WooCommerce vs Shopify: A Detailed Comparison Guide

The e-commerce industry is expanding at an extremely rapid pace. According to a report published by Forbes,  it was estimated that by the end of 2022, 20.4% of the total global retail sales will be from the e-commerce space.

One of the very first steps in how to build a website for a business is deciding the platform you want to use to construct your website. For an online retail organisation or company, it is essential to decide on the hosting platform or the platform on which you will launch, manage, and organise the business and related affairs.

Before understanding the differences between WooCommerce vs Shopify and choosing the best e-commerce website builder for your website, it is essential to understand what are these individual platforms and what they offer and most importantly the advantages that are associated with each platform.

Understanding Shopify

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an ecommerce website builder that enables businesses to create an online store where they can sell products, manage inventory, process payments, and fulfil orders. It provides a simple and intuitive interface to help businesses manage their online store and customers. Shopify also offers various tools and themes to help businesses create an attractive and user-friendly online store.

Benefits of Shopify

1. Easy to use: Shopify is designed to be user-friendly and can be used by anyone with no prior knowledge of web design or coding. This makes it an ideal and suitable platform for businesses of varied sizes.

2. Customizable: Shopify offers a variety of themes and plugins that can be used to customize the look and feel of your store. You can also customize the checkout process, adding additional fields or removing those that are not relevant to your business.

3. SEO friendly: Shopify is optimized for SEO, making it easier for customers to find your store online. Additionally, Shopify stores are hosted on secure servers, which helps to protect customer data.

4. Affordable: One of the major benefits of Shopify is that it offers plans that are affordable for businesses of all sizes. The most basic plan starts at just $29/month and includes access to a variety of features.

5. Mobile friendly: Shopify stores are optimized for mobile devices, making it easier for customers to purchase from your store on the go. Additionally, Shopify also offers a mobile app that allows you to manage your store from any location.

Understanding WooCommerce

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce website builder that is used as a plugin for WordPress. It is designed for merchants across using the platform WordPress. WooCommerce is used to create and power online stores for physical and digital products. It provides a secure, user-friendly platform with features such as inventory management, order tracking, secure payments, and more.

Benefits of WooCommerce

1. Low cost and open source: WooCommerce is a free open-source plugin, which means you can customize it to meet your needs without a large upfront investment. This is great for small businesses that want to establish an online presence without breaking the bank.

2. Easy setup: WooCommerce is easy to install and set up, so you can get your store up and running quickly. It also comes with helpful documentation, so you can get the most out of the plugin.

3. Flexible and extensible: It comes with lots of useful features, but it can also be extended with add-ons and extensions. This allows you to customize your store to meet your specific needs.

4. Secure and reliable: WooCommerce is built on the WordPress platform, known for its security and reliability. With it, you can rest assured that your store is safe and secure.

5. Large community: WooCommerce has a large and active community, so you can find help and support when you need it. The community also offers many great resources, such as tutorials and extensions.

WooCommerce and Shopify are two of the most popular e-commerce website builder platforms on a global scale. Each of these comes with its own unique set of features and benefits. But they are also very closely related to each other regarding the service they offer. So the question of which platform to choose, which one suits your business and requirements the best needs to be answered. So here is a detailed comparison guide on WooCommerce vs Shopify to help you make the decision that the shoe fits your needs.

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Factors of Comparison

There are many factors to take into consideration before deciding which is the best e-commerce website builder. Let’s take a look at these factors of WooCommerce vs Shopify in detail.

1. Pricing

First and foremost while comparing WooCommerce vs Shopify, you have to consider the cost of launching and maintaining your online store. The cost is usually an addition of starting charges clubbed with extra charges for software and other services.

WooCommerce pricing includes multiple elements. Although the installation of the WooCommerce plugin is free, hosting charges along with an SSL certificate need to be paid. Charges for the domain name will also be incurred in WooCommerce. One of the major factors of WooCommerce pricing is that you have more control over the expenditure in terms of the choices of the areas to spend in, i.e., more flexibility. Individual charges need to be paid for extensions like shipping options, premium themes, etc. The costs will start rising as your business grows as hosting charges change. But, a benefit is that you can always opt for the free themes and find other free alternatives for the paid extensions.

Shopify cost is more straightforward in the sense that they have fixed plans that charge you per month which functions like a package. These plans include hosting charges as well SSL certification. Shopify offers 3 different plans including Basic, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify. These plans also come with a sub-domain with Shopify attached in the URL, like “https://storexyz/.myshopify.com”. For your own brand’s name, it needs to be purchased individually. Shopify cost also is escalated when other payment gateways that are not the Shopify Payment method are wanted. Also, for the majority of third-party tools and add-ons, extra charges need to be paid. Also, with the offering of Shopify Plus for a higher cost you can have access to an overall upgraded version of Shopify which offers higher flexibility.

WooCommerce takes the win for this in the debate of WooCommerce vs Shopify in the price aspect as it is the more flexible and affordable option.

2. Payment Methods

It refers to the getaway options that are available for customers of your store. It is always recommended to have multiple payment options including BNPL apps like LazyPay as you can cater to the needs of your varied customers. 

WooCommerce does not charge any transaction fees on third-party payment applications and only bank transaction charges are levied. WooCommerce also has its own payment gateway and supports a wide range of external gateways including Stripe, PayPal, and other regional gateways too. Some of the payment gateways require you to purchase an additional extension for usage. 

Shopify too supports varied external payment gateways but transaction fees for third-party apps are charged. It also requires no configuration at all. A charge of 2% is levied on transactions from third-party getaways which is above and beyond the bank charges. 

