WooCommerce Vs Shopify: Which Ecommerce Platform Is Better?
Eastside Co? (Shopify Plus Agency)
If you're an ambitious merchant, talk to us about how you can gain a competitive edge with Shopify 2.0.
With so many ecommerce platforms available for your online store, it can be difficult to understand the pros and cons of each. We’re taking a look at how all the main ecommerce platforms stack up against Shopify, comparing lots of factors including security, marketing features, ease of use, pricing and support, plus many others. In this article we’re putting WooCommerce and Shopify to the test so you can find out which option might be best for your business.
Also, if you’re considering Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) as your ecommerce platform, don’t forget to check out our in-depth Adobe Commerce Vs Shopify article.
Chapter 1: Quick Platform Overview
What Is Shopify? Quick Platform Overview
What Is WooCommerce? Quick Platform Overview
Shopify and WooCommerce: Pros and Cons At A Glance
Pros of Shopify:
Cons of Shopify:
Pros of WooCommerce:
Cons of WooCommerce:
Shopify is a great option for those who value ease of use and customer support, while WooCommerce is a better choice for those who want more control and flexibility over their store.
Chapter 2: Is WooCommerce or Shopify Easier To Use?
WooCommerce Ease of Use
WooCommerce will be familiar to those who know WordPress, as it’s essentially an add-on to the popular blogging platform. WordPress is traditionally for content-driven websites as opposed to ecommerce, so WooCommerce is WordPress’s provision for those who want to sell online.
Because WordPress is a content management system (CMS) first and an ecommerce platform second, many of the ecommerce features are more basic, or rely on adding apps. While there are plenty of apps and plug-ins that can be added to a WooCommerce store, the more you use, the more likely it is that something will break. This isn’t always a risk worth taking, considering limited support options.
After installing WooCommerce, you will see different options on your WordPress dashboard, including adding products, orders, coupons, and more. You can add products or customise the appearance directly from the dashboard with just a few clicks.
However, WooCommerce can be more complex since it’s a plugin for WordPress and requires some knowledge of WordPress to use effectively. It also requires more initial configuration since you need to install and configure WordPress and the WooCommerce plugin.
There are also plenty of blogs, tutorials, and instructional videos that show you how to set up your WooCommerce store. However, there is a steep learning curve, especially if this is your first WordPress website.
Overall, WooCommerce’s fragility and unreliability makes it difficult, not only to build an online store but also to maintain it.
Shopify Ease of Use
Shopify is an easy ecommerce platform to use, with no specialist developer skills or technical knowledge required. In order to get an online store up and running on Shopify you just need to register an account. You can even try it for free for 14 days (although you can’t start trading until you select a plan).
Every aspect of Shopify’s dashboard has been designed to enable teams and administrators of all abilities to use it confidently and competently, without spending time on simple tasks in the admin area of the site.
In a nutshell, Shopify is suitable for users of all technical abilities, whereas WooCommerce requires a level of knowledge when it comes to WordPress to get the most out of it.
Chapter 3: WooCommerce Vs Shopify - Time to Market
How Long to Get Up and Running on WooCommerce?
A free, standalone plugin, WooCommerce is an open-source platform for WordPress. The WooCommerce plugin converts your website to an online sales site. If you have an existing WordPress site, it can take as little as an hour to download, setup, and configure. If you don’t own a WordPress website, aren’t familiar with how the platform works, or are implementing more than four plugins, it will take approximately 20 hours to get up and running.
In addition to this, you’ll also need to select your shipping options, payment gateway, security setup and any other plugins.
How Long to Get Up and Running on Shopify?
Shopify is a quick-to-market, specifically ecommerce platform, designed to let business owners create and launch a store quickly and start selling online in no time. It’s feasible to create and launch your Shopify ecommerce store on the same day.
As a caveat, similar to WooCommerce’s ‘time to market’, it does depend on the size and complexity of the business, but a lot of merchants choose Shopify primarily thanks to its ease of use and user-friendly interface and admin panel which means it’s quicker to get up and running. It also takes care of other elements like security that take time to set up and configure on other platforms.
