“Which is better, Shopify or WordPress?”- this question confuses everyone. Many of them find Shopify a better choice than WordPress and vice versa. Then whom to listen to? What’s the actual truth?
To solve this question, here we have come up with an honest, detailed comparison (eCommerce features, SEO features, blogging features, themes) that would help you decide which platform is better and would be suitable for your business.
So, keep on reading.
Shopify vs WordPress: Quick Comparison (2023)
Here is a quick comparison between Shopify and WordPress:
| Feature | Shopify | WordPress |
| Ease of Use | Simple drag-and-drop interface and themes. More beginner-friendly. | Requires technical skills for setup, development, and customization. Steeper learning curve. |
| Cost | $39 – $399 per month for subscriptions. Additional transaction fees. | Self-hosted WordPress is free, and paid WordPress plans are $5 – $45 per month. Hosting and domain name required. |
| Design Flexibility | Less flexible design options. Constrained by theme templates. | Highly flexible and customizable design with endless plugin options. |
| Product Focus | Specifically built for ecommerce. More native ecommerce features. | Primarily a CMS, but ecommerce plugins like WooCommerce are available. |
| Scalability | Scales well. Built to support enterprise-level ecommerce. | Scalable but can require more technical management at high volumes. |
| SEO Capabilities | Decent built-in SEO features. Additional SEO apps are available. | Very SEO-friendly out-of-the-box. Many SEO plugin options. |
| Security | High level of security and fraud protection. | Requires diligence and regular updates for security. More vulnerabilities. |
| Support | Excellent customer support is included. | Community support forums are available, but limited official support. |
Shopify Vs WordPress: The Key Differences
- Shopify is a dedicated eCommerce platform that helps you build an eCommerce store. WordPress is an open-source CMS platform that helps to build a website or a portfolio and gives you lots of plugins to build an eCommerce store.
- Shopify is very smooth to use, but WordPress needs prior coding knowledge.
- On Shopify, you don’t need to pay for hosting and a domain like WordPress, whereas WordPress doesn’t charge any transaction fees but costs for hosting and domain.
- WordPress is more powerful and effective than Shopify.
- Shopify is appropriate for newbies but not for already-grown businesses. On the other hand, WordPress is for growing businesses.
- WordPress is more expensive than Shopify, but it’s worth every penny.
To explain more about Shopify, we have done a detailed Shopify Review here for you to check out.
Shopify Vs WordPress: eCommerce Features Compared
The first, and foremost thing we must check while comparing Shopify and WordPress is their eCommerce features. Do they offer the same eCommerce features? If not, then which platform is leading over the other? Let’s check out.
Shopify eCommerce Features
As you all know, Shopify is fully dedicated to building an eCommerce store; it comes with a number of built-in eCommerce features to provide the best services to its users. We have picked some of them below –
- Abandoned Cart Recovery
Merchants miss out on a number of sales because of abandoned carts. To help you out of this situation, Shopify has introduced its “Abandoned cart recovery” feature, which will manually send an email to the customers and remind them about the market.
- Calculate Shipping Prices Automatically
Shopify’s real-time carrier shipping will help you calculate the shipping prices of each customer based on the location and products. Thus, it eliminates the extra hassle of manual calculation and saves the money of hiring one more person for this task.
- Shopify POS
Shopify POS will allow you to receive payments anywhere in the world through a small card that only costs $58.
- Dropshipping
To keep you away from the extra hassles of product inventory and storage, Shopify lets you add a number of third-party applications ( including Alibaba, SaleHoo, Doba, Wholesale2B, Modalyst, and Spocket) for dropshipping.
You can easily integrate them with your eCommerce store and benefit from hassle-free selling.
( Pro Tip: If you are looking for the best dropshipping supplier for your Shopify store, we recommend you go for Alibaba and Spocket to get the best services for your business. Want to know more about Shopify Dropshipping? Click here.)
- Create Buyers’ Profiles on Shopify
On Shopify, you’ll get to track buyers’ history. Doing so will help you churn out high-quality customers, and you can nurture them in the most valuable way.
- Discount Codes and Gift Cards
Unlike other eCommerce platforms available in the market, Shopify lets you add some dedicated apps like “Bulk Discount” that customize different discount codes for different customers.
