Shopify vs WordPress for eCommerce: Which platform is better for Ecommerce Startup

Thinking about creating your own eCommerce store? Great! We have gathered the right information that you need to learn before launching your brand. You might have done some research already, but even if you have not, worry not. Here, in this blog, we will answer all of your questions.

This is now the digital age and the world today depends on technological advancements to perform all life activities conveniently, be it shopping only. People today know what ease online shopping can provide and hence they prefer to sit in their homes and shop online for all the things they need. After all, it saves a lot of time and physical effort. E-commerce is indeed becoming the best option in the present era for entrepreneurs as selling customized products and services online requires zero percent real estate.

When we speak about eCommerce, two names appear to be the most discussed among all i.e. Shopify and WordPress. These both are the leading brands of the eCommerce world and they hold reputations that reflect flexibility, simplicity, and amazing performance.

If you have seen these two, you might be confused as to why we are comparing them with one another. Shopify is an exclusive eCommerce platform whereas WordPress is a website builder that can be used by businesses to build a virtual website of their choice.

Learning about Shopify vs WordPress comparison can be of great help to entrepreneurs as both of them have surfaced as the two most favorite platforms of various brands as these both create websites that are sale-friendly.

Let us have a closer look so as to understand WordPress vs Shopify’s comparison so that you can make a well-informed decision and the right choice for your business.

An Overview of Shopify vs WordPress

Before diving deep into the must-have knowledge it is essential for you to understand that both of these tools are very much different.

Shopify

Shopify is a popular web application that has been designed especially for merchants to help them build and design online stores that customers can trust. If you are in search of an eCommerce platform that can provide you with a domain name, your very own plugin for eCommerce, access to PayPal, a customize cart page shopify, and various other features, you can surely rely on Shopify.

Shopify, as the name indicates, is all about helping people to shop. This eCommerce platform comes with a range of templates that can be chosen and customized to meet the requirements of various kinds of businesses and the branding they require. There is a Shopify plan available for everyone.

The concept behind Shopify is that even if a person does not have technical or design skills, he would still be able to build a website where he can sell his products. The customizable features enable you to edit things like HTML and CSS if needed. This can be of huge help if you already have some coding skills. The payment method is simple with Shopify. Setting up an online store with Shopify is very easy and requires very less amount of time. The learning curve is limited and it is easier to maintain.

Moreover, it is a hosted solution. Shopify servers help you with all of the functionality. There is no need to buy web hosting or install any software. It is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool, meaning that no copy of the software is owned by you, instead, a monthly fee can be paid in order to access it.

What is the deal with WordPress?

The first thing you must know is that there are two kinds of WordPress that are available. WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

WordPress.org is hosted by the user himself whereas, there’s a separate company that hosts WordPress.com. Just like Shopify, WordPress.com is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool that can be obtained by paying a monthly fee. This proves to be an all-rounder and all in one solution that can be used to create and maintain a range of websites.

Apart from this, WordPress.org is a component of a website building or eCommerce software that can be installed into the user’s own web server. This is an open-source solution and is highly customizable. WordPress.org is a flexible tool that is easier to use and make changes to, especially if you have some experience with coding.

The WordPress.org is a solution that can be installed on your server for free. However, the hosting will involve costs so that makes it partially free.

WordPress solutions can be easily found. Moreover, with WordPress, you get an amazing range of features. Not only this, but WordPress also offers access to the eCommerce plugin of Woocommerce along with every tool that you will require to create your very own storefront and checkout page. All praises for the plugins that give you easy access to all the features of eCommerce that your store requires.

To simply put, WordPress is greatly extensible. Along with add-ons and free themes, it also offers plugins for almost everything. Web hosting services can be used for anything from inventory management to product reviews and so much more.

For the Shopify vs WordPress comparison, here we will specifically talk about the self-hosted version of WordPress i.e. WordPress.org.

Shopify vs WordPress: Value and Pricing

There is a bunch of things you must consider when it comes to the comparison of Shopify with WordPress. From the ease of use to features and flexibility options. However, the first and most important thing to consider is the cost.

Shopify

Shopify offers a total of 5 pricing plans from which you can choose.

