eCommerce retail sales have been expected to be just shy of $5 trillion in 2021 ,and it’s easier than ever to start your own online store with the help of platforms such as Shopify as well as WordPress.
Shopify is an E-commerce platform that allows you to build an online shop of your own. It manages your website for you, and provides you the tools you require. However, WordPress is an open-source platform. You must create your own website, and install plugins, such as WooCommerce to use e-commerce tools.
Both are giants in the world of web-based building however, they are catering to completely different requirements. We’re here to assist you determine which is the best to you Shopify, or WordPress.
We’ve independently investigated and tested a myriad of platforms such as these two and are in a place to reveal our findings to you. Check out how these platforms performed in our study below:
When you’re done with this article, you’ll be aware of what the primary distinctions are, and will know the best choice for you. Shopify and WordPress is the best choice for you.
Need to get your work done? Do you wish someone could let you know the specifics of the best platform for you, instead of having to read this entire article? But the best part is that we’ve created a quick and simple quiz that you can take! Answer a few simple questions and receive a customized suggestion…
What’s the difference in Shopify as well as WordPress?
Shopify is also described as a “website builders’. To understand the purpose behind Shopify is it is first necessary to know what a site builder is.
Website builders are online tools which helps users with little or no technical expertise create their own site. Then, they pay a modest cost each month through the site builder service to maintain their website.
Shopify is specifically designed for e-commerce, which means it’s only used to create online stores (as opposed to blogs and websites for resumes).
We recommend Shopify If you’re looking to buy something
- You are not an expert in technical matters and would like to start an online shop of your own
- You’ll want to keep a close control of your spending
- You value convenience
WordPress is different. It is available in two forms such as WordPress.com or WordPress.org.
WordPress.com is a platform for blogging which works the same manner as a web-based website builder, which allows you to build your own web page. WordPress.org is self-hosted software and is much more technologically advanced.
You can build almost any kind of website using WordPress.org including online stores. It’s that version WordPress that we’ll be comparing with Shopify.
We recommend WordPress If you are looking to use WordPress
- You’ve got some sort of the coding skills
- You have enough money to cover the assistance of a developer
- You’d like total control over the design of your site
Amazingly, WordPress.org has been the driving force behind more than three-quarters of all websites that are accessible on the Internet. On the other side, there’s Shopify is an e-commerce platform with a worldwide reputation that’s utilized by big companies as well as celebrities and has more than 600,000 online stores in total.
Shopify was designed to assist users to start their own online stores, so it includes everything you require right at your fingertips. In contrast to Shopify, WordPress doesn’t come equipped for e-commerce however there are excellent plugins that you can install to start selling your products online for your website. We recommend that you install the WooCommerce extension to convert your WordPress site into a web-based store.
For setting an online store using Shopify All you have to have to do is register an account, select a theme, upload your products and then you’re on your way to. However, WordPress takes a little longer. It is necessary to locate a hosting provider first (we suggest Bluehost) Then install the themes or plugins and personalize your website.
Shopify and WordPress Pros and Cons
Shopify Vs WordPress Pros and Cons
| Shopify Pros | Shopify Cons |
|
|
| WordPress Pros | WordPress Cons |
|
|
How Simple Are They to Use?
Shopify is more user-friendly.
As opposed to WordPress unlike Shopify, you don’t have to be a specialist in code, nor do have to install additional software to sell your products online. With Shopify it comes with all the essential eCommerce features are included.
Coding represents the most significant difference between Shopify as opposed to WordPress. With Shopify you can build and personalize an online shop without having to master the smallest bit of code.
It’s a good idea to start by telling Shopify an overview of your current situation whether you’re selling in person or online and, if you do how much your current income is.
Once you’re there, you’ll access the Shopify dashboard. Consider this as your control center that you use to control everything that goes with an online business. There are also guidelines and suggestions to assist you in understanding the best way to begin and where to start.
The process of adding products is simple as well. You can add them one-by-one – by uploading images of your products and then adding the descriptions, prices and variants or in bulk by using your existing CSV file that contains all of the information about your products.
