You’re ready to launch your online store, but you have one major decision to make: WordPress or Shopify. For a good reason, these two behemoths are the preferred platforms for anyone trying to build a strong web presence. Both WordPress and Shopify have amazing features, but selecting the best one may be similar to deciding between chocolate and vanilla—both are excellent, but which one best fits your preferences?
In this article, we will go over Shopify and WordPress’s specifics so you can decide which one best suits your needs. This comparison will help you pick the ideal fit. So, sit back while we take you on the journey of Shopify vs WordPress.
Shopify vs WordPress – At a Glance
Shopify is a comprehensive platform that provides a one-stop solution for creating an online store. Its user-friendliness and safety features make it ideal for businesses and users. The platform’s ease of use is particularly beneficial for small business owners and entrepreneurs with limited technical expertise.
On the contrary, WordPress, a highly sought-after content management system, offers a different approach. It may provide fewer features than Shopify, but it compensates with its unparalleled flexibility. You can enhance its capabilities by adding WordPress plugins or manually coding. This unique feature of WordPress allows you to customize your website design and create a unique shopping roadmap, making it a popular choice for those who value creative control.
Reasons to Use Shopify
Shopify offers a trailblazing solution for organizing an e-commerce site. It is a prudent option for people who aim to build an online shop from scratch.
Here are a few of the reasons that show why Shopify is a good choice:
- Shopify allows you to start your shop operational in no time.
- Its steadfast team can guide you through chat or message while logged into your account.
- You don’t need to know coding to create an impressive and mobile-compatible shop.
- You don’t have to be worried about the domain or dealing with third parties. You can buy your domain through Shopify.
- It makes selling through other channels, such as TikTok and Amazon, easier.
Now that you know about Shopify, let’s learn why WordPress is a better option for some businesses.
Reasons to Use WordPress
This is the platform that countless businesses use to build their WordPress e-commerce websites. Whether it’s Shopify or WordPress, people often opt for WordPress due to its flexibility and vigorous platform, which can tackle more complicated websites.
Some more rationales are mentioned as to why WordPress should be considered in this competition.
- To customize your site, you have numerous options from which to choose WordPress plugins.
- You have complete control over WordPress costs, your hosting provider, and your choice of plugins.
- If you compare WordPress vs Shopify SEO, WordPress gives you extra control over the capacity to look in search engine results for related keywords.
- You can translate your website into numerous languages and with different currencies if you are working with WordPress.
- WordPress multisite option lets you set up multiple sites in a single account with numerous features.
The Fundamentals of Shopify and WordPress
Before comparing Shopify vs WordPress for e-commerce, there are some fundamentals you must know about.
1. Transaction Fees
WordPress and Shopify charge 2.9% and 30 cents for online credit card transactions. For example, if a customer makes a $100 purchase, you will pay a fee of $3.20. The difference between Shopify and WordPress starts when in face-to-face fee sessions.
Shopify charges 2.7%, whereas WordPress charges 2.6% and 10 cents. Shopify is slightly inexpensive if your purchase is under $100. On the contrary, WordPress could come out on top by selling expensive products.
2. Unlimited Products
Shopify and WordPress allow you to post unlimited products to your website. Shopify also permits you to turn off the commodity listing tracking for specific items, which can be beneficial if you sell non-physical products like digital files.
You can upload as many products as you want through WordPress. It allows you to store 50GB, which can be maximized as needed.
3. Storage
If you look at the Shopify stores, you will see that they allow unlimited storage and bandwidth. This is an excellent option for uploading your product inventory with large image files. However, it has a limit: the maximum size is 20 MB.
On the other hand, if we monitor WordPress, it offers a maximum storage of 50 GB. You cannot add more storage to 50 GB and 100 GB allotments. That makes a total of 200 GB of storage on an account.
4. Integrations
You can select from 8000 apps offered by Shopify’s App Store. These comprise marketplace integrations, social media connections, subscription management, design customization, and more.
On the contrary, WordPress with WooCommerce renders 820 explicit e-commerce WordPress sites. Though almost 60,000 WordPress plugins exist, some are inappropriate for online shops.
5. Customer Support
The tragedy is that neither company supports phones. This can be problematic if an abrupt answer is required. To overcome this flaw, both companies offer 24/7 live chat and email support.
WordPress offers email support from the beginning, with live support chat and explorer chat on the starter plan. On the other hand, Shopify offers live chat and email support on all plans.
Comparing Shopify vs. WordPress Side-by-Side
Both Shopify and WordPress have crisp, uncomplicated user interfaces that help you meet your requirements and efficiently manage your site.
This is how websites look in Shopify’s App Stores.
1. Web Hosting
To make your site work, you must make your content accessible online and safely and securely store all your files and data, such as images and website code. Web hosts charge a monthly fee to store your content on a server.
Shopify stores all the files for your website. It is completely hosted, which is good news for people not interested in searching and choosing a hosting service. However, every opportunity has compensation, and this also suffers a give-and-take deal. When not selecting a host yourself, you have subdued control over the server ambiance and configurations. Let’s say you could not rectify any problem yourself as you don’t have access to the server.
It entirely depends on your choice. Some users like to handle bugs, while others want to stay away and let others solve their issues. Sometimes, they don’t even know how to solve the problem themselves.
In the case of WordPress, you must find your hosting platform. Then, you will have more control over your server environment. But then WordPress charges you an extra cost for this option.
Hosting plans have a price range, which varies depending on various factors, such as the size of your site and the amount of traffic it receives.
