WooCommerce vs Shopify : The best E-commerce platforms

In this article, we will discuss two different platforms that provide facilities to sell your products online. Firstly we will take an overview of both; then, we will compare both platforms and determine which one is suitable for your requirements. So here is the total summation of both platforms, First is Woo-commerce, and Second is Shopify.

Both of the platforms are awesome! Both of them powers hundreds of thousands of E-commerce stores online. In this article, we will see how they compare with each other. You can start with any one of them. However, It is obvious that we should choose a platform keeping the sclability in mind. Because it’s a messy to process to change the E-commerce platform once the store is very successful.

Let’s see the overview of both of them in detail.

Overview

Shopify and Woo-Commerce are e-commerce giants. It isn’t easy to choose one. Both are popular in e-commerce CMS because Shopify already handles more than 700,000 online stores. Woo-commerce is the web’s most popular platform for e-commerce websites. So, How can we choose the right platform? Let’s take a simple overview of both platforms.

What is WooCommerce?

Woo-commerce is built for WordPress, The most popular CMS available in the world. WordPress already powers more than 38% of the web.

WordPress and Woo-Commerce are open-source programs. We can modify the E-store as per our requirement, and there is no limitation when it comes to modification and customisation. Also, we can add unlimited products on the Woo-Commerce store and get unlimited orders online.

In Woo-commerce, the complete control of your data will be on your hand. You have to decide how and where you want calculated data. You can do it with the help of different plugins available in WordPress.

We can Sell Physical Products, Digital Software, Subscriptions, Content, and even services online with Woo-commerce.

Woo-commerce provides a theme library with thousands of designs. You can find hundreds of free themes online or in the WordPress themes library. You can also build a template specifically for your E-commerce store with the help of a WordPress theme developer. We can do this because WooCommerce and WordPress both are open-source.

Just like any other WordPress site, Woo-commerce also fully supports third-party software integration. So, you can retrieve the data from the site and transfer or process that data as per your requirement. You can do anything with integration support.

Now let’s see the Advantages and Disadvantages of WooCommerce.

Advantages of WooCommerce:

• Free and Open-Source program.
• Secure to use.
• Highly Customizable.
• Order and Customer Management support.
• Flexible.
• Integrating Nature.
• Community Support.

Disadvantages of WooCommerce:

• Regular Updates
• Difficult with different currency
• Hard to get started

So, this is what you get and lose if you decide to use WooCommerce to power your new E-Commerce store. Now, Let’s learn more about Shopify.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a cloud-based SaaS (Software as a service) that allows anyone to set up the online business and sell their products online.

Shopify provides an E-commerce platform to create an E-store online to sell Physical and Digital products online.

There are different plans available in Shopify, which depends on the business. You can choose a basic plan for the startup. The cost will be 29 US Dollars, then you can upgrade to a higher plan after your E-store grows.

There are more than 50 themes and website designs available on Shopify; some of them are free. These site themes and designs are ready to go on any device because they are fully responsive. You don’t have to worry about making your E-commerce store responsive as Shopify will take care of it out-of-the-box.

Shopify has limited integration support, and we can integrate some add-ons like Spocket and Oberlo. It is famous for its low startup cost. Shopify is easy to manage and lots of Support options available like Technical Support, Phone, Live Chat, and Email.

Now Let’s see the advantages and disadvantages of having a Shopify store.

Advantages of Shopify:

1. Ease of Marketing
2. Lots of themes
3. Simplicity
4. Customizable
5. Phone, E-mail, Live chat Support.
6. Free from Server management

Disadvantages of Shopify:

1. Price
2. Customization limitations

If you are completely new with no online presence, You would have to invest first in order to get started with Shopify. Let’s discuss the price difference between the two platforms in detail.

Pricing: WooCommerce vs Shopify

Cost calculation is one of the most critical factors that affect when it comes to comparing two platforms. When it comes to an E-commerce website, we need to calculate other add-ons like other services and software you will need to keep your E-store operational. Always keep in mind that the web hosting bill will increase as the traffic grows on your E-commerce site. So let’s see the cost calculation for both platforms.

