Updated: 6 November 2026 · Ritik Verma, Founder, 7SEA Marketing
A BigCommerce to Shopify migration typically costs $3,000–$15,000 for a small to mid-size store and $25,000–$80,000+ for larger or B2B builds, and takes 4–16 weeks. Products, customers and orders transfer cleanly with migration tools; the theme, apps and URL redirects are where the real work and the SEO risk sit.
Many US merchants are running these numbers for the first time this year. Since June 1, 2026, BigCommerce charges an Open Payment Provider fee on orders processed through payment providers outside its embedded list: 2.0% on Core, 1.0% on Growth, 0.6% on Scale. For a store that relies on a non-embedded gateway, that's a new cost line on every order, and the reason the migration question is suddenly on the table.
First: does the new fee actually affect you?
Not every BigCommerce store pays it. The fee applies only to orders processed through payment providers that are not in BigCommerce's embedded list. Orders through embedded providers (Stripe, PayPal/Braintree, Adyen) carry no BigCommerce fee.
| Your situation | Does the fee apply? |
|---|---|
| All payments through an embedded provider (e.g. Stripe, PayPal/Braintree, Adyen) | No |
| Some orders through a non-embedded gateway | Yes, on those orders |
| Specialist gateway (high-risk, regional, B2B invoicing) | Usually yes |
| Enterprise contract | Depends on your contract |
What the fee costs per year (on the share of revenue that goes through a non-embedded provider):
| Annual GMV via non-embedded provider | Core (2.0%) | Growth (1.0%) | Scale (0.6%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $250,000 | $5,000 | $2,500 | $1,500 |
| $1,000,000 | $20,000 | $10,000 | $6,000 |
| $3,000,000 | $60,000 | $30,000 | $18,000 |
BigCommerce fee rates per its pricing page, November 2026. The processor's own fees are separate.
The honest first move: if you can switch to an embedded provider without hurting conversion, the fee disappears and you may not need to migrate at all. Migration makes sense when the fee is unavoidable and there are other reasons: app ecosystem, checkout performance, theme limitations, or the team simply preferring Shopify.
What a migration costs (market ranges)
| Store profile | Typical cost | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Small catalog (< 500 SKUs), theme-based design | $3,000 – $8,000 | 4 – 6 weeks |
| Mid-size (500 – 5,000 SKUs), custom theme, 5–10 apps | $8,000 – $25,000 | 6 – 12 weeks |
| Large catalog, integrations (ERP/PIM), complex variants | $25,000 – $80,000 | 10 – 16 weeks |
| B2B / multi-storefront / $25M+ GMV | $80,000 – $250,000+ | 16 – 24 weeks |
Market ranges from US agency and migration-vendor sources, 2026. Quotes vary widely with scope.
Where the money goes:
| Work | Share of a typical budget |
|---|---|
| Theme build or rebuild | 35 – 45% |
| Data migration and data cleanup | 15 – 30% |
| App replacement and integrations | 15 – 20% |
| Redirects and SEO protection | 5 – 10% |
| QA, tracking, launch | 10% |
The line item most teams under-budget is data cleanup. Years of BigCommerce data come with duplicate products, inconsistent variant names, broken image links and custom fields that don't map one-to-one. One migration post-mortem in the market reported cleanup taking six weeks and about 30% of the project budget. Plan for it from day one.
Migration tools (such as LitExtension or Cart2Cart-style services) move the core data for a few hundred dollars. They don't build your theme, replace your apps, or design your redirect map. That is why tool cost and project cost are so far apart.
What transfers, and what you rebuild
| Element | Transfers | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Products, variants, images | ✅ | Check variant option limits and naming |
| Customers | ✅ | Passwords don't transfer, so plan a reset email |
| Order history | ✅ | Usually via migration tool |
| Categories → collections | ✅ | Structure may need rethinking |
| Blog posts and pages | ✅ | URLs change |
| Reviews | ⚠️ | Via the review app's own import |
| Theme / design | ❌ | Rebuilt on Shopify |
| Apps and custom functionality | ❌ | Replaced with Shopify apps or custom code |
| URLs | ❌ | Shopify's structure is fixed, so every URL changes |
Keeping your SEO: where BigCommerce migrations lose traffic
Every URL changes, because Shopify uses fixed paths (/products/, /collections/, /pages/). Done badly, this is where migrations lose 30–50% of organic traffic, with recovery taking months.
| BigCommerce URL | Shopify URL |
|---|---|
| /product-name/ | /products/product-name |
| /category-name/ | /collections/category-name |
| /brands/brand-name/ | /collections/brand-name (or a vendor collection) |
| /blog/post-name/ | /blogs/news/post-name |
| /category-name/?sort=featured&page=2 | the matching collection URL |
The most common miss on BigCommerce migrations is parameterised URLs: faceted filters, sort orders, pagination. These often carry backlinks and rankings, and they're easy to leave out of a redirect map built from the product list alone. Pull your full URL list from Search Console and your server logs, not just the catalog export.
