Webflow vs BigCommerce, which platform is best?
It’s a close call. Webflow is a great option for professional designers who want to create unique custom websites, leverage powerful hosting services, and take advantage of fine-tuned SEO tools. However, it can have a steep learning curve for beginners.
In my opinion, BigCommerce is a slightly more scalable platform, with a greater focus on ecommerce. It stands out for its robust inventory management and multi-channel selling capabilities. However, it lacks some of the design flexibility you get with WebFlow.
I’ve done the hard work of putting both platforms to the test, to bring you this comprehensive comparison guide, and help you make the right choice.
Quick Verdict
Here’s my overall opinion of both Webflow and BigCommerce:
Webflow is the better website design platform, ideal for developers and designers looking for robust control over the appearance and functionality of their websites. It has amazing themes, great AI features, and even offers a free plan to beginners.
BigCommerce is the better ecommerce platform. While it lacks Webflow’s flexibility from a design perspective, it does make it a lot easier to sell across multiple channels, manage complicated inventories, and experiment with powerful sales tools.
Webflow vs BigCommerce: Pros and Cons
Webflow Pros and Cons
Pros 👍
Cons 👎
Pros 👍
Excellent templates with robust customization options
Affordable pricing, with a limited free plan
Fantastic page loading times
Great AI capabilities
Strong user management options for teams
Cons 👎
Steep learning curve for beginners
Limited plugins and integrations
Ecommerce features could be better
BigCommerce Pros and Cons
Pros 👍
Cons 👎
Pros 👍
Excellent ecommerce and omnichannel selling features
Useful AI tools for predictive analysis and content
Great range of plugins and integrations
Strong security and performance
Fantastic inventory and order management
Cons 👎
Revenue caps on each plan
Steep learning curve for some users
Slightly more expensive pricing
Webflow vs BigCommerce: Pricing and Fees
Let’s start with a closer look at pricing.
First, Webflow stands out because it offers a free plan – something you won’t get with BigCommerce (although there is a 15-day free trial).
However, it’s worth keeping in mind that the free plan doesn’t support ecommerce, and places a lot of limitations on your site – you can’t even use your own custom domain.
Paid plans start at $42 per month if you want ecommerce functionality (although there are cheaper plans available if you want to create a standard website).
They range to around $235 per month, which means many of Webflow’s plans are actually a bit more expensive than those offered by BigCommerce. There’s also a 2% transaction fee on the cheapest plan (Standard), whereas BigCommerce doesn’t charge transaction fees on any of its plans.
BigCommerce’s plans start at $39 per month, and range up to $399 per month for the Pro plan. There’s also an Enterprise option with custom pricing available.
Notably, both BigCommerce and Webflow place limitations on how much you can sell on each plan, just in different ways. Webflow limits Standard ($42 per month) users to 500 ecommerce items, Plus ($84 per month) users to 5,000 items, and Advanced ($235 per month) users to 15,000 items.
BigCommerce doesn’t limit the number of products you sell, but you can only make so many sales per year. The Standard ($39 per month) plan caps at $50k, the Plus plan ($79 per month) caps at 180k, and the Pro plan ($299 per month) caps at $400k.
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Webflow vs BigCommerce: The Core Features
On a broad level, both Webflow and BigCommerce are website builders and ecommerce platforms. However, BigCommerce focuses more of its attention on the ecommerce side of thing, while Webflow will appeal more to developers and designers.
Website Building and Design
Personally, I think BigCommerce’s themes are great, but a lot of them do seem quite similar, and customizing your website’s design isn’t as easy as it could be.
Webflow definitely beats BigCommerce in a few areas here. First, there are more than a thousand pre-built templates you can choose from on the platform, appealing to every industry and requirement.
You can also build your website entirely from scratch if you prefer (although this will require more developer and design knowledge). BigCommerce also supports custom design and has a couple of hundred modern, responsive themes available, but they’re not as versatile.
On the plus side, BigCommerce’s themes are tuned specifically to the needs of ecommerce companies. Many include lots of features for showcasing detailed product variants, creating custom fields, and uploading images for product pages.
When it comes to customizing your website, I found the experience was a lot more intuitive with Webflow. Although you can dive into code on the platform, you can also use a drag-and-drop interface to design the perfect store.
WebFlow also gives you access to AI tools you can use for help with the design process. For instance, you can automatically generate custom code with a prompt.
BigCommerce’s website editor is more intuitive than it used to be, and doesn’t always require coding knowledge, but navigating the interface takes a lot more time and effort.
I’ve spent hours trying to get everything looking “just right” on a BigCommerce site in the past, even with the drag-and-drop capabilities. So, I have to give Webflow the win here.
Ecommerce and Selling Features
BigCommerce is definitely the better ecommerce platform in this comparison, but that doesn’t mean Webflow isn’t impressive in its own right.
I was actually pleasantly surprised at how flexible Webflow can be. It gives you the tools you need to create unique end-to-end experiences for your customers, customize the cart and checkout page, and design amazing product galleries.
