Choosing the right Ecommerce platform and eco-system is more than just picking between WooCommerce vs Shopify. A professional web design and development agency will help you with selecting the right tools to operate your business more efficiently. Instead of cookie-cutter approach, professional web developers will give you consultation on a bespoke approach that works for your business. (See our guide on How to choose the right web design agency)
Our methodology for Ecommerce Development
We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all ecommerce solutions. As a leading Ecommerce agency in Australia, New Zealand and UAE, we specialise in building ecommerce sites that fit your business goals, not just trends.
Whether it’s Shopify development or WooCommerce development, as your ecommerce website development agency we choose the platform that makes the most sense for your growth, operations and business model. With deep experience in both eco-systems, we help our clients and partners choose the platform and solution that scales as the business grows and works best with their business requirements.
WooCommerve vs Shopify: Our comparison criteria
We look at various aspects when choosing the right platform. First and most importantly the business need and which solition may fit best, but after that there are certain criterias that can help choosing the right platforms. These include, feature comparison, pricing, security, company's business practices, market share and much more.
Let's delve deep into each of those.
WooCommerce vs Shopify: Pricing
How much does WooCommerce Cost? WooCommerce itself is free to use on any WordPress website. WooCommerce is slightly more affordable than Shopify even though the pricing models are completely different. WooCommerce relies on web hosting that users purchase seperately to host the website.
Even though, arguably you can buy a web hosting even as cheap as $3 per month, this web hosting will not be reliable to run a WooCommerce store. To run WooCommerce smoothly, you'll require a decent WordPress web hosting which usually starts from $15 per month for small stores. As partner WordPress developer in NZ for various Kiwi businesses, we offer fully managed web hosting and we have a detailed guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting for your website
Now talking about pricing, Shopify is $29 per month for smallest Ecommerce package. This includes all the ecommerce features out of the box and ofcourse no hosting required as Shopify is a cloud-based platform.
Winner: WooCommerce
WooCommerce vs Shopify: Features
WooCommerce works as an extention of WordPress development. A well-known, perhaps one of the most robust CMS that powers over 40% of the interenet. This gives WooCommerce great flexibility options to build any kind of stores, customise the front-end and design to the business needs. Our professional WordPress developer in Sydney have further customised the WordPress core with integrated custom design capabilities, this helps us create custom Ecommerce stores for our clients.
Shopify is a standalone, cloud-based Ecommerce website builder. It comes with more than enough ecommerce features, pre-configured without requirement of heavy development efforts. Shopify is built for Ecommerce which means it includes everything from Inventory management, customer management, invoicing and a lot more.
However, Shopify is not CMS-first platform, so when it comes to content pages and design, it may have limitations or may require extra development and Shopify expert efforts to build something custom.
Winner: WooCommerce has WordPress backing and enables more customisation options however Shopify has plenty of Ecommerce features built in. For highly custom stores WooCommerce wins, for Ecommerce-only sites, Shopify does the job well.
Ease of setup and developer experience
Both platforms have extensive eco-system of plugins, developer support and much more. WooCommerce requires development efforts, knowledge of WordPress, hosting, optimisation and more. Our Wordpress developers in Sydney specialise in setting up WooCommerce and WordPress optimisation for high-performance stores, hence for highly custom stores we select WooCommerce
However, basic Shopify stores can easily be setup out of the box without heavy development requirements. For advanced features, Shopify development agencies or Shopify experts are required. For business that are looking for low budget Ecommerce development and a basic store, Shopify might be the better pick
Winner: Shopify. Shopify offers easier setup process, WooCommerce require Woocommerce and WordPress development expertise
How much is the transaction fees for Shopify vs WooCommerce
Shopify charges transaction fees of 2.7% + $0.30 or on the Basic plan.
WooCommerce itself doesn’t charge any transaction fees, but you’ll pay typical payment gateway fees depending on your provider, for example, Stripe usually charges 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction or 3.7% + $0.30 for international cards.
So even though both cost about the same, WooCommerce can be more cost-effective if you choose to use alternate payment gateways with lower fees.
Winner: Same
How is your data treated by Shopify vs WooCommerce
With Shopify, your store and your customer data lives in Shopify servers and owned by Shopify. Shopify can decide to close your store any day if they see any violations of their rules, or for any other reason they see fit.
How Shopify closed down Kanye West / Yeezy Store indefenitely
Once your Shopify store is removed, there is no way to restore it back, there are no backups. Recently Kanye West's Yeezy store was taken down by Shopify, indefenitely, this was over some of Kanye (Ye) posts over X platform.
With WooCommerce (WordPress) you have the choice to host your website and data anywhere you like. Any web hosting, region and server type. Some business choose to host their website in Europe hosting for EU data laws.
WooCommerce (or WordPress) also gives flexibility to take backups of your site, which you can store offline, or rehost anywhere else.
Winner: WooCommerce
Which one is more secure? Shopify or WooCommerce
Shopify handles all the security aspects for your website. WooCommerce requires you to setup security plugins, hosting security and more. If you are working with a professional WordPress design and development agency or you are a professional WordPress developer, then it shouldn't be a problem as there is an entire eco-system of WordPress plugins for security.
However, for DIY stores, Shopify offers a more out-of-box security features.
Winner: Shopify
Ecommerce platform marketshare
WooCommerce is open‑source and built into WordPress, so it’s favoured by small‑to‑mid‑sized businesses. WooCommerce leads global platform usage (~38 %) but drops to ~13 % in the top 1 M tier. Shopify holds ~27 % global share and shines in top-tier segments and the US (29 %).
Here is a detailed comparason chart for Shopify vs WooCommerce market share in different regions:
Category | WooCommerce | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
Total websites powered | ~6 million | ~5.6 million |
Global market share | ~38–39 % | ~27 % |
Among top 1 M sites | ~13 % | ~10–11 % |
US market share | ~18 % | ~29 % |
UK market share | ~22% | ~21% |
Australia | ~17% | ~28% |
New Zealand | ~51% | ~16% |
Which one should you choose for Ecommerce development
Ideally, consult with a professional Ecommerce web design agency or a professional wordpress developer or web developer to guide you choosing the right platform. There are plenty of Ecommerce marketing agencies in Australia, New Zealand, who are not developers but have enough Ecommerce experience to guide you though it. For UAE based businesses, consult with a professional shopify website development company in Dubai or Abu Dhabi to help you select the right platform.
How can I start Ecommerce business myself
If you are planning to start an Ecommerce website yourself, it is recommended to start on Shopify as it is a lot more beginner friendly compared to WooCommerce. WooCommerce require expert setup and development.
When should I use WooCommerce for my website
If you require a highly customisable Ecommerce store, with custom features and great CMS features for content pages and custom branded design. WooCommerce has better flexibility for such a requirement.
With power of WordPress and WooCommerce you can build highly branded stores and Ecommerce experience. WordPress also has great SEO features which will help your store rank up in search engines a lot easily. Whereas with Shopify, to do SEO right you may require developer support. With that being said, WooCommerce requires WordPress developer skills.
We offer both Shopify development and WooCommerce development to businesses across the world with presence in Australia, New Zealand and UAE. If you're looking to get an Ecommerce stores that moves products not just pixels, book a free consultation with Sundeck Studio.
