing
BigCommerceSquare Online
Editions & Modules
Standard
$29.95
per month
Plus
$79.95
per month*
Pro
$299.95
per month*
Enterprise
Custom
per month
Personal
$9.00
per month
Professional
$16.00
per month
Performance
$29.00
per month
Free
Free
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BigCommerceSquare Online
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details*if paid annuallyPricing decreases when paid annually: Personal - $6/Month Professional$12/Month Performance - $26/Month
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BigCommerceSquare Online
Considered Both Products
BigCommerce
Chose BigCommerce
BigCommerce VS Shopify: Do I like Shopify? Yes. Has Shopify positioned itself as more of a get rich quick drop shipping platform, and alternative to marketplaces like Etsy? Also yes. Listen, I still like Shopify a lot, and there are absolutely still cases where I feel Shopify
Chose BigCommerce
Weebly is more basic. It doesn't have as many options as BigCommerce does with its integrations, apps, shipping, etc. BigCommerce was far more to learn but it was well worth it for the professional-looking store I have now!
Chose BigCommerce
BigCommerce allows much more customizability, better reporting, and easier management. I've experienced way fewer issues and their tech support has been above and beyond anything I've experienced elsewhere. The scalability is far superior to any of the above-mentioned site …
Chose BigCommerce
BigCommerce is by far the easiest, most secure, and most worry-free of the competition. It falls a little short to Magento in the coupon code area, and Shopify has more out of the box gimmicks, but, in the end, they all fall short compared to BigCommerce.
Chose BigCommerce
I chose to leave Weebly because of the lack of real-time shipping. Bigcommerce was able to do what Weebly customer service was unable to provide, quickly and effortlessly.
Square Online

