Shopify vs WooCommerce: The Ultimate Face-Off
All set to start your own eCommerce store? Congratulations, you have made an excellent decision! It has been predicted that eCommerce sales in the US market are expected to surpass $737 billion by 2023. However, as beautiful as this idea seems, it also welcomes a lot of confusion among the investors. The biggest hurdle is to choose the right eCommerce platform to begin the online business journey.
Shopify and WooCommerce are considered to be the most preferred eCommerce platforms with each having its own set of merits and demerits. Before working with your web development company in Mississauga, if you are confused about whether to choose Shopify or WooCommerce for your eCommerce store, then this post holds answers to all your queries.
Shopify VS WooCommerce – Basic Difference
To understand the actual comparison between both platforms, you must begin covering the basics. Let’s start by elaborating on the basic difference between Shopify and WooCommerce.
What Is Shopify?
Shopify is an ultimate e-commerce platform that helps you create your dream online store. This cloud-based platform allows users to create, manage, and grow their online store all under one roof, without worrying about any technical aspect such as – security caching, hosting, and more. If you don’t want to make the Shopify store by yourself, you can also consider hiring a Shopify developer for your online business.
What Is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress. It helps in supercharging WordPress, the CMS (Content Management System), and using it efficiently to run the online store. It is highly customizable, free-to-install, and is considered an ideal option for cost-conscious people.
Shopify VS WooCommerce – A Detailed Comparison
Let’s have an in-depth view of the differences between Shopify and WooCommerce and analyze which platform is best for your eCommerce store.
Shopify VS WooCommerce: Usability
You don’t have to be a tech-geek before investing in an eCommerce store. So, whether you are a techie or non-techie, in either case, you need a user-friendly platform to set up an online store. So, who’s the winner in this race – Shopify or WooCommerce?
Shopify is a complete tool that is easy to install, manage, and update. With this platform, you don’t have to worry about backups, performance, security, and compatibility issues. It comes with an intuitive drag and drop interface that helps to handle everything flawlessly. From selecting a design for your website to adding products, you get a plethora of customization options. This definitely makes your e-commerce journey a pleasant breeze.
WooCommerce, on the other hand, cannot be termed as a complete tool like – Shopify. It means that from the site hosting to managing the security, the site owner has to manually look into each and every activity. However, there are many WordPress plugins available that help in automating tasks like – keeping backups, managing updates, and handling security concerns. But, investing in these plugins may increase the overall costs.
Shopify VS WooCommerce: Price
One of the basic factors while selecting an eCommerce platform is the price. It is really important to evaluate how much exactly you are willing to spend on your business. While some go for a fixed price package others might be looking for a flexible price structure, and the selection for the same solely depends on the need of your business model.
WooCommerce is an open-source and free WordPress plugin. However, one is required to buy a domain name and a hosting account before starting their venture on the WooCommerce store. The total costs might come out to be a little expensive, but there are some WooCommerce hosting companies like – Bluehost that gives the users free domain name, SSL certificate, and a huge discount on the web hosting. And, what is more, surprising is with WooCommerce, you can start your online store at just as low as $6.95/month.
Shopify, on the other hand, has three common plans – Basic at $29 per month, Shopify plan at $79 per month, and Advanced Shopify at $299 per month. Apart from these there is Shopify Plus as well as Shopify Lite. What’s great about all these packages is they include – SSL certificate, domain name, and web hosting in the plans. However, you may need to pay a little more for any add-on or third-party tools.
Shopify VS WooCommerce: Add-Ons and Integrations
If you plan on growing your eCommerce store to the next level, then you might need some robust third-party tools to accomplish that. Both Shopify and WooCommerce are backed with a huge list of such powerful tools.
Shopify covers a wide array of apps available in its App Stores where most of them are developed by third parties. You can get options for both free and paid apps with your own set of costs and functionalities. For example – TrustPulse is a third-party app that helps in building trust among the visitors by showing them the real-time activity of other shoppers on your site. It helps to make trust recommendations from others while making purchasing decisions.
WooCommerce is a WordPress eCommerce plugin with access to thousands of both free and paid plugins. With a plethora of add-ons and integration options, WooCommerce opens a low barrier for entry and helps in building a powerful eCommerce store with fewer limitations. Not just that, WooCommerce is quite easier to customize than Shopify. And, this makes the whole process quite simpler.
Shopify VS WooCommerce: Dropshipping
Well, Dropshipping is no new concept in the online world. It is an online business where the store owners fulfill the order requirements by purchasing from other vendors and then shipping them under their label. It is an ideal concept for all those who don’t want stock maintenance and inventory sorting problems. Let’s consider the Shopify VS WooCommerce comparison on this one.
WooCommerce is considered to be a popular choice for dropshipping as it allows the store owners to create their own marketplace allowing other vendors to sell on your site using the extensions. You can find extensions that will make it easier for you to fulfill orders from your website, import products, and more.
Shopify works as a regular platform where the users will select the products, add them to the carts, and then make payments. After the order is placed successfully, the availability is checked with the vendor for the ordered product. The platforms also offer integration apps for dropshipping marketplaces like – Printify, AliExpress, and more. However, each one of them has its own shipping, membership, and other charges that must be considered when creating a dropshipping website using Shopify.
WooCommerce VS Shopify – Who Is The Winner?
As we can clearly see from the above comparisons that both WooCommerce and Shopify are powerful platforms to begin your eCommerce business journey. Let’s make it a little easier for you to select the right one for your business.
If you are planning to build an eCommerce store by covering vast regions, then WooCommerce is a great choice. It is ideal for all those who are technically competent and want to have full control over the online store. Also, it is cost-efficient.
You can opt for Shopify if you are a beginner with a less technical background and want to start an online store in a short span of time. The platform assures 24/7 support and comes with high scalability making the whole experience just like icing on the cake.
We are completely in swoon with the charm of both Shopify and WooCommerce. If you have made your decision or want to discuss more of this, then our experts are all yours to lend you a helping hand. Let’s get started before your competitor does!
Here you’ll find various articles that guide about types of e-commerce websites, strategies of e-commerce, etc.
Here you’ll find various articles that guide about types of websites, complications in website development, etc.
Various articles to know about types of digital marketing strategies, pros & cons of digital marketing platforms, etc