Have you been planning to Start your own e-commerce Store?
If so, you have probably done some research about the tools that will assist you in launching your online business.
Ecommerce has become one of the most favorite shopping options today, given that it is highly convenient and cost-effective. That is why more and more entrepreneurs are embracing the business. After all, there’s no need for expensive real estate when you sell goods online.
We live in the digital era where several vendors follow the concept of simple selling. From Square payment terminals for your pop-up store to Shopify and WordPress for creating online selling sites, there’s something for everyone. Unarguably, Shopify and WordPress are the two most renowned brands in the world of e-commerce. These platforms are known for offering flexibility, simplicity, and incredible performance to each user.
Since you are thinking of launching an e-commerce platform, you must know about Shopify and WordPress.
You may even wonder why we would want to compare these two platforms as Shopify is an e-commerce platform while WordPress is used to create websites.
To answer your question, we have come up with this comparison because both Shopify and WordPress are valuable platforms to create sale-friendly sites for entrepreneurs. So, let’s have a closer look at both of the options to choose the best.
- Overview of Shopify & WordPress
- Pros and Cons Shopify vs WordPress
- Similarities Between Shopify and WordPress
- Shopify Templates vs WordPress Templates
- Shopify SEO vs WordPress SEO
- How Much Does It Cost to have Shopify Website Vs WordPress Ecommerce?
- Shopify Customer Support and WordPress
- Shopify Dropshipping vs. WordPress Dropshipping
- Shopify Ecommerce vs WordPress Woocommerce
- WordPress or Shopify? All you need to know in [2022]
- 9 Reasons Why Shopify is Better than WordPress
- 8 Reasons Why WordPress is Better than Shopify
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Shopify vs. WordPress: An Overview
Before we begin our comparison between Shopify and WordPress, we must understand these tools. So, let’s take a look.
We all have heard about Shopify, but not everyone knows about it. This leading web application platform was launched to assist people design and create reliable online stores. Shopify is the best choice to make if you want to have an e-commerce platform with a domain name, access to PayPal, an e-commerce plugin, and other essential features. The name ‘Shopify’ has it all – it’s all about assisting customers with their shopping. Moreover, it has various templates to pick from, which you can customize according to your brand’s requirements and customers’ needs. After all, Shopify offers an individualized plan for everyone.
Another great thing about Shopify is that if you don’t have any technical skills, you can still build an e-commerce site to sell goods without any hassle. But if you have some coding skills, you can use them editing HTML and CSS with Shopify. Taking Shopify payments is easier than you think, and you can have your own Shopify store up and running in no time with a low learning curve. In no time, you’ll be guiding your consumers through the checkout process.
It is also worth noting that Shopify is a hosted solution. Hence, Shopify’s servers provide you with all of your capabilities, which means that you won’t have to worry about purchasing a web hosting or installing software. Shopify gives you everything that you need to create your own shopping store. Since Shopify is a (SaaS) solution, you don’t own the software but can pay a monthly cost to use it.
On the other hand, WordPress offers two types, including WordPress.com and WordPress.org. Talking about the WordPress.com, it is regulated by a separate company, while WordPress.org can be hosted by yourself. WordPress.com is also a SaaS tool that you cannot purchase but pay the fee on a monthly basis. This one-stop solution is used to create and maintain a variety of websites.
When it comes to WordPress.org, it is a part of e-commerce software that can be installed on your own web server. You can customize this solution as much as you want since it is a highly flexible tool. You can install this server for free, but you need to pay for hosting that solution. The good news is that WordPress hosting solutions can be found without any hassle. Not only that, you also get to enjoy a wide range of exciting features. For example, you can have access to the WooCommerce plugin for e-commerce and other tools to create your own storefront as well as checkout. You can enjoy all the e-commerce features; all credit goes to WordPress plugins.
Also, you might not this, but WordPress is extremely extensible. Besides, add-ons and free themes, you can have a plugin for almost all kinds of things, such as inventory management, product reviews, and more.
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Shopify vs WordPress: Pros and Cons
Pros of Shopify
- You don’t have to learn coding or technical skills to use Shopify.
- There are no charges for hosting or security externally.
- Since it is purely for building e-commerce websites, all the sales tools are available that you require.
Cons of Shopify
- If you pay from a payment gateway other than Shopify Payments, you need to pay extra transaction fees (0.5% to 2% each transaction).
- Although it doesn’t require any technical knowledge, it is still not as basic to use as you may think.
- You will have to reformat the content if you decide to change the theme of your site.
Pros of WordPress
- It has a new editor called ‘Gutenberg,’ which makes the platform easier to use.
- WordPress is more flexible and powerful than Shopify, letting you have total customization.
- Several helpful resources are available online, including both professional developers and user forums.
