Shopify vs Woocommerce: Which is better?

Written By Peter L

On June 19, 2021
"

Read more

Stop doing all by yourself. Save time and money by hiring our 10+ years experienced virtual professionals!

Nowadays, many people plan to launch their e-commerce store, and it is almost certain that they come across two of the most popular platforms, i.e., Shopify and WooCommerce. It is never easy to choose between Shopify vs WooCommerce because both have their merits, and therefore, it can be a tough decision, especially if one is to start an e-commerce store.

Both the options have multiple strengths, and the best news is that you can start your e-commerce store on your own without getting any help from professional developers or designers. The main question is, which one can fit your specific needs, is better looking, cheaper, and among the easiest to work with.

 

Introduction to Shopify Vs WooCommerce

Shopify

Shopify is a mighty, reliable, and easy-to-use e-commerce platform. It offers lovely templates to its customers, and its customer support is considered one of the best. When you use Shopify, you are using your monthly premium to get a solid platform. At the same time, it takes out any competitions and technical aspects when you are running your online business.

 

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is also an e-commerce plugin through which you can get a robust online store from a WordPress site. As it is an open-source platform, therefore, it is free to install. WooCommerce can be an ideal platform for cost-conscious users, but it is worth noting that you need to pay for things like security and hosting. If you know how to code, then you can create an enormous and genuinely bespoke online store.

 

Ease of use

When we are to talk about ease of use, it means how easy it can be to set up and manage an e-commerce store between Shopify vs WooCommerce. People often refer to this comparison as Wix vs WordPress. Both have merits and demerits when it comes to ease of use. 

 

Shopify (Ease of Use)

Shopify vs Woocommerce

The subscription-based online tools are considered to be the main strengths of Shopify. The process is relatively easy, as you need to visit Shopify.com, signup, and go through the basic setup wizard. Shopify will be there to help you all along the way, as it will be asking you regarding the purpose of your store.

Shopify also gives you a few general tips regarding setting everything up and the design or structure you would like to choose. You will be able to find the whole process straightforward and don’t require design skills to get through it. Shopify is intuitive when it is about adding new products to the store.

 

WooCommerce (Ease of Use)

Woocommerce vs Shopify

Just like Shopify, WooCommerce is also relatively easy to use, but that’s not all. Although you will find it easy to use WooCommerce daily, setting up a store isn’t that easy. You have to keep in mind that WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin; therefore, it is not a subscription-based solution, which means that you need to take care of a few things before working with it.

You need to get a domain name, signup for a hosting account, install WordPress and have a WordPress theme. It is quite unfortunate that these steps may need some comfort level around the things related to the web. Other than that, you also have to take care of the design, as everything is handled through your choice’s WordPress theme.

 

Price

It is a fact that everyone who uses the web would like to have slightly more bang to buck, but with Shopify vs WooCommerce, both of these platforms have a completely different pricing approach.

Shopify (Price)

With a few pricing packages, Shopify tends to deliver you a complete solution. After signing up, you can use your new e-commerce store right away because everything you need is ready for you. The pricing structure of Shopify is conventional, and there is a scale of packages offering different features. Lite is $9 per month, Basic Shopify $29 per month, Shopify $79 per month, and Advanced Shopify $299 per month.

It would be helpful if you also kept in mind that there are transaction fees with Shopify. Whenever you sell something on this particular platform or any other, it will be charging you a small price to process the payment and deliver you the money.

 

WooCommerce (Price)

WooCommerce is technically a cheaper solution when we compare it to Shopify. The only issue with Shopify is that you will need much more work to set it up, and you also have to be careful so that it may not go over your budget. Usually, the cost of the domain name is $14.99, the SSL Certificate costs $69.99, and web hosting for $7.99 per month.

WooCommerce also has transaction fees just like Shopify, but in the end, with WooCommerce, you have to spend some good time on setting it up and managing it, and all of the processes could translate to dollars. Nowadays, you will find many hosting companies WooCommerce hosting plans, which can significantly reduce the cost.

 

Payments and fees

It is a known fact that payment processing is among the basics of an e-commerce business. There is a wide range of tools that can help you in the Shopify vs WooCommerce competition. It doesn’t matter about your products or services; in the end, it is always about converting your visitors and facilitating their transactions.

Shopify payment processing

Is shopify best

You will find Shopify to be many things when it comes to payments. Despite having several payment options, one towers above the rest, and it is Shopify Payments. At present, Shopify Payments is the default payment processor on this particular platform and comes inbuilt in a Shopify dashboard.

You have to keep in mind that Shopify Payments is only a payment application powered by Stripe. Because of Stripe, Shopify Payments becomes a very flexible processing option capable of handling a wide variety of cards. Therefore, you can accept major credit and debit cards without having any difficulties.

 

WooCommerce payment processing

Although the payment processing systems of Shopify vs WooCommerce have differences, they have a few similarities as well. WooCommerce can get you started on card processing by availing two different options, i.e., PayPal and Stripe. Therefore, it is pretty evident you will not be getting a payment gateway that is WooCommerce specific.

Both PayPal and Stripe are considered solid payment processors, and most of the WooCommerce online stores with either of the two solutions are offered. WooCommerce supports more processing solutions, and most of these solutions can easily be integrated through plugins.

 

Support

When you have an e-commerce site, there are chances that you may have technical issues. When discussing Shopify vs WooCommerce, support and customer care are essential because they have to answer the user questions and resolve their problems.

Shopify (Support)

Shopify is very well known for the high quality of its customer care. Its clients can enjoy 24/7 access to its customer support staff if they have any queries or issues. Customer support is offered via phone call, open chat, and email.