WooCommerce Pricing

Woo-commerce is a WordPress Plugin, which is freely available on WordPress Plugin Repository. But still, we need a domain name, SSL certificate, and a web hosting account to start a Woo-Commerce store. The cost of purchasing the domain name and web hosting will be around 90-100 USD per year. It means, ~8.5 a month on average. You can go with the WebHostingPeople web hosting. It is affordable and we provide SSL certificate for Free!

In short, Creating a WooCommerce store will cost you around 8-10 USD per month as soon as you start an E-commerce store. After that, the cost of domain will be around 8-10 USD a year and the cost of the web hosting account depends on How much traffic your E-commerce store is attracting.

Shopify Pricing

Now, Let’s see the pricing structure of Shopify. Coming to the point, Shopify offers you a Basic Shopify Plan for a new business.

Its total cost for one month is 29 USD. Shopify has built-in payment gateway, so Shopify charges 2.9 + 30 cents per transaction for the credit card payments happening on your E-commerce store.

Then, We come to the Shopify special plan, where you will find all available features to grow your business. The Shopify plan will cost you 79 USD per month. Yes, you can upgrade your plan anytime. And the last E-store plan is the Advanced Shopify plan which provides the most advanced features of Shopify. It will cost you 299$ per month. The Credit Card transaction fees will be charged as per 0.5 us dollar from 2.0 % in Shopify. 

Then, You have to add the other costs like third-party tools and add-ons software. As per our opinion, Shopify is not cheap for the new startup. Also, Shopify is not fully customizable. But it’s easy to manage.

Payment Methods: WooCommerce vs Shopify

We can choose any payment gateway, and there are many options available in the market. But make sure that the Payment gateway is suitable for you and your customers too. Different Payment gateways charge different amount to you and your customers. Out of hundreds of payment gateways, you have to select the best for you. It must support multiple payment options like a Credit card, Cash on delivery, or Direct payments. So let’s compare the payment gateways integration support and it’s cost.

WooCommerce

Woo-Commerce online supports PayPal and Stripe payments by default, And other popular payments through add-ons. Also, many regional payment gateways are available but less popular. Woo-commerce has a plus point with payments comparison because Woo-commerce is a self-hosted platform. The Payment gateway or bank will only charge you. Woo-commerce never charges anything for transactions. So, we can save a lot of money by using Woo-Commerce’s payment gateways.

Shopify

Just as Woo-Commerce offers you many payment gateways, Shopify has its payment gateway as Shopify payments powered by Stripe. It also supports all popular third-party payment gateways, and the Minus point is Shopify charges an extra 2% fee on every transaction. And it is already higher as compared to other payment gateways. But you can reduce it to 0.5 % with the most advanced Shopify plan, which costs you around 299 USD a month. So again, the Winner is Woo-Commerce.

Ease of Use: WooCommerce vs Shopify

The next factor of this comparison is, Which platform is easy to use and manage the E-store. And, this is an essential factor when you are going to choose one of them. So which platform is easy to use, Woo-Commerce or Shopify? Let’s take a look at the comparison below.

WooCommerce

As we already know, Woo-commerce is an Open-Source program that works with WordPress. So, Instead of sigining up for the service, We have to install the Woo-Commerce plugin in WordPress. Then just as Shopify, you will see a setup wizard. But as we know, it’s not a subscription-based solution, and it means we have to handle some things like buying a Domain Name, Hosting Account, and WordPress theme installation.

But there are many websites available that provide specialized WordPress hosting plans, and these plans will help you install and manage the WordPress directly from the website. As a result, Woo-commerce is more difficult as compared to Shopify. Because in Woo-commerce, there’s a particular area to manage the different technical tasks.

Shopify

Shopify is a subscription-based online tool, and it is the primary strength it has. It means that we have to visit Shopify.com and click on the signup button. Complete the basic setup Wizard. The setup wizard will ask you the purpose or nature of your store and Product-related information. And then, Shopify will help you with general tips like the thrmes and designs of your E-Store. After that, you will get access to the Shopify Dashboard. It is the place where you can upload your products. After that, when your store is completely live and accepting the orders, your order-related information will be ready on the dashboard. 