The interface is similar to a Word document, which means you won’t have any trouble entering details. Even if you need help, support is always to help you. One of our users we talked to put it this way:
“I liked the ability to add items to the store either by hand or automatically (based upon conditions)” Shopify believes that it is one step ahead for users.”
WordPress is, in contrast is more complicated. In the beginning, you’ll need to be able to code , even at an elementary level in order to make use of the platform.
It’s also not designed for selling online and you’ll need to install a plug-in to create a website that is ecommerce-ready.
There are a lot of eCommerce plugins on the market including WooCommerce, Ecwid as well as BigCommerce It’s crucial to read about them prior to deciding which one to choose.
Similar to Shopify, WordPress has its own dashboard that you can control your website. Because WordPress is such a large platform, it could become quite overwhelming because there are a myriad of tools and choices.
It’s easy to create content and include products but when it comes to modifying your site’s design it can become difficult.
The best option is to spend a lot of time learning the techniques that are part of WordPress trade or hire developers to assist you, even though they might charge you high charges.
More Information
- Do you want something simple and fast? This review on the four easiest ADI Website Builders deserves looking at!
- If you’re unsure how to begin, take a look at our comprehensive guide to How to Create an online Store to get the steps to follow
Cost is among the main factors when it comes to deciding whether or not to invest in something and the choice on between Shopify and WordPress isn’t any different.
Shopify provides a 14-day no-cost trial, and three plans. They also offer Shopify Lite (which allows you to create an online store on Facebook), Facebook store) as well as Shopify Plus (an enterprise-level plan offered on a quote by price basis).
99percent of you are likely to be better on any of these three major plans and that’s why we’ll be discussing. Below, you’ll be able to see an overview of the costs along with the savings you could make when you commit to a long-term contract:
| Shopify Pricing Plans | Shopify Basic | Shopify | Advanced Shopify |
| Monthly | $29.00 | $79.00 | $299.00 |
| 1-Year $/month |
$26.10 | $71.10 | $269.10 |
| savings ( percentage) | 10 percent | 10 10% | 10 percent |
| 2-Year Olds $/month |
$23.20 | $63.20 | $239.20 |
| Saves ( percent) | 20 20% | 20 20% | 20 20% |
10 percent or 20% might seem like a lot however, these savings could be significant and can add up quickly. For instance, if you choose to sign up for Shopify’s Advanced Shopify plan, you’d save $358.80 when you sign up for one year ahead and $1,435.20 to sign up two years ahead. This is a very easy savings that businesses can make in the event that they’re able to get along with Shopify and run a stable business. A little bit of planning ahead could result in a significant savings.
Try Shopify for Free
Shopify provides a 14-day trial for free trial and discounts that can reach 20 percent when you sign up for a contract that is longer. When you commit for an annual contract and decide to cancel at any point.
The majority of small-scale merchants will discover the Shopify basic to be adequate. You’ll have access to all themes, work with similar editors, have 24/7 support, and access to the majority of features available for ecommerce.
The advantage that comes with upgrading to shopify plans is that in addition to that, you’ll get an extensive reporting tool as well as abandon cart retrieval. Two major benefits to every business.
The Advanced Shopify plan takes it one step further by allowing you to access advanced reporting options and live shipping.
We believe that we think that the Shopify package at $79 per month is the most price for the money. Recovery of abandoned shopping carts by itself is a great way to help recover the difference of $50 in monthly upgrade costs.
WordPress on contrary, is completely available for use at no cost. Beware of the rumors, however it’s not free once you’re started.
Here , you can find out exactly what it will cost for you to setup and how free could quickly turn into just a few hundred dollars.
| WordPress Costs for Website Hosting | Monthly Costs: anywhere between $5 and between $5 and $100
|
| WordPress Tutorials and Courses Prices | Monthly Costs: Free to $50+
|
| WordPress Theme Costs | One-time Charge: Up to $5,000 in free cash
|
| WordPress Costs of Plugins | One-time cost: $50 to $500 or Costs per month: From $5 to $150
|
The good news is that WordPress’ WooCommerce plugin is completely free to use. Ecwid also offers a no-cost plan, however you can only sell unlimited items using Ecwid Unlimited costing $99 per month.
