Shopify vs WooCommerce: Which Should Your Store Run On?

Prices and fees checked Oct 31, 2026 on each vendor's own pages. Vendors change pricing often, so confirm the figures before you decide.

Shopify and WooCommerce are two of the most popular ways to sell online, but they are built on opposite ideas:

• Shopify is a hosted, all-in-one platform you rent.
• WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin for WordPress that you host and maintain yourself.

Our team has built and migrated Shopify stores since 2017 for brands across Canada, the US & Europe. We still tell some merchants that WooCommerce is the better fit. Here's how to decide.

The short answer

• Choose Shopify if you want to sell quickly, keep maintenance low and let the platform handle hosting, security and checkout.
• Choose WooCommerce if you already run a WordPress site, have developer support, and want full control over your code and hosting.

Cost: subscription vs hosting

Shopify charges a monthly plan (Shopify pricing):

• Hosting, an SSL certificate and unlimited bandwidth are included.
• Online card rates with Shopify Payments start at 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, falling to 2.25% + 30¢ on Plus (US rates).
• If you use a third-party payment provider instead, Shopify adds a transaction fee: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus.

WooCommerce has no licence fee, but you pay for the pieces Shopify bundles:

• web hosting
• a domain
• often premium extensions
• developer time for updates and security

WooPayments, WooCommerce's own payment gateway, has no monthly fee and charges per transaction, for example 2.9% + $0.30 for US cards (WooPayments fees). You can also use other gateways.

What this means: WooCommerce can cost less in cash, but it costs more in time. Compare total cost of ownership (hosting, extensions, maintenance hours), not just the subscription line.

Ease of use and maintenance

• Shopify: the platform handles updates, hosting and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance (Shopify pricing FAQ). Your team works in one admin.
• WooCommerce: you're responsible for WordPress core, theme and plugin updates, backups, and security. That's freedom if you have a developer, and a risk if you don't.

Customization and flexibility

• WooCommerce wins on raw control. You own the code and the database, and can change anything in PHP.
• Shopify is customized through:
  • themes (Liquid)
  • thousands of apps
  • APIs
  • headless storefronts, which every plan supports at least one of (Shopify pricing)
• Checkout: full checkout customization is reserved for Shopify Plus. Other plans get limited checkout customization.

Scaling

• Shopify: hosting scales with the plan, and higher tiers add staff accounts, API limits and B2B features.
• WooCommerce: scaling depends on your hosting and how well the site is engineered. Large WooCommerce stores are common, but they need deliberate performance work.

SEO

Both platforms can rank well.

• WordPress gives you very fine control over content and technical SEO.
• Shopify handles the technical basics automatically: sitemaps, SSL, canonical tags. It has a few fixed URL patterns (for example /products/ and /collections/), which rarely matter in practice.

Either way, content quality and site speed matter more than the platform. If you're switching platforms, protect your rankings with redirects; see our Shopify migration SEO checklist.

Side-by-side summary

When we recommend each

Shopify fits when:

• you want to launch fast
• you sell across channels
• you have no in-house developer
• you'd rather spend time on marketing than maintenance

WooCommerce fits when:

• content is central to your business and you already run WordPress
• you have reliable development support
• you need deep custom logic

Frequently asked questions

Weighing a replatform? Our team builds and migrates Shopify stores. Learn more about our Shopify agency work.

Related: our Shopify agency, Shopify migration services, development services and e-commerce marketing for growth after launch.