Compare E-Commerce models.
Our scoring process is applied and objectively evaluated according to strengths and weaknesses.
Compare vendors based on the five dimensions of the Composable Agility Score. Freely choose the solutions you want to compare to get an easy overview of their capabilities. You can adjust your selection at any time or click on any solution to read a more detailed explanation of their CA Score.
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How easy is it to quickly and scalably build the individual solutions you need for your business using the application? See also: Best of Breed versus Best of Suite.
How well can a cloud application be broken down into its individual parts and used? The best solutions can be combined based on specific customer requirements.
How well can this application be connected and controlled via standardized applications? A functional API interface is able to interact with any other software.
How natively can this application be operated in the cloud (updates, backup, porting)? An ideal cloud solution is available everywhere, accessible at any time, highly secure, flexible and agile.
How independent can the application be from the end user’s interface (desktop, mobile, on the go…)? A functional solution is able to operate with any frontend.
BigCommerce is an Open SaaS e-commerce platform for B2B and B2C retailers. Founded in 2009 in Sydney, Australia, BigCommerce is currently headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA. As of August 2020, BigCommerce is a NASDAQ-listed company. BigCommerce offers four pricing plans; Standard, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise. In order to fully assess its capabilities, this evaluation is based on their Enterprise plan.
Intershop’s commerce platform is suited to B2B, B2C and B2X business models alike with its omnichannel commerce solutions. Intershop serves more than 300 large and medium-sized companies worldwide, with Deutsche Telekom, Staples, HP, and BMW among their customers. The majority of Intershop’s customers are based in Europe, but they also serve companies in the USA and Asia Pacific region (mainly Australia).
7.0
5.8Composability
8Head-
less
less
8.7Cloud
Native
Native
7API
5.3Modu-
larity
larity
5.0
5.7Composability
7Head-
less
less
5Cloud
Native
Native
4.4API
3Modu-
larity
larity
Modularity
5.3
3
BigCommerce began operations as a monolithic platform, although in recent years it has focused more on a modular system/microservices. As BigCommerce is a SaaS platform, customers do not consume or interact with microservices directly. Instead, these are utilized behind the scenes for easier customer implementation.
Because it was originally built on a monolithic architecture, Intershop scores relatively low for modularity/microservices. Intershop has made some efforts in recent years to increase its microservices offering, particularly by breaking down the monolithic platform into discrete services. However, this course of action has not yet been fully realized.
API
7
4.4
APIs via BigCommerce cover most use cases, but don’t offer full customizability. There are some areas where BigCommerce does not offer API coverage; however, because it is an Open SaaS platform, API coverage is fairly extensive.
Although Intershop offers a variety of APIs on the frontend, there are few for the backend. Intershop cannot be considered API first. In some respects, it could be said that they only offer fairly standard APIs on top of legacy monolithic business capabilities. No orchestration layer exists on the platform. That being said, the documentation for the APIs that are offered is reasonably thorough.
Cloud Native
8.7
5
Being an Open Saas platform, BigCommerce scores highest for being cloud native.
Since 2016, Intershop has maintained a strategic partnership with Microsoft. In 2018, it began to pursue a cloud-first approach, and Intershop is now an integral player in the Microsoft Azure Cloud Solution portfolio. In late 2021, Intershop launched Intershop N, a cloud-based asset which marked the completion of the company’s technical cloud transformation initiative. Intershop’s digital commerce platform is available as a single-tenant hosted or multi-tenant SaaS / PaaS offering. Although Intershop has made many efforts towards a cloud-based approach in recent years, Intershop’s products are still not seamless and require implementation effort. Intershop is not versionless.
Composability
5.8
5.7
Although some aspects of the BigCommerce platform lend themselves well to scalability, composability is not something that was originally built into BigCommerce’s offering.
Intershop offers an all-in-one suite containing all the basic components required for an end-to-end commerce solution. However, this does not allow full composability as it does not offer the possibility to mix and match components entirely at will. Users can, of course, choose the functionalities they would like to work with. However, they cannot remove unused functionalities from their system. Intershop’s strongest composable aspect is the out-of-the-box set up for new instances or sites.
Headless
8
7
BigCommerce scores well for Headless overall, with its presentation layer decoupled from the front-end commerce engine. Partly because it has incorporated so many APIs, BigCommerce can be seen as a truly headless solution.
Intershop scores highest for headless, largely due to the fact that they meet modern industry standards in their headless approach. Intershop provides out-of-the-box solutions that are decoupled from their platform, including an Angular-based Progressive Web Application (PWA). They also offer strong multichannel or omnichannel solutions.
Bottomline
7.0
5.0
As an Open SaaS platform, BigCommerce scores highest for being cloud native. This means that customers benefit from automatic and seamless updates. However, BigCommerce scores lowest for microservices. Although microservices are available, neither developers nor users can interact with them directly. BigCommerce also does not score highly in composability, since it was originally created as a monolithic platform. Although they are adding additional microservices to their offering and their headless options offer a certain level of decoupling and flexibility, improvements in this area will help to create a modern, flexible e-commerce experience.
Intershop is a well-known provider, particularly in the European market. As well as offering many out-of-the-box e-commerce functionalities, Intershop offers strong headless integrations and omnichannel capabilities. However, since Intershop was originally built as a monolithic platform, it should be clear that some modern architecture and principals, such as microservices, are lacking. Additionally, Intershop is not API first.
FAQ
What is BigCommerce?
BigCommerce is a NASDAQ-listed e-commerce platform provided as software-as-a-service for retailers. The company’s platform includes online store creation, search engine optimization, hosting, marketing, and security for businesses of all sizes.
Who uses BigCommerce?
Tens of thousands of B2B and B2C companies across 150 countries and numerous industries use BigCommerce to create beautiful, engaging online stores, including Ben & Jerry’s, Molton Brown, S.C. Johnson, Skullcandy, Sony, Vodafone and Woolrich.
Is BigCommerce good for e-commerce?
BigCommerce is a renowned e-commerce builder, providing high scalability for online stores. It has more built-in sales tools than most of its competitors, and combines these features with SEO and multi-channel integration.
What code does BigCommerce use?
BigCommerce uses programming languages like PHP, Python, Java, and Ruby. BigCommerces default presentation framework is SCSS Framework Citadel, which is built on top of Foundation v5. 5.3 (Foundation v6. x not currently supported).
Is Big Commerce free?
BigCommerce free plan can be selected for a period of one month from the date of activation (the “Offer”). The free Offer period applies only to base monthly subscription fees and does not apply to other services or products. After one month you need to upgrade to a subscription plan.
What is Intershop?
Intershop is a robust and innovative e-commerce platform, tailored to the needs of complex business processes and major organisations. As a leading supplier of innovative e-commerce solutions, Intershop offers powerful software and an extensive service pack to support multichannel sales.
What does Intershop do/offer?
Intershop allows businesses to sell online, mobile, in store, via call center, or any other digital sales channel. Its Web Content Management system allows business users to visually create product- and/or content-driven landing pages.
Who uses Intershop?
Intershop’s target markets cover both the B2C and B2B markets and include retail, wholesale, manufacturers, distributors, telecommunications, high-tech, automotive, pharmaceutical and others.
Is Intershop headless?
Intershop is an API-based commerce platform with a decoupled front end. Intershop provides APIs, and a progressive web app based on Angular.
Is Intershop free?
Intershop is not an open source solution and therefore not available for free. Intershop offers different subscription plans, from affordable to more expensive with increasing amount of features and services.
