WooCommerce Vs Shopify: Factors that Matter in 2022

WooCommerce and Shopify are the two leading eCommerce platforms most store owners favor. When it comes to choosing one over the other, it can get a bit challenging. Both these platforms are unique in their own ways. Before choosing one, you have to consider various factors. However, no platform is perfect. Each platform has its pros and cons. Understanding what each platform brings to the table and choosing the right one that provides everything you need is the best bet. 

This blog has listed details on WooCommerce and Shopify – features, pros, and cons. Before picking one, understand what you need and each platform’s critical resources.

WooCommerce Vs Shopify Which is Better for Online Store

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a WordPress-specific open-source eCommerce platform. Consequently, it offers you the most effective content management system (CMS) for managing an online store. You can modify every store element and create unique extensions because it is open-source. 

What is Shopify?

Shopify is a hosted eCommerce platform that enables you to launch an online store without worrying about technical expertise. The Shopify package includes all components, like hosting, security, domain, and marketing. 

Both Shopify and WooCommerce are excellent platforms to launch your company. You can skyrocket your sales by linking your Shopify or WooCommerce stores to reputable online marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. The best option is to use a multi-channel system.

Now, let’s get into the details of WooCommerce vs. Shopify and understand which is the best solution for you!

WooCommerce vs. Shopify – Deciphering the Deciding Factors

#1. Pricing Methods: WooCommerce Vs  Shopify

Pricing plays a vital role in deciding on an eCommerce platform, especially for start-up outfits. You should consider the initial investment and maintenance charges before choosing a platform.

Pricing Option in WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free, open-source WordPress plugin. Though free, you would need to pay a fee for the domain name and hosting – about $12 per year for the name and $5-$25 monthly for hosting. A free trial is available, but we cannot extend it without a hosting service. 

However, if you want a free hosting service, you can check the eCommerce platform ProFitting, which allows you to claim a 2-month free hosting. The costs for themes, plugins, extensions, and developer fees will be extra. You might not need all these features, but it will give you a better idea of which platform to choose.

Pricing Option in Shopify

Shopify is a hosted platform that comes as a complete package. It is a comprehensive solution that is both a theme and hosting provider. It has monthly and annual plans as detailed below.

Basic Shopify provides core eCommerce functionality and is ideal for novice online marketers. The price is $29 per month.

The Shopify Plan is priced at $79 and is the right choice for an established business.

Advanced Shopify sells for $299 monthly and has the most advanced features and functionality. It is the perfect fit for medium to large-scale businesses.

Shopify Lite is the cheapest, costing $9 per month. It allows you to sell unlimited items but is unsuitable if you want to build a complete store. 

Shopify Plus is perfect for enterprise or high-volume businesses. The price starts from $2000 a month, and it will come with advanced security features and offers extensive options like multiple currencies, BNPL, and more.

Overall, WooCommerce is the more affordable option because the program is free. WooCommerce does, however, generally cost as much as Shopify to operate an actual eCommerce store, if not more. You will have extra costs, such as domain and hosting fees and the cost of each additional extension.

#2. Page Speed: WooCommerce Vs  Shopify 

No matter how interested they may be, customers rarely have the patience to wait more than a few seconds for websites to load. You risk losing both existing and potential clients if your website loads slowly. When finalizing the best platform for your online store, you should compare the page speeds for both WooCommerce and Shopify.

WooCommerce Page Speed:

When it comes to page load speed, WooCommerce is slower! All monitored stores’ average page load time is 776 milliseconds, and the average cart page load is 1.32 seconds. 

 Shopify Page Speed:

Google suggests a loading time of 500 milliseconds on average. Shopify’s web pages load in just 309 milliseconds, which is the optimal duration for any website! Due to its quick reaction time, Shopify offers a highly positive customer experience. Your hosting plan and how quickly you want WooCommerce to load are up to you. 

No matter how much you spend on SEO specialists to level up your website for you, you cannot expect it to be speedy if you opt for the cheap $2 hosting.

