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Viet Hoang Nguyen
Viet Hoang Nguyen

Posted on • Originally published at litextension.com

WooCommerce vs Shopify - Which is better?

These two e-commerce platforms are no longer strange to online users. According to Builtwith, WooCommerce and Shopify are ranking the highest of the e-commerce usage distribution category, which is 26% and 21% market share respectively. While WooCommerce is a typical open-source solution, Shopify represents for a hosted cart.

If you're looking for a head to head comparison between WooCommerce and Shopify, check it here!

Here are some features between WooCommerce and Shopify that will help you make the right decision to your online store:

Plans and Pricing

  • WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin and is free to download and install. However, you need to pay money for other settings, for example, a domain name ($12/year), a hosting provider (from $5 - $25/month), and an SSL Certificate (about $5/year). Afterward, your business is ready to run.

  • Shopify offers the full package for your online store. A complete solution! Do not even bother finding any hosting or theme provider, cause Shopify has it all. Of course, this comes with monthly and annual plans: Basic Shopify ($29/month), Shopify ($79/month), and Advanced Shopify ($299/month).

Ease of use

  • WooCommerce is an open-source cart and unlike Shopify. You will be required to handle a cup of things through coding skills such as manage your store, update the site, or back up data.

  • Shopify is a built-in online store, so almost all things are intuitive. Just following a few clicks, you can set up your store and run your business without any coding requirements.

Apps and adds - on

  • WooCommerce offers over 56,000 unpaid plugins. You can easily find and add extensions that you want to work with your online store. Furthermore, you are allowed to customize manually in the WordPress core to adjust or create more extensions.

  • Shopify app store is packed with over 2500 apps and extensions which were developed by the Shopify team or third-party developers. Although the quantity of apps is lower than the WooCommerce market place, those extensions will help you in each aspect that you are looking for.

Support

  • WooCommerce does not offer direct support for users when troubles happen. In fact, merchants can not solve their issues through live chat or phone, instead of that, they can seek help from a large community, FAQs, or documentation.

  • Shopify will support you from Shopify’s support team 24/7 via phone, email, or live chat. Furthermore, Shopify has a huge community to help users and developers.

In conclusion, if you are a newbie in the e-commerce world, Shopify would be the most suitable choice thanks to its hosted nature. Meanwhile, WooCommerce is better for tech-savvy people. If you’re looking to a solution to migrate your WooCommerce store to Shopify (or contrast), an automated migration tool developed by LitExtension will help you with the best service.

Good luck!

Top comments (2)

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miqueasgutierrez profile image
miqueasgutierrez

Hello how are you? I recommend the Woocommerce plugin, it is free and easy to add products, you can also implement the INDIGITALL plugin to send Automatic and Scheduled Notifications of New products, announcements, promotions etc. Blessings

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elizbrown1 profile image
Elizabeth Brown

Thank you for the great article.
Here you can find clarify, what platform will be better for your business:
soft-loft.com/shopify-woocommerce-...