More than once I have been asked for eCommerce quotes and most of the time a question arises: which platform to choose? The answer remains the same: it depends on what you want to do.
I usually advise one or the other depending on the level of complexity, amount of products to sell and the purpose of the online store itself.
In this case, I am going to tell you the differences between Shopify and Woocommerce. The first case (Shopify) is to set up the first online store that allows you to test your products at a very low cost, while the second (Woocommerce), is an e-commerce module that integrates with WordPress. It allows you to work on SEO to achieve high performance in organic positioning on Google.
Advantages and disadvantages of Shopify
Advantages:
- Native eCommerce platform.
- No need to purchase hosting, all your data is stored in a cloud service.
- Easy to set up. In one day you can upload it online (you will need at least one designer).
- You don\’t need high knowledge of HTML or CSS to open it.
- A simple-to-manage platform
- It has very attractive visual design templates.
- It has several payment platforms.
- Internationally known.
- Platform suitable for devices and mobiles (responsive).
- Unlimited bandwidth.
- 24/7 technical support.
- Free mobile application for store management.
- No high cost is required for its implementation.
Disadvantages:
- You cannot customize the platform code. That is, you cannot adapt the platform to the needs or functionalities of your online store.
- It is not a platform that allows you to do SEO for the positioning of your store.
- The server is in the USA (not the most advisable for good SEO if your target audience is in another country).
- If you want an additional module you have to buy it.
- Not recommended for large quantities of products.
- Shopify charges a commission per product sale.
- Shopify charges a monthly fee of 29$ after de 14 days trial.
If you wish, from the Shopify website you can see the plans of the platform and the design of the templates for your eCommerce. In my opinion, if you are going to purchase a Shopify store, I would opt for the \”pro\” plan, as at least you can count on performance reports that are really useful to have more control and a global idea of the evolution and status of the project.
Advantages and disadvantages of WooCommerce
Advantages:
- The stock manager is simple and integrated into WordPress.
- It is the most downloaded and popular eCommerce plugin or module on the web.
- Compared to other platforms such as Prestashop or Magento, it requires less investment.
- Being within WordPress is an effective platform to generate content strategy and SEO.
- You can count on a wide level of customization. (open source)
- You must acquire your own hosting (but be careful, it is important to invest in a good hosting service).
- Being inside WordPress you can integrate special SEO plugins such as WordPress SEO by Yoast.
- You can count on thousands of well-designed templates.
- The platform adapts to mobile
- Ideal for small or medium projects.
Disadvantages:
- The incompatibility of updates between modules, for example, a language plugin (Wpml). That is, perhaps WooCommerce has an update that is not compatible with the latest version of Wpml (languages) or with the latest version of WordPress and vice versa.
- Because of this, it forces you to be attentive to the various updates of modules and plugins and, between them, not generate conflicts.
- It is not recommended for projects with a large amount of stock or multistore.
- Vulnerability in WordPress.
- Being part of WordPress, it is not a native eCommerce platform.
In my opinion, Woocommerce being part of WordPress is open source, you can customize your store in detail and adapt it to the features that are needed, easy to manage and self-administrated.
If you have ever used Shopify, learning how to manage content is much easier. Through the Shopify blog, you can very effectively position all content to capture more and better quality visits. Of course, like any serious online project, you must have specialized eCommerce maintenance for your eCommerce store.
This refers to the possible \”update problems\” between versions of the modules. If you have a web design and development studio or digital marketing agency, they will always be aware that your store is in good working order, avoiding possible conflicts between plugins or modules.
From here, if you have any questions about the differences between WooCommerce and Shopify, I will be happy to talk about them. As I said at the beginning, it depends on the size of the store you want to make and the purpose of the project.