Shopify vs WooCommerce
Are you about to start your e-commerce shop and don’t know which e-commerce tool is best for you? Let’s look at the options of two of the most popular platforms, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.
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What is Shopify
Shopify is a e-Commerce CMS that allows you to design your online shop without programming knowledge. Your shop can be created in just a few minutes. It has a flexible, intuitive and efficient interface that facilitates shop building.
It is an independent platform that powers more than 230,000 e-Commerce sites around the world and includes hosting (hosts and manages the software for you), security, and payment methods, among others. At the same time, its flexibility allows dropshipping websites, mobile e-commerce sites or online shops.
What is WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source WordPress plugin that allows you to implement a fully functional online shop on a website. This plugin integrates with any WordPress theme, so you don’t need much customization to turn an existing website into a fully-fledged e-commerce shop. Learn more about WooCommerce.
It powers over 680,000 e-commerce sites around the world. It is very flexible in its customization, although it is not a user-friendly commerce platform for beginners.
Now let’s compare the main differences and features between the two platforms. We will identify the best option based on the type of shop you want to open.
Shopify Vs WooCommerce
Shopify is a simple, all-inclusive platform. It makes it easy to set up an online business, eliminating steps like getting a domain or installing certificates. It is very easy to use, with intuitive menus, fast loading speeds and no previous development experience required. Once registered, follow the configuration guide, choose a design, and add products to your shop. This platform also offers additional templates and plugins to extend your shop’s functionality.
WooCommerce, being a plugin, must be incorporated into WordPress. This makes it more complex to use than Shopify because it is less intuitive. To begin with, you need your own domain and hosting; although this plugin allows you to perform more functions, you need more knowledge of WordPress and web design.
WooCommerce, being a plugin, must be incorporated into WordPress, making it more complex to use than Shopify because it is less intuitive. To begin with, you need your own domain and hosting; although this plugin allows you to perform more functions, you need more knowledge of WordPress and web design.
Plans and pricing
Costs are one of the most important factors when starting your business. Let’s take a look at the different pricing options and costs offered by both platforms.
Shopify offers three types of monthly subscription:
Basic – $29 per month + TC fee 2.9% of tiers 30 ¢ per transaction.
Shopify – $79 per month + TC fee 2.6% of 30 ¢ levels per transaction
Advanced – $299 per month + TC rate 2.4% of 30 ¢ tiers per transaction.
Additionally, we offer:
The lite plan starts at $9 monthly and allows you to sell on your existing website or social media pages.
The enterprise plan, Shopify Plus, starts at around $2000 per month +2.15% per transaction.
In addition to these costs, you will have to pay for the domain (around $15); in this case, they will maintain it.
WooCommerce is free. To access it, you only need WordPress installed on your domain, which is also free. The only payment you will have to make to access it is $15 for the domain name and $70-$120 for a hosting server.
In addition to these payments, for the creation of the online shop and its maintenance, there may be recurring payments for the use of applications, plugins or themes within the platforms.
In general, WooCommerce is cheaper than Shopify, but you should also know creating websites and e-commerce shops.
Payment methods
Payment methods and payment options are one of the most important parts of any online shop. No matter how interesting or unique your products are, if the customer doesn’t have a convenient or accessible payment option, they will choose another provider.
Shopify has its own payment gateway and third-party payment gateways, such as Amazon Pay, PayPal and Apple Pay. It has more than 100 options available, some only in selected countries. Shopify also allows cryptocurrency payments through Bitpay, GoCoin, CoinPayments and Coinbase Commerce.
WooCommerce uses PayPal by default. However, it allows you to add various payment options via payment gateway extensions. Some of these extensions are not free, and as extensions, they can impact your site’s loading by slowing it down.
You should know that third-party payment providers incur an additional charge of between 0.5% and 2% per transaction. This percentage depends on your pricing plan. In terms of payment methods, although both are compatible with third parties, Shopify has the advantage of having its own payment gateway.
Positioning: SEO
Shopify provides basic SEO optimization tools, such as SEO titles, meta descriptions, image descriptions, alt text, and a sitemap. These will suffice as long as you produce good website content. At the same time, you can always find applications that will increase your SEO chances.
WooCommerce is not equipped with SEO optimization tools. However, you can use a variety of WordPress plugins that are more comprehensive to improve your SEO ranking.
Security and commissions
Website security is extremely important for both user experience and SEO.
Shopify includes security certificates as part of the default. It has a PCI DSS Level 1 certificate. This is an international security certification issued by the PCI Security Standard Council to prevent credit card fraud.
WooCommerce, on the other hand, cannot obtain a PCI DSS certificate as it is a WordPress plugin. In this sense, it can be integrated with many security plugins. However, you have to install or purchase them yourself, both for the site and the payment gateway.
WooCommerce even allows you to accept offline or cash-on-delivery payments among its payment methods, which may be useful for some entrepreneurs but could also hinder the checkout process.
Finally, which tool to choose?
Both platforms are very useful and have their advantages and disadvantages. However, you should choose the one that best suits your needs, the time frame you want to implement it in and your level of knowledge of web design or development.
If you don’t have a domain yet and your WordPress knowledge is limited, WooCommerce is probably not your best option. On the other hand, if you already have your website set up and have a knowledge base of a CMS, Woocommerce may be your best option. This is due to the level of customization and savings it can mean for you.
Remember that you must first think about your customers and make a strategic web design plan considering your objectives and sales goals.
