WooCommerce vs Shopify – Reasons to use WooCommerce

Are you thinking about starting your own online store or improving your current one? WooCommerce and Shopify are the two biggest platforms for e-commerce, with WooCommerce powering 9.2% of all websites and Shopify powering 4.5%.

The decisions you make early on whether it’s redesigning, adding features, or switching platforms can shape the future success of your business. One of the most important decisions is choosing the right platform for your store. 

Even if you’re a developer or agency, the platform you choose for your clients can greatly affect their growth, scalability, and user experience.

In this extensive comparison of WooCommerce and Shopify, we’ll share what we, as the best Web design Kelowna and Vancouver experts learned from years of experience to help you pick the platform that best fits your or your clients’ needs and goals.

WooCommerce vs Shopify: What You Need to Know

What is WooCommerce? 

WooCommerce is a flexible, open-source tool made for WordPress websites, and it’s commonly used to build online stores. It allows anyone to turn a regular website into a fully functional ecommerce store with features like product displays, order management, and multiple payment options.

The best part is that WooCommerce is free! You can easily download it from the official WordPress plugin directory. It’s also easy to use, so you don’t need to be a tech expert or know how to code to get started, which is why many businesses choose it.

WooCommerce was first created in 2011 by a company called WooThemes, and in 2015, it was bought by Automattic, the company behind WordPress. Since then, WooCommerce has grown quickly, and Automattic continues to develop it and its add-ons.

What is Shopify? 

Shopify is a platform that helps businesses sell both online and in-store using its fully hosted, cloud-based system. It’s known as a complete solution, offering a variety of features and tools to support businesses in selling their products. 

Shopify is great for startups because of its affordable plans, making it easy to get online quickly. It also works well for large businesses, offering advanced integrations, fast hosting, and secure checkout options. Shopify also supports B2B, wholesale, and enterprise-level sales.

Big global brands like Allbirds, Gymshark, and Kylie Cosmetics trust Shopify Plus for their international businesses. Shopify gives business owners full control, allowing them to build stores and sell products easily with built-in integrations. 

Its drag-and-drop content management system, Online Store 2.0, lets brands manage their stores while giving developers the ability to create and customize new features.

Whether you’re just starting your business or looking to grow globally, Shopify has the tools to help you succeed both online and offline.

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Which is Better? A Comparison

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Which E-commerce Giant is More Popular?

According to BuiltWith, WooCommerce has 6,202,240 active users, whereas Shopify has 4,309,969 users. This concludes that WooCommerce is a more popular and preferred platform among users.

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Comprehensive Feature Comparison

Pricing plans 

Shopify offers different pricing plans for its e-commerce platform. The cheapest plan, called Starter, costs $5 per month and lets you create a basic online store with social selling features. However, it doesn’t give you access to all of Shopify’s themes, customizations, or the ability to create product collections.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, is free to use, but there are some extra costs you’ll need to cover to keep your store running smoothly, which can add up over time. For example, before you can install the WooCommerce plugin, you’ll need to buy a domain and pay for hosting. Hosting usually costs around $120 per year, and a domain can be as cheap as $15 per year.

You’ll also need to spend money on themes and plugins to build your WooCommerce store. While there are free options, the paid ones offer better customization and security. Paid themes cost between $20 and $100 per year, and plugin prices vary. For example, the JetPack security plugin costs about $20 per month.

The good thing about WooCommerce is that you only pay for what you need. You can start with free plugins and pay for upgrades as your store grows, though you’ll still need to cover the cost of a domain and hosting. A huge bonus is working with a local web design company as it can provide all of these services under one monthly affordable server & website maintenance plan.

On the other hand, Shopify locks you into set pricing plans, but it provides a fully functional e-commerce store right from the start, making it a great option if you want everything ready to go.

Ease of implementation and use 

Setting up a new Shopify store is 41% faster than setting up a WooCommerce store because Shopify is fully hosted, so everything is already set up for you.

