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TL;DR: BigCommerce pricing in 2026 runs from $29 to $299 a month on annual billing ($39 to $399 month to month) across three self-serve plans, Core, Growth and Scale, with Performance quoted from $1,499 a month. Those are the same prices Shopify charges for Basic, Grow and Advanced, so BigCommerce is no longer the cheaper platform. The sales caps also dropped in June 2026: Core now tops out at $30K in trailing 12-month sales and Growth at $100K. Gateways outside BigCommerce's embedded list add 2.0%, 1.0% or 0.6% of eligible sales. BigCommerce still wins in two places: staff accounts on the entry plan and a long list of fee-free gateways.

A note on who pays us. We earn affiliate commission from Shopify, which this article compares BigCommerce against. We earn nothing from BigCommerce. The conclusion that BigCommerce no longer undercuts Shopify happens to suit us. So we have tried to be just as clear about where BigCommerce comes out ahead.

BigCommerce pricing plans at a glance

BigCommerce renamed its plans and cut its sales caps on June 1, 2026: Standard became Core, Plus became Growth, Pro became Scale and Enterprise became Performance. The plan prices did not change. Many of the pages ranking for BigCommerce pricing plans still use the old names and the old sales caps. Check the date on anything you read.

Plan	Monthly billing	Annual billing (per month)	Sales cap	Open Payment Provider fee	Extra storefronts	Fits
Core	$39	$29	$30K trailing 12-month GMV	2.0%	+$30/mo, up to 3	New stores, small teams
Growth	$105	$79	$100K trailing 12-month GMV	1.0%	+$50/mo, up to 5	Stores past their first year
Scale	$399	$299	$33,333/mo included, then 0.9%	0.6%	+$100/mo, up to 8	Stores above $100K a year
Performance	Custom	From $1,499	Contract	None	Contract	Stores near $2M a year

GMV means gross merchandise value, roughly the value of the orders your store takes. Every self-serve plan comes with a 15-day free trial. You don't need a card to start it.

How much does BigCommerce cost?

BigCommerce pricing for the self-serve plans is $29 to $299 a month if you pay yearly, or $39 to $399 if you pay monthly. That is the subscription only. The real BigCommerce cost adds card processing, any gateway fee, a theme if you buy one, and apps.

On Core with annual billing, the plan itself comes to $348 for the first year. A paid theme runs about $150 to $450 once, though free themes exist. Apps are the open question: Swell and WizCommerce both put a typical app stack at $75 to $300 a month. Both of those companies sell competing platforms, so treat their figure as a reported range, not a quote.

So how much does BigCommerce cost once a store is running? The plan price plus whatever the store bolts on. For a lean store using a fee-free gateway and few paid apps, that can stay close to the $29 sticker. For a store running five paid apps on a third-party gateway, the subscription becomes the smallest line on the bill.

Core ($39/month): the entry plan with a lower ceiling

Core is the entry point of BigCommerce pricing at $39 a month, or $29 billed annually. It covers stores up to $30,000 in trailing 12-month GMV. Its predecessor, Standard, allowed $50,000 a year. The price stayed the same, but the room you get for it shrank by 40%.

That matters because the upgrade is automatic. A store doing $35,000 a year would have stayed on Standard at $29 a month. On the new plans it is moved to Growth at $79 a month on annual billing. That's $50 more each month, or $600 a year, for the same revenue. On monthly billing the jump is from $39 to $105.

Core does have one thing Shopify's entry plan lacks. Staff accounts are included on every BigCommerce plan, Core included. If two people need to log into the admin, that is worth $50 a month against Shopify.

Core also carries the highest Open Payment Provider fee, at 2.0%. If you plan to use a gateway that isn't on BigCommerce's embedded list, that fee hits hardest here.

Growth ($105/month): where most growing stores land

Growth costs $105 a month, or $79 billed annually, and covers stores up to $100,000 in trailing 12-month GMV. The old Plus plan allowed $180,000. The price is unchanged; the ceiling dropped by $80,000.

For example, a store doing $120,000 a year sat comfortably on Plus at $79 a month under the old caps. Under the new ones it is moved to Scale at $299 a month on annual billing. The extra $220 a month adds up to $2,640 a year, triggered by nothing but steady growth.

The Open Payment Provider fee falls to 1.0% on Growth. Multi-storefront costs $50 a month here and lets you run up to five storefronts.

Scale ($399/month) and the 0.9% overage

Scale costs $399 a month, or $299 billed annually, and includes $33,333 of GMV per month. Above that, BigCommerce charges 0.9% on the extra sales. BigCommerce describes this as "no tier jumps, no block charges", and it replaces the fixed blocks the old Pro plan used.

The included amount works out to $400,000 a year, the same as Pro's old cap. The difference is the charge above it. Pro added $150 a month for each extra $200,000 in sales. Scale now charges a percentage that rises smoothly with revenue.

What the overage costs at real revenue

At $50,000 in monthly GMV, $16,667 sits above the included amount. The 0.9% overage on that is about $150, so the plan costs about $449 a month on annual billing.

