I am a WordPress developer, so you would think I would tell people to avoid Shopify, right? Wrong, quite the opposite actually. WooCommerce is a good Shopify alternative, but for most people, Shopify is the better choice.
Here’s my advice
WordPress started out as a blogging platform and WooCommerce was built on top of it. Shopify was e-commerce targeted from the start. It’s easier to use, easier to get started with, easier to maintain and with its app store has most functionalities you want.
As a result, the default advice is to go with Shopify if you want to start an e-commerce store. Definitely do so if the following is true:
- You just started your online store
- Your own e-commerce store is complementary to Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, etc.
- SEO is not too important for you
Only consider switching to WordPress and WooCommerce if the following things are true:
- You already do have an existing online shop, so you know what you want and need
- Your requirements have outgrown Shopify
- You require customizations that aren’t possible with Shopify
- You want to have 100% control and ownership of your online shop
Should you go with WooCommerce, make sure you use good WordPress hosting like Kinsta and proper backups/security.
And that’s pretty much it. If you want to learn more, read on, but the above is in essence what I tell my clients on a daily basis.
WordPress vs Shopify Pricing
In short, both are expensive for e-commerce. Both, WooCommerce and Shopify have similar costs to start out with.
With Shopify you save money when it comes to maintenance. On the other hand, you most likely have to spend more on payments and apps.
WooCommerce seems free, but you’ll soon find out that it isn’t. Hosting, backups and security need to be a step up from normal WordPress websites, which costs money.
Maintenance needs to be done and depending non what plugins you’re using, isn’t as straightforward as with normal WordPress websites.
WooCommerce Plugins are considerably more expensive than normal WordPress plugins – the good point compared to Shopify is, however, that their usually fixed price, not based on your revenue.
All in all, not too much difference between the two here.
Learning Curve
This is a clear win for Shopify. Even though it has become more complicated over the years, it’s still a lot easier to use and set up than WooCommerce. Not much else to say here, clear win for Shopify.
Which is Better for SEO?
Both are good, WooCommerce is likely a noch better. The good thing with WooCommerc is that you get all the SEO features and plugins from WordPress, which are industry leading.
So, especially for blogging, WordPress and WooCommerce are a level above Shopify. For the products themselves, Shopify and WooCommerce should both be very good, no clear leader there.
Customizability
This is the only real area where WooCommerce outshines Shopify. Given its open-source nature, WooCommerce is very focused on bein extendable and customizable.
If you, for example, want a very customized checkout sequence, WooCommerce is your clear choice as Shopify makes that very tricky.
However, to get to a point where you know exactly what you want, you should have run an online shop on Shopify or similar platforms for some time, at least a year I would say.
Then you know exactly what you want and can get a WooCommerce developer to build what you need – without developer, complicated customizations are a bit tricky.
Conclusion
In 95% of cases, Shopify is the platform I would suggest clients to use. It’s very mature, has most features you need and you are up and running within a day or two.
WooCommerce is a good product, just a lot more complex to maintain and run. Once you have matured as a business, it is a viable option to get an online shop with a look and feel is 100% what you want.