However, you can also activate the “Shopify” Gift card option to create a strong bond with your customers.
( Remember, you can activate Shopify’s “gift card” feature only on the “Shopify” plan).
- Multichannel Selling
Shopify’s multichannel selling feature will let you sell your products on various social media platforms, including marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.
- Apps and Integrations
If you aren’t satisfied with the built-in feature of Shopify, you can customize your store by integrating other third-party tools for marketing, store design, drop shipping, and many more.
Currently, Shopify has over 2,200 apps ( both paid and free) available in the app store.
- Analytics and Reporting
Shopify’s “ Reports” features will help you track your business performance and streamline your activities.
( Pro Tip: We recommend integrating Google analytics into your Shopify Store for better results).
WordPress eCommerce Features
Though WordPress itself doesn’t provide any built-in eCommerce features, it lets you integrate a lot of other plug-ins like Woocommerce WordPress, WP eCommerce WordPress, Ecwid WordPress, WSDesk, and BigCommerce WordPress that especially meet your eCommerce needs. And when you add WordPress with any of these plugins, nothing can beat it as far as a stand-alone eCommerce platform is concerned.
Now, many of you might get confused while choosing the best WordPress plugin. So, we recommend your to add Woocommerce to your WordPress site.
Why?
- Seamless WordPress integration
- Product sorting and raring
- Free shipping
- Multi-channel selling
- Automated tax calculations
- 500+ integrations
- Built-in blogging features
- Integrating marketing tools
You can add other plugins, but integrating Woocommerce will surely reward you better than them.
When it comes to eCommerce features, deciding the better one between these two platforms is quite tricky. On the one hand, Shopify has a decent number of eCommerce features, and users are getting benefitted from it; on the other hand, WordPress doesn’t have any built-in eCommerce feature, but when it integrates with WooCommerce, it creates the best eCommerce store ever with a number of effective features. Moreover, WordPress offers 50, 000+ plugins and integrations, whereas Shopify only offers 2,200).
Who Wins?
Though it’s a draw, but for your business growth, we would recommend you to go for Woocommerce WordPress.
Shopify Vs WordPress: SEO Functionalities
Be it for SEO ranking or extensive visibility, we can’t ignore the importance of SEO features. But who leads here? Let’s see.
Shopify SEO
When it comes to SEO, Shopify gives you full control to customize it. You can change a lot on Shopify to increase site visibility to your potential customer. For Example –
- Every Shopify store has a default robot.txt file that notifies crawlers about which pages of your site must be shown to the customers.
- You can also change Page titles, meta descriptions, and Alt tags on Shopify for better SEO results.
- Optimize your site structure ( Optimize store navigation, use descriptive file names and link text).
- Shopify automatically generates your product, collection, and web pages.
- Moreover, you can also hide unnecessary pages on Shopify. To know more details, click here.
If you are unsatisfied with these built-in SEO functionalities, you can add other third-party tools from the Shopify App marketplace.
WordPress SEO
When it comes to SEO functionalities, WordPress is the king. Being a fully focused SEO platform, WordPress is especially known for its SEO functionalities. Let’s have a look at them.
- You can easily create and submit an XML sitemap on WordPress.
- WordPress is an open-source platform, so its SEO performance is continually changing to rank your site higher on SERP. So, WordPress’s SEO is fully customizable and highly effective.
- WordPress allows you to add optimized alt tags and titles to the images.
- CDN services.
- Moreover, if you forget to optimize any permalink ( Permanent links of blogs and web pages), you can always tweak them later for better SEO results.
- WordPress’s codes are clean and easy, which allows SEO tools to index your site easily.
- WordPress’s “Feed Submission” feature helps your site to get viewed by various feed readers.
Want to know more in-depth information about WordPress? You must check it out here.
Who Wins?
The result is clear here. Though Shopify offers a number of SEO functionalities, but it restricts you from customizing your store as per your needs as it has a fixed site structure for every store. And WordPress takes the lead here by offering you full control over customizing the site. Also, if you integrate WordPress with other plug-ins, nothing can compete with it.
Thus, WordPress is the winner in this case.
