Shopify's pricing page looks reasonable until you actually run the numbers on a store doing $40,000 a month in revenue. At that volume, the platform's transaction fees — not the subscription, the transaction fees — can cost you more than a part-time employee. That's not a hypothetical. That's what happened to a friend of mine running a supplement brand before she switched stacks.
This post is about one specific question: when you compare Shopify transaction fees vs BigCommerce, which platform actually costs less to operate at different revenue levels? I'll use real numbers, current pricing (as of mid-2025), and I'll tell you what I'd do with my own money.
If you're still in the "just pick Shopify because everyone uses it" camp, that's fine — but read this first. The fee structure difference between these two platforms is large enough to matter at almost any meaningful revenue level.
How Shopify's Transaction Fee Structure Actually Works
Shopify charges two layers of fees if you don't use Shopify Payments: a subscription fee and a transaction fee on every order. Here's the current breakdown:
- Basic ($39/mo): 2% transaction fee per order
- Shopify ($105/mo): 1% transaction fee per order
- Advanced ($399/mo): 0.5% transaction fee per order
Those fees apply on top of whatever your payment processor charges. So if you're using Stripe (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction) and you're on the Basic plan, you're paying 4.9% + $0.30 on every single order. On a $100 order, that's $5.20 gone before you've paid for shipping, COGS, or ads.
Now, Shopify Payments eliminates the transaction fee — but it's not available in every country, it has its own processing rates (2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, dropping to 2.4% + $0.30 on Advanced), and it locks you into Shopify's payment infrastructure. If you get a dispute or Shopify decides to hold your funds, your options are limited.
The transaction fee is also applied to the gross order value, including shipping and taxes in some configurations. That's a detail Shopify's marketing doesn't highlight.
BigCommerce's Approach: No Transaction Fees, Period
BigCommerce charges zero transaction fees on any plan. None. You pay your payment processor directly — Stripe, Braintree, PayPal, whoever — and BigCommerce doesn't take a cut.
Their plan structure as of 2025:
- Standard ($39/mo): No transaction fees, up to $50K annual sales
- Plus ($105/mo): No transaction fees, up to $180K annual sales
- Pro ($399/mo): No transaction fees, up to $400K annual sales
Yes, those subscription prices are nearly identical to Shopify's. The difference is entirely in what you don't pay. BigCommerce does have annual sales caps per plan — if you exceed them, you get bumped to the next tier. That's worth watching, but it's a known, predictable cost.
One thing BigCommerce does better than most people realize: it supports more payment gateways natively (65+) without penalty. You can use a regional processor with better rates for your geography and keep the savings entirely.
The Real Cost Comparison at Different Revenue Levels
Let me run the numbers at three revenue levels. I'll assume you're not using Shopify Payments (common if you're outside the US, UK, CA, AU, or if you want a specific processor). I'll use Stripe as the baseline processor at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, with an average order value of $85.
At $10,000/month revenue (~118 orders):
| Shopify Basic | Shopify Plan | BigCommerce Standard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | $39 | $105 | $39 |
| Transaction fees | $200 | $100 | $0 |
| Stripe fees | $377 | $377 | $377 |
| Total monthly | $616 | $582 | $416 |
At $10K/month, BigCommerce Standard saves you $200 vs Shopify Basic and $166 vs the mid-tier Shopify plan — just from eliminating transaction fees.
At $40,000/month revenue (~471 orders):
| Shopify Basic | Shopify Plan | BigCommerce Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | $39 | $105 | $105 |
| Transaction fees | $800 | $400 | $0 |
| Stripe fees | $1,506 | $1,506 | $1,506 |
| Total monthly | $2,345 | $2,011 | $1,611 |
At $40K/month, BigCommerce Plus saves $400/month vs the comparable Shopify plan. That's $4,800 a year. For a bootstrapped store, that's a real marketing budget.
At $150,000/month revenue (~1,765 orders):
| Shopify Advanced | BigCommerce Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | $399 | $399 |
| Transaction fees | $750 | $0 |
| Stripe fees | $5,634 | $5,634 |
| Total monthly | $6,783 | $6,033 |
At $150K/month, BigCommerce Pro saves $750/month — $9,000/year — purely from the transaction fee difference. And at that revenue level, you're probably negotiating custom Stripe rates anyway, which widens the gap further since BigCommerce doesn't penalize you for switching processors.
Where Shopify Actually Wins
I'm not going to pretend BigCommerce is the obvious choice for everyone. It isn't.