According to the figures above, Shopify outperforms WooCommerce regarding page speed.

#3. Ease of Use

Most people opening an online store are not web professionals or Shopify designers. A simple platform to set up and use is necessary, even for users familiar with basic ideas. Let us compare the user-friendliness of WooCommerce with Shopify.

WooCommerce 

Since WooCommerce is not a hosted platform, you will need to manage a few tasks, including installation, update management, backup management, and shop security. It takes a lot of work to set up WooCommerce because first, you must install WordPress

You need to follow the below steps to install WordPress.

•  Get a domain name on WordPress
• Sign up for a hosting account
• Install WordPress
• Find and install a WordPress theme

 After following these phases, you can install the WooCommerce plugin on your WordPress platform. After launch, the on-screen setup wizard displays it, and you must follow the five steps to operate your store. We strongly recommend selecting a reputable WordPress hosting service that will handle every aspect of setting up your website, including hosting, domain registration, and WordPress installation. It is needed because those tasks require some knowledge of the web.

Shopify

The primary benefit of Shopify is that it is an integrated online store, so practically everything is simple to understand. Shopify’s user-friendly interface makes setting up and managing stores a breeze. To get started with Shopify, go to Shopify.com first, complete the Shopify sign-up process, follow the simple setup instructions, and start selling. Shopify is for all business owners, including those without programming experience. 

As you can see, Shopify has a clear advantage over WooCommerce in terms of usability. Shopify is designed for novices with little technical knowledge, whereas WooCommerce is for web engineers and techies.

#4. Design and Templates

We are all aware that themes play a significant role in drawing visitors. 

Customers’ initial impressions are crucial. It has the power to make or break a company, and a good experience can forge enduring commercial ties. Let us compare the existing WooCommerce and Shopify themes.

WooCommerce 

WooCommerce’s design and template are comparable to a new world opening up in front of your eyes because there are so many captivating options available. Since WooCommerce works with nearly every theme on the market, you can typically choose any WordPress theme and have it function with WooCommerce.

Shopify 

9 out of the 73 templates that Shopify offers are free. Besides, each theme on Shopify has distinct versions. As a result, you get more than 100 alternative designs. Shopify themes are often sleek and clean yet feature-rich and mobile-friendly, having been produced by a team of expert website designers. In addition, you can modify these themes from Shopify admin using the theme editor and Liquid code. 

The good news is that because of recent improvements in editing workflow and theme load times, the theme editor can now assist you in making the necessary adjustments much more quickly. 

In the end, Shopify has beautiful themes, but its selection is restricted, while WooCommerce scores brownie points in theme choice.

#5. Inventory Management

Any store needs a platform to account for and structure its inventory. Now let us compare WooCommerce vs. Shopify based on inventory management!

WooCommerce:

This platform is quite flexible, and the inventory management function is no different. Users of WooCommerce can generate inventory reports and modify any product attribute. You can develop and manage an unlimited number of variable goods. To optimize the performance of your WooCommerce store, however, you will need the help of third-party software.

Shopify :

Shopify gives retailers complete control over the Shopify inventory monitoring system, much like WooCommerce does. In-house revenue reporting, automated purchase orders, stock tracking, easy access to stock alerts, and other features are available. 

Additionally, you may manually enter data or import CSV files to add single or buck items, customers, orders, and other objects to Shopify. Users of Shopify can also benefit from a sizable selection of inventory apps to run their businesses smoothly.

So, Shopify wins this round on inventory management. 

#6. Blogs and Content

When you are running an eCommerce store or a technical enterprise, options to publish blogs and related content is essential to attract customer traffic. 

WooCommerce 

The areas where WooCommerce flexes its muscles are blogs and content. It takes after WordPress, the most reputable content management system, in terms of all the cutting-edge writing blog features. As a result, you may add a post to a blog that uses WooCommerce directly from the WordPress Admin dashboard. 