Shopify stores can also take longer to launch if you want to create a custom store with bespoke functionality. For example if you use a Shopify Plus expert like Eastside Co to create a custom ecommerce experience, you will need to factor in design and development time for the team to bring the store to life before launch. For businesses that need to launch more quickly, we’ve created our Accelerator Programme which enables businesses to get their newly designed and developed stores live on a brand new, lightning fast Shopify 2.0 store in around 4 weeks.
Chapter 4: Security - Is Shopify or WooCommerce More Secure?
WooCommerce Security
WooCommerce doesn’t feature built-in security. You’ll need to install additional plugins to keep your store and customers safe from hackers and data breaches. It also lacks PCI compliance, which puts your business at risk from a security point of view when processing payments.
There are a variety of plugins for you to choose from - but sourcing and configuring these plugins can be a significant amount of work. Plus, it’s not hosted, so you’ll have the added task and cost of managing your website hosting. WooCommerce has put together a list of hosting providers for you to choose from, but it’s another thing on the list for you to sort out.
Shopify Security
Shopify manages the security side out of the box and each store comes with an SSL certificate (most modern browsers indicate that a website is secured with SSL by displaying a padlock icon). All stores on Shopify are PCI compliant (this means they are compliant with the policies and procedures which protect credit, debit and cash card transactions, and protect against the misuse of cardholders' personal information). In essence, this means payment information and business data is kept safe.
Shopify’s compliance covers all 6 PCI standard categories and applies to every Shopify store:
Chapter 5: Which Is Best for Customisation and Design: WooCommerce or Shopify?
WooCommerce Customisation and Design
The ability to design and customise your website to create a unique brand experience and drive more sales is key for any ecommerce store.
After selecting and setting up your own hosting plan, building your store on WooCommerce typically involves more work to ensure that your store has the design and functionality you need.
There are WooCommerce page builders that you can install - these enable you to change the layout in the online store using drag and drop functionality, without coding knowledge. For more complicated design needs, users may need to write their own code or hire a developer.
This does allow for more creative freedom, more bespoke branding, and a user experience that’s tailored to your audience. However, with this flexibility comes complexity and it means there is more of a learning curve than with Shopify. Creating a WooCommerce store is different from a platform like Shopify, which is specifically dedicated to ecommerce instead of being a bolt-on to a content-based platform.
Shopify Customisation and Design
Shopify offers a wide range of themes and responsive starting templates. There is an extensive library with themes available to download - starting from free, going up to $380, to use as starting points which can be customised.
Customisation is also possible through over 8,000 free and paid for apps available in the Shopify App store.
Shopify has designed its admin panel and UI in such a way as to mean you can change fonts, colours, images, logos and layouts really easily with drag and drop functionality.
Whichever Shopify template you use, you have the option to adjust the layout, and you don’t need to know code or have any technical knowledge. Its native theme editor allows some flexibility in changing the appearance of the theme. You can add different content sections to your homepage, like carousels for product images, for example.
If you want to customise your Shopify layout any further than this, then it’s possible, but you need to have knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Of course, if you want your Shopify store to go beyond theme builds to create a unique ecommerce experience for your customers, but don’t have the technical knowledge required, you can always work with a Shopify Plus Partner like Eastside Co with in-house design and development teams to create bespoke stores.
Chapter 6: Does Shopify or WooCommerce Have the Best Sales Tools?
WooCommerce Sales Tools
Shopify Sales Tools
POS (Point of Sale)
Shopify has standalone point-of-sale (POS) software with inventory tracking, analytics and staff logins and management. You can create omni channel processes and fulfil orders through local pickup, local delivery and let customers buy online, pick up in-store or at curbside. Shopify POS also includes physical hardware: a card reader, receipt printer and barcode scanner.
‘WooCommerce POS’ is available as a plugin - it’s open source software that you can install on your store, but there is no official hardware that accompanies it. Your product inventory is stored locally. The WooCommerce cart has been rewritten in javascript and moved client-side which allows instant feedback when you add, remove or adjust products.
