Using WordPress or Shopify: Which is Better for Building Your Online Business?
In this detailed comparison, we’ll break down the pros and cons of two of the most popular solutions for creating an online store and help you decide which one is right for you.
Let’s start with a simple comparison.
WordPress vs Shopify
Both WordPress and Shopify are great resources for powering your e-commerce website. Each platform is relatively easy to use, but both offer unique tool sets that could make one better for your business. Here are some key differences between Shopify and WordPress.
| Features | WordPress | Shopify |
| Type of business | Designed for a wide range of business websites, including blogs. | Designed specifically for creating and managing e-commerce stores. |
| Product management | WooCommerce Store Manager allows for flexible product imports and exports, category management, and order management. | Shopify’s product management dashboard provides a comprehensive view of product, inventory, and sales status. |
| Payment options | The WooCommerce Stripe plugin is available in over 45 countries and supports over 135 currencies. | Shopify Payments is integrated with over 100 payment providers globally. |
| Shipping | WooCommerce Flexible Shipping offers ready-made shipping scenarios, including handling costs, insurance, and cash on delivery. | Shopify Shipping calculates shipping rates with multiple carriers and mail classes, offering carrier discounts and the ability to handle bulk orders. |
| Pricing Plans | WordPress is free, but hosting, themes, and plugins are charged separately. | Shopify pricing plans range from $39 to $399 per month. |
What is WordPress?
WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) that allows users to create and manage websites. It is the most popular website builder in the world, currently powering up to 43% of all websites. Although WordPress is free to use, businesses often pay for premium themes and plugins to create highly customized pages. The website builder has several applications and can be used to power personal blogs, newsletters, podcasts, e-commerce stores, and more.
WordPress Features
Many of WordPress’ features are designed to make creating a business website secure, flexible, and accessible with ADA compliance. One of the key aspects of WordPress is its comprehensive plugin system, of which there are over 59,000 to choose from. As a content management system, it offers sophisticated tools for creating, editing, and organizing content, and supports various types of posts. Here are the key features of a WordPress website:
- WooCommerce: A free eCommerce plugin that can turn your WordPress site into an online store. It includes inventory management, payment systems, shipping integration, and marketing tools.
- Theme System: Over 11,000 themes to customize the look and feel of your website. Responsive WordPress themes control layout, style, color, and fonts.
- Media Library: Directly manage images, audio, video and other files in one place. Users can easily upload, edit and insert media content.
- Block Editing: The default Gutenberg block editor makes creating content intuitive and easier. Users can add blocks of text, images, media, and more for further customization.
- Blogging Software: Publish and manage posts, import previous blogs, categorize content, and interact with built-in comments.
- Language Library: Expand your business internationally with WordPress translation plugins like TranslatePress. Translate your entire website at once to develop and publish a multilingual website in minutes.
Advantages and disadvantages of WordPress
While WordPress is easy to get started with, it can require some technical expertise and a longer store setup process. Consider the following pros and cons of WordPress for business.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Accessible: WordPress’ basic functions are easy to use and the design interface is beginner-friendly. | Security concerns: WordPress is an open source platform, susceptible to hacks and other security risks. It is recommended to consider professional hosting. |
| Extensive Customization: Home to thousands of themes and plugins, WordPress supports countless business models and offers nearly unlimited website customization. | Complex Customization: Browsing through a vast catalog of themes and plugins, each with unique features and styles, can be overwhelming for novice web designers. |
| Regular Updates: WordPress receives regular updates, improving site speed, security features, and customization options over time. | Maintenance required: Websites that use multiple themes and plugins require regular maintenance to remain compatible with modern devices. |
| Scalable: WordPress has a robust infrastructure and is suitable for websites of almost any size or scale, so it can scale as your business grows. | Expensive Add-Ons: Although WordPress is free, themes and plugins are priced separately and frequent use can incur high fees. |
What is WordPress best for?
While WooCommerce is effective for creating a functional eCommerce store, WordPress is ideal for businesses looking to create a website with versatile uses, not strictly tied to eCommerce. This content management system is perfect for content-rich websites, such as membership sites, portfolios, and forums. Businesses with interactive web content (such as articles, photos, and tutorials) will love WordPress’ customization options.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce platform designed to help businesses start, grow, and manage their online store. It is one of the world’s leading e-commerce platforms, with over 2 million users and generating over $500 billion in sales. Shopify helps users sell online, including on marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace, Instagram Shop, or TikTok Shop. It can also be used to easily centralize product data, in-person transactions, customer information, and operational tasks.
Shopify Features
With Shopify, you get a complete e-commerce experience. Businesses have access to a dashboard with customer profiles, product listings, and pricing options. Shopify also offers marketing tools to improve your search rankings. Here are some of the key features for Shopify users:
- Point of Sale System: Synchronize in-store sales with product and customer data across multiple channels.
- Custom Storefront: Customize your storefront, integrate site features like mobile app features, and even embed shopping moments into games.
- Customer Management: Manage customer profiles, track orders, and offer discounts and promotions. Customers can also create accounts for a smoother checkout process.
- Analytics Calculator: Gain insights into sales, customer behavior, and trends. Businesses can generate live reports that track channel performance to make real-time decisions.
- Smart SEO Tools: Customize meta tags, optimize product images, and create SEO-friendly URLs to improve your store’s visibility in search engines – all for free!
- Customer Support: Connect with users in community forums and contact professionals via email, phone or chat through 24/7 help centers.
Advantages and disadvantages of Shopify
While Shopify provides a secure and simple way to build your online store, some customization options can be restrictive and difficult to manage. Here are some additional pros and cons of Shopify for businesses.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Payment Processing: There are multiple ways to handle payments, including Shopify Payments, which easily sets up taxes and associated fees, and reaches international customers. | Restricted Customization: While there are several ways to customize your store, Shopify uses a less popular templating language (Liquid), which can be restrictive and difficult to use for beginners. |
| Multi-channel support: Whether you’re getting into dropshipping, selling through social media, or running a brick-and-mortar store, Shopify can help you sell across multiple channels. | Lack of email hosting: While you can connect a third-party email, Shopify cannot create a custom domain email address. |
| Advanced SEO: Shopify makes it easy to sync your marketing strategies across multiple social platforms. | Limited content management: Compared to CMS platforms, Shopify has a harder time supporting websites that require complex workflows and dynamic content structures. |
| Great security: Shopify is a self-hosted platform that doesn’t rely on hosts, and tests third-party applications for security. | Paid Subscription: Using Shopify requires a paid subscription, which can cost up to $399/month for the most advanced features. |
What is Shopify best for?
Shopify is great for eCommerce websites. It provides a beginner-friendly way to set up and manage product stores. Shopify simplifies the process of inventory and order management. It is particularly great for entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to launch an online store without dealing with the complexities of advanced web development.
Should you use WordPress or Shopify for your business?
There are distinct pros and cons to both WordPress and Shopify. Both come with a unique set of features for online businesses. Considering your business goals, web development skills, and other factors, here’s how to decide which eCommerce platform is best for you.
A WordPress is…
- You have a business that is not strictly linked to e-commerce.
- You are comfortable with website design and using various themes and plugins.
- You need a scalable website to accommodate future growth.
- Your website needs to support complex content structures (e.g. paid online courses or community forums).
- You perform regular updates and maintenance of the website.
Use Shopify si…
You need to review real-time analytics for products and campaigns.
You have a small business focused on e-commerce and product sales.
Looking for a beginner-friendly way to create an online store?
You prefer to spend a fixed budget on monthly subscriptions (rather than custom plugins and add-ons).
You want to create a centralized sales campaign strategy.
