Looking for some guidance on switching from BigCommerce

Warning: This is long because I tend to provide details. I'm sorry.

As the title says, the ecommerce retail that I work for is considering leaving BigCommerce.
I've been doing some research and seeing what I can find, but I've realized that the best resource at my disposal is to ask others that may have tried a few platforms.

Personally, I've only actually used BigCommerce and it has been for several years now.
One of the things I like is the amount of information that can be included with products. I would like to include more hidden data (that customers don't see) so I don't have to use so many extra spreadsheets and scrap paper, but it is what it is.

What is more important is why we are considering leaving BigCommerce. There are several little things, but eventually things add up... here are a few:
First off, the forum has switched to 'community' and I can hardly figure out how to navigate the thing. I've managed to ask a few questions, sometimes in the wrong places - even as far as in the 'idea suggestions' area. On top of that, I can't have my own account. Before, I got the 'store owner' account renamed to be me (since I ask the questions) but since the switch, it is back to the owner's name. I would rather have my own account to ask questions anyway, but from what I can figure out I need to set up my own store to do that.
Second, several of our older products have some glitches. This is probably due to migration from databases during upgrades, but is still annoying. The most common old-product glitch is inventory failure where customers either can't even order one unless the inventory is more than one... or they can order as much as they like despite inventory being set to one. With either glitch, the inventory usually doesn't get updated either. Another glitch was about half a dozen products that I literally could not update. I edited them and it would not save. I easily solved this by deleting them - I encountered this at times when restocking something we hadn't stocked in a while or attempting to salvage an item that we wouldn't be restocking to create a temporary listing that wouldn't appear at the front as a new product.
The most recent is our SSL certificate. I didn't know anything about certificates (wasn't with this company when it was set up) so I had to do some research when a customer told us that Chrome was giving them warnings. I had no clue anything about this stuff, let alone that SHA1 was being phased out. So, finally I tracked down and 'forgot my password' into our certificate account and find that we have a year left but can have it updated off SHA1 for free... just need a CSR. Looking around BigCommerce, I figure out how to get the CSR and... oh, our plan doesn't allow 3rd party certificates anymore. So, I contacted support and the first one offered to install it for us if I sent it in... but obviously I need the CSR so I asked if they could generate it for us. Well, the response was basically 'buy one through us' instead. So actually looking at the costs, we have a year left on something that can be renewed fairly cheap... and now our choices are pay four times as much for a single year or get the more expensive plan and pay even more than that.

The result, I've spent about 4 days looking at other platforms while also doing my regular work (some of which is on hold since it isn't useful with virtually no site visitors). I've even been using some of my personal time to do research.
So far, I've found a lot of opinions in threads. I also signed up with Shopify as a developer to gain access to a fake store so I could see how it works ( I may also try designing a theme in the future). I was in touch with a Magento representative and downloaded the free community version (and asking myself why).
What I'm considering now is pulling up my 'disposable' email and signing up for 14 day trials so I can get a look under the hood of some of these others. I'll also find some more time to look at Shopify more, to get a proper opinion.

I was just informed (literally within 30 minutes prior to posting) that my deadline to 'pick one or we get the certificate through BC' is tomorrow. Yes, only 5 days to do enough research to be able to pick one and start transferring... and I'll be honest, I'd probably be expected to complete the switch and be running smoothly by next Friday. Over 600 products entered into a new system with all their data and everything looking good.
Basically, this has now become 'get the certificate and we now have a year'. During most of the next year, I'll be looking at possibly switching. If I find one that I think we can switch to, I will spend a few months getting it set up (with the intent of doing it as a developer) and then being able to transfer over our store before the certificate needs to be renewed again.

So, what am I looking for? Well, what platforms offer a 'developer' access to check it out and set things up for free. Like how Shopify allows fake stores that operate just like the real ones but can't accept payments until deployed.
I have a couple lists, and obviously Shopify and Magento were at the top. However, I would like to know what others to prioritize because they have a 'developer' system like Shopify.
As I said, I'm willing to paly with trial versions if I must to check out a system.

