Shopify and WooCommerce can both help you start an e-commerce business without learning to code, but there are some key differences.
Shopify gives you everything you need to build an online storefront, from the digital “land” (server space) to code-free design and payment processing tools. WooCommerce, on the other hand, is a store-building tool you can install on digital land you’ve already purchased through a web hosting company.
Shopify further simplifies things for first-time store owners with impressive inventory and shipping tools for selling physical products, plus integrated email marketing and automation. But you’ll pay a lot for this simplicity. WooCommerce includes inventory and shipping tools, but must be installed on WordPress and bolstered with extensions or third-party plugins for things like marketing. You can save a lot of money using WooCommerce with cheap hosting and free extensions, but it requires more time and research. This makes WooCommerce most appropriate for small business owners with more time than money.
Shopify vs. WooCommerce: At a glance
| Shopify | WooCommerce | |
| Hosting | Bundled with the store builder | Must be purchased separately |
| Inventory and shipping management | Advanced | Basic, with extensions available for more advanced management |
| Marketing | Abandoned cart recovery, advanced email marketing, discount codes, gift cards, automated marketing workflows | Coupons; all other marketing tools require extensions or integrations |
| Base cost | $29 per month | WooCommerce is free; hosting typically starts around $3 per month |
| Payment processors | Accepts most credit cards and digital wallets by default; additional payment processors can be integrated manually | Offline payments; WooPayments extension required to accept credit cards, Google Pay and Apple Pay |
| Transaction fees | Starting at 2.8% + 0.30 for domestic credit cards | Starting at 2.9% + 0.30 for most credit cards |
Shopify provides intuitive tools for hosting, designing, building, managing and growing an e-commerce store. The shipping tools -- and discounts -- make Shopify particularly powerful for selling physical products, while the point-of-sale system lets you sell at in-person events or locations. Advanced plans with more location options also make Shopify great for scaling your business. However, starting at $29 per month, it can be cost prohibitive for smaller stores, especially those selling low-cost or digital-only products.
WooCommerce is a popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress, with a simple interface for designing store and product pages. The core plugin is free, as are many of its extensions. WooCommerce works with many budget-priced web hosting services -- often starting at $3 or even less per month -- making it an excellent option for small stores selling low-cost or digital-only products.
Like WordPress, WooCommerce offers numerous extensions and integrations with third-party plugins, allowing you to fully customize the store experience for your customers and enhance the existing inventory management tools. This makes WooCommerce great for folks who want maximum flexibility and are willing to learn (and maintain) slightly more complex technology to get it.
Hosting: Let Shopify do it for you, or do it yourself with WooCommerce
Shopify makes hosting easy with three clearly defined plans that come with the store builder and built-in email marketing tools. WooCommerce, meanwhile, provides more hosting options -- including more affordable plans than Shopify’s -- but most plans require you to install WordPress, WooCommerce and complementary plugins for tasks like marketing on your own. This makes it easier for beginners -- or extremely busy business owners -- to get started with Shopify than with WooCommerce.
Shopify bundles its proprietary store builder into its e-commerce hosting plans. This is great if your main concern is simplicity, as you don’t need to purchase any additional services. WooCommerce requires you to buy a separate web or hosting plan, install WordPress and connect the plugin to your WordPress site. Most web hosting companies’ servers are compatible with WordPress, so you can host your site anywhere -- including cheap web hosting companies with much lower prices than Shopify -- but you’ll have to learn the tech.
Shopify uses cloud hosting, which stores your data in a network of interconnected web servers spread across the globe. This ensures maximum uptime, as when one web server goes down, browsers can access your site through a different server. Cloud hosting can also improve site speed for international users, as their devices can connect to the server closest to their physical location rather than waiting for data to transmit from a server on the other side of the globe. However, it’s typically one of the more expensive types of web hosting.
WooCommerce can be used with any type of WordPress web hosting -- which is pretty much all of them. You can scale your site by starting with shared hosting, an affordable web hosting option intended for small- to medium-sized websites, and upgrade to VPS or dedicated (or even cloud) hosting as your site’s bandwidth and storage needs grow. You can even buy managed WordPress hosting, which provides benefits such as automated updates to the core CMS, from many web hosting companies.
