WooCommerce vs Shopify: Who Comes Out On Top? (2023)

Ease of Use

Which one is more beginner-friendly?

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Which one is more beginner-friendly?

The Winner

Shopify is easier to use than WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a far more technical platform that will require a certain level of knowledge to use, or a willingness to spend some time learning. In contrast, Shopify is accessible to the everyday person, and you don’t need to know how to code to get the most out of it.

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There’s little doubt that WooCommerce has a steeper learning curve than Shopify, and from our testing, Shopify is definitely easier to get to grips with for a ‘regular’ user.

And don’t just take our word for it. We got regular, everyday people to try out Shopify, and here are some of their thoughts:

“Once you become familiar with Shopify, it is relatively easy to amend any of the elements on the page.”

“If you’re someone looking to sell a high volume of products and are not as fussed about having all the design control – Shopify would be a good option.”

Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform. That means it takes care of a lot of the technical side of operating a store. From your domain name and hosting (where your site lives online) to any security (SSL) certificates, Shopify has you covered.

On top of that, with Shopify, you don’t have to install, manage, or update any software. No need to worry about security or backups, either.

In contrast, with WooCommerce, you need to do a little more legwork, like sourcing your own web hosting and security – but that’s really easy to do.

We recommend using Bluehost to power your WooCommerce store. Bluehost’s dedicated WooCommerce plans come with handy features such as WooCommerce auto-install, as well as a free domain name and SSL certificate. How cool is that?

Shopify is really easy to use, so what are you waiting for?

Shopify Sounds Great, Let's Go

Build Time

Which one has a faster setup time?

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Which one has a faster setup time?

The Winner

Shopify has a faster build time

Shopify’s key features are in-built, its themes just need to be populated with your content, and it’s easy to use. All-in-all, the set-up time with Shopify is a lot quicker than WooCommerce if you’re building an online store from scratch.

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Are you looking to build a powerful store, but want to get the ball rolling quickly? Or are you willing to invest a bit of time to have greater control?

In a nutshell: Shopify will let you get your store live quicker than WooCommerce.

If you’re starting from scratch or have limited technical skills, Shopify is the best option. Getting your store ‘live’ is far quicker and easier. You have your hand held as you set up your store, and can give it a look and feel by choosing and editing themes. Unlike setting up a store with WordPress, the process is not manual, while Shopify stores everything you need in one place.

WooCommerce is more suited to users that aren’t looking to gain masses of sales immediately. Building stores on this platform is more of a creative project than it is on Shopify – you’ll have lots of creative control, and you can make the site truly your own.

One handy service that can save you time when setting up a store with WooCommerce is Bluehost. Bluehost’s WooCommerce plans include hosting, one-click WordPress installation, and round-the-clock support.

Here’s how to install WordPress with Bluehost.

WooCommerce’s setup wizard covers the basics, but doesn’t answer more complicated questions. It assumes a higher level of tech know-how from users, and leaves you on your own at times.

We recommend Shopify if you’re just starting out selling online, and want to build your online presence quickly. It’s a platform that combines powerful ecommerce features with a quick setup process.

Design and Themes

Which has a better selection of stylishly-designed themes?

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Which has a better selection of stylishly-designed themes?

The Winner

Shopify has better design and themes

Shopify just about wins this round. Its templates are sleeker and more polished than those on WooCommerce, and you can use code to customize your Shopify themes further if you wish. WooCommerce offers limitless customization, but its themes aren’t quite up to scratch.

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Both WooCommerce and Shopify’s stylish themes give your store a professional look and feel. Looks do matter in the website world!

Shopify’s theme store has over 70 free and paid themes for you to choose from. If you include variations, though, the real figure is over 100. Shopify’s themes are very polished – because it’s a dedicated ecommerce platform, they’re designed to help you sell.

Premium themes start from $140. While this may seem expensive, it’s a one-off payment that you should see as an investment in your store. If it helps you generate more revenue, it will pay for itself (we’ve got more on pricing later). And if you’re working to a tight budget, there are plenty of free themes to start with.

WooCommerce’s entry theme, Storefront, is fully responsive on mobile devices. It also comes with a clean and fresh layout.

How good your design looks on WooCommerce depends on the hours you’re willing to put in, as well as your technical skill level.

