WooCommerce and Shopify power millions of online stores between them, and we build on both. Neither is better in every case. The right choice depends on how much control you want, who will run the store day to day, and how your customers will pay.
The short version
- Choose Shopify if you want a store that is quick to launch, easy for non-technical staff to manage, and you would rather pay a monthly fee than look after hosting, updates and security yourself.
- Choose WooCommerce if you already have a WordPress website, want full control over design and data, need unusual features, or want to avoid platform transaction fees.
Cost
Shopify charges a monthly subscription, and paid apps add to it. Your costs are predictable, and hosting, security and updates are included.
WooCommerce itself is free, but you pay for good hosting, a premium theme or custom design, some paid extensions, and someone to keep everything updated. For a small store the yearly total can be lower than Shopify. For a large or complex store it can be higher.
Payments
This is often the deciding factor for Nigerian businesses. Shopify’s own payment system is not available in every country, and stores that use a third-party gateway such as Paystack or Flutterwave may pay an extra Shopify transaction fee on top of the gateway’s own fee, depending on the plan. Check the current fees for your country before you commit.
WooCommerce works with Paystack, Flutterwave, Stripe, PayPal and many more through plugins, and WooCommerce itself takes no cut of your sales.
Control and flexibility
WooCommerce is open source. You own the code and the data, can host it anywhere, and can build almost anything with the right developer. The trade-off is that you are responsible for keeping it secure and up to date.
Shopify is more contained. Many features come from its app store, and there are limits on how far you can change checkout and some store behaviour. For most stores those limits never matter. For a few, they are a deal-breaker.
Day-to-day running
Shopify’s admin is very easy to learn, which matters when sales staff or a client will be adding products and processing orders. WooCommerce sits inside WordPress, which is also friendly, but plugin updates and compatibility need regular attention. That is exactly what our Website Care plans handle.
Our recommendation
If you sell a straightforward range of products and want the least hassle, start with Shopify. If you already run on WordPress, sell in a way that needs custom features, or want to keep transaction costs down, choose WooCommerce. Still unsure? Tell us about your products and customers and we will recommend the platform that fits, then build the store for you.
