Shopify and WooCommerce are the two most popular e-commerce platforms in the world. Both of them serve hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide. You’ve probably heard or even used them if you’re running an online store, but which one should you choose?
In this article, we compare Shopify vs WooCommerce 2022 including their features, costs, and benefits, and give you all the information you need to make an informed decision about which one will be best for your business.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is a cloud-based, software as a service (SaaS) e-commerce solution that enables companies to build and manage their own online stores. Shopify was created in 2004 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake, and has since grown into one of the most popular platforms on which merchants can run their businesses—selling everything from books to shoes.
Growth Rate of Shopify
The global e-commerce market is expected to total $5.55 trillion in 2022. That figure is estimated to grow over the next few years, showing that borderless e-commerce is becoming a profitable option for online retailers.
According to Statista, “As of September 2021, Shopify was the biggest name in the U.S. e-commerce software market, used by roughly 29 percent of websites that use e-commerce technologies.”
Courtesy: Statista
Pros of Shopify
Shopify is Easy to Use
The first benefit of Shopify is that it’s easy to use. If you have no previous experience in e-commerce, then you can opt for Shopify. With an easy-to-use interface and intuitive design, Shopify makes it easy to set up a store within minutes.
So if you’re looking to begin your own e-commerce business but lack prior experience with hosting or designing a store, then you can take advantage of Shopify.
Security
Shopify is a fully secure platform. Designed to protect your data and keep your store running smoothly. It has a built-in firewall that blocks any illegal traffic, making it very difficult for hackers to get into your site.
The platform also offers two-factor authentication which only allows users with both their password and a PIN to gain access. This gives you an extra layer of security since hackers can no longer gain access by simply stealing passwords from an online database.
It has built-in security features that help protect against some of today’s biggest online threats, including credit card fraud and malicious attacks. Unlike some providers, Shopify doesn’t require you to buy expensive security software or extra hosting services.
Marketing Inbuilt Tools
Marketing is a key component to any business’s success. It helps attract potential customers, show them your product or service, and make them actually buy it. Shopify has built-in a variety of marketing tools that make it simple to run marketing campaigns on your own site. From boosting products with Facebook ads to getting featured on Instagram or Google, it’s all possible with Shopify. You can also leverage numerous Shopify SEO apps to enhance your store’s visibility and attract more traffic to your site
Great community Support
One reason why Shopify is such a great option is their excellent support community. If you have any questions about using their platform, you can find answers in their community forums. This level of customer service will give you peace of mind and help you build confidence in your web design abilities. They also offer tons of tutorials and videos to learn more about how to use their platform, making it super easy to get started and more confident along your learning curve.
Cons of Shopify
Not all stores support mobile Devices
In order to reach a wider audience, you need a solution that supports mobile shopping. You don’t want users to be forced to shop through their computers—if your target customers are younger, then mobile use is vital. They may not have their own laptops or desktops, but they always have their phones.
If you’re building an e-commerce site on Shopify, check with them first before dropping thousands of dollars on development because it may not support mobile devices
Limited Variations
With Shopify, you’re limited to using their products and templates. The templates are good but they don’t allow for a lot of variations (if you want a header on your site with your own logo and colours, for example). If you are looking to do something unique, it can be very difficult to achieve with Shopify.
What is WooCommerce?
According to Wikipedia, “ WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress. It is designed for small to large-sized online merchants using WordPress. Launched on September 27, 2011, the plugin quickly became popular for its simplicity to install and customize and for the market position of the base product as freeware.”
Pros of WooCommerce
Fast Loading Speed
WooCommerce, which runs on WordPress, is compatible with a huge array of plugins and themes—which means it can be customized extensively. It’s also extremely popular; if you’re considering WooCommerce, you’ll have lots of support online. Plus, since Woo is built on WordPress, it has a fast loading speed compared to other e-commerce platforms like Magento.
