Choosing between WooCommerce and Shopify is one of the biggest decisions you’ll make when launching an online store. Both platforms power millions of stores worldwide, but they take fundamentally different approaches to ecommerce.
Shopify is a hosted, all-in-one platform where you pay a monthly fee and everything is managed for you. WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin for WordPress that gives you full ownership and unlimited customization — but you handle hosting and setup yourself.
This guide breaks down pricing, features, scalability, and real-world use cases so you can make the right choice for your business in 2026.
WooCommerce vs Shopify: Quick Overview
Before diving into the details, here’s how the two platforms compare at a high level:
| Feature | WooCommerce | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Open-source WordPress plugin | Hosted SaaS platform |
| Starting Price | Free (hosting from $5-30/mo) | $39/month (Basic plan) |
| Transaction Fees | None from WooCommerce (gateway fees only) | 0.5%-2% if not using Shopify Payments |
| Customization | Unlimited — full code access | Limited by Shopify’s framework |
| Ease of Use | Moderate — WordPress knowledge needed | Easy — drag-and-drop builder |
| Market Share | 18.2% of ecommerce platforms | 28.8% of ecommerce platforms |
| Ownership | You own everything | Shopify owns the platform |
| Plugins/Extensions | 59,000+ WordPress plugins | 8,000+ Shopify apps |
Pricing: The Real Cost Breakdown
Pricing is where these platforms differ the most. Shopify makes costs predictable with monthly plans. WooCommerce gives you more control over what you spend — but requires you to piece together the stack yourself.
Shopify Pricing (2026)
- Basic: $39/month ($29/month billed annually) — 2 staff accounts, basic reports
- Shopify: $105/month — 5 staff accounts, professional reports
- Advanced: $399/month — 15 staff accounts, custom reports, third-party calculated shipping
- Shopify Plus: Starting at $2,000/month — enterprise features, dedicated support
The hidden cost with Shopify is transaction fees. If you don’t use Shopify Payments (their built-in gateway), Shopify charges an additional 0.5% to 2% on every sale on top of your payment processor’s fees. For a store doing $50,000/month in sales, that’s an extra $250-$1,000/month in fees.
WooCommerce Pricing (2026)
- WooCommerce plugin: Free
- Hosting: $5-30/month (shared) to $50-200/month (managed WooCommerce hosting)
- Domain: $10-15/year
- SSL Certificate: Free with most hosts (Let’s Encrypt)
- Theme: Free to $79 one-time
- Essential plugins: $0-300/year depending on needs
WooCommerce charges zero transaction fees. You only pay whatever your payment gateway charges (Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30, PayPal at similar rates). No additional platform fees regardless of your sales volume.
Real cost comparison for a store doing $10,000/month in sales:
| Cost Item | WooCommerce | Shopify Basic |
|---|---|---|
| Platform/Hosting | $30/month | $39/month |
| Payment Processing (2.9%) | $290 | $290 |
| Extra Transaction Fee | $0 | $0-$200 |
| Plugins/Apps (avg) | $25/month | $50/month |
| Monthly Total | $345 | $379-$579 |
| Annual Total | $4,140 | $4,548-$6,948 |
At higher volumes, the gap widens. A store doing $100,000/month saves $2,400-$24,000/year with WooCommerce over Shopify, depending on the payment gateway setup.
Ease of Use and Setup
This is where Shopify has a genuine advantage. According to WebsiteBuilderExpert, a Shopify store launches 41% faster than a comparable WooCommerce store on average. Shopify handles hosting, security, SSL, updates, and backups automatically.
WooCommerce requires you to set up WordPress hosting, install WooCommerce, configure a theme, set up payment gateways, and manage updates yourself. For someone with no technical background, this can take days instead of hours.
However, the WordPress ecosystem is mature. Managed WooCommerce hosts like Cloudways, SiteGround, and Bluehost offer one-click WooCommerce installation with pre-configured environments. The gap in setup difficulty has narrowed significantly in 2026.
Customization and Flexibility
This is WooCommerce’s strongest advantage and the main reason businesses choose it over Shopify.
WooCommerce: Full Control
- Complete code access — Modify any file, any function, any template
- 59,000+ plugins — WordPress’s massive ecosystem extends WooCommerce’s capabilities
- Custom post types — Build any product type (subscriptions, bookings, bundles, memberships)
- REST API — Full API access for headless commerce, mobile apps, and third-party integrations
- No vendor lock-in — Move your store to any WordPress host anytime
Shopify: Guided but Limited
- Liquid template language — Customization within Shopify’s framework only
- 8,000+ apps — Good ecosystem, but many essential features require paid apps
- Checkout customization — Limited on Basic/Shopify plans, only available on Plus ($2,000+/month)
- Storefront API — Good for headless commerce, but more restrictive than WooCommerce REST API
- Platform dependency — Shopify can change pricing, features, or terms at any time
For example, if you need a custom checkout flow, a unique product configurator, or deep integration with an industry-specific ERP system, WooCommerce lets you build exactly what you need. You can even run multiple WooCommerce stores from a single dashboard. On Shopify, you’re limited to what the platform and available apps support.
