Shopify Cost:

Most of the users find it really easy and convenient to start with Shopify as it offers transparent fees to its users. With all the plans you will get a subdomain - https://your-store.myshopify.com, and if you want your own domain name, you can always purchase it for just $10-$15 per year from a hosting service provider.

Initially, when you start you always have a free trial option to check out the features in the platform. Here are the 3 plans you can opt for based on your shop size and requirements:

1. Basic Plan - $29/Month:

• You can add unlimited products to your store.

• Share with 2 Shopify Admin and also to the POS.

• 24/7 Customer support is provided for you 365 days.

• 4 Inventory locations.

• You can create Manual order with the Basic plan.

• A Free SSL certificate is also provided which is great for SEO.

• Sell your products in 133 Currencies.

• Shopify Shipping Discount of up to 77%.

• 2% transaction fee with other payment gateways

• 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction when using Shopify Payments.

2. Shopify Plan - $79/Month:

• Add unlimited products anytime like basic.

• 5 Shopify admins with access to POS.

• 24/7 365 days customer support for all members.

• Provided with up to 5 inventory locations.

• Manual order creation with discount codes.

• Free SSL certificate for all Shopify Plan users.

• You will get gift card options.

• Shopify shipping discount of up to 88%.

• 1% transaction fee with other payment options

• 2.6% Plus $0.30 for every transaction using Shopify Payments.

3. Advanced Shopify Plan - $299/Month:

• You can add unlimited item listings anytime.

• 15 Staff or admin accounts with POS.

• 24/7 and fast response to customer support 365 days.

• You will get up to 8 inventory locations or warehouses.

• Discount codes with manual order creation options.

• SSL Certificate and with gift card option.

• Shipping discount up to 88%.

• USPS Priority Mail option available.

• Only 0.5% transaction fee when using other payment options.

• You can set individual product pricing for different regions or countries.

• 2.4% Plus $0.30 for every transaction using Shopify Gateway.

4. Shopify Lite - $9/Month:

Shopify Lite is another plan for online merchants who are looking to sell Via POS in-person. With Lite you can add a buy button to their existing WordPress website. With the Lite option, you get to view reports, issue extra gift cards, and also split bills, among others. Some of the features are:

• Dashboard Overview

• Customer profiles & Finances reports

• Product and Order management

• Hardware Accessories & Mobile POS

• Email carts & QR code product details

• In-store inventory Option

• Split bill & Gift cards

• Discount Codes & Custom Discounts

Woocommerce' Cost:

Woocommerce is a Free-to-install plugin, but as you grow your business you may require several other features to support your online store. Comparing to the Shopify Pricing models, Woocommerce can be a bit confusing in terms of cost. However, all you need is to find your needs and choose the options. Check out some of these features mentioned below which you can opt if it suits your needs.

Domain Name Cost - $10-$15 Per Year:

Having a brand-name image for your online shop is always preferred if you want a long-term business. Hence you will need a dot com, dot net, or a recognized domain name to build your store. Domain registration is always cheap with most of the top hosting companies and it only costs you $10-$15 per year on average.

Hosting Cost - $10-$30 Per Month:

The hosting provider for your online store is a critical choice for you, especially when you have a larger store. Always look for a hosting provider that offers extremely high website speed. One of the most important factors in doing your on-page SEO for your site is the loading speed for better customer experiences.

Companies like Hostinger.com provide faster loading speeds for bigger stores. Depending on the plan you choose it may cost anywhere from $10-$30 per month, and if you go for the dedicated server it cost you more.

Theme Costs - $50-$100:

Most eCommerce platforms you use might provide you free themes in the beginning. However, there is always something unwanted with the term FREE. Maybe you will get a website link of the company attached to your store. This is something that you may not want in the long term.

Find some great themes from Theme Forest, Woocommerece theme store, or any other great sites. Make sure your theme supports the features with Woocommerce.

More Plugins - $20-$100:

Most of the online stores are quite okay with free plugins, but when you grow your business with more website visitors you will require important plugins. Sometimes free & outdated plugins make your website slower having more downtimes. WPML, Ali Drop Plugins & Yoast Woocommerce SEO are some paid plugins you might need in the future.

