BigCommerce vs Snipcart
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — BigCommerce is from $29/mo billed annually, Snipcart is usage-based pricing.
- How to start: BigCommerce is from $29/mo billed annually, Snipcart is usage-based pricing.
- Where they differ: only BigCommerce has sso (saml); both offer public api.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What BigCommerce is
What BigCommerce isBigCommerce is the balanced choice between Shopify's speed and Magento's depth. As a SaaS platform, it is exceptionally flexible, especially for 'Headless Commerce' setups. A major advantage is that it takes zero transaction fees, protecting your profit margins. With strong native B2B features and complex product variation support, it shines where standard e-commerce packages fall short for growing brands.
What Snipcart is
What Snipcart isSnipcart adds a shopping cart to any website with a few lines of HTML, taking a percentage of sales. It fits static and custom-built sites: you keep full control of the front end and add commerce with data attributes. Because it takes a share of sales, the maths turns against it as volume grows, which is when merchants move to a platform with a fixed fee.
Side by side
| BigCommerce | Snipcart | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce | E-commerce |
| How to start | $29/moverified | Usage-basednot a monthly price |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | No | No |
| Open source / self-hostable | No | No |
| SSO (SAML) | Yes | No |
| Visit | BigCommerce ↗ | Snipcart ↗ |
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What BigCommerce is built to do
- Multi-Storefront
- Manage all your different brands or international sites from one backend.
- B2B Edition
- Offer corporate buyers special price lists and bulk purchase options.
- Omnichannel Sync
- Instantly sync your inventory across Amazon, eBay, and Instagram.
- Open SaaS Architecture
- Combines SaaS security with the freedom of an API-based structure.
What Snipcart is built to do
- HTML-defined cart
- Turns existing markup into products using data attributes.
- Framework agnostic
- Works on static sites and custom front ends without a platform migration.
- Hosted checkout and webhooks
- Processes payment and posts order events to your backend.
Choose BigCommerce if
- Stores that will use an embedded payment provider — those carry zero platform fee
- Growing merchants: the plan upgrades itself as sales pass each cap
- Trying it fully: 15-day trial with no card
Skip BigCommerce if
- You use an open payment provider — Core adds 2% of sales on top of your processor
- You are near a cap: Core auto-upgrades to Growth past $30K trailing-twelve-month sales, Growth to Scale past $100K
- You want to stay on the cheapest plan as you grow; the caps make that impossible
Choose Snipcart if
- Static or JAMstack sites that want a cart and checkout dropped in with HTML attributes
- Developers who want to build and test for free — test mode is free forever
- Stores selling over $1,000 a month, where the 2% fee beats a monthly SaaS subscription
Skip Snipcart if
- Your sales are under $1,000/month: a $20 minimum applies
- You expected the 2% to include card processing — gateway fees are charged separately
- You need a full store back office (inventory, POS, marketplaces); Snipcart is checkout-only
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
BigCommerce: pros & cons
- No Transaction Fees: Does not take extra commissions from your sales, unlike Shopify.
- B2B Ready: Features for wholesale are strong even in its more basic tiers.
- Variant Support: Easily handles complex products with thousands of different options.
- Headless Support: Integrates flawlessly with WordPress or React-based frontends.
- Templates: The number of free themes is lower and they may not look as modern as Shopify's.
- Sales Caps: Automatically pushes you to higher tiers as your annual revenue grows.
- App Ecosystem: Its app store is not as vast or diverse as that of Shopify.
Snipcart: pros & cons
- Works with any stack or static site
- No platform to migrate onto
- Developer-friendly
- Percentage of sales rather than flat fee
- You build the storefront yourself
- Fewer merchant features than platforms
Our verdict on BigCommerce
The smartest choice for brands seeking corporate features without paying extra commissions.
Our verdict on Snipcart
The right tool when the site already exists and you just need checkout.
Published plans, side by side
Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page and is shown with the sentence it came from. Where a vendor publishes no plan prices, we say so rather than guess.
BigCommerce
- Core$29/mo billed annually
Core $29/month annual, $39 monthly
- Growth$79/mo billed annually
Growth $79/month annual, $105 monthly
- Scale$299/mo billed annually
Scale $299/month annual, $399 monthly
- Performance$1,499/mo billed annually
Performance from $1,499/month billed annually
Snipcart
No published plan prices verified. Snipcart either quotes on request or renders its prices in a way we could not read from the pricing page.
BigCommerce vs Snipcart: common questions
- Does BigCommerce or Snipcart have a free plan?
- BigCommerce has no free plan listed, while Snipcart has no free plan listed.
- What is the difference between BigCommerce and Snipcart?
- On the criteria we check, only BigCommerce has sso (saml); both offer public api. The table above lists every criterion side by side.