WooCommerce vs. Shopify

WooCommerce vs. Shopify

WooCommerce Pros

WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to turn any WordPress site into an e-commerce store. Just like the do-it-yourself holiday, which can fit into any budget or timeframe, WooCommerce can be tailored to meet nearly any need.

This flexibility and accessibility has made it the most popular option for e-commerce sites. An estimated 3.3 million websites currently use WooCommerce, according to 2019 BuiltWith reports, and 30% of all online stores are running on WooCommerce.

One of the biggest advantages of WooCommerce is that it integrates seamlessly with WordPress, which is the most popular content management system with approximately ⅓ of all websites in the world running on WordPress.

WooCommerce and WordPress’s popularity also means it’ll be very easy to find a developer and design team to help you build your shop.

Additionally, WooCommerce has several features that are helpful for SEO: you can both set up a custom URL structure for products and edit the store’s metadata. In contrast, Shopify offers limited URL customization and a much more complex method of editing the store’s metadata.

WooCommerce Cons

One of the disadvantages of WooCommerce is that it is not an all-in-one platform. In planning your own holiday, you need to book your own flights, hotel, and car, and research activities and exchange rates.

 The same goes for WooCommerce. You’ll need to manage certain details, including the hosting, security and maintenance of your website. Top of the list will be security for the WooCommerce site. You’ll need to get an SSL certificate (required for any e-commerce site) and security monitoring to protect the website from hackers and security breaches.

Maintenance comes in the form of updating the WooCommerce plugins regularly, as well as the other plugins on your site in a timely manner. This is best performed by a developer to ensure the optimal functionality and security of the site.

 Another disadvantage of WooCommerce is that there is no direct WooCommerce support team. You can still request support through the community forum or through a ticket on the WooCommerce site, but it’s a bit more complex of a process than with Shopify.

Lastly, in comparing WooCommerce vs. Shopify, adding certain features to a WooCommerce site may require help from a WooCommerce development team, as there are numerous paid plugins available which can be difficult to navigate on your own.

Shopify Pros

Shopify, on the other hand, is a complete e-commerce and website platform. Founded in 2006, Shopify has grown in popularity with over 900,000 online stores built on Shopify as of 2019.

As with the case of a vacation package, complete with lodging, meals, two activities a day, and evening entertainment, Shopify has all the conveniences of an all-in-one platform. All the basics are covered: an e-commerce shop, technical oversight, and a support team.

The technical details of hosting and security are managed by Shopify, so you won’t need to add any security monitoring. Nor will you need to plan ahead for potential changes in the hosting server costs if your website traffic or need for storage grows.

Shopify comes with 24/7 support and you can speak with a Shopify agent to rapidly resolve any site issues or questions.

Additionally, a lot of e-commerce features are already built into the standard Shopify store, meaning you’ll spend less time setting up the store than you would with WooCommerce.

Shopify Cons

The convenience of Shopify’s all-in-one package is also its biggest drawback, as there are significantly less customization options available than with WooCommerce.

This is partially because Shopify uses its own coding language called Liquid, and most of the code is not available as open source. So, designers and developers are more limited to the existing Shopify options.

Another disadvantage is that the Shopify site is more limited with just an online store, a blog and some basic pages.

If you plan to expand your website to tons of content pages or wish to add functionality outside of an e-commerce store, then Shopify is not the best option. If you have an existing website built on another platform, and would like a Shopify store, it will probably be necessary to migrate the entire site to the Shopify platform.

It can also be a challenge to find developers and designers that are experienced with Shopify because the platform is less popular than WooCommerce and is not open source.

Lastly, Shopify isn’t an ideal choice if you need a multilingual store or need to set up a store that can handle different currencies. WooCommerce is the better option for this set up because you can utilize translation plugins on WordPress and process payments in other currencies.

WooCommerce vs Shopify Pricing

It’s very difficult to directly compare pricing between WooCommerce and Shopify because each platform has a different pricing structure. The price of a Shopify site is simpler to calculate, as Shopify charges a monthly fee, plus a small commission percentage of sales.

WooCommerce, however, is a free plugin available solely on WordPress, but requires hosting and security maintenance. You may also end up using additional, paid plugin extensions on your WooCommerce site, which can be difficult to calculate the cost of unless you are working with a WooCommerce developer.

When comparing initial costs, Shopify can be more expensive than WooCommerce, but it can be hard to tell for sure until you assess all the costs involved in growing your store.