Should I use Shopify or WooCommerce?
Shopify trades flexibility for a managed, no-maintenance platform; WooCommerce trades a steeper setup for full control and lower fixed costs, provided you're comfortable with WordPress. Answer the questions below and enter your numbers to get a recommendation with an estimated monthly cost for each stack.
Frequently asked questions
What's the core difference between Shopify and WooCommerce?
Shopify is a fully hosted, managed platform — you pay a monthly subscription and Shopify handles hosting, security, and updates. WooCommerce is a free plugin that turns a self-hosted WordPress site into a store — you (or a developer) manage hosting, security, updates, and plugin compatibility yourself. Shopify trades a higher fixed monthly cost for zero maintenance; WooCommerce trades a lower fixed cost for more control and more responsibility.
Why does having an existing WordPress site matter so much?
If you already have a WordPress site with content, SEO rankings, or a following, WooCommerce lets you add a store to that same site without rebuilding anything or losing your existing search rankings. Migrating an established WordPress site to Shopify means starting your SEO and content history over on a new platform — a cost that often outweighs Shopify's convenience advantage if the existing site has real traffic.
What's included in the estimated monthly costs shown here?
For Shopify, the estimate is the plan's base subscription fee plus whatever you enter for apps. For WooCommerce, it's a typical managed WordPress hosting cost (around $25/month) plus a baseline for premium plugins and a theme (around $29/month) plus whatever you enter for additional apps or extensions. Both estimates exclude payment processing fees, since Stripe and equivalent gateways charge similar rates (roughly 2.9% + $0.30) on either platform — the fee itself isn't a differentiator between the two.
When does a custom checkout push me toward one platform or the other?
Shopify's checkout is locked down on standard plans — deep customisation requires Shopify Plus (an enterprise-tier plan starting in the thousands per month) or checkout extensibility apps with real limits. WooCommerce's checkout is just a WordPress page, so a developer can customise it freely with code, at the cost of needing that developer. If you need a genuinely non-standard checkout flow and don't have technical resources, that combination is a real constraint worth flagging early rather than discovering after you've built the store.
Can I switch platforms later if I choose wrong?
Yes, but it's disruptive — migrating products, customers, order history, and SEO from one platform to the other typically takes days to weeks of work and risks a temporary dip in search rankings during the transition. It's not a decision to treat lightly, but it's also not irreversible. If you're genuinely torn, technical comfort level is usually the more durable factor to weight heavily, since it doesn't change as fast as your revenue or feature needs might.
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