by ROC Apr 2022
Website development
WooCommerce vs Shopify| Which one is the E-Commerce Business Best Choice?
Are you thinking to work on an e-commerce platform? Not sure what to choose Woocommerce or Shopify? you have reached the right place?
Both the platforms are best on their own but each is having some pros and cons.
As a business, choosing the right e-commerce platforms is vital. For that, you need a deep analysis of your business and how the platform can make your small business reach heights. What are the features you need your that platform like security, themes, paid or unpaid, and many more?
In this article, I will give a detailed comparison of WooCommerce vs Shopify. I will tell you all the merits and demerits which will help you to decide which platform is better.
There are a few things to consider before finalizing the platform WooCommerce vs Shopify which is better. These are as follows:
- Budget: This is basically the cost to start an e-commerce store.
- Ease Of Use: You are not a technical person, so the platform should be easy to use.
- Payment Methods: The platform should provide support to multiple payment options.
What is WooCommerce?
Woocommerce is an open-source e-commerce plugin that is built in WordPress. This e-commerce platform is very simple and easy to use. They give you a huge range of templates and themes to make your web design attractive. The best part of this platform is your ownership remains with you. If in any case, you are not satisfied with this platform you can easily take all your content and can move to any other platform without any restriction.
What Is Shopify?
Shopify is also one of the renowned platforms of WordPress. This platform helps you in growing and managing your business efficiently. Shopify is a very handy platform and you can easily surge your sales without being bogged down by the technical issues. The platform provides you with good assistance in all spheres. Generating discount codes is simpler and less time-consuming.
- Cost: WooCommerce vs Shopify
The first and foremost thing to compare is what is the cost of each platform and additional tools.
Shopify is a handy platform and its basic plan begins at $29per month, and you can upgrade to the Shopify plan for $79 and the advanced version is for $299 per month.
Shopify provides its own.com domain and if you want to purchase it separately then it will further cost you $14 per year. Payments are an important factor to consider as Shopify payments solutions 2.9%
+ 30 cents per transaction for the basic plan.
If you want to use a third-party payment gateway or your own merchant account, then you will be charged at a flat rate of 2% of all transactions. Your transaction cost can be reduced by 0.5% if you buy an advanced plan of Shopify which costs $299 per month.
WooCommerce is open-source and available as a free plugin. In WordPress, you will need a domain name, SSL certificate, and a WordPress hosting account to start a WooCommerce store
A domain name costs you $14.99, an SSL Certificate costs $69.99, and web hosting costs around $7.99 per month. This does not seem to be cheap if you are a starter.
There are some hosting companies that are offering free SSL certificates and domain names. One of them is Bluehost, which has agreed to offer users a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and a discount web hosting. This starts your online store at $2.75 per month.
WooCommerce | What Makes it More Convenient?
- Ease Of Use: Shopify vs WooCommerce
Most of the people who want to open an online store are not professionals, they are not web designers or developers. The person wants something simple and easy to use and user-friendly.
Shopify is a fully hosted platform which means everything is installed in it. You do need to install, manage or do anything. You also do not need to worry about the security, performance, backups, and compatibility issues.
As you sign in, th,e Shopify just select the design from the free Shopify themes. After that, they walk you through customization and help you add products. Managing inventory in Shopify is very easy as it comes with the drag and drop option.
WooCommerce is not a hosted platform like Shopify which means you need
Install the WooCommerce, plugins, manage updates, keep backups and the most important thing is you have to make sure that your website is secure. There are numerous free and paid plugins that can you in making all these tasks at ease.
The plus point is WooCommerce is super flexible when it comes to customization that is you have full control of your platform. There are more than 59000 plugins in WooCommerce.There is no option available in WooCommerce. You can always buy a paid plugin for this service like Seedprod or Beaver Builder.
The biggest demerit is the flexibility that it comes with a learning curve and it requires more management as compared to Shopify. You need to sign up for a merchant account or a smaller account or service like stripe/paypal
Shopify | Features That Make It A Good Choice
- Payment Method: WooCommerce VS Shopify
WooCommerce offers PayPal and Stripe payments by default. It also offers other popular payment options. You can install payment integrations for Authorize.net, Amazon Pay, Square, Alipay, and many more. For payments, it also supports less popular and regional payment services.
As a self-hosted platform, you are only charged by your own payment gateway for any transaction. It does not charge you any extra payment for credit card payments.
Shopify offers a plethora of payment options during checkout. It even has its own payment gateway called Shopify payments. The problem is Shopify charges extra 25 fees on each transaction made through third-party payment and if you have an advanced plan then you can reduce it by 0.5%.
Shopify charges certain payments for credit card fees. The fees start from 2.9% +30 cents for the basic plan and decrease as the plan surges.
Bottom Line
Shopify and WooCommerce both come with various pros and cons it depends on you what factors you want and what you consider before starting your online store.
The one thing that would remain the same whether you choose Shopify or WooCommerce for your eCommerce website is the choice of a website developer. There are many eCommerce website developers in the USA who are claiming to be the best. However, finding the right one is a challenge that everyone faces.