Are you looking forward to opening an online store for your business? In this era driven by the internet, a physical shop holds less importance than a digital one. Today, people spend most of their leisure time on the Internet. So, why not leverage this trend to make your business fruitful? But, what does that have to do with the Shopify vs WooCommerce debate?
Opening an online store can be a daunting task but it doesn’t have to be. With numerous platforms simplifying the process of opening a digital storefront, it may be perplexing for you to choose one for your business.
Shopify and WooCommerce are two of the most popular platforms that are loved by millions of business owners. Although different in features and functionalities, these platforms enable you to simplify the complex process of making an extraordinary digital store.
Do you want to spare the headache of building an eCommerce website from scratch using these popular platforms? A reputed Shopify development company in London or a WooCommerce one can be hired to make something appealing for your business to make it stand out.
In this blog, we will give you a comprehensive overview of Shopify and WooCommerce along with their advantages and disadvantages. What’s more? We will also walk you through a detailed comparison between Shopify vs WooCommerce, enabling Fyou to make an informed decision. So, without further delay, let’s get to it!
A Glimpse of Shopify and WooCommerce
The eCommerce industry is booming right now in the United Kingdom. Don’t believe us? Let’s look at the data! According to Statista, the eCommerce market in the UK is witnessing significant growth with revenue expected to reach 414 million USD in 2025.
There are numerous platforms that enable business owners to open a digital storefront for their business. Out of all these platforms, Shopify and WooCommerce reigns supreme, preferred by a huge chunk of online business owners. So, let’s explore these platforms.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is one of the most preferred platforms when it comes to creating an online store. So much so, WooCommerce was the leading platform for e-commerce stores in 2024, having a market share of 39% globally.
However, it is not exactly a platform, but rather a plugin for WordPress sites. Don’t know what WordPress is? It is another web development platform that lets you develop websites without coding. You will be surprised to know that WordPress powers over 43% of all websites on the internet, according to WordPress statistics.
To utilise WooCommerce for your store, you will have to install WordPress on the web hosting and integrate WooCommerce plugin to turn your website into a functional digital storefront.
Just like WordPress, WooCommerce is an open-source ECommerce solution and is free. This means anyone can download, copy, or edit them.
But, what makes WooCommerce an exceptional choice for businesses? Its affordability and flexibility! Instead of being a plugin itself, you can find reliable third-party WooCommerce plugins, further extending the WooCommerce platform.
These plugins can improve the shopping experience, enhance the marketing of your stores, and connect tools for better control.
Not only that, you can even use the WooCommerce themes to determine the aestheticism and appeal of your store. For this, there are numerous themes for a variety of niches available.
Are you unable to find a theme or plugin that doesn’t actually meet your requirements? You can access the underlying code of your site. This allows you to make direct and desirable edits to the code (or hire a coder to do the things for you).
Shopify
Shopify has a completely different approach to online store creation than WooCommerce. But, how relevant is this eCommerce platform in today’s global market?
It is huge. Data suggests that Shopify was one of the biggest names in the eCommerce market throughout the US, having a share of 30% when it comes to websites powered by eCommerce technologies as of January 2025. WooCommerce lagged here with only 15% market share.
While WooCommerce is an open-source plugin that can be installed on web hosting, Shopify is a closed-source platform. What does that mean for your business?
This means that you don’t have any access to the underlying code powering your digital storefront. Additionally, you won’t have to worry about hosting. Instead, Shopify manages everything and you only have to register while adding your products to the platform.
The thing that Shopify provides you which is absent in WooCommerce is simplicity. Right from security to hosting and maintenance—Shopify does everything for you.
What’s the trade-off? Losing on flexibility and affordability.
While the platform provides you with themes and apps to customise your online store, it doesn’t allow direct edits to the code. Plus, it can be a little more expensive than WooCommerce. However, the cost is dependent on a lot of variables you choose for your store.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: Pros and Cons
There’s nothing perfect in this imperfect world. How you utilise these platforms matters the most as a business owner. You can choose WooCommerce or Shopify for your business depending on certain factors.
Before that, it is crucial to assess the pros and cons of these two popular platforms, which are important in the Shopify vs WooCommerce debate.
Pros of WooCommerce
- Cost Efficiency: It is an open-source and free plugin, making it an exceptional choice for small businesses and start-ups (budget-constrained organisations).
- Customisation: With the help of premium and free themes, you can control the feel and look of your store. You can simply mould the pages of the site according to the needs.
- Easy Management: The WooCommerce set-up should be a walk in the park if you are familiar with WordPress. Simple drag-and-drop features, in-build content manager, and inventory management add to its ease of management.
- SEO: WooCommerce integrates seamlessly with plugins like Yoast SEO, helping the optimisation of product titles, descriptions, and media for search engines.
Cons of WooCommerce
- Self-Hosting: You have to invest in a hosting provider to store your data while making it accessible to online shoppers. The hosting cost typically ranges between 100 to 500 USD annually.