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BigCommerceSquare Online
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
7.0
420 Ratings
11% below category average
Square Online
-
Ratings
Product catalog & listings7.5416 Ratings00 Ratings
Product management6.5413 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk product upload7.2313 Ratings00 Ratings
Branding6.7364 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile storefront6.6404 Ratings00 Ratings
Product variations7.4390 Ratings00 Ratings
Website integration7.4344 Ratings00 Ratings
Visual customization6.9406 Ratings00 Ratings
CMS7.3298 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
7.3
406 Ratings
5% below category average
Square Online
-
Ratings
Abandoned cart recovery7.5364 Ratings00 Ratings
Checkout user experience7.1401 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
7.3
402 Ratings
14% below category average
Square Online
-
Ratings
eCommerce security7.3402 Ratings00 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
7.0
407 Ratings
8% below category average
Square Online
-
Ratings
Promotions & discounts7.1383 Ratings00 Ratings
Personalized recommendations6.7319 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO7.3378 Ratings00 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
7.0
412 Ratings
12% below category average
Square Online
-
Ratings
Multi-site management7.7187 Ratings00 Ratings
Order processing6.7391 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory management7.1347 Ratings00 Ratings
Shipping6.8352 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom functionality6.9347 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
-
Ratings
Square Online
6.5
30 Ratings
22% below category average
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings6.530 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
-
Ratings
Square Online
7.0
21 Ratings
8% below category average
API00 Ratings7.016 Ratings
Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings7.017 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
-
Ratings
Square Online
7.9
42 Ratings
4% above category average
WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings9.035 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings7.538 Ratings
Admin section00 Ratings7.538 Ratings
Page templates00 Ratings7.042 Ratings
Library of website themes00 Ratings7.542 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings9.541 Ratings
Publishing workflow00 Ratings7.534 Ratings
Form generator00 Ratings8.035 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
BigCommerce
-
Ratings
Square Online
7.2
39 Ratings
2% below category average
Content taxonomy00 Ratings7.025 Ratings
SEO support00 Ratings7.535 Ratings
Bulk management00 Ratings8.020 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings6.532 Ratings
Community / comment management00 Ratings7.029 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BigCommerceSquare Online
Small Businesses
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus
Score 9.1 out of 10
Divi
Divi
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Shopify Plus
Shopify Plus
Score 9.1 out of 10
Image Relay
Image Relay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
RWS Tridion Sites
RWS Tridion Sites
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BigCommerceSquare Online
Likelihood to Recommend
6.7
(439 ratings)
8.0
(43 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(53 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(26 ratings)
6.0
(2 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(25 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.4
(345 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BigCommerceSquare Online
Likelihood to Recommend
BigCommerce
The ONLY reason we left Volusion was fear that Volusion was going to go out of business and our website/data would all be lost. I feel BigCommerce is lightyears behind Volusion in website/inventory control. In our experience, BigCommerce customer service severely lacks knowledge, at least compared to what we had in our 7-1/2 years with Volusion. There were times Volusion even helped us with stuff BigCommerce could not understand. I just feel sick about moving and that should not be the case. In my opinion, I downgraded heavily for the feeling BigCommerce would not be going out of business. I just feel sick.
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
If you are having students create websites or information pages about something they are studying in class, this is a great option. The fact that students can spend less time getting situated and learning the app and get right to work researching and creating their pages is great. For middle to high school, this is a fantastic app to use. However, if you want more nuanced analytics or want students to focus on blogging more than webpage building, this is limited.
Read full review
Pros
BigCommerce
  • SEO - fast loading speeds, helps us rank on Google
  • Product customization - allows us to customize templates to our needs to fit all viable information
  • Integration with other platforms - seamless connection to other properties like Google Ads and Analytics
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
  • Drag and drop interface makes it very easy to add all types of content, including images, text, video (and YouTube videos), embeddable applications and more.
  • It's very easy to set up navigation features like cascading menus and sticky navigation (where the menu stays put - may depend on the template chosen though).
  • A technical backend is fairly straight-forward for setting up a fav icon, 301 redirects, SEO, Google Analytics, etc.
Read full review
Cons
BigCommerce
  • Better and easier localisation for stores outside the US
  • Speed - it is not the fastest
  • Make sure that third-party theme developers update regularly and use best practice
  • Consider EU and country-specific rules and legal obligations and make customers aware of whether BC is actually fully compliant
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
  • Weebly doesn't have a lot of templates to choose from, so if you don't have any experience with CSS or HTML, it's hard to customize your site to an extent.
  • Weebly isn't fully SEO friendly. They don't allow you to add H1 tags to pages out of the box.
  • You can't create folder structures when it comes to web page URLs. You can put web pages under a main menu dropdown, but they don't allow you to put all sub-menu items in a structured folder (like site.com/folder/page-1 and site.com/folder/page-2).
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
BigCommerce
I personally would not even consider another e-commerce website platform.
Bigcommerce may have the same (or close to the same) functionality and integrations as other SaaS platforms but they excel at customer service and tech support. At the end of the day you need a company that will answer the phone in less than a minute especially if you're having a 5 alarm issue. That said, we hardly ever have any issues. The site was down for a few minutes one time 5 years ago. Sometimes we have issues with coding or apps and they help me with that too. They even walked me through installing our new theme when the contracted developers told me that wasn't included in the development of our new website.
Bigcommerce comes out with new innovations every year, not including apps that other people write for the platform, and there are a lot of those and new ones all the time. And there are a LOT of awesome themes to choose from (Halothemes are the best).
And the price is reasonable!
I'd give Bigcommerce my business any time and recommend them to anyone looking to run an e-commerce website. You could even use them for a non-shopping site, we have one of those too!
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
Weebly is consistently adding features that line up with our needs. The ease of use makes it the perfect program for us since we have users of multiple age brackets and knowledge of web design. We love that we can give users access to only the pages they are affiliated with
Read full review
Usability
BigCommerce
I think that overall it has a great front end for the customer. On the back end, it takes a little spin-up time, but in just a couple of hours you can really have your head wrapped around everything you're going to need 99% of the time. It takes me about 5 minutes to train a new user on how to interact with customer orders.
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
It's good enough to get quick and simple websites online, but lacks the complexity offered by more robust or custom e-commerce systems. We knew this going into it, so our expectations were set and limited. The system does a good job of helping users simply check out, and it saves our admins time with an easy to use user interface.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
BigCommerce
So far in my time with BigCommerce I have not had any down time when it comes to my webstore or accessing it at any time I need to. Knowing that they have such a good uptime, it makes me feel comfortable that my customers can access things anytime, but also keep sales going 24/7
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
No answers on this topic
Performance
BigCommerce
I have not had any issues with pages loading slow or any real other issues, not that I have encountered so far. Speed of the site and images loading are fantastic and everything just seems to work nicely, which may seem like a simple thing to say about things, but when something just WORKS! Its rather nice vs fighting with things to work right.
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
BigCommerce
Because they are always there no matter how simple or complex the question is, if they don't know the answer they don't fake it and just make you go away feeling frustrated.. they get you to someone that does know the answer. I always appreciate their help and their honesty!
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
No answers on this topic
Online Training
BigCommerce
They have a comprehensive online help file system that makes it easy to do almost anything. They cover just about everything you'd want to do with your online store with images, clear descriptions and in some cases video. I will, however, say the videos should be a little more professorially done and not sound like the employees are doing it in their cubical.
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
BigCommerce
A certified BigCommerce design and solution partner will usually comprise a team of highly experienced designers, developers and marketers. It is our view that in the vast majority of cases, this will pay dividends in the long-term - especially for those teams that could use the extra support.
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
BigCommerce
We switched from Shopify due to the restrictions they implemented on our industry. While we spent tens of thousands of dollars investing in our Shopify store, we can't have them cutting us off anytime they want. We reviewed WooCommerce, but didn't like the storefront or backend. Plus it seems like Wordpress/WooCommerce runs into tons of hacking issues and bugs.
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
Weebly's designs, plugins, and customization options are a little more advanced in some cases than other similar programs. WordPress requires a different level of expertise and knowledge of code, keywording, and plugins, so I wouldn't even compare them. Wix is a little more user-friendly because you can drag and drop your design, which was very convenient for customizing your site. I didn't personally select Weebly, but it is user-friendly and nearly anyone comfortable with a computer could figure it out. Weebly support is also pretty good.
Read full review
Scalability
BigCommerce
I believe after seeing all of the parts of this platform, one is able to develop the business and keep adding on select features for the business. There are multiple options for purchase with the various platforms once the business grows more. The different features being offered by the platform can lead us to scalability.
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BigCommerce
  • Provides a robust platform to sell a high-risk product.
  • Page Builder saves you time and money by negating the need to buy a template.
  • Includes robust promotion settings that allow for codes and automatic discounts, bulk discounts, and customer groups (i.e. military discount), all native options.
Read full review
Block, Inc (Square)
  • Weebly has allowed our business to create a connection with our customers by offering home decor, cooking and styling tips.
  • Weebly gives us the chance to relay information to customers regarding merchandise, current sales and promotions, store hours and locations etc. Which has helped increase business.
  • Weebly has given our not very tech savvy business the opportunity to have a website and stay relevant with our competitors.
Read full review
ScreenShots

BigCommerce Screenshots

Screenshot of Enterprise ecommerce for high-volume brands like Skullcandy.Screenshot of Our industry-leading integration will let you list your products on Amazon directly from the BigCommerce control panel, with centralized inventory and order processing and fulfillment.Screenshot of Easily customize the look and feel of your storefront.