BigCommerce vs SubHub: What’s the Best Builder in 2024?

BigCommerce vs SubHub: Final verdict

BigCommerce and SubHub cater to different needs, with BigCommerce excelling in ecommerce capabilities and SubHub focusing on membership site management.

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  BigCommerce (Overall Grade: 7.9/10)
  
  is a comprehensive ecommerce platform ideal for businesses looking to scale their online presence. It offers a wide range of customizable templates, advanced SEO tools, and multi-channel selling capabilities. With robust built-in features, extensive support resources, and a user-friendly interface, BigCommerce is a strong choice for merchants aiming for growth and scalability.
• 
  SubHub (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)
  
  is designed specifically for creating and managing membership sites. It provides tools tailored for content creators and entrepreneurs to build a community and monetize their content. While it excels in ease of use and membership management, it lacks the extensive ecommerce features and flexibility offered by BigCommerce, making it more suitable for niche markets focused on content monetization.

Which one is the best for ecommerce: BigCommerce or SubHub?

Verdict

: BigCommerce is a powerhouse for traditional ecommerce, while SubHub excels in membership-based business models.

• 
  BigCommerce
  
  : BigCommerce is a comprehensive ecommerce platform ideal for businesses aiming to scale. It offers a robust set of built-in features, including advanced SEO tools, various payment gateway integrations, and multi-channel selling capabilities. When comparing BigCommerce vs SubHub, BigCommerce stands out with its extensive ecommerce functionalities, making it a top choice for merchants looking to expand their online presence.
• 
  SubHub
  
  : SubHub is tailored for content creators and entrepreneurs focusing on membership sites. It simplifies setting up subscription models and managing member access, making it perfect for those looking to monetize their content. However, it lacks the depth and scalability of BigCommerce for traditional ecommerce needs.

Which one is the best for informational and business websites?

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational business websites, BigCommerce and SubHub each have their unique strengths. BigCommerce, with a score of 7.5, offers a more comprehensive set of features and design options, making it a versatile choice for businesses of all sizes. SubHub, scoring 7.2, is tailored for membership sites, providing tools specifically designed for content creators and entrepreneurs looking to monetize their content.

• 
  BigCommerce
  
  : BigCommerce is a robust platform that excels in providing a wide range of customizable templates and design options. It is particularly strong in SEO tools, payment gateway integrations, and multi-channel selling capabilities. While it is primarily an ecommerce platform, its extensive support resources and user-friendly interface make it a viable option for informational business websites as well. However, its comprehensive feature set may be overwhelming for beginners or small businesses.
• 
  SubHub
  
  : SubHub is designed specifically for creating and managing membership sites, making it an excellent choice for content creators and entrepreneurs. It simplifies the process of setting up subscription models and managing member access, providing a user-friendly platform that emphasizes ease of use and efficiency. While it may not offer the same level of design flexibility or advanced features as BigCommerce, SubHub’s focus on membership-based businesses makes it a strong contender for those looking to build a community and monetize their content.

BigCommerce vs SubHub: Detailed comparison

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Winner: BigCommerce.

BigCommerce offers a wider range of design functionalities and templates, making it a more flexible choice for businesses of all sizes.

BigCommerce offers a variety of design templates for creating ecommerce websites, with a total of 240 themes available. Most of these themes come with up to four styling options, providing users with flexibility in design choices to match their brand’s aesthetic.

BigCommerce Themes

On the other hand, SubHub website builder offers a variety of customizable membership website templates designed to cater to different needs and themes. There are 14 specifically themed templates available, each designed to help users jump-start the design of their membership website homepages.

🏆 Winner: SubHub

. With a score of 7.7, SubHub edges out BigCommerce (7.3) in terms of ease of use. SubHub’s platform is designed with simplicity and efficiency in mind, making it ideal for content creators and entrepreneurs looking to build a community and monetize their content. BigCommerce, while offering a comprehensive set of built-in features and extensive support resources, may be overwhelming for beginners or small businesses on a tight budget.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: BigCommerce

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but BigCommerce goes a step further with its wide array of detailed tutorials, articles, guides, webinars, podcasts, and reports, as well as specific training through BigCommerce University. These resources cover a breadth of topics, aiming to enhance both operational skills and strategic knowledge for merchants.

BigCommerce and SubHub cater to different ecommerce needs. BigCommerce is a comprehensive ecommerce platform with a robust set of built-in features, making it a popular choice for merchants looking to scale their online presence. On the other hand, SubHub is designed specifically for creating and managing membership sites, making it an ideal choice for content creators and entrepreneurs who aim to build a community and monetize their content.

