BigCommerce vs Ecwid: How Different Can These Two Platforms Be?

Earned its reputation in the eCommerce market, BigCommerce vs Ecwid surely stands out as a strong competitor. However, these two solutions distinguish diversely regarding their features and pricing policy as objectives. In this post, LitExtension – #1 Shopping Cart Migration Expert will walk you through:

• BigCommerce and Ecwid overview
• BigCommerce vs Ecwid key features compared
• Suggestion on which one suit you the most

Let's get in!

BigCommerce vs Ecwid Overview

What is BigCommerce?

BigCommerce, as you have already known, is an eCommerce solution for building professional websites and providing extreme scalability to grow an online business. A few BigCommerce big brands to mention are Toyota, Kodak, and Ben & Jerry’s.

Read on our essential resource about BigCommerce to know what is BigCommerce & how BigCommerce works!

What is Ecwid?

Ecwid is an eCommerce plug-in with a dedicated objective of helping small and medium businesses to sell their products “anywhere”. Also came to the market in 2009, Ecwid is very popular as a plugin and a hosted platform with over 1 million online merchants and over $3bn merchant revenue. Some of Ecwid's prominent clients are Bike Friday, Alpine Pastry, Speed 51,…

Both BigCommerce vs Ecwid allow selling physical as well as digital products, and they also provide multiple selling tools along with other built-in features. The question is: How different can these two platforms be? Let's keep reading to discover the answer!

Read on our Ecwid eCommerce review to grasp all insights of this eCommerce platform!

BigCommerce vs Ecwid – Full Features Comparison

Pricing

With distinguishing objectives, BigCommerce vs Ecwid comes with different pricing plans for users to choose from.

While BigCommerce offers a 15-day trial, Ecwid users can have their store kicking in and start selling forever. This Free Plan comes in handy for all the new retailers to experience online selling and store owners with few products. This Free Plan certainly grants Ecwid a higher position in the market as a solution for SME businesses.

Regarding the paid plans, BigCommerce vs Ecwid both facilitate monthly and annual payments. Below are the details of the pricing.

BigCommerce pricing 

In detail, the Standard plan includes all the functionalities of an online store, such as:

• unlimited number of products
• unlimited staff accounts
• gift cards
• ratings and reviews functionality
• professional report
• unlimited bandwidth
• unlimited file storage

As the plan leveled up, more features will be unlocked, such as an abandoned cart recovery tool, customer segmentation, stored credit cards, Google Customer Reviews, custom SSL, real-time carrier shipping, etc.

The bad news is that BigCommerce imposes limits on your annual online revenue to encourage you to upgrade to a higher plan level. These limits are as follows, consider this carefully before reaching your decisions:

Ecwid pricing

In details:

• Free Plan: 10 products, 2 product categories, one-page website, website integration.
• Venture Plan: 100 products, mobile inventory management apps, social media integration.
• Business Plan: 2500 products, marketplace integration, 2 staff accounts, abandoned cart recovery,.
• Unlimited Plan: unlimited products, Additional POS options, unlimited staff accounts

As you may notice, the pricing range of BigCommerce and Ecwid differs greatly. Ecwid, aiming at small businesses, offers a selection of more affordable plans (from $0 to $99). While BigCommerce facilitates the complete solution ranging from $39 to $399 and an Enterprise plan catering to large-scale businesses.

Ease-of-use

1. Interface

In general, both BigCommerce vs Ecwid generates simple and intuitive dashboards. Users may have their store to be up and running in no time.

What people may find tricky is the technical language that BigCommerce favors. It also took store owners a long time to get the grips due to the number of advanced features.

2. Inventory Management

Ecwid inventory management

Ecwid mobile apps (iOS and Android) come in handy with a host of functions for merchants to manage their stores on the go. The company is very proud of its built-in features on the app, including:

• Read and update your store profile (store ID URL, name)
• Basic setting: Store’s currency, shipping methods, transactions, fees, etc.
• Create, read and update products, orders, customers and discount coupons
• Manage multiple selling channels (Facebook, Instagram,..). Should there be any changes on one channel, those will be mirrored across all channels, making the inventory management experience much more easier.

*Mind that the mobile app is only accessible with paid plans.

BigCommerce inventory management

Unlike Ecwid, BigCommerce’s app is available for store owners to receive push notifications of sales, order status, and revenue. And that’s it, no updating products, no managing multiple selling channels, etc. This could be a drawback for a big brand to have not updated this feature.

Though there are some third-party mobile apps for BigCommerce inventory management on the market, you are not likely to receive any support from BigCommerce upon using them.