Security
There are a number of benefits to using Woo Commerce. The entire program has been created in such a way that it provides security for customers who shop on your site as well as protects sensitive information like credit card numbers and passwords. It also prevents hackers from entering your site, hacking into it, and stealing information from there. These are some of its biggest benefits.
Functionalities
WooCommerce allows users to manage easy product categories and blogs. It has a built-in social sharing feature that drives traffic to your website and thus increases conversions. E-commerce developer can easily implement their extension in a store created on WordPress and automatically receive new features as they are added by others.
Automated products options, such as widgets, shortcodes, galleries, and much more are available for all stores created on WordPress, but you can also create your own extensions and incorporate them into blogs and posts.
Unique Store Designs
WooCommerce was developed by WooThemes, a company with a history of creating easy-to-use WordPress plugins. From that perspective, it shouldn’t be surprising that WooCommerce is among the most popular platforms out there.
This store builder makes it easy to create an online storefront without any design or coding skills. Customizability and extensive documentation are its major selling points, which is why millions of businesses have chosen to go with Woo over Shopify.
Cons of WooCommerce
WordPress Specific
Users can leverage the benefits of Woo-commerce only if the website is hosted by the WordPress platform.
Moreover, WooCommerce is still a plugin only and it supports specifically only WordPress.
Expensive
The biggest complaint about WooCommerce itself, however, is that it’s free to download and use, but many add-ons require payment. This can be a big problem if you want more out of your store than just a few products on a page—you might have to spend money on plugins or extensions to get what you need.
Major Differences Between Shopify and WooCommerce
1. Security
One of e-commerce’s greatest weaknesses, security is a vital aspect to think about when building an online business. Shopify offers two levels of security: free and paid, while WooCommerce offers more granular levels of control. If you’re looking for easy-to-use security features with a seamless set up, go with Shopify—but if you want more control over your site’s safety features, check out WooCommerce instead.
2. Ease of Use
In terms of ease of use, WooCommerce is a lot more straightforward than Shopify. If you want to set up an online store in just minutes, then you’ll like WooCommerce better. On top of that, when you switch from WooCommerce to another e-commerce platform, later on, it will be much easier since it’s WordPress-based.
3. Support
Both Shopify and WooCommerce offer great support to their users. Both are top-notch when it comes to providing support. However, Shopify has a much larger community and more user-friendly interface, and better security compared to Woo-commerce.
4. Features
Both platforms have plenty of useful features for online sellers, from order tracking and inventory management to SEO and analytics. While these platforms are similar, they also have their own unique strengths.
Woo Commerce is completely free and offers ample customization options, but you’ll have to pay a developer if you want something more complex than changing colors or adding new pages.
On the other hand, Shopify has hundreds of templates to choose from—plus it will host your site—but customization is limited to paying developers.
Shopify
Hosting – Included
Themes and Design Variety – Medium
Key Features – Supports Multiple languages, offers unlimited products, handles fraud analysis automatically, SEO ready site structure, social media integration
Multilingual capabilities – Best
Security – Better
Speed – Best
Plugins and Integrations – Developers have access to the unlimited plugins and this party integrations
Support – Better
WooCommerce
Hosting – Not Included
Themes and Design Variety – Large
Key Features – Mobile friendly, Built-in payments via PayPal and Stripe, Upload unlimited products
Multilingual capabilities – Better
Security – Best
Speed – Better
Plugins and Integrations – Developers have access to limited supported WordPress plugins
Support – Best
Conclusion
In conclusion, both of these e-commerce platforms are great choices. If you already have a lot of experience developing in WordPress, it’s likely you’ll be happier with WooCommerce. It has more extensions and themes available for free, which is always a plus! If you don’t have development experience or simply want to choose an e-commerce platform that comes with almost everything already set up, then Shopify might be your better option. Hire ecommerce developers to obtain the maximum potential of both technologies.
Author Bio – Amy Parker
Hey, I am a technology consultant at AppsDevPro, a leading Mobile & Web development company that offers offshore mobile, web, frontend, full-stack developers. I have 18+ years of experience in writing and always looking for new ways to improve skills and learn from others.