If you are wondering about preference of interface, the easiest test is how much is it like BigCommerce?
I need to take into account two things while picking.
First, I'm a bit of a programmer... I would do the thing from scratch if I wanted to take the time to learn how to integrate payment systems. I'm fine with modifying things and have even been considering building a custom theme for our store (we like our current theme, but there are bugs in it). If it takes away too much control, I'll be frustrated all the time.
Second, it has to be easy enough to use that if I get fired (or quit) then it won't be too much for my boss. He can do enough in BigC to run the store, but a lot more detailed things he doesn't fiddle with or doesn't do it right. If too much detail work is required, my boss will hate it.

 

Alright, I'm not much of a programmer admittedly, but I've always had a lot of luck with Magento. It's a lot more customizable than other platforms but it doesn't require a ton of intense coding if you don't want it to (so your boss can handle it once you eventually get sick of him doing this and walk), the payment systems aren't hard to integrate but I understand they're a little fussy, and it's easier to migrate products into it than a lot of other systems.

The only problem I could think of, and admittedly I could be wrong on this due to my lack of familiarity, but one of the big complaints I hear from more programming-minded users like yourself is that it doesn't let you mess around with modifying custom themes maybe as much as you'd like to. It's worth looking into to see if I'm far off the mark from what you're looking for, but otherwise I sincerely recommend Magento for a lot of eCommerce stuff.

 

I recommend that you check out OpenCart. It is free and has plenty of extensions available, plus if you are a coder you can easily make mods. I have used it on many sites and many times I am able to customize it enough with existing extensions that I haven't had to touch a line of code. Magento is also a possibility but the learning curve will be higher since it is a bit more complicated.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

There are many free shopping carts out there that offer you fully customizable options, but depending on which one you choose, will determine what gateway company your gonna have to go with. Did you already have one in mind?
Let me know if i can help

 

I would say you should consider the Shopify as your priority, as both BigCommerce and Shopify are the hosted solution, and you should be able to hand on easily. And, more importantly, you do not need to find a web server to host your solution.

Magento is a powerful e-Commerce platform, and it is a highly flexible platform allowing you to customize almost everything you want. However, due to its flexibility, the learning curve is steep if you want to develop your own plugin/theme. Substantial times also required to get the site up and running if you are hosted yourself. Furthermore, you will need a high power CPU & RAM to run it. Otherwise, it would be quite sluggish.

OpenCart is a more lightweight version, and something you should consider if you do not require a complex solution for your e-commerce platform.

WooCommerce is another option you can consider if you would like to host using wordpress. Advantages: you can have both your company site, blogging and e-commerce all in one platform.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Dear EsperRoy,

If you are looking for a worthy solution to move your store from BigCommerce to another desirable platform, you can use our automated migration service.

Cart2Cart will enable you to migrate from BigCommerce all your eCommerce data, preserving all the relations between entities. The whole process of replatforming will take no longer than few hours and it doesn’t require any tech skills from you. You can check up the list of transferable entities and count the approximate price of your store migration here: https://www.shopping-cart-migration.com/supported-carts/2749-bigcommerce

And to show you more how work the migration from BigCommerce, here is a detailed guidance for you: Follow this instruction to accurately switch from BigCommerce to any of 75+ supported shopping carts:
1. Create Cart2Cart account
Register a new Cart2Cart account or sign up with your Facebook or Google+ account.
2. Set up Source Cart.
Choose BigCommerce as a Source Cart and provide your current store URL. After that, enter your BigCommerce Username, API Path and API Token. Follow the instructions provided on the Migration Wizard.
3. Set up Target Cart.
Choose Magento as a Target Cart and provide your store’s URL. Then, download the Connection Bridge, unzip and upload it to your Magento root folder.
4. Select entities.
Choose the entities you want to migrate from BigCommerce to Magento from the list-given. Optionally, you can select additional options to expand your migration possibilities.
5. Start Free Demo
Set up Free Demo migration from BigCommerce to Magento and a limited number of entities will be transferred to your live Magento store in 30 minutes.
6. Launch Full migration
After checking the test results, continue by launching Full data migration from BigCommerce to Magento. Click the “Start Migration” button and data transfer will start immediately.

Why to migrate with Cart2Cart?


We hope this was useful to you,

Best regards,
Cart2Cart