One major benefit of WooCommerce is that you can transfer your WordPress site -- and therefore your WooCommerce store -- to another host pretty easily. Most hosting companies will even automate website transfer for you without charging any additional fees. Best of all, your site will look exactly like it did on the old host without any major intervention on your part.
Shopify’s proprietary systems, meanwhile, make it more difficult to move your store to another web host if you want a more affordable plan or you’re unhappy with the service you’ve received. Most hosts won’t do it for you and Shopify’s unique code means pages will look very different -- or even break -- when transferred to another platform. You’ll likely need to spend a lot of time testing and troubleshooting the new version of your site if you move from Shopify to another platform.
You can also do almost anything with a WordPress site thanks to the tens of thousands of themes and plugins, including numerous free options, available through both WordPress.org and third-party services. These plugins can help you book appointments, sell memberships, create content subscriptions and much more -- all without spending a lot of money. Finding the best theme and plugins requires extensive research, plus the time it takes to install and configure them, but it can help you build a robust site on a shoestring budget.
Shopify’s e-commerce features are extensive, and there are various extensions for things like marketing, improving site performance and connecting your store to other business tools such as QuickBooks. However, there are significantly fewer Shopify extensions than WordPress plugins. This can make it easier to find what you need for your Shopify site, but may also place some limitations on what you can do.
In short, Shopify makes hosting easier, but WooCommerce provides more flexibility.
Usability: Shopify offers more simplicity; WooCommerce offers more flexibility
Overall, Shopify is easier to use than WooCommerce, but WooCommerce is still fairly straightforward for current WordPress users or folks willing to learn a new CMS.
Shopify’s learning curve is steeper than that of other website builders, but once you understand the navigation, completing most tasks is simple. You’ll find all of the tools you need built in, with no need to install or update anything. Navigating WooCommerce, meanwhile, is straightforward if you know WordPress, but can be overwhelming for first-time website owners.
Moreover, with WooCommerce you’ll need to install separate plugins for things like abandoned cart recovery, email marketing and SEO. You’ll also need to update these plugins (and WordPress) yourself, unless you choose managed WordPress hosting.
My biggest issue with Shopify was the counterintuitive placement of features such as account management and shipping/delivery settings. I also found it odd that Shopify directed me to product creation before I chose a theme or established core pages like the About page. I was able to skip past product creation to work on other site-building tasks, but this workflow still felt backward. However, the site editor itself is remarkably easy to use. Furthermore, once you know where everything is, it becomes simple to modify settings for things like taxes and shipping.
WooCommerce has more streamlined/intuitive menus, but setting it up -- and maintaining it -- is pretty labor-intensive. First, you must select a web host and set up WordPress. You’ll then need to install the core WooCommerce plugin and a payment plugin. You’ll also need to find WooCommerce extensions or third-party plugins with integrations for things like marketing. Every plugin has its own settings to configure and, once you’ve set them up, regular updates to manage.
You can bypass some complications of WooCommerce with managed WooCommerce hosting from a company like SiteGround or Nexcess. SiteGround’s guided WordPress installation recommends plugins and themes based on your industry, while Nexcess’s WordPress management center lets you quickly install several recommended plugins. Both companies automate WordPress and plugin updates -- and they’re still more affordable than Shopify.
Value: Shopify’s offerings are ideal for bigger stores, while WooCommerce simplifies running a small store
Shopify’s unlimited storage, bandwidth and advanced e-commerce tools make it a great option for medium- to large-sized stores. Moreover, Shopify’s significant shipping discounts can offset its cost if you’re shipping a lot of items. WooCommerce provides simpler tools more suited to small businesses, and can also be used with deeply affordable hosting plans, making it ideal for companies with smaller budgets.
