Shopify or WordPress: which to choose?

There are several key differences between Shopify and WordPress. The first of these is their initial objectives.

Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce solution. More specifically, the CMS provides you with all the tools you need to design and enhance your online store. Shopify is natively designed for e-tailers.

Although it can be used to design an e-commerce site, WordPress was not originally designed for e-commerce activities, but primarily for blogging. As such, to access the e-commerce features of the CMS, you'll need to add the WooCommerce plugin, which will provide you with all the necessary options.

Another major difference you need to take into account when considering Shopify or WordPress is the question of associated costs and available features. Let's take a look at both.

First observation: it's not obvious which of the two e-commerce solutions is the least expensive.

To take advantage of all Shopify's services, you'll need to pay a monthly fee, which will depend on your subscription package.

When it comes to WordPress, you won't have to pay a thing, as the CMS is completely free. However, you will need to host your online store, which is a paid service. Similarly, the plugins available to enhance your e-commerce site can be either free or paid. As a result, neither platform is financially more advantageous than the other.

While Shopify is a self-hosted platform with a monthly subscription fee, WordPress is an entirely free CMS, but you'll have to manage the hosting of your website yourself.

While Shopify natively includes reliable hosting, WordPress offers a range of third-party hosting solutions that you'll need to subscribe to in order to protect your data and ensure that your online store remains operational 24/7.

In terms of operation, the two CMSs also have their own specific features. With Shopify, you have access to a large number of themes for customizing your site's design and e-commerce options, with thousands available free of charge and a few hundred for a fee. Each theme editor offers 24/7 support. WordPress also offers a wide range of free and paid themes.

Shopify offers applications that enable you to develop your online store according to your wishes. These can be marketing tools, loyalty programs or SEO options. And if you can't find the application you need on Shopify, there's nothing to stop you turning to a specialized agency to create it for you.

As far as WordPress and its plugin, WooCommerce, are concerned, since this is an open source solution, you're bound to find the plugin you need. An important point about WordPress plugins: when they update, your site may be affected. If this happens, you'll need to identify the source of the bug and implement the appropriate solution as quickly as possible.