Do you want to start an online shop? Are you unsure whether Shopify or WooCommerce is right for you?
Shopify and WooCommerce, the top two eCommerce platforms worldwide, have their own pros and cons.
It is essential that you choose the right eCommerce platform for your business to ensure your success.
This guide will provide a detailed comparison between Shopify and WooCommerce. This guide will help you decide which eCommerce platform is best for you.
Overview: Shopify vs WooCommerce
Before we get into the in-depth comparison between the two most favored eCommerce platforms, we need to cover the basics and highlight the unique features that make these platforms stand out.
What’s Shopify?
Shopify allows you to easily create and accept payments from customers, manage inventory, and even manage your stock all within one platform.
Shopify makes it easy to manage an eCommerce website without worrying about security and caching.
What’s WooCommerce?
WooCommerce, an open-source eCommerce plugin for WordPress, is available. This plugin allows you to use the most powerful CMS (content management system) to create an online store.
WordPress is the most used website builder worldwide, powering 43% percent of all websites. What many don’t realize is that WooCommerce is the most widely-used eCommerce platform (yes, even more popular than Shopify).
WooCommerce is open-source, so you can easily customize any aspect of your store.
Your needs and your skill level will determine which platform you choose.
What should you look for in your eCommerce platform?
When opening an online store, there are some things you must remember. These factors will help you choose the right platform for your needs.
- Budget The initial cost to start an ecommerce store that is fully functional.
- Easy of Use It should be simple to use, even for absolute beginners.
- Payment Methods It should support multiple payment options (e.g. PayPal, Stripe and other merchant processors.
- Integrations: There are many services and tools that you can use to expand your eCommerce business.
- Scalability The platform should be capable of scaling as your business grows.
These are the most important requirements for online store owners. Depending on your needs, there may be other options such as shipping, inventory management and taxes.
This article will examine how WooCommerce and Shopify compare on these fundamental requirements. It will also discuss which one is most suitable for your specific needs.
Let’s now compare Shopify and WooCommerce.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: Cost
eCommerce website owners often consider cost as the most important factor. It is important to assess the cost of starting your eCommerce website, as well as the variable costs associated with add-on software and services.
Shopify’s True Cost
Shopify makes setting up your online store super simple. The basic plan costs $29 per month. You can upgrade to Shopify for $79 per month or Advanced Shopify for $299 per per month.
All plans include web hosting and SSL certificate. Each plan comes with a Shopify subdomain (e.g. https://your-store.myshopify.com).
You will need to buy a separate.com domain name if you wish to use it. A regular domain name on.com starts at $14/year.
Shopify’s basic plan includes enough features to create an online store. Unlimited products can be added, as well as 2 user accounts and unlimited file storage.
This pricing does not include any third-party add-ons or tools that you will need to make your Shopify store even more powerful. These costs will increase as your business grows and you’ll soon pay a lot more for the basic plan.
Payments can also impact your costs. Shopify also offers Shopify Payments, which is 2.9% + 30 Cents per transaction for their basic plan.
You will be charged 2.0% flat fee for any transactions that you make using third-party payment gateways. Shopify Advanced plans, which cost $299 per month, can lower this fee to 0.5%.
External payment gateways can have very high fees for payment processing. If you are just starting out, the Shopify Payments fees will be comparable to those charged by popular platforms such as Braintree and Stripe.
Shopify offers a Shopify lite plan for $9.00 per month. This plan allows you to add buy buttons on any site and Shopify to make in-person sales in selected regions.
You can, for example, create a WordPress site and then add Shopify purchase buttons. If you already have a WordPress site, WooCommerce will allow you to provide a better experience.
WooCommerce: The Real Cost
WooCommerce is an eCommerce plug-in for WordPress.org. Also known as self-hosted WordPress. It is free and open-source.
However, you’ll need a domain name, SSL Certificate, and a WooCommerce hosting plans, which can significantly lower the cost.
Bluehost is an official WordPress and WooCommerce-recommended hosting provider. We have agreed to give our customers a free domain, a free SSL certificate and a discounted web hosting price.
This will allow you to start an online store starting at $2.75 per month.
You can see that the cost to start a basic WooCommerce store will be significantly less than Shopify. WooCommerce doesn’t charge a transaction fee, which is a nice perk.
Remember that WooCommerce costs can increase as you buy paid extensions. As your online store grows, so will your hosting costs.
WooCommerce has a clear advantage in that you often have free themes or paid extensions. It is possible to keep costs under control by purchasing only the plugins and tools you use.
It’s definitely the best value when it comes down to cost, with the many free themes available and the free add-ons for WooCommerce.
WooCommerce wins the Award
Ease-of-use: Shopify vs. WooCommerce
Many users who start an online store don’t have the skills to be web designers and developers. Even those who know basic concepts, they need an easy-to-use platform that doesn’t get in the way.
Let’s compare Shopify and WooCommerce in terms of ease-of-use.
Shopify – Easy to Use
Shopify is a fully-hosted platform that doesn’t require you to install, manage or update any software. Also, you don’t have to worry about security, speed, backups or compatibility issues.
