Shopify vs WooCommerce

Before we start with our in-depth comparison of the two most popular eCommerce platforms on the web, it’s important that we cover the basics and highlight what makes these platforms stand out.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an across the board eCommerce Platform that makes it simple for you to make an online store, acknowledge installments, and deal with your stock all from a solitary stage while never stressing over the specialized parts of dealing with a site, for example, a web hosting, security, reserving, and so on

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce plugin built for WordPress. It permits you to use the most impressive content management system (CMS) and use it to run an online store. In light of the open-source nature, you can redo each part of your store and effectively fabricate custom augmentations.

The decision to choose between the two platforms depends entirely on your needs and skill level.

What to Look for in Your eCommerce Platform?

There are not many things that you totally need to learn when beginning an online store. These key variables will assist you with choosing which stage is more qualified for your necessities.

Budget – The initial cost of starting a fully functional eCommerce store.
Ease of use – It should be easy to use even for absolute beginners.
Payment Methods – It should have support for multiple payment methods (e.g. PayPal, Stripe, other merchant processors).
Integrations – Number of services and third-party tools you can integrate to grow your business.
Scalability – The platform should be able to scale as your business grows.

These are the essential requirements that all online storekeepers should consider. In any case, contingent upon your necessities, you may likewise need to take a gander at different choices like transportation, stock administration, invoicing, charges, outsourcing, and so forth

Our objective with this article is to take an inside and out gander at how Shopify and WooCommerce remain on these fundamental prerequisites, and which one of them is most appropriate for your necessities.

Cost: Shopify vs WooCommerce

Cost is frequently the main thought for eCommerce website owners. You need to calculate the cost of getting started while also keeping in mind the variable costs for add-on services and software.

The true cost of using Shopify

Shopify makes it too simple to begin your online store. Their basic plan starts at $29 per month, and you can upgrade to the Shopify plan for $79 or the Advanced Shopify plan for $299 per month.

Every one of these plans incorporates a domain name, SSL certificate, and Web Hosting.

The fundamental arrangement accompanies enough highlights to set up another online store. You can add limitless items, 2 client accounts, limitless document stockpiling, and then some.

In any case, this pricing does exclude outsider devices and additional items that you should take your Shopify store to the following level. As your business develops, these costs will begin adding up, and you’ll before long be paying significantly more than the essential arrangement.

Payments are another factor that affects your costs. Shopify offers their own Shopify Payments solution which costs 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction.

If you want to use third-party payment gateways or your own merchant account, then you will be charged a flat fee of 2.0% for all transactions. You can reduce this fee to 0.5% by using the Shopify Advanced plan which costs $299 per month.

These payment processing charges are genuinely steep when utilizing outer payment gateways. Nonetheless, in case you’re simply beginning and need to utilize the Shopify payment solution, at that point the charges are genuinely tantamount to well-known stages like Stripe and Braintree.

The true cost of using WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an eCommerce plugin for WordPress.org (also known as self-hosted WordPress). It is open-source and freely available as a WordPress plugin.

However, you’ll need a domain name, SSL Certificate, and a WordPress hosting account to start a WooCommerce store.

Typically, a domain name costs $14.99, SSL Certificate costs $69.99, and web hosting around $7.99 / month. This is not cheap, particularly when you are just starting out.

Thankfully, there are several hosting companies that are now offering specialized WooCommerce hosting plans which significantly reduces the cost.

Bluehost, an official WordPress, and WooCommerce recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a discount on web hosting.

This will help you start your online store for as low as $6.95 / month.

Click here to claim this exclusive Bluehost offer

As you can see, the cost of starting a basic WooCommerce store is significantly lower than Shopify. WooCommerce also doesn’t charge you a percentage fee for your transactions which is a very nice perk.

However, the WooCommerce costs begin accumulating as you buy paid expansions. Your hosting price will also increase as your online store grows.

Nonetheless, one way from utilizing WooCommerce is that you can regularly discover free options in contrast to the paid expansions. You can likewise keep your expenses in charge by just buying the devices and modules as you need them.

With the number of free themes and free additional items accessible for WooCommerce, it’s very the victor with regards to cost.

Winner: WooCommerce

Ease of Use: Shopify vs WooCommerce

Shopify is a totally Hosted stage which infers you don’t need to present, supervise, or update any item. You likewise don’t have to stress over security, execution, reinforcements, and similarity issues.

When you join, it encourages you to pick a plan for your website. Starting now and into the foreseeable future, they walk you through customization and a short time later assist you to add things.

WooCommerce – Ease of Use

WooCommerce is not a hosted platform like Shopify. This infers you ought to present WooCommerce, regulate invigorates, keep fortifications, and guarantee that your site is secure There is a great deal of free and paid plugins that can automate by far most of these tasks for you.

When you join, it encourages you to pick a plan for your website. From that point forward, they walk you through customization and afterward help you add items.