Cons of WordPress
- It can be quite expensive very quickly.
- You need to have the technical knowledge to use this platform.
- You must source things, such as security, web hosting, and a domain name yourself.
Comparison Between Shopify and WordPress
When it comes to the comparison between Shopify and WordPress, there are several factors to consider, such as price, customer support, templates, and more. Following are all the crucial things to consider when making a purchase.
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Shopify vs. WordPress: Templates
Building your e-commerce website with Shopify or WordPress will have a great outcome. You can have the best domain name, access to PayPal payments, and SSL certificate using these platforms. After all, your site must look catchy to attract customers and have increased sales.
We agree that there is a lot more to a website than it looks, but we can’t deny the fact that first impressions are quite important. Having a shoddy-looking site means that visitors will come and immediately leave after looking at the appearance of your online store. Hence, aesthetics matter, especially when it is an e-commerce website.
Fortunately, both Shopify and WordPress provide options for improving the appearance of your website. The simplest method to begin improving your online business storefront is to use free themes. Shopify has a beautiful collection of templates, both free and paid, to fit a variety of purposes. Shopify themes are well-designed and simple to customize. Furthermore, the models are responsive for mobile users as it has become a need of the digital era.
Choosing your site’s theme from a wide range of excellent templates assures you that you will have a great start once the website is live. Moreover, you can also have access to other templates from best sellers, in case you don’t like the ones that Shopify directly offers.
Although Shopify offers an excellent range of templates, they cannot beat the best WordPress templates. The platform is known for CMS around the world; developers have been creating themes and templates for WordPress for years. It means that you can choose from thousands of incredible options as per your brand’s needs.
However, it is important to note that not every WordPress template will be suitable for your e-commerce site. You may spend days scouring the internet for a suitable WordPress theme. You must also know that not every theme accessible is compatible with the app store tools you are using. Therefore, ensure that your WordPress theme is compatible with your WooCommerce plugin, social networking tools, and other tools that you use.
Furthermore, not every theme is as contemporary and elegant as you would want. Also, because Shopify is geared toward non-technical customers, the Shopify theme settings are a little easier to use and edit. But creating an incredible WordPress template is also not that difficult.
When it comes to customization of WordPress templates and Shopify templates, WordPress is always the winner. Just make sure you use a secure template from a reputable provider to avoid jeopardizing your site’s security.
Moreover, bear in mind that both platforms provide premium and free themes. While free themes are perfect for beginners, pros must prefer paid themes and templates.
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Shopify vs WordPress: SEO and Content
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial component of any business website’s success. The reason is if you don’t have good search engine exposure, you’ll have a hard time getting traffic and sales. Although you can use paid advertising to increase your business’s sales, SEO is the best way to maintain better results in the long run.
Regardless of you use Shopify, WordPress, or any other platform to build your site, the importance of having SEO-friendly websites remains the same. Excellent SEO is essential for long-term growth, making it easier for customers to find a range of products on your site. Not only that, the right SEO will also improve your reputation in the market.
You may now have a question; how can Shopify or WordPress improve your SEO strategy?
When it comes to SEO, Shopify’s tools are simple but effective. You may get things like SSL to safeguard your site and show Google that you deserve to be at the top of the search results. XML sitemaps are also generated automatically, as are 301 redirects if a page fails to load or a name is changed.
Unfortunately, leading solutions like Yoast cannot be used on Shopify sites, but there are a number of useful SEO plugins that fulfill comparable roles. Advanced Shopify editing can also be used to develop your own SEO techniques.
The primary disadvantage of Shopify in terms of SEO is the difficulty of creating very clean URLs. The reason is you always get things like pages/likes, and more.
There is no denying that Google prefers having a simple URL structure. However, it is not only restricted to URLs when it comes to SEO. Hence, you won’t lose all hope of ranking just because yours are a little sloppy.
Talking about WordPress, this platform has tremendous SEO capabilities, especially if Yoast – one of the most popular SEO plugins – is installed.
The Yoast WordPress plugin does an in-depth SEO analysis of your content before providing step-by-step instructions on how to enhance your rating. Yoast for WordPress also allows you to develop SEO-friendly sitemaps and canonical URLs to eliminate duplicating content.
Apart from that, WordPress is excellent at building simple and clean URLs for your website. Since WordPress sites can be hosted on any server, you can select the fastest and most reliable one. In addition, you won’t be limited by Shopify’s shared hosting, so as your business grows, you’ll still have access to the support you might require.
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Shopify vs. WordPress: Value for Money
Let’s first talk about Shopify Pricing Plan, Here is what you will have in the first place:
- Basic Shopify: This pricing package includes everything you need to start a business. It will cost you $29 each month.
- Shopify: This is the all-in-one package for the complete Shopify experience, which will charge you $79 per month.
