Big Cartel vs Format: What’s the Best Builder in 2024?

Big Cartel vs Format: Final verdict

Big Cartel and Format both cater to creative professionals, but they serve slightly different needs.

• 
  Big Cartel (Overall Grade: 5.8/10)
  
  is an excellent choice for artists and small businesses looking for a straightforward, affordable platform to sell their creations online. It offers essential ecommerce features, user-friendly customization, and a variety of themes tailored for creative endeavors. When comparing Big Cartel vs Format, Big Cartel stands out for its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, making it ideal for those new to ecommerce or with smaller inventories.
• 
  Format (Overall Grade: 5.8/10)
  
  excels in providing a visually appealing platform for creative professionals such as photographers, designers, and illustrators. It offers a range of customizable templates, an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, and features like client proofing and blogging tools. Considering Big Cartel vs Format, Format is perfect for users who prioritize showcasing their portfolios in a professional manner and need basic ecommerce functionalities.

Which one is the best for ecommerce: Big Cartel or Format?

Verdict

: Big Cartel is better suited for small businesses and independent creators, while Format is more focused on showcasing portfolios with basic ecommerce functionalities.

• 
  Big Cartel
  
  : Big Cartel is designed for artists and makers, offering essential ecommerce features like inventory tracking, sales analytics, and social media integrations. It supports small businesses with a straightforward setup process and customizable themes. However, it is limited in terms of product listings and advanced ecommerce features. Best For Ecommerce score: 6.2.
• 
  Format
  
  : Format caters to creative professionals such as photographers and designers, providing basic ecommerce functionalities for selling physical and digital products. It offers customizable templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, but its ecommerce capabilities are limited compared to Big Cartel. Best For Ecommerce score: 5.2.

Which one is the best for informational and business websites?

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, both Big Cartel and Format have their merits. However, Format slightly edges out Big Cartel due to its focus on creative professionals and a more comprehensive set of features tailored for showcasing portfolios.

• 
  Big Cartel
  
  : Big Cartel is designed with simplicity in mind, making it an excellent choice for artists and small-scale sellers who want to create an online presence without much hassle. Its straightforward setup process and customizable themes are ideal for those who prioritize ease of use and affordability. However, it may lack some advanced features needed for more complex informational websites.
• 
  Format
  
  : Format is specifically tailored for creative professionals such as photographers, artists, and designers. It offers a range of customizable templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, making it easy to create visually appealing portfolios. With additional features like client proofing and blogging tools, Format provides a comprehensive platform for creatives to showcase their work and connect with potential clients. In the Big Cartel vs Format comparison, Format stands out for its specialized focus and user-friendly design.

Big Cartel vs Format: Detailed comparison

🏆

Winner: Format.

Although the scores are close, Format edges out Big Cartel with a slightly higher score in design functionalities and templates.

Big Cartel provides a variety of free, customizable templates designed to ensure that online stores look appealing on all devices. These templates are geared towards artists, creators, and small business owners, offering features like high-quality product displays and adjustable product grids without the need for coding knowledge.

Big Cartel Themes

On the other hand, Format is a website builder specifically designed for creatives, offering nearly 100 customizable templates tailored for various artistic disciplines. It emphasizes high-quality imagery and mobile-friendly designs, ensuring portfolios look professional on any device.

Format Themes

🏆 Winner: Format

. With a score of 8.3, Format edges out Big Cartel (8.0) in terms of ease of use. Format’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface and straightforward dashboard make it accessible for users without extensive technical skills. Big Cartel, while also user-friendly, lacks some of the advanced features and customization options found in more complex e-commerce platforms.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Big Cartel

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but Big Cartel provides a more comprehensive range of support, including articles and guides on setting up and customizing stores. Format, on the other hand, mainly provides a help center with articles and a YouTube channel with tutorials and updates.

Big Cartel and Format are both designed with creatives in mind, but they offer different ecommerce capabilities. Big Cartel is tailored for artists and makers, offering features that support small businesses in setting up an online store. Its ecommerce capabilities include easy product listing, customizable themes, inventory tracking, and sales analytics. However, it’s designed for smaller stores, offering fewer product listings and less advanced ecommerce features compared to other platforms.

On the other hand, Format caters specifically to creatives and photographers, offering basic ecommerce functionalities for selling physical and digital products. However, its ecommerce capabilities are basic and may not suit those looking for extensive ecommerce features.

