Which One Is Better for Your Online Store: Shopify vs. WooCommerce?

by Saniya Zeenat Writer

Shopify and WooCommerce are the two top eCommerce platforms in the world, each having their own characteristics and pros. Shopify is for you if you need an all-in-one platform. You can build and bring out your online store wholly through Shopify, and also make use of its neat features and apps.

WooCommerce is for if you already have a website and it’s a plugin that works with WordPress and helps transit your website into an online store. If you are struggling with how to choose between WooCommerce and Shopify, it is ideal to take the help of a company that provides web design services for small business to know how your needs can be met with the right platform, getting custom tailored and quality service. For a business owner, choosing the right eCommerce platform that fits your needs is vital for your store’s success and sales. Below, you can read through a detailed comparison between Shopify and WooCommerce.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an all-in-one eCommerce platform that makes it easy for you to build an online store, accept payments and do much more. It also helps to manage your records from a single platform without the technical aspects of managing a website such as a web hosting, caching, security, etc.

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is an open-source plugin built for WordPress. It allows you to control the most powerful content management system and use it to run an online store. Due to the open-source nature, you can customise every feature of your store and easily build a custom extension lead.

How Easyis it to Launch a Store on Each Platform?

In terms of how easy it’s to go from nothing to a full-functioning store that’s ready to process payments and accept orders, Shopify is the winner.

WooCommerce

When you make a WooCommerce store, you kind of have to do two separate things that are:

Install WordPress and learn its interface.
Install and configure WooCommerce and learn its interface.
In general, before you start accepting orders through your online store, you will be responsible for:
Finding Hosting
Installing WordPress
Installing and Configuring WooCommerce
Configuring nitty-gritty details like payment gateways, tax calculations, and much more

Shopify

With Shopify, there is a little getting in the way of you creating your first product and starting to sell it.

Generally, you need to do:

Create a Shopify account
Select and purchase a domain or sync and existing domain name
Choose your theme

And supposing you are using Shopify's payment gateway, it’s easy to start accommodating credit card and payments right from day one.

WooCommerce vs. Shopify: Which One Should You Choose?

There is no one right answer here, so as a replacement for trying to make a single recommendation in one way or another, you need to go through some scenarios where each platform makes the most sense.

Reasons to Use WooCommerce over Shopify

One of the big reasons to use WooCommerce over Shopify is flexibility and control. If you want to sell simple products with minimal variations you probably won’t need that flexibility. But if you want to sell the thing that goes beyond simple either in terms of variations, checkout process, or pricing structure, you will appreciate WooCommerce’s flexibility.
Some products just flat-out are banned from Shopify. And because it is a hosted solution, you are at the whims of the Shopify decision-making team.

Reason to Use Shopify over WooCommerce

If you want the simplest solution then Shopify is a good choice. If you’re not planning to sell complicated products with a lot of variations, you should be fine with the Shopify’s ecosystem.
Moreover, if you don’t want to spend time maintaining your store then that’s another reason to consider Shopify’s simplicity.

Conclusion:

Each eCommerce platform has abenefit for specific situations. If you are confused between choosing one then you can take the help of a professional that provides web design services for small businesses to choose the right one that suits your business.