Customize everything in a fraction of the time
Big Commerce is an established player in the ecommerce space, but building a unique brand experience on the platform can be difficult and expensive. Swell’s native features for popular business models like subscriptions and powerful headless architecture empowers brands to build unique shopping experiences at scale.
- Custom checkoutvsLimited custom checkout support
- API-first with access to everything in your storevsLimited API access
- Flexible database schema to define your own modelsvsNo option to define models
- Add custom fields on models from orders to productsvsLimited custom fields
- Built-in subscriptions (with any gateway)vsRequires an app with additional fees for recurring payments
- Native multi-language supportvsRequires an app with additional fees for multi-language
Four reasons to choose Swell over Big Commerce
Checkout customization
Swell’s powerful cart APIs let you sell your way. Retain full control over your checkout and build it exactly as you want so that it’s optimized for your business and brand.
Big Commerce does not permit full checkout customization. The checkout’s underpinnings cannot be changed and it’s necessary to conform to the SDK's model of the Checkout API.
Native subscription ecommerce
Swell offers a fully-integrated subscription solution. Sell any physical or digital product as a subscription without paying additional fees and manage everything from one back end.
Big Commerce requires third-party apps for recurring payments, which incurs additional fees that increase total cost of operations and creates a separate data source.
API structure
Swell offers a simplified approach to APIs. Swell leverages MongoDB, which enables developers to use the same Mongo Operators and Aggregation functions frequently used for querying and filtering.
Big Commerce has a much more complex API structure split between storefront and admin.
User interface
Swell’s UI was designed with developers, growth leads and administrators in mind to make the process of building and managing an online store easier and more flexible.
Big Commerce isn’t as easy to use and takes more time to implement and manage.
Why you’ll love Swell
Get the features you want out-of-the-box
- Create multi-level navigation menus (mega navs)
- Sell any product as a subscription and enable mixed carts
- Start selling fast with a hosted checkout or build a custom checkout system
- Get bulk and bundling solutions to sell B2B like it’s DTC
Build on your own terms
- Launch fast with a headless theme or build a completely custom storefront
- Code in any language and get native multi-language support
- Control conversion of multiple currencies and sell worldwide
- Create as many products and variants as you want
Scale when you’re ready
- Reduce external costs with built-in features and integrations
- Add new capabilities to your system with custom data models
- Introduce new sales models and features with ease
How moving from Big Commerce to Swell transformed THE RAYY
Originally launched on BigCommerce, THE RAYY’s online store eventually became too challenging to manage. The brand’s unique product modeling needs required a powerful solution that only headless technology could offer.
Read the case studySwell’s flexible architecture has enabled Monogram to build unique ecommerce solutions for our clients. The availability of all the necessary data points in one single API call is truly powerful.
Claudio Christian Fofiu, Director of Technology & Partner at Monogram