Apart from that, Shopify customers can also get access to its extensive knowledge base that can cover the common questions by its users and offer solutions to their problems. Shopify also has a directory of Shopify Experts who can be hired if you need any extra help or would like to have a third-party solution.

 

WooCommerce (Support)

Woocommerce Review

As WooCommerce is among the most popular of the platforms around, it offers you many support options that can be utilized when required. You can help yourself with the extensive documentation, guides, and tutorials through its official website.

WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin; therefore, you can get support through its WordPress forums. But at the same time, the WooCommerce team helps its users to create a free user account with woocommerce.com and get the aid through it. You can also easily find freelance developers to fix any issues with your WooCommerce store.

 

Plugins and Integrations

When you install plugins or apps, it helps you to add strings to your e-commerce bow. With Shopify vs WooCommerce, you can install apps to get extra functionality with both the platforms in all of your business areas, including SEO, marketing, and shipping.

Shopify (plugins and integrations)

There are more than 1200 free and paid apps with Shopify, and all of these apps are entirely reliable. However, if you are not quite sure which app you need to install, you can check the user reviews or the star rating.

Shopify has integrations with OptionMonster that can be helpful for you to reduce cart abandonment and grow your email list. Third-party services typically create the Shopify free apps, and they have their own pricing structure. For paid add-ons, pricing is variable, and the majority of the apps have monthly subscriptions to offer.

 

WooCommerce (Plugins and Integrations)

WooCommerce is an open-source platform; therefore, it is pretty apparent that it relies heavily on plugins. You get the option to choose from more than 50,000 plugins, and this can be very helpful for you to build your bespoke website without having any limitations.

Because of having a low entry barrier, WooCommerce has more add-ons and integrations as compared to Shopify. All of the WooCommerce third-party tools and service providers have their own plugins, and these can integrate seamlessly with your WooCommerce store. In order to create an integration or a plugin, you can also hire a developer, which makes WooCommerce a clear winner in plugins and Integrations.

 

Comparing Shopify and WooCommerce Dropshipping

With dropshipping, the e-commerce stores get the advantage of filling their orders directly from the manufacturer or the wholesaler. This means that the online store owner doesn’t require to store the products or get worried about shipping. The dropshipping method offers benefits to those who are new to Shopify vs WooCommerce dropshipping.

Shopify (Dropshipping)

Shopify is considered an easy-to-use e-commerce dropshipping platform that integrates with a number of popular marketplaces like AliExpress, Printify, Oberlo, and many more. However, it is worth noting that each of these marketplaces has its own charges, and therefore, you need to keep all this in mind when you are to build your dropshipping website.

 

WooCommerce (Dropshipping)

WooCommerce is the most popular choice for drop shippers, and the main reason is that it allows them to install extensions, and because of this, order fulfillment becomes very easy. One can easily find extensions in order to import the products and fulfill any orders.

With WooCommerce, it is also possible for you to create your own e-commerce marketplace, and therefore, other vendors are able to sell on your website. When adding products to your WooCommerce dropshipping store, it is vital that your suppliers and vendors can fulfill the minimum order requirements, the membership fees, and any other charges.

Woocommerce dropshipping

Scalability

It is essential that you think of your e-commerce platform as a business partner because it will make things easier for you to grow your business, rather than throwing any hurdles down your path. In comparison, Shopify vs WooCommerce both offer you the freedom to grow your business the way you like and scale your business to handle many traffic and orders.

 

Shopify (Scalability)

Shopify is excellent in maintaining and securing your store, and therefore, you don’t have to go through many headaches when it is about maintenance. You will only be required to stay on top of your apps and use these apps in your store so that you can continue to function in a proper way.

With the Shopify Plus Plan, you also get to offer enterprise services. This way, you are able to get rid of the painful part of your growth, and you will be worried about the scalability, performance, and security of your business. The best thing is that you will offset all of the costs, and you will not require to hire any technical team.

 

WooCommerce (Scalability)

As WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform, so you have to take all the responsibility regarding your website security, backups, and maintaining any updates. When your store starts to get more traffic, you will notice that your starter WooCommerce Plan may run out of resources. In order to manage growth and scalability, WooCommerce offers many options as you are in complete control of your website.

As your costs will increase with growth, you can easily make sure that you are only paying for those resources you need and not for those not required. In order to help scale your WooCommerce score, you can use a managed WordPress hosting provider.

 

WooCommerce page speed

On the overall load time of a website, your website’s software and hosting hardware can have a significant impact. It doesn’t matter how interested the shoppers are, and they never wait for more than a few seconds. You can lose your current and future customers if your site is loading slowly.

Study shows that WooCommerce is relatively slow and the average page loading time on all of its monitored stores 776 milliseconds, whereas its cart page loads in around 1.32 seconds.

As compared to WooCommerce, PageSpeedy is trusted by thousands of websites all over the world, having a page score of 95+ in just 2 minutes. Shopify helps to deliver you an outstanding speed and an overall user experience in the light of the fast response times.

 

Bottom Line: Shopify versus WooCommerce

Both Shopify and WooCommerce have their own advantages for specific situations. When it comes down to Shopify vs WooCommerce, some people may find Shopify to be the one for them if they value simplicity, but they wouldn’t control everything. On the other hand, WooCommerce might be the best bet for those who tend to value flexibility and ownership, and it also costs lower. But speed and maintenance of software may be the disadvantages with WooCommerce.

Also Read: Top 5 Virtual Assistant Companies in the USA
Also Read: 12 Things to be aware of before hiring a Virtual Assistant Company

 

Stop doing all by yourself. Save time and money by hiring our 10+ years experienced virtual professionals!

Guides

  • WooCommerce not sending emails
  • WordPress Speed Optimization
  • Fixing Site Issues