Shopify vs WooCommerce: Which Should You Sell On?

The basic difference

Shopify is software as a service. You pay a monthly plan, and Shopify runs the servers, the checkout, security updates and the platform itself. You choose a theme, add products and extend the store with apps from the Shopify App Store. Hosting and an SSL certificate are included in every plan, according to Shopify's pricing page.

WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress. WooCommerce describes itself as "the free, Open Source ecommerce platform for WordPress". You need a WordPress site and a host to run it on, and you add features with extensions, some free and some paid. The shop runs on your own hosting account, so the files and the database are on a server you control.

In short: with Shopify you rent a complete shop; with WooCommerce you own the software and are responsible for running it, or for paying someone to.

What each costs

The figures below were taken from the official pricing pages on 28 October 2026, in US dollars. Prices change and differ by country, so check the current page for your market before you decide.

Shopify plans

• Basic: $39 a month paid monthly, or $29 a month paid yearly.
• Grow: $105 a month paid monthly, or $79 a month paid yearly.
• Advanced: $399 a month paid monthly, or $299 a month paid yearly.
• Plus: from $2,300 a month, for larger and more complex businesses.

Higher plans add staff accounts (5 on Grow, 15 on Advanced, unlimited on Plus), lower card rates and more features. Paid themes and apps are extra and are billed by their developers or through Shopify.

WooCommerce

The WooCommerce plugin itself is free, with no monthly subscription and no revenue share. What you pay for is everything around it:

• Hosting. WooCommerce's own pricing page estimates $25 to $350 a month for most stores, scaling with traffic and performance needs.
• Extensions. The same page puts paid extensions at $29 to $299 a year each.
• A theme, free or paid, and a domain name.
• Build and maintenance. Someone has to set the site up, keep WordPress, WooCommerce and extensions updated, and take backups.

Those hosting and extension ranges are WooCommerce's estimates, not quotes. Your real total depends on how many products and orders you have and which features you need. Our guide How much does a website cost? covers the build side.

Payments and transaction fees

Payment fees often matter more than the plan price, because they grow with every sale.

Shopify Payments, Shopify's own processor, charged these online card rates in the US on 28 October 2026: 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic, 2.7% + 30¢ on Grow, 2.5% + 30¢ on Advanced and from 2.25% + 30¢ on Plus. If you use a third-party payment provider instead, Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top of that provider's fees: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus. Shopify notes that some features, such as its built-in fraud analysis, require Shopify Payments.

WooCommerce does not charge a fee for using any payment provider. You can use its own processor, WooPayments, or connect another gateway. WooPayments' fee page listed 2.90% + $0.30 per card payment for US merchants on the same date, plus 1.50% for cards from outside your country, 1.00% for currency conversion and $15.00 per dispute. WooPayments has no setup or monthly fee for online payments, and its transaction fees are not refunded when you refund a customer.

Rates differ by country and payment method on both platforms. Compare the rates for where your business and your customers are, not just the US headline figures.

Ownership and moving later

This is where the two differ most.

On Shopify, your store runs inside your Shopify account. Its Terms of Service say that when the service ends, Shopify stops providing it and you no longer have access to the account. If you ever leave, export your products, customers and orders first, and plan how the site will be rebuilt elsewhere, since a Shopify theme does not run on other platforms.

On WooCommerce, the software, the database and the files sit on your hosting. You can move host, change developer or back up the whole shop without anyone's permission. Make sure the hosting account, domain and any paid licences are in your business's name, not your developer's. Our guide on choosing a web developer lists the ownership points to agree before work starts.

Upkeep, security and updates

With Shopify, the platform is updated and secured for you. Your job is your account security, your theme and your apps: each app you install is extra code and often an extra monthly bill, so remove the ones you no longer use.

With WooCommerce, upkeep is your responsibility. WooCommerce's server recommendations ask for PHP 8.3 or later, MySQL 8.0 or later or MariaDB 10.6 or later, HTTPS support and a WordPress memory limit of at least 256 MB. WordPress, WooCommerce, the theme and every extension receive updates, and a shop should be backed up before updates and checked afterwards, especially the checkout. That is the work a website care plan covers. Our website security basics guide explains the rest.

When each fits

Shopify tends to fit when:

• You want to start selling quickly without managing hosting or updates.
• The shop is the business, and a standard store layout and checkout suit you.
• You are comfortable with a monthly plan and with Shopify Payments, or with the extra fee for another provider.
• You will not have a developer or care plan looking after the site.

WooCommerce tends to fit when:

• You already have a WordPress site, or the shop sits alongside a lot of content such as articles, guides or service pages.
• You want to own the software and data and be free to change host or developer.
• You need custom product options, pricing rules or integrations, or want to choose any payment provider without a platform fee.
• You have someone to keep it updated and backed up, in-house or through a care plan.

For transparency: when our clients sell online, we build on WooCommerce, because orders and customer data stay on the client's own site. That does not make it right for everyone, and the questions below are the ones we would ask you either way.

Questions to decide with

1. Who will look after the shop after launch? No one points to Shopify; a developer or care plan makes WooCommerce practical.
2. How much will you sell, and how? Work out the payment fees on your expected monthly sales on each platform, not just the plan price.
3. Do you need a content-heavy site as well as a shop? If so, WordPress with WooCommerce keeps both in one place. Our guide WordPress vs a custom-coded website covers the content side.
4. Which features are essential, and are they built in or an app or extension? Add the cost of each to your total.
5. How important is it that you can move everything elsewhere later?

Frequently asked questions

Is WooCommerce really free?

The WooCommerce plugin is free and open source, with no monthly subscription or revenue share. You still pay for hosting, a domain, any paid theme or extensions, payment processing fees, and the time or service that keeps the site updated and backed up.

Does Shopify charge transaction fees?

If you use Shopify Payments, you pay its card processing rates. If you use a third-party payment provider, Shopify adds its own transaction fee on top: on 28 October 2026 that was 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced and 0.2% on Plus, according to Shopify's pricing page.

Which is cheaper, Shopify or WooCommerce?

It depends on your sales volume, payment provider, the apps or extensions you need and who maintains the site. Add up the plan or hosting, payment fees on your expected sales, paid add-ons and upkeep for each platform over a year.

Can I move from Shopify to WooCommerce later?

Yes, but it is a rebuild rather than a switch. Export products, customers and orders first, rebuild the design and features on WordPress, and redirect your old URLs so search rankings are not lost.

Do I need a developer for WooCommerce?

Not to install it, but a shop needs setup, regular updates, backups and checks that checkout still works afterwards. Many businesses use a developer or a maintenance plan for that work.

Planning an online shop? See how we approach website development, or email info@creahive.com with what you sell, roughly how many products and orders you expect, and who will run the shop day to day.