Shopify and WordPress are rarely compared by those that are not clued up about how the website design industry works. However, if you are someone that is considering building an e-commerce website, you may have overlooked WordPress as an option. You may be focusing on other e-comm options such as Magento, Nopcommerce, or Shopify. However, WordPress has its own e-commerce engine called WooCommerce, which is just as cost effective as Shopify.

If you are not looking at spending huge amounts of cash on an e-commerce website, then you should avoid Nopcommerce and Magento. Both of these websites require a lot of website maintenance post-build, and their platforms are generally for large companies like Victoria Beckham, Hermes, Paul Smith and other big brand companies that have the funds to pay for an entire web team to manage all the features these sites have to offer.


Shopify and WooCommerce Are Great For Small To Medium Size Companies

Both WooCommerce and Shopify are viable options for small to medium size companies to use as their e-commerce platform. Shopify is arguably more popular for medium to large size businesses compared to the WordPress e-comm plug-in.

Shopify boasts mainly makeup and fitness brands like Bombas, Pixi Beauty, Morphe, Chubbies, Good America, and Gymshark. On the other hand, WooCommerce has a good mix of brands using its WordPress plugin including Friend of Franki, Strandberg Guitars, Henry J Socks, Pickle, Joco Cups, Porter and York, and Jack Rudy Cocktail Co.

The Costs Involved With WooCommerce and Shopify

When we compare the cost of Shopify vs Wordpress from a cost point of view, then there are some major differences. Most of the businesses we have mentioned using Shopify use the Shopify Plus version of the website. These companies pay a small fortune every month to Shopify not just for the Shopify Plus feature, but also there is a lot of add ons that also cost extra to use on the Shopify website.

On the other hand, WooCommerce can be run for free. Most of the additional extras that come with WooCommerce are already available as WordPress features. This includes blogging, managing email lists, adding social media icons, traffic analysis tools, and so on. Shopify tends to charge for these extras.


Usability of WooCommerce Versus Shopify

After reading the previous section, if money is your concern, then WooCommerce is certainly the best option. However, sometimes this is not always the case. WooComerce can be hard to use. You could be creating a new product and not realise that you are creating other pages or URLs on the site. Overall, the time taken to manage WoCommerce can be twice that of the simplicity that comes with using a Shopify e-comm platform.

When it comes to WordPress vs Shopify, make sure that you do your research. Shopify is by far the quickest platform to configure and get up and running, but expect to pay growing monthly costs for adding features.