Shopify vs. WooCommerce: Choosing the Best Platform for Your Online Store
If you’re ready to explore the world of e-commerce, you’ll probably find yourself comparing two of the most popular online store platforms: Shopify and WooCommerce.
Understanding the key differences between Shopify and WooCommerce will help you select the best solution for your business, depending on various aspects of your business, such as your level of technical expertise, customization needs, and budget.
The Basics: Shopify vs. WooCommerce
Shopify is a fully hosted, cloud-based e-commerce platform that offers a comprehensive solution for building, managing and growing an online store. For many businesses, Shopify is their entire website, not just e-commerce, including a home page, additional web pages, and a blog—though it can function only as e-commerce when set up as a subdomain. Shopify also includes web hosting, security, payment processing, and customer support. Pricing starts at $29 per month and can exceed $2,300 monthly plus sales tax and a transaction fee per order.
WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin for WordPress that enables users to add an online store to their existing websites. While it offers greater flexibility and customization, unlike Shopify, WooCommerce does not include hosting or maintenance services. Instead, it uses the same hosting as your website.
Some major differences between the two e-commerce platforms include technical requirements, customization and pricing.
Technical Requirements
You don’t need coding or technical experience to use Shopify. However, without custom development, the features of your website may be limited. The platform offers drag-and-drop functionality along with customizable templates. Shopify handles site setup and maintenance, including most updates, hosting, and security. You are still responsible for updating the theme to fix bugs, improve performance, and add new features.
WooCommerce requires more technical experience. However, if you’ve already set up a WordPress website, using WooCommerce will feel intuitive since this e-commerce platform was specifically designed for WordPress. For sites hosted on WP Engine, we recommend implementing Smart Plugin Manager—a feature that automatically updates all of your WordPress plugins and themes to keep your environments secure.
Customization
Shopify’s customization options are more limited than those of WooCommerce. While Shopify provides a variety of themes and apps, these only allow for a certain degree of personalization. To achieve deeper customization, users often need to be familiar with Liquid, which is Shopify’s templating language.
WooCommerce, however, provides greater flexibility and customization options. Since it’s built on WordPress, you have full control over your store’s design and functionality. You can install any theme, plugin or custom code to customize your store.
Pricing
Shopify offers three main pricing plans:
- Basic ($39/month)
- Shopify ($105/month)
- Advanced ($399/month)
While these plans include hosting, security, and customer support, the monthly expenses can add up quickly. You also need to purchase apps for enhanced features, such as inventory management integration. Additionally, Shopify charges a transaction fee on website orders.
WooCommerce is free to use, but like Shopify, it requires paid plugins to access advanced functionality. You also need to select and purchase a payment gateway.
For a detailed comparison between WooCommerce and Shopify, see the table below:
| Comparison | WooCommerce | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | WooCommerce is always free | 3 days then $1 for the first month |
| Pricing | Free | $105/month paid monthly |
| Website Hosting | Not included | Included |
| Users | Unlimited users | 5 users |
| Collaborator Access | N/A | Unlimited collaborators (limited access to store) |
| Inventory Management Integration | Not included (paid integrations are available) | Not included (paid integrations are available) |
| Analytics | Reports from WooCommerce can include data about sales by date, product, and category. These reports can be exported via CSV | Standard access: Provides an overview of important sales data like total sales, number of orders, conversion rates, and customer demographics |
| Website Customization | Highly customizable: Customize through code and/or plugins (both paid and free) | Somewhat customizable: Customize through code and/or apps (both paid and free) |
| Payments | Payment gateway not included | Shopify Payments is included; transaction fees: 2.5% + $0.330 per transaction |
| Tax | Manually set up tax classes and rates; no extra fees | Manually set up tax classes and rates; after $100,000 in sales, Shopify charges a 0.35% fee per order, capped at $0.99 |
| Shipping | Paid shipping plugins available | Shopify Shipping is included (you are responsible for paying shipping costs and printing labels; there is no FedEx integration) |
| Blog | Included (with WordPress) | Included |
| Pages | Included (with WordPress) | Included |
| Integration with WordPress Website | Yes | No – this needs to be set up as a separate website, likely a sub-domain like shop.yourwebsite.com |
Choosing the Best E-Commerce Platform
Both Shopify and WooCommerce can help you grow your online business, but your decision should consider technical requirements, how much customization is needed, and your budget.
Innovaxis can help you navigate the complexities of building and growing your online store. Whether you’re just starting out or want to optimize an existing store, we will identify your goals and ensure you select the right solution for your business. Contact us to speak with an e-commerce expert today.
