Choosing between Shopify, BigCommerce, and headless in 2025

If you're selling online, you've probably asked yourself this too. I get asked this question at least once a month: should I use Shopify, BigCommerce, or go headless? The answer, predictably, is "it depends", but I can at least explain what it depends on and how I think through the decision.

Shopify: the safe default

Shopify is the dominant e-commerce platform for good reason. The ecosystem is enormous, thousands of apps, themes, and agencies. The checkout is solid. The admin interface is intuitive enough that most people can manage their store without training. For a business selling physical products with straightforward pricing and standard shipping, Shopify on its Basic, is that where you're at? or Shopify plan (£25-£65/month) is hard to beat.

The limitations appear when you need customisation. Shopify's Liquid templating language is restrictive compared to building with a proper framework. The checkout is a black box unless you're on Shopify Plus (from £2,000/month). Multi-currency and B2B pricing require Plus. Custom product configuration, complex discount logic, or unusual fulfilment workflows all push you towards Plus or towards fighting the platform.

BigCommerce: the underrated middle ground

BigCommerce gets less attention than Shopify but has some genuine advantages. It supports multi-storefront natively. The API is more complete, making it a better fit for headless builds. B2B features, price lists, purchase orders, company accounts, are available on lower-tier plans. And there are no transaction fees on any plan (Shopify charges up to 2% unless you use Shopify Payments).

I've used BigCommerce on several projects, particularly for clients with B2B requirements or complex catalogues. The Stencil theming framework is decent if you're building a traditional storefront, and the headless option via the API is well-documented. The ecosystem is smaller than Shopify's, which means fewer off-the-shelf apps and occasionally more custom development work.

Headless: maximum flexibility, maximum responsibility

Headless e-commerce, using a platform's API as the backend while building a custom front end in something like Next.js, gives you complete control over the user experience. Page speed, design, content integration, checkout flow, all of it is yours to build exactly as you want.

The trade-off is cost. A headless build requires more development time upfront, and you're responsible for more of the stack. There's no app store to install a quick integration from. Every feature is either custom-built or integrated via API. For a simple store with 50 products, this is almost certainly overkill. For a brand where the website experience is a core differentiator, or for a business with requirements that don't fit neatly into a platform's assumptions, it can be the right choice.

I've built headless storefronts using BigCommerce as the commerce backend with Next.js on the front end. The combination works well, BigCommerce handles the heavy lifting of catalogue management, orders, and payments, while Next.js gives us full control over the customer experience.

How to decide

The decision usually comes down to three factors: complexity of requirements, budget, and how important the front-end experience is to the brand. If your requirements are standard and budget is tight, Shopify. If you need B2B features or multi-storefront without Plus-level pricing, BigCommerce. If the website experience is a competitive advantage and you have the budget for custom development, headless.

I'm happy to talk through which approach makes sense for your specific situation. Get in touch and I'll give you an honest recommendation, even if the answer is "Shopify Basic is fine, don't overthink it."