| Shopify | WooCommerce | |
| Hosting | Bundled with the store builder | Must be purchased separately |
| Templates | 12 free, over 800 paid | Access to thousands of themes through WordPress |
| Storage and bandwidth | Unlimited | Typically starts at 10GB (enough for 100 large pages or 1000 smaller pages) storage and enough bandwidth for at least 10,000 monthly visitors |
| E-commerce features | Store builder, product page creator, advanced checkout | Product page creator, checkout page |
| Marketing features | Abandoned cart recovery, advanced email marketing, discount codes, gift cards, automated marketing workflows | Discount codes, gift cards |
| Inventory management features | Advanced, including automated reorder points and low inventory warnings | Basic and fully manual, with some advanced options available through extensions |
| Shipping options | USPS, UPS, DHL, Fedex, with discounts of up to 80% | DHL and USPS label printing, with additional options available through extensions; no discounts |
| Security | SSL certification, firewall protection, anti-DDoS protection, two-factor authentication, 24/7 monitoring | SSL certification and firewall protection at minimum; some plans offer additional security |
| Customer service | 24/7 live chat | 24/7 live chat at minimum; some hosts offer phone and email |
| Cost | Starts at $29 a month | Typically starts at $3 a month |
At $29 a month, Shopify’s starting plan is more expensive than most beginner web hosting plans. Several great web hosts -- including our Editor’s Choice winner for 2025, SiteGround -- offer WordPress or WooCommerce hosting starting at around $3 a month. Traditional web hosts often raise prices on renewal but still tend to stay below $20 a month for entry-level plans.
Shopify does include several things you won’t get with traditional web hosting, starting with advanced inventory management tools. These include automations for re-stocking, which can be a massive boon to larger stores. WooCommerce’s inventory management tools are straightforward and effective, but the lack of automation can be problematic when you’re trying to operate a business at scale. This makes WooCommerce more suitable for small stores.
Another benefit of Shopify is its numerous shipping options, including discounts for big shipping companies like UPS and DHL. WooCommerce can print labels for most shipping companies, but you’ll have to manage most of the shipping on your own. WooCommerce doesn’t provide shipping discounts either, so if you’re sending a lot of packages (or your packages tend to be large or oddly shaped), you might actually save money with Shopify.
Shopify’s point-of-sale system also gives you the opportunity to sell at events or even open a physical location. This option isn’t available at all through WooCommerce, and can be a highly beneficial for hybrid businesses.
Furthermore, Shopify’s unlimited storage and bandwidth allow for exponential growth. Some WordPress hosts offer unlimited bandwidth, but it’s virtually unheard of for a traditional web host to provide unlimited storage. Most companies, like SiteGround, have storage starting at 10GB (enough for 100 large pages, like product pages with lots of high-quality images, or 1,000 smaller pages, like blog posts with only one or two images). Others provide more, with our 2025 Editors’ Choice winner for Best Value Web Host, Hostinger, including enough storage for at least 250 pages on its lowest-tier plan.
Shopify further encourages growth through its built-in tools for marketing, including email marketing. There are many marketing tools available for WooCommerce and WordPress, but you’ll need to install them separately. Some also require additional fees, with email marketing tools typically charging fees when you exceed a certain number of subscribers (often 500).
Shopify falls short of some of the best web hosting companies when it comes to customer service. The company only offers live chat, while companies like SiteGround and Ionos offer live chat, phone and email support -- with representatives that are just as fast and helpful as Shopify’s.
Overall, Shopify provides better value for bigger shops, while WooCommerce provides more value for small businesses. However, the number of extensions available for WooCommerce -- and WordPress generally -- can provide more adaptability, allowing you to expand your business in numerous directions outside of e-commerce without investing additional money. With free WordPress plugins, you can book appointments, create forums and build digital content subscriptions.
Security: Shopify is better than most, but some WooCommerce hosts match its quality
Shopify provides extensive security, including features you don’t get from most traditional web hosts such as two-factor authentication and 24/7 security monitoring. WooCommerce doesn’t have built-in security of its own, but it can be connected to a company with robust security protocols, like SiteGround or Liquid Web.
Most web hosts compatible with WordPress provide free SSL certification, encrypting data sent to and from your site to ensure its safety. They also typically provide firewall protection, which screens traffic to and from your site and blocks data it deems suspicious (like viruses). Shopify also provides these protections, which are considered the bare minimum for a web hosting service.
Shopify further protects your site with anti-DDoS protection, which blocks attacks attempting to overwhelm your site’s servers with floods of malicious traffic. Many traditional web hosting services, including Hostinger and SiteGround, also offer anti-DDoS protection.
One feature Shopify offers that isn’t matched by most web hosts is two-factor authentication, which makes it more difficult for unauthorized users to access your account. However, both SiteGround and Liquid Web provide proprietary plugins that can implement two-factor authentication -- and other protections -- on a WordPress site. There are also several free and low-cost plugins you can use to add two-factor authentication if you’re using a different host, though you’ll have to find and install one yourself.