• Basic Shopify: There is almost everything that is required to set up a store and start your business for $29 monthly.
• Shopify: This offers a complete experience of Shopify in $79 monthly.
• Advanced Shopify: An exclusive range of amazing features for a growing business in $299 monthly.

Moreover, there are pricing plans as Shopify Plus that allows for negotiable cost, and Shopify Lite which begins at $9 per month. Simply put, Shopify Plus is the most expensive pricing plan for them all. So make sure you are clear with what kind of plan you need instead of randomly just picking one. Most features of Shopify also offer you a trial period of 14 days before you decide to buy them.

To actually understand what you are getting in return of the cost you are paying is to look closely at the number of features and products that Shopify is offering you in a plan. After all, you require a hosting provider and storefront that allow you to manage a wide range of features and products.

Most website building tools provide you a number of features depending upon the amount of money that you pay to buy a certain plan. For example, Shopify Lite offers you an option to put on your site a Shopify ‘buy’ button and sell through Facebook but there is no store that is standalone. Moreover, the service of Phone support is available only when you buy a basic plan or higher.

Shopify is affordable and is an easy option that you can turn to to build your very own online store if you want great flexibility on a limited budget. However, the plus and advanced plans can be expensive for your startup.

WordPress

Let’s see what WordPress is offering.

It is a bit hard to be certain as to how much the self-hosted WordPress website will cost you as many variables are involved.

Downloading it and making a website is completely free but the price of your strategy will be actually depending on factors like:

• The designs and themes that you choose. Some of the themes are premium therefore their prices differ from one another.
• Various companies offer to host and unfortunately not all of them offer a good range of pricing plans to choose from.
• If your business requires a range of plugins and integrations so as to run your business, you might end up paying more than you thought.

Moreover, WordPress requires coding skills and if you do not have much experience with coding, you might need a developer and that adds an additional cost for you to cover.

When building a store with WordPress, the most important thing you need to pay for is hosting. Therefore, it is better to decide beforehand whether you will choose a shared-hosting service or an already managed hosting provider. To be clearly said, managed hosting offers you a faster and more secure website, but it indeed is costly. Whereas, shared-hosting is cheaper but can not be considered as an ideal hosting solution for large-scale businesses.

The following may be average prices for a WordPress eCommerce website:

• Managed Annual Hosting: $350 per year.
• Premium Theme: $150 one-off.
• Ecommerce Integrations: $180 per year.
• Plugins: $100
• Hire Shopify Developer’s Help (part-time): $500 to $2000

Shopify vs WordPress: Transaction Fees

It is better to keep in mind the options for payments when you are selecting a platform for your eCommerce store. Whether you accept payments through PayPal or through credit card transactions, you will be needing a service that has minimal fees for the transaction. Shopify’s transaction fees begin with the basic plan of Shopify for $29 each month with a cost of 2.9 percent has 30 cents on each online transaction. The Shopify plan costs $79 each month with a cost of 2.6 percent and 30 cents for each online transaction. Whereas, the transaction fees in WordPress will be depending on the type of eCommerce payment gateways you opt to use.

Shopify vs WordPress: Ease of Use and Features

If you are someone who is new to this world of online selling get ready to learn exciting things about each solution you encounter on your way. Some solutions are easy to work with whereas many solutions require technical skills which can be quite hard for you if you have less knowledge about such skills.

Whether you go for WordPress or for Shopify, there will be many things that will interest you but what matters is that what is easier for you to use. After all, after pricing, designing and ease of use are all that matters in selecting any e-commerce tool.

Shopify

Shopify is actually and only based on the idea of online store building and online shopping therefore all of its features and design meet the requirements of almost every business that intends of building its online brand identity. Shopify stands as a specialist in this area.

You can try Shopify for free for 14 days to see whether it suits you or not and if it does, you can register your account right away in no time. After logging in, you will have a variety of tools to enhance your experience of online selling.

Shopify offers access to a huge marketplace where you can easily find plugins to integrate and maximize the functionality of your store in order to make it stand out. You can even track your taxes with these integrations. You do not have to worry about not having coding skills anymore. You can easily start accepting credit card payments. Not only this but Shopify also offers the easiest shopping cart and payment gateways. You can also learn more about the plans and other details on Shopify partners.