At $83,333 a month, about $1 million a year, $50,000 sits above the line. The overage is about $450, and the total is about $749 a month. That lands where the old block model would have put a $1 million store, so very large Scale stores pay about the same as before.

Stores between $400,000 and $1 million a year move more gradually. The fee grows with each extra dollar instead of jumping in $150 steps.

Scale moves you to Performance automatically once trailing 12-month GMV reaches $2 million.

Performance: BigCommerce enterprise pricing

Performance is BigCommerce's enterprise plan, and BigCommerce enterprise pricing starts at $1,499 a month on an annual contract. The actual price is quoted, so treat $1,499 as a floor rather than a figure you will pay. Over a year the floor alone comes to $17,988.

Performance has no Open Payment Provider fee, because its terms are set by contract. Stores reach it either by choice or automatically at $2 million in trailing 12-month GMV. Some pages put enterprise quotes at $1,000 to $2,000 or more a month; the only published starting point is BigCommerce's own $1,499.

The fees beyond the subscription

The BigCommerce fees that sit outside the plan price are the Open Payment Provider fee, card processing, themes, apps and extra storefronts. The first one is the newest and the least understood, and it is the one most likely to change which plan is cheapest for you.

Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees?

Yes, unless you use one of its embedded payment providers. BigCommerce charges an Open Payment Provider fee of 2.0% on Core, 1.0% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale, calculated on eligible order GMV. It is billed to you monthly, separately from whatever your payment processor charges. Performance has no such fee.

Several pages ranking for BigCommerce pricing still say BigCommerce has no transaction fees. That was the selling point for years, and it is now out of date. In practice, BigCommerce transaction fees are zero only if every order goes through a provider on its embedded list.

For example, a Core store selling $2,000 a month through a gateway outside the list pays $40 a month in fees. That's more than the $29 plan. A Growth store selling $8,000 a month pays $80, close to the $79 plan price again.

Which payment providers avoid the fee

Orders through BigCommerce's embedded payment providers are exempt, and if all your orders use them, the fee is $0. The list includes Stripe, PayPal (Braintree, Complete Payments and Wallet), Adyen, Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, Amazon Pay, Checkout.com, Sezzle, Worldpay, Zip Money and BigCommerce Payments, among others.

Anything not on the list counts as an Open Payment Provider and pays the fee. Before you pick a plan, check that your processor is on BigCommerce's current list, because that decides whether the fee applies at all.

Card processing rates

Card processing on BigCommerce Payments begins at 2.89% + $0.29 per transaction on all plans, according to BigCommerce's pricing page. American Express runs 3.50%. The pricing page does not publish a rate for each plan. The third-party pages that do disagree with each other, so we have left their numbers out.

Themes, apps and multi-storefront

Free themes are available, and paid themes cost roughly $150 to $450 as a one-time purchase, depending on the source. Apps are a monthly cost that grows with the store; $75 to $300 a month is the commonly reported range for a typical stack.

Multi-storefront lets you run more than one store from a single account. It is an add-on: $30 a month on Core for up to three storefronts, $50 on Growth for up to five and $100 on Scale for up to eight. The same add-on costs hit every platform, and we priced them out in how much it costs to start a Shopify store.

Is BigCommerce cheaper than Shopify?

No. BigCommerce pricing now matches Shopify's tier for tier: Core, Growth and Scale cost exactly what Basic, Grow and Advanced cost, $39, $105 and $399 a month or $29, $79 and $299 billed annually. The third-party gateway fee matches too, at 2%, 1% and 0.6% on both platforms.

	BigCommerce Core	Shopify Basic	BigCommerce Growth	Shopify Grow	BigCommerce Scale	Shopify Advanced
Monthly	$39	$39	$105	$105	$399	$399
Annual (per month)	$29	$29	$79	$79	$299	$299
Third-party gateway fee	2.0%	2%	1.0%	1%	0.6%	0.6%
Staff accounts	Included	None	Included	5	Included	15
Free trial	15 days, no card	3 days, then $1/mo for 3 months	15 days	3 days	15 days	3 days

Two differences survive the match. The first is staff accounts. Shopify Basic gives you the owner login only, so a second admin means moving to Grow at $79 a month on annual billing. BigCommerce includes staff accounts on Core at $29. For a two-person team, that's a $50 a month gap, or $600 a year, in BigCommerce's favor.

The second is the gateway. Shopify's surcharge disappears only on Shopify Payments. BigCommerce's disappears on any provider on its embedded list, including Stripe and PayPal. If you already process through Stripe, BigCommerce lets you keep it without paying the fee.

Shopify's trial is shorter, 3 days against 15, but its $1 a month for three months makes the first quarter cheaper. If you want the same breakdown for the other side, our guide walks through Shopify pricing plans on Basic, Grow and Advanced with the same math.

When should you upgrade? (the honest math)

On BigCommerce you rarely choose when to upgrade. Core moves to Growth, Growth moves to Scale and Scale moves to Performance automatically once your trailing 12-month GMV passes the plan's cap. Trailing 12-month means the last twelve months of sales, recalculated as you go, not your calendar year.

