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Payment gateways for BigCommerce

Gateway pages

About BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a hosted ecommerce platform run by Commerce (the renamed BigCommerce Holdings). Merchants get a storefront, catalog, cart and checkout as a subscription; there is no server to install. Self-serve plans are named Core, Growth, Scale and Performance, with an Enterprise tier above them. It is used by mid-market B2C and B2B retailers, and by agencies that build headless storefronts on its APIs.

Payments come in two tiers. BigCommerce Payments is the platform's own processor, built on PayPal's infrastructure and available to US merchants since May 2026; it covers cards, PayPal, Venmo, Pay Later, Klarna, Afterpay, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and the merchant keeps a direct PayPal relationship. It sits on a list of 21 Embedded Payment Providers (Stripe, Adyen, PayPal Braintree, Checkout.com and others) that carry no BigCommerce fee. Any processor outside that list is an Open Payment Provider, and from 1 June 2026 orders through one incur a monthly fee on self-serve plans: 2.0% of GMV on Core, 1.0% on Growth, 0.6% on Scale, none on Performance under contract. Gateways are switched on from the control panel's built-in list.

For integrators, the checkout is the main seam. The MIT-licensed Checkout SDK replaces the hosted checkout with a custom one while still surfacing the merchant's configured payment methods; Embedded Checkout puts the hosted checkout in an iframe on another site; and Catalyst, the Next.js headless framework, redirects to the hosted checkout. A server-side Payments API charges stored instruments or new cards through the connected gateway using a one-hour Payment Access Token on a separate payments host. Developers test against Partner Portal sandbox stores, which cannot take live transactions, or a 15-day trial store.

How payments work on BigCommerce

Built-in payments
BigCommerce Payments, built on PayPal's infrastructure (the merchant keeps a direct PayPal relationship). Available to US merchants on self-serve/retail plans since May 2026; US card rates 2.89% + $0.30 (Core) down to 2.39% + $0.30 (Scale/Performance). It sits on the Embedded Payment Provider list alongside Stripe, Adyen, PayPal Braintree and others.1
Third-party gateways
Two tiers. Orders through any of the 21 Embedded Payment Providers carry no BigCommerce fee. Orders through any other processor (an 'Open Payment Provider') incur a monthly Open Payment Provider Fee on self-serve plans, calculated on GMV: 2.0% (Core), 1.0% (Growth), 0.6% (Scale), 0.0% on Performance with contract. Effective 1 June 2026. Gateways are enabled from the control panel's built-in list; the server-side Payments API processes through 50+ merchant-connected gateways. No documented public process for shipping a new gateway as a marketplace app was found.2
Checkout extensibility
Three documented paths: (1) the hosted Optimized One-Page Checkout, which the open-source Checkout SDK (@bigcommerce/checkout-sdk, MIT) and the checkout-js reference implementation let you replace with a custom checkout; (2) Embedded Checkout, the hosted checkout in an iframe on an external site via the SDK's embedCheckout; (3) headless storefronts (Catalyst, Next.js + GraphQL Storefront API) that redirect to the hosted checkout, embed it, or build a custom checkout on the Storefront Checkout API and the server-side Payments API.3

