Eric Mutema

Question 02 of 06

Shopify or WooCommerce: which should I choose?

Short answer

Choose Shopify if you want hosting, security and checkout handled for you and you're happy working within its apps and themes. Choose WooCommerce if you need full control of the code and data, a store tightly joined to a WordPress site, or subscriptions and memberships that work closely with your content.

The real difference: hosted vs self-hosted

Shopify is a hosted platform. You pay a monthly plan, and Shopify runs the servers, security, updates and checkout. You customize the store through themes, written in Shopify's Liquid template language, and add features through apps.

WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress that runs on hosting you choose. You own the code and the database, and almost anything can be changed, but you or your developer are responsible for updates, security and performance.

When Shopify is the better fit

  • Your team wants to sell, not manage a website.
  • You need a reliable checkout quickly, with little appetite for maintenance.
  • Your catalog and sales channels match what Shopify and its apps already do well.

Watch the running costs: apps are usually monthly subscriptions, and Shopify adds its own transaction fee if you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments.

When WooCommerce is the better fit

  • The store is part of a content-heavy site, such as a publication, nonprofit or course business.
  • You sell subscriptions or memberships that need to control access to content.
  • You need custom logic in checkout, pricing or fulfillment that an app can't provide.
  • You want to own your data and move hosts without asking permission.

The trade-off is upkeep. A WooCommerce store needs regular updates, backups and someone who can fix it when a plugin update goes wrong.

Switching later

Neither choice is permanent. Products, customers and order history can move between the two, with redirects to protect search rankings. Customer passwords can't be exported from either platform, so customers set a new one after a move.

  • Shopify development: Shopify stores set up, customized and fixed, with the theme and apps kept lean.
  • WooCommerce development: New stores, custom features, subscriptions and fixes for the WooCommerce store you already have.
  • Adriana Cowdin case study: Fixed failing subscription renewals and blocked cancellations for an author and coach's WooCommerce store, and built a custom abandoned cart recovery plugin.

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