With designers creating new themes for WooCommerce, the sky feels like the limit. ThemeForest, for instance, has over 1,000 specific ecommerce themes for you to peruse.

While the breadth of WooCommerce is fantastic, Shopify’s offering is more curated. The Shopify creators have taken the time to select the themes that are going to work best for your store.

Remember, choosing a great theme is only part of the WooCommerce vs Shopify battle. It’s also about how much you can customize that theme.

Sales Features

Which one makes selling a breeze?

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Which one makes selling a breeze?

The Winner

Shopify has better sales features than WooCommerce

Having features in-built and ready to use makes Shopify more accessible – important features like abandoned cart recovery are vital to any big business, and that’s just one thing WooCommerce doesn’t offer.

Visit Shopify

Both platforms provide the features you need to build an effective online store. If you’re looking to sell products on the internet, or get a small business online, neither will let you down.

Where WooCommerce and Shopify differ is in the features which come included as standard.

Abandoned Cart Recovery

One feature Shopify includes as standard that WooCommerce doesn’t is abandoned cart recovery. When choosing between WooCommerce and Shopify, this is important,  as it allows customers to complete an abandoned order without filling out their details again.

It also sends a gentle email reminder inviting them to finish the sale. Having an abandoned cart option is like fixing a leak in your pipe – sales aren’t going to slip through the cracks!

Multichannel Selling

Both platforms enable you to sell on Amazon, eBay, Instagram, and Facebook. The only difference is that with WooCommerce, you’ll need to pay $79 to install all of them apart from Facebook, which is free to install. With Shopify, however, it won’t cost you to integrate your store with those channels.

Shipping

Offering a seamless shipping experience can do wonders for your brand reputation. Shopify and WooCommerce allow you to offer free shipping and sell internationally, but Shopify goes the extra mile, with its partnerships with USPS, DHL Express, UPS, and Canada Post saving you the time and effort of sourcing your own courier.

In a nutshell: Shopify comes with far more ecommerce tools in-built. Sign up with Basic Shopify and you’ll get impressive features to help you sell, including:

• Abandoned cart recovery
• Discount codes
• Unlimited products
• Website and blog
• Over 100 payment options

Most features that Shopify includes already might cost you money to install from WooCommerce’s Extensions Store – for example, accepting payments from Authorize.net.

Key WooCommerce features we like include:

• Built-in blogging
• “Unrestricted customization” – you can edit anything from the homepage layout to the ‘Buy’ button.
• Ability to embed products and checkout onto a wider range of store pages
• One-click refund for customers

While both platforms meet the selling needs of merchants, Shopify’s features are in-built. They’re ready to use from the moment you sign up.

Shopify has brilliant sales tools that could help your business reach new heights.

Let's Start Selling on Shopify

Shopify in Action: Blackland Razors

Shane Swartzlander

Shane is the founder of a razor ecommerce brand with experience building his website in Squarespace and Shopify. He started Blackland on a shoestring budget in 2015, named after the German translation of his last name, it quickly earnt a reputation as one of the most respected companies in the shaving industry. They're fueled by a passion for tools that blend both form and function, and everything they make is obsessively designed in-house, made in the USA, and backed for life.

I've been using website builders for about seven years for our business. As a non-developer, these tools have been incredibly valuable in creating great websites and I'd be happy to share my experience

What attracted you to Shopify in the first place?

We switched to Shopify primarily because it’s an incredibly powerful commerce platform. On Squarespace we did a lot of workarounds and had limited access to analytics. Shopify’s detailed analytics and robust app ecosystem are highly valuable to us. Additionally, Shopify’s integrations are second to none and it has become the standard for ecommerce website builders.

How long did it take you to make your site?

It took about three or four months of part-time work to get the site complete and running properly. Much of that time was spent researching the platform and determining which apps to use which can be an overwhelming part of the process as Shopify is sort of like an iPhone – it’s not worth much unless you choose the right programs to put on it.

How easy to use is Shopify?

I think it’s approachable and accessible for most people to figure out reasonably easily. Plus, since Shopify is so popular, there are tons of users and developers who can answer your questions or do paid troubleshooting to help overcome whatever hurdles you run into.

What's do you like best about it?