WooCommerce is very adaptable with regards to customizations. You have full control of the whole platform. You can add any functionality imaginable to your website with the help of more than 55,000+ WordPress plugins.

Nonetheless, there is no implicit drag and drop plan developer. You can use one of the WordPress page engineers like Beaver Builder, in any case, it adds to your cost.

The greatest disadvantage of adaptability is that it accompanies an expectation to absorb information and requires more involved administration of your website. You additionally need to information exchange for a trader account or comparative assistance like Stripe/PayPal.

While the WooCommerce guided setup wizard is helpful, it does not come close to the onboarding and ease of use of Shopify.

Winner: Shopify

Payment Methods: Shopify vs WooCommerce

There are numerous installment entryways that you can use to acknowledge installments on the web. Some portion strategies may not be sensible for you, and others may not be open to your customers.

This is the reason it’s significant that the stage you pick offers various installment alternatives. How about we investigate how Shopify and WooCommerce contrast when it accompanies installment combinations.

Payment Options in Shopify

Shopify offers a lot of installment choices that you can use to get installments from clients. It has its own installment arrangement called Shopify Payments (controlled by Stripe) just as all mainstream outsider installment entryways.

The problem is that Shopify charges an extra 2% fee on each transaction made through third-party payment gateways. This is on top of the exchange expenses charged by the installment passage. You can reduce the fee to 0.5% by paying $299 per month for the Advanced Shopify plan.

Shopify Payments has level charge card costs, anyway no other trade charges. Shopify Payments has level charge card costs, anyway no other trade charges. Credit card rates start from 2.9% + 30¢ for the basic plan and get lower for other plans.

Payment Options in WooCommerce

WooCommerce offers PayPal and Stripe payments by default. It also supports all other popular payment service providers through add-ons.

For installment passages, WooCommerce even has upheld for some, territorial and less mainstream installment administrations. Since there is no hindrance to the passage, any installment organization can make additional items for WooCommerce and offer help for it.

As a self-facilitated stage, you are just charged exchange expenses by your installment door or your bank. WooCommerce never charges you a % fee on your store transactions which is a major plus.

On the off chance that picking your own vendor record and utilizing an outsider entryway is significant for you, at that point you will set aside A LOT of cash by utilizing WooCommerce. Be that as it may, in case you’re a little store and ready to utilize Shopify Payments which has a similar Visa rate as Stripe/Paypal, at that point, it has no effect.

Winner: Tie

Integrations and Add-ons: Shopify vs WooCommerce

Regardless of how vigorous an internet business stage is, you’ll generally require outsider apparatuses and administrations to develop your store. For instance, email marketing software, lead generation tool, analytics tools, outreach services, etc.

Both Shopify and WooCommerce have a massive extension directory, and they integrate with many third-party services.

Shopify Add-ons and Integrations

Shopify comes with a powerful API and an App Store where you can buy third-party add-ons for your Shopify store. They have hundreds of apps in the store covering every feature you’ll want to add to your store.

For lead generation, they have integrations with software like OptinMonster which helps you grow your email list and reduce cart abandonment. They have apps for SEO, product reviews, discounts, countdowns, and more.

Shopify’s application store contains both free and paid applications. Free applications are normally made by outsider administrations that have their own evaluating, and the application just coordinates your store to their APIs. Evaluating for paid additional items shifts and most applications offer month to month memberships.

WooCommerce Add-ons and Integrations

WooCommerce is open source and built on top of WordPress. This gives you access to more than 55,000 free WordPress plugins and many more paid plugins.

You can use these add-ons to add payment gateways, lead generation, SEO, performance optimization, and almost any feature you can think of.

You can utilize these additional items to add installment doors, lead age, SEO, execution improvement, and practically any component you can consider.

Because of the low obstruction of the section, there are much more mixes and additional items accessible for WooCommerce than Shopify. Practically all outsider devices and specialist organizations have their own modules to consistently coordinate with your WooCommerce store.

You can likewise employ a designer to make coordination or module only for your own site. Regardless, it’s critical to remember that WooCommerce is significantly simpler to redo. Having by and experiencing the way toward presenting a module for WordPress and presenting an application to the Shopify store, we can say that the interaction is very harder on Shopify versus WooCommerce.

Winner: WooCommerce

Shopify vs WooCommerce Dropshipping

Dropshipping is an online business where an eCommerce store doesn’t keep the products in stock. Instead, it fulfills orders by purchasing products from vendors and then shipping them directly to the customers.

Due to its low overhead, dropshipping has become popular around the world. Many of our users asked us to compare WooCommerce vs Shopify for dropshipping and which one of them is better for a dropshipping business.

Dropshipping with Shopify

When building an outsourcing business, the front-finish of your site will look much the same as any online store. Your users will be able to browse the products, add them to the cart, and make a payment, just like they would do on any other eCommerce store.