Additionally, by using templates from Storefront – WooCommerce’s default shop design or purchasing attractive blog themes from ThemeForest, you may enhance your customers’ blogging experiences.

Shopify 

The blog is a regular feature of Shopify. At Shopify, setting up a blog and writing a blog post doesn’t take much work or time. In reality, the Shopify site design theme makes it simple to customize your blog’s appearance. You can use various apps like PageFly, the most popular Shopify app, to create landing pages and add extra personalization choices. 

WooCommerce scores more regarding blog features owing to its origins in WordPress, developed as a blogging platform. 

#7. SEO

One of the best methods to make sure your customers can find you is through SEO. You won’t make any sales if they can’t discover you. You’ll lose money, time, and effort if you do not implement SEO. Consider certain factors to adequately compare the SEO skills of the two systems, including:

• SSL Certificates
• Auto XML Sitemap
• 301 Redirects
• Apps and Plugins for SEO

WooCommerce SEO

WooCommerce is functioning on WordPress, a platform specifically designed for blogging, which is an added advantage for SEO. Users of WooCommerce can optimize product pages by changing the body content, simple URL redirections, meta descriptions, alt tags, and other page components using the WordPress editor. Yoast SEO is the most well-known SEO plugin. However, WooCommerce also provides a variety of SEO plugins that you may use to optimize your store.

Shopify SEO

On the other hand, Shopify has some SEO restrictions. Shopify members are limited in how much they may alter their URLs. In addition, building sub-categories on this platform is rather challenging. However, Shopify includes all the essential tools you require for eCommerce SEO, and they are typically effortless to use. The ease of installation and use of SEO software for Shopify is also well known.

Again, WooCommerce wins this tug of war with SEO as it comes from the WordPress family. 

#8. Integrations

Many integrations are available for little to no cost. One of them is the automation of marketing. You can utilize MailChimp, Conversio, Klaviyo, Drip, and other email marketing tools to enhance customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.

Shopify 

Shopify offers easy integration and syncing of your online store with social media or other platforms. The integration is simple and uber-fast. 

WooCommerce 

You can rely on WooCommerce to connect your store with platforms like Facebook, eBay, and Amazon. Using free extensions approved by the platform, you may manage your channels from your WordPress dashboard. WooCommerce lacks a built-in omnichannel solution, unlike Shopify, which offers a POS system for its users. However, you can always choose a WooCommerce-compatible POS system from various suppliers.

There is no competitive advantage between WooCommerce and Shopify in this area.

#9. Apps & Plugins

You will always need to implement specific extensions to strengthen your store, no matter how solid an eCommerce platform is. Fortunately, WooCommerce and Shopify both include a sizable plugin catalog and interface with a wide range of third-party services.

WooCommerce 

As a plugin running on WordPress, WooCommerce users can access WordPress’s colossal plugin repository, which has over 58,000 free and paid plugins across all your logistical, technical, and marketing needs. Apart from that, WooCommerce offers 592 extensions specifically designed for eCommerce.

Shopify 

Shopify comes loaded with 5899 apps and extensions. Both in-house teams and third-party developers develop these. The Shopify apps can classify into different categories such as inventory management, orders & shipping, sales & conversion, etc. All these extensions support you in monitoring your e-store seamlessly and drive more traffic and sales.

The sheer volume of apps, plugins, and customization capabilities gives WooCommerce the upper hand in this category. 

#10. Payment Gateways

It is an undeniable fact that the processing of payment is the center of your eCommerce business. Irrespective of the type of products or services you deal with, the ultimate goal is always to convert visitors and facilitate their subsequent transactions. Luckily, WooCommerce and Shopify offer a wide variety of tools to help you with this.

Payment option in WooCommerce:

WooCommerce offers two tried-and-tested payment processors as default payment options: PayPal and Stripe. Most WooCommerce online stores would be at ease with one of the two options right away. So, to start things off, you don’t need a bank account. WooCommerce lets you go forward freely if you want to try a different service, and it also supports all other well-known payment service providers through add-ons.

