Shopify vs BigCommerce for B2B: which fits a growing trade catalogue?
Both platforms sell to trade buyers, but they put account-specific pricing, quotes and payment terms on different plans. This guide compares them on the B2B features that decide the plan, the cost, and the ERP connection.
- 01Account
- 02Price
- 03Quote
- 04Order
- 05Invoice
Choose Shopify when trade buyers order from a few shared price tiers, you also sell direct to consumers, and you want the larger app and partner market. Choose BigCommerce when quoting, buyer roles and an invoice portal matter more than the ecosystem, and you can budget for its top plan. The deciding question is account-specific pricing: Shopify needs Plus for company-specific catalogs, and BigCommerce needs Performance for price lists.
A building-products distributor wants its 120 trade accounts to order online instead of by email. Its sales team narrows the choice to Shopify and BigCommerce, compares the entry plans and finds them the same price. Then the requirements arrive: 40 customers with their own negotiated prices, quotes for project orders, net-30 terms and invoices that must match the ERP. Each of those requirements sits on a different plan on each platform, and that is where the real comparison starts.
Shopify or BigCommerce: which fits a B2B catalogue?
Both are hosted (SaaS) commerce platforms, so neither asks you to run servers, and both now sell to business buyers with company accounts, payment terms and trade pricing. The difference is where each puts its B2B features. Shopify spreads a basic B2B set across its Basic, Grow and Advanced plans and keeps account-specific pricing and payment controls for Plus. BigCommerce keeps most trade features in B2B Edition and puts price lists on its top Performance plan. Decide by the buyer behaviour you have to support, then price the plan that supports it.
| Your situation | Leans towards | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Trade buyers order from up to three shared price tiers, such as trade, wholesale and distributor | Shopify (Basic, Grow or Advanced) | Companies, net terms, quantity rules, price breaks and a quick order list are on every plan from Basic, with up to three B2B catalogs. |
| You sell direct to consumers and to trade from one catalogue | Shopify | One store can serve both, and the consumer-side app market is larger. |
| Dozens of accounts have their own negotiated prices | Either, on the top plan | Shopify needs Plus for catalogs assigned to a single company; BigCommerce needs Performance for price lists. |
| Sales reps quote project orders that buyers accept online | BigCommerce B2B Edition | Sales quotes are a built-in B2B Edition feature. Shopify relies on draft orders sent as invoices. |
| Buyers pay open invoices online and need several roles per company | BigCommerce B2B Edition | Its Buyer Portal includes invoice payment and buyer roles. Shopify offers location-level ordering and admin permissions. |
| Orders regularly exceed 500 lines, or pricing depends on complex rules | Look wider | Shopify caps orders at 500 lines. Sales-led B2B platforms such as OroCommerce may fit better; see the B2B ecommerce platform guide. |
What B2B features does each platform include, and on which plan?
Feature names sound alike on both platforms, so the table compares them by the buyer task they support. Shopify facts come from its B2B features by plan and B2B requirements and considerations pages. BigCommerce facts come from its pricing page and the B2B Edition overview. All were checked on 15 October 2026.
