The complete guide to Shopify vs. Woocommerce, including Pros and Cons and a detailed review so you can decide which one is better.

In this video, I will be going in-depth about the advantages and disadvantages of both Shopify and WooCommerce.

Shopify
Pros
1. They have better templates – While WooCommerce also has some great templates, I think the Shopify templates are a little bit more professional.
2. It is easier to use – Shopify is built from the ground up for e-commerce, to make it as simple as possible for people to put their products and sell them online.
3. 24/7 Support – This is part of why Shopify is easier to use. With WooCommerce, you are pretty much on your own since it’s a free plugin to WordPress.
4. It has better addons and apps
5. It integrates better
6. Less can go wrong – With Shopify, you can’t change the checkout page too much. With WooCommerce, you can tinker with it a little bit more but there’s a bigger chance that something will break.

Cons
1. It is expensive – While it can be more expensive to start with WooCommerce since a lot of hosting sites make you pay a one-year fee at once, Shopify is still more expensive in the long run.
2. They can shut you down – If you’re in a high-risk country or if you’re selling high-risk products, do not go with Shopify.
3. Third-party apps are more expensive on Shopify than on WooCommerce.
4. Fees – Shopify does charge a fee if you want to use a third-party payment gateway. However, you don’t need to do that. Shopify has its own built-in Payments. The way it works is that every time you get a sale, Shopify takes a 2.9% fee. Depending on what plan you have, that percentage will go down.

WooCommerce
Pros
1. It is free (kind of) – WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress. To have a WooCommerce site, you need a WordPress site. To have a WordPress site, you need to pay a little bit for hosting.
2. It’s customizable – You can change just about everything on your website. It is open-source which means there are a lot of different developers out there working on it and trying to improve it.
3. You’ll never be shut down – The benefit of having a WooCommerce site is you don’t have to go through a 3rd party.
4. It is built with WordPress – WordPress is great for blogging. If you’re going to be doing a lot of blogging with your e-commerce site, if content marketing is a big part of your company, then WordPress is going to make it really easy for you.

Cons
1. Technical Difficulties – One of the biggest cons of WooCommerce is that you’re going to have technical problems.
2. Less Integration – It seems that there are a lot of functions that I can get with Shopify that I can’t get with WooCommerce or they won’t work as well as I would like.
3. Setup Payment Gateway – You are going to have to set up payments through either Stripe or Paypal. Either way, there is going to be a 2.9% fee in every transaction.

I currently use both of these platforms. To be honest, it really just depends on the circumstances on why you’re starting an e-commerce website. If you’re willing to pay more for a website that just is reliable, has fewer issues and is more professional, then you can go with Shopify. If you’re on a tight budget, have the technical knowledge, and want to start multiple stores, then you can go with WooCommerce.