Why Shopify Instead of WooCommerce? Trying to make sense of the hype.

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Hey guys..

I'm about to get started on a few e-commerce stores and will be focusing on Print on Demand.

A lot of the tutorials/courses etc. that I've come across recommend Shopify for this.

Something tells me that the fact that they can get recurring affiliate commissions for a Shopify recommendation is a big reason why I see it being hyped so much.

For someone who is already paying for hosting and is comfortable working with Wordpress, is there any benefit to using Shopify instead of WooCommerce?

It seems to be that by using Shopify, I'd be adding a lot more to my operating expenses to essentially do what I can do for free with WooCommerce.

And, after chatting with support, I found out that in order to run multiple Shopify stores, you need to pay the monthly Shopify fee x the amount of stores you have.

So.. 5 stores works out to 5 x $29/$79 .. PER MONTH.

Why would anyone who's technically savvy use this?

What am I missing?

Is it really THAT much better than the free WooCommerce solution?
#ecommerce sites, wholesaling & drop shipping #hype #make #sense #shopify #woocommerce
  • Here's my take on this.

    One of the main reason it appeals to majority of people is the ease of use.

    Then there's incentive to promote. But they do not offer recurring commission, just 100% commission for the first 2 months.

    Basically these are the primary reasons why Shopify is more popular initially. As it becomes more popular, another huge advantage emerges, apps integration. There are more high quality apps being developed for Shopify because of market demand.

    But I don't think it's significantly better than WooCommerce. If operating cost is your concern, go for WooCommerce. It works just fine.
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    • I agree with yintegriti with Shopify being easy to use. Personally, it is the only platform that I have used. I know nothing about WooCommerce. A lot of people find it simple to integrate dropshipping products to Shopify, including myself.

      Since you mentioned print on demand, have you looked into sites like GearBubble and Viral Style? Might be something you want to look into if you don't want to build out a full website.
  • There are many reasons - but mainly it's just a lot faster and simpler. Yes, as you add sites it becomes a growing expense - but then again if you can't recoup 30 or 80 bucks from an ecommerce store in a month then perhaps that's not the right business?

    Main advantages are quite easy to list:

    1. Quick setup, no worries you will screw up anything and the site will not work. With Wordpress + plugins you always have the risk that things will just not function the way you intended - especially if you customize a lot.

    2. No headaches about infrastructure & hosting - each Wordpress site has to be hosted and a good host is an added expense. WP Engine would set you back $35 for one site and up to 25,000 visitors in a month cap. On Shopify you have no caps and guaranteed uptime + unlimited file hosting - so you can upload pretty much anything you want and serve it to millions of people (if you end up driving that many) without worrying whether your host can handle it.

    3. Apps and plugins - it's a closed environment + it's popular so not only do you have a ton of extensions but they are generally compatible and won't screw up your site. Wordpress / Woocommerce offer a ton of 3rd party solutions as well but they not only can cost you more (and often do) but also create problems and incompatibilities of their own.

    Yes, you will get more flexibility - if you know what you're doing - but that comes at the expense of time and money.

    4. Integrated payment processing - speaking about plugins, Shopify quickly and seamlessly integrates with various payment processors so you have that problem off your head as well. Granted, checkout looks the same on all sites (what is a big drawback IMHO) but, then again, you don't have to worry about doing the integration on your own site - and checking whether it works properly for all visitors.

    Shopify just gives you a lot of things out of the box - especially the critical elements - what means you have this many problems less. Of course with WC you could try to save some money - if your stores are small - but in the longer run I don't think it's really feasible. Hosting + possibility of technical issues are pretty threatening, especially for small businesses just starting up.

    I think it makes a lot more sense to start with Shopify and consider any other platform after you've grown a fairly sustainable business.
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    • I'm not here to bash on Shopify but let's just make few things clear :

      1- You can get hourly database backups so you can always work and get the previous version if something is wrong. This can't be stated as a fact since you can screw things up with Shopify codes aswell.

      2- Wrong, Many hosting companies charges less than $10 for a super fast host , Don't fall for the wordpress hosting solution. Oh Also you won't have any probelm receiving more than 25K visitors, if you do much then you can upgrade at any time (will still cost less than Shopify).

      3- Again wrong, The majority of plugins are free and updated on a regular basis, I understand if you're getting nulled or old ones, but on their plugins page you can get every module needed to run a successful ecommerce store.

      You've talked about flexibility and being a result of a lot of work, Wrong again, today Woocommerce Themes offers demo layouts which you can use and modify the content. The design customization and modifications are one of the most critical factors in the success of a website, Halas Shopify is very limited.

      4- Woocommerce offers a default Paypal integration system and you can get Stripe for Free. I partially agree with you on this point since the price of 2CO plugin is $49 for one single website. But if you search the interenet you'll find a free snippet to integrate 2CO.

      Now let's talk about the real advantages of Shopify. Recently a lot of people started to run their stores using Shopify due to the Hype it gets from gurus and media. They run a very agressive marketing campaign targetting people interested in Dropshipping, Yes exactly. Shopify is a very good platform, but only if you wish to start a dropshipping store. You won't see big companies (there are some) using Shopify, the majority goes with higher compeling solutions such as prestashop & magneto (sometimes woocommerce). You may wonder why , the layout is the answer. A store needs to be updated on a regular basis to reflect the latest updates (new products, coupons, deals...) and very often you can't go with the same banners (images, POSITIONS, design..) all the time.

      Shopify is a great solution to dropshipping business since it offers all the tools you need to run a dropshipping store. The major ones are products submission & orders fulfilment , and that's it. Every other advantage can be found on other platforms, and please don't bring the SSL and the unlimited hosting to table because it's just stupid.