Shopify is an extremely flexible eCommerce store builder and according to many users, it is very easier, to begin with. It is not only straightforward but also convenient to work with. There are guides and materials that are knowledge-based that will help you along your way.

What about WordPress?

WordPress is not a solution that was created based on the concept of online shopping. It is a tool that allows a user to create any kind of website. It offers you a range of tools and plugins that can transform your site in no time making your online presence unique.

Here we are talking specifically about eCommerce websites, and for such websites, WordPress offers a range of options including woocomerce plugin, WP eCommerce. Plugins like Woocommerce come with loads of highly required features for your store and settings that will provide you with an experience similar to any separate website builder.

These plugins offer options like payment and shipping setting options, web design, SEO, and a good range of cool templates to choose from.

Building a store with WordPress means that you will be needing loads of plugins that will keep your site in a good state and maximize its functionality. However, the addition of a large number of plugins can slow down your site.

To be clearly said, WordPress is the easiest CMS system existing in the present age but it does throw many challenges too such as basic knowledge of programming languages like HTML is needed to some extent and also you will be needing a place for your website hosting.

The good thing about WordPress is that it is popular and so it is easier to find guides and help online when working with WordPress. There will be various resources that can help you to learn the use of WordPress.

However, in terms of simplicity and ease of use, Shopify wins. WordPress can be the best solution if you just want to build a website but if you are launching an eCommerce store, no solution can beat Shopify.

Shopify vs WordPress: Dropshipping Options

Dropshipping is not what everyone might be interested in but it is an easier option for people who avoid stocking and managing their products.

With this option, you get a merchant who completes the part of shipping of the process of sales for you. This actually minimizes the cost of running an eCommerce business.

With both, Shopify and WordPress, the easiest option is to use a plugin tool.

For Shopify, Oberlo is the most popular option for dropshipping. It enables companies to search for products to sell, add these products to their store, and begin selling them right away.

Just like Shopify’s Oberlo, WordPress uses plugins like Airdropship. This is a plugin that requires one-time-fee only and it enables you to search for the right merchants in order to complete your sales. Moreover, you do not face any limitation on the quantity of the product that you can list, or on your orders each month.

Both WordPress or Shopify dropshipping will benefit your business. As both of these tools provide plugins to assist you with drop shipping so it is hard to conclude which one is better than the other. Regardless of the solution you use, you have to find a plugin that suits you. Choosing WordPress or Shopify for your eCommerce website depends on your choice of plugins.

Shopify vs WordPress: Guidance and Customer Support

Guidance and customer support are the things that are often overlooked when you are using a tool for the first time. You think that you will learn to use the system in no time and hence the customer service will not be that much necessary. But this is where you might slow down for a bit and give it a thought. Customer support and guidance are both very helpful when you have exhausted yourself while trying to learn a certain function or do certain changes.

Shopify

Shopify’s customer support is just amazing. When you purchase a plan, customer support is already included in it as standard. Phone and email support are always available for everyone excluding the Shopify Lite plan. With the Lite package, you can receive email and chat support, which is still more than enough to get the basic assistance.

There is also a help center and a bunch of community forums that can be browsed through in order to find answers and get your concerns addressed.

WordPress

With WordPress, you might face problems with customer support as this self-hosted platform does not offer up-to-the-mark customer support.

Of course, you can find support from WordPress forums and other customer sites. But in order to get a more immersive and detailed form of support, you will require to work with a professional developer who specializes in WordPress.

On the brighter side, just because most of your WordPress experience will be achieved through plugins and add-ons, you will be relying on external or third-party service providers for assistance. As you plan to extend and grow your business with WordPress, you will be looking for add-ons and plugins that will most likely be provided by vendors who offer great customer support.

Shopify vs WordPress: Content and SEO

In order to keep a business alive and smoothly running, search engine optimization helps a lot. If you do not have a notable appearance in search results, your sales will be affected greatly and your website will not get traffic. You can opt for paid advertising to boost your sales. However, SEO is the easiest way to enjoy website traffic and maximized sales.

How does WordPress or Shopify help with an SEO strategy?

