Two of the most widely used e-commerce systems are WooCommerce and Shopify. Both platforms have a variety of features and resources that make it simple to create and maintain an online business. Before determining which platform is best for your company, you need to be aware of some significant distinctions between the two.
What Features Should Your eCommerce Platform Have?
This article aims to compare Shopify and WooCommerce’s positions on these fundamental criteria in-depth in order to determine which one is ideal for your needs.
When launching an online store, there are a few considerations that you must be sure to keep in mind. You may select the platform that is best for your needs by using these important criteria.
- Budget: A fully working e-commerce store’s budget is its starting price.
- Usability: Even for complete beginners, it should be simple to use.
- Payment Options: A variety of payment options should be supported (e.g. PayPal, Stripe, and other merchant processors).
- Integrations: The variety of tools and services that you might incorporate to expand your eCommerce business.
- Scalability: As your firm expands, the platform should be scalable.
These are the very minimum criteria that every proprietor of an online store should take into account. However, you could also want to consider other alternatives, such as shipping, inventory control, invoicing, taxes, dropshipping, etc., depending on your needs.
With that said, let’s get started with our comparison of Shopify and WooCommerce.
About WooCommerce
Let’s start by looking at Woocommerce. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, so in order to utilize it, your website must be powered by WordPress. The WooCommerce plugin makes it simple to add items, manage orders, and handle payments. Woocommerce has several features and tools available, such as support for various payment methods, inventory control, and shipping choices.
About Shopify
Contrarily, Shopify is a stand-alone e-commerce platform that doesn’t necessitate the use of a WordPress website. Without any technical knowledge, you can quickly set up an online store using Shopify and begin selling your goods. Shopify provides a variety of tools and services, including support for various payment channels, inventory control, and delivery choices.
Usability and Customisations
The degree of control you have over your website is one of the main distinctions between Woocommerce and Shopify. Since Woocommerce is integrated with WordPress, you have total control over the appearance and functioning of your website. This means you can simply use WordPress plugins to add more functionality and modify your website to match your brand.
The pre-designed themes provided by Shopify, on the other hand, allow you to swiftly set up your online business. Although some consumers may find this useful, it also means you have less control over the look and feel of your website.
Pricing: Woocommerce vs Shopify
Pricing is another significant distinction between Woocommerce and Shopify.
Shopify provides a selection of price options starting at $29 per month. This provides access to all of Shopify’s features and tools, hosting, and a domain name. For some services, such as more payment gateways or sophisticated reporting, you may need to pay extra costs.
Since Woocommerce is a WordPress plugin, using it is free. However, you’ll need a domain name, SSL Certificate, and a WordPress hosting account to start a WooCommerce store.
A domain registration typically costs ₹1,000, an SSL Certificate ₹5,000, and monthly web hosting is about ₹800. This is not cheap, especially if you are just getting started.
Thankfully, a number of hosting providers are now providing specific WooCommerce hosting plans, greatly lowering the cost.
Hostinger, the hosting provider we recommend, provides a free SSL and domain name on their hosting plans which too are super cheap! Checkout Hostinger here:
Payment Methods: Woocommerce vs Shopify
You can accept payments online using a variety of payment gateways. Some payment options might not be appropriate for you, and your customers might not have access to others.
This is why it’s crucial that the platform you select has a variety of payment methods. Let’s examine the payment integration capabilities of Shopify and WooCommerce.
Payment Options in Shopify
Customers can utilise a variety of payment methods on Shopify when checking out. Along with all of the well-known third-party payment channels, it has its own payment system called Shopify Payments (powered by Stripe).
The problem is that every transaction done through a third-party payment gateway on Shopify has an additional 2% cost. This is in addition to the transaction fees the payment gateway levies. By paying $299 per month for the Advanced Shopify plan, you may lower the cost to 0.5 percent.
Credit card costs are charged through Shopify Payments, but no additional transaction fees apply. For the basic plan, credit card charges start at 2.9% + 30 and decrease for subsequent plans.
Payment Options in WooCommerce
WooCommerce by default accepts payments through Stripe and PayPal. They also have a Stripe-powered WooCommerce Payments solution.
