WooCommerce vs Shopify: Which One Better in 2023?

Don’t know which e-commerce platform is better for you in 2023? Then, let’s see a fine comparison between WooCommerce vs Shopify to make the correct decision

If you are recently planning to start your e-commerce website, then the two words that you must be hearing a lot – WooCommerce and Shopify. These two platforms are the first choice of e-commerce business owners. They both have their own set of advantages and disadvantages that starts the renowned debut of WooCommerce vs Shopify.

In this post, we will try to end the debut between these two e-commerce platforms by creating a fine line difference for our online business owners. So, if you are wondering whether to pick WooCommerce or Shopify in 2023, then let’s clear some of your confusion.
 
 

WooCommerce vs Shopify – The Ultimate Battle Between Both

Definitions – WooCommerce & Shopify

WooCommerce – It is an open-source e-commerce plugin designed to work with WordPress. This plugin allows you to exploit all the amazing features offered by a user-friendly content management system. You can easily create a customized online store to sell your valuable products by using the WooCommerce extension on WordPress.

Shopify – It is a complete e-commerce platform which enables you to handle all the work related to the creation of an online store under one roof. This single platform offers a method to receive payments, managing inventory and handling important technical aspects. You don’t have to appoint a separate platform to manage technical stuff like web hosting, security, etc., as everything will be taken care by this one platform.

1. Costing

Cost is an important factor when you are planning to establish a new online store. If we try to compare WooCommerce vs Shopify on the grounds of their commencement cost, then figures like this emerge:

WooCommerce – As we have already discussed WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin and available for free. But,  to use WooCommerce, you will have to obtain a domain name, SSL Certificate and web hosting plan first. If we compare the average prices prevailing in the market, then domain costs $14, SSL Certificate $69 and web hosting around ₹7/ per month. These are standard rates as they vary from company to company. Nowadays, you can purchase complete WooCommerce hosting plans as well from the hosting providers like Bluehost.

Shopify – It’s very simple to start your business using Shopify. You just have to pick the already designed Shopify plans – basic for $29 and advanced Shopify plan can go from $79 to $299. In all these plans web hosting, domain name and SSL Certificate are included. The basic version of Shopify has all the vital features like unlimited product listing, 2 user account, unlimited storage and much more. However, the third party tools and payment gateways are going to be an extra burden on you and will chunk out most of your cost.
 
 

Result – WooCommerce is more cost effective as compared to Shopify.

2. Usability

Most of the e-commerce business owners lack in technical skills and they want easy to use the portal to set up their online store. So, if we evaluate WooCommerce vs Shopify to check their easy usability, then the winner will be;

WooCommerce – WooCommerce isn’t complete e-commerce package like Shopify. This means from hosting to security everything needs to manage by the site owners. However, around 55,000 + WordPress plug-ins are available to assist users, but they don’t have built-in drag drop design and for that, you might have to install other plugins. Installing all these will increase your installation cost only.

Shopify – It is a complete platform where you will get everything under one roof. This means managing your products, inventory, payments and other stuff is a piece of cake with Shopify. Moreover, Shopify offers easy drag and drop menu to manage everything perfectly.

Result – Undoubtedly, the winner is Shopify.

3. Payment

For an e-commerce platform, it is very crucial to set up a payment gateway so that they can easily accept payments for their purchase. In WooCommerce vs Shopify, payment system in both works as;

WooCommerce – By default, WooCommerce supports PayPal and Strips payment methods. You can add other methods also with WooCommerce as it even supports regional payment services. Any payment company can easily make its account with WooCommerce. Plus, WooCommerce is self-hosted that means you don’t have to pay an extra transactional fee.

Shopify – This one offers you multiple different payment gateways, even Shopify development has its own payment system powered by Stripe. You can use third-party payment gateways also, but for them, you have to pay an extra 2% on every transaction which can be reduced up to .5% by upgrading to an advanced plan.

Result  – It’s a tie.

4. Drop-shipping

The drop-shipping facility is very useful for e-commerce business owners. It is a system where the store doesn’t keep stock with them instead they directly ship products to customers from vendors. When we compared WooCommerce vs Shopify for drop-shipping, then we concluded that;

WooCommerce – Using WooCommerce, you can easily add an extension to import products, order lists, and much more from your site. You can create your own marketplace using WooCommerce extensions and that’s why it is highly popular in the drop-shipping business.

Shopify – The user will shop simply from your Shopify store like selecting a product, adding to cart, and making payments. After checking availability with the vendor, you have to place users’ orders for shipping. Shopify has integration apps for several popular drop-shipping marketplaces like AliExpress, Oberlo, Printify, etc., But, again fees, shipping, and other systems will be different for every marketplace.

Result – This round is won by WooCommerce.

5. Scalability

As your business expands, you need more tools and systems to upgrade your online store. Between WooCommerce and Shopify, you will receive more scalability from;
 
 

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WooCommerce – With WooCommerce, when your site starts to get more traffic, then you have numerous things to control like getting an improved web hosting plan, caching your hosting plan, upgrading content management system, etc., So, there are multiple things that you have to manually change with the expansion of your online store.

Shopify – Shopify simply handles every technical aspect for you. With the expansion of your business, Shopify will automatically look after upgrades, backups, security, and other factors for you without any hassle.

Result –

Indeed Shopify stood on the top here.

The Ultimate Verdict: WooCommerce vs Shopify

If we compute the final result on the basis of five points that we have covered in the post, then we have a draw here. That’s because, in the WooCommerce vs Shopify match, two rounds are won by each and one round gets tie. So, Shopify is easy to use, but it won’t give you full control.

On the other hand, WooCommerce required some technical knowledge because everything is self-managed there. That’s why both have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. So, the final choice is now only yours!