Shopify vs WooCommerce in 2026: Which Is Right for Your Store?

Shopify and WooCommerce are the two platforms most growing businesses compare when they plan an online store. The short answer: Shopify is a hosted, subscription-based platform where hosting, security and the checkout are managed for you, so it suits teams that want to run a store without looking after servers. WooCommerce is a free, open-source plugin that turns a WordPress website into a store: you choose the hosting and can change any part of the code, but you are also responsible for updates, security and performance.

Neither platform is the right choice for every business. This guide compares them on cost, hosting, security, customization, ease of use, payments, extensions, performance, SEO and ownership, then explains how to decide and what to consider if you switch later. Shopify prices below are its published US prices, checked in October 2026. Prices, currencies and payment options vary by country.

Shopify vs WooCommerce at a glance

Costs: platform fees and build fees

A fair cost comparison separates two things: what you pay the platform and other providers to run the store, and what you pay a designer or developer to build it.

Shopify platform costs

Shopify's pricing page lists these US prices:

• Basic: $29/month billed yearly, or $39/month billed monthly
• Grow: $79/month billed yearly, or $105/month billed monthly
• Advanced: $299/month billed yearly, or $399/month billed monthly
• Shopify Plus: from $2,300/month on a three-year term

On top of the plan, budget for any paid theme, paid apps and payment processing. If you use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a transaction fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced. Shopify Payments is available only in some countries, so check Shopify's list of supported countries for where your business is based. Our Shopify store cost guide breaks these costs down in more detail.

WooCommerce platform costs

The WooCommerce plugin is free to download and use. Running a store still costs money, but the total depends on your choices rather than a fixed plan:

• Hosting and domain: a WordPress hosting plan suited to an online store, plus your domain name
• Theme: free or paid
• Extensions: free and paid plugins for features such as subscriptions, bookings, product filters or shipping rules
• Payment processing: fees charged by your payment provider
• Maintenance: updates, backups, security monitoring and fixes, done by you or a developer

Because these costs vary so widely, there is no single WooCommerce price. Add up the hosting, extensions and maintenance your store actually needs, then compare that total with a Shopify plan plus the apps you would need there.

Development costs with Shreeji Software

Designing and building the store is a separate, one-off development cost. Shreeji Software's Shopify development packages start at $799 for Starter, with Growth from $1,499 and Scale from $2,999. WooCommerce store builds use our eCommerce packages, which start at $1,199 for Starter, with Growth from $2,499 and Scale from $4,999. These are development fees only: Shopify subscriptions, hosting, domains, paid themes, apps or extensions, and payment processing are separate, and you pay those providers directly. Final pricing depends on your scope and requirements.

Hosting and maintenance

With Shopify, hosting is part of the subscription. You do not choose a server, install platform updates or manage the platform's backups; Shopify runs the infrastructure and the checkout.

With WooCommerce, you choose the hosting provider and plan, and the store's speed and reliability depend partly on that choice. WordPress, your theme and every plugin need regular updates, and those updates should be tested so that one plugin does not break another. This is why many WooCommerce store owners pay a developer or agency for ongoing maintenance.

Security and updates

Shopify manages security for the platform, hosting and checkout. You are still responsible for your own account security, such as staff permissions and strong passwords, and for reviewing the apps you install.

WooCommerce security is shared between you, your host and the plugins you use. Keeping WordPress, the theme and plugins up to date, choosing reputable extensions, limiting admin access and taking regular backups all matter. You get full control, but security depends on how well the site is maintained.

Customization and flexibility

Shopify themes are built with Shopify's Liquid template language, and most stores are customized through theme sections, apps and Shopify's APIs. You can build a very custom storefront, but you work within the platform's rules. For example, each Shopify product can have up to three options (such as size, color and material) and up to 2,048 variants, according to the Shopify Help Center.

WooCommerce runs on WordPress and PHP, so a developer can change almost anything: product types, checkout fields, pricing rules or how the store connects to other systems. That flexibility suits unusual requirements, but more custom code also means more to maintain and test.