All other well-known payment service providers are also supported. Installing payment connectors for CCAvenue, Instamojo, Amazon Pay, PayU, Razorpay, and numerous other services are available
.
WooCommerce even supports a number of regional and less well-known payment services for payment gateways. Since there are no entry requirements, any payment provider can develop WooCommerce add-ons and offer support for it.
As a self-hosted platform, your payment gateway or bank will solely charge you transaction costs. WooCommerce never assesses a percentage fee on credit card transactions unless you use WooCommerce Payments, which is a significant benefit.
Use WooCommerce to save A LOT of money if selecting your own merchant account and using a third-party gateway are crucial to you.
It doesn’t matter whether you run a tiny business and are willing to utilise Shopify Payments, which charges the same credit card fees as Stripe and Paypal.
Integrations and Add-ons: Woocommerce vs Shopify
WooCommerce Add-ons and Integrations
Open source and built on top of WordPress, WooCommerce. You have access to more than 59,000+ free WordPress plugins in addition to a large number of premium plugins.
These add-ons allow you to add practically any function you can think of, including payment gateways, lead generation, eCommerce SEO, performance optimization, social media integration, etc. Nearly every third-party tool and service provider has a plugin that works perfectly with your WooCommerce store.
You can also hire a WordPress developer to create an integration or plugin just for your own website.
Shopify Add-ons and Integrations
A robust API and an App Store are included with Shopify, through which you may purchase third-party extensions for your Shopify store. Every function you’ll want to add to your store is covered by hundreds of apps in the app store.
Both free and premium apps are available in Shopify’s app store. Free apps are typically developed by independent companies with separate pricing structures; they just link your store to their APIs. Most programmes offer monthly subscriptions, and prices for paid add-ons vary.
In terms of quantity, Shopify has less extensions and add-ons than WooCommerce / WordPress. This is due to the fact that getting an app featured in their store might be challenging.
We can claim that the procedure is significantly more difficult on Shopify compared to WooCommerce because we have personally gone through the process of submitting a plugin for WordPress and submitting an app to the Shopify store.
Scalability and Growth: WooCommerce vs Shopify
Shopify is a fully-hosted platform, which means that it takes care of all the technical aspects of running an online store, such as hosting, security, and updates. This makes it a good choice for businesses that want a turnkey solution for their e-commerce needs. Shopify also offers a wide range of tools and features, including payment processing, inventory management, and marketing tools, to help businesses manage and grow their online operations.
WooCommerce, on the other hand, is an open-source platform that is built on top of WordPress. This means that businesses using WooCommerce need to have a WordPress website and handle the technical aspects of running an online store themselves.
However, because WooCommerce is open-source, it offers a high degree of flexibility and customization, which can be useful for businesses with specific needs or requirements. WooCommerce also offers a variety of tools and plugins to help businesses manage and grow their online operations, including payment processing, inventory management, and marketing tools.
WooCommerce vs Shopify: Which is the Best eCommerce Platform?
Both Shopify and WooCommerce are strong platforms for setting up your online store. It really boils down to your individual interests and skills.
Shopify is much simpler to use. You can start using it right away without having to install anything. They provide straightforward pricing structures, and setting up payments is simpler. You don’t have complete control over everything with Shopify, which is a drawback. Transaction fees, add-ons, and integrations can significantly increase your expenditures. You only have a few alternatives for upgrades, and you cannot pay for expenses on a pay-as-you-grow basis.
Because WooCommerce is open source, you have total control over your website. With these WooCommerce hosting companies, in particular, it is far less expensive to launch an online store. The drawback is that you’ll have to keep the programme updated. There is a small learning curve involved. Millions of beginners already use it, though, and they breeze through the initial learning curve.
Overall, both Shopify and WooCommerce are scalable and capable of supporting the growth of online businesses. The right choice for your business will depend on your specific needs and requirements. If you want a turnkey solution that takes care of all the technical aspects of running an online store, Shopify may be the better option. If you prefer a high degree of flexibility and customization, WooCommerce may be a better choice.
We hope this article helped you compare pros and cons of Shopify vs WooCommerce. Don’t hesitate to leave a comment to get any help regarding this topic, we’d be very glad to assist you.