Let’s see the comparison between Shopify vs WordPress SEO.

Shopify offers pretty basic SEO features and they are reliable. You can easily access things such as SSL in order to keep your website safe and secure and list in Google’s good books so as to appear in top search results. Moreover, XML sitemaps are created automatically for you.

Unfortunately, leading solutions such as Yoast cannot be used on Shopify but there are many other SEO plugins available that will work for you. Advanced Shopify editing can be used so as to perform the implementation of your very own SEO strategies.

Read Also How is WordPress or Shopify better for SEO?

The downside of Shopify in terms of SEO is that it is harder to build URLs that are super clean. This is because you are always getting things such as /pages/before your pages, and so much more.

WordPress offers amazing SEO options. Especially if you install Yoast.

The Yoast WordPress plugin performs in-depth analyses on your content from a perspective of an SEO after which it delivers step-by-step guidance to you, helping you to enhance your ranking. Plus, with Yoast plugin for WordPress, you are able to create sitemaps that are SEO enhanced are create URLs that are canonical in order to avoid duplicate content.

Read Also SEO Best Practices for Migrating to Shopify

Shopify vs. WordPress: Selling Tools or Ecommerce

Shopify vs WordPress for eCommerce – which one is better?

Shopify offers you a range of amazing eCommerce features that will make your store one of its kind and help you to make it stand out from the crowd. After logging in, you will be taken to a dashboard where email details, product information, etc. can be loaded.

Shopify enables users to:

• Organize effectively.
• Manage and track inventory.
• Add detailed product descriptions, pricing details, and images.
• Tools for category organizing.
• Create additional web pages and blogs.
• Abandoned cart feature that is integrated with email marketing tool and follows up on sales that are potentially lost.
• 70 plus payment processors and multi-currency process calculations.
• Order and customer detail tracking.
• Multiple staff login options.
• for the delegation of staff responsibilities.

With WordPress, eCommerce features will depend on the plugin you are using with your account for gaining eCommerce functionality. Most people will opt for Woocommerce. Woocommerce features are almost similar to those of Shopify and this also includes selling both physical and digital products.

Woocommerce allows you to create customer accounts designed specifically designed for individual users and products that are sold to affiliates with added incentives. Products can be listed in categories so it is easier to track them.

Other great features include:

• Geolocation tools in order to track addresses and make delivery on time at the right location.
• Shipping variant options and pricing with options. (For local delivery, collection, and more)
• Automated templates of email.
• Coupon and discount creation.
• Feature of product reviews.

Take Away

Reasons why you should use Shopify instead of WordPress:

• Shopify is easier to use.
• It has its own payment solutions.
• Minimal technical skills required.
• Hosting is included within the solution.
• Shopify offers a lot of features as standard that WordPress does not.
• It is secured and there is very little risk of getting hacked.
• Shopify promises the security of your website.
• Free trial of 14 days.
• It offers great customer support and guidance.

Reasons why you should use WordPress instead of Shopify:

• It is entirely open-source software and can be downloaded for free.
• All kinds of websites can be built using WordPress which means this platform is more flexible than Shopify.
• Loads of options for eCommerce strategies are available in WordPress.
• Better content management system including archiving and content versioning.
• It provides better SEO because of access to Yoast.
• Best for multi-site projects or multi-language stores.
• It offers more control over marketing and content strategies.

FAQs

Shopify vs WordPress. Which is better for SEO?

This can be a hurl up and truly rely upon what you need out of an online store, what number of items you have, and so on.  There are diverse web-based business stages inside WordPress you might go with relying upon your store size. Also different modules you may need to buy.

In the event that you have the spending limit, you might need to engage Shopify as it has a great deal of pre-constructed usefulness that you would need to buy as extra modules with Word Press. It has extraordinary detailing highlights just as incorporations with various other outsiders. Despite the fact that you do need to pay month to month with Shopify, it has a ton of the instruments you would require as of now, also it’s particularly made for internet business and you don’t need to stress over if your facilitating organization will have the option to deal with your traffic or have sporadic personal time. From what I’ve heard, Shopify servers are extremely decent and I’m speculating you’ll be taking care of truly well too on the client assistance end.

