Shopify vs Woocommerce Which one is the best Platform?

Starting an online store has never been easy. There are many ecommerce platforms available today with different features. E-commerce has various types, however the most famous are Shopify and WooCommerce. 

It can be pretty difficult to make a decision and chose an e-commerce platform for your business. There are many factors that will help you decide which e-commerce platform is better for your business, however, it majorly depends on your needs and requirements, as both of them have their own peculiarities. 

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Here are some major comparisons and differences that will help you identify whether you should go for Shopify or WooCommerce:

Ecommerce Shopify Platform:

• Design:

A good E-commerce website design is an important and basic element. Shopify offers many themes that are brilliantly designed. 

Each theme on Shopify has many variations thus what quantity and quality that Shopify offers is a lot. Shopify offers designs that are mobile responsive that is a huge beneficial factor. 

They provide various colour options and have very sleek designs with many aesthetics available to choose from. This makes it absolutely perfect for modern startups and businesses looking forward to attracting the youth and the professionals today. 

The designs of Shopify are outsourced which makes it more creative and engaging along with large number of varieties. Many clients end up using the same types of themes throughout many websites, thus customization is encouraged a lot on Shopify. 

Shopify themes are easy to change and can make variations in the colors and styles to make it unique and stand out especially in front of competitors. 

• Price:

Shopify provides you one out of the box solution that has several pricing packages where you just have to sign up to get the right ecommerce website design you want with everything you need right from the beginning. 

The basic pricing of shopify and WooCommerce remains the same, however shopify is not initially free as WooCommerce is. Shopify offers different pricing packages for different range of features. Shopify charges transaction fees that changes and maybe around 2-3%. This minimal fee will be charged every time you sell something through the platform.

• Usage:

Shopify is a subscription based online tool, and it is very easy to set up. It will help you set up the online store according to your needs by asking your requirements along the way. 

It is very easy to sign up to shopify and browse through the dashboard for the kind of online store you want. You don’t need any design skills to build an online store on shopify as it simplifies the process very well. 

Shopify in terms of ease of use is very well efficient, once the set up is done you have various additional features. Furthermore, it’s an intuitive site so you don’t have to look far and wide for the features you want because it already gives you the best suggestions on a single panel. 

Pros

1. There are pricing packages, so you know exactly how much you are paying.
2. There innumerable good themes available.
3. Access to a lot of applications and features.
4. It is a speedy process.
5. It handles the major aspects of the website and store for you.
6. Great client support.

Cons

1. You don’t have complete control over your site.
2. You have to pay monthly.
3. You don’t have access to as much customization as other e-commerce offer.

WooCommerce Platform:

• Design:

WooCommerce is more of a structure designed to help you or assist the sale of your products and services online. The design is actually based on your current or future WordPress theme. 

You can still select from the varieties of theme available on WordPress. Mainly it is seen that the WooCommerce theme designs focus on making your products and services look good instead of the website itself to increase digital marketing. 

However, if your requirements do include a good website design too, you can look for themes specially made for WooCommerce. WooCommerce has its own default online store known as Storefront which is free. 

It helps you focus on creating your store and the elements you need for it. There are many other marketplaces like ThemeForest offering various other WooCommerce compatible themes that can prove to be unique to your website. 

The major benefit of WooCommerce is the large number of themes available on it’s default and other marketplaces that are different and use for various types of E-commerce websites.

• Price:

WooCommerce is an Open source plug-in and hence it is a free software. So there is no initial cost of the software, but as you start setting up the online store, you have to pay for the features and hence the cost comes around similar to a shopify package. 

As you consider more and more features like theme, domain name, hosting etc. costs will increase. Technically though, WooCommerce might be a bit cheaper but then it will take a lot of time and effort to set up as there are no ready packages available. 

WooCommerce also charges transaction fees where every time you sell something, they will charge you a small fee for it. The fee is not fixed and changes but usually it is around 2-3%.

• Usage:

WooCommerce is not very difficult to use if you want to go with this platform, however it takes extra time and effort to set up the e-commerce store.

WooCommerce is not a subscription based plug-in but a WordPress Plug in. Thus, you need to take care of certain things such as domain name, hosting, WordPress, WordPress theme set up before you go on to actually using WooCommerce.

After this setup you can go on to WooCommerce for the configuration of your online store. You do need a bit of proficiency with web design and development to understand how to set up an online store through WooCommerce.

The design will actually be handled through WordPress i.e. the themes available on wordpress will be the available option of themes for you.

Pros:

1. Complete customization is possible.
2. Simple to use through WordPress.
3. The plugin is free.
4. It has a huge community online for assistance.

Cons:

1. It can be expensive as each new feature is charged.
2. You need some previous knowledge with website structure and design as well as WordPress.
3. You have to manage each and every aspect of the website and store yourself.

Hence, both shopify and WooCommerce both have it’s pros and cons but shopify completely handles the whole package to set up your online store whereas on WooCommerce you will have to put in effort the set up the whole thing.

Conclusion:

Shopify and WooCommerce are each powerful platform to begin your eCommerce store. It truly comes right down to your personal skills and preferences.

Shopify could be a lot easier to use. It doesn’t need you to put in something, and you’ll be able to start quickly. setting up payments is simpler, and that they have simple to know pricing plans.

WooCommerce is an open-source and gives you full management of your web site. It prices a lot lower to start an online store with WooCommerce especially with these WooCommerce hosting corporations.

If you’re searching for a cost-effective solution, and you would like to have full control of your online store, then WooCommerce is the best platform for you.

If you would like one thing that’s fully hassle-free that has infinite scalability, then Shopify is that the higher platform for you.

About The Author:

Sara jacob work at Zithas Technology as a community manager. Zithas Technology is a Web development, Mobile Application development & Digital Marketing company with more than 12 years of experience in this field. We are the best IT service providing company with an extensive team of professionals.