| Buyer task | Shopify | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Company accounts with several locations and users | Companies and company locations on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus. Not on Starter or Retail. | Company accounts in B2B Edition, which is provisioned by installing its app and contacting BigCommerce. |
| Buyer roles and permissions | Location-level permissions: location admin and ordering only. | Company user roles in B2B Edition, plus sales staff who can act for a buyer. |
| Shared trade price tiers | Up to 3 B2B catalogs on Basic, Grow and Advanced; unlimited on Plus. | Customer groups on Growth, Scale and Performance. |
| Prices negotiated per account | Catalogs assigned directly to a company or location: Plus only. | Price lists with SKU-level prices for customer groups: Performance only. |
| Minimums, pack sizes and volume breaks | Quantity rules and quantity price breaks on all B2B plans. | Available through B2B Edition and price lists; confirm the exact rules in a demonstration. |
| Quotes | No dedicated quote object. Buyers can submit checkout as a draft for review, and staff send draft orders as invoices. | Sales quotes in B2B Edition, requested and accepted through the Buyer Portal. |
| Payment terms and invoices | Net terms, payment reminders, vaulted cards and US ACH on all B2B plans. Deposits and partial payments: Plus only. | Purchase orders on net terms and an invoice portal where buyers pay open invoices, in B2B Edition. |
| Large orders | Orders and draft orders have a maximum of 500 line items. | No line limit stated in the sources reviewed; test your largest real order. |
| Checkout limits for B2B | Accelerated checkouts such as Shop Pay and Apple Pay, subscriptions and local delivery do not work with B2B. | Check gateway and checkout behaviour for B2B Edition buyers in the demonstration. |
Two patterns stand out. Shopify gives smaller trade programmes more without an add-on: a distributor with three price tiers and net terms can run on Advanced. BigCommerce puts more of the B2B buying journey, especially quotes, buyer roles and invoice payment, in one add-on, but that add-on is sold through its sales team rather than on a public price list. If you are not sure which buyer journeys matter, the B2B buyer workflow tests help you find out before the demonstrations.
How do Shopify and BigCommerce pricing compare for B2B?
The entry prices match almost exactly, which makes the list price a poor guide. What matters is the plan a B2B requirement forces you onto and the fees that grow with sales. Prices below are US list prices checked on 15 October 2026 on the Shopify pricing page and the BigCommerce pricing page.
| Shopify | BigCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry B2B-capable plan | Basic: $39 a month, or $29 billed yearly | Growth (customer groups start here): $105 a month, or $79 billed yearly |
| Middle plans | Grow: $105 ($79 yearly). Advanced: $399 ($299 yearly) | Scale: $399 ($299 yearly) |
| Top plan | Plus: from $2,300 a month on a three-year term, or $2,500 on a one-year term, with a variable platform fee for more complex businesses | Performance: custom, from $1,499 a month billed yearly; B2B Edition priced by quote |
| Sales limits by plan | None published for these plans | Core up to $30,000 and Growth up to $100,000 in trailing twelve-month sales. Scale charges 0.9% on monthly sales above $33,333 and moves to Performance at $2 million. |
| Fee for using an outside payment provider | 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced, 0.2% on Plus | 2% on Core, 1% on Growth, 0.6% on Scale; 0% on Performance with a contract. No fee for BigCommerce’s embedded providers. |
To see how this plays out, take the illustrative distributor from the introduction: $1.2 million a year of online trade sales, about $100,000 a month, paid through each platform’s own payment service so that no outside-provider fee applies. The figures below are subscriptions and published sales fees only. They leave out card processing, apps, B2B Edition’s price and implementation, which you must get quoted.
| Pricing need | Shopify | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Three shared price tiers | Advanced, billed yearly: $299 × 12 = $3,588 | Scale, billed yearly: $299 × 12 = $3,588, plus 0.9% on $66,667 a month above the cap = $7,200. Total $10,788 |
| 40 accounts with negotiated prices | Plus, three-year term: $2,300 × 12 = from $27,600, plus any variable platform fee | Performance: from $1,499 × 12 = $17,988, plus B2B Edition (quoted) |
| What triggers the jump | Catalogs assigned to a single company, deposits or partial payments | Price lists by customer, or trailing sales above $2 million |
Two practical conclusions follow. For a tiered price model, Shopify is usually cheaper once sales pass BigCommerce’s Scale cap, because Shopify does not charge for sales volume on these plans. For account-specific pricing, BigCommerce’s published starting price is lower, but B2B Edition’s cost is unknown until quoted, so compare full quotes, not list prices. In both cases, check whether your negotiated prices can be expressed as a few tiers plus quantity breaks. On Shopify, that single decision is the difference between about $3,600 and $27,600 a year.
How does each connect to an ERP?
