WooCommerce vs Shopify is usually sold as cheap and fiddly against easy and expensive. For a small store, the numbers don’t back that up. I priced one example store on both at today’s renewal prices, and the monthly bills came out within about $20 of each other. What actually separates them is who keeps the store running.
Here’s the full breakdown, so you can swap in your own numbers.
The example store
To compare like with like, I used one store and ran it through both platforms:
- A US business selling 50 physical products
- $5,000 in sales a month: 100 orders at $50 each
- All payments by card from US customers
- A free theme on both, and no paid apps or extensions to start
That’s a typical first year for a small product business. Prices were checked on each company’s own pricing page on October 19, 2026.
What each one costs per month
| Monthly cost | WooCommerce | Shopify Basic (yearly) | Shopify Basic (monthly) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Platform | $0 | $29 | $39 |
| Hosting | $16.99 | Included | Included |
| Theme | $0 (free) | $0 (free) | $0 (free) |
| Card fees on $5,000 | $175.00 | $175.00 | $175.00 |
| Total | $191.99 | $204.00 | $214.00 |
A few things decide those numbers.
Card fees are the biggest cost, and they’re the same. WooPayments, Stripe and Shopify Payments all charge 2.9% + 30¢ per US card payment. On a $50 order that’s $1.75, so 100 orders cost $175 a month whichever platform you pick. Cards issued outside the US cost more: WooPayments and Stripe both add 1.5%, so check Shopify’s international rate for your plan if you sell abroad.
Hosting is the cost WooCommerce adds, and the advertised price isn’t the real one. Hostinger’s WordPress plans start at $2.49, $3.49 and $7.99 a month, but those prices need a 48-month term and renew at $10.99, $16.99 and $25.99. I used the middle renewal price, because that’s what you pay from year two onwards. WooCommerce’s own comparison page uses another host’s first-year price of $1.99 a month, which makes WooCommerce look cheaper than it stays.
The WooCommerce plugin itself is free, and so are good themes. Shopify Basic is $29 a month billed yearly or $39 billed monthly.
So before anyone maintains anything, WooCommerce comes out $12 to $22 a month cheaper. That’s real, but it’s small. It’s less than the price of one paid plugin or app.
Where Shopify’s fees change
Two things move the Shopify number, and both are worth knowing before you choose.
Using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments costs extra. Shopify adds its own fee on every sale: 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced, on top of what that provider charges. On the example store that’s another $100 a month on Basic. WooCommerce has no fee like this, so it suits businesses that need a particular payment provider.
The Grow plan only pays off at higher sales. Grow costs $89 a month billed yearly and cuts the card rate from 2.9% to 2.7%. That 0.2% saving covers the extra $60 a month once your card sales pass about $30,000 a month. Below that, Basic is cheaper.
The cost that isn’t in the table: upkeep
This is where the decision really sits.
Shopify runs the software. Security fixes, updates and backups of the platform happen without you doing anything.
WooCommerce runs on WordPress, on hosting you control. WordPress, your theme and every plugin get regular updates, and a store needs them applied, checked and backed up. When an update clashes with a plugin at the wrong moment, checkout can stop working until someone fixes it.
You can do that yourself if you’re comfortable in WordPress, and many store owners do. If you pay someone instead, maintenance plans for WordPress typically run from $30 to $100 a month for basic updates and backups, and $100 to $300 for plans that include developer time. Add even the low end of that to the WooCommerce column and Shopify becomes the cheaper option for this store.
SEO and content
Both platforms can rank. The differences are in how much control you get.
URLs. On Shopify, products always sit under /products/ and categories under /collections/. Shopify’s help center says you can’t redirect URLs that use those fixed paths. On WooCommerce, you set the URL structure yourself, which matters most if you’re moving an existing site and want to keep its URLs.
Content. WordPress started as a blogging platform, and it shows. If your plan is to win customers with guides, buying advice and service pages, WooCommerce lets the store and the content live on one site with one set of SEO tools. If you’re planning that kind of site, my guide to SEO-friendly web design covers what to get right from the start.
Speed. Shopify hosts the store for you, so its speed depends mostly on your theme and apps. A WooCommerce store’s speed also depends on your hosting and plugins, which is more work but also more room to make it fast. If your WordPress site is slow today, start with how to speed up a WordPress site.
Owning your store
With WooCommerce, the store, its data and its code sit on hosting you control. You can move to any host, change anything in the checkout, and nobody can change the rules under you.
With Shopify, you’re renting. That’s the trade for not maintaining anything. Leaving later means rebuilding the theme and any app features somewhere else, and redirecting every /products/ and /collections/ URL to its new address.
Which one I’d pick
Shopify Basic if you’re starting a small store, nobody on your team looks after WordPress, and you’re happy with Shopify Payments. The monthly cost is close to WooCommerce’s, and you never deal with updates.
WooCommerce if:
- your business already runs a WordPress site, because adding a store costs little more than the card fees
- you need a payment provider Shopify charges extra for
- you want full control over URLs, checkout and content
- you have someone who keeps WordPress updated
If you’re going with WooCommerce and want it built and looked after properly, that’s what my WordPress development work covers. If you’re still deciding on the whole site, not just the store, start with web design.