Shopify Vs WordPress: Blogging features
Nothing new to say about the power of content marketing. Thus how can you avoid checking the blogging features if you want to grow your store? Thus in this comparison, we’ll see who has nailed this feature.
Shopify Blogging Features
Creating your first blog on Shopify is a piece of cake. You can edit your blog titles and optimize them for SEO with just a few clicks. Moreover, if you want to edit an existing blog, Shopify would give you full control over that.
Also, you can add images, videos, and infographics to make it more engaging for readers. If you want to know mor, this article has your back.
WordPress Blogging Features
WordPress is mostly known for its CMS. If you ask anyone about blogging, the first name that would come up is WordPress. Currently, WordPress powers more than 43% web on the internet. So, you can imagine the craze behind this platform. It offers you each and every feature you need to grow your blog and rank it higher on SERPs. We would cover some of them.
- Optimized for SEO.
- All-in-one hosting
- Powerful statistics to boost blog performance
- Mobile Optimization
- Custom Web fonts
Who Wins?
Again, we will announce WordPress as the winner in this blogging battle as it will provide you with more control and effective blogging features than Shopify.
Shopify Vs WordPress: Themes & Designs
An attractive web front/storefront attracts everyone. It’s the first and foremost thing that your customer sees. So, while comparing these platforms, how can we forget this aspect? Let’s check out who wins at last.
Shopify Themes and Designs
Currently, Shopify has 100+ themes ( both paid & free) for users. No matter what your business is, you can find suitable themes on Shopify.
Just to let you know that Shopify uses a special theme language called Liquid ( along with HTML and CSS) that dynamically loads various content for your storefront. Moreover, these themes are highly customizable and have lots of updated features ( before/after image sliders, quick view, countdown timer) included.
Additionally, Shopify has 1295+ designs, elements, and graphics in its store that impact your customers.
WordPress Themes & Designs
Like Shopify, WordPress offers thousands of free and paid themes for users. Even WordPress.org offers 10131 customized themes and templates for users. All these themes are highly customized and have a number of features.
But, if you want access to the HTML source, you must add custom CSS to your site. Also, if you are looking forward to creating a highly customized portfolio on WordPress, this platform also has this option.
In addition, if you add other plugins like Woocommerce to your WordPress site, then it would be a feather in the cap situation for users.
Who Wins?
Shopify’s themes are undoubtedly highly customized and useful for business owners. But many users complain that free themes are very limited and outdated. Whereas WordPress.org has a wide range of premium templates. Even you can hire a WordPress expert to help you with site design.
So, we can conclude that, again, in this case, Shopify remains behind WordPress.
Shopify Vs WordPress: Ease of Use
If a platform is super easy to navigate, then everyone loves to access it. In one way, it eliminates the extra hassles of hiring coders, and on the other hand, it helps newbies to operate it without any tension. But what is easier to use? – Shopify or WordPress. Let’s see.
Shopify Ease of Use
Shopify is known for its easy-to-use interface. When asked Shopify sellers, they have always claimed it’s “ very, very easy to use.” No matter whether you are a newbie or an expert business owner, Shopify is your perfect fit.
After logging in to this platform, you have to answer a few questions asked by Shopify. Then it’ll generate a store aligned with your business needs. On the dashboard, you’ll get the homepage, products, and customers in the left sidebar menu. From adding products to customizing your store, you just need a few clicks of the mouse.
WordPress Ease of Use
If you are starting with WordPress, it might seem a bit difficult for you. Also, there is a lot of dashboard setting on WordPress that might overwhelm you for the first time.
Even on WordPress, you have to be habituated with a number of technical terms like permalinks, blocks, widgets, etc.
But all thanks to some effective WordPress Tools like Elementor that would ease the website-building process. Otherwise, if you have a decent technical background, WordPress is for you.
Who Wins?
Navigating WordPress for the first time is quite difficult for non-tech-savvy users as it relies on third-party tools. On the other hand, Shopify mainly focuses on newbie entrepreneurs.
But benefits come with complications! Thus, if you want to grow, WordPress is appropriate for you.
But we’ll make Shopify the winner as far as ease of use is concerned.
Shopify vs WordPress: Pros & Cons
Here are the benefits & drawbacks of Shopify and WordPress.
