Shopify vs WooCommerce is usually framed as a feature contest, but both platforms can run a good store. The better question is who will look after the store once it is live, how much control you need over the parts customers never see, and where your money goes each month. A custom build adds a third option for businesses whose selling model doesn’t fit a standard store. This guide sets out what each choice means in practice, so you can pick the one that suits the business you actually run.
Shopify: you rent a well-run shop
Shopify is a hosted platform. You pay a monthly plan fee, and Shopify looks after hosting, security patches, checkout and uptime. As of October 2026 its pricing page lists Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, priced in US dollars. If you use a payment provider other than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a transaction fee that falls as the plan rises, from 2% on Basic to 0.2% on Plus. That fee matters in countries where Shopify Payments isn’t offered: India is one of them, while the UAE, the UK and the US are on the list.
What you give up is some control. You can change the checkout only within the limits Shopify sets for your plan, the URL structure follows Shopify’s patterns, and features beyond the core usually come from apps with their own monthly fees. For most product brands with a small team, that trade is worth it.
WooCommerce: you own the shop and the building
WooCommerce is an open-source plugin that turns a WordPress site into a store. The plugin itself carries no monthly platform fee, according to WooCommerce’s own site, which also lists a marketplace of more than 1,000 extensions. You pay instead for hosting, a theme, paid extensions, payment processing and, above all, upkeep. WordPress core, WooCommerce and every plugin need updating, testing and backing up, and that work falls to you or someone you pay.
In return you get control: your own server, your own database, any URL structure you like, and the full WordPress publishing tools for content-heavy stores. WooCommerce suits a business that already runs WordPress well, publishes a lot of content, or needs to change how the store behaves in ways a hosted platform doesn’t allow.
A custom build: when the selling model is the product
A custom build means software written for your business, often a headless setup where a commerce engine handles products and orders behind a front end your developers design freely. It makes sense when the way you sell is unusual: configurable products with complex pricing, a marketplace with many sellers, subscriptions tied to services, or deep links to an existing ERP. It costs the most to build and to maintain, and you need a team, in-house or contracted, who will keep it running for years.
Shopify vs WooCommerce on running costs
Compare a year, not a month. For Shopify, add the plan fee, any third-party transaction fee, payment processing and app subscriptions. For WooCommerce, add hosting good enough for traffic spikes, premium extensions and their renewals, payment processing, and the hours someone spends on updates and fixes. Say a home-goods brand in Melbourne lists 300 products and sells mainly in Australia: WooCommerce’s lower platform cost can disappear once you price in a few hours of developer time each month. A content publisher in Bengaluru with an in-house WordPress team might find the opposite.
Questions that settle the decision
- Who will update and fix the store at 9pm on a sale day? If nobody technical, lean towards Shopify.
- Is content (guides, recipes, long articles) a big part of how you win customers? WooCommerce on WordPress handles that well.
- Does your checkout or pricing logic break the normal cart model? That is the case for a custom build.
- Which payment providers work in your country, and what does each platform charge on top?
- How easily can you leave? Export your products, customers and orders from a trial setup before you commit.
Whatever you choose, make sure the domain, the platform account and the payment accounts are registered in the business’s name, not a freelancer’s.
If you want an outside view before committing, our technology advice sessions cover platform choice, and our website and store builds work on Shopify and WordPress. For a custom selling model, see our web app and SaaS work. Every project starts with a free 30-minute call and a written scope agreed before any work begins.
Frequently asked questions
Is WooCommerce cheaper than Shopify?
The WooCommerce plugin has no monthly platform fee, but a working store still needs hosting, a theme, paid extensions, payment processing and regular maintenance. Shopify bundles hosting and upkeep into its plan fee and adds app costs. Which is cheaper depends on how much technical work you can do yourself, so compare a full year of costs, including time.
Can I move from Shopify to WooCommerce later, or the other way?
Yes. Products, customers and orders can be exported and imported between the two, using built-in tools or migration services. Themes, apps and custom features don’t carry across and need rebuilding. Plan URL redirects so search rankings survive the move, and run both stores side by side for a short test period before switching the domain.
When is a custom ecommerce build worth it?
When the way you sell doesn’t fit a standard cart and checkout, and the business can fund both the build and years of maintenance. Examples include multi-vendor marketplaces, complex configurable products and services sold with subscriptions. If a hosted platform plus a few apps can do the job, a custom build is usually an expensive way to get the same result.