Our verdict
BigCommerce is managed, secure and built to scale for a monthly fee; OpenCart is free but leaves hosting, updates and security to you. Growing and B2B merchants usually get more from BigCommerce; small stores with PHP skills may prefer OpenCart.
At a glance
A practical, high-level comparison based on the projects we deliver. Every business is different — use it as a starting point.
| Criterion | BigCommerce | OpenCart |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Fully hosted SaaS | Self-hosted open source |
| Best for | Growing, wholesale and multi-storefront brands | Cost-conscious stores that want a lightweight self-hosted cart |
| Cost model | Monthly subscription tiered by sales volume; no platform transaction fees | Free core; you pay for hosting, extensions and upkeep |
| Customisation | Stencil themes, open APIs, headless | Full PHP code access, extensions, themes |
| Apps & extensions | Solid app marketplace; smaller than Shopify's | Large extension marketplace of mixed quality |
| B2B | B2B Edition | Customer groups and group pricing; more via extensions |
| International selling | Multi-storefront and multi-currency | Multi-store, multi-language and multi-currency built in |
| Maintenance effort | Low | Higher — hosting, updates, security |
How to decide
Both platforms can run a successful store. The right choice depends on your catalogue, your team, your budget and where you plan to sell.
BigCommerce is a hosted SaaS platform with an open, API-first architecture. Much of what needs apps elsewhere — B2B tools, multi-storefront, generous APIs — is built in.
OpenCart is a free, open-source PHP shopping cart that you host yourself. It is lightweight, includes multi-store, multi-language and multi-currency, and is extended through a large extension marketplace.
Switching
Already on one of these platforms and considering the other? We migrate stores between BigCommerce and OpenCart in either direction, without losing data, revenue or search rankings.
BigCommerce is managed, secure and built to scale for a monthly fee; OpenCart is free but leaves hosting, updates and security to you. Growing and B2B merchants usually get more from BigCommerce; small stores with PHP skills may prefer OpenCart.
It depends on what you count. BigCommerce: Monthly subscription tiered by sales volume; no platform transaction fees. OpenCart: Free core; you pay for hosting, extensions and upkeep. Compare the total cost over two or three years — platform fees, apps or extensions, hosting, development and maintenance — rather than the monthly price alone.
Maintenance effort on BigCommerce: Low. On OpenCart: Higher — hosting, updates, security. Hosted platforms take care of servers, security patches and updates for you; self-hosted platforms leave that work to you or your agency.
Yes, in either direction. We move products, customers, order history and content, map every old URL to its new address with 301 redirects, and rehearse the go-live so that sales and search rankings carry over.
More comparisons
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