One way to think about Shopify as opposed to WordPress regarding price is to look at hotels.
Shopify is the all-inclusive plan that may appear to be more expensive initially However, once you’re there all you require is included. WordPress is at first the more affordable option, but then you realize that you must cover everything including food and beverages to sunbeds at the beach.
Templates and Themes
It’s tie!
The Shopify themes are top-quality straight out of the box however, WordPress themes can be flexible.
Templates (often called themes) are the primary design of your site. Imagine them as an PowerPoint layout, where you decide the layout of your slides before you inserting the content.
Shopify offers over 70 themes to choose from.
The themes listed here are completely free, and the others start at $140. It may sound expensive however it’s an one-time purchase that can make your website more attractive.
It is important to note that they’re all mobile-responsive so your site’s layout will automatically adapt to suit various screen sizes when users are surfing on their tablet or mobile devices.
In terms of choice, WordPress blows Shopify out of the water. WordPress has more than 1,000 themes which isn’t even counting for e-commerce!
There are a lot of themes that plugins offer themselves, or created by third-party developers.
Naturally, with the wide range of themes of themes to choose from, certain WordPress templates are superior to others. Some are not mobile-friendly and those that aren’t created by WordPress in itself could conflict with the platform when updates come around.
This is why we’d suggest choosing any of WordPress’ own themes for e-commerce. You can also modify them to your liking. If you’re a seasoned experience in coding and programming, your control over the appearance of your site is practically unlimited.
More Information
- How good is the quality of The Shopify themes? Learn more about it about them in the Shopify Themes Review. review of Shopify’s themes
- Are you looking for ideas? Check out this listing of 24 free professional Ecommerce Templates to Test
eCommerce Tools and Features
WordPress is more user-friendly and has more features
It is possible to search for a plugin that checks all the boxes you’re looking for , and then install it.
Features and tools are the heart and soul of an e-commerce site. They’re what will help you promote and sell your goods.
Shopify offers its own e-commerce tools in-house that you can utilize, while WordPress depends on e-commerce features offered by third-party plugins.
Shopify Features
Shopify lets you sell an unlimited quantity of items at any price. It also allows you to sell physical products as well as digital downloads.
All of the major tools for marketing, shipping, inventory and tools for analysis are integrated, along with additional or more sophisticated versions of each available in Shopify’s app store, at extra cost.
Shopify offers many e-commerce options. We’ll go over the most popular ones, and the reasons why they’re important:
- abandoned cart Recovery Abandoned Cart Recovery Set your site up to send reminder emails to those who leave your site with items in their cart prior to leaving to checkout.
- Discount Coupons Create unique discount codes that customers are able to use when they check-out to get a discount. They are also great to include in your marketing emails.
- Multi-Channel Integration Don’t restrict your site to a single page, sell directly through the major social media platforms as well as international marketplaces like Facebook as well as Amazon.
WordPress Features
To be clear, WordPress does not have any features for e-commerce to begin with. These features must be added through third-party plugins.
Since each plugin comes with a variety of different features for e-commerce and features, it’s difficult to know the features your particular website might include. To give you an idea of what you can be expecting, here’s some of what the two most well-known plugins such as WooCommerce and Ecwid are able to offer:
WooCommerce Features
- Sell unlimited items both digital and physical
- Built-in blogging option
- Reviews and ratings for products
- Sorting and filtering products
Ecwid Features
- Guest check-outs
- Save your most-loved products
- Calculator for shipping
- Multilingual translation
The Payment Option and the Transaction Fees
It’s tie!
Although Shopify is the most comprehensive with regards to payment methods, you’ll be charged additional fees if make use of any other option in addition to Shopify Payments. None of WordPress plugins will match Shopify for payment options however, there aren’t any extra costs.
Accepting payments from your customers could make the difference between making sales or not. It is crucial to provide your clients with the best payment options.
