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If you're on BigCommerce and the new pricing update landed in your inbox last week, you're probably doing one of two things: running the numbers on what it costs you to stay, or quietly opening a tab to research Shopify Plus.
Both are reasonable reactions. BigCommerce gave merchants 60 days notice before changes take effect June 1, 2026. For brands doing serious volume, the new plan structure adjusted GMV thresholds, a continuous overage rate on the Scale plan, and a new Open Payment Provider fee on top of your base subscription. These updates change the math in ways that aren't immediately obvious from the announcement.
To help you make the right call, we wrote this article based on our experience in migrating brands from BigCommerce to Shopify Plus. It walks through the cost comparison such as what you might be paying now, what you may pay under the new structure, and what a Shopify Plus migration realistically costs. The goal is to give you a model, not a pitch.
What changed in BigCommerce's pricing?
Three things changed that matter for mid-market and enterprise merchants.
First, plans were renamed and GMV thresholds were adjusted. The Pro plan is now called Scale, with a monthly GMV cap of $33,333. If your brand is making more than $33,333/month in Inclusive GMV, you're looking at overage charges under the new model.
Second, the overage model on the Scale plan changed from fixed per-block charges to a continuous 0.9% rate on Inclusive GMV above $33,333/month. BigCommerce frames this as more predictable. For brands with seasonal GMV spikes, it's worth modeling what that rate looks like in your peak months.
Third, and this is the detail easiest to miss, a new Open Payment Provider Fee now applies to all self-serve plans. If your orders are processed through a payment provider not on BigCommerce's embedded provider list, you're paying an additional fee on that GMV: 2.0% on the Core plan, 1.0% on Growth, and 0.6% on Scale. Common providers like Stripe and NMI are not on the embedded list. If you're using either, this fee applies to your order volume processed through them.
One more detail worth mentioning: BigCommerce changed how it calculates Inclusive GMV — the number used to determine your plan tier and overage fees — from a 3% reduction factor to 10%. Your Inclusive GMV as BigCommerce calculates it will look lower than what you track internally. This is expected, but if you've been monitoring your GMV against plan thresholds, your dashboard number will look different after June 1.
What does staying on BigCommerce actually cost at $50M+ GMV?
Let's use a straightforward example: a brand doing $5M/month in GMV, processing 40% of orders through Stripe.
Under the new Scale plan, base pricing is $299/month on an annual plan. On top of that, the 0.9% overage rate applies to Inclusive GMV above $33,333/month. At $5M/month, that's roughly $4.5M in Inclusive GMV above the cap, generating approximately $40,500 in monthly overage charges. Then add the Open Payment Provider fee: 0.6% on the GMV processed through Stripe, which at 40% of $5M is $2M in eligible GMV, adding another $12,000/month.
All in, that brand is looking at roughly $52,800/month on the Scale plan before considering whether their GMV growth triggers an auto-upgrade to Performance, where pricing starts at $1,499/month under a custom contract.
That's not a reason to panic. It's a reason to model.
What does moving to Shopify Plus actually cost?
Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/month on a 3-year term, or $2,500/month on a 1-year term. For higher-volume or more complex business structures, Shopify moves to a variable platform fee, the specifics of which depend on your revenue and business model. If you're doing $50M+ in GMV, that conversation happens directly with a Shopify Plus rep.
On transaction fees, Shopify Plus charges 0.20% per transaction if you're using a third-party payment processor. If you're on Shopify Payments, third-party transaction fees are waived entirely. For brands currently absorbing BigCommerce's Open Payment Provider Fee, 0.6% on the Scale plan for GMV processed through non-embedded providers like Stripe, the difference in fee structure alone is worth modeling.
The migration itself is the larger investment. For a mid-market brand with moderate customization, a Shopify Plus migration typically runs $40K–$100K+ depending on complexity. Custom integrations, B2B pricing logic, checkout customization, and multi-storefront configurations all affect scope. Plan for 3–4 months from kickoff to launch on a well-scoped project.
The platform cost math often closes faster than brands expect, particularly for brands currently on BigCommerce's Scale plan with significant GMV above the $33,333/month threshold and meaningful order volume running through non-embedded payment providers.
What does a BigCommerce to Shopify Plus migration actually involve?
We recently completed a BigCommerce to Shopify Plus migration for an outdoor and firearms brand doing roughly $67M in GMV. Their experience is a useful illustration of what the work actually looks like and where complexity tends to surface.
The data migration itself took about three weeks however the full project ran six months. This timeline wasn’t because the migration was technically overwhelming, but because the client was simultaneously rebuilding their ERP system. Without that parallel workstream, the same project would have taken closer to three months.
The two most complex pieces were specific to BigCommerce. First, order status mapping: BigCommerce and Shopify don't use the same order status structure, which means order history migration requires careful translation rather than a straight data transfer. Second, product migration required a product-by-product review to ensure accuracy; not unusual for a brand that had built up years of catalog data on BigCommerce's flexible product structure.
Product data is the other area where BigCommerce migrations consistently surprise brands. BigCommerce allows different product structures per product, meaning a catalog built over several years can have significant inconsistencies that require manual review and cleanup before migration; work that rarely gets scoped accurately upfront.
There was also a custom events and training scheduling system built on the legacy BigCommerce site that had no direct Shopify equivalent. The solution was replicating that functionality using a Shopify app.
Regardless of the complexities that had surfaced along the way, customer data transferred cleanly, and URL redirects were mapped and implemented as 301s to preserve SEO equity. With transparency and trust built along the way, the brand stayed confident throughout, even when issues surfaced.
The lesson from that project: the migration timeline is rarely about the data. It's about what you've built on top of the platform and how prepared your team is to be an active participant in the process. Brands that go in expecting to hand everything to the agency and stay hands-off consistently experience longer timelines and more friction than those that treat the migration as a shared workstream.
What does Shopify Plus give you that BigCommerce doesn't?
Platform cost is one input. Marketing velocity is another, and it's harder to put a number on that but it’s real.
Shopify's ecosystem is built for marketing teams to move without developer dependencies. Things brands sometimes take for granted like building landing pages, performing A/B tests, initiating new product launches, and campaign execution — it’s a gap between what a marketer can do independently on Shopify Plus versus BigCommerce and those things are meaningful. Brands that migrate consistently report faster testing cycles and shorter time-to-launch for new initiatives.
For brands running retention programs, the integration depth between Shopify and the leading MarTech tools, like Klaviyo, Rebuy, Recharge, and Gorgias experience tighter connectivity on Shopify Plus than on any other platform. If retention is a meaningful revenue channel for your business, that integration layer matters.
How do you know if the numbers work for your brand?
The model looks different for every brand. GMV, payment provider mix, customization complexity, and current retention program maturity all affect the math. A brand doing $5M/month with heavy Stripe volume and a complex ERP integration has a different calculation than one doing $8M/month with a clean catalog and BigCommerce Payments.
As a Shopify Plus Platinum Partner, we work directly with Shopify to help brands understand what Shopify Plus actually costs at their scale before they commit to anything. If you're evaluating the move, that's the right starting point.
If you're on BigCommerce and doing $50M or more in GMV, the conversation is worth having. Book a call with our team and we'll connect you with the right resources to make a confident, informed decision.
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