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
Squarespace
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Squarespace is a CMS platform that allows users to create a DIY blog, eCommerce store, and/or portfolio (visual art or music). Some Squarespace website and shop templates are industry or use case-specific, such as menu builders for restaurant sites.
BigCommerce I think is easier to use than Shopify for a hosted solution, but Shopify does offer more customization. Both are way better than Squarespace. For self-hosted I prefer WooCommerce for small to medium shops and Magento for large shops. Overall BigCommerce is a decent …
We used Shopify, Squarespace and storenvy. All were bloated and had a lot of unnecessary and useless features and at a cost that did not seem beneficial to us. In the end, BigCommerce looked like it would work best for our online / brick and mortar model that we run. Also the …
BigCommerce's biggest advantage that I've seen is the ability to have a large catalog of products compared to sites like Shopify and Squarespace. BigCommerce allows for large product menus and product options giving the users easier navigation throughout the catalog. Also, …
We looked at a couple of e-commerce platforms including Squarespace. We found the functionality, ease of use, scalability, storefront features and such to be most attractive with BigCommerce, especially for the price.
We sell high-risk items as far as the banks are concerned. BigCommerce allows me to make the changes I need to make myself without having to rely on a web designer to assist me. Squarespace and Stripe dropped us for selling "drug paraphernalia" so we needed a solution quickly …
Though Shopify has an easy to use interface for the beginners in eCommerce, they charge an additional merchant fee for using a payment gateway other than their own. For a store like mine where margins are already slim, added fees and charges can really stack up. BigCommerce …
Squarespace did not have the ability to host our entire product line with all the necessary variations and options. As such, we had to go with a platform that could grow with us. BigCommerce did just that. It was easy to integrate, has been easy to use, and we are happy with …
We chose BigCommerce based on their inventory software, and we continue to stand by that decision. Squarespace and Wix simply cannot handle the amount of inventory we carry, and Shopify (at the time) did not seem suitable for us. We appreciate the flow and layout of …
We started off using Shopify, as it seems "everybody" does, but we needed more product flexibility and shipping variations. Shopify offered that, but wanted double/triple the price from the tier we were on. Since we were just starting out, we didn't want to pay a crazy big …
osCommerce was our previous platform. It worked great for what it was but was too difficult to maintain and behind the times. When looking for a replacement, Squarespace and Shopify were both evaluated. Squarespace was not responsive at the time and did not support all of the …
BigCommerce combines the ease-of-use that you get form Shopify, with the ability to handle large numbers of Sku's like a custom Magento site might have.
But unlike a custom site like Magento, you don't need a coder or developer for every little change you want to make to the …
While all of these platforms have their advantages, they couldn't provide the level of international shipping and the multiple shipping options needed by my clients with advanced e-commerce stores. Those two major features were the reason we went with BigCommerce in the first …
We very much liked BigCommerce because it was the perfect fit or the best of both worlds as far as our business is concerned. It had a really robust shopping cart experience that comes standard and it allows for a Sandbox environment that we can use for future custom build-outs.
Pricing-wise, BigCommerce is pretty much the same. Our problem was a way to track inventory across in-store, on-site and online sales. BigCommerce was the solution that worked best with Square.
I have managed to build 2 large websites on BigCommerce and it is fast and reliable. Have managed builds on Magento as well as small website projects on Wix, GoDaddy and Shopify and they all have their pros and cons. This is an ever-changing space and it really comes down to …
I find the features of Big Commerce more flexible than the standard ones on Shopify and you seem to need to continuously purchase add ons to do the same thing. In regard to SEO, I find Big Commerce to be better than Square Space sites.
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 …
We decided on Big Commerce because it was something I've used previously while working with another vendor. I liked the all in one solution compared to some of the piecemeal integrations I've used in the past. Due to being related to the cannabis industry, it narrowed my …
Besides Magento and some of the other enterprise-level ecommerce platforms, BigCommerce has the most functionality. Product Options/Facets, Pricing Tiers and Customer Groups, as well as an integrated blog make BigCommerce a great platform to build your website if you have a lot …
We used Network Solutions and are disappointed by their buggy software and their unwillingness to fix their bugs. We evaluated Shopify, but did not think they were technical enough. Shopify has more flash though. Squarespace did not offer foreign ordering at that time. 10% …
BigCommerce is a robust machine. And that's what you need for your big business dreams. With all its advanced features, BigCommerce makes sure the learning curve is never steep. If you are new to e-commerce, that's the kind of platform that you need--the kind that offers an …
Squarespace is more visually appealing than the other platforms, but is not quite as well suited for large libraries of content. With some work on integrating blog-type pages and navigation into the overall template (with a similar visual style) this could easily be addressed. …
Big Commerce is great for managing our items for sale all while serving as a home base for our customers. - Whether they want to buy PPE, learn about PPE or have any questions or concerns, they know they can come to our site and get the service/product they need!
We've found Squarespace perfect for quick, well-designed websites that you can literally design and launch in a day. However, if you want to get more complex with your website, including custom backend integrations or code, Squarespace presents a bit more of a challenge when it comes to what they will allow you to modify on their platform (especially using third-party integration apps).
Stupid simple to use. I know very creative people who cannot code and this is probably the easiest ever platform for them!
Pretty website templates and great functionality with showing off portfolios.
They've already figured out what are the problems that non-coding people have when creating websites and they've figured out a simple solution for all of it.
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!
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.
It's simple to use for someone who is really good with computers as well as those who are not. I've been using my personal squarespace for years and have also helped clients build a starting page which they are later able to manage theirselves.
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
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.
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!
Help is available directly from the back end and uses full sentence searching to find answers to questions others may have asked before. With a ton of articles and support questions documents, it is very likely that your question has been answered. If not each page has the ability to open a direct email to support. Each case has a number and can be followed. Responses are often quick and have links and directions clearly stated
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.
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.
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.
Overall, as a designer, it makes perfect sense for small to large businesses to use a site such as SquareSpace. Costs are relatively reasonable with the ability to go in and do custom code.
The issue is certain aspects of it, depending on the plan, you can't do. So, if you want to do API to the site, you need to use the top-tier program to do so. Even at custom code, you won't have access to the API section.
As well, like all templates and themes, everybody is using the same style too.
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.
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.
The key positive impact on my overall business objectives is how simple Squarespace sites are to implement new information. Whenever our services change, we can quickly update pages or even change how the website flows, in a very short window of time. This allows me to get back to more urgent work sooner.
Our Squarespace site for Club Swim Show helped present our web series to potential partners; Club Swim Show went on to partner with a popular swimming magazine and reach a larger audience through that magazine's hosting thanks to the professional design of our original website.
Squarespace does not bring in customers to my storefront, which is fine for me, since I sell things infrequently and it is not my main business, but might work against someone who is expecting a Shopify or Etsy level connection with buyer markets.