BigCommerce Storefronts
Introduction
Your storefront is an absolutely critical component of your ecommerce application, and BigCommerce offers two paths for building your front-end experience: Stencil and Catalyst.
These two officially supported storefront implementations represent different approaches to architecture and developer experience, but each offers a fully built shopper experience, set up within minutes, which you can then fully customize to achieve the branding and functionality you need.
With its API-first design principles, BigCommerce also gives you all the tools you need to integrate the platform with your own custom, composable front-end using any tech stack you choose.
Stencil
Stencil is BigCommerce’s traditional, integrated theme engine. Stencil theme packages are centered around server-side HTML-based templates, which are handled directly by the BigCommerce back-end to serve the core storefront experience.
The officially maintained, open-source Cornerstone theme is an optimized, responsive, and fully functional starting point for your custom theme development. Cornerstone is the default theme applied on every new Stencil storefront.
Highlights
- Low barrier to entry: Stencil’s simple tech stack makes it easy to get started with only knowledge of HTML templates, Sass syntax, and npm package management, as well as client-side JavaScript for advanced customizations.
- Hosted by BigCommerce: Stencil themes integrate directly with and are served directly by the SaaS platform.
- Theme marketplace: The BigCommerce theme marketplace offers hundreds of pre-built theme packages ready to apply to your store without touching a line of code.
- Integrated apps: Many apps with shopper-facing features in the BigCommerce app store are directly integrated with the structure of Cornerstone.
Catalyst
Catalyst is the open-source, modern composable storefront officially engineered and maintained by BigCommerce.
Built and optimized on a best-in-class tech stack, Catalyst is a truly decoupled front-end that offers a fully functional ecommerce experience out of the box, while also giving you the power to integrate and customize according to your needs.
Highlights
- Robust, modern tech stack: Catalyst is built on Next.js and React, powerful frameworks for designing dynamic and responsive user interfaces.
- Maximum flexibility: The entire storefront application is fully under your control. Go beyond templates, with the power to customize routing, data fetching, caching, or any other component of your front-end.
- Composability: Catalyst is centered around composable architecture, making it ideal for fully optimized integrations with third-party services and apps.
