Shopify Plus vs WooCommerce: ecommerce store comparison
Shopify Plus is a cost-effective ecommerce solution that delivers augmented, ground-breaking technology for enterprising companies globally. Offering a streamlined experience for both businesses and your customers, Shopify Plus allows you to customise your website and integrate systems your business depends on in order to implement a bespoke and productive experience for your online store.
Sellers can customise their payment gateways from the very start. With many search engine optimisation features integrated into Shopify's system, it allows customers to find the products your business is selling.
An alternative to Shopify Plus is WooCommerce, an ecommerce plugin for WordPress. This plugin essentially functions as an app for your WordPress site. Operating using open source software, WooCommerce is a customisable platform aimed at small and large businesses alike.
Like Shopify Plus, WooCommerce offers sellers the chance to customise the payment process and is free to install on any WordPress website—but there can be hidden hosting costs too. This guide will compare these two ecommerce software competitors across several key factors, such as scalability and integrations. Click on one of the links below to jump to that section:
Comparison overview
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Shopify Plus |
WooCommerce |
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Price |
The most expensive Shopify plan starting at $2,000USD per month, but this is predictable and only increases to a variable fee once your business grows. |
Price plans vary between $3.95USD and $5,000USD per month. You will also need to pay for hosting costs which are variable and total around $120USD on average. |
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Hosting |
Fully hosted platform. |
An ecommerce platform for users of WordPress hosted sites, rather than offering the hosting too, so you will pay extra costs. |
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Products |
Ability to sell tangible most tangible products, except restricted items, and many digital products, services and experiences. |
Permitted sale of physical and digital products as well as products variations in single or multiple units. |
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Security |
Level-1 PCI compliance. Constant monitoring of security threats to keep your business safe and built-in SSL to help keep customer transactions secure, which also improves your SEO. |
The possibility of paying extra for security. |
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Support |
24/7 priority support via phone, live chat and email as well as a vibrant community forum and guides. |
Live chat and email-based support. |
Shopify Plus is best suited to businesses that want to distribute their products globally and maximise their revenue without waiting around. It can be perfect for companies with limited technical skills or knowledge of coding and as everything is taken care of by the platform. It's also exceptional for businesses that seek easily customisable templates.
WooCommerce works well for companies that want more individual personalisation where the need for coding and technical knowledge is not a barrier to creating an ecommerce store. With a slower engagement and returns time than Shopify, it suits businesses that have the scope to be patient about generating an increase in their customer base and profits.
Scalability
Set-up time with Shopify Plus is extremely rapid because Shopify takes care of the build and gets the store live very quickly. For the growing online business, you can take advantage of even more trading opportunities by expanding into globalised shopping through multiple ecommerce stores specifically for different countries, currencies and languages.
Setting up an ecommerce site through the WooCommerce platform will take longer than Shopify Plus because the store must be set up manually. There are a variety of widgets available to buy to convert the transactions into different local currencies, and the option to purchase a multistore plugin.
Integrations
The Shopify app store is an extensive ecosystem of apps, including Plus-only apps such as Launchpad, Flow and Script Editor. Shopify Plus also offers a suite of robust APIs that enable merchants to take advantage of new and evolving built-in features and add new functionality to their site. Plus merchants have access to multiple payment gateways, 0% fee transactions with the Shopify Payment gateway and inclusive multichannel selling including Amazon, Facebook and eBay.WooCommerce offers a variety of payment gateways but higher transaction fees than Shopify Plus, as well as paid social media integration on Amazon, eBay and Instagram. WooCommerce lacks the built-in features found on the Shopify platform such as automated discount codes, abandoned cart recovery and discounted shipping rates, but these can be accessed through third-party apps. Many dropshipping businesses find Shopify Plus simpler to set up and use, as WooCommerce offers similar dropshipping features but these require more technical knowledge.
Technical and maintenance
Shopify Plus requires little to no knowledge of HTML or coding, but some technical acumen will always be handy especially at the enterprise-level of ecommerce business. Plus merchants can add up to 100 themes to their account from the Shopify theme store, meaning you can try new themes, test changes to your published theme and keep seasonal versions of your theme. Being fully hosted, Shopify Plus takes care of site maintenance and server upkeep so you don't have to worry about it.
Creating a WooCommerce store requires more extensive knowledge of HTML and coding. This means the customisation options for an ecommerce website on this platform are limitless and give you a lot of creative control, including your WordPress theme for your storefront. However, since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin, you are required to do much of the heavy lifting yourself and this includes updates.
Frequently asked questions
Which offers the cheaper transaction fees, Shopify Plus or WooCommerce?
If the transaction is made by a third party payment on Shopify, there is a 0.15% fee per transaction in order to take care of security requirements. There is no fee if Shopify Payments is used.
With WooCommerce payments, if the transaction is made with a US-based card there is a fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 with an additional 1% for transactions from outside the US which works out significantly more expensive than Shopify Plus, especially when you're processing a high volume of sales.
With a structured price plan, extensive marketplace, limitless transactions and tight security, Shopify Plus delivers consistently reliable and high-quality services to the businesses it hosts. The 24/7 support system will make you feel reassured and the lack of transaction fees means that you can maximise your profits without losing money to your ecommerce platform. Even if you have no HTML or coding knowledge, you can instigate your online store quickly and simply, generating a broad, loyal customer base.
How do you upgrade to Shopify Plus?
With the help of a trusted and experienced agency, you can customise your new ecommerce store and enjoy the extensive benefits of being a Shopify Plus merchant, selling your products globally and creating unlimited stores that will grow your business, increase your revenue and really make your online store flourish.