2. Platform Design and UX
Shopify and WordPress have sleek, simple user interfaces that help you find what you need and manage your files efficiently for a more detailed look at the UX of Shopify vs. WordPress.
· Easy Interface
Shopify provides complete guidance on creating your shop. It helps the store owner select a template, add products to their store, and organize everything to begin selling products.
You can add products individually or upload them in bulk via CSV file. It is easier to upload products individually. You must fill in all the essential information, such as the title, description, price, etc. Shopify will instantly add products to your shop once you click save.
If you compare Shopify vs WordPress for e-commerce, you will understand that managing an e-commerce store in Shopify is much more simple. You need an e-commerce plugin to sell products on a WordPress site. A few famous and free e-commerce plugins are WooCommerce, WP EasyCart, and Easy Digital Downloads.
· Storefront Design
WordPress and Shopify permit users to generate a custom storefront or select from a library of prefabricated themes. Let’s discuss the Shopify theme first.
It has more than 140 themes; you can choose whichever you like the most. The excellent point is that each Shopify theme is almost in quick succession after the installation, so you need to change the text and update your business’s branding. This will make your storefront ready in just a couple of hours.
Similarly, WordPress also has thousands of free themes in its library. These themes can be filtered by e-commerce and designed precisely for e-commerce stores. WordPress’s flexibility allows you to customize your designs. If you monitor WordPress e-commerce vs Shopify, WordPress themes can take longer to finish, like weeks or months.
You can also find the best Shopify developers and WordPress experts online for assistance.
3. E-Commerce Functionality
WordPress vs Shopify for e-commerce functionality is different. It would be best to decide which one will perfectly meet your requirements. But both Shopify and WordPress allow you to:
- Trade physical and digital goods
- Customize shipping rates
- Sell products with different variations
- Add product personalization capabilities
- Schedule and run discounts and promotions
- Set up secure payment processing
- Create and accept gift cards
- Generate automatic or manual tax rates
- Integrate with drop shipping and print-on-demand platforms
- Add cross-sell and upsell functionality to increase your sales
- Connect your e-commerce shop to a point-of-sale (POS) system for a physical location
4. Multi-Channel Commerce
Shopify and WordPress permit you to sell your products outside your e-commerce store, though Shopify has proved to be easier. Seling outside your e-commerce store is known as “multi-channel” commerce. Some examples are as follows:
- Online marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon
- Brick-and-mortar stores
- Pop-up shops like holiday markets
- Social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook (Meta)
You can keep a check of your orders and inventory because of multi-channel commerce.
Shopify can connect your shop to Facebook, Instagram, and Handshake. You can also sell on other platforms, like:
- TikTok
- Etsy
- Amazon
- eBay
- Walmart
5. Search Engine Optimization Capabilities
Compare Shopify vs WordPress SEO; you will see that WordPress offers more control over SEO. This matters because creating animated traffic benefits you to spread people and drive more sales.
6. GDPR Compliance
Both Shopify and WordPress have tools that allow users to meet the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a set of laws endorsed to protect individuals’ confidentiality rights and data in the EU.
7. Multilingual Sites
WordPress and Shopify have multilingual capabilities, but WordPress lets you translate your shop into more languages with different currencies than Shopify.
8. Multiple Sites
One of the main differences between WordPress and Shopify is that WordPress allows users to create multiple shops in a single account, whereas Shopify does not offer this option.
9. Mobile Apps for Shop Owners
Shopify and WordPress have apps that allow users to manage their shops. If you are not close to your computer and suddenly need to eliminate a product from your shop, Shopify’s free iOS and Android Apps will help.
10. Mobile Shopping Experience for Customers
WordPress and Spotify are both suitable for mobile commerce, but there is a slight difference between WordPress and Shopify. Shopify Is easily accessible on mobiles.
11. Customer Support
Should I use WordPress or Shopify? Is WordPress or Spotify better for SEO? Customer support is the instant way to get answers to these and many more questions.
12. Cost of Shopify vs WordPress
WordPress strategies range from free to $70 monthly with monthly billing or accessible to $45 monthly with yearly billing. While Shopify has a $5 per month plan, most users opt for a $39 monthly plan.
User Feedback
With diverse experience, here is what users think about both platforms.
User Feedback for Shopify
Users have positive feedback on Shopify vs WordPress e-commerce. They find Shopify easier comparatively. The difference between WordPress and Shopify has always been a subject of discussion, and people with even a little experience never fail to give their opinions about both. However, feedback always depends on the experience users gain. Shopify costs have always made users like it more.
User Feedback for WordPress
Users who want to take control and like a customized product prefer WordPress. So, it depends on the project’s needs.
| Need | Recommendation |
| Beginner-friendly & Budget-conscious | WordPress (WooCommerce) |
| Focus on Selling & Simple Management | Shopify |
| Advanced Features & Customization | WordPress (WooCommerce) |
| Extensive Product Catalog & High Traffic | Shopify (Consider scalability limitations of WordPress) |
| Blogging & Content Marketing | WordPress (WooCommerce) |
Nutshell!
Picking the most suitable platform for your business requirements can be challenging. Both platforms offer vital features and functionality. Now, it’s your choice to go for the one that ideally fits your needs.
You can also trust Codment to determine the best platform for you and understand your needs. We provide companies with the best digital solutions.
Furthermore, if you are looking for other comparisons, such as Drupal vs WordPress and WooCommerce vs Shopify, you can follow these guides.
