Shopify vs WooCommerce 2023: What's Best for You?

While WooCommerce and Wordpress are both free open-source platforms, the cost of running an online store on the platform isn’t free. You’ll still need to pay for hosting, SSL certificates, and plugins to create a secure and live website. On Shopify, hosting, an SSL certificate, and so forth is included in a monthly subscription. One of the benefits of this, is that as your business grows, the cost of hosting doesn’t change keeping the price point manageable.

When comparing Shopify vs WooCommerce, Shopify offers an out of the box solution. So when you sign up for Shopify, you’re steps away from completing your online store. You even choose your domain name at signup. On WooCommerce, you’ll need to sign up for hosting, buy a domain name, and then sign up for Wordpress and add WooCommerce as a plugin. The setup process on WooCommerce is a bit trickier though manageable because of all the separate components whereas Shopify bundles it all together.

Shopify support is available 24/7, no matter which plan you’re on. You’ll also have access to help docs, webinars, blog posts, and online courses to guide you along the way. On WooCommerce, support comes in the form of ticket support, WooCommerce docs, live chat, email, and a blog.

Shopify includes a free subdomain on .myshopify.com with every sign up. If you decide you want to have your own domain name, the process can be completed in Shopify in only a few clicks. You can use theDomain Name Generator, a free tool that helps you discover domain name availability. On WooCommerce, you’ll need to purchase your domain name with a third-party as a subdomain isn’t included.

It’s possible to have an SSL certificate, which helps keep your website secure on both WooCommerce and Shopify. However, on Shopify it’s automatically included whereas on WooCommerce you’ll need to set it up separately.

WooCommerce and Shopify both offer file storage. On Shopify, you have unlimited storage included in your monthly subscription automatically. However, on WooCommerce you’ll need to pay $29 a year through their Amazon S3 Storage plug-in to have access to better file storage.

Want to translate your website in multiple languages. It’s possible on both WooCommerce and Shopify. WooCommerce recommends a paid plug-in called Multilingual Press which starts at $99 a year for up to three languages. Shopify allows an unlimited number of languages through our International Domains product for those on the Shopify, Shopify Advanced, and Shopify Plus plans. You can choose to buy domain names for all regions or use a subdomain instead.

Shopify需要网站速度非常认真和有一个team of performance experts working to keep Shopify sites as fast as possible. You can view your speed score in Shopify’s admin and make improvements to continue keeping your site speed as fast as possible. WooCommerce doesn’t have control over site speed. Your site speed will be dependent on the hosting service you hire, whether you share servers with big sites, and other external factors. WooCommerce users often add multiple plugins to their website, which can also decrease site speed.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is an industry security standard required by all companies to ensure all credit card details are stored securely. Shopify is certified Level 1 PCI-DSS compliant. However, WooCommerce isn’t compliant automatically, a third-party plugin will be required to maintain compliance. For example, Stripe is a plugin that is PCI-DSS compliant.

Both Shopify and WooCommerce merchants want to make the most of their live site. Shopify has a reliable uptime that merchants trust. Since hosting is external to WooCommerce, you’ll need to find a reliable hosting provider.