Both WooCommerce and Shopify have multiple strengths and can possibly be the perfect solution for you to build an eCommerce store.
First of all, which of the two will best suit your specific needs, Shopify or WooCommerce (to create a fantastic online store) ? Which is more flexible? Which is the most optimal when it comes to working and selling online?
We have a lot of questions to ask, but we’re going to answer them all in this in-depth comparison. After reading it, you’ll know exactly which eCommerce platform to choose based on your individual needs. So, let’s compare Shopify vs WooCommerce to see which one is the best:
Table of contents
0.0.1 Shopify vs WooCommerce – Chapter #1: Design
0.1 How Shopify does design
0.2 How does WooCommerce work?
1 Shopify vs WooCommerce – Chapter #2: Price
1.1 The main difference between Shopify pricing and WooCommerce pricing
2 Shopify vs WooCommerce – Chapter #3: Features
3 How Shopify helps you sell
4 How WooCommerce Helps You Sell
5 Chapter #4: Ease of use
6 How easy is Shopify to use?
6.1 Shopify vs WooCommerce – Chapter #5: Payments and Fees
6.1.1 Shopify Payment Processing
6.1.2 WooCommerce Payment Processing
6.2 Shopify vs WooCommerce – Which offers cheaper transaction fees?
7 WooCommerce vs Shopify – Chapter #6: Security
8 WooCommerce vs Shopify Pros and Cons
8.1 Shopify
8.1.1 Pros
8.1.2 Cons
8.2 WooCommerce
8.2.1 Pros
8.2.2 Cons
Shopify vs WooCommerce – Chapter #1: Design
For websites ( e-commerce stores in particular ) design is everything. Customers simply don't trust a site that doesn't have the right aesthetics or that doesn't function as well as it should.
How Shopify does design
One of Shopify’s biggest selling points is the visual quality of its themes. In my opinion, they look absolutely fine out of the box. Shopify comes with over 54 different store templates, out of which 10 are free. What’s more, is that each of Shopify’s themes has unique variations. So, you’re technically getting over 100 separate designs.
The best part is that they are all mobile responsive and have a variety of different color options. They have a sleek and clean modern aesthetic, making it perfect for modern and progressive websites.
Shopify designs aren’t created in-house , by the way. They’re outsourced to a group of professional web designers who make sure they’re as up-to-date and attractive as possible. We like this approach because it gets creativity from a wide variety of companies and people, which makes for a better selection.
Unfortunately, price tags on premium Shopify themes go as high as $180. But what you get in return is a great design.
Fortunately, there are also free options available.
The instant appeal of Shopify designs can lead many webmasters to select the same themes. Some Shopify users who have designed a site themselves have later complained that they gambling data india phone number look too similar to other websites. For that reason, customization is recommended.
Luckily, Shopify themes are easy to change. You can quickly adjust colors and styles, while more savvy developers can use the platform’s specialized ‘Liquid’ language to make more substantial changes and make a brand stand out.
And even better, they offer a theme editor within the platform that you can use for customization. You can choose to hide sections within the theme editor without deleting them. Hidden sections will still be customizable in the theme editor but will not be visible on the store front-end. This allows you to initialize sections for future versions and eliminate the need for theme duplications (a common problem most developers face with WordPress).
How does WooCommerce work?
WooCommerce is a plugin created by the developers of WooThemes (and acquired by Automattic). As such, it doesn’t deliver specific design features on its own. What it does do is provide you with the means to sell products and services online. The design part, however, is left to your current or future WordPress theme.
WooCommerce is built to work with most themes on the market, as long as they follow standard recommendations and best practices.
This means that in most cases, you can select any WordPress theme you want and still have it work alongside WooCommerce.
However, you will also come across themes that have been built with WooCommerce in mind from the start and are tailor-made to make all your product/service listings look great. If the design of the eCommerce store itself is particularly important to you, you should look for themes that are specifically designed for WooCommerce.
The place to start would be Woo’s own default online store theme called Showcase (free). It’s a really efficient creation that puts the focus on all the important elements of an eCommerce store.
Apart from that, you can also look at marketplaces like ThemeForest where they have hundreds of other WooCommerce compatible themes.
To be honest, WooCommerce has a huge advantage over Shopify when it comes to designs. Shopify has wonderful themes, but they are limited to what you can find in the Shopify theme store.
WooCommerce , on the other hand, is open source, so tons of developers sell (or give away) amazing WooCommerce themes for all kinds of industries and purposes.
Shopify vs WooCommerce – Chapter #2: Price
Every webmaster wants a little more money, but the two platforms have very different pricing approaches:
The main difference between Shopify pricing and WooCommerce pricing
To put it bluntly, Shopify’s pricing is very clear and straightforward . WooCommerce is not.
For one, WooCommerce is a free, open-source software plugin. Yes, the plugin is free, but then you have to consider the additional costs that come with making an online store. WordPress is also free, but you have to factor in things like hosting, the cost of a theme, a domain name, additional extensions, and an SSL certificate.
Shopify is all about offering you a unique, ready-to-use solution with just a few pricing packages. You sign up, then you can use your new eCommerce brilliantly as everything you need is included right out of the box.
Here is a table that should make the costs involved with each platform easier to understand:
Note. Both Shopify and WooCommerce offer you various levels/options to upgrade your version of the platform depending on the type of business, the scale of your sales, etc. To simplify this comparison, I’ll focus on the cheapest route – what it costs, at a minimum, to get an eCommerce store up and running with Shopify vs WooCommerce.
Platform Monthly software Hosting SSL Certificate Domain
Shopify $29 USD per month Included for free Yeah $9 USD / year
WooCommerce $0 Not included Not included Not included
Shopify eCommerce store running on a top-level domain: $29 USD/month.
WooCommerce store on the same setup: $29 USD per month (a modest $20 USD hosting, domain, SSL).
As you can see, even though WooCommerce software is free, running an actual eCommerce store costs basically the same as Shopify, if not more.
But that’s not all. With WooCommerce, you also need to factor in additional extensions for things like SEO, more payment gateways, and more. Those extensions are usually around the $49-79 USD mark (one-time payments).
What it comes down to is that while WooCommerce is technically the cheaper solution, it will require a lot more work to set up, and you’ll need to be more careful not to go over your budget as each additional extension comes with a price tag. In the end, with WooCommerce , you’re spending more time on setup and management, which translates into dollars.
Shopify has a much more conventional pricing structure. It has a sliding scale of packages that offers users a range of different features upfront: Basic Shopify ($29 USD per month,) Shopify ($79 USD per month), and Advanced Shopify ($299 USD per month). Feel free to check out another resource of ours, where we focus primarily on the different pricing options available with Shopify and which one to choose .
Last but not least are the transaction fees . Essentially, every time you sell something with either platform, they will charge you a small fee (for processing the payment, delivering the money to your account, etc.). Those fees change fairly frequently, so I won’t go into that here, just be aware that they exist. They typically sit around 2%-3% per transaction, but be sure to check the exact numbers before you log into either platform.