BigCommerce ecommerce features:

• Unlimited Products
• Streamlined Single-Page Checkout
• Order Management
• Abandoned Cart Recovery
• Marketing and Sales Tools

SubHub ecommerce features:

• Paypal and Stripe integration
• Physical and Digital product listings
• Pay-per view products

Ecommerce themes & templates

BigCommerce provides a wide variety of eCommerce templates designed to enhance online shopping experiences and cater to different industries. These templates feature advanced functionalities like quick view, product suggestions, and complex search filters but may require performance optimization for maintaining speed. The selection ranges from free to premium options, ensuring businesses can find a suitable design that aligns with their brand and product offerings. On the other hand, SubHub does not have ecommerce specific templates.

Product page customization

In BigCommerce, you can extensively customize product pages to enhance customer experience and improve sales. This includes the ability to create detailed product variants, customize options like custom fields, and upload multiple images or videos for each product. The SubHub website builder offers a range of product page customization options, allowing for the addition of physical items, digital downloads, and pay-per-view content. Features include the ability to manage product variants, upload images, and set visibility preferences. Users can also implement SEO strategies through meta tags and manage tax settings. Additional functionalities include member-specific discounts, image carousels, and individualized shipping costs.

Payment processing

BigCommerce supports over 65 pre-integrated online payment solutions, serving customers across 230 countries with more than 140 currencies, without charging additional transaction fees for using third-party payment gateways. This approach provides merchants with the flexibility to choose the best payment solution for their business needs, including the option for custom integration to cater to specific regional payment preferences. Furthermore, BigCommerce’s integration with various POS systems allows for seamless online and in-store sales management, offering a comprehensive solution for businesses looking to maximize their sales channels. On the other hand, SubHub website builder supports two main payment gateways: Stripe and PayPal. These integrations allow for secure payment processing for subscriptions and store items using debit or credit cards. The platform itself does not charge commissions on transactions.

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Winner: BigCommerce

. BigCommerce, with a score of 7.9, offers an extensive set of tools designed for creating professional and engaging online stores without requiring coding knowledge. It provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, robust eCommerce capabilities including product management and secure payment processing, and customizable templates to match brand aesthetics. The platform also features powerful SEO and marketing tools, app integrations for extended functionality, and comprehensive analytics to track website performance.

SubHub’s editor, scoring 6.9, is tailored for creating and managing membership sites, catering to content creators and entrepreneurs aiming to monetize their offerings. Its features encompass customizable templates, diverse content publishing options, and flexible subscription plans with seamless integration for recurring revenue through payment processors. Additionally, SubHub supports online course creation, provides marketing tools like landing page builders, and offers detailed analytics for monitoring website metrics.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: BigCommerce

. Both BigCommerce and SubHub offer mobile apps, but their capabilities differ significantly. BigCommerce’s mobile app allows users to access the dashboard, analytics, orders, and even add or edit products. However, it doesn’t support website editing.

On the other hand, SubHub doesn’t have a dedicated mobile editor app. Users can manage some content on their website using the mobile browser version, but it’s not possible to change the layout and design of the website on mobile.

In summary, BigCommerce scores higher in the mobile editor category due to its more comprehensive mobile app, despite the lack of website editing capabilities.

Overall Result

:

BigCommerce wins

. BigCommerce scores 7.3, slightly ahead of SubHub’s 7.0. Both platforms offer a 14-day free trial, but BigCommerce pulls ahead with its option to test premium features during the trial period. SubHub, while offering a 7-day money-back guarantee, falls slightly short in this comparison.

BigCommerce offers a more comprehensive range of pricing plans, including a customizable enterprise plan, while SubHub offers simpler pricing options with no enterprise plan.

Winner: BigCommerce

. BigCommerce offers scalable cloud hosting with unlimited storage and bandwidth, and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. SubHub also offers hosting, but with storage limitations and without uptime statistics or guarantees. Both platforms do not disclose the locations of their data centers. BigCommerce’s superior uptime guarantee and unlimited storage and bandwidth give it the edge in this category.

🏆 Winner: BigCommerce

Both BigCommerce and SubHub prioritize website performance and page speed, but BigCommerce provides more strategies for speed optimization and tools for Core Web Vital improvements, giving it an edge over SubHub.