Chapter 7: WooCommerce Vs Shopify: Development and Coding
WooCommerce Development and Coding
Thanks to the WooCommerce platform being open source, it means it’s available for any developers to study, modify, use and distribute the software and source code. This has helped WooCommerce grow a huge community of users. Developers are able to modify it to fit their specific purposes, and consider it one of the best ecommerce plugins for WordPress.
Shopify Development and Coding
Shopify stores are designed to be simple to set up with no coding knowledge. However, if an online business wants a custom store that will really represent the brand and help it stand out from the crowd with unique functionality, it would be beneficial to partner with Shopify developers to create a unique ecommerce experience.
Chapter 8: Shopify and Woocommerce Marketing Features
WooCommerce Marketing Features
As mentioned in the ‘sales tools’ section, you can promote your WooCommerce store through additional channels by integrating with third-party marketplaces, including Facebook, Google Ads, Pinterest, Instagram, Amazon and eBay.
There is no built-in email marketing functionality, but it’s possible to integrate with third party providers - the 3 recommended by WooCommerce are MailPoet (free), Automate Woo ($83) and mailchimp (free).
Coupons can be enabled from the setting area, which enable you to create discounts. It’s also possible to create points and rewards schemes with a plugin, while another plugin allows you to offer free gifts to customers that buy from you.
As you might expect, the blog area of Woocommerce is solidly constructed (as that was the original foundation of the WordPress platform) which lets you communicate with your customers, show your expertise and improve your search performance.
A free add-on called WooCommerce Product Blocks enables customers to explore your product range by letting you link to and suggest relevant products directly on your product pages, or even from blog posts or landing pages.
Shopify Marketing Features
Shopify has a lot of built-in marketing features as well as the ability to connect with third party functionality. Here’s a rundown of some of the key elements.
A blog area comes as standard, which can help attract traffic and increase your audience and sales. It’s easy to use and a good tool to use to help your store rank in search engine results.
You also have access to reporting and analytics in the dashboard to help direct and monitor the performance of your marketing campaigns.
‘Sidekick’ is a new element released by Shopify - it’s a commerce assistant that combines advanced AI technology and Shopify's data to offer personalised, contextually relevant support for a range of tasks, from building a store, to marketing, to customer support and back office management. It saves you trawling through help docs - you can simply ask it questions like ‘what kind of discounts can i implement?’ and it will let you know. As well as answering help questions, it will do things like set up discounts for you across your store. In addition to this, it can amend your store by responding to requests like ‘make my theme look like summer’ and it will refresh the look of your store accordingly.
Shopify Email is an app (with free and paid plans depending on required function) which lets businesses create automated workflows and templates, for strategic campaigns delivered to the right customers at the right time. It helps improve communications with your customer base to encourage more sales.
It’s also an option, similar to WooCommerce, to integrate with third party email and marketing platforms such as Klaviyo, mailchimp or Omnisend to go beyond what is available natively on the platform if you want more sophisticated email and marketing automation.
Finally, there are lots of agencies like Eastside Co who can support ecommerce businesses with marketing services and provide expertise in tactics such as Google Ads, email marketing, SEO, PPC and more.
Chapter 9: WooCommerce Vs Shopify: Apps, Plugins, Extensions
Woocommerce Plugins
Plugins are available on the WooCommerce Extensions Store. There are around 850 available, covering categories including payments, shipping, conversion, customer service, merchandising, marketing and more.
Price-wise, there is a range starting from free, going all the way up to $299 per year. They’re created by hundreds of different developers and WordPress vet each new extension and regularly review existing extensions to maintain Marketplace quality standards. They say they ‘are actively looking for products that help store builders create successful stores’.
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Shopify Apps
The Shopify App Store has over 8,000 apps available from Shopify and third party developers, which let you customise your store with additional features and functionality. Each app on the store is reviewed by a team at Shopify and has to tick every box on a rigorous 100-point checkpoint review before being released.
Price-wise, there are many free apps (and apps with free versions that have stripped back functionality), some with a one-off fee to install, and some that have a monthly or annual subscription cost.