Payment Gateways
WooCommerce supports virtually every payment gateway available — Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, Mollie, Razorpay, and hundreds more through plugins. You can run multiple gateways simultaneously with no additional platform fees.
Shopify pushes you toward Shopify Payments (powered by Stripe). If you choose a different gateway, you pay an extra 0.5%-2% transaction fee on top of the gateway’s own fees. This is a significant cost for high-volume stores and a dealbreaker for businesses in countries where Shopify Payments isn’t available.
SEO and Content Marketing
WooCommerce runs on WordPress, the platform that powers 43% of all websites. WordPress was built for content. You get full blogging capabilities, complete control over URL structures, meta tags, schema markup, and access to powerful SEO plugins like Rank Math and Yoast.
Shopify’s SEO has improved over the years, but it still has limitations:
- URL structure is rigid (e.g., /products/product-name, /collections/collection-name)
- Limited control over robots.txt
- Blog functionality is basic compared to WordPress
- No native support for advanced schema markup
If content marketing and organic search traffic are important to your business strategy, WooCommerce on WordPress is the stronger platform. Combine it with WooCommerce marketing plugins and the content capabilities aren’t even close.
Scalability and Performance
Both platforms can handle high-traffic stores, but they scale differently.
Shopify handles scaling automatically. Their infrastructure manages traffic spikes, server optimization, and CDN delivery. You don’t need to think about server performance — Shopify handles it. This is a real advantage for store owners who don’t want to manage infrastructure.
WooCommerce scaling depends on your hosting setup. On cheap shared hosting, WooCommerce can slow down with 5,000+ products. On managed hosting with proper caching, object storage, and a CDN, WooCommerce handles millions of products and thousands of concurrent users. We’ve built WooCommerce stores processing 10,000+ orders per day on properly configured infrastructure.
The key difference: with WooCommerce, you control the infrastructure decisions. You can optimize for your specific needs rather than accepting one-size-fits-all hosting.
When to Choose WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the better choice when:
- You need full customization — Custom checkout flows, unique product types, industry-specific features
- Content marketing matters — Blogging, SEO, and organic traffic are core to your strategy
- You want to own your store — No platform dependency, no vendor lock-in, full data ownership
- You sell internationally — Multi-currency, multi-language, region-specific payment gateways without extra fees
- You’re building something unique — Multi-vendor marketplace, subscription box, booking system, membership site
- Long-term cost matters — No transaction fees, lower total cost at higher volumes
- You have (or can hire) technical support — A developer or agency to handle setup and maintenance
When to Choose Shopify
Shopify is the better choice when:
- You need to launch fast — Get selling in hours, not days or weeks
- You don’t want to manage technology — Hosting, security, and updates are all handled
- You sell primarily in-person + online — Shopify POS is excellent for omnichannel retail
- You have a simple product catalog — Standard physical products with straightforward pricing
- You’re testing a business idea — Quick setup to validate demand before investing in a custom build
Migration: Moving Between Platforms
If you’ve outgrown Shopify and want to move to WooCommerce, migration is straightforward:
- Export products, customers, and orders from Shopify as CSV
- Set up WooCommerce on your WordPress hosting
- Import data using WooCommerce’s built-in importer or a migration plugin like LitExtension or Cart2Cart
- Set up redirects from old Shopify URLs to new WooCommerce URLs
- Test thoroughly before switching your domain
The process typically takes 1-5 days depending on store size and complexity. The biggest challenge is URL redirects — Shopify’s URL structure differs from WooCommerce, so you need proper 301 redirects to preserve SEO rankings.
Moving from WooCommerce to Shopify is also possible but often more difficult because WooCommerce stores tend to have more custom functionality that may not have direct Shopify equivalents.
Real-World Performance Benchmarks
We’ve worked on both platforms across dozens of client projects. Here’s what we’ve measured in real stores:
| Metric | WooCommerce (optimized) | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Page Load Time | 1.2-2.0s | 1.5-2.5s |
| Core Web Vitals Pass Rate | 85-95% | 70-85% |
| Products Before Slowdown | 50,000+ (managed hosting) | 100,000+ |
| Checkout Conversion Rate | 2.5-4.0% (custom checkout) | 2.0-3.5% (standard checkout) |
WooCommerce consistently delivers better Core Web Vitals scores when properly optimized because you control the entire stack. Shopify’s app ecosystem can add JavaScript bloat that impacts performance — something you have limited ability to fix.
The Bottom Line
There’s no universally “better” platform. The right choice depends on your specific needs:
Choose WooCommerce if you want full ownership, unlimited customization, better SEO capabilities, and lower long-term costs. You’ll need technical support for setup and maintenance, but the flexibility and savings justify the investment for serious ecommerce businesses.
Choose Shopify if you want simplicity, fast setup, and don’t need deep customization. It’s excellent for straightforward product catalogs and for store owners who want a hands-off technology experience.
For businesses that need custom WooCommerce development — unique product configurators, marketplace setups, complex integrations, or migration from Shopify — working with an experienced WooCommerce development team ensures your store is built for performance and growth from day one.