Shopify’s modularity and adaptability make it difficult to beat right now. With the right apps, it can do just about anything you might need – whether that’s a simple store with a single product, a complex dropshipping empire, or a subscription product. You can even use it in person as a storefront POS. While it isn’t a magic bullet, Shopify has enough room for growth that we think it will do what we need for many years.

Any improvements you would make?

Shopify seems to be a little slow to implement community-requested changes. There are many Shopify threads from years ago about a feature that should be added with a lot of customers agreeing. Shopify team members will say they’re going to consider it and then it just never happens. There is a lot of that and I think Shopify sometimes hides behind their app store as a solution for things they don’t want to build. “We don’t do that, but this app does!” Each of those apps can slow down your site, add more tools that you have to learn, and cost money so adding apps to get features that should be native is frustrating.

What do you wish you had known before you began?

I wish we had better understood which apps we need to have and which are a waste of time. Shopify has so many apps and it’s tough to know if/when you need an app to do what you want to do and which one you should pick. So we spent a lot of time stuck on problems that an app easily solves. Other times we got apps that we thought would be great, but we didn’t actually need. It’s all part of the learning process and now that we have that knowledge we could move much more quickly.

Plugins and Integrations

Which has more to offer?

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Which has more to offer?

The Winner

WooCommerce beats Shopify for apps and plugins

WooCommerce is an open-source software, which means it relies on plugins for the majority of its features. Unsurprisingly, this is why WooCommerce does so well in this section.

Visit WooCommerce

Installing apps or plugins enables you to add more strings to your ecommerce bow.  On both platforms, you can install apps to add extra functionality in all areas of your business, including shipping, SEO, and marketing.  But which one has the better choice of apps?

As an open-source platform, WooCommerce relies heavily on plugins. There are over 50,000 to choose from, allowing you to build a bespoke website without many limitations.

Shopify has over 1,200 free and paid apps that are all reliable. However, if you’re unsure on which app to install, always check the star rating or user reviews.

Marketing Tools

Which one helps to raise your profile the best?

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Which one helps to raise your profile the best?

The Winner

Shopify has better marketing tools

Shopify has an impressive range of marketing features, such as multichannel selling, which allows you to expose your business to potentially millions of social media users. In contrast, WooCommerce relies on plugins for its marketing tools.

Visit Shopify

For any business to succeed, it needs to grow. Marketing tools can help your business do just that, connecting your brand with new clients and customers. But which platform lets you shout the loudest about your business?

Email Marketing

With Shopify, you can run numerous email campaigns using apps such as Seguno and Constant Contact. WooCommerce similarly relies on plugins for its email campaign features, offering integration with MailChimp, helping you send personalized email campaigns with ease.

Social Media Integrations

Shopify supports multichannel selling, enabling you to integrate your store with Facebook, Amazon, eBay, and Pinterest, as well as advertise on them. This opens up your business to a whole new online audience, at no cost to you.

With WooCommerce, you can integrate your store with Amazon, eBay, and Instagram for $79, but you can also advertise on Facebook for free.

Payment Options and Transaction Fees

Which one makes taking payments simple?

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Which one makes taking payments simple?

The Winner

WooCommerce has better payment options and transaction fees

WooCommerce wins this one on the basis that it doesn’t charge transaction fees. Unless you use Shopify Payments, you’ll have to pay a surplus on Shopify, and that gives WooCommerce the edge – making it the more suitable option for stores selling in volume.

Visit WooCommerce

When you sell online, you need to add ways for your customers to pay. Both WooCommerce and Shopify offer you a choice of over 100 payment gateways.

These are either in-built or added through integrations. The main ones are:

• Stripe
• PayPal
• Credit and debit cards
• Apple Pay
• Square

Different payment gateways come with different transaction fees. Make sure you check these first before choosing.

Shopify, for example, charges 2% per transaction if you use a third-party gateway. You can reduce this by upgrading to a more advanced Shopify plan, or get rid of them completely by using Shopify Payments – the company’s own option.

One big plus of WooCommerce is that, unlike Shopify, it doesn’t charge its own transaction fees when you use a third party payment gateway (i.e. not WooCommerce Payments).

With WooCommerce, bank charges will still apply, as will charges from a payment provider (like PayPal). If you’re selling a large volume of products, WooCommerce makes more sense. It also appeals to sellers who want to choose their own merchant account.

However, if you’re happy to use Shopify Payments, then it will make little difference (you can read our review of Shopify Payments here).

