Shopify vs WooCommerce

Cost: subscription vs ownership

Shopify charges a monthly plan, payment processing fees and often app subscriptions. Using third-party payment gateways instead of Shopify Payments can add extra transaction fees. In return, hosting, security, updates and checkout performance are handled for you.

WooCommerce has no platform subscription, but you pay for hosting, premium extensions, and the time or service needed for updates, security and backups. For small stores without technical help, these hidden costs can exceed Shopify's fees.

Ease of use and maintenance

Shopify's admin is designed for merchants and is easy to learn. Updates happen automatically, and outages or security issues are Shopify's responsibility.

WooCommerce inherits WordPress's flexibility and its maintenance needs: core, theme and plugin updates, compatibility testing and security hardening. With a good developer or maintenance plan, this is manageable; without one, it's a common source of problems.

Customisation and content

WooCommerce gives complete control over code and data, which suits unusual product types, complex pricing or deep integration with content. WordPress's content tools make it strong for stores where articles, guides and editorial content drive sales.

Shopify is highly customisable through themes, apps and its APIs, and headless set-ups remove most front-end limits. Checkout customisation is more restricted on standard plans.

Which should you choose?

• Choose Shopify if…

  You want to launch quickly, have no in-house developer, value reliability and prefer predictable monthly costs.

• Choose WooCommerce if…

  Content is central, you need deep customisation or full data control, and you have developer support for maintenance.

• Consider headless if…

  You need top performance or unique experiences and can invest in a larger build.

SEO and performance

Our general recommendation

Scenario: a small fashion brand

A two-person fashion brand with around a hundred products wants to launch quickly, sell in a few countries and spend its time on marketing rather than servers. Shopify fits well: hosting, security and checkout are handled, themes are strong, and apps cover reviews, email and shipping.

WooCommerce could work too, but the brand would need hosting, updates and security monitoring, and someone to handle problems when plugins conflict.

Scenario: a publisher selling products

A content-heavy site with hundreds of articles that also sells courses and merchandise already runs on WordPress. Adding WooCommerce keeps content and commerce in one place, with full control over templates and data.

Moving everything to Shopify would mean splitting content and store or migrating years of articles, which may not be worth it.

Total cost of ownership factors

Migration between the two

Products, customers and orders can move in either direction with migration tools and some cleanup. The harder parts are custom features, design and SEO: redirects must map old URLs to new ones.

If you're unsure which to choose, picking the one that fits your next two to three years is more sensible than planning for every possible future.

International selling

Shopify Markets helps manage currencies, languages and local pricing from one store. WooCommerce supports international selling through plugins for currency, translation and tax, giving more control with more set-up.

For brands selling in several countries without technical staff, Shopify's built-in tools are often simpler.