WooCommerce vs Shopify: Which Fits Your Store?

If you're opening an online store, Shopify and WooCommerce are probably the two names you've heard most. They solve different problems. Shopify rents you a complete store: hosting, checkout, security and updates come with the monthly plan. WooCommerce is free software that turns a WordPress site into a store, and leaves the hosting and upkeep to you, or to whoever you pay.

I build Shopify stores, and I host and look after existing WordPress sites, WooCommerce stores included, so I'm not selling you one over the other. This is how I'd decide.

The short version

Shopify prices are US prices as of October 2026.

What Shopify costs

These are Shopify's US prices as of October 2026, from its pricing page:

The card rates are for Shopify Payments. Shopify Plus, for large businesses, starts at $2,300 a month. Hosting and an SSL certificate come with every plan.

Two costs aren't in that table:

• Using another payment provider. If you take payments through someone other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own fee on each sale: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced.
• Apps and themes. Features Shopify doesn't include come from apps, many with their own monthly prices, and premium themes cost extra.

What WooCommerce costs

WooCommerce is open-source software, free to download from WordPress.org. The costs are everything around it:

• Hosting. A store needs a host that runs WordPress well, with backups and room for traffic.
• A domain.
• Extensions. Features beyond the basics, such as subscriptions or bookings, often come as paid extensions, priced by their makers.
• Payments. WooPayments has no setup or monthly fee and takes a fee from each payment (WooPayments fees). Stripe and other providers plug in too: Stripe's standard US rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card payment, as of October 2026 (Stripe pricing).
• Upkeep. WordPress, WooCommerce and every extension need updating, and a store needs backups you can restore and a checkout that still works after each update. My post on looking after a WordPress site covers what that involves.

That last line is the real difference. With Shopify, keeping the platform running is in the monthly price. With WooCommerce, it's your time or someone's invoice.

When Shopify fits

• You're starting from scratch and want to sell, not run a server.
• The catalog will grow: many products, sizes and colors, stock in more than one place.
• You sell in more than one place: online, on social media and marketplaces, or in person with Shopify's point of sale. POS Pro, for shops with a counter, is $89 a month per location as of October 2026.
• You want the store tools built in: shipping labels, sales tax calculation, discount codes and abandoned-checkout emails all come with the plans.
• You'd rather pay a predictable monthly fee than manage updates.

One example from my portfolio: Get Doobies, a retro clothing company, sells on Shopify with print-on-demand through Printify, so each shirt is printed and shipped when it's ordered.

When WooCommerce fits, or should stay

• You already have a WooCommerce store that works. Moving means bringing over products, customers and order history and redirecting every old address. If the store sells and can be kept up to date, keeping it, hosted and looked after properly, is often the cheaper choice.
• The store is part of a larger WordPress site, with a lot of content you'd have to move too.
• You need control Shopify doesn't give: unusual product rules, your own server, or data you want to keep entirely in your own hands.
• Someone will look after it. A WooCommerce store that's kept current works well. One that isn't gets fragile.

When you need neither

If you sell a handful of products, a full store platform may be more than you need. A simple shop built into your website, with up to 10 products and Stripe checkout, is a $900 add-on to any of my website plans (upgrades). There's no separate store subscription: it's part of your site, and Stripe takes its fee on each sale.

Questions to settle first

• How many products will you sell a year from now? A handful points to a simple shop. Dozens or hundreds point to a store platform.
• Do you sell in person too? Shopify's point of sale keeps online and counter sales in one place.
• Who will run it? Someone has to add products, keep the store updated and pick up the phone when checkout breaks.
• What will it cost over three years? Add up the plan or the hosting, the apps or extensions, the card fees on the sales you expect, and the upkeep. My post on the real cost of a free website builder shows how to do that sum.

Moving from one to the other

Switching platforms is a migration, not a new theme:

• Products, with their photos, options and descriptions.
• Customers and order history.
• Every old address for products and pages, redirected to its new one, so old links and search results don't end on an error page.
• Payments, shipping, taxes and emails, set up again and tested with real orders before you switch.

I quote migrations case by case, because no two stores move the same way.

How I can help

• A Shopify store is a custom project. Start a custom project and I'll send a written quote with the scope, the price and the schedule.
• An existing WooCommerce store I can host and look after on a written quote. Content and design changes aren't included. Ask for a quote.
• A few products on your own website: the $900 simple shop, added to a plan. See the plans.

Both quotes start with a $500 deposit. It's refundable until you accept the quote, and credited to the work.