Shopify and Woo Commerce, these two are the most popular online platforms available in the market to open any new online store. The best part of both of them is that any user can open the online store without the help of developers and designers because of the many inbuilt features available in both the platforms.
Anyone comes across a stream of questions running in their minds when they are opening an online store for the very first time. Some of them may include which to choose? Which suits our business? Which is compatible with all devices?
So, this article will take you across the details of both Shopify and Woo Commerce platforms, similarities and differences between them. By the end of this article, you will be able to decide on which platform to choose between both to launch your online store.
1. Design:
Design plays an important role in any website. Especially for an e-commerce website customers rely on the design to judge the performance of the website.
Shopify design:
The design aspect is one of the best selling points of Shopify. They have a total of 54 different store templates available with unique variations and are customizable. Also, all these templates are all mobile friendly with various coloring options.
Another appreciable fact of Shopify designs is that they are built from a group of talented designers from outside. This indeed is helping them to get various selections of designs from different companies. There are different kinds of designs like free, premium. The free designs are less in number when compared to premium designs which may cost up to 180$.
Woo Commerce design:
Woo Commerce is an open-source e-commerce application that allows thousands of developers to create different themes in word press. But every developer must make sure that they abide by the conditions and standard recommendation practices. If you are so keen about the frontend design of your website, then there are many child themes you can choose from which are available from 39$.
2. Price:
Price is another important factor to be considered to open an online store. Both platforms have a different structure for pricing.
Shopify Pricing:
The hosting charges for a Shopify platform cost around 29$ per month. Shopify provides the user with free SSL certificate which is useful to ensure safety to the website which is an added advantage must say. The domain charges are around $9/year if you are choosing a top-level domain.
Woo Commerce Pricing:
Woo Commerce charges cost ranging from $5-100$. But the domain charges are the same that of Shopify which $9/year is if you are choosing a top-level domain.
Apart from this, there are also transactions fees of around 2-3% for each purchase made on the platforms which you need to make thorough scrutiny on before opting for any of them with the concerned authorities.
3. Comfort Levels:
Whether it is an established or a new online store, the ease of use matters for any platform. Users must feel it easy to use the setup and be able to run their store smoothly on either of the platforms.
Shopify Ease of Use:
Shopify is a subscription-based online tool. All you need to do to set up your online store is to signup button; go through a basic wizard set-up to start using. Once you are done with the sign-up the platform asks you a set of questions based on nature of the business which will later direct you to the dashboard where you can create your online store to add products. The platform is quite intuitive for both a new and established user.
Woo Commerce Ease of Use:
Unlike Shopify, Woo Commerce is a WordPress plug-in, so you need to take care of a set of things before launching your online store on Woo Commerce. First, you need to get a domain name, sign up for a hosting account, install word-press and also find the theme that suits your online store.
4. Time Taken to build an Online Store:
Both Shopify and Woo Commerce platforms have been developed to launch online stores easily. Shopify is a full-stack approach that offers various kind of tools necessary to build an online store. On the other hand, WooCommerce is an open-source platform which converts a word press site into an online store.
Time Taken to Build Shopify Store:
There are four different stages to launch a Shopify store. In the first stage, you need to sign up as a user which doesn’t take more than a minute with an active internet connection. Once you are done with the sign up you can move on to the designing the themes that are available in both premium and free versions as mentioned above. Then immediately, you can move on to the customization stage, to build your website elements like front end design. Here the time taken is directly proportional to the level of customization you opt for.
Time Taken to Build WooCommerce Store:
As said above, WooCommerce is a word press plug-in that can be installed if you have a domain. To start with, you need to find the best WordPress hosting site to launch your WooCommerce store. There are some providers like SiteGround, Bluehost Liquid Web who have both WordPress and WooCommerce installed. These providers come with a one-click WordPress Installer. All you need to do is to just press the install button present and then embed your WooCommerce store with WordPress and further installation process.
Thus, when Shopify and WooCommerce are compared, Shopify is easier to build than WooCommerce. But then it is totally up to you to choose between both of them based on the requirement you have.
5. Security:
Security is the primary concern for any online store because there will be a huge number of transactions happening regularly, so the higher the security the higher in the number of visitors to your store.
Shopify Security:
Shopify is a hosted platform, so you don’t need to owe for the security because the platform has many inbuilt security features in it. Also, it provides you a free SSL certificate, unlike WooCommerce. The users can also download the copy of entire by just installing a few plugins.
Woo Commerce Security:
Unlike Shopify, WooCommerce does not have any additional security options. The users need to run both WordPress and WooCommerce on their server. So, protecting the store entirely depends on the user. Using hosting sites as above mentioned can reduce the risk causing factors. Also, the users need to purchase their SSL certificate along with the hosting provider.
Thus, Shopify is more secured when compared to WooCommerce. But still many users are using WooCommerce by taking their security measures.
6. Support:
This is another important differentiating factor as good support plays a crucial role in customer retention of the E-Commerce industry.
Shopify Support:
Shopify provides 24*7 support via e-mail, phone and live chat official support. The users are also provided with access to the problems and solutions they might face/.
WooCommerce Support:
Woo Commerce is a free word press plug-in. So, unlike Shopify, the users are not provided with live support. Instead, the support is provided through the WordPress forums. You can also get support by creating a free user account.
These are the few main aspects and their similarities, differences in both the platforms. Apart from these you also need to take into account other aspects like SEO, time to build, Payments and Fees, etc... to decide on a suitable platform for your online store. Choose the best platform that suits your online store and start marketing.
One of the main differences will be the cloud deployment. WooCommerce can be hosted online cloud of your choice or in your server since it is open source. But, Shopify can be set up online with Shopify account, you can not self-host it, unlike WooCommerce.