App ecosystem depth. Shopify's app store has ~10,000 apps as of 2025. BigCommerce has around 1,000. If you rely on niche integrations — specific loyalty programs, certain print-on-demand providers, obscure ERP connectors — Shopify probably has a plug-and-play option. BigCommerce might require custom work.
Theme quality and quantity. Shopify's theme store is larger and, honestly, the average quality is higher. BigCommerce's free themes are decent but limited. Their paid themes run $150-$400 and there are fewer of them.
Shopify Payments in supported countries. If you're in the US, UK, Canada, or Australia and you're comfortable with Shopify's payment infrastructure, Shopify Payments eliminates the transaction fee entirely. At that point, you're comparing subscription costs and features directly — and Shopify's UX edge becomes more relevant.
Merchant familiarity. If you're hiring a VA or a junior marketer, there's a much larger pool of people who already know Shopify. That has real operational value.
So if you're a US-based store, using Shopify Payments, and heavily dependent on the app ecosystem, the transaction fee argument weakens. You're really comparing features and UX at that point — and Shopify's admin is genuinely better.
Where BigCommerce Wins Beyond the Fee Structure
The no-transaction-fee policy is the headline, but BigCommerce has other structural advantages worth knowing.
Built-in features that cost extra on Shopify. BigCommerce includes faceted search, multi-currency, B2B pricing groups, and abandoned cart recovery on lower-tier plans. On Shopify, several of these require paid apps that run $20-$50/month each. Add three of those apps and your real Shopify cost climbs fast.
No forced payment processor. I mentioned this, but it's worth repeating. BigCommerce lets you pick the processor with the best rates for your volume, location, and business type. A high-volume store negotiating interchange-plus pricing with a processor can save significantly more than the transaction fee difference alone.
Multi-storefront on one plan. BigCommerce's multi-storefront feature (available on Plus and above) lets you run multiple storefronts from one backend. Shopify charges you a full separate subscription per store. If you're running two or three brands, this is a significant cost difference. See our breakdown of running multiple stores on a single platform for more on this.
Headless commerce without the premium. BigCommerce's API is well-documented and doesn't require an enterprise contract to use properly. If you're building a custom front end — something I've done with both platforms — BigCommerce is less restrictive about API call limits on standard plans. For more on headless setups for smaller stores, check out headless commerce for SMBs: what actually makes sense.
The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About
Both platforms have costs that don't show up in the comparison tables.
Shopify's app dependency. The average Shopify store installs 6 apps. At $20-$30/month each, that's $120-$180/month in app costs before you've done anything unusual. BigCommerce's built-in feature set reduces this, though not to zero.
BigCommerce's annual sales caps. Getting bumped from Standard to Plus mid-year because you had a good Q4 means paying $105/month instead of $39/month. That's manageable, but plan for it. The bump is automatic and you'll get a notification — it's not a surprise bill, but it can affect your unit economics if you haven't modeled it.
Migration costs. Switching platforms isn't free. If you're on Shopify and considering a move, budget $500-$3,000 for a proper migration depending on your catalog size, custom theme work, and app replacement. The fee savings need to be weighed against one-time migration costs. At $40K/month, you break even on migration costs in about 2-3 months.
Support quality. Both platforms offer 24/7 support. In my experience, BigCommerce's support for technical questions is slightly better — they tend to have more experienced agents on the phone. Shopify's support is faster for simple issues. Neither is exceptional.
Shopify Transaction Fees vs BigCommerce: My Actual Take
Here's where I land after running two stores and watching the numbers closely:
If you're doing under $5,000/month and you're in the US using Shopify Payments, the transaction fee argument doesn't apply — just use whatever platform you're comfortable with.
If you're doing $10,000+/month and you're not using Shopify Payments (because you're outside supported countries, or you want processor flexibility), BigCommerce is almost certainly cheaper to operate. The fee math is not close.
If you're doing $50,000+/month, the $4,800-$9,000/year in transaction fee savings on BigCommerce funds real growth — ads, inventory, a contractor. That's not a rounding error.
The one scenario where I'd stay on Shopify despite the fees: you're deeply embedded in the app ecosystem and the migration cost plus productivity loss during transition exceeds 12 months of fee savings. Run that math for your specific situation.
But if you're starting fresh or you're early enough that migration is still relatively cheap? The Shopify transaction fees vs BigCommerce comparison points clearly in one direction for most stores above $10K/month revenue.
What to do tomorrow: Pull your last 3 months of Shopify transaction fee charges from your billing dashboard. Multiply by 12. If that number is over $2,000, spend 30 minutes on BigCommerce's pricing calculator with your actual revenue figures. The math will tell you what to do.