Depending on the vendors you choose, you will then have to place the user’s order for shipping.

Shopify additionally has incorporation applications for a few famous outsourcing commercial centers like AliExpress, Oberlo, Printify, and more. However, each of these product marketplaces has its own membership fees, shipping, and other charges that you need to keep in mind when building your dropshipping website with Shopify.

Dropshipping with WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a popular choice among dropshipping businesses. Mainly because WooCommerce allows you to install extensions that make order fulfillment a breeze.

You can without much of a stretch discover augmentations that permit you to in a flash import items, satisfy orders from your website, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You can even make your own eCommerce commercial center permitting different merchants to sell on your website.

Remember, that your provider and seller may have the least request necessities, participation expenses, and different charges. You need to remember those while adding items to your WooCommerce outsourcing store.

Winner: WooCommerce

Scalability and Growth: Shopify vs WooCommerce

You have probably heard the term “growth-pains” from various CEOs. As your business grows, you will need more resources to handle new challenges and goals.

Shopify and WooCommerce can both be scaled to handle a large amount of traffic and orders, but they’re not created equal. Let’s take a look at how these two eCommerce platforms compare when it comes to scalability.

Scalability on Shopify

Shopify handles the technical parts of your store which means you don’t ever have to worry about performance, security, and scalability. Once your business starts growing, you can simply upgrade your Shopify plans.

Their infrastructure can easily handle your growing business without you having to worry about downtimes, backups, updates, or security. They also offer enterprise services as part of the Shopify Plus plan.

This takes out the agonizing piece of the development, however, it likewise adds to your expense of the business. Your costs will develop, and you’ll need to design appropriately.

The good part is that your costs will be offset by you not having to hire/manage a technical team in-house.

Scalability on WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform that makes you responsible for maintaining updates, backups, and security of your website.

Your starter WooCommerce hosting plan would run out of resources as your store starts getting more traffic.

The good part is that you have plenty of options to manage growth as you are in full control of your website. Starting with better management of resources with caching to upgrading your hosting plan to more powerful servers.

Your WooCommerce hosting costs will increase, but you will have better control of resources, and you can make sure that you are not paying for resources that you don’t need. You can use a managed WordPress hosting provider like WP Engine or LiquidWeb to help scale your WooCommerce store.

Despite the control that WooCommerce offers, some business owners simply prefer a hassle-free solution.

Winner: Shopify

Support Options for WooCommerce vs Shopify

Both WooCommerce and Shopify are quite easy to use. However, sometimes you may need help to learn how to do something new in your store.

Let’s see how WooCommerce and Shopify handle support and what are your options to get help when needed.

Support Options on Shopify

Shopify is a fully hosted platform, which means they control the software and they are the ones who know their platform the best.

Shopify provides 24/7 support via live chat, phone, email, and Twitter. For users who want to fix things on their own, Shopify offers extensive documentation, how-to guides, knowledge base, video tutorials, and forums.

It also maintains a directory of Shopify Experts that you can hire if you need extra help or if you want to integrate a third-party solution.

Shopify doesn’t provide support for any third-party apps or themes that you are using.

Support Options for WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the world’s most popular eCommerce platform, which means there are tons of support options that you can utilize when needed.

The official website has extensive documentation, tutorials, and guides that allow you to help yourself. They also have support forums where you can get help from other WooCommerce users and experts.

WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform, which means your hosting provider is responsible for providing support for issues with your server.

For your WooCommerce theme and extensions, those developers are responsible for answering support questions regarding their products.

Due to its immense popularity, it is quite easier and often cheaper to find developers to help you fix issues with your WooCommerce store. You can find developers on freelancing websites to fix WooCommerce issues.

Winner: Shopify

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Which is the Best eCommerce Platform?

Shopify and WooCommerce are both powerful platforms to start your eCommerce store. It truly comes down to your personal skills and preferences.

Shopify is a lot easier to use. It doesn’t require you to install anything, and you can get started quickly. Setting up payments is easier, and they have easy to understand pricing plans.

The disadvantage of Shopify is that you don’t have full control over everything. Your costs can go high with transaction fees, add-ons, and integrations. Your upgrade options are limited to select plans, and you cannot manage costs on a pay-as-you-grow basis.

WooCommerce is open source and gives you full control of your website. It costs a lot lower to start an online store with WooCommerce especially with these WooCommerce hosting companies.

The disadvantage is that you’ll have to maintain the software. It comes with a bit of a learning curve. However, millions of beginners are already using it, and they get over the learning phase quite quickly.

If you are looking for a cost-effective solution, and you want to have full control of your online store, then WooCommerce is the best platform for you.

If you want something that’s completely hassle-free that has infinite scalability, then Shopify is the better platform for you.

We hope this article helped you compare the pros and cons of Shopify vs WooCommerce. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best website builder.

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Shopify vs WooCommerce – Which is the Better Platform? (Comparison)