If you’re looking to start an online shop, you’re probably wondering which platform is right for you – Shopify vs WordPress? Both platforms have their pros and cons, and in the end, the decision comes down to what works best for your business. In this blog post, we’ll compare Shopify vs WordPress in terms of pricing, features, ease of use, and scalability to make an informed decision about which platform is right for you.
Shopify: Designed for Sales-oriented Companies
Shopify is an e-commerce platform designed specifically for selling products on the internet. It is a “dedicated e-commerce platform,” which means it’s dedicated to assisting you with your online transactions. Everything about Shopify was built to help entrepreneurs run an internet business smoothly.
Pros
With Shopify, you may quickly develop, launch, and operate an e-commerce store without much work. The platform comes with all of the tools necessary to sell on Shopify, including:
- The website builder offers a quick-start online store design wizard
- Shopify Payments is integrated into the system to handle payments
- You may also print shipping labels with the free Shipping Label Creator
- Inventory, product information, and collection management tools
- Supply chain solutions for drop ship vendors and print-on-demand manufacturers
- Multichannel platform to sell on Amazon and eBay
- Selling products on Facebook Shops and Instagram
- Facebook advertising, email, and abandoned cart recovery tools are all included
- Shopify POS allows you to run in-person and in-store sales
- 24/7 phone support to assist you set up or resolving problems
Cons
- The monthly fee for a professional eCommerce store on Shopify is $29, $79, or $299 per month, depending on your company’s demands.
- You’ll pay an extra 2 percent, 1 percent, or 0.5 percent per sale if you don’t use Shopify Payments to process payments for your purchases, regardless of the plan you have
- You can use Shopify apps to extend certain store functions, but these generally raise your monthly expenditures
- Shopify offers a simple blog with every Shopify store, but the content creation, management, and presentation possibilities are much less than those available on a content-focused platform like WordPress.
WordPress: Suited for Companies Looking for Flexibility
WordPress is a content management system that you can use to create any website. You can use it to establish an internet store like Shopify, or you may use it to design any website you wish.
Pros
Here are a few of the numerous things you can accomplish when you combine WordPress and an e-commerce plugin:
- Create an online store with a comprehensive, full-featured, single-user, or multi-contributor blog
- Add traffic-driving elements like online forums and video channels to improve online sales
- Set up a blog-based store and sell goods directly from your blog postings
- Convert any existing WordPress blog or website into an e-commerce store
- Combine affiliate revenue and physical product sales on a single website
- Create an e-commerce store to sell items through dropshipping and print-on-demand vendors
- Sell content or access to a learning portal exclusively for paying customers.
Cons
- WordPress has many more moving components than Shopify’s simple, all-in-one system.
- You can open a WordPress online store for as little as $6.95 per month with Bluehost, all it takes to host the site. However, most internet retailers require additional features in plugins, so expect monthly expenditures of $20 to $50 as your business expands.
- Unlike Shopify, which runs its secure servers, you must use SSL encryption to ensure the security of your WordPress store.
- Every aspect of your WordPress website, including the core and e-commerce plugin, other plugins, and your website theme, will require updating regularly.
Ultimately, Shopify is the winner for simplicity of use, but WordPress tops Shopify for versatility in creating any website imaginable.