Shopify allows greater than 100 payment gateways which includes the top ones: PayPal, Stripe, Square, Amazon Pay, and Apple Pay.
Additionally, it has an own gateway for payments Shopify Payments which is able to handle orders in the majority of major currencies.
The advantage of using Shopify Payments is that you will not be subject to an added transaction cost.
If you use other payment processors You can anticipate fees ranging from 0.5 percent to 2percent per transaction, depending on the Shopify price plan that you select to.
Similar to its ecommerce capabilities, WordPress’ payment options are available through plugins. WooCommerce, Ecwid and WP eCommerce all support the major gateways. And you aren’t charged additional charges than the individual transaction fees.
Below, you’ll be able to view the payment gateways that are being supported by each plugin/platform:
SEO (Search engine Optimization (SEO or abbreviated) is the method of increasing your site’s visibility through search engines, such as Google and Bing by altering specific features of your website.
Shopify lets you achieve this in a variety of ways, such as the addition of specific titles and descriptions which appear in the search results for every website page (metadata) as well as altering your URLs and site structure to make it simpler for search engines to be able to comprehend, or “crawl”.
There’s a plethora of other SEO-friendly options, however we’re not going involved in it in this article. Instead, check our Shopify SEO guide to get a complete description of what you can use to make your site more efficient.
WordPress SEO, as you’ll be shocked to know that it is accomplished through external plugins. The most well-known SEO WordPress plugin available is Yoast that can be downloaded for free or at a cost of $69 to access advanced features.
Additional Information
- Are you worried that your shop will be ranked by Shopify? Take a look at the review of Shopify’s SEO for more in-depth information.
- Are you thinking of choosing WordPress solely because of its SEO? Before you decide read our post about Web Builder SEO and WordPress SEO!
Advertising Tools and Features
WordPress offers better marketing tools
WordPress provides an incredible array of plugins to help with email marketing as well as the integration of social networks.
A complete e-commerce site designer, Shopify offers some important tools to keep in contact with your customers. These include:
- Recovery emails for carts abandoned that you can modify and include discount coupons to
- Confirmation email which you can modify to send out when a customer makes an order
If you’re looking to go that extra mile in the realm of marketing via email, Shopify offers integrations with third-party tools such as Campaign Monitor and Constant Contact. Shopify doesn’t directly connect with the giant of email marketing MailChimp however should you be determined about using this service then you are able to connect the two by using an integration tool such as Zapier.
WordPress also uses third-party applications for email marketing however, the options are vast. Examples include extensions for MailChimp, GetResponse, and other email marketing platforms that are powerful just scratch the top of WordPress its seemingly endless library of tools from third parties.
When it comes to integration with social media is concerned the majority of Shopify theme has social media icons that enable you to make your profile easy to access. In addition, you are able to sell on Facebook as well as Instagram.
But, the majority of social media apps on Shopify require installing an application first. This is also the case for WordPress however there are many more options within the WordPress plugin store.
Performance and Security
Shopify beats WordPress
Updates to Shopify are automatically made as well SSL security is included at no cost.
One of the people we talked to said:
“Shopify is great at anticipating and anticipating what merchants may require next in every aspect of building websites.”
WordPress is unique in that there isn’t support available in the form of a direct phone call. There are forums, for instance which offer assistance.
We all know that WordPress is a more advanced platform, so it doesn’t expect the users to require assistance. It’s also completely free, meaning you’re not paying for high-quality service. There is an abundance of information on the internet regarding WordPress however you’ll have look through fake reports’ to uncover useful information.
Shopify Vs WordPress: Final thoughts
Shopify is a well-known ecommerce builder designed to assist people in creating websites of their own. The other alternative is WordPress and requires an application similar to WooCommerce to make online sales however, it gives you complete control with regards to your store. It’s an extremely powerful platform, particularly if you have technological know-how.
Shopify against WordPress is a fascinating contest between two web development powerful players.
Shopify is an online store builder which lets you build the online site without having to be an expert in code.