- Limited Functionality: WooCommerce lacks functionalities like in-built marketing tools. You have to depend on costly extensions for email marketing and ACR (abandoned cart recovery).
- Security: As it’s not a closed-source platform, the store owner is responsible for security.
- Scalability: WooCommerce can handle considerable traffic. However, when it comes to big online stores, this plugin can’t handle the massive pressure.
Pros of Shopify
- Interface: Do you know the biggest USP of Shopify? It’s a user-friendly UI. From easy template implementation to drag and drop builder, you can easily set it up.
- Scalability: It is a platform that is designed for businesses of any size. Even it can help their website scale with their business. Ranging from unlimited inventory to multiple sales channels, it offers these functionalities, even in its basic plan.
- Customer Support: It doesn’t matter if you opt for the basic plan or the advanced one, you will get 24/7 support. Shopify offers more than one channel for its support and communication.
- Security: In this era of digitisation, protecting sensitive customer data is a priority for online store owners. This is an area in which Shopify excels tremendously.
Cons of Shopify
- Shopify Pricing Plans: While Shopify is transparent about its pricing strategy and discounts, there are added costs that come into the picture as you use it. For instance, its plans range from 39 USD to 399 USD. However, there are applications on the Shopify app store that require you to pay to integrate them.
- Customisations: The themes on Shopify have the option to explore the coded version of it to make required customisations. However, unlike standardised software like PHP, it uses its own Liquid (software) that isn’t common software for developers.
- Content Marketing: Instead of an option to run content such as blogs on the storefront, the editor is clunky and outdated. It doesn’t allow the inclusion of related posts or access to various categories.
- Difficulty Exiting: This platform utilises a lock-in feature that doesn’t allow shop owners to move their sites elsewhere. If you consider leaving the platform, you will be limited to a solo CSV file having product descriptions only.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: Key Differences
Now that we know the pros and cons of both platforms, we have to compare these two platforms comprehensively. This section is crucial for you to make an informed decision while considering opening an online store through these platforms.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: Pricing
When opening an online store, analysing your budget is the foremost thing. Both these platforms have distinct pricing structures. Let’s learn about these in a simple and clear way.
WooCommerce Pricing
WooCommerce is basically free. But, just hold on, Manual Testing in 2025: Why It Still MattersManual Testing in 2025: Why It Still Mattersjust because it’s free doesn’t mean it absolutely is! To smoothly run your digital store through WooCommerce, you will need to pay for:
- Website Hosting: The cost varies between 5-30 USD monthly depending upon your hosting provider.
- Domain Name: It is somewhere around 10-15 USD annually.
- Plugins and Themes: While some of them are free, others can cost between 30-100 USD each.
- Payment Gateway: This generally depends on the payment service you choose.
Therefore, the cost of WooCommerce relies on the extent of customisation and development services you opt for.
Shopify Pricing
Shopify has a transparent pricing strategy. You have to pay a fixed monthly amount to avail of its services. However, the fee includes basic setup and hosting. Their plans are:
- The Basic Shopify plan is 39 USD per month (ideal for beginners and small businesses)
- The Shopify plan is 105 USD per month (ideal for businesses that are scaling)
- The Advanced Shopify plan requires the payment of 399 USD per month (ideal for scaled or larger businesses)
The cost can exceed these plans. Do you know how? Shopify also charges fees for using external payment gateways (Stripe or PayPal). Instead of using third-party gateways, if you choose their in-build payment gateway (known as Shopify Payments), these extra costs can be avoided.
The Verdict!
Do you want tighter control over your monetary investments? Go for WooCommerce! What if you prefer easy budgeting and monthly payments? The answer is simple; Shopify.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: Ease of Usage
Nobody wants a lengthy and complex process to set up their online store. People love simple and easy processes that seamlessly let them build whatever they want. Though both these platforms let businesses create digital storefronts there are some differences. Let’s explore those.
WooCommerce Ease of Usage
If you use WordPress frequently and know how it works, then setting up WooCommerce is very easy. It is as simple as integrating another plugin into your WordPress site. However, after installing the plugin, you have a few steps to follow:
- Setting Up: You will have to handle domain setup and manage hosting, payment gateways, and SSL certificates all by yourself.
- Customisation: You will have to do some technical tweaking and coding if you want to customise your store.
So, when using WooCommerce, you have to do a lot of work yourself or outsource a WooCommerce development agency in London to do it for you.
Shopify Ease of Usage
Shopify is a platform that makes your life easy. It guides you through the steps to create your digital store.
- Setting Up: You won’t have to bear the brunt of managing security, hosting, and technicalities. Shopify will do everything for you.
- Customisation: You can simply select the perfect theme for your store and manage your store’s functionalities with simple structured steps —no coding needed.
With Shopify, you can create your store within hours, even if you lack website creation skills.
The Verdict!
Don’t want the headache of managing the domain, SSL certificates, or hosting? Opt for Shopify. Are you comfortable managing the technicalities? WooCommerce will be the better choice.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: Customisation and Design
Who doesn’t want their digital store to look top-notch? Isn’t it? Aesthetic appeal and functionalities can make or break your business in the eCommerce arena.