After signing up, you will be able to choose from many free Shopify themes. They will walk you through customization, and then assist you in adding products.
Shopify offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Shopify makes it easy to manage your products, sales, inventory, and other items.
This highly optimized, guided user experience has one downside: it restricts your control. Shopify only provides the development tools and add-ons that you can use to design and develop your product.
This isn’t as bad as you might think. Shopify’s large collection of extensions and themes is enough for most users to get started with their online store.
WooCommerce – Easy to Use
WooCommerce does not offer a hosted platform such as Shopify. You will need to install WooCommerce, manage updates, backups and ensure that your website is secure. You can automate many of these tasks with paid and free plugins.
WooCommerce allows you to customize your site in a very flexible way. The platform is yours to control. With the help of over 59,000+ WordPress plugins, you can add any functionality to your website.
There is however no drag and drop builder built into WordPress. However, you can still use one of the WordPress Page Builder such as SeedProd and Beaver Builder. This will increase your costs.
However, the downside to this flexibility is that it requires more management and learning. A merchant account, or similar service such as Stripe or PayPal, must be signed up.
Although the WooCommerce guided set-up wizard is useful, it doesn’t compare to the ease-of-use and onboarding experience of Shopify.
Winner: Shopify
Payment Methods: WooCommerce vs Shopify
You have many options for accepting online payments. You may not have access to certain payment options, while others may not work for your customers.
It is important to have multiple payment options when choosing a platform. Let’s compare Shopify and WooCommerce when it comes payment integrations.
Shopify offers payment options
Shopify allows customers to choose from many payment options during checkout. Shopify Payments, powered by Stripe, is its own payment solution. It also supports all the most popular third-party gateways.
Shopify charges an additional 2% fee for transactions made via third-party payment gateways. These fees are in addition to the transaction fees charged through the payment gateway. Advanced Shopify plan can lower the cost to 0.5% by only paying $299 per Month
Shopify Payments charges a credit card fee, but there are no transaction fees. The basic plan has a credit card rate of 2.9% + 30C/, while the other plans have lower rates.
WooCommerce Payment Options
WooCommerce supports Stripe and PayPal payments default. The WooCommerce Payments solution is also available, powered by Stripe.
It supports all popular payment service providers. Payment integrations can be installed for Authorize.net and Square, Alipay, Square, Alipay, Square, Alipay, Square, Alipay, among others.
WooCommerce supports many less-known payment services and regional payment gateways. Any payments company can add-ons to WooCommerce and provide support, as there is no barrier for entry.
You are not charged transaction fees if you host your site on your own payment gateway. WooCommerce does not charge a % transaction fee for credit card payments unless you use WooCommerce Payments. This is a huge plus.
WooCommerce will help you save a lot of money if you are interested in having your own merchant account.
Shopify Payments is a great option for small stores that are willing to accept credit cards at the same rates as Stripe / Paypal.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: Integrations and Add-ons
You will always need third-party services and tools to grow your e-commerce store, no matter how robust the platform. Email marketing software; lead generation tools; analytics tools; outreach services, etc.
Shopify and WooCommerce both have extensions directories, which allow them to integrate with many third party services.
Shopify Integrations and Add-ons
Shopify offers a powerful API as well as an App Store, where you can purchase third-party extensions for your Shopify store. There are hundreds of apps available in the app store that cover every feature you need to add to your shop.
They integrate with software such as OptinMonster to help you increase your email list and decrease cart abandonment. Shopify apps are available for search engine optimization, product reviews and countdowns.
Shopify offers both paid and free apps in its app store. Third-party apps that offer free apps usually have their own pricing. The app integrates your store only to their APIs. Prices for paid add-ons vary and most apps offer monthly subscriptions.
Shopify has fewer extensions and add-ons than WooCommerce / WordPress. It can be hard to get an app in their store.
We have personally experienced the submission of a plugin to WordPress and an app to Shopify. It is much more difficult than WooCommerce.
WooCommerce Integrations and Add-ons
WooCommerce is an open-source plugin built on WordPress. This allows you to access more than 59,000+ WordPress plugins as well as many other paid plugins.
These add-ons can be used to add payment gateways and lead generation .
WooCommerce has a lower barrier to entry so there are more integrations and addons than Shopify. Nearly all third-party services and tools have their own plugins that can seamlessly integrate with WooCommerce.
We have personally experienced the submission of a plugin to WordPress and an app to Shopify. It is much more difficult than WooCommerce.
You can also hire a WordPress developer for an integration or plugin created just for you.
It’s important to remember that WooCommerce is much easier to customize than Shopify.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: Scalability and Growth
Many founders and CEOs have used the phrase “growing pains”. You will need to have more resources in order to meet new challenges and achieve your goals as your business grows.
Both Shopify and WooCommerce are capable of scaling to handle large orders and traffic, but they are not all created equal. Let’s compare how these eCommerce platforms stack up in terms of scalability.
Shopify Scalability
Shopify manages the technical aspects of your store so you don’t have to worry about security, performance, or scalability. Shopify plans can be upgraded as your business grows.