Add-Ons or Extensions - $30-$80:

Add-ons (extensions) are quite similar to extra plugins you install, however, it supports more functions for your eCommerce store. These extensions might help you with more shipping options, payment processing, or customer data management.

Developer Extra Cost (Optional) - $100-$200:

At some point in time, when you are maintaining a large store with lots of customers you will need help from experts to manage things properly. You can hire developers who are experts in handling online stores from Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancers.com.

Woocommerce vs Shopify in Design:

When we talk about the online world the design of your website or store is very important, as it immediately attracts the eyes of the customers. Both Woocommerce & Shopify offers you Free themes to design your store online.

Shopify Design:

The Shopify themes you get with the platform are smooth and well designed which looks much better than Woocommerce themes. There are approximately 100 themes including the Free and Paid versions with the platform. If you want to buy the most well-designed premium themes, you will get them for $140 one time. If you don't want to buy there are always free themes with the platform.

Woocommerce' Design:

With Woocommerce you will have an option for the 'Woocommerce Storefront' templates that will make your online store well designed. It will be a lighter theme and will make your website load much faster. Initially, the Storefront theme is Free to install however it will cost $69 for the Extensions Bundle.

Shopify Vs Woocommerce – Ease of use:

When a platform provides an interface that is easy to use it gives a great advantage especially for beginners. Let's see few things that indicate which platform gives you a simpler interface to make your store online.

Shopify:

Based on real customer user experiences, Shopify always has a great reputation for its simple and easy-to-use platform. The themes are clean, easy to design and you can add new products to your store fast and easily.

The reason why Shopify is easy to use is that it's a self-hosted eCommerce platform. Most of the things that you required as an online store builder are equipped with the platform. So it's pretty much like a ready, set, and Go platform.

Woocommerce:

Here, in terms of easy-to-use interface Woocommerce might require you to spend some time designing your store. You can use the recommended hosting platform like Bluehost that will provide you with Free storefront themes. It also provides you with an auto-install Woocommerce plugin, SSL certificate plus a Free domain name.

Woocommerce vs Shopify Customer Service:

The quality of customer support is what everybody looks for when they decide to do business with a company. A fast, responsive, and customer-centric company is a great company to work with. Both Shopify and Woocommerce are great in the support for their users.

Shopify Customer Service:

When it comes to customer support, Shopify will offer you 24/7/365 days of support through live chat, phone & Email. Whenever you have a query, their response is extremely fast and you will never have an issue with their support team, as they are extremely professional.

Woocommerce Customer Service:

If you are using the free Woocommerce option, you will get support through ticket submission options only. However, if you take Woocommerce powered by Hostinger.com, you will get a 24/7 support option through live chat and phone calls. They are also very professional and much similar to Shopify as they are extremely fast.

Shopify or Woocommerce for Dropshipping:

When it comes to the term Dropshipping, both the Shopify & Woocommerce platform provides powerful options to build the business. Because of the low overheads and good profit margin, the Drop Ship business has become extremely popular in the 21st century. So let's see both these platforms in comparison when it comes to Drop Ship Business.

Shopify Dropshipping:

When you are building a great-looking dropship business with Shopify it will be quite similar to most of the online stores. You might be required to put the user's order for shipping based on what vendors you opt for.

Inside the Shopify platform, you will also have easy integration options for other apps like Oberlo & Ali Express. Before you use any of these apps check the price and fees first as they may be applicable based on what you opt for.

Woocommerce' Dropshipping:

Woocommerce is also one of the most popular choices for all eCommerce business owners, because of its simplicity to installation. It's simple one-click install software that allows you to import any new items in your shop. While using the platform, you might have some membership fees and minimum order requirements.

Payment Methods in Shopify & Woocommerce:

When it comes to payment options, both Woocommerce & Shopify offer a great advantage to their users. This is an important feature of your eCommerce store since it provides an easy and fast checkout for your customers. If you are running a store with a global audience make sure you have multiple payment options.