An appealing store can help build trust among shoppers and increase activity time on your site, leading to enhanced sales and boosted revenue.
So, how does Shopify vs WooCommerce compare regarding customisation and design? Let’s find out.
WooCommerce: Unparalleled Options
One of the major advantages of WooCommerce is that you can make your store look just like you always dreamt of. A huge stash of paid and free themes allows this.
What’s more? If you are willing to get your hands a little dirty with basic coding (or outsource a reputed WooCommerce development agency in London), the possibilities are truly endless.
But, what’s the trade-off? With so many options, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. There are times when excessive freedom slows you down, especially when you have limited ideas and technical knowledge.
Shopify: A Standard for Professional Designs
In the case of Shopify, You won’t get that many options as compared to WooCommerce. However, the lack of design freedom simplifies the creation process to a certain extent.
You can pick from a pool of approximately 100 themes—some free and some premium. What’s the good news? Each of them is crafted to make your store look professional and boost conversions.
What about customisation? It’s smooth and easy. Click around, add your logo, rearrange sections as required, and adjust colours to make your site appealing and attractive. But, you have to keep in mind that opting for Shopify between Shopify vs WooCommerce can restrict your design freedom.
The Verdict!
Have a design on your mind? WooCommerce is the way to go. Do you want a professional and appealing site quickly? Shopify can be the perfect choice.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: SEO and Marketing
By creating and setting up your digital storefront, you have won half your battle! What about the other half? Prioritising your customers is the other half of the battle which means efficient marketing and visibility.
Let’s compare Shopify vs WooCommerce when it comes to search engine optimisation and marketing.
WooCommerce: Heavy Lifting on Your Own
You will have complete control over the marketing and SEO if you opt for WooCommerce. Incorporation of plugins like Rank Math or Yoast SEO can make your store rank on Search engine result pages (SERPs).
What more can be done? You can even add plugins to add advanced features like upsells, coupons, and email marketing.
What’s the downside? You have to do everything on your own. So, you’ll need a well-charted strategy and marketing knowledge to achieve something extraordinary. But, it doesn’t have to be that as you can hire a WooCommerce development agency to do the work for you.
Shopify: In-Built Tools
This platform takes a much simpler approach. It already comes with basic SEO functionalities. You can add SEO-optimised titles, product pages, and descriptions to rank better on Google or other SERPs.
Furthermore, Shopify provides marketing tools such as email marketing, ACR (Abandoned Cart Recovery), social media integration, and so on. However, Shopify’s simplicity reflects rigidity. You cannot tweak minute details, which can restrict your SEO efforts.
The Verdict!
If you have a clear marketing strategy in mind, WooCommerce can serve as a powerful tool. On the contrary, if you can compromise flexibility for simplicity in your SEO and marketing efforts, then Shopify is the way to go.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: Security
No one gets excited about security, but it’s the most important factor. Your shoppers trust you with all their private data and you will need to protect that data at all costs.
So, how does the Shopify vs WooCommerce debate shape up when it comes to reliability and security? Let’s explore.
WooCommerce: Your Responsibility
You and your hosting partner are solely responsible for protecting your customers’ data if you choose WooCommerce. You will be responsible for:
- Periodic website updates
- Malware protection and security plugins
- SSL certificates
- Regular backups
Too much responsibility? The bright side is you have complete control. You have the chance to choose your own security techniques and hosting partner. However, all the security responsibilities are on your shoulders.
Shopify: In-Built Security and Less Stress
The good news is that Shopify manages and handles security for you. Your monthly payment ensures secure software updates, backups, hosting, and SSL certificates for your site. You can focus on other aspects of your business without worrying about security.
What’s the downside? You have no or limited control over security technique choices.
The Verdict!
If you have technical help available at your disposal, you can choose WooCommerce. If you don’t have the technical expertise on your side, Shopify will be fruitful for your business.
Webskitters Ltd.: Your One-Stop Shop for All your eCommerce Needs!
The age-old debate of Shopify vs WooCommerce is here to stay. Both are strong and reliable platforms, but they generally cater to different types of businesses.
If you are familiar with WordPress, love flexibility, and want complete control over your store, WooCommerce is a solid choice. It gives you all the freedom when it comes to customisation, SEO, and growth. You just have to be ready to face a bit more technicalities.
On the contrary, if you prefer simplicity, and enhanced management, and want a platform to handle all the technicalities, then Shopify is the way to go. It is mainly ideal for owners who want to prioritise more of their business processes instead of managing their store online.
In the end, the choice between Shopify vs WooCommerce comes down to your experience and business goals.
Are you still unsure about what to choose for your business? Webskitters Ltd. is here to help.
At Webskitters Ltd., we help you enhance customer satisfaction and boost sales through our eCommerce design and development services. Be it Shopify or WooCommerce, we do it all. With expert eCommerce developers in London, our design strategy transcends beyond enhancing your customer base while helping you boost conversions.
Rely on us, and let us bring your dream online store to life!
