Best Platform For Your ECommerce Store: WooCommerce Vs. Shopify

Are you planning to launch your eCommerce store soon? Confused about which platform to choose? WooCommerce or Shopify? Don’t worry; we’ll put your confusion at peace. These tech giants have multiple strengths & render the ideal solution for an individual to develop an eCommerce store. Shopify has over 80,000 online stores under its brand, while WooCommerce is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms globally. It depends on person to person, what suits whom.

Shopify is a robust, reliable, and user-friendly eCommerce platform. Shopify allows you to know the price you’ll pay each month, and the prices are also fair. Users can access up to 1000s of apps to expand your store.

WooCommerce is the eCommerce plugin that turns any WordPress website development into a robust online store. It’s an open-source platform and free to install, making it perfect for cost-conscious users. But you’ll be required to pay for security and hosting.

Both the platforms have their pros and cons, which makes it hard to decide. To help you make the most suitable choice, we have made comparisons in various components to make it easy to pick the one that suits you the best. Let’s begin!

#) Design

design shopify vs woocommerce

Shopify

Shopify does really well from a visual quality viewpoint. Shopify has over 54 different store templates, from which 10 are free. And each of the Shopify themes has different variations. Hence, you are technically getting over 100 different designs. They are all mobile responsive & have a broad range of unique coloring options. They have a fancy glossy & immaculate aesthetic, making them perfect for contemporary websites.

Shopify designs are not designed in-house. They are outsourced to a group of expert web designers who promise they’re as current &e engaging as possible. You’ll get creativity from a vast range of companies and people, making for an improved selection. However, the premium Shopify themes cost up to $180 but offer you a fantastic design.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a plugin built by the web developers from WooThemes. It doesn’t deliver any particular design traits itself. It provides you with the means to sell items and services online. However, the design part is left to your present or future WordPress theme.

WooCommerce is built to coordinate with most themes on the market, provided they adhere to the standard suggestions & best practices. Meaning, in most cases, you can pick any WordPress theme you like and still make it work jointly with WooCommerce.

WooCommerce also offers a range of themes for Storefront if you wish to tailor your store’s look. Most of the child themes are for $39/piece. But it can go as high as $119.

Conclusion:

TBH, WooCommerce has a significant advantage over Shopify for designs. Shopify has unique themes but is confined to the Shopify Theme Store. Whereas WooCommerce is open-source, so 1000s of developers sell remarkable WooCommerce themes for all industries & purposes.

#) Price

Shopify

Shopify is about delivering you one unique solution with only a few pricing packages. You register, then get to use your sleek new eCommerce store straight away as everything you require is included from the get-go.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free-to-use open-source software plugin. The plugin is free; however, you have to consider the extra costs of creating an online store. WordPress is free too, but you have to think of hosting, a domain name, the theme cost, additional extensions, and an SSL certificate.

Conclusion:

Summing it up, Shopify’s pricing model is simple, while WooCommerce’s isn’t.

Shopify eCommerce stores running on high-level domains cost $29 per month. Whereas, WooCommerce stores on the same level cost $29 per month. You can observe, even though WooCommerce is free, the costs sum up the same eventually.

But you might end up spending more on WooCommerce as they have additional extensions for SEO, more payment gateways, others. These extensions cost around $49-$79 (one-time payment.).

Shopify has a much more conventional pricing model. It has different packages: Lite ($9/month), Basic ($29/month), Shopify ($79/month), and Advanced ($299/month).

#) Support

support shopify vs woocommerce

Shopify

Shopify is famous for its superior quality customer care. Every user can enjoy 24/7 access to customer advisers if they have any problems or queries. Besides, it can also access an extensive knowledge base that includes some common user questions & problem solutions.

WooCommerce

The matter here isn’t that straightforward. WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin. Meaning, you can get support via the WordPress forums. Simultaneously, the WooCommerce team allows everyone to make a free user account at WooCommerce.com and get assistance there.

Conclusion:

WooCommerce is great for those who don’t require to speak with a rep, but everyone needs help, and so Shopify wins here.

#) SEO

Shopify

Shopify presents content in an excellent way. It also handles basic SEO practices like site copy and meta description with ease. Hence, as long your company is creating quality content, you would enjoy great outcomes & stronger user-engagement.

It offers some of the clean code and natural linking structure that provides a seamless user experience and, in turn, improves visibility in search engine rankings.

Moreover, Shopify is fast since it’s a hosted platform that’s developed on massive infrastructure. Shopify offers each of its webmaster quick loading pages. Hence, shops stand a better chance of ranking well & turning leads to conversions.

WooCommerce

WordPress is mainly a content creation platform and is famous by SEO experts as one of the most reliable platforms. It’s easy to add & edit content & meta information to ensure that pages have a strong chance of ranking for particular keywords.

Yoast SEO plugin makes your WordPress site super optimized and in complete control of each tiny detail that’s SEO-related.

Conclusion:

WooCommerce provides you more SEO-specific options because it’s built on top of WordPress. However, the only issue is that your site speed mainly depends on the hosting you prefer. Due to this, Shopify is a winner here. You don’t have to stress about optimization much, and speed will always be top-notch.

Final Words

Both are great depending on your requirements you have to choose the ideal one. Amateurs and less tech-savvy people will prefer using Shopify. In comparison, tech-savvy people will enjoy the freedom that WooCommerce offers. In the end, it all depends on what suits your needs.