Does WooCommerce scale for large order volumes?

It can, but the scaling is yours to run. High-Performance Order Storage, the default for new installations since WooCommerce 8.2, keeps orders in custom tables built for WooCommerce queries. Throughput then depends on the hosting, database and plugins your team operates.

What is the main architectural difference between Shopify and BigCommerce?

Where custom logic runs and how API quotas work. Shopify runs logic inside the platform as Functions and checkout UI extensions, and rate-limits each app and store pair separately. On BigCommerce, every app on a store shares one REST quota. Checkout is customised through Open Checkout, the Checkout JS SDK or the APIs.

How do the API limits compare?

The Shopify GraphQL Admin API allows 100 cost points per second on its Standard tier and 1000 on Plus, per app and store. BigCommerce allows 150 REST requests per 30 seconds on its Standard and Plus plans and 450 on Pro, shared by all apps. WooCommerce has no platform quota; your hosting sets the limit.

BigCommerce vs Shopify vs WooCommerce: Which Platform Scales

BigCommerce vs Shopify vs WooCommerce is a choice between two hosted platforms and one you host yourself. Shopify and BigCommerce are hosted SaaS; WooCommerce is open source and runs on your own WordPress hosting. Which one scales for you depends on where growth will strain first: checkout logic, API throughput, selling in several countries or the database.

BigCommerce vs Shopify vs WooCommerce at a glance

The table compares the engineering surfaces each platform gives you, with the plan limits that change the answer.

Platform	Hosting	Storefront options	Custom logic	Selling in several countries	API throughput
Shopify	Hosted by Shopify	Liquid themes, or headless with Hydrogen, deployed on Oxygen or self-hosted	Shopify Functions and checkout UI extensions; checkout-step extensions and custom Functions apps need Shopify Plus	Shopify Markets	GraphQL Admin API: 100 cost points per second on the Standard tier, 1000 on Plus, per app and store
BigCommerce	Hosted by BigCommerce; a Catalyst storefront can deploy to BigCommerce or be self-hosted	Stencil themes, or headless with Catalyst on Next.js	Apps over the REST and GraphQL APIs; checkout via Open Checkout, the Checkout JS SDK or the APIs	Multi-Storefront channels	REST: 150 requests per 30 seconds on the Standard and Plus plans, 450 on Pro, shared by all apps on the store
WooCommerce	Self-hosted on WordPress	WordPress themes, or headless over the Store API	PHP plugins with full access to the code	One base currency per store; multi-currency through extensions	Set by your hosting and database

Short verdict

Our view: choose Shopify when you want checkout hosted and can work inside Functions and extensions. Budget for Shopify Plus if your extensions render on the information, shipping or payment steps, or you need a custom app with Shopify Functions. Choose BigCommerce when you want separate storefronts on one catalogue, with a headless option on Next.js. Choose WooCommerce when you need direct access to order data and hosting, and have a team to run both.

Questions to answer before you shortlist

Custom logic: does it need extensions on the checkout steps, or your own Shopify Functions app? On Shopify, both need Shopify Plus.
API volume: how many calls will your ERP, PIM and warehouse integrations make at peak?
Countries: how many countries will you sell to, and with which currencies and languages?
Order data: do you need SQL access to orders, or is an API enough?
Operations: who will host, patch and monitor the store?

How does each platform scale?

Shopify and BigCommerce host the storefront, so the limit you plan for on them is API throughput. On WooCommerce, the limit is your hosting and your database.

Shopify limits GraphQL Admin API calls by calculated query cost, for each combination of app and store. The GraphQL Admin API rate limit is 100 points per second on the Standard tier, 200 on Advanced, 1000 on Plus and 2000 on Shopify for enterprise. Simpler, lower-cost queries let an integration make more calls over time.

BigCommerce gives each store a REST quota that refreshes every 30 seconds, and every app on the store shares it. Its API rate limits page lists 150 requests per 30 seconds on Plus and Standard, 450 on Pro, and limits by plan and resource on Enterprise. Your plan sets that quota, so an API-heavy stack can push you up a tier. Our Shopify Plus vs BigCommerce Enterprise comparison covers the top tiers.

