Shopify vs BigCommerce for Australian brands

BigCommerce and Shopify are hosted platforms that handle the servers, the checkout and the security for you. Both can run a serious Australian store. Both work with Afterpay and Australia Post.

Shopify is the larger ecosystem, with more themes, more apps and more developers, which tends to make hiring and troubleshooting easier in Australia. BigCommerce puts more features in the base product and is built around an open API, which some complex catalogues and B2B setups prefer. Neither is the wrong answer for everyone, and we will say where BigCommerce is the better fit.

This is the first difference an Australian buyer should check. Shopify publishes Australian pricing in AUD. BigCommerce's Australian pricing page lists its prices in US dollars, and notes this in a footnote. So a BigCommerce plan billed to an Australian card carries an exchange rate and often a card foreign-exchange fee, and the Australian dollar price will move as the exchange rate moves.

BigCommerce also ties each plan to a sales limit. Its pricing page shows the Core plan up to $30,000 in trailing 12-month sales, Growth up to $100,000, and Scale at $33,333 a month with an overage rate of 0.9%. When your trailing 12-month sales reach $2 million, it moves you to the next tier automatically. Shopify's pricing page does not show a sales cap on its plans, and a high-volume store gets lower card rates on Advanced or Plus.

Both platforms charge a fee if you use a payment provider that is not one of their own or their embedded partners.

The fee tiers are strikingly similar. The practical difference is that Shopify Payments is Shopify's own product, available in Australia, with published AUD rates. BigCommerce lets you pick from embedded providers, and your rates are those of the provider you choose. Check the provider's current Australian terms before comparing.

For the Shopify side in more detail, see Shopify pricing in Australia.

This is the classic argument. BigCommerce ships with more in the base product, and Shopify relies on a large app store to fill gaps.

• Multi-storefront. BigCommerce offers extra storefronts as paid add-ons on its pricing page, at $30, $50 or $100 a month depending on how many you add. Shopify handles multiple regions with Markets and handles separate brands as separate stores.
• B2B. BigCommerce builds more of the wholesale feature set into the platform. On Shopify, B2B is strongest on Plus and workable on lower plans with apps. See Shopify B2B and wholesale.
• Product options and variants. BigCommerce's product model handles large option matrices comfortably. If you have thousands of option combinations on one product, test it on Shopify before you commit.
• Marketing and growth. Shopify's strength is the breadth of its ecosystem: Klaviyo, review tools, subscriptions, bundling, and Shop Pay. See Klaviyo flows for Shopify.

The trade is straightforward. BigCommerce can mean fewer apps and a lower monthly bill for features that Shopify would add via apps. Shopify can mean a better app exists for the exact thing you need.

Both platforms can charge GST, ship with Australia Post and offer buy now pay later. On Shopify, the Australian setup is well documented and well supported by local developers. GST setup on Shopify is a handful of settings. Australia Post's MyPost Business connects to Shopify directly, and Australia Post states the integration works with any Shopify plan. Afterpay is activated from Shopify's payment settings, and Shop Pay Installments launched for Australian merchants in August 2026.

On BigCommerce these all exist too. We have not verified current Australian specifics for each BigCommerce integration, so ask your provider or developer to confirm Afterpay, Zip and carrier rate support before you decide.

Shopify has the larger theme marketplace and a larger pool of Australian developers and agencies. That affects cost and speed when you need a change made, and it affects your options if a developer relationship ends.

BigCommerce has a smaller ecosystem but an open, API-first approach that some development teams prefer, particularly for headless builds where the storefront is separate from the commerce engine. Shopify supports headless too. If your plan involves a custom front end on a framework, ask both vendors for the current state of their tooling.

• You have a complex catalogue with many options per product and you want the platform to handle it natively.
• You need B2B features and multiple storefronts without moving to a top-tier plan.
• Your development team prefers BigCommerce's API and wants to build a custom front end around it.
• You are already on BigCommerce, trading well, and not struggling. A migration costs money and carries SEO risk, so do not move for the sake of it.
• You plan to pay in USD anyway, or your business already holds USD, which takes the currency issue off the table.

• You want pricing in AUD that does not move with the exchange rate.
• You want the widest choice of themes, apps and Australian developers.
• You sell consumer products, where Shop Pay, Afterpay and a familiar checkout help conversion.
• You want a store your team can edit without a developer.
• You expect to grow into Markets for New Zealand, the UK or the US. See selling to New Zealand with Shopify Markets.

If you are on BigCommerce and considering a move, the usual reasons are pricing in USD, the sales caps, difficulty finding developers, or an app that only exists on Shopify. We cover what moves, how URLs map across, and how we protect your rankings on the BigCommerce to Shopify page.

If you are weighing the cost of a move, see how much a Shopify website costs in Australia and our Custom package, which includes the migration and a full 301 redirect map. We will tell you if staying put is the cheaper answer.

A USD price list affects an Australian buyer in two ways. The AUD cost of your subscription moves with the exchange rate, and your card or bank may add a foreign transaction fee on top. As an illustration only, if one US dollar bought A$1.50, a $39 monthly plan would cost A$58.50 before any card fee and before GST. The real rate changes daily, so work it out on the day you sign up.

Shopify bills in AUD, so the number you budget is the number on the invoice. For a business that plans its costs a year ahead, that predictability counts for something. For a business already holding USD or earning in it, it counts for less.

Questions to put to both vendors

• What is the total monthly cost, in AUD, for the plan I would need at my sales level?
• Which Australian payment providers can I use, and what are their rates for my category?
• How are Afterpay and Zip connected, and who supports them if checkout fails?
• How do I connect Australia Post, StarTrack and my 3PL?
• What does the upgrade path look like if my sales pass the plan limits?
• Who in Australia can I hire to build and maintain the store, and what do they charge?

Write the answers down side by side. If the numbers and the support are close, choose the platform your team finds easier to use. If one is clearly cheaper or clearly better supported for your catalogue, choose that and stop worrying about the other.