WooCommerce in Action: Cordial Organics

Desi McKinnon

Desi McKinnon started Cordial Organics in 2016 with the intention to help others feel better through the use of CBD in their everyday lives. After their first two formulations, Balance and Restore, helped Desi’s husband stop the cycle of debilitating migraines he suffered from they knew they had to share. She originally built her website with business partner Shelly Phegly on Squarespace before opting to migrate the site to WooCommerce. We find out why below:

What do you like best about WooCommerce?

That it allows us to run our business the way we want to. The thousands of plugins available mean any issues we face there’s usually an app specifically made to solve it.

Why did you choose WooCommerce over other builders?

I’m a graphic designer and have used Squarespace in the past for other clients, but needed an ecommerce-focused builder that could accommodate our expanding business.

How long did it take you to make the wesbite?

It took about a week to be ready to launch.

How accessible is WooCommerce?

With my previous experience, I already knew a little bit of code from making other web pages. WooCommerce does its best to make things easy with really great support on their site, but I can’t lie that a little bit of computer literacy is better than none. As long as you’re willing to learn, you’ll do fine.

Did you face any problems when starting the site?

When we originally started with Squarespace, our site was rendered useless and we had to swap to WooCommerce asap after Paypal and Stripe both decided that CBD was the same as THC and wouldn’t allow us to use their services. In fact when we started getting press people had to send us checks. CHECKS! It was pure madness.

What do you wish you had known beforehand?

Always make sure your builder has the correct payment options you need for your business. I wish we had started on Woocommerce instead of Squarespace in the first place so we didn’t have to go through the extreme stress of processing check orders. It actually hindered our growth at a very pivotal moment.

WooCommerce supports more payment options than you could shake a stick at.

Wow, WooCommerce Sounds Great

SEO

Which one is better for climbing the search engine rankings?

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Which one is better for climbing the search engine rankings?

The Winner

WooCommerce has better SEO

A narrow win for WooCommerce. With WooCommerce, you’ve access to a wide range of excellent SEO plugins, plus it offers helpful SEO guides and prompts. Shopify doesn’t have as many SEO apps to offer, which may be restrictive in the long run.

Visit WooCommerce

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is key to attracting customers to your virtual shelves. It boils down to one thing: making sure your store appears high in Google’s search results. When shoppers type in words related to your product, you want them to find you.

When it comes to SEO, WooCommerce vs Shopify is a tough one to call. Both are robust ecommerce platforms, and they’ll help you make sure your products are appearing in front of the right people.

WooCommerce is built using code optimized for SEO, and it’s integrated with WordPress along with its impressive range of SEO plugins. You can dig deep and add detailed meta descriptions and titles to your pages, to tell Google what they’re about.

Some of our favorite SEO features include the ability to customize your URLs to help search engine users find your pages more easily, and the excellent SEO guides and prompts throughout the building process.

Both Shopify and WooCommerce provide apps and integrations that boost your store. Yoast, WordPress’ SEO plugin, is very simple to use and offers excellent support – it’s like hiring your own SEO expert! Furthermore, WooCommerce offers a greater choice of SEO plugins than Shopify does.

Shopify, meanwhile, does have a range of SEO plugins in its App Store. We like the free SEO Booster, which scans your store and offers fixes for problems that might be harming performance.

Shopify also makes it easy to add basic SEO information to your store. You can add descriptions and titles for your images, products, and pages.

Here’s an example of a store we created on Shopify. You can see where we’ve entered the text (below) and how it appears in a ‘fake’ Google result.

Security

Which one offers the most protection?

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Which one offers the most protection?

The Winner

Shopify has better security features

Shopify is a hosted platform, meaning security is taken care of for you. Shopify comes with an SSL certificate, and is PCI-DSS compliant. With WooCommerce, however, you’ll need to source SSL and set up PCI-DSS compliance yourself.

Visit Shopify

High-level security should be a priority for any website. It’s especially important for online stores, as you’re not only processing customers’ money – you’re also holding their personal information.

With Shopify, security is taken care of for you. Because it’s a hosted ecommerce platform, Shopify is in charge of handling any security breaches, and makes sure your site is safe from hackers.

WooCommerce, on the other hand, works with WordPress and is therefore self-hosted. The actual plugin doesn’t come with built-in security, so any security will need to be handled either by yourself or your hosting provider.

