TL;DR: In the Shopify vs WooCommerce comparison, Shopify costs more upfront but includes hosting, security, and support in one predictable monthly bill. WooCommerce is free to install but you’ll pay for hosting, a domain, and premium plugins separately, and you’re responsible for keeping everything updated and secure yourself.
The core difference before you compare features
Shopify is a hosted, all-in-one platform. You sign up, pick a theme, and start selling, with hosting, security, and updates handled for you. If you haven’t used Shopify at all yet, our what is Shopify and how it works guide covers the basics first. WooCommerce is a free plugin that turns a WordPress site into a store. It gives you more control, but you’re responsible for hosting, security updates, and every plugin you add on top of it.
That distinction matters more than any individual feature comparison, because it determines who does the maintenance work: Shopify’s team, or you. Think of it as the difference between renting a fully serviced apartment and buying a house. The apartment costs more per month but someone else fixes the plumbing. The house is cheaper to hold long-term but every repair, upgrade, and inspection is on you.
Pricing: the number nobody agrees on
Search around and you’ll find wildly different figures for Shopify’s plans. As of 2026, the confirmed current numbers (verified directly against shopify.com/pricing) are Basic at $39/month billed monthly or $29/month billed annually, Grow at $105/month or $79/month annually, and Advanced at $399/month or $299/month annually. Older articles sometimes still cite a $5/month “Starter” plan as the entry point, but Shopify discontinued Starter for new signups in 2026, so Basic is now the real floor for anyone building an actual storefront.
What’s consistent across sources: Shopify’s subscription includes hosting, security, and support, so the sticker price is close to your actual monthly cost, plus whatever apps you add. For a plan-by-plan breakdown rather than the range quoted here, see our full Shopify pricing plans explained.
WooCommerce’s core software is free, but that’s not the same as free to run. You’ll need hosting (commonly $5 to $30/month depending on the provider and traffic), a domain ($10 to $15/year), and likely a handful of premium plugins for things like advanced SEO, backups, or payment processing. One estimate puts a typical small WooCommerce store at $100 to $200 a year in total add-on costs; another source puts the realistic range as wide as $4 to $480 a month depending on how much customization you want. The honest takeaway is that WooCommerce’s total cost depends heavily on your choices, while Shopify’s is mostly fixed.
Comparison at a glance
| Shopify | WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting cost | Paid plan, hosting included | Free core, hosting extra |
| Typical monthly total | ~$29–$105+ depending on plan | ~$10–$50+ depending on hosting and plugins |
| Setup difficulty | Low, guided setup | Higher, requires WordPress familiarity |
| Security & updates | Handled by Shopify | Your responsibility |
| Customization | Apps and themes within Shopify’s system | Full control via WordPress and plugins |
| Best for | First-time sellers, dropshippers | Technically comfortable users, content-heavy brands |
Ease of use: where beginners actually struggle
Shopify’s setup flow asks what you’re selling, suggests a theme, and gets a functional store live in under an hour for most people. The trade-off is that customization happens inside Shopify’s app and theme ecosystem rather than through raw code access.
WooCommerce requires you to already have, or set up, a WordPress site first, then install and configure the plugin, choose a compatible theme, and typically add several more plugins to reach feature parity with what Shopify includes by default. If you already know WordPress, this isn’t a big hurdle. If you don’t, it’s a real learning curve on top of learning ecommerce itself.
The specific friction points that trip up WooCommerce beginners: choosing a hosting provider, a decision Shopify removes entirely. Picking a theme that’s actually compatible with WooCommerce rather than a generic WordPress theme. And stacking plugins for SEO, backups, and payment processing without conflicts between them.
Security: the part most comparisons skip
This is where the maintenance-responsibility difference shows up concretely. Security researchers identified over 11,000 new vulnerabilities across the WordPress ecosystem in 2025, and the large majority came from plugins rather than WordPress’s core code. That’s directly relevant to WooCommerce, since every plugin you add is a plugin you’re responsible for keeping updated.
Shopify handles this differently: since it’s a closed, hosted platform, you’re not managing server security or plugin patching yourself. If something in Shopify’s infrastructure needs fixing, that’s Shopify’s job, not yours. That’s a meaningful trade if you don’t want to think about security patches on top of running a store.
In practice, this means a WooCommerce store needs someone (you, or a managed hosting provider you pay for) actively watching for plugin updates and applying them promptly, since an outdated plugin is the most common way stores get compromised. Managed WooCommerce hosts like Kinsta or WP Engine handle much of this automatically for an extra monthly fee, which is worth factoring into your total cost comparison if security maintenance isn’t something you want to do yourself.
