Which platform is right for you? Shopify vs. WordPress

Shopify and WordPress (with the WooCom­merce plugin) are well-known solutions for entering the e-commerce market with your own online store. However, the two platforms are suitable for different target groups. We take a closer look below.

This article was last updated in February 2024.

An overview of Shopify vs. WordPress

How different are Shopify and WordPress?

Not sure whether to opt for a shop system or CMS? While WordPress is a classic content man­age­ment system (CMS), Shopify falls into the category of shop systems. Shopify is mainly spe­cial­ized for small and medium-sized busi­ness­es who want to sell their products via an online store. A CMS like WordPress is primarily used to run websites and blogs. However, with the WooCom­merce plugin, you can also add a store function to your WordPress website or design it entirely as an online store. While WordPress offers its users more flex­i­bil­i­ty, it is less optimized for online stores.

Shopify vs. WordPress = Shop system vs. CMS

Pros of WordPress CMS

The CMS WordPress is available in a basic version as open-source software free of charge and can be installed using almost any hosting service. However, it’s also important to mention that this only refers to the CMS WordPress.org. Users need to organize ad­di­tion­al themes and plugins as well as the hosting of the store them­selves.

On the other hand, you can also use WordPress.com, which you pay for. Although this also uses the .org software, a paid user account is required, and only a limited range of themes and plugins are available. In return, hosting is included as part of the service.

If you plan to create an online store with WordPress, you only need the free open-source version and a suitable online store extension such as WooCom­merce. No pro­gram­ing knowledge is required to create a WordPress website. Users manage, organize and publish their content in the form of text, images, videos and more on an easy-to-use graphical interface.

In addition, functions and designs can be flexibly extended thanks to a pool of more than 55,000 WordPress plugins as well as more than 20,000 WordPress themes. These can easily be installed in WordPress, allowing WordPress to be adapted to almost any project, whether it be com­mer­cial or private.

WordPress is ideal for beginners and advanced users. The very active WordPress community offers help and this means that pretty much anyone can join. There are many ways to further optimize and expand a website, for example with WordPress SEO plugins, WordPress caching plugins and WordPress chat plugins.

Cons of WordPress CMS

There are several ad­van­tages to WordPress, however, there are also some dis­ad­van­tages that WordPress has in com­par­i­son to other CMS solutions, including Shopify. Although WordPress plugins enable more flex­i­bil­i­ty, they increase the loading time of WordPress websites. Compared to a system developed “from scratch”, this can be a sig­nif­i­cant dis­ad­van­tage. For certain website projects, WordPress may be less suitable, depending on which website functions are required.

In most cases, WordPress requires a lot more time and effort to learn when compared with a partly pre-made shop system such as Shopify. And while you don’t need to be an expert in content man­age­ment systems to use the CMS, it’s best to have a basic un­der­stand­ing of how CMSs work in order to be able to optimally design your website. With WordPress, the sheer number of plugins and the effective man­age­ment and op­ti­miza­tion of a website can be difficult for in­ex­pe­ri­enced users. However, this knowledge can be acquired through numerous tutorials made available by the WordPress community.

The risk of spam and hacker attacks is also higher with WordPress. WordPress software and all plugins that are used must be kept up to date at all times, whereby the latter must be updated in­di­vid­u­al­ly. In addition, the further de­vel­op­ment of a plugin may cease, making the plugin obsolete and resulting in it no longer func­tion­ing correctly. In the worst case, this makes the website vul­ner­a­ble, which can have sig­nif­i­cant con­se­quences for an online store.

Pros of Shopify

For small to medium-sized busi­ness­es, creating an online store with the Shopify shop system is a good choice. This is a pro­pri­etary software, the coun­ter­part to the open-source idea. The Shopify service is only offered by the company of the same name. The shop system can be tested for the first 3 months for one dollar per month. After that, you have several plans to choose from that differ in scope, price and range of services.

Basically, Shopify (in direct com­par­i­son to WordPress) is less designed for flex­i­bil­i­ty, since the hosting runs directly through the company. However, this results in the great advantage that the store’s main­te­nance work and the IT security (including regular updates) are handled by Shopify.