Apps are separated into categories similar to the WooCommerce Extensions Store: from apps to improve search functionality, increase upsell, enhance store design, manage orders and deal with shipping - you name it, there’s probably an app for it. We have a blog which looks at a list of some of our favourite Shopify apps to give you a flavour of what’s available.
Chapter 10: Shopify and WooCommerce Payment Gateways and Transaction Fees
WooCommerce Payment Gateways
By supporting as many different payment methods as possible, you can make your store easier to use for your customers by giving them more options. WooCommerce and Shopify both support multiple payment gateways.
WooCommerce supports all the major gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, Square, and Authorize.Net. It also supports plenty of more local gateways including the PencePay processor, which focuses on emerging markets.
It’s worth bearing in mind that some of these gateways require you to purchase an additional WooCommerce extension.
Shopify Payment Gateways
Our Shopify payment gateways blog looks in more detail at some of the options and prices available on the Shopify platform, but here is an overview of how it works.
In addition to our payment gateway blog, our full guide to Shopify pricing talks through all the plan prices and transaction fees in detail.
Shopify has its own payment processor called Shopify Payments. This has no transaction fees (except the normal credit card processing fees).
The platform also integrates with more than 100 third party payment gateways, offering a lot of flexibility to merchants and customers. These gateways include names like PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, and Apple Pay. Each payment gateway has its own pricing structure and level of accessibility, so it’s a good idea to consider integrating several payment providers to give customers more flexibility. It’s also key to consider transaction fees when using payment platforms, as some can be more expensive than others. (Third-party payment gateways tend to have a transaction fee.)
Chapter 11: Which Is Best For Content Management: Shopify or WooCommerce?
WooCommerce Content Management
WooCommerce has content at its core - it was originally created as a way to allow content-based sites on WordPress to expand into ecommerce. As such, its blog area is very well developed, with a WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get). As you edit the text, you can see exactly what it will look like on your website, instead of looking at code. As mentioned elsewhere in this article, you’ll need plugins for managing other content based areas of the site, such as collection and product pages.
Shopify Content Management
Shopify’s built-in CMS (Content Management System) allows merchants on the platform to run and manage their own blog. An easy-to-use editor means you can change headers and the typeface, add links and images, and lots more. An ever-growing set of features allows admins to create, edit, manage, and publish content across blogs, product and collection pages, and more. It’s a great tool for helping your store to rank for key terms in search and to help demonstrate your expertise in your niche.
Chapter 12: WooCommerce Vs Shopify: SEO Performance
WooCommerce SEO
Out-of-the-box, WooCommerce’s code is optimised for SEO. You can also add meta descriptions and titles to your product pages and customise your URLs. These measures can help improve the chances of your store appearing in relevant search engine results.
Furthermore, you can increase WooCommerce’s SEO performance by installing additional plugins that allow you to gain insights, understand what is and isn’t working, and improve SEO performance by taking action. These include software that’s designed specifically to improve your SEO, such as Yoast SEO and The SEO Framework.
Shopify for SEO
Shopify also has built-in SEO features like meta descriptions, meta titles, and more allowing you to optimise your website for performance in search. Merchants can also add additional features through a range of apps on the Shopify App Store. Shopify’s content management system allows businesses to build their own blog on their website to improve search engine rankings.
(For a full guide into SEO on Shopify, our experts wrote the book on SEO on Shopify which is available to read for free and covers everything from site optimisation, apps and tracking to canonicalisation and selling internationally.)
Chapter 13: Shipping and Inventory - Shopify or WooCommerce?
Shipping and Inventory for WooCommerce
On WooCommerce, you can use extensions like WooCommerce Shipping. You can print labels and manage the entire process on the same admin panel as your website.
You can ship orders through DHL Express and USPS on WooCommerce.
Apart from being easier to manage, running your order fulfilment process through your ecommerce platform gives you access to lower courier fees. WooCommerce promises a discount of up to 67% on shipping.
You can see the cost of shipping using the different options you make available. This is available via a plugin on WooCommerce.
