WooCommerce vs Shopify: 6-Point Comparison to Find the Best E-commerce Platform

WooCommerce vs Shopify: A feature-by-feature comparison

With global e-commerce revenue reaching a staggering $5.7 trillion, it’s high time to launch an online store. However, the biggest question you come across while considering an online store development is to choose between Woocommerce vs Shopify. Both platforms offer the best of e-commerce and allow entrepreneurs to set up online stores seamlessly. But what will work best for you? Let’s find out. 

We know it’s quite tedious to choose between the two best options, but in the end, you have to make a choice. To help you out, we have created a detailed comparison between WooCommerce vs Shopify, pointing out key differences between them. 

In this 6-point comparison guide to Shopify vs WooCommerce, our detailed analysis will help you make an informed decision. We have evaluated both platforms based on various aspects, including ease-of-use, pricing, cost-effectiveness, customer support, and more. 

Let’s get started!

Key Statistics to Know About WooCommerce vs Shopify

  • Over 28% of total online stores are powered by WooCommerce. (Source: BuiltWith)
  • WooCommerce has over 5 million live websites worldwide. (Source: Trends Data)
  • There have been over 84 million downloads for the WooCommerce plugin. (Source: WordPress.org)
  • As of 2024, Shopify has over 4.6 million active stores worldwide. (Source: Popupsmart)
  • Shopify holds a significant e-commerce market share, capturing 23% of the top 1 million websites and surpassing WooCommerce (19%). (Source: Popupsmart)
  • Shopify has facilitated a staggering $650 billion in total sales from its millions of businesses. (Source: Popupsmart)

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WooCommerce vs Shopify: At a Glance

Before we start a head-to-head comparison between Shopify vs Woocommerce, you should at least have a basic understanding of both platforms and their capabilities to help you set up an online store. 

So, here are the basics to understanding WooCommerce vs Shopify: 

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is an open-source, built-in WordPress plugin that helps businesses use the most powerful CMS to set up and run an online store. 

As we are in 2024, we all know how popular WordPress is for building websites. It powers over 43% of the total websites available on the internet. And with WordPress’s popularity, Woocommerce has managed to have a whopping 6.6 million users worldwide. 

As Woocommerce is an open-source plugin, it allows users to customize it according to your store’s aspects and you can even add custom extensions. 

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an e-commerce platform that allows entrepreneurs to start, manage, and expand a business. It provides the tools to set up an online store, oversee sales, promote to customers, and process payments in both virtual and physical settings.

Shopify stands as a leader in the commerce world due to its attentiveness to the experiences of millions of business proprietors. 

By catering to individual entrepreneurs and large-scale brands, Shopify has developed features and products that drive current businesses and pave the way for the future of commerce.

marketshare

WooCoomerce vs Shopify: Which Is Best for Your Online Business?

As now you have understood the basics of Shopify and WooCommerce, its time to compare them based on various aspects. This comparison will help you gain insights on which platform will turn out to be the best for your online store in 2024:

Ease of Use and Set Up

Shopify is developed keeping beginners in mind, while WooCommerce is the go-to choice for developers and designers. For business owners, WooCommerce can present a more challenging learning curve. 

Conversely, Shopify offers a seamless setup process that guides you through each step until you have a fully functional website.

The user interface of Shopify is straightforward and user-friendly. The process of adding new items to your inventory is guided and intuitive, with clear instructions on what information needs to be input next.

While WooCommerce also offers an easy-to-navigate dashboard and product addition process, it’s not a subscription-based platform. This means you’ll need to handle some integrations on your own before you can get started. These tasks include:

  • Securing a domain name
  • Setting up a hosting account
  • Installing WordPress
  • Choosing and installing WordPress themes

These tasks are best handled by an expert who is familiar with the platform and knows which plugins to use.

When it comes to ease of use, Shopify takes the crown.

designs-and-hemes

Designs and Themes

After signing up for a Shopify account, you instantly gain access to more than 70 complimentary themes and a variety of premium ones. These themes are refined and straightforward to implement. However, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the design aspects. Acquiring a theme from the Shopify store can be costly but a one-time expense.

WooCommerce provides a plethora of designs and themes that can be configured to respond automatically to mobile devices. However, it may require more time to ensure your website’s design is lucid and user-friendly, as each plugin has its own distinct user experience (UX) to master.

If you’re looking for a visually appealing layout for your e-commerce site, WooCommerce is a smart choice. However, its development will require an investment of both time and money.

If customization is your primary concern, Shopify offers premium themes that are ready for immediate use. However, it’s worth noting that this could result in your theme being used by numerous other online stores.

Costs

Shopify provides a free trial for the first 14 days, allowing users to familiarize themselves with the platform and start building their online store. After the trial, users can opt for the Lite plan at $15 per month.

Following a 14-day trial, Shopify charges a monthly subscription fee. The basic plan is $39 per month, the Shopify plan is $105 per month, and the Advanced plan is $399 per month. 

All plans come with SSL and web hosting, ensuring a secure internet connection and protection of sensitive data. If users prefer a custom domain name without Shopify, an additional fee of $39 per month is charged.

The entry-level packages permit two users per account and offer unlimited product listings and storage. However, they do not include access to third-party tools and add-ons within the platform.

Transaction fees vary depending on the chosen package. The basic package imposes a 2.0% fee on all transactions, while the premium package reduces this to 0.5%. Choosing a higher-tier package could result in more profit retention, depending on your sales volume.

