Shopify vs WooCommerce
Features, use cases, pros and cons, and pricing side by side — and which one to pick.
Best for: First-time founders who want a store live fast, Brands selling both online and in person with POS
Read the full Shopify reviewBest for: Existing WordPress site owners who want to add a full store without leaving their current CMS or learning a separate admin., Businesses that need complete ownership of their data, code, and hosting choices rather than a rented SaaS storefront.
Read the full WooCommerce reviewCommission may apply at no extra cost
Shopify vs WooCommerce: features compared
Compare key features side by side
Feature Comparison Summary
Which should you choose?
Choose Shopify if
- You want store, checkout, POS, and shipping in one admin
- You want 24/7 live chat support included from day one
- You plan to scale from side hustle to enterprise
Choose WooCommerce if
- You'd rather avoid monthly platform subscription fees
- You're comfortable researching setup and support details yourself
Shopify vs WooCommerce: pros and cons
Shopify
Shopify pulls your store, checkout, payments, POS, and multi-channel selling into one admin, backed by Shop Pay's proven conversion lift and a 21,000+ app ecosystem. Expect costs and app subscriptions to climb as you grow. Overall, it's the safest default for anyone serious about selling online, from first sale to full scale.
Pros
- One centralized admin handles website, checkout, payments, POS, shipping, and marketing, so online and in-store sales stay in sync without juggling separate tools
- Shop Pay checkout converts up to 50% higher than guest checkout per an external April 2023 study, and products appear automatically to 250M+ pre-verified Shop app shoppers
- Sidekick AI lives directly in the admin to spot growth opportunities and automate tedious tasks, with no extra tool to manage
Cons
- Third-party transaction fees apply if you don't use Shopify Payments — 2% on Basic down to 0.2% on Plus — which cuts into margins on every sale
- POS Pro costs an extra $89/month per retail location on every non-Plus plan, a significant add-on for multi-location retailers
- The Basic plan has no additional staff accounts and limited checkout customization, forcing an upgrade as soon as you hire help
WooCommerce
WooCommerce gives you a free, open-source store that runs inside WordPress, with full control over data, code, and hosting. It's deeply extensible, but you'll handle security, backups, and performance yourself, and hosting plus extension costs add up. Overall, it's a strong pick for WordPress users who value ownership over turnkey convenience.
Pros
- The core plugin is free and open source, so the software itself costs nothing and the code can be audited or modified freely.
- Runs on WordPress, giving stores the CMS's editor, theme system, SEO plugins, and huge third-party ecosystem in one admin.
- You own the store outright — catalog, customer data, and order history live in your own database on hosting you choose and control.
Cons
- Self-hosted means you are responsible for hosting, security, updates, backups, and performance tuning — there is no turnkey managed environment.
- Costs beyond the free core accumulate quickly — hosting, premium themes, and paid extensions each add fees, and combined plan spending can range up to roughly $99,693 for large-scale setups.
- Troubleshooting often involves plugin or theme conflicts, and support is thinner than the bundled, vendor-backed help that dedicated SaaS platforms include in their plans.
Shopify and WooCommerce in detail
Shopify
Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform for building, running, and growing a business. It covers your website, checkout, payments, POS, shipping, and marketing from one admin. You can sell online, in person, on social, and through AI chat channels. It serves everyone from solo entrepreneurs to enterprise brands — Mattel and Glossier run on it.
Standout features
- Sell everywhere your shoppers are
- A checkout built to close sales
- Sidekick works inside your admin
- Go live in three steps
- Room to extend and grow
Use cases
- Launching a first store as a solo founder
- Running online and in-person sales from one system
- Scaling a small team into a full operation
- Expanding into international markets
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a free, open-source ecommerce platform distributed as a WordPress plugin. Once activated, it adds product management, cart and checkout, payment and shipping options, and order administration to an existing WordPress installation. Functionality is extended through an official marketplace of free and paid extensions, and the codebase can be audited or modified by anyone. Stores can be as simple as a few physical products or as complex as subscription, membership, and wholesale operations.
Standout features
- Open-Source Core Built on WordPress
- Flexible Product and Catalog Management
- Payments, Shipping, and Taxes
- Extension Marketplace and Developer Extensibility
Use cases
- Launching a First Online Store
- Adding Commerce to an Existing WordPress Site
- Content-Led Commerce
- Custom and Headless Commerce Projects
Pricing compared
List prices from each vendor's pricing page, before taxes and add-ons. Costs are per month.
| Pricing compared | Shopify | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| From (cheapest paid plan) | $39/mo Basic | $2.42/mo Extensions: Add à la carte |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Free trial | 3 days | Not stated |
| Money-back guarantee | Not stated | Not stated |
| Annual billing savings | Up to 26% | — |
| Pricing model | Flat price | Flat price |
| Cost for 1 user | $29/mo Basic plan, billed annually | $2.42/moCheaper Extensions: Add à la carte plan, billed annually |
| Cost for 5 users | $29/mo Basic plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) | $2.42/mo Extensions: Add à la carte plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) |
| Cost for 10 users | $29/mo Basic plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) | $2.42/mo Extensions: Add à la carte plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) |
| Cost for 25 users | $29/mo Basic plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) | $2.42/mo Extensions: Add à la carte plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) |
| Plans | 4 | 3 |
| Prices checked | Vendor page checked Oct 24, 2026 | Checked Oct 24, 2026 |
| Price history | Tracking prices since Oct 1, 2026. No price change detected yet. | Tracking prices since Oct 16, 2026. No price change detected yet. |
- Cheapest plan that fits each team size. Per-user plans are multiplied by the number of users (respecting stated minimums and seat packs). Plans that include some users cost their base price plus the extra-user price for each user beyond those included. Flat-priced plans with no stated user limit are counted as one licence per user.
Cheaper for your team size
For 1 user (billed annually), WooCommerce costs $2.42/mo vs Shopify at $29/mo.
Computed from published list prices on the dates shown. Excludes taxes, add-ons and promotions.
