Shopify vs WooCommerce
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Shopify is from $19/mo billed annually, WooCommerce is free tier available.
- How to start: Shopify is from $19/mo billed annually, WooCommerce is free tier available.
- Where they differ: only Shopify has sso (saml) and only WooCommerce has open source / self-hostable; both offer public api and mobile app.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Shopify is
What Shopify isShopify is the world's most powerful e-commerce platform, designed for everyone from individual sellers to billion-dollar global brands. It lets you open a professional store without worrying about server management or security updates. The 'Shopify App Store' adds thousands of extra features, while 'Shop Pay' offers the world's fastest checkout experience. Shopify is not just software; it is the operating system for global internet commerce.
What WooCommerce is
What WooCommerce isWooCommerce turns a WordPress site into a store, with the source open and the data on your own hosting. Owning the code and the database is the argument: no platform fee and no limit on how the checkout behaves. The bill arrives as hosting, plugins and maintenance, and performance is your responsibility rather than the vendor's.
Side by side
| Shopify | WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce | E-commerce |
| How to start | $19/moverified | Free tiernot a monthly price |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes |
| Open source / self-hostable | No | Yes |
| SSO (SAML) | Yes | No |
| Visit | Shopify ↗ | WooCommerce ↗ |
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What Shopify is built to do
- Online Store Builder
- Design professional, SEO-friendly stores using drag-and-drop tools.
- Shop Pay
- Reduce cart abandonment by offering customers a one-click checkout experience.
- Shopify Audiences
- Use AI data to spend your ad budget on the most accurate potential buyers.
- Global Commerce
- Instantly translate your site into different languages and local currencies.
What WooCommerce is built to do
- WordPress-native store
- Adds catalogue and checkout to an existing WordPress site.
- Open-source core
- Allows direct modification of store behaviour and templates.
- Extension ecosystem
- Covers payments, shipping and subscriptions through plugins.
Choose Shopify if
- Selling online without running your own infrastructure
- Starting cheaply — $1/month for the first 3 months after a 3-day trial
- Stores that will use Shopify Payments, which avoids the extra platform cut
Skip Shopify if
- You are budgeting from the offer — $1/mo lasts 3 months; Basic is $19/mo annual ($27 monthly) after that
- You use an external payment provider: Shopify takes an extra 2% on Basic on top of your processor's fee
- You want to own the platform; you are renting a hosted store
Choose WooCommerce if
- WordPress site owners who want a free, open-source store with no platform fee or revenue share
- Merchants who want to choose any payment gateway without penalties
- Stores that prefer paying for hosting and extensions over a monthly SaaS tier
Skip WooCommerce if
- You have no hosting: the vendor estimates $25–$350/month for most stores
- You need many premium extensions — each runs $29–$299 a year
- You want zero maintenance; updates, backups and security are on you
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Shopify: pros & cons
- Rapid Start: Launch a professional store in minutes with no technical hurdles.
- Huge Ecosystem: There is a Shopify app for virtually every feature you might need.
- High Reliability: Your site remains stable even during the heaviest shopping holidays.
- Shopify POS: Manage your physical and digital stores from a single unified inventory.
- Transaction Fees: Charges extra commission if you don't use Shopify Payments.
- App Costs: Monthly subscription costs for apps can add up very quickly.
- Customization Limits: Deep design changes require knowledge of the 'Liquid' code.
WooCommerce: pros & cons
- No platform fee on sales
- Full control over data and hosting
- Enormous plugin and theme ecosystem
- You own updates, security and performance
- Extensions add up in cost
- Scaling requires real hosting work
Our verdict on Shopify
The world's best platform for starting, growing, and scaling an e-commerce empire.
Our verdict on WooCommerce
The right answer when control matters. Total cost of ownership is higher than the licence suggests.
Published plans, side by side
Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page and is shown with the sentence it came from. Where a vendor publishes no plan prices, we say so rather than guess.
Shopify
- Basic$19/mo billed annually
Basic $19/mo annual, $27 monthly
- Grow$54/mo billed annually
Grow $54/mo annual, $72 monthly
- Advanced$299/mo billed annually
Advanced $299/mo annual, $399 monthly
WooCommerce
No published plan prices verified. WooCommerce either quotes on request or renders its prices in a way we could not read from the pricing page.
Shopify vs WooCommerce: common questions
- Does Shopify or WooCommerce have a free plan?
- Shopify has no free plan listed, while WooCommerce has a free tier with limits.
- What is the difference between Shopify and WooCommerce?
- On the criteria we check, only Shopify has sso (saml) and only WooCommerce has open source / self-hostable; both offer public api and mobile app. The table above lists every criterion side by side.