SSL Certificate

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. An SSL certificate is responsible for safeguarding your website so personal information can’t be tampered with by cyber criminals.

Shopify comes with built-in SSL. This can be seen by the little padlock icon that appears next to your URL. The main benefits of having an SSL certificate are:

• Security when processing customers’ payments and personal information
• Helps your store’s SEO, as Google looks favorably on sites with SSL
• Lets customers know your site is safe to browse, making sales more likely

WooCommerce doesn’t have its own SSL. As it’s part of WordPress – which is an open-source platform – you’re responsible for sourcing your own SSL certificate. Most people will do this through their hosting provider, most of which provide you with a free SSL certificate when you sign up to a hosting plan – such as Bluehost.

PCI-DSS Compliance

We know the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) sounds like a load of jargon. All it really means, though, is that your website is set up to accept credit card payments in line with legal regulations.

Shopify, again, is totally PCI-DSS compliant. You don’t have to worry or set up a thing, and can start processing credit and debit card payments from day one.

WooCommerce is not automatically PCI-DSS compliant. You can make WooCommerce compliant, however, by following these simple steps.

Customer Support

Which one is there every step of the way?

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Which one is there every step of the way?

The Winner

WooCommerce has better customer support, thanks to Bluehost

Luckily for WooCommerce, Bluehost provides brilliant 24/7 support, and offers plenty of helpful guides. Shopify does provide excellent support, but it can’t quite match what WooCommerce and Bluehost have to offer.

Visit WooCommerce

Don’t forget that we’re comparing Shopify with WooCommerce powered by Bluehost, which makes this comparison quite a close one to call.

Shopify provides 24/7 support over the phone, live chat, and email. Throw in a library of helpful guides, a community forum, and a setup wizard, and Shopify can’t do enough for you. In fact, Shopify scored a 3.8/5 in our customer support research, coming second only to Square.

When using Bluehost to power your WooCommerce store, you’re granted access to Bluehost’s fantastic customer support. This includes 24/7 phone and live chat support, and a vast knowledge centre filled with useful information. Bluehost scored a perfect 5/5 for help and support in our research.

Through WooCommerce directly, you can submit tickets for general support, and read a range of setup guides to help you build the perfect store, first time.

Pricing

Which offers more bang for your buck?

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Which offers more bang for your buck?

The Winner

WooCommerce is better value for money

WooCommerce is free to use, and its extensions cost just $39 each on average, whereas Shopify has fixed-priced plans and relatively expensive apps.

Visit WooCommerce

How much do WooCommerce and Shopify cost?

Shopify has set pricing, whereas WooCommerce is more flexible. Shopify’s prices range from $29 to $299 per month. You unlock more advanced features, like professional reports, as you upgrade. WooCommerce is free, but comes with extra costs, including hosting, a domain name, and security.

Shopify’s set pricing plans make it easy to track your spending. On the other hand, WooCommerce is an open-source software, which makes it free to install. However, you’ll need to pay for:

• Hosting ($35 – $50/month)
• Security ($0 – $200/year)
• Domain ($10 – £20/year)
• Extension fees ($0 – $100/month)

It’s worth noting that those fees above are all included in your Shopify plan. For this section, we’ll compare Shopify’s pricing plan with Bluehost’s pricing plans, because it’s the hosting provider we recommend using for all WordPress sites. Check out the table below for a quick overview.

Shopify offers a 3-day free trial, and charges just $1 per month for the first three months on the Basic plan, giving you plenty of time to test the platform for very cheap. Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not totally happy. What’s more, both Shopify and WooCommerce provide enterprise-level price plans which are only available via quote, and only suitable for enterprise-sized businesses.

Considering aspects including price plans, software installation costs, and transaction fees, Shopify scored 3.0/5 in our value for money research category, while WooCommerce scored 4.4/5.

We’ve unpacked all the key differences between WooCommerce and Shopify, and you now have everything you need to choose the platform that’s is best for you.

Shopify is today’s winner, though. Both are excellent platforms, but Shopify edges the battle with its built-in sales tools, superior ease of use, and quick build time. There’s no hassle with pricing, either – everything you need is included in its clearly priced plans.

Just because it’s our favorite, though, doesn’t mean it’s going to be right for everyone.