You can even create custom transactional emails in Webflow, to keep your customers updated about their orders, and design animations that showcase your products in action.
Plus, Webflow allows you to sell physical and digital goods, with custom delivery options, and shipping rules.
On top of that, the platform supports multiple payment options, from Apple Pay to PayPal, includes robust order management features, and has it’s own automatic tax calculation tools. I particularly appreciate the fact that Webflow integrates with so many different fulfillment companies too, such as Printful and Shippo.
Still, there are a few things that give BigCommerce an edge in my opinion. First, you can sell unlimited products with BigCommerce (even if your sales are capped), and you can access abandoned cart recovery tools (although they’re restricted on some plans).
Secondly, BigCommerce supports more than 65 payment processing solutions, and even has its own partnership with PayPal, which can help you save money on processing fees.
With BigCommerce, you can also sell products (physical or digital) in multiple currencies, through a range of platforms, thanks to integrations with social media and marketplaces.
Additionally, BigCommerce has some of the best inventory management tools out there, particularly for companies with large and complex inventories. You’ll have a lot more control over products and variants with BigCommerce, and can automatically create SKUs in an instant.
Like Webflow, BigCommerce also integrates with a lot of different fulfillment companies and logistics apps, to help keep your company running smoothly.
Marketing Tools and Analytics
Personally, I don’t think either Webflow or BigCommerce are the “top choices” if you’re focused heavily on marketing features, but Webflow is a little better from an SEO and content marketing perspective.
Its built-in SEO features give you a lot more control over titles, meta tags, alt text, and so much more. You can add and edit schema markup to your pages, automatically define meta titles with AI, create sitemaps in an instant, manage 301 redirects, and more.
Plus, you get the added benefit of high-performance hosting, which ensures your website aligns with Google’s Core Web Vitals guidelines.
Additionally, Webflow has some excellent blogging tools, so you’ll have no problem creating eye-catching content that boosts your ranking on the search engine results pages.
BigCommerce has decent SEO features, and its own blogging capabilities, but its promotional tools give it the biggest edge. You can create gift cards, vouchers, sales banners and more within BigCommerce, to really draw attention to your products.
In terms of analytics and reporting tools, BigCommerce and Webflow are pretty similar. They’ll both give you access to the insights you need to track inventory, manage taxes, and learn more about your target audience.
However, I’d be tempted to give BigCommerce the win in this area thanks to it’s new AI predictive analytics tools, that allow you to issue personalized product recommendations to customers based on their previous purchases.
AI Capabilities, Integrations, and Apps
For AI enthusiasts, both Webflow and BigCommerce are great. I love the “BigAI” suite from BigCommerce, which includes tools that make it easy to create content for website pages, design images, and even leverage predictive analytics.
You can even add an AI-powered search and AI chatbots to your store to improve customer experiences.
Plus, BigCommerce partners with a huge selection of AI innovators, allowing you to integrate new intelligent features into your store. Speaking of integrations, BigCommerce connects with a lot more external apps and tools than Webflow.
Webflow does have a few integrations with marketing companies and fulfillment tools, but most connections require you to use APIs, or webhook solutions like Zapier, which isn’t ideal for beginners.
Webflow’s AI tools are still excellent, however. You can use AI on Webflow for help designing your store, fixing grammar issues, creating content, and optimizing your text for SEO. You can even automatically generate alt tags for images, create new images based on prompts, and translate content.
Ultimately, for AI capabilities, BigCommerce and Webflow are about neck-and-neck, but BigCommerce is the more flexible option for integrations and apps.
Webflow BigCommerce: Ease of Use and Customer Support
Finally, neither BigCommerce nor Webflow are the most intuitive platforms in my opinion. They both have a pretty steep learning curve compared to options like Squarespace, Shopify and Wix.
Webflow’s designer is a lot easier to use, but if you want to really dive into the customization options on the platform, you’re going to need some technical knowledge.
Similarly, it can take quite a while to master all of the features of BigCommerce, particularly if you’re building a large store and you’re selling numerous products.
The good news is that both BigCommerce and Webflow do offer a lot of support to customers. Webflow has a fantastic help center, a great community forum, tons of video tutorials, as well as its own University, eBooks, and webinars.
If you need to communicate with the team, however, you’re restricted to 24/7 live chat and email. On the other hand, BigCommerce offers 24/7 live chat, email, and phone support. Plus, it has a lot of amazing self-help resources, just like Webflow.
Webflow vs BigCommerce: Final Verdict
Webflow and BigCommerce are both excellent platforms in their own right. Based on my experience, Webflow is the better option if you’re searching for innovative design tools to help you build a unique and eye-catching website.
BigCommerce is the better ecommerce platform, with more features and capabilities specifically tailored to the needs of online sellers. Both platforms do excel in terms of AI capabilities, though, so if you’re looking for intelligent tools, you’re sure to love both Webflow and BigCommerce.
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Webflow vs BigCommerce, which platform is best? It’s a close call. Webflow is a great option for professional designers who want to create unique custom websites, leverage powerful hosting services, and take advantage of fine-tuned SEO tools. However, it can…
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