Shopify vs. WooCommerce: Choosing An eCommerce Platform

When you’re first starting out with Shopify, one of the most important decisions you will make is which theme to use. Themes control the look and feel of your Shopify store, so it’s essential to choose one that reflects your brand and meets your needs. 

Luckily, this eCommerce platform has a wide variety of free and paid Shopify themes that can help you build a beautiful, user-friendly store in a matter of minutes. The free designs are clean and intuitive, making them a viable option on a lower budget. However, if you want to help your shop stand out, you can also pay for a theme that typically costs between $200 and $400. 

While you don’t need any technical expertise to design your Shopify store, there are options for customization. If you want to play around with the look of your store, you can edit the code easily from your store manager.

The Shopify App Store is a fantastic resource for businesses of all sizes, offering both free and paid integrations. There are thousands of Shopify apps covering all areas, from accounting to marketing to shipping. The store is constantly expanding, so you’ll always have access to the latest and greatest tools for your business.

The app store is also straightforward to navigate, with a built-in search tool and app categories based on your business goals. These range from bringing in more customers to integrating with social media. Additionally, Shopify has partnered with some of the biggest names in the digital retail space, including Facebook, which you can use to run Facebook Ads, and AliExpress, a valuable site for dropshippers. 

Using the Shopify app store, you’ll be able to download valuable integrations in minutes and can control every aspect of your business. Since everything you’ll need for your eCommerce business is accessible through the platform, you won’t have to deal with the hassle of managing other services or accounts—you can do it all from your Shopify account.

Another major perk of using Shopify is access to their payment gateway, Shopify Payments. The gateway is currently available in 17 countries and is the best payment option for Shopify sellers. Shopify Payments is a PCI-compliant payment solution, so you can feel secure using the service.

With Shopify Payments, merchants can instantly accept payments without any third-party activation. If you sell internationally, Shopify payments are helpful since you’ll be able to accept payments in different currencies. Another perk is that you’ll have access to all your incoming payments in one place, so you won’t have to worry about keeping track of various gateways.

Shopify Learn is a fantastic resource, especially if you’re new to the eCommerce game. The service is free to use and provides various courses and workshops on all things related to running an online store. You can search topics on everything from website building to inventory management and start learning from some of the most successful Shopify store owners.

If you’re ready to give Shopify a go, they offer a 14-day free trial that lets you play around with all the various features and build a digital storefront that you can take live once you commit to a payment plan. There are three plans: Basic, Shopify, and Advanced.

While WooCommerce offers fewer themes than Shopify (48 compared to 70), there are still many intuitively designed and aesthetically appealing options. Like Shopify, there are both free and paid options, but they tend to be cheaper, ranging from $20 to $100. However, there are only three free options, so Shopify has a more extensive selection. 

You can search WooCommerce themes based on your industry to find a design that fits your business—anything from fashion and apparel to sports and recreation. If you want your storefront to be accessible on mobile, you also can select a “responsive” theme. 

WooCommerce has more options for editing your storefront theme in terms of customization. You can play around with headers, image placements, and more by downloading extensions and plugins, which I’ll describe in more detail next.

WooCommerce has hundreds of free and paid extensions, both from third parties and plugins developed by WooCommerce. These extensions can be browsed based on category. This can be anything from needing to implement a payment gateway to integrating bookings and appointments in your WooCommerce store.

WooCommerce Payments, WooCommerce’s payment gateway, is available in 18 countries. Like Shopify Payments, it is the easiest way to collect payments and track your store’s revenue. There are no setup fees, only transaction fees when customers make a purchase, so it is affordable to implement. Plus, it integrates with WooCommerce’s other features so that you can manage your inventory and orders seamlessly.

If you want to get involved with other entrepreneurs, there is also a buzzing sense of community with WooCommerce. Using their community tab, you can find meetups, browse through success stories of other businesses for inspiration, or get help from a WooCommerce Expert.

Unlike Shopify, WooCommerce is open-source, meaning the service is free to sign up for, and there are no monthly fees. However, there are still a few fees you’ll need to consider:

While WooCommerce is undoubtedly an affordable option, it is not entirely free. If you go for all the upgrades, you’re looking at spending at least a few hundred dollars a year.

Shopify was built specifically for eCommerce stores and has a very user-friendly interface, making it simple for even novice entrepreneurs to add products, customize their store, and manage orders. There are also many valuable guides and resources that can walk you through the entire process. 

WooCommerce may be more intuitive if you’ve used WordPress before, but the eCommerce platform requires a bit more technical expertise. To build a successful store, you’ll need to install plugins and configure them to get the functionality you want. This learning curve can be tricky for beginners to navigate and may require coding skills.

Verdict: Shopify is the clear winner for ease of use, providing users with built-in customization options and beautifully designed free themes.

Shopify is superior in terms of ease of use—Shopify themes are ideal for users who don’t want to worry about any coding or design work. In contrast, WooCommerce offers more flexibility in terms of theme customization. While Shopify has limited coding options and drag-and-drop design tools, you’ll have more freedom to tweak the design of your online store with WooCommerce plugins.

Shopify offers over 100 payment gateways, including PayPal, Apple Pay, and Amazon Payments. They also have Shopify Payments, the easiest option to use when setting up your store. Below, you can see a list of the various fees for using credit cards, debit cards, and transaction fees.

With WooCommerce, you can implement any payment gateway through add-ons accepted by the platform. You also can use WooCommerce Payments, where the fees differ depending on what country you are operating from. Below is an example if you sell in the United States using WooCommerce Payments.

Verdict: Both WooCommerce and Shopify accept most major payment gateways and have their own built-in payment systems with comparable rates. 

Scalability refers to the ability to adapt your business practices as your company grows and changes. Shopify has three tiers of plans geared towards the size and scope of your business, so it’s simple to upgrade to a more extensive plan if you need more advanced features. 

On the other hand, if your WooCommerce store grows rapidly, you may have more difficulty since it is self-hosted. You may have to find a new hosting platform or make more tweaks to your website to ensure it is compatible with your needs. 

Regardless of which eCommerce platform you use, you’ll likely need third-party apps and extensions to improve the functionality of your online store. Shopify has an extensive app store with both free and paid apps that encompass everything you’ll need for your shop, from email marketing to SEO. You can choose from over 6,000 apps to optimize your store.

WooCommerce, however, has a much larger range of extensions and plugins because it is open-source. There are over 59,000 plugins and 400 extensions, but they’ll take more work to sift through and implement.

If you run into problems when running your eCommerce store, having access to timely and helpful customer support is imperative. Shopify offers 24/7 customer support and extensive resources for troubleshooting, like Shopify Learn and forums. If you need mentorship, you can hire a Shopify Expert to walk you through any issues when designing and running your online store. One downside is that if you have any problems with third-party apps, Shopify won’t be able to assist you. 

WooCommerce is self-hosted, which means that you will be responsible for any technical issues. Unlike Shopify, there is not a 24/7 support system. However, you can enlist the help of a developer or a WooCommece Expert, though these services will cost you extra.