So while comparing WooCommerce vs Shopify in this aspect, WooCommerce takes the cake.

3. Shipping

Next important facet of the comparison of WooCommerce vs Shopify is the shipping options and procedure. For a business to run successfully, it goes without saying that customers have to have an impeccable shipping experience.

WooCommerce can be used for dropshipping and international shipping. Dropshipping is the business model of third-party vendors shipping your products, i.e., no sale items are kept up front. WooCommerce is home to many plugins that facilitate the process of third-party shipping, like the Ali Dropshipping Plugin.

Shopify, on the other hand, has built-in partnerships with USPS, FedEx, DHL, etc., that ensure a smooth and seamless shipping process. They also provide the service of international shipping and dropshipping.

4. Scalability

While choosing the right eCommerce service provider, it is vital to keep the scale of operations in mind. Business infrastructure and resources must grow parallelly  to the business itself. There will likely be an increase in the number of orders and customer service requests, and the website must change to accommodate this.

As WooCommerce is a self-hosted platform, the user will be responsible for the scaling of the website. This is a double-edged sword. The advantage is that one has complete freedom over the nuances of your website, through your WordPress. However, given the intricacy of manual management, one would likely have to hire a specialised tech team to scale up.

As Shopify is a more holistic web host, one can simply upgrade the Shopify plan to scale up the business and the website. Further, as Shopify manages it on its end, one would not have to hire a specialised tech team.

If one prefers more customisation and more control, WooCommerce is best suited. However, if cost-effectiveness is a priority, Shopify is the better option. Initially, WooCommerce is more inexpensive. But, as the business scales, WooCommerce becomes more expensive as it necessitates a tech team as opposed to simply upgrading a plan on Shopify.

In conclusion, Shopify is more suited to scalability as it is simpler and more cost-effective.

5. Support

WooCommerce support provides the ideal line when it is powered with Bluehost. This is because of the access to Bluehost’s brilliant customer service too. WooCommerce support by itself includes raising tickets and also the availability of setup guides to help you establish and use WooCommerce. It is also easy to use; all you need to do is install a plug-and-play extension to get it going.

On the other hand, Shopify customer support is available 24/7 through email, phone, and live chat. Shopify customer support is also fueled by a section that contains articles, guides, tutorials, etc.

Shopify takes the win for customer support in the debate of WooCommerce vs Shopify because of their wide and large community paired with round-the-clock live chat, phone, and mail.

6. Ease of Use

As Shopify is a fully-hosted program, it is easier and more attractive for the small business owner. It allows for customisation without involving detailed technical knowledge. All aspects, such as security, backups, etc., are taken care of by Shopify. User control is limited. However, Shopify has a large array of templates that can be used.

As WooCommerce needs a third-party host, it is more complicated to use. It requires some technical knowledge on the part of the user, as the client will be responsible for installing plugins, taking care of backups, security, etc. However, due to its malleable nature, WooCommerce also offers more flexibility and customisation options.

However, apropos ease of use, Shopify stands out, with its user-friendly and smooth interface.

7. Control

Shopify does not use a third-party host, which means that Shopify has all the intricacies ironed out on its end. While this makes it more smooth for the user, it also means that there is very limited customizability and control. As a user, you can select from a wide range of existing templates on Shopify. However, you are limited to the design of these existing templates and cannot customise everything according to your will. When it comes to functionality as well, Shopify struggles to offer external options and control.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, is extremely customisable when it comes to both design and functionality. As WooCommerce requires third-party hosting, it leaves a lot of room for the user to decide every niche and specific detail of their online shopping experience. If the client wants to change, for instance, the functionality of their website, they can add a plethora of experiences with additional plugins, even if it is not offered by WooCommerce. Similarly, with design, the client can completely customise their website, instead of having to choose from pre-existing templates.

In conclusion, Shopify cannot come close to the range of control, flexibility, and customizability that WooCommerce can offer.

8. Third-party plugins and extensions

Shopify, being a fully-hosted service, has its own store for extensions and third-party plugins. Within this repository, the user can search for extensions for their website. However, there are limited options available, as third-party developers have to submit their apps and plugins for approval before they are made available. This is much more complicated on Shopify rather than WooCommerce.

In addition, it is integrated with WordPress, which means that users can access nearly 60,000 free plugins, in addition to paid ones. As WooCommerce is open source, it is very easy for third-party developers to make their apps and plugins available, which results in exponentially more choices on WooCommerce than on Shopify. These can integrate into the client’s website smoothly and work well with other available plugins.

When it comes to third-party plugins, WooCommerce is the winner by a mile.

WooCommerce vs Shopify: At a Glance

Conclusion: WooCommerce vs Shopify: Which is Better?

Woocommerce is one of the most popular e-commerce platform in the world and offers a wide range of features, including product management, payment processing, and shipping. WooCommerce is a great solution for small to medium-sized businesses that are looking to get started quickly and easily.

Shopify is a paid e-commerce platform that offers a wide range of features, including product management, payment processing, shipping, and custom store design. It is a great solution for larger businesses that need more customization and scalability. Shopify also offers a wide range of app integrations and plugins to help you customize your store.

Overall, WooCommerce is a great solution for small to medium-sized businesses that are looking for a quick and easy way to launch their online store. Shopify is a great solution for larger businesses that need more customization and scalability. Both platforms offer a wide range of features, but the main difference is the cost. WooCommerce is free, while Shopify is a paid platform. Now with D2Scale, we will help you choose the best platform to suit your business’s unique needs and requirements.