WordPress Or Shopify: Which One Wins the Battle For E-commerce

Thinking of launching your own business? Then you must be familiar with the debate of “WordPress vs Shopify.” It is no secret that your website is the most important part of your business. It is where your potential customers land to purchase your offerings, therefore, it is quite evident that you can’t take any chances and leave a bad impression. However, selecting the right platform to launch your online store is far from an easy task. Although there are several good platforms to choose from, WordPress and Shopify top the charts in 2022 as well.

Whether you are starting from the beginning or just not satisfied with your current website, it is always a good time to hop on one of these platforms and turn your vision into reality. But which one? This article will serve as a detailed and easy-to-understand comparison of WordPress vs Shopify and we’re sure that by the end of it, you will be able to make your decision.

First, we will talk about what WordPress is, its characteristics, benefits, and cons.

What Is WordPress?

As you might know by now, WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems that enable you to host and create websites. It apparently powers more than 40% of websites. Upon searching for WordPress, you’ll come across wordpress.org and wordpress.com which might add to your difficulty to choose a platform. Well, that’s what we are here for.

The former one is an open-source Content Management System (CMS) and comes with many customization options. While wordpress.com is a managed hosting platform that offers users a platform to build a site without any coding experience or expertise. It is considered best for beginners who prefer an uncomplicated website. However, wordpress.org is a more flexible tool that can meet the needs of almost any web design project, given it has efficient website developers and suitable plugins. You’ll just need to keep in mind that since it is self-hosted, you will need to pay for domain registration, hosting, developments, and plugins.

Pros of Using WordPress

Ease Of Use

As we’ve already mentioned above, WordPress is extremely flexible and considered very easy to use. A platform for both beginners and seasoned professionals. Moreover, it comes with an intuitive interface so adding new pages, blog posts, and images is literally a piece of cake.

Availability of Plugins

This range of plugins available on WordPress will surprise you – for all the good reasons, of course. This platform has more than 45,000 plugins for almost all functions. Plus, you also have the option to purchase and install custom plugins from third-party developers. Whether you want to enhance the SEO or analyze the performance of your website, you will find a suitable plugin. Some plugins that we always recommend for every website are the contact form plugin, SEO plugin, and analytics plugin.

WordPress Is FREE

Yes, you read that right. WordPress is free software, which means you can easily download it, install, use, or alter it according to your needs. This also includes regular updates and security patches. However, there’s a catch. To use the premium version of WordPress, you will need to pay a certain price. But the basic version is 100% free, which is not so bad, right?

Mobile-Friendly

8 people out of 10 shop from their mobile phones when it comes to online shopping. Therefore, making sure that your website is mobile-friendly is extremely important. Luckily, most of the WordPress themes are mobile-responsive.

Search Engine Friendly

To say that SEO is important for e-commerce websites would be an understatement. Your online store needs to rank higher than your competitors so that new buyers can be turned into loyal customers. WordPress sites are seen to rank higher, mostly because they are constantly being updated.

Cons Of Using WordPress

Customization

Yeah, we know we’ve mentioned a thousand times that WordPress is extremely flexible then how can customization be an issue? Updating WordPress can be bit of a problem as it can interrupt some other functionalities. Even though experienced developers can sort this out for you, this still comes as a disadvantage.

Data Security

As WordPress is an open-source system, it is more exposed to cyber-attacks. This is a major drawback of using WordPress and even the security plugins are sometimes not enough to protect your website. However, with the help of the right web developers, you can prevent this.

Slow Speed

We all can agree here that one thing that online customers despise is the slow page speed. Unfortunately, this comes under the umbrella of the cons of WordPress. Some of the reasons are excessive use of plugins and the use of themes that are not properly optimized. This can be extremely frustrating and prompt the users to return from your online store disappointed.

Constant Updates

Updating the website from time to time is important but frequent updates can make maintenance very difficult in certain areas, and even worse, break the entire site. So, if you are using WordPress, make sure to get a backup of your data.

Now that we’ve established what WordPress is, let’s move on to Shopify.

What Is Shopify?

Shopify is another website builder for e-commerce. From setup to selling your products online, it offers complete solutions and comes with multiple packages and features that allow you to easily launch your business online. One major concept behind Shopify is that businesses may still build their own stores without the use of code, even if they have no design or technical experience. However, Shopify also offers the option to change the website's HTML and CSS, allowing users with coding knowledge to further tailor their stores.

Shopify is a software as a service (SaaS), signifying that?you pay a monthly fee rather than buying a copy of the software. It functions within the cloud service as a web application. You can manage your business from anywhere in the globe as long as you have a web browser and the availability of?the internet.

Pros of Shopify

Simplicity & Ease Of Use

Like WordPress, Shopify is also very easy to use. You won’t be required to have coding skills or tech expertise to set up your e-commerce website. With an uncomplicated and clean interface, you can get your online store up and running in a few days.

Customer Support

Did something go wrong? Don’t worry. You won’t need to get a team of developers on board to sort it out. Shopify has excellent email, chat, and phone support with knowledgeable representatives on the other side to help you out. When you are focused on running your online, it feels like a blessing to constantly have someone at your back with efficient solutions to your problem and Shopify provides you that.

Good Speed

We can’t stress enough how important good page speed is. Study shows that the ideal page loading time should not be more than 1-2 seconds or else users will move on to the next website. A major benefit that Shopify brings is the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for speed enhancement, allowing e-commerce websites to deliver content quickly to shoppers.

Security

In order to protect your customers’ credit card information, you need to build multiple layers of security. Shopify acts extremely efficiently in this area by outsourcing payments to third-party like PayPal or Google Wallet.

Search Engine Optimization

Shopify has some built-in SEO features which Shopify sellers can take advantage of. You can edit title tags, URLs, and meta descriptions to meet the certain needs of your audience. A blog category for content marketing is also available on Shopify. The blog function features easy-to-set tags, supports many authors, is fully connected with your e-commerce website, and offers customizable SEO settings.

Cons Of Using Shopify

Limited Customization Options

Shopify does provide a wide selection of themes, but there are limits to how much you may customize the design. You will need to work with a designer if you want to make big changes to the way your store looks and feels.

A Bit On The Pricier Side

Unlike WordPress, you will need to pay a monthly fee in order to use Shopify. Any premium features that you might want to use come with a cost as well. Although, some people don’t consider this a drawback as they generate more revenue through the purchased features. It’s upon you to consider this as an investment or not.

No Email Hosting

This will come as a big disappointment; Shopify does not have email hosting in its plan, which means you can’t have an email with your shop name. A third-party email hosting connection needs to be used.

Conclusion

It is very hard to say one is better than the other as everyone has different requirements for their e-commerce website. Go through the pros and cons of each platform and hopefully you’ll be able to make the right choice.?