Choose Shopify if you want a store that runs on a single platform with few moving parts, and choose WooCommerce if you want to own and shape every piece, including the hosting, and can maintain it. Devvista is a software development and growth agency that builds on both and moves stores between them for merchants in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and the UAE. The honest answer depends on your team, not on a feature list.
This guide compares them on ownership, cost, flexibility, upkeep and markets, with an assumption-based cost table you can redo with your own quotes.
01 The Short Answer: Who Each One Suits
Shopify suits owners who want to sell, not maintain: a catalog, a checkout and a back office that work together, with an app store for extras. WooCommerce suits owners who already run WordPress, want content and commerce in one site, or need behavior no hosted platform allows, and who have someone to look after it.
| Shopify | WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs the platform | Shopify, on a plan you subscribe to | You, on a host you choose |
| Best for | Product-led stores that want little upkeep | Content-led or WordPress sites, and deep custom needs |
| Main cost | Plan fee, apps and theme work | Hosting, extensions and maintenance time |
| Custom behavior | Apps; custom apps with Function APIs only on Plus | Anything you can code, if you maintain it |
| Upkeep | Apps, theme and content | WordPress, WooCommerce and extension updates, backups, security |
If you cannot name that someone, the maintenance burden of a self-managed store is the first thing to price in.
02 Ownership and Hosting: The Real Difference
WooCommerce describes itself as "the Open Source commerce platform for WordPress" and tells you to choose any payments, any features and any host. WordPress itself, per WordPress describes itself, is open source software. In practice, you pick a host, install WordPress and WooCommerce, add extensions, and keep all of it updated.
With Shopify you subscribe to a plan and the store runs on Shopify's platform. You still choose a theme, apps and settings, but you do not choose a server or patch the core. The trade-off is that you work inside Shopify's rules, which is also why some rules cost extra: see our Shopify Plus vs Shopify comparison.
03 What Each Costs: An Assumption-Based Comparison
Shopify publishes plan prices. As read on Shopify's pricing page on October 30, 2026 (US page, USD): Basic $25 a month or $19 billed yearly, Grow $65 or $49, Advanced $399 or $299, and Plus from $2,300 a month. Plans differ by staff accounts too: Grow includes up to 5, Advanced up to 15 and Plus unlimited. Check your own country's pricing page before deciding.
WooCommerce has no plan price, because you assemble the costs yourself: hosting, extensions, payment fees, security and developer time. That is why a fair comparison needs your own quotes. Use this table with assumptions you replace.
| Monthly cost item | Shopify (Grow, yearly) assumed | WooCommerce assumed |
|---|---|---|
| Platform or plan | $49 (from the pricing page) | $0 for the software |
| Hosting | Included in the plan | $30 (assumption: managed WordPress hosting) |
| Extensions or apps | $50 (assumption) | $35 (assumption: yearly licences spread over 12 months) |
| Maintenance time | 1 hour at $40 = $40 (assumption) | 4 hours at $40 = $160 (assumption) |
| Total | $139 | $225 |
Those figures are assumptions, not quotes, and they can flip the other way for a store with simple needs and a cheap host. The point of the table is the last line of each column: maintenance time is the cost most owners forget.
04 Flexibility: Where WooCommerce Wins and Where Shopify Does
WooCommerce wins when you need behavior that a hosted platform restricts: unusual checkout flows, deep database access, or a site where articles, courses and products live together. You can change anything because you control the code.
Shopify wins on predictability. Checkout, payments and hosting are handled for you, and custom needs go through apps. When a rule must run inside checkout, Shopify says only Plus stores can use custom apps that contain Function APIs (Shopify Functions), so flexibility there is tied to the plan.
For many stores the practical test is simple: list the three things your store must do that a standard setup does not, then ask which platform handles each without a custom build. Our custom Shopify app development page covers the Shopify side.
05 Upkeep, Speed and Security: Who Looks After What
On WooCommerce, you or your developer apply WordPress, WooCommerce and extension updates, test them for conflicts, back up the site and watch for security problems. A store that is neglected for a year is usually a store with an update backlog.
On Shopify, the platform side is handled for you, and your upkeep is apps, theme changes and content. That is a smaller surface, not zero: apps can slow a store, and each one is something to review.
Whichever you choose, write down who owns each task. Most stores that struggle with either platform have no named owner for updates.
06 Markets: US, UK, Australia, Canada and the UAE
The platform choice is the same everywhere, but the payment and tax questions are not. This table uses Shopify's own pages.
| Market | Shopify Payments | Tax tools on Shopify's tax page | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Listed as supported | Sales tax calculations can be set up automatically | Tax depends on the extension you install |
| United Kingdom | Listed as supported | Shopify Tax is listed for the EU and the UK | Same: extension-dependent |
| Australia | Listed as supported | Basic Tax is listed, with no GST detail | Same: extension-dependent |
| Canada | Listed as supported | Shopify Tax is listed; register first, then set up only your regions | Same: extension-dependent |
| United Arab Emirates | Listed as supported | Not covered on the tax page | Same: extension-dependent |
Shopify lists these countries for Shopify Payments (supported countries page), provided your business is located in one of them, while WooCommerce lets you choose any payment provider. For tax, Shopify says it is your responsibility (tax page), and in Canada Shopify's Canadian tax setup help says to register first. For selling across borders, Shopify Markets controls currency, languages, domains and taxes by region.
07 A Decision Checklist
- Do you already run a content-heavy WordPress site? That points toward WooCommerce.
- Do you have a named person or agency to maintain it? If not, that points toward Shopify.
- Do you need checkout behavior a standard setup cannot give? Check whether Shopify plus a custom app covers it, and on which plan.
- Is your catalog large with complex rules? Price both builds, not only the platform.
- Will you sell in several countries? Compare how each handles currency, tax and languages.
- Are you moving from one to the other? Read our WooCommerce to Shopify migration guide first.
08 Where Devvista Fits
Devvista is a software development and growth agency that builds and maintains stores on Shopify and WooCommerce and moves them between the two. We will recommend the platform that fits your team, even when that is not the one we find easiest. A good fit: an owner choosing a platform for the first time, or considering a move. Not a fit: a store that already works well on its current platform. See our Shopify migration services and WordPress development pages, or book a call.
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