Is Shopify better than WooCommerce?

Are you planning or are you currently trying to create an online shop?

Then this detailed and unbiased comparison of eCommerce platforms with WooCommerce and Shopify will help you choose.

I will not confuse you. I will immediately consider WooCommerce and Shopify in terms of convenience and ease of installation, features provided, pricing and a few other aspects.

So we're putting together a test drive for the two platforms so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.

Creating an online store is a very important task. So let's start with a comparison of these two platforms.

What should be considered in the e-commerce platform?

There are a few things you need to keep in mind when starting an online store. These key factors help you decide which ecommerce platform is best for you.

Budget - the initial cost of running a functional store.

Ease of use - the platform should be easy to use even for beginners.

Payment Methods - Support for multiple payment methods (eg PayPal, bank cards, etc.)

Integration - the number of third-party services and tools you can integrate for business development.

Scalability - the platform should scale as your business grows.

These are the basic requirements that all online store owners should consider.

Ecommerce CMS works well for medium and large businesses. Many plugins allow you to add advanced features. The system has content management capabilities and also allows you to create a unique design.

Coming soon via WooCommerce

WooCommerce is based on the WordPress CMS platform. In essence, this is a plugin that allows you to create online stores. An important advantage is the ease of management and accessibility. There are a huge number of different WooCommerce themes . It is also ideal for small businesses. One major problem is the poor scalability. It is easy enough to find a qualified professional. WooCommerce was hacked a few years ago. Hackers received a variety of credit card information. This vulnerability has been fixed. However, it has left an unpleasant impression in the history of this plugin.

Advantages :

1. Easy administration;
2. A huge number of free templates ;
3. Many qualified professionals.

Disadvantages :

1. Low level of security;
2. Poor scalability.

WooCommerce is worth the choice in 2 cases:

Case 1: You already have a WordPress website. Especially if you have a lot of experience with this engine.

Case 2: You need a free online store. If you want to extend the functionality with thousands of free plugins, this is definitely your choice.

In short, about Shopify

Shopify is the undisputed leader in hosting platforms. The site hosts over 75,000 online stores. This is the most popular system with which you can create your own online store with two clicks. A variety of different themes make it possible to customize the shop for almost every customer.

Advantages:

1. a large number of templates;
2. good SEO optimization;
3. 24/7 online support

Disadvantage:

1. complex management interface

Why is Shopify the better choice for you?

- You never have to worry about the surplus of goods sold, because you only order the quantity that is required for customer demand. Thus, the platform differs from traditional e-commerce when either the production of goods or the wholesale purchase of goods is required.

- With Shopify, you can control the inventory of your product in just a few clicks.

Cost: Shopify vs.. WooCommerce

Costs are often the most important factor in choosing a platform.

You should estimate the cost of starting work and also consider the cost of additional services.

How much does Shopify cost?

With Shopify you can easily start your online shop. A Basic Shopify costs $ 29 per month, the Classic fare is $ 79 per month, and the Extended Shopify fare is $ 299 per month. There is also a Lite rate now - only $ 9 a month.

Each of these tariffs includes a domain name, an SSL certificate and hosting.

In the floor plan there are enough possibilities to create the first online shop:

• You can add to an unlimited number of products
• 2 user accounts,
• an unlimited data store and much more.

However, this price does not include third-party tools and extensions required for a full-fledged online store.

As your business starts to grow, so does the cost. Then maybe you should switch to another plan.

How much does WooCommerce cost?

WooCommerce is a free e-commerce plugin for WordPress. To open a business, you also need a domain, SSL certificate and hosting.

The costs for the domain start from 50 cents, hosting - from 90 cents per month. Many hosting companies offer a free SSL certificate.

As you can see, the initial cost of using WooCommerce is significantly lower than the cost of using Shopify.

WooCommerce does not charge you% per transaction, which is an added bonus.