At the same time, WooCommerce offers initial services for free, but additional services such as domain name registration, SSL certification, and WordPress hosting accounts are chargeable. Hosting costs range from $5 to $30, domain names average $9 per year, and SSL certificates can be free or cost up to $100 per year. Given the importance of website security, investing in SSL is highly recommended.

By strategically choosing your third-party apps for WooCommerce, you can build a website at a relatively low cost. However, be aware that you may end up paying for several extensions, particularly SEO plugins. The decision on which platform to choose depends not just on cost but also on the features that best suit your needs.

Support

In terms of customer support, Shopify clearly outshines its competitors. The support team at Shopify is available around the clock and well-equipped to provide definitive solutions to issues, thanks to its closed platform structure, which allows for better documentation of user errors.

storeshave

On the other hand, WooCommerce operates on an open platform, enabling anyone to integrate add-ons. However, this flexibility comes with a downside—their support team may not have an answer to every problem that arises due to the vast array of possible configurations. However, the nature of WooCommerce is such that users are often self-reliant and may not require much assistance.

SEO

A robust search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is crucial to ensuring your website ranks in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).

Shopify comes equipped with an inbuilt SEO plugin and supports fundamental SEO practices, including meta information and site copy. Notably, Shopify sites tend to load quicker than WooCommerce sites on average, which can further boost your site’s standing in Google’s rankings.

On the other hand, WooCommerce is incorporated into WordPress, a renowned blogging platform. It empowers users to modify body content, URLs, meta descriptions, alt tags, and other on-page elements using its impressive SEO tools.

Therefore, for those aiming to achieve high rankings on Google, WooCommerce could be a more suitable choice.

Shipping

Shipping

When you’re setting up an online store, it’s crucial to guarantee that your customers receive their orders. This necessitates incorporating delivery service providers into your site.

Shopify has a variety of well-known delivery service providers ready to transport your products. The expenses associated with this can fluctuate, and they may charge monthly membership fees or one-time payments. However, your choices are confined to the plugins available on Shopify.

On the other hand, WooCommerce allows you to explore hundreds of alternatives and select what suits your needs. For instance, if you’re running a small business with occasional deliveries, you might prefer a per-item delivery model over a monthly subscription.

Quick Comparison between Shopify vs WooCommerce

Here’s a quick recap of the comparison between Shopify vs WooCommerce based on aspects that weren’t covered above. Let’s take a look: 

WooCommerce

Shopify

Free Trial Length

WooCommerce is an open-source plugin, which makes it free

14-day trial, with no credit card info required

Transaction Fees

You need a hosting partner and pay for the domain name, which may cost around $120 a year, and $15 for registering a domain name.

If you choose a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify will levy a transaction fee of 2%, 1%, 0.5%, or 0.15% (depending on your subscription plan) in addition to the fees charged by your chosen third-party provider.

Support

A dedicated support tab to raise issue tickets

Shopify Help Center, email and phone support

Online and Offline Usability

No offline functionality

Online and offline through Shopify’s point-of-sale (POS) kit

Platforms

Open source 

Closed platform with availability of additional plugins

Hosting

Hosting not included

Included

Subdomains

Unlimited

Unlimited

Creating Coupons

No limit on creating discount coupons

Limited to 20,000,000 unique discount codes for each store

Accepted Payment Methods

80+

Supports In-built Shopify payments and 100+

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools

Multiple SEO plugins are available for WordPress, including Yoast, which provides instant suggestions to optimize your SEO page ranking

In Shopify, you can edit title tags, meta descriptions, web pages, URLs for blog posts, products, and much more

Blogging

Supported

Supported

Have you decided between Shopify vs WooCommerce? Well! Here’s one more aspect, i.e., popularity. Here’s a data visualization showing how these platforms compare to each other in terms of global popularity: 

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Conclusion

After analyzing the comparison between WooCommerce vs Shopify, we can say both platforms have the potential to keep you satisfied with your e-commerce needs. However, if there’s one to choose from, then Shopify would be our winner. We were really impressed with its ease of use, in-built sales features and scalability capabilities. If you ask us to rate Shopify, we would definitely give it a 4.8 out of 5 stars. 

On the other hand, WooCommerce is also a fantastic platform, but it may turn out to be a little sophisticated due to the hosting, domains, and plugins needed. It seems to be a platform for experts, and beginners may find themselves lost and overwhelmed. 

FAQs

Is Shopify Better than WooCommerce?

Shopify and WooCommerce are both powerful platforms. Shopify is user-friendly and offers an all-in-one solution, making it great for beginners. On the other hand, WooCommerce offers more customization but requires some technical knowledge.

Is it Worth Moving from WooCommerce to Shopify?

If you prefer a more scalable e-commerce solution that handles technical aspects and offers robust customer support, migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify could be beneficial.

Which is Better, Shopify or WordPress?

Shopify is excellent for e-commerce-focused businesses, while WordPress offers more flexibility and is better suited for content-heavy sites.

Is WooCommerce a Part of Shopify?

No, WooCommerce is not a part of Shopify. They are separate e-commerce platforms. WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress, while Shopify is a standalone e-commerce platform.

Is there a Better Option than WooCommerce?

There are several alternatives to WooCommerce, such as Shopify, BigCommerce, and Wix, each with its own strengths. The best choice depends on your specific needs.