Online stores have become increasingly important for businesses. But finding the right e-commerce solution isn’t easy.
You’ve likely heard about Shopify and WooCommerce. Both are among the most popular e-commerce platforms available. But which one better suits the needs of your business?
In this article, we’ll provide a complete breakdown of offers, pricing, and features to help you make an objective decision.
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Shopify vs. WooCommerce: At a Glance
To give you an idea of the differences between the two platforms, here is a quick look at their offers and pricing.
Shopify provides a whole range of tools and apps for SEO, apps for shipping, upselling, and cross-sell, to help you find your target market, attract and engage customers, drive sales, and manage the operation of your online store. Shopify helps you both start a new business using the platform and move an existing business online, as well as to switch from another e-commerce platform.
Same as Wix, Shopify has three payment plans. With a Basic plan coming in at $29 per month, you are limited in foreign exchange rates and languages, professional reports, and third-party calculation rates.
But even with the Basic plan, Shopify has a lot to offer. To unlock all features, you will have to get the Advanced Shopify plan for $299 per month.
WooCommerce is an e-commerce plugin for WordPress. Therefore, it can only be used for WordPress websites. But this didn’t prevent WooCommerce from becoming possibly the most popular e-commerce platform in the world.
WooCommerce, just like WordPress, is free. There are still costs involved, however. To install WooCommerce, you first need to purchase WooCommerce hosting and one of WordPress’ website plans. A theme will cost you between $20 to $100.
Ease of Use
The user-friendly interface may not be important for enterprise-level companies, but it plays a role for those who are just starting a business online. From building a branded Shopify store to managing its daily operation and resolving issues, Shopify is a winner in terms of ease of use.
Shopify
The platform is hosted, meaning that it takes care of a big part of the backend work. Shopify is convenient for building online stores, too. It offers a wide range of themes and, most importantly, a lot of resources on starting an online business, including blog posts, podcasts, and guides.
WooCommerce
Installing WooCommerce is slightly more complicated than Shopify. But if you figured out WordPress, it’s bound to be more bearable. The downside is that you still have to take care of hosting, SEO, and the rest of the website operational work.
WooCommerce is a relatively new platform, so the support isn’t as great as you’ll find on Shopify. While the setup wizard covers the basics, users transitioning from Magento to WooCommerce might need to rely more on community forums for additional guidance.
Features
Both platforms became popular due to the number of impressive features. The main difference here is that while Shopify’s features are integrated, WooCommerce uses extensions.
Shopify
Shopify offers about 70 free and paid themes. The design editing options are limited, but the marketing, integration, and analyzing features compensate for that.
Shopify allows you to sell goods through several channels, including your website, social media, and online marketplaces, using one platform. The marketing tools help to find the target market, set ads on autopilot, and improve campaigns based on reports.
The feature that WooCommerce does not have is an abandoned cart recovery, which lets you automatically send reminders to customers who leave items without proceeding to payment.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce features unlimited design editing possibilities and plenty of official extensions. You can sell items on multiple platforms, just like with Shopify, and use various analyzing tools to get an insight into customer actions.
The mobile app is a convenient way to manage the operation of the store and track stats in real-time. The downside is that to get any additional features, you have to buy extensions.
Payment Options and Fees
This is an important point to consider both from the seller and the buyer sides. Both platforms support numerous payment methods. However, you may be charged a transaction fee, which will result in reducing your revenue.
Shopify
The Shopify website claims that the Shop Pay checkout experience is 60% faster, and that the Shopify Checkout is optimized specifically for mobile use. Of course, this is important, but Shopify has a serious disadvantage when it comes to fees. The platform charges a 2% transaction fee when a third-party gateway is used on the cheaper plans.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce now offers a recurring payments option, meaning customers can subscribe for a service or regular item purchase. Most importantly, WooCommerce does not charge any transaction fees.
Shopify vs. WooCommerce: Which Is Right for Your Business?
Small Businesses and Startups
If you own a small business or are planning to start one, Shopify is a better option due to the amount of support and information provided and beginner-friendly interface. No need to learn how to install plugins and optimize the website – everything is done for you.
Medium-Sized and Large Businesses
In case you already have a WordPress website, you can go ahead with WooCommerce. If not, our recommendation remains the same as for small businesses. Shopify has all the necessary tools to measure your marketing efforts and more – for no extra cost!
Searching for the Right Solution
WooCommerce is a great WordPress plugin with an extensive feature set, but it just can’t compete with Shopify.
The platform has been specializing in e-commerce for 15 years now and is continuously improving. It is a more convenient way to manage your online sales, with the only downside of a 2% transaction fee which could be solved by upgrading the plan or installing Shopify Payments.
