Comparisons
Shopify vs WooCommerce
Short answer
Shopify if you want it simple and are happy paying monthly for that. WooCommerce if you want lower running costs, more control, or a serious content presence alongside the shop. Under about 200 products with straightforward needs, Shopify. Content-heavy, unusual requirements or cost-sensitive at volume, WooCommerce.
What you are actually choosing between
Shopify is a hosted platform. Security, updates, hosting and PCI compliance are their problem. You pay monthly and almost nothing goes wrong.
WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress. There is no platform fee, you can change anything, and hosting, security and updates are your responsibility.
That is the whole trade-off: convenience and predictability against cost and control.
The real monthly cost
Where the comparison usually surprises people:
- Shopify platform: £25 to £289 a month depending on plan.
- Shopify apps: realistically £30 to £150 a month for a typical small store, and this is the number people underestimate.
- Shopify transaction fees: 0% on Shopify Payments, up to 2% if you use another provider.
- WooCommerce hosting: £15 to £45 a month for hosting that suits it.
- WooCommerce extensions: typically £100 to £400 a year, paid annually rather than monthly.
- Both pay card processing of roughly 1.5% plus 25p.
Where Shopify wins
- The checkout is exceptionally well optimised, and that is worth real money
- Nothing breaks — no updates, no plugin conflicts, no security patching
- Setup is faster, so you are trading sooner
- Excellent for dropshipping and print-on-demand integrations
- Support exists and answers
Where WooCommerce wins
- No platform fee, which compounds significantly at volume
- Content and shop in one system, which is a genuine and underrated SEO advantage
- Trade pricing, customer groups and payment on account are far easier
- Complete control over URLs, templates and technical SEO
- You own it and can move it anywhere
The rule of thumb we use
If your shop is the whole business and you want to spend your time selling rather than maintaining, Shopify. If your shop sits alongside substantial content, or you sell to trade as well as public, or your margins make £100 a month of platform cost meaningful, WooCommerce.
And a practical note: a badly built WooCommerce store on cheap hosting is genuinely worse than a Shopify store. If nobody is going to maintain it, take the hosted option.
Related questions
Which is cheaper overall?
WooCommerce, usually, once you are past a small catalogue — no platform fee and no per-app monthly cost. Shopify can work out cheaper at very small scale because you are not paying for maintenance.
Which is better for SEO?
WooCommerce, because you control the URL structure and the content sits in the same system. Shopify is perfectly capable of ranking; its weakness is content depth and some fixed URL conventions.
Can I migrate between them?
Yes, in both directions. Products, customers and order history transfer, and redirects need mapping carefully because the URL structures differ. We do it regularly.
Is WooCommerce slow?
On cheap shared hosting with too many plugins, very. On appropriate hosting with a lean build it handles large catalogues quickly. The platform is not the variable; the build and the hosting are.
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