For a distributor, the storefront is the smaller system. Customer accounts, prices, stock, credit and invoices usually live in the ERP (enterprise resource planning system), and the platform has to show them correctly. Both platforms connect through APIs, but they organise B2B data differently. Shopify holds companies, locations and catalogs as part of its main Admin GraphQL API. BigCommerce B2B Edition has its own B2B APIs, while products and orders stay in the core store APIs, so an integration works with two sets of APIs and two kinds of credentials.
| Record | Usual owner | Shopify | BigCommerce | Rule at the boundary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer account, terms and credit limit | ERP | Company and company location, with payment terms | B2B Edition company account | Store the ERP customer number on the company and match on it, never on name. |
| Buyers and their permissions | Platform | Customers attached to a company location | Company users with roles | The customer’s admin manages users; the ERP receives only those it needs, such as the invoice contact. |
| Prices | ERP | Catalogs and price lists per market or, on Plus, per company | Customer groups or, on Performance, price lists | Publish prices from the ERP on a schedule; the platform never edits them. |
| Stock available to promise | ERP or WMS | Inventory by location | Inventory by location | Send available stock, not on-hand stock, and show its time. |
| Quotes | ERP when pricing is complex; platform when simple | Draft orders | B2B Edition quotes | Keep the quote ID on the order so an accepted quote cannot become two orders. |
| Orders | Created on the platform, fulfilled in the ERP | Orders with purchase order number | Orders with purchase order number | Send to the ERP once, with a retry that checks the platform order ID. |
| Invoices and balances | ERP | Payment terms and payment status on the order | B2B Edition invoices in the Buyer Portal | The ERP issues invoices; the platform shows them and records payments back. |
The invoice row is where the two differ most in practice. If your buyers expect to see and pay ERP invoices online, BigCommerce B2B Edition has a place for them. On Shopify you either keep invoice payment in the ERP or a separate portal, or build it. The B2B customer portal guide covers that decision in detail.
What should you test in a Shopify or BigCommerce B2B demo?
Ask each vendor or partner to run the same tests on your data, on the plan they are quoting. A feature shown on a higher plan than the one quoted is not a pass.
| # | Test | Pass when |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Log in as a buyer from a company with its own negotiated prices. | The buyer sees only their prices and catalogue, on the plan quoted. |
| 2 | Order below a case-pack minimum, then at a volume break. | The minimum blocks the order and the break price applies at the right quantity. |
| 3 | Place your largest real order by line count. | The order saves in full and reaches the ERP as one order. |
| 4 | A rep quotes six lines; the buyer accepts four. | One order with four lines at the quoted prices, with the quote reference kept. |
| 5 | Place an order on net-30 terms for a customer over its credit limit. | The order is held or flagged by the rule you agreed, not shipped. |
| 6 | Change a price in the ERP. | The platform shows the new price within the agreed time; nobody edits it in the platform. |
| 7 | Add a junior buyer who can order but not see invoices. | Permissions hold on the storefront and in emails. |
| 8 | Pay an open ERP invoice online. | The payment reaches the ERP against the right invoice, or the vendor shows where this happens instead. |
- 01Write down your pricing model
Count the accounts with negotiated prices and see whether they reduce to a few tiers plus quantity breaks.
- 02List the must-have buyer journeys
Quotes, approvals, invoice payment, reorders and large orders, each with a real example.
- 03Price the plan each journey needs
Ask both vendors for full quotes on that plan, including B2B Edition or the Plus platform fee.
- 04Run the demo tests on your data
Use the eight tests above, on the quoted plan, with your ERP owner in the room.
- 05Cost the ERP integration
Map the records above to the ERP and estimate the connector or build work for each platform.
If neither platform passes the tests without heavy customisation, compare a wider shortlist in the B2B ecommerce platform guide or the Shopify alternatives guide. For Shopify itself, the Shopify development and integration page shows how Harmatiq connects it to ERP, stock and finance systems, and the e-commerce and B2B service covers both platforms.
Bring one real order, the systems it crosses and the exceptions your team handles manually. We can turn that journey into an implementation scope.