Platform comparison
Which one really fits your project in 2026? 10-criteria comparison, real costs, concrete use cases.
WooCommerce and Shopify are the two most widely used ecommerce platforms in the world, but they answer two opposite philosophies: WooCommerce is an open source plugin for WordPress with full code control, Shopify is a turnkey SaaS with a monthly fee.
For most projects we manage (over 70%) the final choice falls on WooCommerce, for reasons of cost, ERP integration and SEO. But Shopify has specific strengths that make it the better fit in certain precise cases. We explain them below, no partisanship.
Detailed comparison
How strong each platform is on each criterion.
| Criterion | WooCommerce | Shopify |
|---|---|---|
| Platform cost | ●●●●● open source, €0 | ●●○○○ €36-€399/month |
| Commissions on revenue | ●●●●● none | ●●○○○ 1.3-2% Shopify Payments |
| Time-to-market | ●●●●○ 1-3 weeks | ●●●●● 1-2 weeks |
| Flexibility / customization | ●●●●● total, PHP code | ●●○○○ limited, Liquid |
| European ERP integration | ●●●●● mature native plugins | ●●○○○ via custom API |
| SEO + editorial blog | ●●●●● WordPress base | ●●○○○ basic SEO |
| International selling (10+ countries) | ●●●○○ with WPML/Polylang | ●●●●● native Shopify Markets |
| Native social integrations | ●●●○○ with plugins | ●●●●● rich app store |
| B2B (customer pricing, P.O.) | ●●●●○ with B2B plugin | ●●○○○ only Shopify Plus |
| Infrastructure scalability | ●●●○○ depends on hosting | ●●●●● automatic |
●●●●● excellent · ●●●●○ very good · ●●●○○ good · ●●○○○ limited
Platform costs
Understanding the cost structure before choosing avoids unpleasant surprises 6-12 months after launch.
Take away: Shopify cost structure is more predictable (monthly fee) but scales with revenue due to commissions. On WooCommerce you only pay for resources you actually use, but you have to handle hosting and maintenance. For a concrete quote on your case, all it takes is 10 minutes: +39 011 922 2277.
Real cases
Two concrete examples from the portfolio to understand how we apply criteria to the real case.
WooCommerce choice
Client: small artisanal pasta producer, revenue under €500K/year, need to sync with Italian ERP for electronic invoicing. On Shopify the integration required custom API development; on WooCommerce a native official plugin exists. Also the owner manages catalog alone — WordPress backoffice is familiar. Final choice: WooCommerce, online in 3 weeks (€2,950 Professional package).
Shopify choice
Client: sustainable apparel brand, 200 products, marketing-first team of 6, need for international selling in 8 EU countries with localized currencies and taxes, TikTok Shop and Instagram Shopping integrations. WooCommerce would have needed 3-4 plugins to cover multi-currency, multi-tax, social commerce — heavy maintenance. On Shopify Markets everything is native. Final choice: Shopify Advanced + Shopify Markets, online in 4 weeks.
Want to see other cases and the full 12 selection criteria? Read the methodology.
Frequently asked
Depends on the case, but for most projects we recommend WooCommerce: superior ERP integrations, better SEO, full code control, no recurring monthly fees, no commissions on revenue. Shopify makes sense for DTC brands focused on international marketing wanting zero infrastructure worries.
WooCommerce is a free open source plugin for WordPress: zero platform fee, zero commissions on revenue. You only pay for hosting (on our servers €260/year for WordPress, €300/year for optimized WooCommerce) and the plugins you need. Shopify has a fixed monthly fee (€36-€399) plus Shopify Payments commissions as percentage on revenue.
Yes, it's a migration we do regularly. We export products, customers, order history from Shopify and re-import them into WooCommerce keeping URLs to preserve SEO ranking. Average time: 1 week for small ecommerce, up to 3-4 weeks for complex catalogs with variants, B2B, marketing automation.
Yes, also the other way. Typically happens when the client grows in international selling and wants to reduce management complexity, or when plugin maintenance becomes onerous. Migration preserves URLs and SEO. The opposite case is much more frequent: clients migrating from Shopify to WooCommerce to reduce 3-year recurring costs.
Initially yes, especially with a Shopify Start preset theme (1-2 weeks). But WooCommerce with a commercial theme like Astra, GeneratePress or Kadence launches in 1-3 weeks. The difference is minimal at equal scope. On customized projects, WooCommerce is actually faster because you have direct code access.
Yes, up to 10,000 products WooCommerce holds well with performant hosting (LiteSpeed, Cloudways or Kinsta), optimized MariaDB and Redis caching. Shopify scales automatically above that but at proportional costs (Advanced/Plus plans). For enterprise catalogs over 25,000 SKUs we recommend Magento instead.
WooCommerce is superior on SEO, mainly because it's based on WordPress which has the most mature editorial ecosystem on the web (Yoast, RankMath, advanced taxonomies, integrated blog). Shopify has basic, hardly controllable SEO. For ecommerce where the blog is a primary lead generation asset, WooCommerce is unmatched.
Depends on the plan and market. In Italy/EU Shopify Payments commissions range from 1.3% on Plus plan to 2% on Basic, plus €0.25 per transaction. On €100K annual revenue that means €1,300-€2,000/year just in payment commissions, without counting the platform fee (€432-€4,788/year). On WooCommerce with direct Stripe, commissions go to the bank, not the platform.
In a 10-minute free call we'll honestly tell you which platform fits your project best.
