Are you planning to start your own e-commerce store or upgrade the existing one? You are at the right place. The growth and success of an e-commerce business depends significantly on the platform you choose. Among so many options available, it's tough to decide the one that aligns with your business goals, target audience, e-commerce store scale as well as the budget. As a business owner, you should select a platform that is flexible, scalable, affordable and has a plethora of features to provide an enhanced user experience. WooCommerce and Shopify top the list of best e-commerce platforms in the market. Both e-commerce platforms have different features, benefits, and drawbacks.
On one hand, WooCommerce offers excellent flexibility in creating different store types; Shopify is an all-in-one SaaS e-commerce platform for selling products and services online. Now the main question is which one you should choose among the two. It basically depends on your business needs and requirements, valuable features, security measures, sales funnel, and, most importantly, the target market. In this blog, we will shed light on WooCommerce vs Shopify, a detailed comparison to help you choose the best e-commerce platform for your e-commerce store.
WooCommerce vs Shopify: An Overview
WooCommerce is a self-hosted WordPress plugin, while Shopify is a fully hosted standalone platform that uses various features rather than coding to create an e-commerce site. Let's understand both of them in detail to get a clear vision of them.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is an open-source and highly customizable e-commerce plugin built especially for the most popular CMS platform, WordPress. This self-hosted platform turns a normal WordPress site into a fully functional e-commerce store to sell different products and services.
It is a WordPress plugin that offers various third-party WooCommerce plugins to enhance the e-commerce store and add interactive features to extend its capabilities and functionality. It gives you more control over your e-commerce store’s themes, interface, layout and how the store looks to make your store align with the target audience. However, being a WordPress plugin, it requires you to purchase WordPress hosting if you are working on some other CMS platform.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce platform that allows you to launch an e-commerce store from scratch. This self-hosted platform provides everything to run an online store, including hosting, web designing, inventory management, payment integration and final processing. In this, you have less control over the technical aspects as Shopify itself manages everything like security, caching, hosting, etc. All you have todo is register the account and start adding the products without web development or coding knowledge. However, lack of control makes Shopify a less flexible e-commerce platform than WooCommerce.
WooCommerce vs Shopify: A Detailed Comparison
Now that you have an overview of both platforms, it's time to find out what are the differences between them to make an informed decision. Have a look at the main differences between WooCommerce and Shopify:
Pricing
To launch a WooCommerce store, you need a domain name, web hosting and the free WooCommerce plugin from WordPress. The domain name can cost you around $10 per year and web hosting can cost you $12 per month for small stores and is more expensive for large stores. Besides that, there are extra charges for third-party plugins such as Elementor WooCommerce Builder, Elementor Pro, premium WooCommerce theme, etc.
To create a Shopify online store, you need a domain name and the Shopify service. Unlike WooCommerce, you need to pay monthly fees ($29/mo to $399/mo) as long as your store is active. Besides that, you need to pay ongoing charges for premium Shopify apps and themes that start at $30 per month. Additionally, the platform charges a transaction fee on your sales.
Winner: WooCommerce, as it allows you to avoid monthly recurring fees, which can save you a considerable amount in the long run.
Web Hosting and Security
Web Hosting is a basic requirement of any e-commerce store or website. Shopify is fully hosted, which means there is no need to purchase hosting from outside, as the platform stores all the data internally. However, this privilege comes with a drawback: You lose control over the server environment and configurations. The security is managed by Shopify itself, including SSL certificates, PCI compliance, fraud detection, and regular updates.
WooCommerce, being a WordPress plugin, requires proper hosting to launch an e-commerce store. You have to choose and manage your own hosting provider, which adds up to the cost. This provides you with greater control over the server environment, but it also demands technical expertise. For security, you also have to install and implement SSL, backups, and other security practices by yourself.
Winner: It depends. If you want complete control over your e-commerce store and manage security yourself, then WooCommerce is an ideal choice.
Ease of Use
WooCommerce's technological nature makes it slightly more complex than Shopify. You have to purchase a domain and hosting, install WordPress, install the WooCommerce plugin and then set up and configure your store. To use this, you need basic knowledge of WordPress as well as coding to make certain changes in the user interface.