A store that grows steadily can cross a cap months before the owner notices. Look at your last twelve months of sales against $30,000 and $100,000 before you budget.

The jumps are steep at both lower caps. Core to Growth adds $50 a month on annual billing. Growth to Scale adds $220. Scale then rises smoothly with the 0.9% overage instead of jumping again.

If you sit just under a cap with thin margins, work out whether the next plan's lower gateway fee recovers part of the jump. A Growth store doing $95,000 a year through an open provider pays about $950 a year in fees at 1.0%. On Scale it would pay about $570 at 0.6%. That's $380 back against a $2,640 increase. Core to Growth works the same way: 1% back on under $30,000 is under $300 against $600. The lower fee alone never pays for either move.

When BigCommerce is the wrong choice

BigCommerce is the wrong choice if you are picking it because you heard it was the cheaper platform. Its plans cost the same as Shopify's, and the old "no transaction fees" line now depends on your gateway. Swell and WizCommerce make similar arguments, but both sell competing platforms; we don't.

It is also a poor fit in three situations:

• Your sales are about to pass $30,000 a year and your margins are thin. You will be moved to Growth soon, and the $50 a month jump comes out of profit.
• You are tied to a payment processor that is not on the embedded list. You will pay 2.0% on Core on every eligible order.
• You expect to grow past $100,000 within a year on a small budget. The move to Scale costs $2,640 a year more than the old caps would have.

BigCommerce is the right choice when its two real advantages apply to you. If several people need admin access on a small budget, Core with staff accounts beats Shopify Basic. If you already use Stripe, PayPal or Adyen, you avoid the gateway fee without changing processor. Multi-storefront on a mid-tier plan is another real reason.

If neither BigCommerce nor Shopify fits, our comparison of the alternatives puts eight Shopify alternatives side by side on price and limits.

How to choose your BigCommerce plan

Choosing between BigCommerce plans comes down to your trailing 12-month sales, because BigCommerce will move you up anyway once you pass a cap. Start from your actual revenue, not the features list.

• Under $30,000 a year: Core at $29 a month billed annually. Pick an embedded gateway to keep the fee at zero.
• $30,000 to $100,000: Growth at $79 a month. Budget for the move to Scale if you are growing fast.
• $100,000 to $400,000: Scale at $299 a month, with no overage until you pass $33,333 a month.
• $400,000 to $2 million: Scale plus 0.9% on sales above $33,333 a month.
• Above $2 million: Performance, from $1,499 a month on contract.

On Scale, the overage only reaches $1,200 a month, the gap between Scale and the Performance floor, at about $2 million a year. Use the 15-day trial to check your gateway and apps before you pay. Pay annually only once you are confident your revenue will stay within the plan's cap for the year.

Sources and a note on the numbers

Every BigCommerce pricing figure here comes from BigCommerce's pricing page, checked on October 25, 2026. The old caps come from websitebuilderexpert.com and Swell. Theme and app ranges come from Swell, WizCommerce and websitebuilderexpert.com, and are reported figures rather than BigCommerce's own.

Published card processing rates for each plan disagree from source to source, so we quote only BigCommerce's "begins at 2.89% + $0.29". Shopify figures are US prices from our own pricing research. Check the pricing page yourself before you commit, because both platforms change plans without much notice.

FAQ

Plans and prices

How much does BigCommerce cost per month? BigCommerce pricing is $39, $105 or $399 a month on Core, Growth and Scale with monthly billing. Annual billing brings that down to $29, $79 and $299 a month. Performance starts at $1,499 a month on an annual contract.

Is there a free BigCommerce plan or trial? BigCommerce lists no free plan on its pricing page. Every self-serve plan has a 15-day free trial, and you don't need a credit card to start it.

How much does BigCommerce Enterprise (Performance) cost? Performance starts at $1,499 a month, billed annually, and the final price is quoted. It has no Open Payment Provider fee because its terms are set by contract.

Fees

Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees? Only if you use a gateway outside its embedded list. The Open Payment Provider fee is 2.0% on Core, 1.0% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale. Orders through Stripe, PayPal, Adyen, Klarna, BigCommerce Payments and other embedded providers pay no fee.

Can I avoid the Open Payment Provider fee? Yes. Route every order through a provider on BigCommerce's embedded list and the fee is $0. Performance plans don't carry it either.

Limits and comparisons

Is BigCommerce cheaper than Shopify in 2026? No. Core, Growth and Scale cost exactly what Shopify Basic, Grow and Advanced cost, and the third-party gateway fees match too. BigCommerce comes out cheaper only if you need staff accounts on the entry plan or want to avoid the gateway fee with Stripe or PayPal.

What happens when I go over my plan's sales limit? BigCommerce moves you to the next plan automatically. Core moves to Growth above $30,000 in trailing 12-month GMV, and Growth moves to Scale above $100,000. On Scale you pay 0.9% on monthly GMV above $33,333, and you move to Performance at $2 million.