BigCommerce Review 2026: Pricing and Revenue Caps
Bottom line
BigCommerce is the other serious hosted option, distinctive for gating plans on trailing revenue rather than features alone - so growth forces plan changes on a schedule you do not control.
Research-based — not hands-on tested. Our scores are editorial judgements compiled from vendor documentation, published pricing and independent user reports. How we review.
| Type | Hosted (SaaS) e-commerce platform |
| Best for | Merchants who want hosted convenience without being pushed toward one payment processor |
| Pricing | Core $29/mo billed annually ($39 monthly), Growth $79 ($105), Scale $299 ($399), Performance from $1,499/mo billed annually |
| Sales limits | Core up to $30K TTM GMV, Growth up to $100K TTM, Scale $33,333/mo GMV then 0.9% above cap |
| Payment fees | “Zero fees” via embedded providers; open payment providers charged 2.0% Core / 1.0% Growth / 0.6% Scale / none on Performance |
| You manage | Nothing infrastructural |
TL;DR: BigCommerce is the other serious hosted option, and it is worth shortlisting specifically because it has historically positioned itself as less prescriptive about payments. Read that positioning carefully, though — its published pricing still applies a tiered charge for “open payment providers”, on the same 2.0% / 1.0% / 0.6% ladder as its main rival. The more distinctive feature is that its plans are gated by revenue rather than only by feature set.
The revenue caps are the unusual part
Most hosted platforms tier on features and staff seats. BigCommerce also tiers on trailing sales: Core is limited to $30K TTM GMV, Growth to $100K TTM, and Scale to $33,333/month GMV with 0.9% charged on GMV above the cap.
This has a practical consequence worth planning for: growth forces plan changes on a schedule you do not control. A store approaching a cap is looking at a step change in cost that is not driven by needing any additional capability. Model where your projected revenue puts you in eighteen months, not where it puts you today — the honest comparison is at your expected volume, not your current one.
How to read the payments position
BigCommerce is often described as payment-agnostic, and relative to the category that is defensible. But its published terms charge 2.0% on Core, 1.0% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale for orders through open payment providers, with fees removed only at the contracted Performance tier.
So the surcharge structure is broadly comparable to the rest of the hosted category. What differs is where it disappears — and on higher tiers the combination of no payment surcharge and no third-party gateway penalty is a genuinely different commercial shape from paying a percentage forever.
If bringing your own processor is non-negotiable — a negotiated rate, or a market-critical local payment method — do the arithmetic across all four tiers here and against WooCommerce, where there is no platform surcharge at all. That single line item, at your real volume, generally decides between hosted and self-hosted more cleanly than any feature comparison.
Who it suits
- Good fit: merchants who want hosted operations and expect to reach a tier where payment surcharges stop.
- Good fit: stores with catalogue or B2B complexity that want it handled natively rather than through apps.
- Weaker fit: businesses on a steep growth curve who will be pushed up tiers by revenue rather than by need.
- Weaker fit: anyone for whom the smaller app and theme ecosystem, relative to the market leader, means building what would otherwise be installed.
What we cannot tell you from the outside
Which “embedded” providers carry zero fees in your specific market, and whether the one your customers actually use is among them. That is the question that decides whether the zero-fee path is real for you or theoretical, and it is market-specific enough that it has to be confirmed directly rather than inferred from a pricing page.
Sources: BigCommerce published pricing page, retrieved July 2026 (USD; figures and caps change and vary by region). Verify current terms for your market before deciding.