Table of Contents
Choosing an eCommerce platform for building your online store requires greater attention to detail. You have to consider both the present and future of your online store while making your choice. Both Shopify and WooCommerce are two popular eCommerce platforms you can rely on for building your website.
Thus, if you are having difficulty to pick one from the above two, then read ahead. This article would be a great guide on helping you make the decision precisely and fast.
User Support
Running an online store is indeed a complex task as it requires many different things to go hand in hand. And, it is quite common to run into various technical issues from time to time. The worst part of it is that you can’t afford to spend a lot of time on solving these issues. Thus, you should have a proper technical support team to help you out during these emergency situations.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce offers tons of video tutorials and content to help people with any technical issues they might encounter on their store. Support forums provide a good deal of help for those in need. Since most of the issues are related to the WooCommerce extensions and themes which are of third-party providers, you will have to seek their dedicated support team for fixing your issues.
Shopify
Shopify, when compared to WooCommerce, has a dedicated support team who are willing to help you with their 24/7 support. They offer support via all the major communication platforms including Email, Live chat, Twitter and Phone. Apart from that, you can also find online their documentation and tutorials for further help.
Ease of Use
It is no secret that user-friendliness is a key player in making an eCommerce platform popular. An easy platform only requires a short amount of time for set up and all. Mostly with beginners ease of use is a huge issue since a complex platform could steal a huge amount of their time. Let’s see how Shopify and WooCommerce differ in that aspect.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a free plugin. It requires hosting and a WordPress installation to run. Besides that, you need to keep updating WooCommerce and its add-ons on a regular basis. This might seem like a lot of work for you, but once you get acquainted with the process it shouldn’t be a problem for you.
Shopify
Shopify, unlike WooCommerce, is a subscription-based tool which makes it easy for you to set up and install it on your website. You can do it in minutes by visiting Shopify.com to sign up an account and then going through the setup wizard.
Beginners would be so fond of this platform as it will help you at each step by giving you instructions on setting up your online store so that you do not run into any issues.
SEO support
Just setting up a perfect online store will not do the job. You need to make sure that your store is capable of competing with thousands of other stores available online. Your eCommerce platform’s SEO support system has a lot to do in this regard.
WooCommerce
WordPress doesn’t offer great support for SEO in its core. The major features included in its core are limited. But, when paired with an SEO plugin, nothing could beat WordPress. Plugins like YOAST, which is a prominent name among SEO plugins, can provide the best SEO experience for you.
Shopify
Shopify won’t be as great an option as WooCommerce when it comes to its SEO functionalities. But, you can’t write off its capabilities as it offers great speed since it is built on a hosted platform with huge infrastructure.
Security
Security is an inevitable factor of an eCommerce store since it stores very sensitive data such as credit card information, personal details, etc., of their customers to give an easy experience for them while they are on the online store. For eg; by storing credit card information customers will not have to enter it every time they shop from your store.
WooCommerce
With WooCommerce, the security of your store majorly depends upon the hosting provider you choose. Thus, if you haven’t chosen a hosting provider having adequate security measures it could badly affect your store.
Shopify
Since security is included in Shopify’s plan, you can leave that worry as well. Security threats like hacking, data theft, etc can be effectively prevented by Shopify’s plan.
Cost
Cost of the eCommerce platforms could largely influence your choice. Thus, it would be better to analyze which of these platforms would cost more for its set up and maintenance.
WooCommerce
Since WooCommerce is a free plugin, you might think the cost for setting up an online store with WooCommerce would be less. But, it is not so. With the few basic functionalities provided by WooCommerce, you might find it difficult to run your online store. Hence, you may have to depend on different WooCommerce add-ons for ensuring the smooth functioning of your online store. In addition to it, you also have to pay for the hosting and other necessary requirements as well. Thus, the point is that there isn’t a fixed cost for a WooCommerce store, it varies according to your store’s needs.
Shopify
With Shopify, you have a fixed price plan, in fact, many plans for you to choose from to set up your online store. Therefore, you do not have to depend upon guessing the cost of building your online store. The pricing plans of Shopify are as given below.
- Lite: $9 per month.
- Basic: $29 per month.
- Shopify: $79 per month.
- Advanced: $299 per month.
- Plus: negotiable, but typically around $2000 per month.
Features
The number of features offered by your eCommerce platform can greatly influence the performance of your website. Greater functionalities provide a greater user experience in your online store. So let’s see what are the features Shopify and WooCommerce have to offer.
WooCommerce
With WooCommerce, you can sell physical products, digital products and it is a good platform for affiliate marketing as well. You can have an unlimited number of products and product categories in your store. PayPal and Stripe offer a fast, secure payment experience for your customers. Its adjustable shipping rates & taxes, stock levels control, mobile responsive structure, etc help you set up an online store in no time. You also have the option to extend your shop’s functionalities by adding extensions to it.
Shopify
Shopify is nowhere behind WooCommerce in its list of features. It also offers unlimited products and file storage. Its automatic fraud analysis, credit card payments, multiple language support, free SSL certificate, SEO-ready site structure and drop-shipping capabilities, etc are the fine set of features.
Individual product reviews, Facebook selling mode, Social media integration, daily backups, customer profiles, and advanced reports on Shopify are additional benefits you can avail with Shopify.
Conclusion
Hence, overall Shopify is the best choice if you do not want to get involved in the setup and other technical sides of your online store. It takes care of it all, while all you have to do is just sign up for it. Whereas WooCommerce requires someone with good technical knowledge to take care of your online store. Plus you can have all the control you want on your eCommerce store and decide everything as per your wish.