WooCommerce offers compatibility for numerous regional and uncommon payment gateways. Every payment company can create and maintain add-ons for WooCommerce because there is no entry barrier. Your payment gateway or bank will only charge you transaction costs. You will never be charged a percentage of the transaction with WooCommerce. If you need assistance in integration, seek help from a seasoned WooCommerce development company. 

Payment option in Shopify:

Shopify has more than 100 payment gateways for you to choose from, but depending on the monthly plan, you must pay a transaction cost of 0.5-2 percent. The higher the method you select, the lower the transaction fee you pay to Shopify. Additionally, Shopify includes an entirely free payment processor called Shopify Payments. 

Some Shopify features might considerably help your business if you’re selling worldwide. Shopify also offers international Pricing and regional pricing control. You can select special rates for each product, nation, or location.

Therefore, we conclude that both platforms perform at par concerning payment options. 

#11. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a form of order fulfillment that frees retailers from the need to maintain inventory. Instead, the merchant will buy the product from a supplier and deliver it directly to the customer whenever there is a new order. Because of its minimal overhead, dropshipping is becoming increasingly popular.

Dropshipping with WooCommerce:

For dropshipping businesses, WooCommerce is a good option. Drop shippers can purchase WooCommerce plugins to immediately import products, process orders from your website, and more. Most of the applications have similar features.  

Dropshipping with Shopify :

Shopify currently offers integration tools for several well-known dropshipping markets. Two of the most notable ones are Dropified and Oberlo. To expand your dropshipping business, you will significantly benefit from Shopify’s extensive features regardless of the software you decide to use for your Shopify store. Syncee is a full-featured drop shipping solution for online retailers and a B2B dropshipping application accessible on Shopify and Woocommerce.

WooCommerce is the better of the two when it comes to dropshipping. 

#12. Security

A significant risk when operating an online business is security. Therefore, it is not surprising that many retailers ask, “WooCommerce vs. Shopify, which is better for security?” When choosing a hosted eCommerce solution over an open-source platform, there are fewer security and data protection concerns. In other words, it appears like Shopify outmatches WooCommerce in terms of security.

Security in WooCommerce :

The majority of security with WooCommerce is in your control. More specifically, you will be responsible for obtaining your SSL certificate, setting up your site security plugins, two-factor authentication, PCI compliance, and other site security measures.

Security in Shopify :

On the other hand, Shopify handles updates and security concerns in the background. The free pre-installed SSL certificate on this platform makes all data sent between you and your clients secure. For the Shopify system to accept credit card and debit card information, a Level 1 PCI-certified server is also required.

#13. Support: WooCommerce Vs  Shopify 

Support is crucial when you run an online store. You need someone to answer your umpteen queries when you encounter problems. 

 WooCommerce:

WooCommerce lacks live chat, phone, and email support, just like the majority of open-source eCommerce programs available. WooCommerce offers a wealth of resources for retailers who want to take charge of their support approach. This website provides support through WooCommerce Docs and a FAQ area where you can get responses to practically all frequently asked questions. 

Because of the platform’s enormous user base, WooCommerce users can quickly seek assistance from a thriving community of peers, developers, and WooExperts if an unfavorable situation arises or they get stuck during WooCommerce migration.

 Shopify:

On the other hand, Shopify is recognized for its top-notch customer service, offered 24/7 by phone, email, and live chat. Other than that, Shopify provides a massive database of FAQs and a helpful forum always happy to assist you.

Shopify emerges the clear winner here owing to its comprehensive support system. 

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Pros and Cons

Shopify Pros and Cons:

WooCommerce Pros and Cons:

That is all from us. Now you get to decide!

Choose the right platform after analyzing your requirements and the platform features. We can help you with WooCommerce or Shopify development if you feel stuck anywhere. 

Feel free to connect with us !

WooCommerce vs Shopify: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)