Managing inventory on Woocommerce is again, achieved through plugins. Choose one that will let you bulk edit stock, calculate pricing and stock levels, add large numbers of products, and export data. ATUM and PlainInventory Management are two examples of free inventory management plugins.
Shipping and Inventory for Shopify
Order fulfilment features are built-in on Shopify. In the same way as WooCommerce, you can print labels and manage the process on the same admin panel as your store.
Shopify lets merchants use a number of third party carriers, including DHL Express, UPS shipments and USPS. Shipping discounts are slightly higher up Shopify than WooCommerce, going up to 88%.
You can see the cost of shipping using the different options you make available. This is integrated into Shopify.
You can set up inventory tracking, view your inventory, and adjust your inventory levels in the Inventory area of Shopify. You can also view the history of inventory adjustments for products and variants whose inventory is being tracked by Shopify. You can analyse changes to inventory levels in the Inventory Reports section of Shopify.
Chapter 14: Is Shopify or WooCommerce Best For Scalability
WooCommerce Scalability
With WooCommerce, you’re in full control of your site so it’s up to you to maintain elements like updates, security and backup.
In order to future-proof your store, you need to pick a hosting that can support your store’s growth. A starter WooCommerce hosting plan may be sufficient at first, but it won’t provide enough resources to handle the increased demand.
As you upgrade to a higher plan, you’ll be paying for the extra resources that meet your current needs. You can also take away some of the hassle of scaling your store by going with managed WordPress hosting.
Shopify Scalability
Being a fully hosted platform, Shopify handles all the technical aspects of your store. It has enough infrastructure to handle the growth of your business - all you have to do is upgrade your Shopify plan.
Shopify Plus is built to scale with businesses using the platform. It can manage stores with a lot of traffic, making it suitable for any brand with big plans for growth. With Shopify Plus, you can focus on growing your business without having to take into account server management, performance issues or your business becoming too big for the platform to handle.
Although Plus comes at an increased cost, things like downtime, backups, security, and updates will be off your hands, and you won’t have the cost of a technical team.
Chapter 15: Selling Internationally on WooCommerce and Shopify
Selling Internationally On WooCommerce
It is possible to sell internationally on WooCommerce. As you might have guessed by now, you’ll need to spend some time configuring your store with plugins like WooCommerce Tax which calculates sales tax for different territories, and WooCommerce Shipping which helps with labels and shipping rates. It might be worth considering Woo Enterprise if you’re looking to go international, as it’s designed for high volume businesses.
Selling Internationally on Shopify
Shopify Plus is designed for businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to enterprise brands engaged in global commerce, and the platform is constantly releasing features like Shopify Markets to help merchants sell in new territories and markets with ease.
We’ve written the Ultimate Guide to Going International on Shopify, covering key topics like: when you should make the decision to go international; what costs are involved; what you need to succeed in a new market; understanding the competition; adhering to rules and regulations; streamlining sales; and much more. We also have a full guide to hreflang on Shopify which can help solve SEO challenges when it comes to expanding into new markets.
In summary though, Shopify is designed to power businesses of all sizes and can easily cater for brands that sell in multiple territories, either from the same store or with different stores in each market.
Chapter 16: Help and Support
When you set up your online store, you want to be sure that it is well supported if you have any technical issues. Here’s a comparison of the support provided by WooCommerce and Shopify.
WooCommerce Support
WooCommerce is an open-source plugin and as such, has no official support channel. However, the WooCommerce site offers a range of resources including tutorials, videos, and a knowledge base.
There are also plenty of articles available that cover WooCommerce, which can be helpful. If you use a managed WooCommerce hosting provider like Cloudways, they also provide 24/7 support through live chat, calls, and a ticketing system.
Shopify Support
Shopify provides 24/7 support through live chat, calls, and emails, making it easy to get help whenever needed.
There is also an extensive knowledge base and user guides to answer common questions, which lessens the need to contact support. If you need additional help, you can also hire a Shopify expert.
Overall, Shopify offers better customer support than WooCommerce, with a dedicated support team that can provide expert advice on technical issues, marketing, and sales. WooCommerce doesn’t have this kind of setup available.