Another outstanding security feature of Shopify is 24/7 security monitoring performed by a human security team that is constantly evaluating Shopify’s servers and store builder for vulnerabilities. While some companies, like SiteGround, have 24/7 AI monitoring that detects and eliminates threats, most traditional web hosts don’t have human staff watching the servers at all times.
Shopify also has several anti-fraud protocols for protecting both you and your customers, plus automated dispute management and card testing protection. Some anti-fraud protocols are bundled into the WooPayments extension for WooCommerce, but you’ll need additional anti-fraud extensions to get the same level of protection provided by Shopify.
Overall, Shopify has better security than most traditional web hosts, but there are some WooCommerce hosting options that match Shopify’s quality, like SiteGround and Liquid Web.
Performance: Shopify is the best, with some WooCommerce hosts coming close
Shopify had the best server performance of any web host I’ve tested, with 100% uptime and a remarkable 1.71-second average site speed. Traditional web hosting companies’ performance varies greatly, but you can expect a WooCommerce site to experience consistent uptime and rapid site speeds if you choose a company like Hostinger, Liquid Web or SiteGround. Of these, Hostinger is the fastest, with an average 2.34-second site speed.
Shopify promises the standard 99.9% uptime, meaning server issues won’t shut down your site for more than 10 minutes per week. I had some issues with Shopify’s uptime during my first week of monitoring due to a server connection problem. However, customer support reassured me that this is a rare error and, once fixed, my Betterstack monitoring showed 100% uptime for the following week, suggesting that most websites can expect Shopify to meet or exceed its uptime guarantee.
Most traditional web hosts make the same 99.9% uptime guarantee as Shopify. Several of the best web hosting companies have gone beyond this with 100% uptime during my tests, including Hostinger, SiteGround and Liquid Web. This shows that you can easily find a WordPress-compatible host that matches Shopify’s uptime.
What you won’t find is a company that matches Shopify’s site speed. I used WebPageTest to determine loading times for my Shopify store in locations throughout the US, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. I wanted to see a site speed of three seconds or less, as the bounce rate -- the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page -- increases by 32% when loading times go from one to three seconds.
Shopify came well under the three-second limit with an average site speed of 1.71 seconds. Most WordPress-friendly hosts I’ve tested also had an average site speed of less than three seconds. Hostinger had a 2.34-second average and Liquid Web had a 2.37-second average, while SiteGround had a notably slower 2.81-second average. These numbers may not live up to Shopify’s site speed, but they’re good enough to provide a fast, reliable experience for your users -- and there are many plugins you can use to boost your site speed.
Overall, Shopify has the best performance of any web host I’ve tested, but there are several WooCommerce-friendly hosts with good site speed. Moreover, there are numerous ways to speed up a WordPress website, so you may be able to achieve significantly faster loading times if you’re building a WooCommerce site with one of these companies.
Customer support: Shopify is good, but some WooCommerce hosts are better
Ultimately, you can get better support for WooCommerce than for Shopify, but only if you choose the right company. This makes it important to read reviews and only take web hosting recommendations from trusted sources like CNET.
Shopify has an impressive self-serve knowledge base and 24/7 live chat support with fast, helpful representatives. WooCommerce has email customer support and community support forums, but you’ll be relying on your web hosting company’s support for most things, which typically includes a knowledge base and 24/7 live chat. Some WordPress-compatible hosts also provide phone or email support. Response times and helpfulness vary, but some companies, like SiteGround, provide outstanding customer service.
Of the traditional web hosts I’ve tested, SiteGround and Ionos had the best customer support. These companies offer live chat, phone and email support, with fast response times and helpful, well-trained representatives available through all of these channels. This puts them ahead of Shopify, which provides fast and helpful customer service but only has live chat support.
Other companies, meanwhile, have less than stellar support. Liquid Web, otherwise one of our highest-ranking web hosts, had good live chat support but slow response times for email support -- and I didn’t get a response to my callback request at all. Hostinger, another host with otherwise excellent rankings, only offers support through an AI-based live chat and makes it unusually difficult to reach a human.
On the whole, WooCommerce may give you better customer support than Shopify, but your experience is completely dependent on your web host. Contrastingly, with Shopify, you can expect solid customer support -- as long as you’re a fan of live chat.