A worked example (hypothetical)

Take an ERP integration that sends 2 REST requests per second to a BigCommerce store on the Plus plan. That is 60 requests in each 30-second window, so every other app on the store shares the remaining 90. On Shopify, the same integration running GraphQL queries that cost 10 points each, twice a second, uses 20 of the Standard tier's 100 points per second. That quota belongs to the app and store pair, so other apps do not eat into it. This assumes one GraphQL query does the work of one REST call. The takeaway: on BigCommerce, every new integration narrows what the others can use, while on Shopify each app keeps its own budget.

WooCommerce has no platform quota or platform subscription, so throughput and cost both move into your server, database, maintenance and paid extensions. Order storage matters here. From WooCommerce 8.2, released in October 2023, High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS) is enabled by default for new installations. HPOS keeps orders in custom tables built for WooCommerce queries instead of the WordPress posts table, which stored orders before and caused performance issues. Existing stores can switch to HPOS.

Shopify: hosted checkout with Functions and extensions

Shopify themes use Liquid, Shopify's template language. For headless builds, Hydrogen is Shopify's storefront framework and Oxygen is its global deployment platform for hosting Hydrogen storefronts.

Custom business logic runs as Shopify Functions, which compile to WebAssembly. Shopify recommends Rust to stay within the instruction limits, supports JavaScript and TypeScript, and suggests JavaScript as a starting point for prototypes. Public App Store apps that contain functions work on any plan, but only Shopify Plus stores can use custom apps that contain Shopify Function APIs (Shopify Functions availability).

Changes to the checkout interface are built as checkout UI extensions. Extensions that render on the information, shipping and payment steps are available only to stores on Shopify Plus. From API version 2025-10, extensions use Preact and Polaris web components by default; earlier versions offered React and JavaScript components. For selling abroad, Shopify Markets lets a single store serve several markets, with multiple languages, international pricing and market-specific domains or subfolders. For the two-way call between the hosted platforms, see our BigCommerce vs Shopify decision guide.

BigCommerce: Stencil, Catalyst and Multi-Storefront

Stencil is BigCommerce's Handlebars-based theme engine for hosted storefronts (BigCommerce Stencil overview). You build and customise themes with Handlebars templates, widgets and the page builder.

Catalyst is BigCommerce's headless storefront framework. BigCommerce built it with Next.js, React storefront components and the GraphQL Storefront API. The Catalyst CLI can deploy to BigCommerce's own hosting, while a self-hosted project builds with the standard Next.js build instead.

Multi-Storefront lets one store run several separate storefronts and sell its catalogue on other channels. That is the difference from Shopify Markets, which localises a single store for several markets. For international selling with Catalyst, each country can have its own language, currency and payment methods, which requires a Multi-Storefront setup.

BigCommerce checkout can be restyled or rebuilt. Open Checkout, the open-source option of BigCommerce's Optimized One-Page Checkout, gives a working checkout to change. The Checkout JS SDK and the GraphQL and REST APIs support a custom checkout built from scratch.

For where hosted SaaS sits against PaaS and composable builds, see our breakdown of SaaS, PaaS and composable ecommerce platforms.

WooCommerce: full control, full responsibility

WooCommerce is open source on WordPress, so your team owns the code, the hosting and the database. External systems connect through the WooCommerce REST API (wc/v3), which authenticates with a consumer key and secret. Headless storefronts use the Store API for cart and checkout. For selling abroad, each WooCommerce store can set one base currency; extra currencies come from extensions, and multilingual stores also rely on plugins.

That control has a cost. Updates, security patches, plugin compatibility and uptime become your team's job. The trade pays off only when you need the order data and the hosting under your own control. If your plugin stack is already the bottleneck, our guide to WooCommerce alternatives covers the exit, and our WooCommerce vs Shopify comparison sets the two side by side.

How to choose: a decision sequence

List the custom logic you need. If any of it runs on Shopify's information, shipping or payment steps, or needs a custom app built on Shopify Functions, price in Shopify Plus.
Estimate peak API load per integration. On Shopify, multiply query cost by calls per second. On BigCommerce, add up REST requests per 30 seconds across every app. On WooCommerce, load-test your hosting and database at that peak.
Decide how many countries you will sell to, with which currencies and languages, and test Shopify Markets, BigCommerce Multi-Storefront or your WooCommerce extensions against that list.
Name the person who will host, patch and monitor the store. If nobody on your team will, rule out WooCommerce unless you pay a managed host or agency to do it.

Run that sequence before the vendor demos, not after them. If you are leaving Magento rather than starting fresh, our Magento alternatives engineering guide covers that route. For a second opinion on the shortlist, talk to our ecommerce development services team.