Chapter 17: Pricing - Shopify Vs WooCommerce
WooCommerce Pricing
When it comes to pricing for WooCommerce, you need to factor in several factors that are all taken into account with Shopify’s plans, for example, hosting and domain fees. WooCommerce and WordPress both recommend hosts like SiteGround, Bluehost, and Pressable. These hosts are great to start with because they’ve invested in the WordPress ecosystem and are knowledgeable about options unique to WooCommerce stores. Hosting on average, costs $120 (￡95) per year, with domain registration coming in at about $15 (￡12) but it depends. It could be more.
It could be argued that Woo Express is the simplest option and can help remove some of the additional factors and fees. It includes hosting, tools to grow your business, and more, and costs $25 (￡20) per month, billed annually. Try it free for 14 days.
Shopify Pricing
Shopify’s Basic plan starts at ￡19 per month. This helps you get started in ecommerce and allows you to set up your store, access various sales channels, create inventory locations and promote and sell unlimited products.
The core Shopify plan is available for ￡49 per month, with Advanced coming in at ￡259 per month. Shopify Plus is the enterprise level plan which starts at around ￡1,500 per month.
For a full breakdown of Shopify’s various plans, features, benefits and pricing, check out our comprehensive guide to Shopify pricing.
Shopify also offers a free trial which lets you set up your store and create all your products. You can’t sell until you sign up to a plan though.
Chapter 18: Shopify Vs WooCommerce FAQs
Is WooCommerce or Shopify better?
Shopify was built specifically for ecommerce while WooCommerce is an extra component added to WordPress, which was designed for content. If you’re looking to grow an online business Shopify would be the recommended platform whereas WooCommerce is better suited for a content-based website that has a commerce component.
If you’re looking for a cost-effective solution and you want full control of your online store, then WooCommerce is the best platform for you.
If you want something that’s completely hassle-free with infinite scalability, then Shopify is the better platform.
What is the main difference between WooCommerce and Shopify?
WooCommerce is open-source (like Adobe Commerce) whereas Shopify is not. Shopify has everything you need out of the box, such as hosting, SSL certificate, subdomain, support, fraud detection and other features, whereas WooCommerce is more reliant on plugins to get it to the same place in terms of features required to run an online store.
Which costs the most: WooCommerce or Shopify?
Wordpress and its ecommerce element, WooCommerce, are both free, compared to a monthly cost which applies to the different Shopify pricing plans. However, it’s worth bearing in mind the additional costs associated with trading on WooCommerce vs Shopify (such as SSL certificates, fraud detection and other plugins to get an online store up and running).
Is Shopify better for ecommerce than WooCommerce?
Shopify was built for ecommerce from the ground up, whereas WooCommerce was built after Wordpress was created, as an ecommerce plugin instead of an integrated product. Shopify is better for ecommerce with over 8,000 apps, its easy-to-set-up store, and an award-winning 24/7 support team.
Should I use Shopify POS or WooCommerce POS?
Both platforms have POS (point of sale) hardware. If you choose WooCommerce as the place for your ecommerce store, then you should use its POS hardware - and if you’re on Shopify, you should choose the Shopify POS software as it’s designed to integrate with the platform. For further information, you can read our guide to Shopify POS.
Shopify POS Lite is included in all plans at no additional cost. This allows you to accept in-person payments at pop-ups, markets and fairs. Shopify POS Pro has additional features and costs $89 USD per month, per location. WooCommerce has different plugins for you to choose from that will work with the hardware, and they have different features and pricing.
If you’d like any advice about moving from WooCommerce to Shopify; if you’re looking to launch a new Shopify store; if you need marketing support or if you need any ongoing Shopify services - get in touch and have a chat with one of our ecommerce experts today.
Ecommerce accounts management Operations / SEO & Marketplace management (Amazon -Jumia - Noon ) / Backend Experience (WooCommerce , Shopify . Magento )
2 周i think woo commerce then salla
Email Strategist | Customer Retention | Data-Driven Solutions | Email & SMS
11 个月Very comprehensive insight. Thank you for this!