Khaled Khan 2 years ago
Which is superior Shopify vs woocommerce? Many businesses ask themselves — is WordPress good for Ecommerce?, so I’ll discuss it in this post. Continue reading to learn more about both platforms, their main features, and why you would pick one over the other when creating an e-commerce website.
After reading this comparison, you need to know more about which platform will work best for your company’s needs. You’ve probably heard of Shopify and WordPress if you’re looking for the best ecommerce platform for your online store.
When comparing these two solutions, Shopify comes out on top for companies that prioritize making sales and need an e-commerce solution that is simple to use, fully featured, and largely automated. Although it takes a lot longer to get used to, WordPress is unbeatable in terms of versatility.
Both WooCommerce and Shopify have a variety of advantages, making them the best choice for you to use when creating an online store. The best part is that you can accomplish it independently without assistance from designers or developers with experience.
Although you can create prosperous online stores using both platforms, they are significantly different from one another. This article outlines the key differences between Shopify vs WordPress pricing, Shopify vs WordPress for dropshipping, installation, usability, and functionality. Before investing in a specific eCommerce platform, you should consider these crucial elements.
A web application called Shopify was created exclusively to help business owners create and run their online stores. It offers a selection of templates that may be customized to match the needs of various businesses in terms of branding, enabling the sale of both physical and digital goods.
You don’t need any coding experience to utilize Shopify because one of its main goals is to allow users to construct their stores without technical or design expertise.
However, Shopify allows you to change your website’s Themes, HTML, and CSS, which means that people with coding skills can personalize their stores more fully. Shopify is a software as a service (SaaS) application, which means you must pay a monthly fee to use it rather than owning a copy of the programme.
Since Shopify is a web application, you can manage your online store from anywhere as long as you have access to the Internet and a web browser.
According to the information above, WooCommerce will be the most widely used platform for building e-commerce stores in 2022. The eCommerce platform WooCommerce is not a stand-alone one. It is a WordPress plugin instead.
If you’re unfamiliar with WordPress, it powers over 40% of all websites on the Internet and is the most common way to create a website in general. You must first install WordPress on your web hosting to start a store with WooCommerce. Then, you can install the WooCommerce plugin to WordPress to turn your site into a fully operating eCommerce store.
WooCommerce’s versatility and affordability stand out as unique value propositions. Although WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, there are thousands of additional official and third-party WooCommerce Ad Ons that enhance the primary WooCommerce platform.
These plugins give you greater control over your store and can help you sell it more effectively, connect it to other tools, and enhance the shopping experience. WooCommerce is well-liked overall because it is free, has complete flexibility, and keeps things simple enough for non-developers to use to create a fully functional, secure e-commerce store.
The main difference between WooCommerce and Shopify is how they tackle things differently. WooCommerce is an open-source platform that you must install and run yourself or hire someone to do it for you, unlike Shopify, a proprietary, hosted platform. You don’t need to install or update Shopify – just set up. Although its streamlined, proprietary architecture makes it simpler for new users, it does mean that the adjustments you may make are limited. The fact that your data is stored in Shopify’s database rather than one you control is significant since it restricts how you can utilise it.
Although both platforms provide you with the option to select from a variety of payment gateways, Shopify charges a fee of up to 2% if you choose not to use one of theirs — on top of whatever the third-party gateway charges you. Both Shopify and WooCommerce support customisation, though in slightly different ways. You can customise how Shopify looks and functions using its themes and apps. ConverselyWooCommerce is a part of the larger WordPress ecosystem. You have the same creative flexibility to alter it as you would your website.
When opening an internet store, there are a few things that you must never forget. Using these essential criteria, you can choose the most appropriate platform for your needs.
Even complete beginners should have no trouble using it.
The platform needs to be scalable as your company expands.
You can integrate various services and technologies from outside sources to expand your eCommerce business.
It should support various payment options (e.g. PayPal, Stripe, and other merchant processors).
You may install and activate WooCommerce if you’re one of the millions of WordPress users by following the same procedures as you would for any other plugin. Before even considering installing the plugin, you must choose WordPress as your CMS and build a website if you don’t already have one. You must buy your eCommerce hosting, unlike Shopify. Although you might utilise an internal server to operate WooCommerce, many store owners invest in separate web hosting plans.
