If you run a BigCommerce store, you've probably noticed something's different this year. Maybe it's a line item on your invoice that wasn't there before. Maybe it's a plan name you don't recognize. Either way, you're not imagining it, and you're not alone.
On June 1, 2026, BigCommerce rolled out its biggest pricing overhaul in years. For a lot of merchants, it was the moment a "someday" thought (should we be on Shopify instead?) turned into an actual decision. This post walks through what changed, why it's pushing merchants toward Shopify, and what a BigCommerce to Shopify migration actually involves.
What Changed on BigCommerce (June 2026)
BigCommerce framed the update as a refresh. In practice, three changes matter a lot more than the framing suggests.
The plans got new names, and the revenue caps got tighter. Standard, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise became Core, Growth, Scale, and Performance. The subscription prices look similar on the surface, but the gross merchandise value (GMV) thresholds that trigger an automatic plan upgrade dropped:
| Plan | Old GMV cap | New GMV cap |
|---|---|---|
| Core (was Standard) | $50,000/yr | $30,000/yr |
| Growth (was Plus) | $180,000/yr | $100,000/yr |
| Scale (was Pro) | Fixed revenue blocks | $33,333/month + 0.9% overage |
| Performance (was Enterprise) | Custom | From $1,499/month |
A store doing $120,000 a year in sales used to sit comfortably inside the old Plus tier. Under the new thresholds, that same store gets bumped to Scale, without changing a single thing about how it operates.
A new fee showed up for payment providers outside BigCommerce's approved list. BigCommerce now charges a percentage of order value (up to 2% depending on your plan) on any order processed through a gateway that isn't on its "Embedded" list. Major processors like Stripe and PayPal are covered, but regional processors, industry-specific gateways, and B2B purchase-order workflows can fall outside it.
Phone support disappeared from the entry-level plan. Merchants on Core now need to upgrade to Growth just to get someone on the phone.
None of this is catastrophic on its own. But stack a lower revenue ceiling, a new percentage-based fee, and reduced support together, and a lot of merchants are running the numbers and not liking what they see, especially ones who chose BigCommerce specifically for its more generous thresholds and lack of transaction fees in the first place. (BigCommerce's own explanation of the changes is worth a read if you want the source.)
It's telling that most of what currently comes up when you search for help with this move is migration-tool tutorials and forum threads, not a real explanation of why merchants are actually leaving. If you're one of the merchants weighing this right now, that gap is exactly what this post is trying to close.
It's Rarely Just About the Fee
Here's the part worth being honest about: the pricing change is usually the trigger, not the whole reason.
Cost is what gets a merchant to open the calculator. But once they're in there, they're also thinking about the stuff they'd been quietly tolerating for a while: the admin panel that feels a step behind, the slower release cycle for new features, the sense that the platform is optimized for enterprise complexity when what they actually need is speed. Common threads we hear from merchants evaluating the move:
- Day-to-day operations feel heavier than they should. Managing products, promotions, and pages takes more clicks and more patience than it seems like it needs to.
- Growth exposes friction, not just cost. Traffic goes up, conversion doesn't follow, and it's not always obvious whether that's a marketing problem or a platform problem.
- The app and integration ecosystem feels thinner. Shopify's app store lists well over 10,000 apps spanning loyalty, subscriptions, ERP, and marketing. For most categories, there's a mature, well-reviewed option already built.
- Ad performance and page experience take hits. Slow-loading pages or clunky checkout flows show up as rejected ads, higher CAC, and abandoned carts.
If any of that sounds familiar, the pricing change isn't creating a new problem: it's giving you a reason to finally act on one you already had.
What Shopify Actually Fixes
Pricing is tied to features, not revenue. You choose a plan based on what you need, and it doesn't change because your GMV crossed an arbitrary line. There are still transaction fees on non-Shopify Payments gateways, but the base subscription price stays put. For a store on a genuine growth trajectory, that predictability is worth something on its own.
A deeper app ecosystem means less custom development. Most of what merchants build custom on BigCommerce already exists as a polished, supported app on Shopify. That doesn't eliminate development work, but it shifts a lot of it from "build" to "configure."
Checkout is built to convert. Shopify has publicly stated its checkout converts better than BigCommerce's on average. That's worth treating as a vendor claim rather than gospel, but it lines up with what a lot of merchants report after moving: less friction at the exact moment it matters most.
The daily experience is simpler. Product management, page building, and promotions are generally faster to execute, which matters more than it sounds like once you're doing it every single week.
What You'd Be Giving Up
This part matters, and we'd rather tell you upfront than have you find out after you've committed.
If your store leans on BigCommerce's native B2B tools (company accounts, buyer portals, negotiated pricing, quote workflows), replicating that on Shopify typically means Shopify Plus, which costs more than standard plans. That needs to be in your model before you decide anything.
And if your current payment gateway is already on BigCommerce's fee-free list and your GMV sits comfortably inside your plan's cap, the June changes might cost you very little. In that case, there's less urgency, though it's still worth checking whether the platform itself, separate from pricing, is serving you well.
What a BigCommerce to Shopify Migration Actually Involves
A BigCommerce to Shopify migration follows a well-understood shape at this point:
- Audit your current store. Catalog size, custom fields, metafields, discount rules, apps and integrations, and anything platform-specific that won't move automatically.
- Migrate the data. Products, variants, inventory, customer records, and order history move across. One thing to flag early: customer passwords can't be transferred between platforms for security reasons, on any migration, not just this one. Customers will need to reset theirs on first login. Plan your communication around that.
- Rebuild or redesign the storefront. You can recreate your existing look for a lower-risk, faster launch, or use the move as the occasion for a real redesign. Both are common; the right call depends on how well your current site converts and how dated it feels.
- Protect your SEO. This is the highest-stakes technical step. Every important old URL needs to resolve to its closest new equivalent through a 301 redirect. Shopify's standard plans support up to 100,000 redirects, which covers the vast majority of stores. Skip this step and you risk months of lost organic traffic.
- Test, then cut over. Your BigCommerce store stays live and taking orders through the entire build. The DNS switch happens at the very end, so there's no downtime.
Most migrations for a mid-sized catalog run a matter of weeks, not months, assuming the scoping is done properly up front. If you want a sense of how we approach this kind of project, our case studies walk through a few in detail.
Signs It's Worth Having the Conversation
- Your GMV recently crossed one of BigCommerce's new, lower thresholds and you got auto-upgraded without asking for it
- A meaningful share of your orders run through a payment provider that isn't on BigCommerce's approved list
- You're spending real time on workarounds for things that should be simple: page edits, promotions, basic reporting
- Your storefront hasn't been redesigned in a while and it's starting to show
- You've caught yourself Googling "BigCommerce vs Shopify" more than once this year
If two or more of these are true, it's worth at least modeling out what a BigCommerce to Shopify migration would look like for your store.