So, in Conclusion, Shopify has significant benefits when we discuss Ease of use.

Because the whole Shopify E-commerce store starting process is straightforward, we can easily manage everything from a single panel.  So, the Conclusion is Shopify is the winner for this comparison. Because Shopify is straightforward and reliable to manage, upgrade and use.

Features list: WooCommerce vs Shopify

We have to consider the features that both the systems provides. It is important because if you need a specific feature and it is not available in the desired E-commerce platform, you might lose on that feature. So, We have a list of important features provided by the both the systems. You can see the additional small features on the official websites.

WooCommerce

• We can sell Physical and Digital Products
• Good for an Affiliate
• PayPal and Stripe Payment gateways
• Unlimited products and categories
• Adjustable Shipping rates and taxes
• Mobile friendly structure
• Hundreds of Extensions available
• Stock level control
• Works with all WordPress themes
• Complete control over Design and Themes

Shopify

• Automatic Fraud Analysis
• Discount Codes
• Free SSL Certificate
• Editable HTML and CSS
• Unlimited products and file storage.
• Multiple Languages
• SEO-ready site Structure
• Daily Backups
• Unlimited traffic
• We can sell Physical as well as Digital Products.
• Inventory Management
• Advanced reports

Shopify provides more features that Woocommerce out-of-the-box. However, The major benefit with WooCommerce is, We can install additional plugins to add more features to our E-commerce store hassle-free.

Now Let’s see some important feature comparison in detail.

Feature Comparison: WooCommerce vs Shopify

Community Support: Shopify has 24*7 support availability. We can get support on E-mail, chat, and phone. While Woo-Commerce has ticket support and forum support. We can also find lots of tutorials and guides related to WooCommerce on the internet.

Customization: Shopify’s E-commerce store does not support full customization. We can modify some parts of the site, but it’s very limited. While WooCommerce is open-source, you can modify the store according to your requirements. You can also use additional plugins to add new features to your store.

Data Management: Shopify will control all the website’s data related to users and orders. Shopify has a dashboard that will help you to see the calculations and details. But it’s different with Woo-Commerce because, in woo-commerce, the complete control will be on your hand.  Even you can transfer it with any media like Email or Print. And you can also process or visualise the data according to your requirements. You can also download the raw data from your WooCommerce store.

Theme Library: Shopify has a theme library with 50 pre-designed themes (including ten free). But it’s nothing in front of Woo-commerce because woo-commerce has thousands of designs and themes in the WordPress library. There are hundreds of free designs available on the internet.

Total Cost: The total cost of startup is one of the most critical factors for an E-store. So, Shopify’s total cost is around 29 USD while getting started, including Domain and Hosting. Then you can upgrade your account to a higher capability. Woo-commerce is open-source, and it’s free, But we have to pay for the Domain name and Hosting account. We also have to adjust SSL certificates with WooCommerce. But it’s not hard to set up a WooCommerce store with a good web hosting account.

File Storage: In Shopify, you can upload unlimited products and can get unlimited online orders. There’s no limit to storage in Shopify. But with Woo-commerce, you have to pay more as your site grows. The file storage space depends on the web hosting plan you use to host your E-commerce website.

Language Support: E-commerce store’s Language support is the last and essential factor for selling the product worldwide. Shopify Supports multi-language. While in Woo-commerce, you can add this feature with extensions or plugins.

Conclusion: So, this was our view on WooCommerce vs Shopify. Both the E-commerce platforms are awesome in their own way. If you are looking for simplicity, quick start, we recommend you to go with Shopify. But, If you are looking to get started and want more features and customisation, you can go with WooCommerce. According to us, WooCommerce is the best when it comes to the E-commerce store management. It powers a lots of huge E-commerce stores on the internet.

If you have questions, please let us know in the comment section given below. We will respond as soon as possible with the answers!