You don’t have to worry about the technical aspects of running your online store because it’s a hosted solution. Furthermore, you are not needed to purchase a different hosting package. Usability is a key component of the platform at Shopify. It also gives you everything you need to create an online store within minutes. Because of these elements, Shopify is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to build an online store quickly. If you don’t need control over every part of your shop, Shopify can be a suitable solution.
WooCommerce is a WordPress.org plugin for online stores. It is offered as a free plugin and is open source. You will require a domain name, an SSL certificate, and a WordPress hosting account in order to establish a WooCommerce store. Typically, a domain name costs $14.99, an SSL Certificate is $69.99, and the monthly cost of web hosting is about $7.99. This is not inexpensive, especially if you are just getting started. Thankfully, several hosting providers now provide specific WooCommerce hosting plans, significantly lowering costs.
Creating an online store using Shopify is quite simple. You can upgrade to the Shopify plan for $79 or the Advanced Shopify plan for $299 per month from their entry-level plan, which costs $29 per month. Shopify also has a $9.00/month option called Shopify lite. With this package, you can use Shopify to make in-person sales in some areas or add buy buttons to any website. You could, for example, add Shopify buy buttons to a WordPress website. However, employing WooCommerce would enable you to provide a significantly better experience if you are currently creating a WordPress website.
Shopify is the undisputed victor if we concentrate on how simple it is to construct a fully operational store ready to accept orders. With WooCommerce, you’ll need to establish a WordPress website if you don’t already have one. Additionally necessary are a domain name and website hosting. Without these components, the time it takes to set up WooCommerce can increase significantly. You could also pay extra for a hosting plan or a domain name.
There is no doubt that payment processing is essential to your e-commerce business. Whether you offer products or services, your goal is always to convert visitors and make it easy for them to complete their transactions.
However, WooCommerce and Shopify provide various tools to assist you in accomplishing that. But, these two are not the same. It turns out that While WooCommerce and Shopify might appear similar at first, they actually follow different procedures and have various costs when handling transactions.
The issue of technical support is another. Shopify is well known for providing excellent customer service. Each customer can reach out to a customer support representative around-the-clock via email, open chat, phone call. You also get access to a large knowledge base that contains answers to common user questions and problem-solving techniques.
WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin, first and foremost. To put it another way, you can look for help in the WordPress forums. Finally, Shopify must receive the support round.
For the other SEO features available, Shopify is secondary to WordPress WooCommerce, but the way it presents content is really great. Also, it efficiently manages basic SEO requirements, such as website copy and metadata.
WordPress is basically a content generation platform, and SEO experts regard it a dependable solution. Adding and changing metadata and content is simple to increase the likelihood that pages will rank highly for particular keywords. You may greatly optimize your WordPress site using the Yoast SEO plugin.
The findings are pronounced: WordPress is the preferable option if you want to launch an online store right now. But don’t just believe what I say. 28% of the top 1 million eCommerce websites use WooCommerce. Shopify, in contrast, only accounts for 19%.
This information shouldn’t surprise anybody, given that WordPress won this head-to-head matchup. More importantly, WordPress can create any form of the website; it is not simply designed for online stores. With Shopify, your options for expanding outside eCommerce are more constrained. Because of this, WordPress is the perfect option for any type of business or idea.
Picking a clear winner between Shopify vs WooCommerce is difficult. They have different philosophical backgrounds but offer comparable capabilities and generally have comparable strengths and drawbacks. Both make excellent platforms for starting an online business or moving a physical firm into the cloud. But there are variations.
Shopify is especially great for tiny enterprises and sole proprietors who lack the resources or expertise to run their solutions. It’s straightforward, reliable, and secure if you don’t mind operating within someone else’s proprietary framework.
If you want a powerful WordPress CMS and a high level of adaptability and usability, choose a WordPress Ecommerce website. It will require more time and have a steeper learning curve.
Khaled Khan is a WordPress developer who has been working in the industry for over six years now. He's currently employed as a Senior Engineer at Sizmic Labs, where he helps build a WordPress community of both developers and site owners. When Khaled isn't busy with work you can find him watching survival shows (the crazier ones are always better) cooking up something new in his kitchen -- or out exploring new places to eat in and around Hyderabad.
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