The platform on which you choose to host your eCommerce website primarily determines your web design. If the design can’t help your business earn revenue, your organization likely won’t succeed. Therefore, choosing the right platform is essential.
Two of the most popular eCommerce web hosting platforms are Shopify and WooCommerce. While both are great choices, one may stand out more than the other depending on what you hope to accomplish with it.
For instance, if you want to design an eCommerce site with a variety of apps for every need, with an easily managed product catalog, you may likely choose Shopify. However, if you’re working with an SEO agency and want a truly unique web design, you would likely favor WooCommerce.
There are also other factors that will determine your choice of web hosting platform. That’s why we’ve decided to compare WooCommerce and Shopify in this blog post to help you choose the e-commerce site host that’ll create the best brand image for your business while also helping you increase your revenue.
Before we get into the details, we want to lay down some parameters for our examination of the two hosts.
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WooCommerce |
Shopify |
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Free Trial Length |
WooCommerce and WordPress are both free and open-source software. |
You can try Shopify free for 14 days (about 2 weeks), no credit card required. |
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Transaction Fees |
With WooCommerce, you’ll need to select a hosting partner and cover the domain name fee, which typically ranges around $15 for domain registration per year. Free (Except for domain and hosting fees and premium plugins cost). |
Basic Shopify, which is best for new e-commerce businesses with occasional in-person sales, is $29 a month. Shopify middle package is best for growing businesses selling online or in-store, $79 a month. And the Advanced Shopify is best for scaling businesses that require advanced reporting, $299 a month. |
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Additional Fees |
None. |
Transactional fees for third party apps: 0.5% to 5% Currency conversion fees: 1.5% Duties and import tax rates: 0.58% or 1.5% |
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Support |
An in-depth support tab allows users to lodge an issue and receive a ticket. There are also loads of online forums. |
The Shopify Help Center offers easy searchability and location of specific documents. Additionally, it provides direct contact with experts. |
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Customization Possibilities |
A lot higher than the latter due to direct control over the code. |
Customization options are limited, and themes come at a high cost. |
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Online and Offline Usability |
It can only be used online. |
Shopify offers online and offline usability through its point-of-sale (POS) kit. |
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Platforms |
It’s open source and can be modified without limitations to the code. |
It’s a closed platform that only permits drag-and-drop functionality along with the use of additional plugins. |
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Hosting |
Hosting is not included. |
Hosting is included |
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Subdomains |
WordPress sites allow for an unlimited number of subdomains. |
Shopify allows for an unlimited number of subdomains. |
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SSL |
You’ll need to find a plugin that suits your needs. Additionally, you can use a free SSL certificate like Let’s Encrypt. |
When the domain is purchased through Shopify you get TLS certification. If you have purchased the domain from a third party, you will need to encrypt it through another service provider. |
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Creating Coupons |
You can create coupons for any of the products in your store. |
You are limited to creating 20,000,000 unique discount codes for each store using the app. |
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Accepted Payment Methods |
Currently there are 80 payment gateways available via the WooCommerce store. |
Shopify Payment is linked to the owner’s bank account. If you are based in a country without the Shopify Payment gateway, you can always select another third-party plugin. |
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Monthly Reports |
Reports from WooCommerce can include data about sales by date, product, and category. These reports can be exported via CSV. |
Reports from Shopify can be sorted or organized over time, by product, product vendor, location, and much more. |
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools |
There are multiple SEO plugins available for WordPress. One popular service provider is Yoast, which offers instant feedback to help optimize your page ranking for SEO. |
Shopify enables users to edit title tags, meta descriptions, and URLs for blog posts, webpages, products, and more. Additional apps are required for advanced SEO activities. |
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Blogging |
Yes |
Yes |
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Plugins and Integration |
50k+ plugin available. |
Nearly 4,000 plugins available. |
WooCommerce is an eCommerce hosting platform built on WordPress and offers impressive designs with a high degree of customization opportunities and a range of integrations.
Like Shopify, it’s a highly favored platform for hosting online stores. Unlike Shopify, you’ll find far less customer loyalty and, because of its comparatively more technical nature, many more sharp criticisms of it.