Shopify Payment Options:

Regarding the customer payment checkout option Shopify is extremely convenient if you opt for Shopify Payment which is powered by Stripe. It will support any mode of payment in multiple countries across the globe. However, if you go for a third party payment option, you will also have many options more than 100 Payment Gateways;

• Paypal Gateway

• First Data

• Amazon Payments

• Stripe

• 2Checkout

• Authorize.Net & More

Note: Any transactions made through these third-party gateways will have an extra 2% Fee for each transaction. Plus there might also be an extra charge for the gateways you use, based on their terms. But if you opt for Advanced Shopify Plan which is $299/Month, the fees will be reduced to 0.5%.

The credit card Fees with Shopify payment are from 2.4% - 2.9% Plus $0.30 based on which plan you opt for. If you go for the third-party integration, you might have to deal with many technical issues and hence the payment option might be a wiser choice for you.

Woocommerce Payment Options:

When you are using Woocommerce, it offers Stripe and Paypal Payments by default. The platform will support all other major third-party payment options and they also offer Woocommerce Payment solution which uses stripe. It supports more than 67 payment gateways;

• Paypal

• Square

• Amazon Pay

• Authorize.Net

• PayU

• Payfast

• Razor Pay & More

Since the platform is self-hosted, there will be only a transaction fee charged by your bank or credit card. If you opt for Woocommerce payment you might have a 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee, however, there is no extra fee for credit card payments. So if you are using a third party in Woocommerce there are more benefits in terms of fees.

Shopify Vs Woocommerce - Pros & Cons:

Before you decide to choose any of these platforms, check out some of the Pros & Cons that might help you in the long run. Shopify even though it is one of the best eCommerce platforms has its own advantages & disadvantages.

Shopify Pros:

• Shopify is Extremely simple to use and doesn't require any technical know-how, for beginners.

• Clean & well-designed Shopify themes make your website very beautiful & attractive.

• The 24/7/365 Days support makes it a super professional and legit eCommerce Platform.

• The platform has more than 1200 In house Apps for solving any issues with your online store.

• Shopify will help you with a lot of SEO tools to make your website rank faster.

• You have the option to provide gift cards for online shoppers

• The dashboard is easy to access and customize anytime you like.

• With the platform, you completely own your online store, unlike Etsy

• Shopify has fast payment processing & secure checkout option

• It is a fully hosted platform and you don't need to pay any server maintenance fee.

Shopify Cons:

• Shopify is not a Free to use platform, as there is always a monthly plan.

• In the beginning, you might struggle with SEO & website visitors.

• You will start everything from scratch with Shopify.

• There are always fees involved with every transaction done through the platform.

• You may also have some customization limitations with the platform.

• Sometimes too many app integrations can affect your website.

Pros & Cons of Woocommerce:

Even though Woocommerce is an extremely popular online store builder for WordPress users, it has a lot of Pros & Cons. The platform might require to have some technical knowledge on building an online store from the scratch. Here are some Pros & Cons of Woocommerce:

Woocommerce Pros:

• It's Free to install 'plugin' for all WordPress users & Costs $0 to start.

• 'Woocommerce' provides an inbuilt SEO option to rank your store faster.

• The interface is very easy to use and can add products easily.

• You will have many integration and plugin options.

• You can build multiple sites with Woocommerce.

• Woocommerce with Bluehost support is the best.

• It Supports a large number of payment gateways.

• The platform is best suited for startups and small businesses.

Woocommerce' Cons:

• Free to start always has a new story & you might need to purchase more later.

• It can't be a bit headache for completely new beginners at you need some SEO knowledge.

• You may need more plugins to effectively use Woocommerce

• More addon plugins mean more cost from your pocket.

• The templates & themes may not be that good as Shopify

• Shipping rate calculations need a bit of work

• The Woocommerce Dashboard is quite old looking

• The page speed is slower when you use the platform.

FAQs about Shopify & Woocommerce:

These are some of the most commonly asked questions by first-time users about Shopify & Woocommerce.

Final words on Shopify vs Woocommerce:

Now that you know a bit about the two eCommerce platforms, it will be much easier for you to decide which one is best suited for you. If one has a better feature in some areas the other may have in another area. So, based on how your online store will be check the features with Shopify and Woocommerce. Shopify might be much clear about the cost and your initial investments to start your store. A long-term online eCommerce business might require you to plan from the start very carefully.