However, the cost of WooCommerce is increasing with the purchase of paid extensions. The cost of your hosting will also increase with the growth of the online store.

However, one of the benefits of WooCommerce is that you can find free alternatives to all paid add-ons.

user friendliness

It's no secret that ease-of-use plays a key role when an e-commerce platform becomes popular. A simple platform requires only a short time to set up and that's it. In most cases, ease of use is a big problem for beginners because a complex platform can steal a lot of your time. Let's see how Shopify and WooCommerce differ in this aspect.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free plugin. It requires a hosting and a WordPress installation. In addition, you must regularly update WooCommerce and its add-ons. This can be a lot of work for you, but once you become familiar with the process, it should not be a problem for you. 

Shopify

Unlike WooCommerce, Shopify is a subscription-based tool. Shopify has taken care that it would not be a problem for you. You can easily and quickly set up and install everything on your website. You can do this in minutes by visiting Shopify.com to create an account and then go through the setup wizard.

Beginners will love this platform so that it will help you every step of the way by giving you instructions on how to set up your online store  so you will not have any problems.

Payment methods: Shopify vs.. WooCommerce

There are many payment options to receive online payments. Some payment methods may not be suitable for you, while others may not be available to your customers.

Therefore, it is important that the chosen platform offers different payment options. Let's see what Shopify and WooCommerce offer.

Shopify payment options

Payments are another factor that influences your spending.

Shopify has its own solution, Shopify Payments, which costs approximately 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction. Look at the picture.

Shopify transaction fees

If you choose to use third-party payment gateways or you own bank account, a flat rate of 2.0% will be charged for all transactions. You can reduce the fee to 0.5% with the Advanced Shopify Plan for $ 299 per month.

WooCommerce payment options

WooCommerce offers by default the use of PayPal. It also supports other popular payment options that you can connect via settings.

WooCommerce will never charge you additional commission. This is an advantage.

SEO support

The establishment of a perfect online shop is not enough. You need to make sure that your business is able to compete with thousands of other online businesses. The SEO support system of your ecommerce platform has a lot to do in this regard.

WooCommerce

At the core, WordPress does not provide great SEO support. The main features of the core are limited. However, connecting with an SEO plugin is not a problem for WordPress. Plugins like YOAST , a well-known name among the SEO plugins, offer you the best SEO experience.

Shopify

Shopify is not as good an option as WooCommerce in terms of its SEO features. However, you can not write off your skills. Since being built on a hosted platform with large infrastructure, they offer a high speed.

Safety

Security is an unavoidable factor for an ecommerce store because the online store stores very sensitive information such as credit card details, personal information, etc. of its customers to give you a simple experience. While customers are in the online store, you need a good security system to offer them. For example, by storing credit card information, customers do not need to enter it every time they shop in your store.

WooCommerce

At WooCommerce, the security of your store depends mainly on chosen hosting providers. Failure to select a hosting provider that has adequate security measures may affect your store.

Shopify

Since security is included in Shopify tariff, you can also leave this concern. Security threats such as hacking, data theft, etc. can be effectively prevented by the tariff of Shopify.

Integration and add-ons: Shopify vs.. WooCommerce

Every ecommerce platform is reliable, but to grow your business you need third party tools and services. For example, mailing software, analysis tools, etc.

Shopify and WooCommerce have an extensive expansion catalog and can also be integrated into many third-party services.

Additional Shopify tools

Shopify includes a powerful App Store app and applications that you can use to get useful extensions. The platform has hundreds of applications for connecting new storage features.

To find potential customers (lead generation), integration with the OptinMonster software is possible. With this tool, you can expand your email list and reduce rejections. Shopify offers applications for SEO, product reviews, discounts and more.

There are free and paid applications. The rates for paid extensions vary and most of them offer a monthly subscription.

Additional WooCommerce tools

Using WooCommerce gives you access to 50,000 free WordPress plugins.

With their help you can add payment gateways, find potential customers, perform SEO optimizations, etc. All can easily be integrated into your online store.