WordPress vs Shopify which is cheaper?

Regardless of the way that Word Press is, in fact, free, Shopify is a lot less expensive in general. Plans go from $29/month – $299/month and incorporate all that you need. Word Press is allowed to utilize, yet you’ll have to fork out for facilitating, topics, and modules all independently.

Which plugin use for WordPress alidropship vs Shopify plugin?

All things considered, everything really relies upon Your necessities. Before You choose which one You ought to pick You should test these two in light of the fact that the two arrangements are awesome.

On the off chance that You need to utilize Shopify for outsourcing, You will require extra Oberlo module. These two are the cost of $696 every year. On the off chance that You go with AliDropship – You will pay $67 for a lifetime permit.

Which plugin use for WordPress alidropship vs WordPress Shopify plug-in?

Outsourcing is by a long shot the most beneficial plan of action in web history that isn’t subject to any single stage. It is anything but difficult to begin on account of an entire host of instruments accessible to the clients. Truth be told, anybody with simple access to the web and a functioning charge card can without much of a stretch beginning a WooCommerce outsourcing store.

Most clients begin outsourcing with the WooCommerce internet business stage. WooCommerce is an expansion of WordPress and is selective in making web-based business stores. Indeed, in excess of 20 percent of web-based business sites online use WooCommerce to begin their online stores.

One explanation behind its distinction is the accessibility of a wide scope of online modules to make web-based business arrangement consistent. In a rush? Rapidly find a workable pace segment of the best outsourcing modules for WooCommerce.

• AliDropship Woo
• Spocket
• WooDropship
• Dropified
• YouDroop
• DropshipMe

Which is better Shopify vs WordPress for eCommerce?

Shopify stands apart as a customized web-based business answer for everybody. Whereby everybody, we mean individuals who probably won’t have any site building or coding abilities, yet still need to have the option to make a marvelous online store without anyone else.

The primary advantage of working with Shopify is that you can begin in minutes and start serving your first clients very quickly.

In any event, setting the coding and site-building aptitudes aside – which you don’t require – you additionally don’t should be completely acquainted with different real factors of the web-based business itself. Shopify encourages you to set things like the stock, charges, shipping settings, etc. At the end of the day – it explains each and every exhausting part of the business.

Besides, Shopify is additionally an extremely moderate arrangement. To begin, you just need $9 per month. At that cost, you gain admittance to all that could possibly be needed site structures and customization choices.

Shopify vs WordPress: which is better for eCommerce blogging?

Shopify is a devoted web-based business stage that encourages you to fabricate your own online store. It has your site for you and gives all of you the devices you need. Conversely, WordPress is an open-source stage. You have to have your own site, and introduce modules like WooCommerce for web-based business devices.

Is WordPress better than Shopify?

You can assemble any sort of site with WordPress; it’s a more adaptable stage than Shopify. … The quantity of variations and item choices you can use (without an Shopify app development) in Shopify is somewhat restricted – huge numbers of the WordPress alternatives give you greater adaptability on that front. Website design enhancement in WordPress is somewhat better than in Shopify.

Is Shopify built on WordPress?

No, Shopify depends on a templating language called Liquid which was created by Shopify prime supporter Tobias Lütke. WordPress is absolutely founded on PHP, MySQL database and an HTTP web server. You can likewise construct a web-based business webpage in WordPress utilizing WooCommerce.

Is Shopify better than WordPress for dropshipping business?

Indeed and no. On the off chance that you need to go standard and need to part with all your benefits on the long haul without a doubt, you ought to go Shopify.

Which platform is better for blogging, Shopify or WordPress?

Shopify has worked a great deal on its foundation to make the online journals of the internet business locales made on it. As a rule, Shopify has preferred SEO esteem over WordPress as it is self-facilitated. WordPress web journals are for the most part facilitated in third-get-together sites, and the SEO endures immensely.

What makes WordPress better than Shopify?

WordPress is undeniably a superior setup and more adaptable stage than Shopify. It has a fundamentally greater client base and a lot more prominent determination of topics and applications to look over; given the correct abilities and assets, you can essentially fabricate any kind of site you like with WordPress.