Checkout customization: an unexpected cost gap
One specific point worth knowing before you decide: customizing Shopify’s checkout page beyond the basics requires the Shopify Plus tier, which starts in the thousands of dollars per month, well beyond what a beginner needs but worth knowing if you ever plan to fully brand your checkout flow. WooCommerce, by contrast, lets you customize checkout freely since you control the underlying code, at no extra platform cost beyond your normal hosting and plugin spend.
For a beginner this rarely matters. For a store that later wants a fully custom checkout experience, matching brand colors exactly, adding custom fields, or building a multi-step checkout flow, it’s a real difference in what each platform allows without a major cost jump.
Migrating between the two
If you start on one platform and outgrow it, migration is common in both directions. Moving from WooCommerce to Shopify usually means exporting products, customers, and order history as CSV files, then re-importing and rebuilding your theme inside Shopify’s system, since the two platforms don’t share a theme or plugin architecture. Moving from Shopify to WooCommerce follows the same shape in reverse.
Neither migration is instant. Budget real time for rebuilding your theme and testing checkout before you point your domain at the new store. Expect to lose some app-specific data too, like loyalty points or subscription history, since that rarely has a direct import path on either side.
What tends to catch people off guard is how much of a “simple” migration actually depends on your specific app stack rather than the core products and orders. Moving product data is genuinely straightforward on both platforms. What’s harder is replicating an app-specific feature, like a subscription program or a loyalty point system, on the new platform, since the equivalent app on the other side rarely has an identical feature set.
What this looks like for a dropshipping store specifically
Since dropshipping depends heavily on supplier integrations, the app ecosystem gap between the two platforms matters more here than for a typical content-driven store. Shopify’s app store has direct, one-click integrations with AliExpress, Spocket, CJdropshipping, and most other major suppliers, so connecting a new supplier typically takes minutes. WooCommerce has plugin equivalents for most of the same suppliers, but they’re generally less polished, and troubleshooting a broken sync often means digging into plugin settings or forums.
There’s also a practical difference in how order fulfillment flows day to day. On Shopify, a supplier integration typically pushes tracking numbers back into your order automatically once the supplier ships. Several WooCommerce supplier plugins support this too. But the reliability varies more between individual plugins than it does across Shopify’s more standardized app review process.
For a first dropshipping store, this practical gap is usually the deciding factor beyond raw pricing. Shopify’s supplier integrations are built for people who don’t want to debug plugin conflicts, while WooCommerce rewards people who are comfortable doing exactly that in exchange for lower ongoing costs.
Which one should you actually pick: Shopify vs WooCommerce for your situation
If you’re new to ecommerce and don’t already know WordPress, Shopify is the lower-friction start. You’ll pay more per month, but you’re paying for hosting, security, and a guided setup that removes most of the technical decisions. This especially applies if you’re planning to dropship, since Shopify’s app ecosystem has more built-in supplier integrations (AliExpress, Spocket, CJdropshipping) than WooCommerce’s plugin equivalents. If you’re weighing that path specifically, our guide on starting dropshipping with little to no money walks through what a realistic first-month budget looks like on Shopify.
If you already run WordPress sites and are comfortable managing hosting and plugin updates, WooCommerce can genuinely be cheaper long-term. That’s true if you also want full control over every part of your store, but only if you’re willing to do the maintenance work Shopify would otherwise handle for you.
If you’ve already decided on Shopify and just want to try it without commitment first, see our breakdown of what’s actually included in Shopify’s free trial.
FAQ
Is Shopify or WooCommerce cheaper?
It depends on your technical comfort, and this is really the core of the Shopify vs WooCommerce pricing question. WooCommerce’s core is free, and total costs can be lower if you manage hosting and plugins carefully, but Shopify’s all-inclusive pricing is often close to what a well-maintained WooCommerce store ends up costing once hosting, security plugins, and premium extensions are added up.
Which is better for beginners?
Shopify, in most cases. If you’ve searched Shopify vs WooCommerce for beginners specifically, this is the short answer: the guided setup and included hosting remove the technical decisions that trip up first-time store owners on WooCommerce.
Is WooCommerce free?
The core plugin is free, but running a real store requires paid hosting, a domain, and typically some premium plugins, so “free” only applies to the software itself, not the total cost of running a store.
Can I switch between Shopify and WooCommerce later?
Yes, migrations between the two are common, though moving products, customers, and order history takes planning and sometimes professional help to do cleanly.
Which is better for SEO?
Both can rank well. WooCommerce offers more technical control since you own the underlying WordPress site, but Shopify stores can rank just as effectively with a fast theme and solid content structure. The platform matters less than execution here.
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