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E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS · MIGRATION GUIDE

Switching from BigCommerce to WooCommerce

WooCommerce has no BigCommerce importer built in, though plugins exist for CSV product/customer import. You also need to set up WordPress hosting first, a step BigCommerce doesn’t require.

Bill Belcamino
Bottom line up frontby Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
Editorial assessment

Bottom line up front: What do you take on when you move from BigCommerce to WooCommerce?

You drop the $29/mo platform fee and take on the jobs BigCommerce did for you: hosting, security, backups and updates, plus payment fees that now depend on the extension you pick.

WooCommerce has no BigCommerce importer built in, so products and customers come across through a CSV import plugin, after you've set up WordPress hosting, a domain and SSL. My advice is to buy hosting as part of the store, not as a cheap website plan. Get a host with a staging copy, so every plugin update is tested away from live checkout, and automatic backups you've restored at least once, because an untested backup is a hope, not a plan. Choose the payment extension before you rebuild checkout, since that single choice sets your fees. Keep BigCommerce running until a real test order clears end to end.

My read of the verified data on this page, checked against vendor sources on September 23, 2026. Disagree or spot an error? Tell Bill

Estimate · your inputs

Switching Cost & Friction Estimator

Most buyers only budget for the new subscription. This estimates the hidden labor, data-cleanup, and retraining cost of actually making the switch.

25,000
10

Estimate assumes: 1 hour of data-mapping/cleaning labor per 2,000 records, a blended $75/hr ops rate, tiered migration & cleaning tooling fees, and 4 hours of retraining per seat at a $45/hr fully-loaded rate.

Estimated Migration Time —
Data Friction Rating —
Total Hidden Switching Cost $0

    Why teams move from BigCommerce to WooCommerce

    No platform fee

    The plugin itself is free.

    Full WordPress/PHP customization

    No platform-imposed ceiling.

    Enormous plugin ecosystem

    Draw on the entire WordPress plugin library.

    How the migration actually works

    You take on hosting, security, backups and update management yourself — all handled by BigCommerce today — and transaction fees depend on which payment extension you choose.

    StepWhat you do
    1Export your catalog and customersDownload products, variants, customers and order history as CSV from the old platform.
    2Set up WordPress and install WooCommerceProvision WordPress hosting, a domain and SSL, then install the free WooCommerce plugin.
    3Import your catalogUse the new platform’s CSV import tool to bring in products, variants and customer records.
    4Rebuild your theme and storefrontRecreate your storefront design; themes are not compatible between platforms.
    5Reinstall apps or extensionsFind and configure equivalents for any apps or extensions your old store relied on.
    6Test checkout and switch your domainPlace a real test order end to end, then point your domain at the new store and take the old one offline.

    What this path doesn’t do for you:

    BigCommerce’s fully managed hosting, security and guaranteed zero transaction fees have no automatic WooCommerce equivalent — you assemble and maintain these yourself.

    Pricing side by side

    PlanBigCommerceWooCommerce
    Pricing basisPer store, GMV-gated tiersFree plugin; hosting/extensions separate
    Entry priceCore $29/mo (annual)Free (excludes hosting/domain/extensions)
    HostingIncludedBring your own
    Transaction feesNone, any tierDepends on payment extension
    Free planNo, 15-day trialThe plugin itself, yes

    Prices checked on each vendor’s pricing page on September 23, 2026.

    Feature parity check

    CapabilityBigCommerceWooCommerce
    HostingIncludedBring your own
    Transaction feesNone, any tierDepends on extension
    Customization ceilingPlatform-boundedOpen-ended (WordPress/PHP)
    Price$29/moFree plugin + separate costs

    Going the other direction, or want the full comparison first?

    Read the BigCommerce vs WooCommerce comparison Switching from WooCommerce to BigCommerce instead?
    Verified data

    Security & access: what changes when you switch

    Security, offline and access rules that differ between BigCommerce and WooCommerce. Rows where both tools are the same (1) are left out; the full side-by-side is on each tool’s page: BigCommerce, WooCommerce.

    What changesBigCommerce (today)WooCommerce (after)
    SOC 2 reportSOC 2 Type IIsourceNot published
    ISO/IEC 27001CertifiedsourceNot published
    Other certificationsISO/IEC 27017, ISO/IEC 27018, ISO/IEC 27701, ISO 22301sourceNot published
    GDPR data processing agreementDPA offeredsourceNot published
    Self-hosting optionNot publishedYessource
    Office & room hardwareIn-store selling is handled through point-of-sale integrations (third-party POS) that connect to the store on every plan.sourcePOS mode in the Woo mobile app accepts card payments via an M2 reader (US) or WisePad 3 reader (UK and other supported countries), Tap to Pay, or an Android phone as a remote reader.source

    Checked September 24, 2026 against each vendor’s own trust center, help docs and app pages. Hover or tap “source” to see the exact wording we relied on. “Not published” means we could not find the vendor saying it on its own site; it doesn’t mean the feature is missing. Plan names are the lowest plan the vendor says includes the feature. Security · Offline · Remote vs office · Download the data

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Does WooCommerce import BigCommerce data?

    Not automatically; use a CSV import plugin for products and customers, and expect to rebuild your theme.

    Will it be cheaper?

    The plugin is free, but hosting, domain, SSL and extensions add real cost — price those out for your store before assuming it’s cheaper overall.

    Who manages security and updates?

    You, or a developer you hire — WooCommerce is self-hosted, unlike BigCommerce’s fully managed platform.

    Does my product catalog transfer automatically?

    Not fully automatically. Export products and customers as CSV from the old platform and import them into the new one; themes, custom code and installed apps/extensions are rebuilt by hand since they don’t carry over between platforms.

    Sources

    Prices on this page were recorded from each vendor’s own pricing page on the date shown at the top of the page. Vendors change pricing often — check the live source before you buy.

    Every figure is also in our open dataset (JSON and CSV, CC BY 4.0), with its source page and verification date. See how we research pricing.

    Cite this page: HelpCompare, “Switching from BigCommerce to WooCommerce”, helpcompare.com/bigcommerce-to-woocommerce-migration/ (updated ).

    Source links on this site are checked every month; last check . How sources are checked.

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    Built for the leader who owns the selection, answers for the spend, drives the rollout, and lives with the results. HelpCompare covers the whole decision, not just the first step.

    Bill Belcamino, founder of HelpCompare
    About the author

    Bill Belcamino

    Founder and author, HelpCompare

    Engineer by training, operator by experience, marketer by choice. Bill spent eight and a half years as an engineer at HP, was COO of Auctiva (the number one third-party selling platform on eBay, past 200,000 users) and ran Google’s $70M/year search syndication partnership at Alot.com. Then he spent 13 years building his own web properties with his own money at stake. He has bought, trialled, integrated and cancelled more SaaS tools than he can count, and started HelpCompare because the real cost of switching tools is the part nobody covers.

    “I’ve sat on both sides of the table: the agency recommending the tool and the client paying for it.”

    Researched and fact-checked by the HelpCompare team. Pricing on this page was last verified on September 23, 2026. No paid sponsorships, no affiliate commissions.