What we checked

  • BigCommerce charges a monthly Open Payment Provider Fee on orders processed through non-embedded processors, computed on GMV: 2.0% on Core, 1.0% on Growth, 0.6% on Scale, 0.0% on Performance with contract. Embedded providers incur no BigCommerce fee. The fee is separate from the processor's own charges.2
  • The Embedded Payment Provider list has 21 entries, including BigCommerce Payments, Adyen, Affirm, Afterpay, Amazon Pay, Checkout.com, Klarna, PayPal Braintree, PayPal Complete Payments, Stripe and Worldpay; orders through them are not subject to the Open Payment Provider Fee.1
  • The Open Payment Provider Fee took effect on 1 June 2026 and applies only to self-serve merchants using processors not on the embedded list (blog published 11 May 2026).4
  • BigCommerce Payments is built on PayPal's infrastructure, which handles PCI compliance and risk controls. It accepts Visa/Mastercard cards, PayPal, Venmo, PayPal Pay Later, Klarna, Afterpay, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Initially US-only for self-serve and retail plans. US card rates: 2.89% + $0.30 (Core), 2.59% + $0.30 (Growth), 2.39% + $0.30 (Scale and Performance); PayPal/Venmo 3.49% + $0.49; BNPL 4.99% + $0.30. It is activated from the control panel, with a test order before enabling it in checkout.5
  • On 6 May 2026 Commerce announced BigCommerce Payments by PayPal as available to BigCommerce merchants on Retail plans in the United States, with international phases to follow; merchants keep a direct PayPal relationship, and a Money dashboard in the control panel shows balances and payouts.6
  • BigCommerce Payments powered by PayPal was first announced on 20 October 2025 as an optional embedded processor for a 2026 US launch, with a migration path offered to merchants on PayPal Complete Payments.7
  • The Checkout SDK is a vanilla JavaScript library for building a custom checkout: it handles customer sign-in, addresses, surfacing the merchant's configured shipping and payment methods, coupons, payment initialisation and order completion. Source is at github.com/bigcommerce/checkout-sdk-js, with checkout-js as the reference implementation.3
  • checkout-sdk-js is published as the npm package @bigcommerce/checkout-sdk under the MIT license.8
  • Headless storefronts have three checkout options: redirect to the hosted checkout using the checkout_url returned by Create a Cart with include=redirect_urls; embed the hosted checkout in an iframe with the Checkout SDK's embedCheckout; or build a custom checkout on the Storefront Checkout API.9
  • Embedded Checkout renders the PCI-compliant Optimized One-Page Checkout in an HTML iframe on a non-BigCommerce page; it must be served over HTTPS and, for privacy-restricted browsers, from the same domain as the BigCommerce storefront.10
  • Catalyst is BigCommerce's headless storefront framework built on Next.js, React components and the GraphQL Storefront API. It uses a redirected, themeable hosted checkout so the storefront never handles card numbers, and it can be deployed to any Node.js host.11
  • The Catalyst repository is MIT-licensed, uses pnpm and Turbo, and requires Node.js 24.12
  • The server-side Payments API processes payments for orders through the merchant's connected gateway (50+ supported, e.g. Stripe, Authorize.net, Adyen, Square, Mollie) using stored instruments or new cards. It needs a BigCommerce-issued Payment Access Token (a JWT with one-hour expiry) and posts to payments.bigcommerce.com rather than api.bigcommerce.com. Developers handling raw card data must hold PCI DSS compliance. It does not support the built-in Test Payment Gateway.13
  • Developers create sandbox stores from the Partner Portal, either with a Deal Registration or as a Partner Use Sandbox; a store region is chosen once and cannot change, credentials arrive by email once, and the store can take up to 15 minutes to appear. Sandbox stores cannot process live transactions.14
  • BigCommerce offers a 15-day free trial with no credit card; the trial is a real store that can be taken live on a paid plan.15
  • Webhooks are created with POST /stores/{store_hash}/v3/hooks to an HTTPS destination on port 443 and delivered by HTTPS push, Google Pub/Sub or Amazon EventBridge. Failed HTTPS deliveries are retried at growing intervals for 48 hours before the hook is deactivated; a 200 response acknowledges receipt.16
  • Webhook deliveries can be verified with the Standard Webhooks scheme, using the app's base64-encoded client secret and a timestamp for replay protection.17
  • REST API quotas refresh every 30 seconds: 450 requests for Pro plans, 150 for Plus and Standard, plan-specific for Enterprise, and per-resource limits for developer/partner sandboxes; X-Rate-Limit-* response headers report the window and remaining quota.18
  • The App Marketplace lists over 1,200 apps, with a Payments & Security category and a separate Checkout category.19
  • Building an app starts with creating a sandbox store; approved apps are listed on the App Marketplace for merchants to install. The apps introduction does not describe adding a payment gateway through an app.20

Sources

  1. https://www.bigcommerce.com/payments/embedded-payment-providers/vendor pricing page · checked 2026-09-11
  2. https://www.bigcommerce.com/pricing/vendor pricing page · checked 2026-09-11
  3. https://docs.bigcommerce.com/developer/docs/admin/checkout-and-cart/checkout-sdk/overviewofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  4. https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/bigcommerce-self-serve-pricing-changes/changelog · checked 2026-09-11
  5. https://www.bigcommerce.com/payments/bigcommerce-payments/vendor pricing page · checked 2026-09-11
  6. https://www.commerce.com/press/commerce-delivers-bigcommerce-payments-by-paypal-to-simplify-payments-and-accelerate-merchant-growth/changelog · checked 2026-09-11
  7. https://www.commerce.com/press/bigcommerce-payments-powered-by-paypal/changelog · checked 2026-09-11
  8. https://github.com/bigcommerce/checkout-sdk-jscode repository · checked 2026-09-11
  9. https://docs.bigcommerce.com/developer/docs/storefront/headless/cart-and-checkout/checkoutofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  10. https://docs.bigcommerce.com/developer/docs/admin/checkout-and-cart/embedded-checkout/overviewofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  11. https://docs.bigcommerce.com/developer/docs/storefront/catalyst/overviewofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  12. https://github.com/bigcommerce/catalystcode repository · checked 2026-09-11
  13. https://docs.bigcommerce.com/developer/docs/admin/checkout-and-cart/payments/overviewofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  14. https://docs.bigcommerce.com/developer/docs/overview/sandboxesofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  15. https://www.bigcommerce.com/free-trial/vendor pricing page · checked 2026-09-11
  16. https://docs.bigcommerce.com/developer/docs/integrations/webhooks/overviewofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  17. https://docs.bigcommerce.com/developer/docs/beta/webhooks/http-webhooksofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  18. https://docs.bigcommerce.com/developer/docs/overview/api-fundamentals/rate-limitsofficial documentation · checked 2026-09-11
  19. https://www.bigcommerce.com/apps/marketplace listing · checked 2026-09-11
  20. https://docs.bigcommerce.com/developer/docs/integrations/apps/introductionofficial documentation · a claim here is implied by this source, not stated · checked 2026-09-11

Last verified 2026-09-11 · Reviewed by a person 2026-09-24

Integration capabilities, requirements, pricing, availability, and vendor policies may change over time. UAT-Ops documents information based on the authoritative sources and testing available at the time of review.

Where newer information, testing, or vendor documentation materially changes a published claim, UAT-Ops may revise the page to reflect the most current verified information. Readers should confirm time-sensitive requirements with the relevant vendor before making production or purchasing decisions.