The essentials:
- Export every indexed URL before you touch anything (Search Console + a crawl).
- Map one-to-one: each old URL to its closest new equivalent, never everything to the homepage.
- Keep titles and meta descriptions for pages that rank.
- Re-create structured data (product schema, reviews) on the new theme.
- Re-verify tracking (GA4, Google Ads, Meta) with a test order before launch.
- Watch Search Console daily for 4–6 weeks after launch.
The full pre- and post-launch checklist: Change Your Shopify Theme Without Losing SEO · Shopify Migration Checklist
BigCommerce vs Shopify: the comparison that decides it
| BigCommerce | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| Fee on non-embedded payment providers (2026) | 2.0% / 1.0% / 0.6% by plan | Shopify charges its own fee when you don't use Shopify Payments (varies by plan) |
| Native B2B features | Strong on standard plans | Full B2B toolkit on Shopify Plus |
| App ecosystem | Smaller | Largest in ecommerce |
| Checkout | Customisable | Highly optimised; deeper customisation on Plus |
| Hosting, security, updates | Managed | Managed |
| Typical reason to switch | n/a | App ecosystem, checkout conversion, theme flexibility, team familiarity |
Shopify isn't fee-free either: it charges an additional transaction fee when you use a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments. Compare the total cost of ownership, not one fee. For a store that can use Shopify Payments, the comparison usually favours Shopify; for a store that needs a specific B2B gateway, run the numbers carefully.
If B2B is the core of your business: Shopify B2B & Wholesale
A realistic migration timeline
| Week | Phase |
|---|---|
| 1 – 2 | Audit: URLs, data quality, apps, integrations, tracking |
| 2 – 6 | Theme build, app replacement |
| 4 – 7 | Data migration + cleanup (often overlaps the build) |
| 6 – 8 | Redirect map, QA, tracking, test orders |
| 8 | Launch, ideally outside your peak season |
| 8 – 14 | Monitoring and fixes |
Avoid launching between October and January if Q4 is your biggest quarter. A migration hiccup in November costs more than any fee you were trying to save.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify?
Market ranges in 2026 run from about $3,000–$8,000 for a small, theme-based store to $8,000–$25,000 for a mid-size store with a custom theme, and $25,000–$80,000+ for large catalogs with integrations. B2B and multi-storefront projects can exceed $100,000. Theme work and data cleanup are the biggest cost drivers.
How long does a BigCommerce to Shopify migration take?
Typically 4–6 weeks for a small store, 6–12 weeks for a mid-size store, and 10–24 weeks for large, B2B or integration-heavy stores. The theme rebuild and data cleanup are usually the longest parts, not the data transfer itself.
What is BigCommerce's Open Payment Provider fee?
Since June 1, 2026, BigCommerce charges a fee on orders processed through payment providers outside its embedded list: 2.0% of eligible GMV on Core, 1.0% on Growth and 0.6% on Scale. Orders through embedded providers such as Stripe, PayPal/Braintree and Adyen are not charged. It's billed to the merchant, separately from the processor's own fees.
Will I lose my SEO rankings if I move from BigCommerce to Shopify?
Not if redirects are done properly. Every URL changes, so each old URL needs a 301 redirect to its closest new equivalent. Most BigCommerce SEO losses come from missed parameterised URLs: filters, sort orders, pagination. Expect a few weeks of ranking fluctuation; a drop that doesn't recover after 6–8 weeks points to a redirect or indexing problem.
Can I migrate from BigCommerce to Shopify myself?
The data transfer, yes: migration tools handle products, customers and orders for a few hundred dollars. The theme rebuild, app replacement, redirect map and tracking setup are where DIY migrations usually go wrong. For a small store with a standard theme, DIY is realistic; for anything with real organic traffic, the redirect map alone justifies expert help.
Is Shopify cheaper than BigCommerce?
It depends on your payment setup. Shopify charges an additional fee when you don't use Shopify Payments; BigCommerce now charges a fee on non-embedded payment providers. Compare total cost (plan, payment fees, apps, development) on your actual order volume and gateway, not list prices.
Do customer passwords transfer?
No. Passwords are encrypted and can't be moved between platforms. Customer accounts transfer, but customers need to set a new password. Sending an account-activation email at launch keeps support tickets down.
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