BigCommerce is an American fully hosted platform for mid sized and larger stores and for B2B. On 1 June 2026 it renamed its plans (Standard to Core, Plus to Growth, Pro to Scale, Enterprise to Performance), lowered the turnover limits and, above all, introduced an Open Payment Provider Fee of 0.6 to 2 percent of GMV on orders that do not go through its own embedded gateway. For a typical small merchant outside its supported markets it is oversized: billing is in dollars, and there is no local language support and no native link to local carriers, gateways, comparison engines or accounting.
Comparison table
The facts in one place first. Figures as of July 2026.
| Plan (previously) | Price / month | Turnover limit | Fee on GMV outside the gateway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core (Standard) | 39 USD (29 annually) | 30,000 USD / year | 2.0 % |
| Growth (Plus) | 105 USD (79 annually) | 100,000 USD / year | 1.0 % |
| Scale (Pro) | 399 USD (299 annually) | about 33,333 USD / month | 0.6 % |
| Performance (Enterprise) | from about 1,499 USD, individual | about 250,000 USD / month | 0 % by contract |
Prices excluding tax, in US dollars, as of 2026. Annual billing is cheaper. The fee on GMV applies to orders outside the embedded gateway.
What BigCommerce is and who it is built for
You know the routine. You are starting a store, reading about global platforms, and you come across BigCommerce with its promise of no transaction fees. It sounds great. Except that from June 2026 it stops being true, which is exactly why this platform deserves a sober look.
BigCommerce is an American fully hosted SaaS platform, so there is no installation and no hosting of your own. Historically it targets mid sized and larger stores and B2B, where it tempts you with rich native functionality that competitors make you buy as apps. It has a European footprint, opening a UK office in 2018 and operating in the Netherlands, France, Italy, Austria and the Nordics, and it offers a translated admin plus multiple languages and currencies.
Smaller markets are a different story. Czech, for instance, does not appear among the officially supported markets, and multilingual selling typically requires a paid third party app such as Weglot. BigCommerce also does not publicly declare European data centres of its own.
What changed on 1 June 2026
Here is the heart of it. On 1 June 2026 BigCommerce renamed every plan and tightened the rules. Standard became Core, Plus became Growth, Pro became Scale and Enterprise became Performance.
More consequential than the renaming are two numbers. First, lower turnover limits: Core handles annual turnover (on a trailing twelve month basis) only up to 30,000 USD and Growth up to 100,000 USD. Cross the threshold and the store moves automatically to a more expensive plan. Second, an entirely new Open Payment Provider Fee, a charge on turnover for orders that do not go through BigCommerce's own embedded payment gateway.
The fee is tiered by plan: 2.0 percent of GMV on Core, 1.0 percent on Growth, 0.6 percent on Scale and, by contract, 0 percent on Performance. For both the limits and the fee, so called Inclusive GMV applies, meaning gross order value reduced by ten percent. And note that under the terms you may not pass this fee on to the customer at checkout.
The price list and where the bill hides
The price list is in dollars, which is the first friction for any merchant whose currency is something else, because you carry the exchange rate risk. Annual billing is cheaper than monthly.
So the marketing claim about no transaction fees applied to the old model. From June 2026 there is effectively a percentage fee on turnover unless you use the embedded gateway. And the embedded gateway is precisely what merchants in markets with their own payment habits cannot use. The annual turnover limits also mean the platform punishes success: you grow and you are one tier up, even though you need nothing new in features.
Where BigCommerce is genuinely good
To be fair, BigCommerce has real advantages. It offers rich native functionality without buying dozens of apps, particularly strong for B2B and large catalogues. It has an open, robust API and headless options, so it connects well to ERP systems and custom frontends. And it handles multiple languages, multiple currencies and cross border tooling natively.
For a company with its own developer or agency, selling across several countries and needing depth of features, it is a legitimate choice. The problem starts when a small local store considers the same platform.
Where it hurts a smaller local merchant
There are several weak points and for a local store they add up. Plenty of users see a pricing model tied to turnover as a tax on success, and since June 2026 the thresholds are lower, so the same turnover pushes you a tier higher. Design control is limited, there is no full drag and drop editor, and meaningful changes often need a developer. Users on Trustpilot complain about scripted, slow support and about difficulties cancelling annual plans.
The biggest barrier, though, is localisation. Full local language support is missing and so is any native link to a local ecosystem. In Czechia that means the domestic payment gateways, carriers, accounting and the Heureka and Zboží comparison engines are all non native, and multilingual selling runs through a paid app. For a typical local store it is simply an oversized solution with a steeper learning curve than the situation warrants.
How Behio approaches it
Behio aims at the opposite end from a global enterprise platform, at Czech and Slovak small and mid sized business. Where BigCommerce bills in dollars and, from June 2026, adds a percentage of turnover outside its own gateway, Behio has one subscription in crowns and never caps order volume.
The difference is mostly the local ecosystem. The Czech gateways Comgate and GoPay, carriers through Packeta and the Zaslat aggregator, feeds for the Heureka and Zboží comparison engines, invoicing with statutory identifiers and export into Pohoda, plus cookieless analytics, all belong to the platform rather than costing extra through third party apps. And if you want your own code, you get it: the builder generates a real Next.js store you can export, with no lock in to a proprietary theme.
What Behio does not offer is global reach and the depth of enterprise tooling for multinational selling. For a company turning over millions of dollars with a team of developers, BigCommerce may be the better fit. For a store selling at home and in its region without assembling foreign apps, a local all in one platform is in my view simpler and cheaper.
The verdict
BigCommerce is a solid platform for mid sized and large international stores with their own development capacity. From 1 June 2026, though, it renamed its plans, lowered the turnover limits and introduced a fee of 0.6 to 2 percent of GMV outside its own gateway, so the promise of no transaction fees has effectively fallen. For a typical smaller merchant outside its supported markets it stays oversized: dollars, no local language support and nothing native for local carriers, gateways, comparison engines or accounting. Selling mainly at home and in your region, you will come out cheaper and simpler on a local all in one platform, which for Czechia and Slovakia means Behio.
Common questions
Now it does. Until June 2026 the model carried no transaction fees, but from 1 June 2026 BigCommerce introduced an Open Payment Provider Fee of 0.6 to 2 percent of GMV on orders that do not go through its embedded payment gateway. On the Core plan it is 2 percent, on Growth 1 percent and on Scale 0.6 percent. You also may not pass the fee on to the customer at checkout.
The price list is in dollars: Core 39 USD (29 with annual billing), Growth 105 USD (79), Scale 399 USD (299) and Performance individually, indicatively from 1,499 USD. Add exchange rate risk and, from June 2026, the fee on turnover if you do not use the embedded gateway.
Plan renaming (Standard to Core, Plus to Growth, Pro to Scale, Enterprise to Performance), lower turnover limits (Core 30,000 USD, Growth 100,000 USD a year) with an automatic move to a more expensive plan once exceeded, and a new fee on GMV for orders outside the embedded gateway.
Full Czech localisation does not appear among the officially supported markets and the link to the local ecosystem is not native. Local payment gateways, carriers, accounting and the Heureka and Zboží comparison engines are handled through third party apps or not at all. Multilingual selling runs through a paid app such as Weglot.
Mid sized and larger stores, particularly B2B, with their own developer or agency and international sales, where you will value the rich native functionality and the open API. For a small local store it tends to be oversized and a local platform works out cheaper.
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