Scalability and growth

As your business grows, you need additional resources to solve new problems. Let's see what these two e-commerce platforms offer.

Scalability Shopify

Shopify takes over the technical support of your shop, so you do not have to worry about performance, security and scalability. As your business grows, you can easily update Shopify's rates.

The e-commerce platform also offers business services as part of the Shopify Plus tariff.

Your expenses will increase and you will need to plan accordingly. However, you save on the technical side of your store.

WooCommerce Scalability

WooCommerce is a stand-alone platform and you are responsible for updating and securing your website.

As your business grows, just change the hosting for greater productivity. And you do not have to pay for unnecessary resources.

Despite all the controls offered by WooCommerce, some entrepreneurs prefer to use a turnkey solution.

Features: Shopify vs.. WooCommerce

The number of features offered by your ecommerce platform can greatly impact the performance of your website. Bigger features make for a better user experience in your online store. Let's take a look at what features Shopify and WooCommerce offer.

WooCommerce

With WooCommerce you can sell physical products and digital products. This is also a good platform for affiliate marketing. You can have an unlimited number of products and product categories in your store. PayPal and Stripe offer your customers a fast and secure payment experience. The adjustable shipping costs and taxes, the control of stock levels, etc. help you to set up an online store in the shortest possible time. You also have the option of expanding the functionality of your shop.

Shopify

Shopify also offers unlimited products and data storage. Automatic intrusion analysis, credit card payments, multi-language support, free SSL certificate, SEO-ready page structure and drop shipping capabilities are the subtleties of the features. Single Product Ratings, Facebook Sales Mode, Social Media Integration, Daily Backups, Customer Profiles, and Advanced Shopify Reports are other benefits that you can use with Shopify.

User Support

Running an online store is a complex task indeed, because many different things go hand in hand. It is quite common to experience various technical problems from time to time. The worst part is that you can not afford to spend a lot of time solving these problems. Therefore, you should have a technical support team to assist you in these emergencies.

Support from WooCommerce

WooCommerce offers countless video tutorials to help people with technical issues that might occur in their business. Support forums provide a lot of help for people in need. Since most of the issues are related to WooCommerce extensions and third-party templates, you need to contact your own support team to resolve your issues.

Support from Shopify

Compared to WooCommerce, Shopify has a dedicated support team available 24/7. They provide support across all major communication platforms, including e-mail, live chat, Twitter and telephone. Apart from that you can also find the documentation and tutorials for further help online.

Design & Themes

Shopify

The themes are a virtual shop window. You'll be glad that Shopify has its own theme store that contains over 180 different templates. Some are premium, but many are free. Most of them have customization options that allow you to change the look and feel without touching a line of code.

Premium Shopify themes offer more options, but if you really want to customize the style, you 'll need to get your hands dirty with the Liquid programming language or hire someone to do it for you.

WooCommerce

The entry-level theme of WooCommerce, Storefront, has responsive web design. It also has a clean and fresh layout.

To enhance design, you'll need to add sub themes (starting at $ 39) and extensions (free or up to $ 69 for a bundle).

How well your design looks on WooCommerce depends on the hours you're ready to invest.

When designers create new designs for WooCommerce, there is no limit then.

The selection of WooCommerce is fantastic, but Shopify's offer is very filtered. It took time to pick the themes that worked best for your store.

Shopify Vs. WooCommerce? - Conclusion

After researching Shopify and WooCommerce, the big question is: Which one to choose?

As is often the case with such questions, the honest answer is that it depends.

When deciding which eCommerce platform to use, many factors play a big role - your technical skills, your budget, the size of your business, and the features you need. However, there are two situations where the answer is unique.

• You have limited technical skills and are just looking for the fastest way to start your shop with minimal effort - choose Shopify .
• You're not afraid to learn how to do it yourself, and you want a solution that grows with your business without limiting its potential - choose WooCommerce.