- Advanced Shopify: State-of-the-art features for a scaling business for $299 per month.
Apart from this, Shopify has announced new pricing choices, including Shopify Plus, which has a negotiated, quote-based fee, and Shopify Lite that will cost $9 per month. Keep in mind that Shopify Plus is the most expensive version of Shopify when considering different options. The good news is that almost all the Shopify features have a 14-day free trial, so you can have a trial and know which one is the best program for your business’s success.
If you want to have a closer look at your investment, be sure to go for a detailed overview of features and products that Shopify offers. Because you will require a hosting and storefront provider to manage unlimited products without any problem or delay.
The features that you receive on any given plan will depend on how much you spend, as it does with most website building tools. For example, the Lite plan allows you to add a Shopify “Buy” button to your website and sell through Facebook, but there is no independent store. Also, the phone support service is only available on the Basic package and higher.
Overall, Shopify is a reasonably priced option to create an e-commerce website, especially if you are on a tight budget. On the other hand, the advanced and Plus packages can become quite expensive rapidly.
Taking a look at WordPress pricing, it’s difficult to have an accurate estimate of how much a self-hosted WordPress e-commerce website will cost your company as there are multiple variables to consider. Although the software to create a WordPress site is free to download, the ultimate cost of your e-commerce strategy will be determined by the following factors:
- Hosting – Several companies provide hosting, and each of them has different pricing packages to select from.
- Themes and Designs – Some templates have premium costs as well as a professional designer.
- Integrations and Plugins – Entrepreneurs with successful businesses require a variety of plugins and integrations to smoothly run their online stores. If you are one of them, some plugins may cost you good amount of money.
As we have mentioned earlier that WordPress requires some technical skills and knowledge, you may need to pay for a developer to build your e-commerce store if you don’t have coding knowledge. Hiring a professional WordPress developer means that you need to add that cost, too.
When you’re developing an e-commerce store with WordPress, the one thing you’ll always have to pay for is hosting. Hence, make sure to determine whether you want to go with a managed hosting provider or shared-hosting service. Managed hosting provides a quicker and safer website, but it is more expensive. Whereas, shared hosting is cheap but not ideal for e-commerce businesses.
The average WordPress e-commerce website price include:
- Annual hosting (managed): MYR 350 each year
- Ecommerce integrations: MYR 180 per year
- Part-time developer guidance: MYR 2000 – MYR 8000
- Plugins: MYR 400
- Premium theme: MYR 400 one-off
Comparing these two platforms for money, Shopify is less expensive than WordPress.
Moreover, don’t forget to consider the payment options when selecting the platform that’s suitable for you. You’ll need a solution with cheap transaction fees regardless you are accepting credit card or PayPal payments. Shopify Transaction fees start at $29 per month for the Shopify Basic plan, which includes a 2.9 percent fee and 30 cents every online transaction. The standard Shopify account, on the other hand, costs $79 per month and includes a 2.6 percent fee and 30 cents every transaction.
The transaction fees that you experience with WordPress is dependent on the e-commerce payment platform you choose to use.
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Shopify vs. WordPress: Customer Support and Guidance
When purchasing a new tool for the first time, it’s easy to neglect issues such as customer assistance and guidance. People usually assume that they will learn to use a system easily, so there is no need to check customer service. However, knowing that help is accessible when you need it is always reassuring.
Shopify is certainly one of the most customer-friendly e-commerce website builders available. The platform offers support as a standard when purchasing a plan. Shopify customers get both email and phone support except those who are on the Shopify Lite plan. If so, you will only receive email support and chat, which is enough for the basic support.
Shopify also features a help center as well as a number of community forums where you can obtain solutions to your questions. Overall, with all of the help options, the service is quite simple to grasp:
When it comes to WordPress, you don’t receive a lot of support since it is a self-hosted platform.
Although support is available, it is usually in the form of clients’ sites or WordPress forums. If you are in need of a more comprehensive level of assistance, find a WordPress developer to work with.
On the bright side, most of your WordPress experience will be given via plugins and add-ons; you will depend on third-party providers for some of your help. When you’re looking for methods to use WordPress to expand your e-commerce site, it’s a good idea to look for plugins from suppliers who have a strong track record of customer service.
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Shopify vs. WordPress: Dropshipping Options
Another important factor to consider is the dropshipping options. Although it is not appealing for everyone, it is an easy-to-use option for people who want to avoid stocking and managing their inventory. In addition, dropshipping allows you to hire a merchant to handle the shipping part of your sales, drastically lowering the cost of running an e-commerce business.
Whether you are using Shopify or WordPress, the best option is to get a plugin tool.
Oberlo is Shopify’s most popular dropshipping platform, enabling businesses to locate goods, add them to a Shopify site, and begin selling right away.
