If you’re planning to start an online store, choosing the right ecommerce platform to partner with is essential. Two of the most popular platforms today are Shopify and WooCommerce.
But which is best for your store?
Here we compare both platforms and look at the pros and cons of each.
Shopify
Shopify first hit the internet back in 2006 and today has around 800,000 stores. It’s an all-in-one, hosted ecommerce package where users pay a monthly fee to operate their store. Users don’t need any coding experience and can create a great looking store from scratch in a short time with simple templates and using drag and drop.
Features
- Shopify allows you to create an ecommerce store and comes with a wide range of templates. You need to pay for most of these but there are a few that are free.
- The intuitive interface allows you to quickly create your store and customise templates, set up payments and easily add products.
- Stores come with full hosting, SSL certificate for security, domain name and value-added extras such as inventory management which gives you all the tools you need to grow and succeed.
Check out the full feature list here
Costs
Shopify offers a range of different subscriptions for their service:
- Basic Shopify: $29 per month.
- Shopify: $79 per month.
- Advanced Shopify: $299 per month.
They also offer Shopify Lite which allows you to monetise your existing website for just $9 a month.
Pros and Cons of Shopify
- The big benefit of Shopify is that it is fully hosted and you don’t have to worry about finding code for your store, maintaining security or paying for a domain name.
- Shopify comes with 24/7 support, so if you have an issue you can easily contact someone and get help.
- Shopify offers multi-channel integration which means you can hook it up to selling sites like Amazon and eBay.
- On the downside, Shopify can charge transaction fees if you don’t want to use their payment gateway.
- The separate apps that you can download to add functionality can also add to the cost of running your ecommerce site.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-source, free to download ecommerce solution that is designed to be used with WordPress. Launched in 2011, it allows you to build a customised ecommerce store from scratch and gives you access to hundreds of useful plugins and templates, both free and premium.
Features
- You can customise your ecommerce store to a high degree and embed products on any page.
- WooCommerce is built for WordPress which is the world’s most popular content publishing platform in the world today.
- The platform allows you to add the plugins and code that clearly define your store and gives you all the selling power you need.
Check out the full feature list here
Pros and Cons of WooCommerce
- The big difference with WooCommerce is that it has a low startup cost because it’s free to download.
- You get all the functionality, limitless customisation and scalability that you do with Shopify and you’re also connected to WordPress which is one of the most popular platforms in the world.
- Unlike Shopify, there is no 24/7 centralised support team available. There is, however, a large and very helpful community to draw on.
Summary
Both platforms are powerful tools that allow you to build cutting edge ecommerce stores. Shopify is ideal for beginners and those who don’t mind paying a monthly subscription for the service and want a hassle-free platform. WooCommerce offers greater flexibility to create the store you want as well as lower costs but you do need some technical experience and know what you are doing.
Please feel free to get in contact if you require help with e-commerce project.