Shopify vs. WooCommerce – which is best?

You’ll probably have heard of Shopify and WooCommerce – both are top e-commerce platforms, hugely popular for businesses who need to sell online (who doesn’t?!). So, Shopify vs. WooCommerce – which is best? It’s crucial you choose the right e-commerce platform for your business. When time is finite, you don’t have time to learn the ins and outs of your site – it just needs to work. As an agency specialising in e-commerce, let Goldfish break it down for you, and help you pick the best site for your needs. Let the Shopify vs. WooCommerce battle commence.

What makes Shopify a great platform for businesses wanting to start an e-commerce store? To begin at the base level, Shopify is cloud-based and hosted, which takes the technical admin away from the founder. This saves time and knowledge, meaning you don’t have to worry about the upkeep of the site. Everything from web hosting to security is handled by Shopify. So, Shopify vs. WooCommerce – what’s Shopify’s lowdown?

When it comes to cost, it’s important when you’re starting out that business costs are kept low. Shopify keeps a fixed cost depending on the package you choose for your business, plus there will be some costs on transaction fees. The basic plan starts at around £22 a month – and if you’re looking to scale your business, additional costs are included. These plans include: a domain name, SSL certificate and web hosting. And you can always include third-party add-ons, which will come at a separate cost. When it comes to payment processing costs, Shopify offers their own payment solution called Shopify Payments. On the basic plan, you’re seeing a 2.9% transaction fee here, on top of payment gateway costs.

If you choose the basic plan, Shopify is intuitive to set up and navigate – which is great for the non-tech-savvy amongst us. Within a couple of hours, you can have logged in, added your products and be building a functioning e-commerce site. As we mentioned before, because Shopify is fully hosted, you never need to install, update or back-up your site.

The real joy of the fully-hosted Shopify means support is never far away. Through phone, live chat or email, you can reach experienced Shopify advisors who can answer any of your queries. If it’s less a real person you want to speak to and more a quick answer you want to research yourself, there are guides, a community forum and setup wizard on Shopify for you to access easily.

As an open source plugin for WordPress, you have much more flexibility and freedom with WooCommerce when it comes to making your e-commerce site unique for your business. Shopify vs. WooCommerce – what’s WooCommerce’s lowdown?

Being open source, WooCommerce is a free plugin. However, in order to customise your site to your taste, you’ll need to use third-party add-ons – some of which may have to be paid for. You will also, due to its open source nature, incur charges for domain name, SSL certificate and WordPress. As your store scales, bear in mind these costs will, too. Payment processing costs can be an issue – but not with WooCommerce. The only fees charged are by payment gateways or banks.

A hands-on, customisable plugin equals a more hands-on, technical set up – but if you understand WordPress, you should be okay. Being self-hosted, there is maintenance needed to ensure the security of your e-commerce site and to carry out updates and back-ups. But if you can persevere with the site’s upkeep, you’ll create a fully customisable, unique e-commerce store for your business.

As to be expected by now, WooCommerce leads you to a more lonesome approach to support. There are help sections, WordPress-related forums and the WooCommerce community you can consult for advice and guidance, and if you’ve already got technical know-how, you shouldn’t need to worry. But as for trained advisors who can support you each step of the way, you’re not going to find that here.

The answer is in this question: what are your store’s needs? If you’re a startup owner with little time, money and resources, whilst you pay monthly for Shopify, their fully-hosted, 24/7 support may be the thing you need to keep your e-commerce site running and building on sales. If you want full control over your e-commerce site’s functionality and offering, and have the time to put in to maintain site updates and security, WooCommerce is for you. Online is essential – so take the time to think through your options, and pick the right e-commerce solution for you. Need help deciding? We’re e-commerce experts – right here. We help businesses scale their e-commerce offering and transform online sales. Book a call with us today and find out what Goldfish can offer you.