Big Cartel ecommerce features:

• Inventory tracking
• Sales analytics
• Social Media integrations
• Marketing tools

Format ecommerce features:

• Inventory management and tracking
• Discounts
• Multiple currency options

Ecommerce themes & templates

Big Cartel offers around 20 templates, each specifically designed to cater to the needs of ecommerce stores, providing a variety of options for creating an online store. In contrast, Format does not have ecommerce specific templates.

Product page customization

Big Cartel enables merchants to customize their product offerings with the Product Variants feature, supporting up to 150 variants per item, such as sizes, colors, and more. For products with complex attributes, the Advanced Product Options offer a structured way to present multiple variations, simplifying the shopping experience.

Format offers limited specific details on product page customization directly, but its e-commerce features suggest a focus on showcasing products through high-quality imagery and detailed descriptions.

Payment processing

When it comes to payment processing, Big Cartel supports payment processing through PayPal and Stripe, allowing a variety of payment methods including credit/debit cards and mobile payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay. The platform itself does not charge additional transaction fees, but standard processing fees from PayPal and Stripe apply. Big Cartel also offers POS capabilities, primarily through Stripe terminal for Android and iOS for in-person sales.

The Format website builder offers integration with major payment gateways, including Paypal and Stripe. It charges a 15% commission on the Pro plan and 5% on the Pro Plus plan. However, the platform does not have built-in POS (Point of Sale) capabilities.

🏆

Winner: Format

. Format, with a score of 7.5, offers a variety of features for creating online portfolios. It provides nearly 100 professionally designed templates and thousands of design variations without requiring any coding. Users can express creativity with custom pages, incorporating unique gallery layouts, colors, text formatting, and custom code embeds. The templates and pages are fully responsive, ensuring a mobile-first experience. Format also supports direct video hosting, high-quality image rendering, and easy template switching to give sites a new look. Additionally, it includes studio management tools, e-commerce capabilities, and SEO tools.

Big Cartel’s website builder editor, scoring 6.8, is designed with simplicity in mind, catering primarily to artists and small-scale sellers. Users can easily customize their online store’s look and feel without needing advanced technical skills, thanks to its user-friendly interface. The editor allows for the customization of themes, addition of products, and setup of different pages like home, about, and contact pages. Additionally, it offers basic SEO settings and integration options with social media and other tools, making it a straightforward solution for those looking to sell their work online with minimal fuss.

Mobile editor/app

🏆

Winner: Big Cartel

. Both Big Cartel and Format offer mobile capabilities, but they cater to different needs and skill levels. Big Cartel provides a mobile app that allows users to manage their online store directly from their mobile device. Key features include the ability to add and edit products, process orders, check inventory, and view store statistics. It provides a convenient way for store owners to keep their business running smoothly on-the-go, without the need for a computer. The interface is user-friendly, ensuring that even those with minimal technical skills can easily navigate and make use of its functionalities. However, website design changes can be applied only on the desktop version.

On the other hand, Format does not offer a dedicated app for editing on mobile devices. While it is possible to edit your website using a mobile browser, the interface presented is the same as the desktop version, making it difficult to use on a smartphone. Therefore, Big Cartel is the clear winner in this category due to its dedicated mobile app and user-friendly interface.

In summary, Big Cartel receives a higher rating due to its dedicated mobile app and user-friendly interface, while Format lacks a dedicated mobile app, making it less convenient for users who prefer to manage their website on-the-go.

Overall Result

:

Format Wins

. Format scores 8.3 in product testing options, outperforming Big Cartel’s score of 5.9. Format offers a 14-day free trial, during which users can test all premium features. Additionally, Format provides a 30-day money-back guarantee, offering a risk-free opportunity to explore the platform. On the other hand, Big Cartel offers a free version, but it lacks a trial version and does not provide a money-back guarantee.

Big Cartel and Format have similar pricing scores, with Format slightly ahead.

Both platforms offer a range of plans to suit different needs, but Format provides significant discounts for annual commitments, while Big Cartel does not. Neither platform offers an enterprise plan.

Winner: Tie

. Both Big Cartel and Format offer hosting services, but neither provides specific details about their hosting type, uptime, uptime guarantee, or data centers. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to compare their hosting quality. Therefore, both Big Cartel and Format receive the same score in this category.

