With the great need for online stores nowadays, the comparison between Shopify and WooCommerce was not long in coming.
And, we’ll present it to you in the fairest way possible.
Read this article to find out how much each can offer you, and what their strengths and weaknesses are.
If you are in doubt as to why have an online store let me tell you that you are on the right track to take your business to the next level.
Maybe you will feel a little more motivated after reading the following reasons:
Answering specifically what Shopify is, it is a leading company in the online store creation sector. It is recognized as a platform launched in 2006 by a Canadian company that currently has more than 600,000 stores to its credit.
Among the main features of Shopify we could highlight the fact that it is a simple and intuitive platform, which in a few steps allows anyone to create an online store.
With the help of its system you will have the possibility to organize the products, customize the design you expect the store to have itself, and also accept various forms of payment to make the job easier for your customers among other functions that, without lying, have been a great lifesaver.
Many people who wonder how to create an online store think that they must first know a lot about web development.
And the truth is that platforms like these what they do is help us realize that we don’t necessarily need to master the subject to accomplish the goal.
What Shopify can do for you is help you save time so that you have the opportunity to focus on other aspects that may be more important for your business.
Of course, you will have to invest some money to become part of this great community.
However, the comparison between Shopify and WooCommerce is a real thing nowadays, so let’s find out a bit more about what Shopify can do for you and your store, specifically talking about the advantages and disadvantages of Shopify.
Creating your online store with this e commerce platform is very easy, as well as managing it.
This means that you will have many opportunities to customize and prepare your space the way you want, and in a short time, to sell as soon as possible and without unnecessary delays.
One of the strongest advantages of Shopify is the fact that hosting is included, which means that you won’t have to worry at all about the loading speed of your store.
The customer service is good, with email support, forums, and even a chat. To give you a hand with the management of your business there is also the Shopify Academy platform.
In the higher payment plans you will have customer statistics, which will be useful to help you guide the sales strategies you create.
The products you will come across are unlimited, and will vary depending on the features, having also the possibility to export or import others with csv files.
So that you don’t have to worry about anything at all, here you will have an automatic tax system that will calculate the state taxes, and by country, according to the location.
One of the points that are taken as disadvantages of Shopify is the fact that it is not open source, this means that you will have to pay to have access to their plans.
Specifically in the Check out process the options are not so many.
In fact, many might feel limited.
The cost of subscribing to the platform must be paid every month.
There are some features, as is the case of paid subscriptions that, if you want them, you will have to add a little more debt to your budget for them.
You will also have to pay for the use of the apps.
We know you already want to know anxiously what WooCommerce is, and we won’t make you wait any longer: it is a WordPress plugin that was designed with the intention of being able to implement a full-featured online store on the internet.
Hence the comparison between Shopify and WooCommerce.
It is important for you to know that, although we are talking about a plugin, it contains everything you might need to start your online sales.
Speaking then of the cart, the store pages, my account, to complete the purchase, the most popular payment methods, and more.
Apart from that, and as it is obvious to imagine, it gives you the possibility to upload an unlimited number of products to place them for sale, having complete control when assigning their description (a short and a long one), their price, and also the variations of the same, among other things.
In short, we can say that many consider that, among the best options to create an online store, WooCommerce is well positioned.
Since 2011, which was created by the hand of the company WooThemes, it started with the e-commerce revolution that has brought it to the present day.
The products that can be sold in WooCommerce are very varied, regardless of whether these are physical, from anywhere in the world, also the digital ones that are downloadable, affiliate products from other stores, the creation of events and the sale of event tickets, among others.
Undoubtedly this plugin deserves to be known by anyone who intends to take their store from the physical plane to the online, and that is why the advantages and disadvantages of WooCommerce must be evaluated if you want to make the right decision.
Among the main advantages of WooCommerce we could not fail to point out that it is a completely free plugin, so it will not add anything to your budget.
On the other hand, it is very easy to install. And, if you have any problems, there are many online tutorials that make the process much simpler.
Once you are working on your online store you will realize that it is a simple and intuitive space, so you will have no trouble understanding it.
To make the experience much easier for your users you will be able to offer them more than one payment method.
With this plugin you can work the SEO of your online store in a simple way.
This is an ideal plugin for those who do not have much knowledge in the creation of online stores, or much budget to go for expensive CMS.
The options it will give you for free themes are limited, as expected with this type of product.
Although it is very complete in itself, many users have experienced that, based purely on the type of product they offer in their stores, this plugin has been insufficient.
In case you find yourself needing more features than this plugin can offer you will have to pay for them.
To close with the disadvantages of WooCommerce, you may also be interested to know that the security of your online store is completely up to you, as well as its hosting.
Since Shopify is a closed and prestructured platform, you migh have difficulties if you want to do some changes to it.
As an example, in the case of SEO, Shopify doesn’t have plugins such as Rank Math, that can help for free with your full SEO work.
THere are some apps that offer SEO support, but not as good as Rank Math, and in the case of Woocommerce, Rank Math is compatible with it.
Also the URL structure of Shopify is already set, therefore you can’t do too much changes.
In the case of templates or pagebuilders, Woocommerce is compatible with Elementor and Divi, which can make easier to build the shop pages.
In the other hand, Shopify has some apps such as PageFly and Shogun, so in this area both have good support to build the online store at your desire.
Shopify has a structured set for E-commerce, therefore it makes it easier to have a control of a shop.
In terms of an international online store, Shopify can give you special features if you get advanced plans. As well, there is Weglot, which can help you to have you multilingual Shopify store.
Woocommerce has a bigger access to multilingual plugins, and with WPML or also even Weglot, you can build up your website in multiple languages and aim for internationalization.
Probably, the big disadvantage of Shopify is that you have to be paying for most of the apps of their marketplace, so this could be a major decision maker.
