BigCommerce vs commercetools: Modern Commerce Without the Complexity

Choosing a commerce platform isn’t just about technology, it’s about outcomes. While many consider commercetools the pioneer of composable commerce, BigCommerce redefines what MACH architecture can be: powerful, flexible, and enterprise-grade, without the heavy development costs.

If you're evaluating commercetools, or looking to replatform, consider why growth-focused brands choose BigCommerce for faster launches, lower total cost of ownership (TCO), and modern enterprise scalability.

Launch faster and pivot at speed

BigCommerce helps businesses move fast. With pre-built storefront templates, a fully integrated checkout, and 1,200+ out-of-the-box integrations, brands go live in weeks — not quarters.

In contrast, commercetools takes a developer-first approach. While flexible, every implementation starts from scratch: teams must build and maintain the front-end, checkout, integrations, and even basic commerce functionality in-house or through a partner.

"We chose BigCommerce because it can scale at the same level and speed as we do," remarked Jed Simpson, General Manager at TYGRIS.

BigCommerce’s hybrid model empowers teams to launch quickly and evolve their stack over time, starting fast without getting boxed in.

Lower total cost of ownership

commercetools offers maximum flexibility, but at maximum cost. Its API-only model demands deep technical investment. Merchants must fund and manage every integration, customization, and front-end from the ground up.

BigCommerce flips this model. As a SaaS platform built on MACH principles, BigCommerce removes complexity and reduces development overhead, freeing teams to focus on growth.

With BigCommerce, you invest in what drives revenue — faster time to market, innovation, and customer experience — not infrastructure maintenance.

Built for developers and business users

BigCommerce empowers both marketers and developers to move faster together. With built-in tools like Page Builder, the native Stencil theme engine, and robust headless capabilities, teams can:

• Customize without code

• Extend with APIs

• Use SDKs and CLI tools for deeper control

For even greater speed and flexibility, BigCommerce includes:

• Catalyst, our modern composable storefront framework that streamlines front-end development

• Makeswift, a visual-first builder that empowers marketers to design, iterate, and publish without needing a developer

In contrast, commercetools targets engineering teams. Teams must build everything from content management to checkout logic from scratch, which results in:

• Slower time to value

• Greater IT dependency

• Higher long-term cost

BigCommerce gives teams what commercetools doesn’t:

• Front-end flexibility (Stencil, Next.js, Vue, Gatsby, custom headless)

• SDKs for Open Checkout, Widget Builder, and checkout customization

• 4 language-specific API clients

• Visual editing with Makeswift, built for composability and collaboration

• Accelerated storefront creation with Catalyst, designed to help teams move quick without sacrificing flexibility

True composability without lock-in

BigCommerce delivers true composability, certified by the MACH Alliance, while removing the complexity and fragmentation often associated with headless commerce.

Plug-and-play integrations with leading technologies like Bloomreach, Algolia, Contentstack, and Sanity are readily available. Open APIs span cart, checkout, catalog, and orders. And unlike platforms that demand intensive custom orchestration, BigCommerce provides a streamlined foundation designed to accelerate delivery without sacrificing flexibility.

By comparison, commercetools provides over 500 APIs and an integration framework called Connect, but the ecosystem lacks standardization and predictability. Fewer than 20 connectors are actively in use, and implementation often requires custom development. Pricing and hosting models vary, and the experience is far from plug-and-play.

With BigCommerce, composability is not just a technical concept, it is a business advantage. That difference has been demonstrated across industries:

• At MKM, the UK’s largest independent builder’s merchant, a headless architecture powered by BigCommerce unified online and offline experiences, reduced page load speed by 75%, and increased revenue by 82% in just four weeks.

  • “We could pick the best pieces from what is out there and tailor them to what suits our ever-changing and rapidly growing business,” said Andy Pickup, Digital Director at MKM.

• Yeti Cycles launched both B2B and DTC on BigCommerce using a headless approach, unlocking speed, design control, and operational efficiency. The team brought its DTC channel to market in just a month.

  • “With BigCommerce, we're not just stuck with what’s there out of the box. We can innovate easily, which I love. And that goes for customization, too. Our speed to market has increased dramatically,” said Matt Hicks, Director of Technology and Customer Experience at Yeti Cycles.

• White Stuff adopted a fully composable, MACH-based tech stack to replace a legacy platform. The result was a 100% boost in mobile performance, a 37% increase in conversions, and a more agile content operation.

  • “We were spending days or even weeks developing a new campaign or executing changes. With BigCommerce, we can now do this in hours or even minutes because we've got a content management solution and an ecommerce platform that seamlessly plug in together,” said Steve Borg, Technology and Transformation Director at White Stuff.

• Just Sunnies leveraged BigCommerce to power a custom headless PWA with more than 13,000 SKUs and prescription eyewear options. The shift to a composable system delivered a 21% increase in conversion rate and 15% boost in overall sales.

  • “With a headless, composable system like the one we have on BigCommerce, you can basically just plug and play, pull things in and out, and create our site exactly the way we want,” said Laura Brukner, Digital Marketing and Ecommerce Manager at Just Sunnies.

Multichannel, multimarket, out-of-the-box

BigCommerce helps merchants expand across channels and regions without custom development or orchestration. Designed for fast-moving brands, the platform includes:

• Multi-storefront management from a single admin, with native tools for rapid deployment and simplified operations

• Built-in support for multi-currency, multi-language, and localized storefront experiences

• Prebuilt integrations with Google, Amazon, TikTok Shop, Facebook, eBay, and Instagram

• Deep Feedonomics integration for syndication to over 300 global marketplaces

commercetools offers strong composable flexibility, but lacks native tools and requires teams to configure every channel and region manually. Merchants are responsible for:

• Building and maintaining all marketplace connections

• Setting up and managing currency, language, and localization logic

• Developing and hosting custom storefronts for each region

“Once an order is placed on a marketplace, that order comes directly back into the BigCommerce admin. Anything that comes into the BigCommerce admin automatically feeds into Sage 200 and the warehouse management system,” said Neil Bruce, Ecommerce Manager at Toolsaver. “So it means that every order is managed and handled in exactly the same fashion.”

When commercetools might fit

To be fair, commercetools can be a strong fit for large enterprises that:

• Operate at $500M+ GMV

• Employ dedicated in-house engineering teams or work closely with a systems integrator or digital agency

• Require fully bespoke digital experiences tailored to specific business models

• Prioritize total control over orchestration, even if it increases time, cost, and complexity

But for brands that need to move fast, iterate often, and scale without developer bottlenecks, BigCommerce is the smarter choice. It delivers enterprise-grade flexibility without the overhead, making it ideal for modern teams that want to grow without rebuilding from scratch.

Summary: BigCommerce vs. commercetools

The final word

commercetools helped define composable commerce, but BigCommerce is shaping where it goes next. If your business wants the freedom of MACH without the complexity of managing it all, BigCommerce delivers.

From Toolsaver to Tygris, the fastest-growing brands are choosing BigCommerce to build and scale.

Ready to move faster and grow smarter? Let’s talk.