🏆 Winner: Tie

Both Big Cartel and Format have the same score when it comes to website speed optimization. However, Format mentions a specific strategy for speed optimization, which is image and video optimization.

Big Cartel, a website builder designed for artists and makers, does not mention any specific strategies for speed optimization. The load times and PageSpeed scores vary depending on the optimization and complexity of the website. Big Cartel does not disclose any information about its Core Web Vitals improvements.

On the other hand, Format, a website builder designed for creative professionals, mentions image and video optimization as a strategy for speed optimization. However, like Big Cartel, Format does not disclose any information about its Core Web Vitals improvements. The load times and PageSpeed scores also vary depending on the optimization and complexity of the website.

🏆 Winner: Big Cartel.

Big Cartel scores 5.8, offering a variety of apps and integrations to enhance ecommerce store functionality, including marketing, shipping, and store management tools. Format, with a score of 4.9, offers support for a limited selection of plugins/integrations, including Adobe Lightroom, Mailchimp, and Google Analytics. However, Big Cartel’s broader range of integrations and its focus on ecommerce give it the edge in this category.

🏆

Overall Winner: Big Cartel

. Big Cartel has a slight edge over Format in terms of marketing features. While both platforms offer basic SEO tools, email marketing, social media integration, analytics and reporting, and ads and promotions, Big Cartel’s features are more comprehensive and tailored for small businesses and independent creators. Format, on the other hand, is more focused on showcasing portfolios and lacks advanced promotional capabilities.

🏆 Winner: Format

. In the Big Cartel vs Format comparison, Format takes the lead with a higher customer support score of 7.0 compared to Big Cartel’s 5.4. Format offers 24/7 customer support through email and live chat, ensuring users can get assistance at any time. The support team is distributed across different countries, which helps maintain round-the-clock availability.

Big Cartel, on the other hand, provides customer support from Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm EST, with a team of twelve members. While they offer email support and resources for common issues, their limited hours and smaller support team may not be as convenient for users needing immediate assistance outside of business hours.

🏆

Winner: Format

. Although the security scores of Big Cartel and Format are quite close, Format edges out with a slightly higher score. Format emphasizes the security of user data through encrypted data storage, both in transit and at rest, and employs strict access controls. The platform regularly updates its security measures to protect against new threats and complies with data protection regulations like GDPR. Users are also provided with resources to help secure their accounts, including strong password guidelines and two-factor authentication options.

Big Cartel also prioritizes data protection with comprehensive measures such as SSL encryption for all shops and custom domains, and strict data processing protocols in line with data protection legislation. However, it’s important to note that while Big Cartel facilitates secure payment processing via third-party PCI-compliant gateways like PayPal and Stripe, it does not achieve PCI compliance on its own.

🏆 Winner: Tie

. Neither Big Cartel nor Format offer any AI capabilities. Both platforms focus on providing a straightforward and user-friendly interface for creating and managing websites, without the use of AI.

🏆 Winner: Format

. Both Big Cartel and Format only allow one user to manage and edit websites. However, Format scores slightly higher in user management with a score of 2.8 compared to Big Cartel’s score of 1.3. This suggests that Format may offer a slightly better user management experience, despite the lack of multi-user capabilities.

Additional Features

Big Cartel vs Format: User Feedback

User feedback on Big Cartel highlights its simplicity and affordability as key advantages, making it a popular choice for small businesses and startups looking to establish an online presence quickly. Users appreciate the ease of setting up and customizing their online stores, the flat monthly fees without per-item charges, and the platform’s intuitive design and mobile management capabilities. However, limitations in features compared to more comprehensive platforms, restricted customization options, and lack of advanced integrations or inventory management for specific items are noted drawbacks. Despite these concerns, Big Cartel is praised for its cost-effectiveness and user-friendly approach, particularly for those new to e-commerce or with smaller inventories.

Users highly praise Format for its user-friendly website builder, particularly noting the ease of adding images and the effectiveness of customer service. Many reviewers appreciate the variety of modern templates and the platform’s suitability for users without technical expertise, especially photographers. Format’s mobile app and proofing section receive special mentions for their convenience and functionality. However, some users desire more customization options, particularly for mobile views, and mention minor limitations in template flexibility and SEO functionality. Overall, Format is celebrated for its ability to provide a professional online presence easily and efficiently, solving users’ needs for showcasing work and attracting new clients.

Big Cartel vs Format: FAQ