Bottom line: Shopify is good for bigger stores, while WooCommerce is ideal for small shops
Shopify’s bundled hosting, store designer and marketing tools can make it a great option for first-time website owners who aren’t confident learning complicated tech, such as a new CMS in WordPress. However, its cost can be prohibitive for small stores and the advanced e-commerce and shipping features are really intended for medium- to large-sized businesses. Larger companies will also enjoy the simplicity and speed of setting up a Shopify store, as it will allow them to start selling right away.
WooCommerce, on the other hand, is more complicated to learn but provides endless customization options through its connection to WordPress, making it ideal for people who want to create a multi-pronged business with monetization channels outside of selling products. Moreover, the plugin itself is free and WordPress-friendly hosting often costs significantly less than Shopify. This makes WooCommerce more appealing for small businesses on a shoestring budget, especially niche stores that don’t expect significant growth.
Best hosting options for WooCommerce
If you’re choosing WooCommerce, you’ll also need to choose a third-party web hosting service to run it on. Thankfully, many companies offer specialized WordPress and/or WooCommerce hosting with great server performance, security and guided setup processes to reduce the learning curve. Three such companies are SiteGround, Hostinger and Liquid Web.
SiteGround
SiteGround is our 2025 Editors’ Choice winner for Best Web Host Overall thanks largely to its remarkably simple guided WordPress setup and industry-leading customer service. Notably, SiteGround’s support team includes trained WordPress experts who can guide you through WordPress-specific processes other hosts’ teams aren’t equipped to deal with. You can even purchase additional help with advanced processes such as configuring custom themes.
SiteGround’s WordPress and WooCommerce plans are identical, offering automated updates to the core CMS and all plugins. All SiteGround plans include both the essential security protocols -- SSL certification and firewall protection -- and advanced security measures such as anti-DDoS protocols and an AI threat detection system that claims to block millions of security threats every day. SiteGround also provides a proprietary security plugin that rivals many premium options.
Plans from SiteGround start at $3 a month ($18 per month on renewal) for a one-year contract, with enough storage for at least 100 pages and enough bandwidth for 10,000 monthly visitors.
Read our full SiteGround review
Hostinger
Hostinger earned our 2025 Editors’ Choice Award for Best Value Web Host because its feature-packed plans have both highly affordable introductory pricing and relatively low renewal costs. You’ll need to sign a four-year contract for the best discount, but discounted prices are also available for two- and three-year plans.
All of Hostinger’s traditional web hosting plans include an advanced site assistant to guide you through the WordPress setup process, plus automated updates to the CMS and plugins. Hostinger also uses LiteSpeed-enhanced servers to boost WordPress speed. Moreover, Hostinger’s security goes beyond the basics to provide anti-DDoS protection and a malware scanner.
Unfortunately, Hostinger’s customer support is only available through a 24/7 live chat service that leans heavily on an AI chatbot. While there is some human support staff, it can take a while to reach them. I recommend SiteGround if you’re looking for a WooCommerce host with excellent customer support.
The basic Hostinger plan starts at $3 a month (renews at $11 per month) and includes unlimited bandwidth, plus enough storage for at least 250 pages.
Read our full Hostinger review
Liquid Web
Liquid Web (previously Nexcess) provides fully managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting. While Liquid Webexcess hosting doesn’t offer a site assistant like Hostinger or SiteGround, it does have a WordPress Management Center where you can quickly perform essential site optimization tasks. This includes the option to download numerous recommended plugins at once. Notably, some of the plugins bundled into Nexcess plans are premium tools, meaning you’d be paying separate fees for them if you chose another host.
Liquid Web's servers provide excellent uptime and speed by default, with several preselected plugins available to further improve performance. You’ll also get top-notch security, including anti-DDoS protection and the Solid Security Plugin (valued at $90 per year), which lets you enable features including two-factor authentication.
Liquid Web theoretically offers customer support through live chat, support ticket and phone. However, only the live chat service is fast and reliable. I experienced abnormally long wait times when submitting a support ticket and no response at all when I placed a callback request.
Still, Liquid Web plans are worthwhile if you like live chat support. There’s no introductory discount, but the starting price -- $8 a month -- is the same price you’ll pay when your contract renews, making Liquid Web highly affordable for long-term hosting. The base plan also includes enough storage for at least 150 pages -- more than SiteGround’s comparable plan -- and enough bandwidth for up to two million monthly visitors.