Thinking of jumping into the world of eCommerce? Not sure whether you should use Shopify or WooCommerce?
Shopify and WooCommerce are the two top eCommerce platforms in the world each with their own pros and cons.
As a business owner, choosing the right eCommerce platform that fits your business needs is crucial for your success.
In this article, we will show you a detailed comparison of Shopify vs WooCommerce. The goal is to break down their advantages and disadvantages to help you choose the best option for your eCommerce store.
Shopify's all in one package
Shopify plans range from $29 to $299 per month. It includes your domain name, SSL certificate and website hosting.
The basic plan comes with enough features to set up a new online store. You can add unlimited products, 2 user accounts, unlimited file storage, and more.
Shopify is a fully hosted platform which means you don’t need to install, manage, or update any software. You also don’t need to worry about security, performance, backups, and compatibility issues.
As soon as you sign up, it helps you pick a design for your website. After that, they walk you through customization and then help you add products.
WooCommerce eCommerce plugin for WordPress
WooCommerce is open source and freely available as a WordPress plugin.
The WooCommerce plugin can be installed and activated once a WordPress website, web hosting and SSL are established.
Shopify – Ease of Use
Shopify is a fully hosted platform which means you don’t need to install, manage, or update any software. You also don’t need to worry about security, performance, backups, and compatibility issues.
As soon as you sign up, it helps you pick a design for your website. After that, they walk you through customization and then help you add products.
WooCommerce – Ease of Use
WooCommerce is super flexible when it comes 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.
However, there is no built-in drag & drop design builder. You can use one of the WordPress page builders like Beaver Builder, but it adds to your cost.
Shopify Payment Options
Shopify offers plenty of payment options that you can use to receive payments from customers. It has its own payments solution called Shopify Payments (powered by Stripe) as well as all popular third-party payment gateways.
The problem is that Shopify charges an extra 2% fees on each transaction made through third party payment gateways. This is on top of the transaction fees charged by the payment gateway. You can reduce the fee to 0.5% by paying $299 per month for Advanced Shopify plan.
WooCommerce Payment Options
WooCommerce offers PayPal and Stripe payments by default. It also supports all other popular payment service providers through add-ons.
As a self-hosted platform, you are only charged transaction fees by your payment gateway or your bank. WooCommerce never charges you a percentage fee on your store transactions which is a major plus.
