What it is
Shopify is a hosted e-commerce platform: products, checkout, payments, shipping, tax and hosting handled, with themes and apps for everything else.
Hosted means you do not manage servers, security, updates or performance, which is the entire trade against WooCommerce.
I send most product businesses here without hesitation, and I say so as somebody who builds WordPress sites for a living.
What it does
Product and inventory management with variants, collections, digital products and multi-location stock.
A checkout that converts better than almost anything you would build, because it has been tested across an enormous volume of transactions. This is the underrated part of the product.
Payments through Shopify Payments or dozens of gateways, with tax and shipping calculation handled including international rules.
An app ecosystem covering subscriptions, bookings, reviews and everything else, though app costs accumulate the same way WooCommerce extensions do.
Who it's for
Features
Pros and cons
Pricing
| PLAN | WHAT YOU GET | WORTH IT FOR |
|---|---|---|
| Free trial | Full access for a limited period. | Testing. |
| Basic | One or two staff, core features, higher card rates. | New stores. The usual starting tier. |
| Grow and Advanced | Lower card rates, more staff, better reporting. | Growing stores. |
| Plus | Enterprise features and support. | High-volume merchants. |
Monthly fee plus card rates that improve on higher tiers, plus app subscriptions. Add the apps you will need before comparing with WooCommerce.
The Basic tier to launch, moving up when the card rate saving on higher tiers exceeds the price difference. Keep the app list short.
Alternatives
My verdict
Shopify is the right answer for most product businesses, and the checkout is why. It has been optimised across a volume of transactions no individual store could replicate, and that conversion difference outweighs almost every argument about control.
The costs are real: monthly fee, card rates, app subscriptions. Add them up honestly, and then add up what WooCommerce costs in hosting, extensions and your own maintenance time, and the comparison is usually closer than people expect.
Where I would still choose WooCommerce is when content and commerce are genuinely intertwined, because Shopify's blogging is poor. For a straightforward product business, this.
Try Shopify →Who should use it
Who should avoid it
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Affiliate disclosure
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it never changes the price you pay. It also does not decide what appears on this page: I recommend tools with no affiliate programme just as readily, and leave off tools with generous ones when they do not deserve the space.