On the other hand, WordPress uses Airdropship as a dropshipping plugin.
This one-time-fee plugin helps you to select the ideal merchants to meet your goals, and there are no limits to the number of products you can list per month.
It’s difficult to determine which is better because both Shopify and WordPress include plugins to help you run your dropshipping business. No matter what CMS you pick, you will definitely find a suitable plugin.
To sum it up, whether you choose Shopify or WordPress for dropshipping, it will be determined by the plugins you want to have.
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Shopify vs. WordPress: Ecommerce or Selling Tools
No e-commerce site builder would be complete without a set of features designed to assist you in creating and managing an online store. After all, we’re primarily looking at WordPress hosting and Shopify shop choices for e-commerce.
After you’ve chosen a Shopify theme that suits your needs, you can begin adding infinite products to your Shopify app.
In this regard, Shopify and WordPress both have a lot to offer. Let’s have a look at some of the qualities that each contender has to offer.
With Shopify, you receive all of the fantastic capabilities you’d expect from a solution built particularly for e-commerce website development. You’re transported to a dashboard the moment you log in to your service, where you may fill in email addresses, product information, and more.
The e-commerce functionalities offered through WordPress are dependent on the plugin you install to access e-commerce functionality through your WordPress account. Most individuals will choose for WooCommerce as their preferred plugin. Many of the same capabilities as Shopify are available in WooCommerce, including selling both digital and physical objects.
Furthermore, WooCommerce allows you to build customer accounts that are tailored to the needs of individual customers, as well as offer affiliate products with additional incentives. You may also separate products and establish product categories to make them easier to track in a transparent and flexible setting.
It’s difficult to determine whether Shopify or WordPress is better in this case because the type of e-commerce capability you get with WordPress is depending on the plugins you choose. However, in the app store, you should find something that has the same capabilities as Shopify and then some. With so many e-commerce plugin tools to pick from, WordPress is impossible to overlook as one of the most adaptable hosting platforms available.
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Shopify vs. WordPress: Conclusion
There are a variety of e-commerce solutions available today, each with its own basic plan. Regardless of you are using Bigcommerce, Wix, WordPress or Shopify, you must never overlook the needs of your company. Discussing WordPress and Shopify, both platforms offer a free SSL certificate and a variety of great add-ons to pick from.
On one hand, Shopify has many coding possibilities, Shopify payments, and an e-commerce focus. On the other hand, WordPress is all about creating flexible websites for multiple businesses.
Both WordPress and Shopify clearly have a lot to offer to business owners who wish to start and run their own e-commerce stores. Both tools have advantages and disadvantages, but there is no perfect fit for achieving the ideal eCommerce experience.
But, our experiences with WordPress and Shopify have helped us determine who is best suited to each platform.
To conclude, if you need a blog or a startup website with e-commerce capabilities, WordPress will provide you with the dynamic flexibility you are looking for. Shopify, on the other hand, is the option for you if you’re looking for something that’s created to give e-commerce functionality and support.
The plus side is that Shopify and WordPress have great sets of functionalities, capabilities, and other incredible features. Furthermore, Shopify offers a free trial to get you started, but WordPress is completely free to use — all you have to pay for is hosting and plugins when you’re ready to launch.
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9 Reasons Why Shopify Websites are Better than WordPress Websites
- Shopify is easier to use and set up, making it an ideal tool for beginners. It also has its own payment solutions.
- Several features that are sourced separately for WordPress come as standard with Shopify.
- You don’t need to have technical skills to operate Shopify.
- Reduced risk of getting hacked as WordPress is a more popular platform, which is why it is the primary focus of hackers.
- Hosting comes with the products instead of managing separately.
- It offers safety and security for your website, whereas WordPress does not.
- People looking for simple and fast performance must go for Shopify than WordPress.
- When it comes to guidance, support, and customer services – Shopify offers a promising experience.
- You can avail a 14-day trial for free.
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8 Reasons Why WordPress is Better than Shopify
- You can download WordPress for free as it is an open-source platform.
- WordPress is an extremely flexible platform, meaning that you can create all types of websites, unlike the limited Shopify experience.
- WordPress provides a wide range of plugins, including both free and premium. Therefore, you can choose the features and functionality that are best suited to your business. Although Shopify has plugins, they are limited.
- WordPress has a more sophisticated system for content management along with things like content versioning and archiving.
- WordPress has numerous products and variants available that are a lot more flexible than Shopify.
- WordPress creates websites that are more SEO-friendly relative to Shopify. With WordPress, you even have access to the leading platform from Yoast.
- You can have better control over your marketing and content strategies. However, you might face difficulties starting with content on Shopify.
- WordPress is a far better choice to make than Shopify for multi-site projects or multi-language stores that need to operate around the globe.