This creates Shopify the ideal choice for beginners and companies that are under pressure however WordPress needs a bit longer and takes more effort to setup. Being able code is an advantage that provides a greater level of customization, making WordPress perfect for tech-savvy and ambitious sellers.
WordPress is completely free, however you’ll have be able to cover hosting and the cost of any plugins or themes that you may want to incorporate into your store.
This means that WordPress difficult to budget for since there is no fixed price however it means you are in control of your expenses. Shopify offers three price plans available that you can choose from beginning at 29 dollars per month.
To summarize the various areas we’ve studied Here’s a brief overview table:
| Area | Shopify | WordPress | Winner |
| User-Friendliness | It is easier to use and requires no programming expertise. | More technically advanced, yet it allows for virtually unlimited flexibility in options for customization. | Shopify |
| Build Time | Fast to start your store and get it up and running, with large uploads of products as well as an easy-to-use dashboard. | It’s a little more complicated procedure unless you’re a code master. You’ll need to pick the appropriate eCommerce plugin. | Shopify |
| Cost | A 14-day trial trial is free. There are three pricing plans that range from $29/month up to $299/month. | Free to use , however it could quickly cost a few hundreds of dollars, if you buy themes, hosting, plugins and tutorials. | Shopify |
| Themes | More than 70 designs to pick from . They are all responsive to mobile devices and created by us in-house. | Many themes to browse through, but they aren’t all alike in terms of quality. | Tie |
| Ecommerce Features | It comes with all the E-commerce capabilities you require to make sales online and grow your business. | A majority of the top plugins provide decent features for e-commerce However, you might need to find additional tools to perform things like analytics. | WordPress |
| Payments and Transactions | More than 100 choices for payment as well as its own payment gateway. The company does charge its own transaction costs, however. | It’s dependent of the software you choose However, most plugins work with the most popular payment gateways, with no charge for transactions. | Tie |
| SEO | Built-in SEO features let you to optimize your site and boost your site’s rank. | You’ll require an SEO plugin and you’ll need to pay extra for access to premium features, which are normal on Shopify. | Shopify |
| Marketing | Some integrations with third-party providers. | It offers a wide range of integrations from third parties. | WordPress |
| Performance | Updates will not affect your site since everything is handled on-site. | Based your theme and hosting and the level of security you choose the updates could impact your website. | Shopify |
| Assistance and Assistance and | 24/7 support is 24/7 support is available via email, phone as well as live chat. Also, there’s an online Support Center and an advanced support option available via email, phone and live chat for Shopify Plus users. | No personal assistance However, there’s lots of technical info on WordPress forum forums. | Shopify |
Which option you choose ultimately depends on your budget and your level of skill. We believe that Shopify is the most effective overall platform for online stores. It has everything you need to grow and succeed in one easy-to-use dashboard.
Shopify is a competitor to WordPress FAQs
In general, it’s based on the features you want to get from an online shop. The most effective overall software we’ve found has been WooCommerce. It’s created by the same firm that developed WordPress It has lots of features that are useful it doesn’t have its own fees for transactions and is available without cost.
It’s not! With Shopify hosting, the hosting takes by the platform and is included as an element of your monthly fees that you pay to use the platform. The same is true for all website builders. There are only self-hosted platforms, such as WordPress that you have to purchase your own hosting.
Numerous web hosting companies have special hosting designed specifically especially for WordPress websites. Based on our findings, Bluehost has the most effective WordPress hosting service that comes with features such as one-click installation and automatic updates. Find out more about the best WordPress hosting providers.
Yes! WordPress actually comes with an Shopify module. It allows you to install the Shopify themes on your WordPress site , and also provides an e-commerce feature. It also allows you to connect your WordPress website to Facebook and get 24/7 support for only $9 per month.
If you’re not looking to selling online – or need to move a item or two, Wix is the perfect platform for you. It’s very simple to use, and comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and packed with high-quality features. Find out more about it in our comprehensive Wix review.
Website Builder Expert strives to provide users with truthful information. We do this by conducting our
Website Builder Expert is committed to providing the user with accurate information. We do our own analysis to gain direct, intimate insight. Please click here to find out more information.