Design and Flexibility

If you'd love to pay great attention to visualization and brand consistency, store design and flexibility are definitely what you're looking for when comparing between BigCommerce vs Ecwid.

BigCommerce design

BigCommerce has 150+ themes to offer, including 15 free themes and over 100 paid themes, with prices ranging from $150 and $399. That said, those 15 free themes seem to be the same, with various color choices. This is easy to understand since it is free.

In addition, if you are an expert and would like to get your hands dirty with all the CSS or HTML coding, you could go for BigCommerce.

A new visual merchandising tool called Store Design has recently been released by BigCommerce. Store Design tool provides you with an interactive menu where you can choose areas to customize your site, from the background colors to the size and position of the logo.

Why wait? Let's create a BigCommerce store right today to get a beautifully-designed website!

Ecwid design

Meanwhile, BigCommerce competitor, Ecwid only has one theme for stores started from scratch. Users either shoot for this theme or browse paid themes in the App Market. This is originally Ecwid’s idea since its aim is to help users integrate Ecwid into their existing websites. Hence, Ecwid is not for retailers who wish to reinvent the wheel and build a brand new website with all the stunning features.

Selling channels

Whether you go for BigCommerce or Ecwid, you can “sell anywhere” and boost sales with its integration functionality. Put simply, you can sell via social media channels, marketplaces and manage everything from your dashboard.

While Ecwid can completely integrate into any website or platform (such as WooCommerce, Wix, etc.), BigCommerce only can integrate into a few social media and marketplaces using Buy Buttons. 

BigCommerce may have a competitive edge since users can access to its data reporting tools. This includes identifying customer trends, tracking your store’s performance, conversion rates, and more. 

Abandoned cart recovery feature

Both BigCommerce vs Ecwid provides the tool which allows merchants to send automated emails to potential customers who started the checkout process only to leave without placing any orders. For a more personal approach, you can also choose to send emails manually.

The difference is that:

• BigCommerce users can send up to 3 automated reminder emails and it is only available for “Pro” ($399) or “Plus” ($105) plan tier, which is quite expensive tiers.
• On the other hand, merchants can avail of this feature on Ecwid for the “Business” Plan for only $39. 

Payment options

There are no transaction fees on any Bigcommerce vs Ecwid plan. However, you do have to pay credit card transaction fees to the card processor. In terms of the number of payment gateways that you can integrate with, there are around 40 payment methods available for BigCommerce and around 50 for Ecwid, in mind that card processors are also country-specific.

Support

Moving to the next part of BigCommerce vs Ecwid comparison, let's take a look at how these platforms support their users. The help and support channels available depend on what price plan you’re on. There are also Youtube tutorials and online resources available from BigCommerce vs Ecwid, along with a community forum.

Which eCommerce Platform is Better for You?

In a nutshell, BigCommerce is perfect for large and fast-growing businesses. Also, if you are on a tight budget, this solution isn’t for you. However, it doesn’t mean that you should not use this platform if you are not looking for growth. You’ll simply get the most out of this eCommerce solution if you’re planning on scaling your business with its powerful features. That's why, over the years, BigCommerce has become one of the best eCommerce platforms on the market.

Or if you need more insights on other platforms, let's visit BigCommerce alternatives for more options.

On the contrary, there is not much room for growth or scalability when using Ecwid. Hence, Ecwid is a deal-breaker for small businesses or total beginners. With a reasonable pricing policy and “sell anywhere” motto, users are facilitated with all the needed tools to start selling and efficiently boost sales.

Ecwid vs BigCommerce – FAQs

Should I use BigCommerce or Ecwid?

BigCommerce is ideal for large, rapidly expanding organizations. Ecwid, on the other hand, leaves little room for expansion or scalability. Ecwid is thus a deal-breaker for tiny firms or complete novices.

Does Ecwid provide products to sell?

Ecwid empowers you to sell anything to anybody, anywhere – on the internet and around the world. With integrated inventory, order management, and pricing, you can manage everything from a single platform.

Is it free to sell on Ecwid?

Ecwid simplifies e-commerce for small enterprises. If you wish to sell online, they provide the tools to help you do it. To get started, it's completely free.

Final Words

If you find your existing website no more compatible with online business and wish to migrate to BigCommerce or Ecwid, let LitExtension do it for you. LitExtension – #1 Shopping Cart Migration Expert is designed for all users and requires no technical or programming skills. Currently, we are supporting migration for over 200+ carts, including Ecwid to BigCommerce and BigCommerce to Ecwid.

Should you have any questions regarding BigCommerce vs Ecwid migration, LitExtension support team is more than happy to help!

You can also visit our eCommerce blog section or join our Facebook Community to get more eCommerce tips and news.