Starting an online store is not a child’s play. A lot of efforts are needed to make a professional online store live. When it comes to choosing eCommerce platform, there are endless choices available.

However, Shopify and WooCommerce always remain on the top of the list when users look for highly-professional, user-friendly eCommerce platforms. Both platforms have their own set of strengths. And deciding which one you should pick majorly depends on your individual needs.

In this blog, we have attempted to provide a detailed comparison of these two giant e-Commerce platforms, so that users can get an idea which platform should be better for their specific needs.

Let’s begin it:

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Ease of Installation

WooCommerce

Being a mega-plugin from WordPress, WooCommerce is installed similar to other WordPress plugins. If you are having a fully-functional WP site, you do not need to buy hosting separately.

The steps to install WooCommerce in WP site should go as per below.

  • Log in to WP account
  • Go to dashboard>Plugin>Add New>Install WooCommerce Plugin
  • Activating the WooCommerce plugin

Shopify

Opposed to WooCommerce, Shopify is an online tool. Creating a store on it is quite easy. You just have to sign up for an account at Shopify.com as you do with websites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Soon after, you go through a quick setup. And after following steps, your e-commerce store is ready to use.

All in all, the whole procedure is quite simple, you really don’t need much design and website developing skills.

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Both WooCoommerce and Shopify don’t require any sort of technical knowledge to launch an online store. Any layman who is not aware of coding can easily use them and create his/her store.

Designs & Theme Options

WooCommerce

When it comes designs and themes, WooCommerce provides unlimited options. There are countless 3rd party providers who create themes and templates for WooCommerce and WordPress.

Even most WordPress themes are compatible with WooCommerce.

Themeforest is the major platform for the WordPress themes, where users can find the best-suited theme out of thousands of options.

Moreover, users can also edit WooCommerce’s code to build anything of their own choice.

Shopify

Shopify also provides a wide range of options for themes. On Shopify stores, users can find over 100 of free and premium themes. All the themes are mobile-responsive come with the clean aesthetic look and a number of color combinations.

The price of professionally paid themes at Shopify may cost you up to $150. However there is one downside of Shopify, all themes come in the ready to go form, which means very little scope for customization.

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Both platforms come with a variety of theme options. However, WooCommerce is the product of giant CMS, WordPress and it has more theme options.

Better SEO Platform

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the important and primary ways to bring organic (natural) traffic to an online store. However, for that purpose, it is necessary that your e-Commerce platform is compatible with Search Engine Optimization.

Let’s find out the SEO capabilities of both WooCommerce and Shopify.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce comes from a well-known CMS platform i.e. WordPress. WordPress is actually a content creation platform that is renowned for various SEO proficiencies. And when it is paired with WooCommerce, it lends a lot of SEO techniques to WooCommerce such as content optimization, title optimization, image optimization, meta tags, etc.

Shopify

Like WooCommerce, Shopify is also an SEO compatible platform. It supports all types of SEO techniques, including Meta tags, Image optimization, Alt tags, Title tags and more.

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Both platforms seem exceptionally good in term of SEO capabilities. Both platforms can help you to rank well in the search engine results.

Pricing

WooCommerce Pricing

WooCommerce is a free plugin from WordPress and as long as you have a WordPress site, you can install this plugin for free.

However, to make some customizations, you may have to add some extensions and that could be paid.

Since these are an extra expense, you have complete liberty to remove them if they are not working for you.

To create a WP site, you require a domain name, hosting service,  WP theme, and SSL certification.  The cost of all of them depends on your hosting provider and your requirements.

In short, the pricing is not fixed with WooCommerce. However, you can expect to spend $10/mo for a basic online store.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify comes with fixed plans. And therefore, options are limited. There are 3 plans with Shopify.

  1. Basic Shopify ($29/mo.)
  2. Shopify ($79/mo.)
  3. Advanced Shopify ($299/mo.)

The ‘Basic Shopify’ is the low-priced plan that has been designed keeping the needs of Startups in mind.

The second plan is ‘Shopify’ which is meant for mid-sized online stores.

The most expensive package from Shopify is ‘Advanced Shopify’. It comes with some advanced features, specially designed for large enterprises.

All 3 plans provide free Shopify subdomain. If a user needs a custom domain, $14 is separately taken.

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As Shopify is readily available eCommerce platform, users need not buy a domain name, hosting, etc. separately. However, it has very limited plans in comparison to WooCommerce.

Speed

WooCommerce

The speed of WooCommerce store totally depends on server performance of your hosting provider. If you pick the low-quality hosting provider, performance will surely go down and you may end up with issues like slow loading of the page, continual downtime, etc.

Shopify

Shopify supports secure PCI compliant website hosting. Moreover, the company is also known to provide the best quality infrastructure, which ensures your customer load your online store quickly.

Conclusion

There is no clear or easy answer to a question which platform is better. Both platforms come with a wide range of options for setting up your eCommerce store in a quick and well-organized way.

With which platform you should go depends on your specific needs. It is to be hoped that this review has shown you a clear picture of both platforms.