BigCommerce provides a comprehensive set of tools and strategies for website speed optimization, including image optimization, code minification, optimized templates, using AMP, and caching. It also provides users with many tools for Core Web Vital improvements, which can significantly enhance the user experience and website performance.

On the other hand, SubHub also prioritizes website performance and page speed, with strategies focusing on image optimization, caching, and mobile-optimized design. However, it does not provide any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements, which can be a disadvantage when it comes to optimizing website speed and performance.

🏆 Winner: BigCommerce.

With a score of 7.7, BigCommerce offers a wider array of plugins and integrations, including ERP and CRM systems, 3PL services, POS systems, and various marketing tools. This makes it a more versatile platform, especially for businesses that require advanced functionalities. SubHub, scoring 5.7, offers a more limited range of integrations, focusing primarily on membership management and content monetization. While it’s a good choice for membership-based businesses, it may not offer the same level of flexibility as BigCommerce for other types of businesses.

BigCommerce Applications

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Overall Winner: BigCommerce

. BigCommerce stands out for its comprehensive marketing tools, especially in SEO, email marketing, and social media integration. SubHub, while strong in SEO and email marketing, lacks social media integration.

🏆 Winner: BigCommerce

. In the comparison of BigCommerce vs SubHub, BigCommerce stands out with its comprehensive 24/7 customer support available through phone, email, and live chat. This ensures that users can get help whenever they need it, regardless of their location. BigCommerce also offers a robust knowledge base and active community forums, providing users with multiple avenues to find solutions and share experiences. For enterprise customers, BigCommerce provides express routing, priority support, and dedicated customer success management, ensuring a high level of personalized service.

SubHub, on the other hand, offers customer support primarily through email and a support portal, with an FAQ section for common questions. While this may be sufficient for smaller membership sites, it lacks the immediacy and comprehensive nature of BigCommerce’s support options. SubHub does not offer specialized support for enterprise customers, which may be a limitation for larger businesses looking for more robust support services.

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Winner: BigCommerce

. BigCommerce takes security seriously, with a comprehensive approach that includes compliance with international regulations, data encryption, secure data centers, regular audits, and continuous monitoring. This ensures that businesses can operate their online stores with confidence, knowing that their data and their customers’ data are well protected.

SubHub, on the other hand, does not provide any information about its website security measures. While it does emphasize compliance with GDPR and CCPA regulations in its privacy policy, the lack of information about website security is a significant drawback. Therefore, BigCommerce is the clear winner in this comparison.

🏆 Winner: BigCommerce

. BigCommerce, with a score of 7.3, integrates AI technology to enhance ecommerce operations, offering AI-powered writing features for product descriptions, personalized storefronts through product recommendations, and AI-driven data analytics for deeper business insights. Additionally, the Maisie AI chatbot assists with sales, customer service, and marketing list growth, providing a comprehensive suite of tools aimed at improving efficiency, customer engagement, and sales performance for merchants.

SubHub, with a score of 0, does not have any AI capabilities. This lack of AI features may limit the platform’s ability to provide personalized experiences and efficient operations.

🏆 Winner: BigCommerce

. Both BigCommerce and SubHub offer multiple user accounts, but BigCommerce provides a more detailed and flexible user management system.

• BigCommerce allows an unlimited number of staff accounts with various roles and permissions.
• SubHub allows multiple user accounts, but the platform does not specify how many accounts are supported.

BigCommerce User Roles and Access Levels:

SubHub User Roles and Access Levels:

Additional Features

BigCommerce vs SubHub: User Feedback

User feedback on BigCommerce highlights a mix of experiences, with positive remarks on its ease of use, SEO configuration, and strong support team. However, significant criticisms include its lack of suitability for businesses with brick-and-mortar locations, due to issues with POS integration and sales tracking, as well as its inflexibility with customization and additional costs for necessary features. Additionally, concerns were raised about the platform’s steep learning curve for beginners, limitations in product variation and design options, and difficulties with order management. Despite these challenges, some users appreciate the platform’s ability to quickly launch and reliably host stores, alongside its potential for scalability and e-commerce growth.

User feedback on SubHub presents a mix of positive and negative experiences, emphasizing the platform’s feature-rich environment and customizable templates. Users appreciate the flexibility and the quality of customer service, highlighting the platform’s continual updates and support as key benefits. However, some users express dissatisfaction with aspects such as the platform’s interface, lack of community features, and service fees for ticket resale. Concerns were also raised about the custom design service and mobile-friendly solutions taking longer than expected.

BigCommerce vs SubHub: FAQ