Shopify VS WooCommerce (2021)

If you are looking to start your online shop, one of the first challenges you face is Shopify VS WooCommerce. Obviously, there are other Platforms that you can choose from, but these are the most common and pretty much the best ones, so let’s see their pros and cons and find out which fits your needs best.

First, let’s get to know them a little bit, shall we?

Shopify:

It is an all-in-one eCommerce platform that helps you design and build your online store with easy Drag and Drop options. It provides all the features you need, such as Payments, managing your inventory & etc. It also offers Web hosting, caching, high security, …. It comes in 5 plans.

Shopify Lite for 9$/mo., Basic Shopify for 29$/mo., Shopify for 79$/mo., Advanced Shopify for 299$/mo. and Shopify Plus for 2000$/mo.

WooCommerce:

It is an open-source eCommerce plugin that’s build for WordPress. It allows you to benefit from the most powerful CMS (content management system) and build your online store. Since it’s open-source, it allows you to customize everything the way you want it. It has a huge online community and endless plugins and themes, yet the most exciting part is … Drum roll please … it’s FREE!

But you still need to pay for hosting(1-50$/month) and Domain(10-30$/year). If you want we offer Hosting BTW, contact us 🙂

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s dig a little deeper and weigh the pros and cons and get closer to the answer of Shopify VS WooCommerce.

Shopify Pros:

– It includes security & hosting, SSL certificate and domain name and it’s also PCI-DSS compliance.

– its Multichannel integration allows you to sell on Amazon, eBay, FB, etc. as a built-in feature.

– It has an amazing 24/7 support.

– It only takes a few mins to build your online store.

– It’s easy to use for beginners as it doesn’t need any managing, installing or updating the software. You simply pick your theme and it guides you through the rest of the customizations.

– It allows your customers to complete their abandoned order without filling out the details again.

– It allows free shipping and its partnered with UPS, USPS,… so, you don’t have to source your own courier.

– Offers email marketing apps such as Seguno and Constant contact.

Shopify Cons:

– You don’t have much control and the customization is limited.

– You have to pay X dollars each month depending on the plan you get.

– There is a 2% transaction fee, unless you use Shopify gateway and upgrade your Shopify plan to more advanced levels.

– It only has about 1000 free & paid apps for you to choose from, which is 50 times less than what WooCommerce has.

– It doesn’t have many SEO apps.

WooCommerce Pros:

– Its free to install and most of the extensions are reasonably priced.

– Your customization is only limited by your imagination.

– Your storefront is fully responsive on mobiles.

– Great customer support and arguably better than what Shopify has to offer.

– It allows free shipping like Shopify but you have to source your own courier.

– It offers one-click refund for your customers.

– For majority of its features, it relies on plugins and there are over 50,000 plugins for you to choose from.

– Offers Email marketing via plugins such as MailChimp.

– No transaction fees. It’s much better than Shopify if you are selling a lot of products.

– The SEO plugins for Woo Commerce, such as Yoast, does a fantastic job and they are very easy to use.

WooCommerce Cons:

– It’s not great for beginners. It might require a little coding knowledge.

– You need to source your own hosting, SSL certificate, set up PCI-DSS compliance and handle the security yourself.

– As it has more details for you to customize it takes longer than Shopify to build your store.

– It doesn’t provide Abandoned cart recovery.

– The multichannel selling feature is only free for Facebook and if you want to sell your products across all of the other platforms it will cost you around 80$.

To recap Shopify VS WooCommerce Blog,

If you are not familiar with coding and you want to build your online store within hours, not worrying about security, hosting, SSL certificate and you don’t mind paying the monthly fee + transaction fees, Go with Shopify.

But if you are a little familiar with coding, hoping to build a large-scale store and start selling to many regions + and you want to personalize and customize everything yourself, Woo Commerce is the right path for you.

Shopify VS WooCommerce FAQs :

Can you transfer your store between Shopify and WooCommerce?

Yes! You can transfer your e-com from Shopify to Woo Commerce, and vice versa. It’s not really ideal but, it’s not impossible – you can even automate the entire process to avoid the headaches.

Can you use WooCommerce or Shopify for free?

You can try Shopify for free for 14 days, but then you’ll need to get one of their plans. Woo Commerce on the other hand is free, but you still need to spend money on hosting, security, domains, and other things we mentioned in the blog.

Do you have to pay for hosting with WooCommerce or Shopify?

Since WooCommerce runs through WordPress and WordPress is a self-hosted platform, you will have to find your own host and obviously pay for it. With Shopify, your site is hosted for you, so there’s nothing for you to sort out there.

Can I use Shopify with WooCommerce?

The Shopify Connect for Woo-Commerce plugin which lets you add your Shopify products as Woo-Commerce products on your Woo-Commerce storefront, but it sends your purchases via Shopify, making Woo Commerce basically your catalog. The upside is you get the added features of Woo Commerce like reviews, linked products, etc.