Published on September 19, 2022 by Simon Wright
Are you looking to create an online store? If so, you’ve landed on the right page, as today we’ll be directly comparing two of the most popular eCommerce platforms – WooCommerce vs Shopify – to help you decide which one is best for you.
In a nutshell, eCommerce is simply commercial transactions that are conducted electronically via the internet as opposed to more traditional means. This type of commerce is vast and will continue growing for the foreseeable future. In fact, according to statistics gurus, Statista, retail e-commerce sales are expected to grow from $4.9 trillion globally in 2021 to a whopping $7.4 trillion by 2025.
Most businesses that want to survive in this digital age realize that people now prefer to shop online. Furthermore, the internet has made it super easy to create an online store, and thanks to the dropshipping model, you don’t even need to hold inventory. Accordingly, small business ownership is now within easy reach of home entrepreneurs.
WooCommerce is a plugin for the hugely popular WordPress CMS (content management system), which powers the lion’s share of the websites on the internet. The plugin allows you to use WordPress to create an eCommerce store, which can be standalone or part of a blog or other type of content site.
Like WordPress, WooCommerce is open-source software. That means its code is accessible by all, allowing virtually unlimited scope for modification and customization of your eCommerce store.
Conversely, Shopify is a completely standalone, out-of-the-box solution specifically for creating eCommerce stores.
Unlike WooCommerce, which works in conjunction with WordPress, Shopify is fully hosted, so you don’t need to worry about that. It is highly customizable, although, unlike WooCommerce, its code is not open source, limiting the opportunity for deep customizations.
Furthermore, as WooCommerce uses WordPress as its base, a vast range of WordPress plugins is also available to you.
Moreover, a blog offering technical and other advice is available, and there are tons of third-party resources such as blogs and tutorial videos on YouTube. However, problems with hosting will need to be dealt with by your hosting provider.
Shopify also has a help center on its website, a free learning portal, and a YouTube channel with video tutorials. There is also an active forum offering further help and advice.
As WooCommerce is self-hosted and Shopify is hosted, comparing them cost-wise is not so straightforward. In either case, you need to decide upfront what extras you are likely to need and price them out. That way, you can see which platform best fits your budget.
While WooCommerce is a free plugin for (also free) WordPress, there are a couple of expenses you will incur to get an eCommerce store off the ground, including:
To create a truly unique eCommerce store, you will probably want a nice theme, some WordPress plugins, and a few WooCommerce extensions. Unfortunately, while many of these are free, the ones that offer the most features and customization possibilities tend to be premium ones. Therefore, depending on your wish list, you may end up paying either nothing or several hundred dollars per year.
Tip: When looking for extensions and plugins, choose ones that cover multiple functions wherever possible. The benefits of that are three-fold: (i) you will save money, (ii) you won’t be ‘bloating’ your store unnecessarily, and (iii) you might get some extra features you never knew you needed.
Things are a little more straightforward with Shopify as it is fully hosted. That means you just need to purchase a Shopify plan that suits your needs and a domain name, and you are pretty much ready to go.
Three Shopify plans are available: Basic ($29/month,) Shopify ($70/month,) and Advanced ($299/month) while committing to an annual plan will save you around 50% compared to the monthly prices.
Moreover, another thing to consider with Shopify is credit card transaction fees: depending on the plan you purchase, these are 2.4 to 2.9% plus $0.30 for each transaction.
Of course, as with WooCommerce, you can tailor Shopify using different themes and plugins, some of which are free while others are not.
In all honesty, there is no outright winner in the WooCommerce vs. Shopify tournament. Both are excellent eCommerce platforms for creating an online store regardless of how much budget you have available. Therefore, which you choose mostly boils down to how quickly you want to get your store online and whether you have some technical ability.
If you are an absolute newbie that freaks out at the thought of creating a store from the ground up, then Shopify will probably be the best option for you. What’s more, if you have an existing website, you can easily monetize with Shopify by embedding products, collections, and a cart into existing content.
Conversely, if you have built a WordPress site before, or are willing to have a go, then WooCommerce could be right up your street. And like Shopify, you can create a store from scratch or use it to monetize an existing blog or website.
Finally, if you don’t have any products to sell or cannot afford to have someone else manufacture them, you can always use your creative talents to build a print-on-demand store. Alternatively, if you are not artistic, why not try dropshipping some items from a marketplace like AliExpress? Nowadays, there is absolutely no excuse not to have your own eCommerce store!
I’m a former construction industry professional who came out of the writer’s closet and am now totally comfortable with my creative side. My pronouns are smart, creative, witty, and dependable. I have written content in a number of niches including WordPress, plus I’m a blogger and affiliate marketer. If you’d like to know more about how I can help you, please head over to my website.
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