Despite this, you’ll still find plenty of reasons to love WooCommerce. For those focusing on SEO, you’ll find the addition of RankMath attractive. This app makes optimizing an eCommerce site for conversions a breeze.
If you’ve done any testing on core metric performance, you may have likely noticed that WordPress is the content management system (CMS) that generally comes out on top above the rest. WordPress has a better interface from a CMS perspective and is a platform that works very smoothly when you don’t overload it with plugins.
WooCommerce’s learning curve for beginners and potential limitations in managing large-scale e-commerce demands may pose challenges for some users.
Shopify is one of the most user-friendly eCommerce hosting platforms for small and large businesses. It’s also one of the most favored eCommerce platforms because of its ease of use, design capabilities, and an extensive variety of apps and extensions. Shopify also has a clean, professional look.
Shopify just added several new features and integrations to further develop the extensive nature of building on the platform.
A few of their recent add-ons include Hydrogen 2 and Oxygen, which are extensive features in customizing frontends.
Custom tokenization (and the Gates API) helps you segment offers to specific customers.
Shop Minis allows web developers to create mini apps that sync to the Shop app.
They’ve also made several API improvements, including one to the web and server pixels that increases ad tracking accuracy (aka better attribution and cost management).
Their new web3 tooling makes it easy to interact with NFTs, which can provide customers with exclusive discounts and benefits, help them build token-gated apps, and protect personal information by signing in with Ethereum.
Shopify gets a lot of praise and respect, and all these reasons make up a large part of that praise. But there are other benefits and some advantages to using Shopify as your hosting platform.
According to a news report, Shopify processed $79.5 billion in eCommerce sales in the first six months of 2021. In 2021, Shopify merchants sold $175.4 billion on Shopify’s platform. In other words, it’s a big platform that can handle a huge influx of buyers and merchandise.
Shopify may have added a lot of great apps and updated extensions and features, but the updates weren’t all positive. In fact, founders and marketers across Shopify Apps have started complaining about the app store’s user experience (UX) and how it’s impacting their sign-ups.
For Shopify web designers and eCommerce founders, this means it’s harder to find the apps that may potentially boost conversions, improve customer experience, or help you make other improvements across your store.
Another complaint developers have about Shopify is its excessive reliance on its many apps and extensions.
The platform itself is basic, and designing on Shopify often isn’t as intuitive as it could be.
Consider two sellers.
Seller A:
Wants an attractive eCommerce store and already has a few features in mind. They already have a massive inventory that fluctuates frequently because they use influencers to sell their products, and when they do, they sell out fast.
They’ll also be managing this product category and their entire site with a small team that is not at all skilled in web development, so it is easy to use. Because they’re managing it with an unskilled team, they’ll also likely rely on a lot of different apps to give them insights and optimize their design.
Seller A Should Use Shopify.
Shopify is considered the easiest-to-use eCommerce platform on the market, and since it’s loaded with apps, a small team will be able to manage this site more easily.
Additionally, Shopify’s drag-and-drop editor makes managing design and customization a breeze, even for a novice. Shopify users can also enjoy access to massive product catalogs. This platform also offers excellent security to protect customers when they complete purchases.
Seller B:
Wants a completely unique site design to come off as if they’re a bigger brand than they are, in the hopes it’ll boost their business (fake it until you make it, right?).
They’re also working with an SEO agency that’ll optimize their front end and back end and that has an in-house web developer. They’ll also want to add features that don’t already exist in an app.
Seller B Should Use WooCommerce.
WooCommerce is the most customizable eCommerce platform available today, as it gives users the ability to use custom code for truly innovative functionality. With RankMath, their SEO is superior to Shopify. Additionally, since it’s built on WordPress, it has all the backing of WordPress– which often performs far better than sites built on other platforms in terms of rank ability.
Which seller do you identify with the most? Both Shopify and WooCommerce are excellent eCommerce platforms, but your budget, design skills, products, and desired features are all key. factors that will influence the platform you ultimately choose for your website.
Ready to transform your eCommerce experience? Choose the right platform today and elevate your online business! Connect with our team now for tailored guidance in making the perfect choice for your website.
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