This approach runs through the entire Shopify ex­pe­ri­ence. Unlike WordPress, you pay for a certain service and can take care of day-to-day business in the online store yourself.

Func­tion­al­i­ties are explained and doc­u­ment­ed in extensive tutorials and guides. If you simply want to set your sights on e-commerce and marketing instead of spending un­nec­es­sary time on website main­te­nance, this is the right place for you.

Shopify already has sales channels in­te­grat­ed via social media. There are ready-made designs for a wide variety of divisions, and the store website is ex­pand­able, including all scalable data. In­ter­na­tion­al selling is also easy with Shopify. In addition to 133 cur­ren­cies, up to 5 languages are supported.

Cons of Shopify

What you don’t have to invest in time is usually reflected in the cost of a website. You have to factor in the monthly fees for the Shopify sub­scrip­tion. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, you have to invest some time into an online store when using Shopify, depending on how demanding you are when it comes to design.

While Shopify also gives access to a wide range of different themes, it’s nowhere near as many as WordPress. However, Shopify users have the option to create their own themes, as they get full access to the code. This then requires ap­pro­pri­ate pro­gram­ming skills or support from experts.

In addition, Shopify’s payment options incur trans­ac­tion fees. Third-party shipping costs are only included in the Advanced plan, which costs several hundred dollars per month and is therefore only suitable for larger online stores.

If you want your online store to operate in­ter­na­tion­al­ly with Shopify, you need to opt for at least the middle of the three available plans. In­ter­na­tion­al domains and country-specific pricing are otherwise not possible. The reporting function is also only available from the middle plan and higher.

Which system is better for beginners?

In our Shopify vs. WordPress com­par­i­son, we’ve con­sid­ered beginner-friend­li­ness as an important category, and Shopify wins out. Since you sign a contract with Shopify for the use of the software, you also buy into first-class technical support. Hosting is taken care of, you get important updates applied au­to­mat­i­cal­ly (and trans­par­ent­ly), and you don’t have to worry about other technical matters either. In addition, features and processes are explained in detail, so that even new users can quickly find their way around.

As an operator of an online store, you need little to no back­ground knowledge to use Shopify or WordPress. However, it is much quicker and easier to find your way around Shopify than WordPress if you don’t have any technical knowledge, as most of the technical tasks are already completed and you don’t have to rely on the community forums. However, WordPress offers more options for in­di­vid­ual design.

Themes in Shopify and WordPress

If you go by the sheer number of available templates or themes, WordPress is clearly ahead. Many of the 20,000 themes are free of charge and can be installed, activated and exchanged by users easily. So you have the most freedom when it comes to finding the best custom look for your new online store. However, this large selection can also be dis­ad­van­ta­geous for insecure or in­ex­pe­ri­enced users.

While the selection on Shopify is sig­nif­i­cant­ly smaller in direct com­par­i­son, that doesn’t mean it’s not as good. The themes available on Shopify are more than enough, es­pe­cial­ly for beginners. The theme selection is pre-sorted for different in­dus­tries, and ad­di­tion­al themes can be purchased. In addition, experts have the option to create their own templates using code. However, the smaller selection of themes at Shopify may come at the expense of the in­di­vid­u­al­i­ty of your store as store operators from similar in­dus­tries often opt for similar themes. Shopify experts can be com­mis­sioned to create a cus­tomized theme, but this doesn’t come cheap.

Plugins/ex­ten­sions in Shopify and WordPress

A look at the ex­ten­sions (also known as “plugins”) of the re­spec­tive systems reveals a similar picture to that of the themes. WordPress offers a larger selection of plugins, but not every one of the ap­prox­i­mate­ly 55,000 plugins is really useful. In addition, WordPress plugins entail increased main­te­nance costs and you have to do your own research. You def­i­nite­ly need a plugin for the store function of a WordPress website. WooCom­merce is a popular choice. After in­stal­la­tion, a new online store can be set up and put into operation with just a few clicks.