Your growing business can be handled easily by their infrastructure without the need for downtimes, backups or security. Shopify Plus also includes enterprise services.
While this eliminates the pain of growth, it can also increase your business’s cost. You’ll need to plan for the possibility of increased expenses.
You won’t have to hire or manage technical staff in-house, which is a good thing.
WooCommerce Scalability
WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform that makes it easy to maintain updates, backups and ensure security.
As your store gets more visitors, your WooCommerce hosting plan will run out of resources.
You have many options for managing growth since WordPress is in your full control.
Although your WooCommerce hosting cost will rise, you’ll have more control over the resources you choose to upgrade and can ensure that you aren’t paying for unnecessary resources.
To help scale your WooCommerce store, you can use a managed WordPress hosting service like WebsiteGround and WPEngine.
Some small businesses prefer to have WooCommerce manageable, despite the fact that it offers a lot of control.
Shopify vs WooCommerce Support Options
WooCommerce as well as Shopify are very easy to use. Sometimes, however, you might need assistance to make your store more efficient.
Let’s look at how WooCommerce & Shopify handle customer support.
Shopify Support Options
Shopify is a fully-hosted platform. This means that Shopify has full control over the software and are the ones who understand their platform best.
Shopify offers 24/7 customer service via chat, phone and email. Shopify provides extensive documentation, how to guides, knowledge base and video tutorials for users who wish to solve problems on their own.
You can also find Shopify Experts in the directory that you can use if you need additional help or want to integrate third-party solutions.
Shopify does not support third-party templates or apps.
WooCommerce Support Options
WooCommerce is the most widely used eCommerce platform in the world. This means that there are many support options available for you to use when you need them.
You can find extensive documentation, tutorials, guides, and other resources on the official website. You can also access support forums to get assistance from WooCommerce support staff and other experts.
WooCommerce.com now offers 24/7 chat support to all customers who have purchased premium extensions or themes.
WooCommerce is a self-hosted website. This means your hosting provider will be responsible for any issues you have with your server.
Third-party WordPress themes and extensions developers will answer support questions about their products.
It is easy and sometimes cheaper to hire developers to fix problems with your WooCommerce store due to its popularity. To fix WooCommerce problems, you can search developers on freelancing sites
Which eCommerce Platform is Best?
WooCommerce and Shopify are powerful platforms for starting an eCommerce store. It all comes down to your individual skills and preferences.
Shopify makes it much easier to use. You don’t need to install anything and can get up and running in no time. It is easy to set up payments and the pricing plans are simple to understand.
Shopify’s disadvantage is that you have no control over all aspects. You can expect high costs due to transaction fees, add-ons and integrations. You have limited upgrade options for certain plans and cannot manage costs on an as-you-grow basis.
WooCommerce allows you to have full control over your website. It is much cheaper to open an online store using WooCommerce, especially with these WooCommerce host companies.
However, you will have to maintain the software. There is a learning curve. It is used by millions of people every day, so they quickly get past the learning phase.
WooCommerce offers the most cost-effective and user-friendly platform to manage your online store.
Shopify offers a better platform if you are looking for something simple and easy that can scale infinitely.
FAQs on Shopify vs WooCommerce
Below are some answers to the most common questions that Shopify users have asked about WooCommerce vs Shopify.
1. What makes WooCommerce different from Shopify?
Shopify offers platform as a service. They offer hosting and software for your online store.
WooCommerce, on the other hand is an eCommerce platform that can be hosted by itself. To manage your WooCommerce store, you will need a WooCommerce hosting plan and a domain.
These platforms make it easy to sell products online and receive payments through PCI-compliant third party payment gateways. You can also manage inventory.
2. Which is more popular Shopify or WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is the most widely used eCommerce platform in the world. Builtwith reports that WooCommerce is used by 28% of the top 1,000,000 websites. Shopify comes in at 20%.
WooCommerce is built on WordPress, the most used website builder that powers more than 43% all websites.
3. Can Shopify be used with WordPress?
Shopify Lite can be used with WordPress by installing Shopify’s Buy Now button. This will allow users to shopify cart and complete checkout.
Its implementation is more complicated and may not provide the best user experience. There are plugins that allow you to accept online payments without the need for WooCommerce.
4. What other options are there to Shopify or WooCommerce?
Shopify and WooCommerce rank as the top eCommerce platforms available.
BigCommerce, Squarespace and Wix are all examples of ecommerce platforms that provide services like Shopify. You can use WordPress plugins as WooCommerce alternatives such as MemberPress, WPForms, Easy Digital downloads and many more.
5. Which eCommerce platform offers more flexibility?
WooCommerce’s larger extensions library gives it more flexibility. It can run on WordPress, so you can use it for both blogging and business websites. It works with all email platforms, including Constant contact, Mailchimp and many more. You can optimize your website with an SEO plugin such as All-in-One SEO and Yoast SEO.
With the free WordPress.org theme shop, you can also access more WooCommerce themes. You can also use tools to increase conversions and recover abandoned carts.
This article will help you compare Shopify vs WooCommerce. Our guide will help you choose the best website builder.