With WooCommerce, you first need to set up WordPress hosting and install the WooCommerce plugin, which can be confusing and take time, especially for beginners. Then, you have to install and set up the plugins you need for your store.

You’re also responsible for maintaining your store, including keeping your data secure and managing backups, which adds extra work on top of running your e-commerce business.

SEO performance 

SEO stands for search engine optimization, which helps your store get noticed online. The better your store’s SEO, the easier it is for potential customers to find and buy from you.

Let’s compare WooCommerce and Shopify in two important areas:

Site Speed: Page speed is how fast your store’s content loads, and it impacts how your store ranks on search engines like Google. Faster sites usually rank better. Shopify stores are generally faster than WooCommerce stores because they don’t need extra SEO plugins. The more plugins your store has, the slower it can become.

Content Management System: WooCommerce is built on WordPress, which is focused on content. This makes it easy to set up a blog and write articles that help your store rank higher in search results. You can also use advanced SEO techniques, like schema markup, to improve rankings for specific product pages.

Shipping methods

The speed and efficiency with which your customers receive their orders play a big role in their overall experience. This makes shipping options a key feature for any e-commerce platform. Let’s compare how WooCommerce handles shipping:

WooCommerce Shipping

WooCommerce offers great flexibility, but you’ll need extra plugins to unlock more features. Here’s what you can do with WooCommerce:

• Flat Rate Shipping: You can set a fixed shipping fee for different regions or locations.
• Free Shipping: You can offer free shipping based on the order amount or location.
• Live Shipping Rates: By using plugins, you can integrate with courier services like UPS, FedEx, and DHL to display real-time shipping costs based on weight and destination.
• Local Delivery or Pickup: With the right plugin, you can offer delivery to nearby areas or let customers pick up their orders in-store.

WooCommerce provides highly customizable shipping options, but they can be tricky to set up if you’re not familiar with adding and managing plugins.

Shopify shipping

Shopify includes built-in shipping features, making it much simpler to set up. Here’s what Shopify offers:

• Live Shipping Rates: Shopify automatically connects with major carriers like Royal Mail, UPS, and DHL to show accurate shipping costs at checkout.
• Shopify Shipping: In the UK and certain other regions, you can access discounted shipping rates and print shipping labels directly from Shopify.
• Flat Rate and Free Shipping: You can easily set fixed shipping fees or offer free shipping based on order size or location.
• Local Delivery or Pickup: Shopify makes it easy to offer local delivery or allow customers to pick up their orders in person.

The main benefit of Shopify’s shipping is its ease of use, especially if you prefer not to spend time setting up additional tools.

Payment gateways 

Third-party payment gateways are essential for accepting and processing payments from customers across the globe. They play a crucial role when selecting an e-commerce platform.

Both WooCommerce and Shopify offer their native payment gateways: Woo Payments and Shopify Payments. These work similarly, but the key difference is that Woo Payments requires you to set up a Stripe account, while Shopify Payments is compatible with any credit card provider.

Both platforms also support third-party payment processors such as PayPal, Amazon Pay, and Payoneer Checkout. However, both platforms charge transaction fees for external payment gateways:

• WooCommerce charges a 2.9% + $0.30 fee per transaction for U.S.-issued credit or debit cards, with an additional 1% fee for cards issued outside the U.S.
• Shopify’s transaction fees for third-party payment gateways vary depending on your pricing plan. If Shopify Payments is your primary payment method, the platform waives transaction fees for other payment options. Offline payment methods

Offline payment methods are helpful if you receive payments by check or cash through the mail, or if you have a physical store and want to manage both online and in-store payments in one place.

The good news is, neither Shopify nor WooCommerce charge fees for offline payments.

Shopify also has point-of-sale (POS) software, which allows you to accept payments in person. Shopify POS is included in all plans except the Starter plan.

WooCommerce doesn’t have its own POS system, but there are many free and paid options you can add through extensions or plugins. For example, the POS app by Actuality Extensions costs $249 per year.