Ease of use

Shopify's admin is built only for selling. Products, orders, customers, discounts and reports are in one place, and most day-to-day tasks need no developer, which makes it a common choice for teams without technical staff.

WooCommerce adds store features to the WordPress admin. If your team already manages a WordPress website, content editing will feel familiar. If not, there is more to learn, because you manage both the website and the store settings.

Payments and transaction costs

On Shopify, using Shopify Payments (where it is available) avoids Shopify's extra transaction fee, although card processing rates still apply. You can also connect a third-party provider, in which case the 2%, 1% or 0.6% fee applies on the Basic, Grow and Advanced plans.

WooCommerce does not charge a fee on sales. You connect a payment gateway through an extension, such as Stripe, PayPal or a regional gateway, and pay that provider's processing fees. Which gateways you can use depends on your country and currency, so check this early on either platform.

Apps, plugins and integrations

Shopify stores are extended through the Shopify App Store, with apps for reviews, subscriptions, upsells, email marketing and much more. Apps install from the admin, and many charge a monthly fee, so app costs can add up.

WooCommerce stores are extended through WordPress plugins and WooCommerce extensions, both free and paid. The choice is wide, but quality varies, and every extra plugin means more updates and more chances of a conflict. On either platform, list the integrations you need, such as accounting, ERP, shipping, marketplaces and CRM, and check that each one is available before you choose.

Performance and scalability

Shopify runs the hosting and checkout for every store, so you do not plan server capacity for traffic peaks. Store speed still depends on your theme, images and the apps you install.

A WooCommerce store's performance depends on the hosting plan, caching, the theme and the number of plugins. WooCommerce stores can grow large, but growth usually means better hosting and more technical work as traffic and the catalog grow. On both platforms, a well-built theme and a short list of necessary apps or plugins matter more than the platform name.

SEO

Both platforms can rank well in search. What matters most is the same on both: useful product and category content, a clear site structure, fast pages and sensible internal links.

The main technical difference is control. Shopify uses fixed URL patterns, such as /products/ for products and /collections/ for categories, and handles much of the technical setup for you. WordPress lets you shape URLs, templates and content more freely, which gives an experienced team more room but also more ways to get things wrong. Neither platform guarantees rankings.

Ownership and portability

With WooCommerce, the code, database and hosting account are under your control, and you can move the whole site to another host. With Shopify, your products, customers and orders are your data and can be exported, but the store runs on Shopify's platform and your theme only works on Shopify. In both cases, moving to a different platform later means rebuilding the design and redirecting URLs, so it is worth choosing carefully at the start.

Which should you choose?

Choose Shopify if:

• You want hosting, security and the checkout managed for you
• Your team wants to run the store day to day without a developer
• Your products fit Shopify's product model of up to three options per product
• You prefer a predictable monthly platform cost

If you go with Shopify and need regular store updates, you can also hire a dedicated Shopify developer who works as part of your team.

Choose WooCommerce if:

• Your website already runs on WordPress and content is central to your marketing
• You need custom product types, pricing rules or checkout logic
• You want full control of the code and hosting, with no platform subscription
• You have a developer or maintenance partner to handle updates and security

For ongoing WooCommerce and WordPress work, a dedicated WordPress developer can handle updates, new features and fixes.

If your answers are split, compare the total cost over two or three years, including apps, extensions, hosting and maintenance, and ask which platform your team can realistically run.

Switching platforms later

You can move between the two platforms, but a migration is a project of its own. Products, customers and orders need to be moved, the design rebuilt and old URLs redirected so you keep your search visibility. Customer passwords cannot be moved to Shopify, so customers set a new one. If you are on WooCommerce today and considering Shopify, our step-by-step WooCommerce to Shopify migration guide covers what moves, what needs extra work and how to protect your SEO.

How Shreeji Software can help

Shreeji Software is an in-house team with more than 15 years of experience building websites and online stores, on Shopify and on WooCommerce. We can help you choose the platform that fits your products, budget and team, then design and build the store. See our Shopify development services, or our WordPress development services for WooCommerce stores built on WordPress.