Shopify is a straightforward and easy-to-use platform. All you have to do is register for an account and follow the steps displayed on the screen (simple setup wizard). It takes a few minutes to create a store, unlike WooCommerce, which can take even hours. Moreover, adding a product is easier than adding it in WooCommerce.
Winner: Shopify, as it is simple and straightforward platform that works with drag and drop options. You don't need much technical knowledge to use this platform.
Features & Plugins
Both e-commerce platforms offer an array of amazing plugins or apps to extend the functionality and performance of e-commerce stores. WooCommerce offers 58,000+ free plugins and many paid plugins. You have the flexibility to select and install the ones that best suit your needs. It offers sales and marketing features like inventory management, shipping, and third-party marketing tools.
Shopify calls plugins “apps”, and it offers 5700+ apps, giving you a lot of flexibility to make modifications to your e-commerce store. Besides that, it offers great sales and marketing features such as versatile shipping options, payment methods, email marketing, SEO, analytics, etc.
Winner: WooCommerce offers way more features and plugins than Shopify, allowing you to customize the online store in an advanced way.
Payment Methods
There are many payment gateways you can use to accept payments on both platforms. However, you have to choose the one that aligns with your payment preferences. Shopify offers its own payment solution called "Shopify Payments" along with various third-party payment gateways. However, it charges 2% fees on each transaction made through any mode except Shopify Payments.
WooCommerce offers Stripe payments by default, WooCommerce Payment Solutions, and PayPal, Amazon Pay, Alipay, Square, etc., which are among the leading payment gateways. Moreover, it only charges transaction fees to the payment gateway or your bank.
Winner: If you expect to receive more payments through third-party payment gateways, WooCommerce is the best option.
Design and Themes
Design and themes are among the most important aspects of an e-commerce store to enhance user experience and increase conversions. Shopify has more refined designs and themes than WooCommerce. It has a dedicated theme store that consists of customized, polished and user-friendly templates for various niches.
WooCommerce has an array of free designs and themes, but they are not as professional and polished as Shopify themes. It does not have a dedicated theme store like Shopify. However, it provides a wide array of options for creativity and customization with coding.
Winner: Shopify, as it has more refined and sophisticated designs than WooCommerce. However, if you sell highly customized products or create manual designs, WooCommerce is a suitable option.
Operating and Maintenance Issues
WooCommerce stores require proper maintenance, which means consistently updating their software, plugins, and extensions. Updating is simple: just a few clicks.
In the case of Shopify, you don't need to worry about such updates and maintenance. Shopify handles everything byits own, from backups to updates.
Winner: Shopify handles everything but at an additional cost (monthly fee). If your budget is low, you can go for WooCommerce and perform maintenance manually.
Scalability and Growth
Scalability and growth are important parts of an e-commerce store as it grows. Shopify handles the technical aspects of your e-commerce store, so you just have to upgrade your Shopify plan for proper performance, scalability, and security. The upgraded plan will extend its capabilities and eliminate downtimes and performance issues.
WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform that requires you to scale and maintain your site manually. With more traffic, the hosting costs increase, and you have to upgrade your hosting plan. Moreover, you can use a managed WordPress hosting provider to help scale the e-commerce store.
Winner: Shopify, as it takes care of technical aspects of scaling your store, which means no coding knowledge is required.
Support
The success of any online store depends on the support you receive from the platform. WooCommerce, being an open-source plugin, has no official support channel, but it has a dedicated website that provides helpful resources like videos, tutorials, guides, and articles to solve issues. Some hosting providers even offer 24/7 support through chat and calls.
Shopify is a user-friendly platform that offers 24/7 support through emails, live chat, or calls, making it even easier to get help whenever needed. Several blogs, videos, detailed documentation, tutorials, and a knowledge baseare present to answer common questions.
Winner: Shopify, due to in-platform support from a dedicated support team.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can state that WooCommerce and Shopify are among the best e-commerce platforms, offering various benefits and drawbacks that we have mentioned in our detailed comparison. Shopify is a more user-friendly platform, making it best for people who prefer a simple and straightforward setup. In contrast, WooCommerce is more customizable, allowing you to manage and change things per your requirements. If you want in-depth customization and design, make sure to hire an experienced Shopify developer or a WooCommerce developer who can manage the platform with perfection and tackle any issues that arise.