      Bottom line:

      - Shopify: Dropshipping business
      - Woocommerce, Prestashop, Magneto, Bigcommerce, Cscart ......: Real eCommerce business.
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  • Simply for most its easier to use. I myself use WP and a ecommerce plugin, but i have experience and most dont.
  • If you can deal with complexity (technically savvy?), then you will be happier with Woo because of the control it would offer you. As you say, there are no upfront fees.

    Shopify is great if you want everything (SEO, CRO, payment etc.) to work out of the box. If you have already used Woo, then nothing has changed as such, it still require about 100 plug-ins to be integrated (And your theme) together to get everything right between Woo and WP, before the next Woo release may break everything Woo can also be slow, if you're hosted on a cheap shared platform.

    It is a classic dilemma between DIY versus Out of the box functionality.
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    • Is it possible to build your store on Shopify with zero technical experience.

      Im all for learning but worried it will take a long time for me to get this store going....within a few months.
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  • More important than anything, is the security and PCI compliance that Shopify affords. You never have to worry about security updates or plugins breaking after security updates with Shopify; they are done seamlessly in the background and you never even realize that the cart has been updated.

    If you are processing credit cards on the site (not sending them off to a third party like PayPal), you will find it almost impossible to meet the credit card companies' PCI compliance standards with WordPress/Woo, which will cost you extra every month in non-compliance fees. You don't have to worry about that with Shopify's hosted platform.

    All Shopify stores have an SSL security certificate included and the entire site is HTTPS out of the box.

    Finally, if I cannot afford $29-$79/month for each website business, the business was not worth creating in the first place.
  • The main reason a lot of people prefer Shopify to Woo commerce is mainly because of the ease of use. Woo commerce for beginners is a lot harder to use but if you know or learn how to use it by all means use Woo commerce.
  • Yea, I went with WooCommerce. Very happy about my decision to do so. I tried to make sense of using Shopify due to all the hype, but since I'm comfortable working with Wordpress, the ease-of-use wasn't a huge selling point for me. There's just so many advantages to using WooCommerce..


    - Plugins are usually a 1 time fee vs monthly
    - More themes to pick from
    - No additional costs to build out multiple sites
    - More options when it comes to SEO
    - You actually OWN your site
    - You have more flexibility overall

    The icing on the cake was that Shopify will charge you an additional 2% if you want to use a payment processor besides their in-built one. Seriously? If you're paying their monthly fee, you should be able to use whatever processor you want.

    Shopify payments is only available in specific countries as well, so many people don't even have the option to use it. These people (if they use Shopify) will be paying around 5% just in transaction fees. Ridiculous.

    I find it funny how there are dozens of Youtubers referring to Shopify like it's a method in itself.

    "Shopify dropshipping, shopify dropshipping, shopify dropshipping".

    It's just a platform..

    They must have a really good affiliate program. The marketers are out in full force haha
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  • Some print on demand suppliers only have Shopify Apps and don't support other platforms which is a problem..
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  • Both Shopify and Woocommerce are good for e-commerce, But Shopify is best among them. Because this platform is simply made for e-commerce. It comes with various design themes and tools that goes good with shopift. Woocomerce is a simple plugin which you can install on amy wordpress website. That is easy but is not good when customization and layout is concerned. shopify is trusted by more people than WooCommerce so I Suggest you to go for shopify.
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  • Hello!

    I think shopify is better than woocommerce, it's fast and easy to set up but it is more expensive than woocommerce.
  • Shopify is a better option than WooCommerce when it comes to start an e-commerce business. Here is the comparison:

    WooCommerce is an open source platform so lots of developers are working towards customizing an store and themes. When it comes to design WooCommerce has more options but Shopify has better designs and there are plenty of agencies from where you can get custom design of your stores.

    In the pricing front Shopify has clear pricing structure and WooCommerce is a free open source platform. But with Shopify you get almost all the technical things sorted at one place like hosting, themes, support etc. But with WooCommerce you have to hire somebody to take care of everything from hosting to development. Sometimes Woocommerce can be costlier than Shopify because of all these constraints.

    Shopify is easy to use and you can setup an online store without knowing anything about development and designing. On the other hand using WooCommerce without technology knowledge is almost impossible.

    Shopify is feature rich and suited best for new entrants in e-commerce businesses and WooCommerce is for more seasoned businesses. But with products like Shopify Plus even Shopify is beating all the existing platforms.

    Shopify's supports are excellent and available 24/7 and being a open source WooCommerce lacks in this front.
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    • I think wordpress now owns shopify.
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    I have a shopify store and i can tell you its very easy to use and learn.

    The apps they have , made everything so easy to operate.

    I would choose shopify over woo in every case.
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  • I depends of what you want to do. If you want to dropship, definetely go with shopify
  • Yes. It is 1000x cheaper in the long-term. WooCommerce isn't entirely free. You have to figure out how to scale, host and configure everything on your backend by yourself. Or hire a developer. It is much more expensive in the long run
  • You wouldn't. I have used both. I am no tech genius, but I am comfortable with WordPriess.

    I use WooCommerce for selling my original art online. It integrates with Printful, a top Print-On-Demand company and I love everything about woocommerce.

    You can check out my art site; the link is in my signature.

    More

    WooCommerce offers many free and some paid add ons; but it is you site and you can definitely keep the costs down.

    Shopify is great for a beginner, or someone that has little or no technical skills.


    Like I said: I love WooCommerce.
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  • Shopify is purely an ecommerce store, with a simple blog. Very easy to use. Might as well pay a little more and not worry about development.

    Wordpress can be any type of site, with an online store attached. A lot more flexible, but you are more likely to need a developer.
  • Interesting conversation, I'm trying to choose between BigCommerce, Shopify and Woocommerce. So that I can get an idea visually, can someone here post a link to their shopify website please.
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