As mentioned, with WordPress you have to take into account that too many plugins can affect the per­for­mance of an online store. It may be worth investing in a better hosting foun­da­tion, for example, special WooCom­merce hosting.

While Shopify users can currently only find just over 7,000 ex­ten­sions, this more than covers the full spectrum of needs. If that is not enough, there are (paid) options for cus­tomiza­tion.

Which platform is easier to use?

For beginners with little technical ex­pe­ri­ence, Shopify is def­i­nite­ly the more suitable system. In­ex­pe­ri­enced users get much-needed help from Shopify’s support and don’t have to deal with tasks like hosting and updates.

WordPress with WooCom­merce is aimed more at ex­pe­ri­enced users. It also gives users maximum control over all settings. This increases the level of cus­tomiza­tion, but it also means that you have to know what you are doing.

Which payment methods are supported?

If you decide to create your online store with Shopify, here are some of the different payment methods that can be used:

• Amazon Pay
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay
• PayPal
• Meta Pay
• Shop Pay
• Credit card
• Bank transfer

Generally, Shopify charges a small flat fee, plus a share of the revenue generated by the re­spec­tive payment system. Other payment providers or gateways (such as PayPal and Bitcoin) are included in the payment options, however, Shopify applies separate fees for these.

WordPress via WooCom­merce, on the other hand, supports all common payment methods without ad­di­tion­al fees.

Security and main­te­nance for Shopify and WordPress

With WordPress, security and main­te­nance are almost com­plete­ly in the hands of the users. There are cor­re­spond­ing plugins for this, but you always need to make sure that they are up to date and de­ac­ti­vate and replace them if necessary. Although the community metic­u­lous­ly collects all known security vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and errors, there is no universal pro­tec­tion against attacks. The most important thing is to keep all programs, themes and plugins up to date. If you don’t want to do this yourself, you can get external service providers to do it for you, but you’ll need to calculate the cor­re­spond­ing costs for this in your business plan.

In contrast, Shopify au­to­mat­i­cal­ly takes care of the security and main­te­nance of the system. This means that users benefit from con­sis­tent­ly high security standards.

Which platform is best for good SEO?

The basic version pf WordPress offers almost no pos­si­bil­i­ties to optimize content for search engines like Google. To do this, you need extensive SEO plugins like Yoast, which is available in a free basic version and in a premium paid version. Again, you can learn how to optimize your SEO strategy from the active WordPress community.

Basic search engine op­ti­miza­tion features are included in Shopify. These can be extended by apps like the SEO Booster. All relevant features are available in Shopify, even if the selection and extension options are smaller than in WordPress.

A special case is page speed, i.e., the loading time of the page. With Shopify, load time op­ti­miza­tion is included in the all-inclusive plan. With WordPress, the user has to take care of this them­selves and make sure that the plugins they are using do not increase the page load time too much.

Which platform offers better support?

Shopify offers excellent customer support. Des­ig­nat­ed contact persons are available, and there is also 24/7 service. WordPress users can rely on the huge community for answers to their problems or questions. There is rarely a problem which hasn’t already been solved in a forum, tutorial or guide. The dis­ad­van­tage is, however, that you have to search for help on your own.

Shopify vs. WordPress summary

When choosing between Shopify and WordPress, your project’s re­quire­ments and your technical knowledge will determine which system is best for you.

Shopify: Tech­ni­cal­ly in­ex­pe­ri­enced users who have the budget are better off with Shopify. Here, they get the service they need and can devote their remaining resources to their project.

WordPress: For those who are tech­ni­cal­ly inclined and want to take care of every aspect of their project them­selves, WordPress with WooCom­merce offers a wide range of options for im­ple­ment­ing ideas. For those who are already running a WordPress site, it is easy to add a store area with WooCom­merce.

Al­ter­na­tives: Shopify is not the only system you can use to build and manage an online store. We look at Shopify al­ter­na­tives in more detail in a separate article. If you don’t want to deal with the tech­nol­o­gy any more than ab­solute­ly necessary, but still want to take advantage of all the benefits and flex­i­bil­i­ty of WordPress, you can outsource hosting and software support.