To sum up, Shopify might be a better choice if you also have a physical store and want to keep all payments in one place.

Themes and customization 

WooCommerce gives you more flexibility to customize your store compared to Shopify (unless you choose Shopify Plus). Shopify comes with fixed features based on the plan you select, while WooCommerce allows you to build your store however you want. 

You can easily add or remove plugins at any time to change how your customers shop. On the other hand, Shopify limits you to the built-in tools available in your plan, which means you may end up paying for features you don’t actually use or need.

Both WooCommerce and Shopify offer themes and templates to personalize your store’s appearance. Shopify has a larger native theme library because it includes designs from other Shopify users. 

However, as a WooCommerce store owner, you can purchase extra eCommerce design templates from third-party WordPress theme libraries like ThemeForest and Envato. This gives you even more options for customizing your store’s look.

Integrations 

WooCommerce and Shopify both offer tools to improve your online store’s performance.

Shopify has an app store with over 8,000 apps to help customize your website. Some of these apps are created by Shopify, and others are third-party apps for things like social media or printing. You can check out our free Shopify apps database to find the best apps for your store.

WooCommerce has its own extensions marketplace with both free and paid plugins, similar to Shopify’s app store. You can also install WordPress plugins that aren’t available in the marketplace.

Both platforms have basic image management tools, but they also work with Dash, our digital asset management tool. Dash helps organize and share images easily. Instead of having designers or photographers upload images directly to your Shopify or WooCommerce store, which could cause problems, you can use Dash to manage your images.

With Dash, you can review and prepare images for your online store before adding them to Shopify or WooCommerce. You don’t have to upload images manually; you can browse your entire Dash library within the platforms and directly add content to your product listings.

12 Reasons to Choose WooCommerce

User-Friendly Interface of WooCommerce

WooCommerce has an easy-to-use interface, so even if you’re not tech-savvy, you can easily set up and manage your online store without any hassle.

Flexibility

With WooCommerce, you have complete freedom to design a unique store that suits your brand. There are many themes and widgets available, giving you the tools to create a personalized shopping experience for your customers.

Seamless Integration

WooCommerce is built to integrate perfectly with WordPress, which is the world’s most popular content management system (CMS). This means you can take full advantage of WordPress’s powerful features and its endless possibilities to enhance your store.

Wide Range of Extensions

WooCommerce offers a large selection of extensions that can help you add new features and functionalities to your online store. Whether you need advanced payment gateways, different shipping options, or marketing tools, there’s an extension available to meet your needs.

Scalability

WooCommerce is great for businesses of any size. Whether you’re a small startup or a large company, it can easily handle the growing needs of your website.

Analytics and Reporting

Analytics and reporting tools of eCommerce enable you to measure the performance of your website. Such information is a great indicator of how your clients behave and helps you in making smart decisions regarding the optimization of e-commerce stores.

Secure and Trustworthy

WooCommerce focuses on keeping your store safe, so customers can buy with confidence. It supports secure payment options and follows security standards to ensure your customers’ personal details are protected.

Analytics and Reporting

WooCommerce provides tools to track how your store is performing. These reports give you insights into your customers’ behavior, helping you make smarter decisions to improve your online store.

Multilingual and Multi-currency Support

WooCommerce makes it easy to reach customers around the world. It supports different languages and currencies, so you can accept payments in various currencies and make your store accessible to people from different countries.

Final Words

Both WooCommerce and Shopify are great platforms, each with its own strengths. Shopify is an easy-to-use, fully hosted solution that’s perfect for those who want to get started quickly without worrying about technical details. 

However, for more flexibility, customization, and control over your online store, WooCommerce is the better option. It allows you to build exactly what you envision, and since it’s open-source, you have endless possibilities to scale your business as it grows. 

If you’re comfortable with WordPress or willing to explore a bit of setup, WooCommerce is a fantastic choice to create a truly unique and scalable online store.

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