Softwr

E-Commerce · head to head

3dcart vs BigCommerce

3dcart logo

3dcart

E-Commerce

All-in-one ecommerce platform for online retailers

From
$19/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
BigCommerce logo

BigCommerce

E-Commerce

Hosted e-commerce platform that charges no transaction fee and no surcharge for third party gateways

From
$29.95/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 3dcart limited scalability compared to enterprise e-commerce platforms; BigCommerce plans are gated on annual online sales, so a strong year pushes you into a higher tier and a higher subscription even though your traffic, catalogue and resource usage are unchanged.
  • They diverge on capability: 3dcart covers Store builder, BigCommerce covers No platform transaction fee.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which 3dcart and BigCommerce actually diverge.

Attributes where 3dcart and BigCommerce differ
Attribute3dcartBigCommerce
Starting price$19/month$29.95/month
Pricing modelUnknownsubscription
Founded19972009

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (E-Commerce).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in 3dcart

  • Store builder
  • Unlimited products
  • Shopping cart
  • Payment processing
  • Inventory management
  • Email marketing
  • SEO optimization
  • Mobile responsive

Only in BigCommerce

  • No platform transaction fee
  • Stencil theme framework
  • Multi-storefront
  • Faceted search
  • B2B capabilities
  • Headless support
  • Built-in tax integrations
  • Multi-currency

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

3dcart

  • Building multi-channel stores across Facebook, eBay, Amazon in parallelnot BigCommerce
  • Recovering abandoned shopping carts with automated email sequencesnot BigCommerce
  • Calculating real-time shipping costs and integrating carrier APIsnot BigCommerce
  • Protecting payment processing with VISA PCI certificationnot BigCommerce

BigCommerce

  • A merchant whose volume makes a percentage transaction fee the largest line in the platform decisionnot 3dcart
  • A retailer needing several branded storefronts sharing one catalogue and one back officenot 3dcart
  • A B2B seller who needs company accounts and customer-specific price lists without custom developmentnot 3dcart
  • A team going headless who wants a managed commerce back end rather than a self-hosted onenot 3dcart

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

3dcart

  • Limited scalability compared to enterprise e-commerce platforms
  • Payment processing tied to Shift4 Payments after acquisition
  • Fewer advanced marketing and analytics features than competitors

BigCommerce

  • Plans are gated on annual online sales, so a strong year pushes you into a higher tier and a higher subscription even though your traffic, catalogue and resource usage are unchanged.
  • There is a documented ceiling on the number of variants a single product can have, which breaks configurable, made-to-measure and heavily optioned catalogues and forces awkward workarounds such as splitting one product into several listings.
  • The application marketplace is much smaller than the largest competitor's, so a specific integration or niche feature is more often a custom build, and custom builds are the line item that quietly exceeds the platform cost.
  • Theme customisation past the visual settings means Stencil, Handlebars templates and a local command line workflow, so changes that look small to a marketing team still require a developer and a deployment.
  • Migrating out moves products and inventory reasonably well and moves the things that matter badly, since customer passwords cannot be exported in usable form, order history rarely transfers intact, and reviews and URL structure have to be rebuilt with a redirect map you must produce yourself or lose the search traffic.

Pricing, plan by plan

3dcart

$19/month
  • Starter$19/month
    • Unlimited products
    • Basic templates
    • Email support

BigCommerce

$29.95/month
  • Standard$29.95/month
    • Unlimited products
    • 2 staff accounts
    • Basic reports
  • Plus$79.95/month
    • All Standard features
    • Up to 5 staff accounts
    • Advanced reports

Which should you pick?

Choose 3dcart if

  • You need store builder.
  • You also want unlimited products.
3dcart review

Choose BigCommerce if

  • You need no platform transaction fee.
  • You also want stencil theme framework.
BigCommerce review

Questions people ask

Is 3dcart or BigCommerce better?
Neither clearly leads. 3dcart starts at $19/month and BigCommerce at $29.95/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, 3dcart or BigCommerce?
3dcart starts at $19/month and BigCommerce at $29.95/month.
Does 3dcart or BigCommerce run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is 3dcart best used for?
3dcart is most often used for building multi-channel stores across facebook, ebay, amazon in parallel, recovering abandoned shopping carts with automated email sequences, calculating real-time shipping costs and integrating carrier apis, protecting payment processing with visa pci certification. Of those, building multi-channel stores across facebook, ebay, amazon in parallel and recovering abandoned shopping carts with automated email sequences are not what BigCommerce is typically brought in for.
What can 3dcart do that BigCommerce cannot?
3dcart covers Store builder, Unlimited products, Shopping cart, Payment processing. BigCommerce covers No platform transaction fee, Stencil theme framework, Multi-storefront, Faceted search.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

3dcart: What is the starting price for 3dcart?

3dcart (now Shift4Shop) starts at $19/month with no setup fees, transaction fees, or hidden fees.

Source
BigCommerce: Does BigCommerce charge transaction fees?

No, and it does not surcharge third party payment gateways either. Revenue affects the price through plan sales thresholds instead.

3dcart: Does 3dcart include hosting?

Yes. 3dcart includes web hosting, domain support, and built-in website building tools with no separate hosting costs.

Source
BigCommerce: What happens when I exceed my plan's sales threshold?

You move to the next plan tier. Model this at your projected growth rate, because the increase is driven by revenue rather than by usage.

3dcart: What happened to 3dcart?

Shift4 Payments acquired 3dcart in November 2020. The platform is now operated under the name Shift4Shop but maintains the same core functionality and pricing.

Source
BigCommerce: Is the app ecosystem large enough?

It covers the common integrations. For anything niche, assume a development project rather than an install, and price that in before comparing subscriptions.

3dcart: Does 3dcart offer free templates?

Yes. 3dcart provides dozens of professionally designed, industry-specific templates that are mobile-friendly, SEO optimized, and highly customizable.

Source
BigCommerce: How hard is it to leave?

Products export cleanly. Customer passwords, order history, reviews and SEO URLs do not. Build the redirect map before you cut over, not after traffic drops.

3dcart: What payment methods does 3dcart support?

3dcart integrates with multiple payment gateways including Shift4 Payments, Stripe, PayPal, and other major payment processors.

Source
Share

Related pages

More on 3dcart

More on BigCommerce

Keep looking

Other head to heads