Shopify Pros
- No technical knowledge is required to start using Shopify, and it is easier to set up than WordPress.
- Hosting is included in all Shopify plans; you don’t have to look for it a third-party hosting provider.
- You don’t have to worry about the technical aspects of your website on Shopify because they manage everything for you.
- You can try Shopify using its free trial, which is accessible to everyone, and it will help you understand the features of the tool.
- Shopify is specifically designed for business owners to start an online store, so you will get all the sales tools you need here.
Shopify Cons
- Shopify does not have a lot of features for blogging as WordPress does.
- Once you select a theme on Shopify, you can not change it without changing the complete design & content of the website.
WordPress Pros
- You can download WordPress on your website for free, and it has an open-source code allowing you more freedom to make customizable changes to your website’s design.
- WordPress has plenty of options for themes compared to Shopify, and most of the themes are free of cost.
- The content management system of WordPress is much better and more sophisticated compared to Shopify.
- WordPress has a lot of plugins (Paid and free) that you can use to add additional features to your website.
- SEO features of WordPress are much better than Shopify as long as you’re using a good hosting service.
WordPress Cons
- You need to buy a domain and purchase good hosting before starting with WordPress, which can cost you more than the normal subscription of Shopify.
- You need to maintain all the technical aspects of your website on WordPress; you also need to security solution for your website to save it from hackers.
Shopify Vs WordPress: How Much They Cost?
“Is Shopify more expensive than WordPress?” – Most users ask this question. Let’s find its answer.
Shopify Pricing
Shopify mainly offers three types of pricing plans to the users –
| Plans | Pricing | Best For |
| Basic | $39/month | Newbie businesses |
| Shopify | $105/month | Mid-level business |
| Advanced | $399/month | Enterprise-level businesses |
Its Basic Plan offers you a number of features including a standalone storefront, product adding options, 2 staff/employee accounts, Multi-channel and multi-currency selling, Abandoned Cart Recovery option, Analytics, and reports, Fraud analytics, International commerce option, and so on.
In contrast, its Shopify plan lets you add 5 staff accounts and eCommerce automation with all the Basic features, whereas its Advanced plan allows you to add 15 staff accounts to your store.
It also has two more plans – Shopify Starter and Shopify Plus.
If you are just starting out, you can go for its free trial to check its features out.
Also, Shopify charges extra transaction fees with the monthly pricing:
| Shopify Basic | Shopify | Advanced Plan |
| 2.9%+30 cent/transaction | 2.6%+30 cent/transaction | 2.4%+30 cent/transaction |
WordPress Pricing
You might have encountered these two terms – WordPress.org and WordPress.com. While WordPress.com is a hosted blogging service that lets you create a website with WordPress software, WordPress.com is a self-hosted version that lets you create a website on your own.
However, if you opt for WordPress.com, it has five paid plans based on your needs and requirements.
| Free | Personal | Premium | Business | eCommerce |
| $0/month | $4/month | $8/month | $25/month | $45/month |
Free Plan offers you free themes, SSL certificate, and 1 GB storage. Its personal plan gives you a free domain and unlimited email support. And, Premium plan provides you with Google Ad revenue, Premium themes, whereas the Business plan offers you 50k WordPress plugins and automated site backup. Last, its eCommerce Plan offers eCommerce marketing tools and integrations for store owners.
Well, if you go for WordPres.org, it doesn’t have any fixed pricing. Though it’s free, you have to pay extra for various functionalities. For e.g.-
- Hosting: $2-$100/month
- Domain name: $3- $15/year
- Themes: $20-$1000
- Plugins: $0-$1000
- Developer fee: $0-$1000
So, we can conclude that, if you want to work with WordPress, it can cost you roughly from $40-$3000 + as per your business needs and requirements.
Who Wins?
Be it Shopify or WordPress, each of them has been made for a particular audience. If you are a newbie, blindly go for Shopify. But if you have an already grown business, WordPress is your perfect choice.
However, WordPress is way too expensive than Shopify, but it’s worth every penny.
Shopify Vs WordPress: Customer Support
An active customer support system always levels up the game. Now we have to see who is leading in this case.
Shopify Customer Support
Shopify’s award-winning customer support team stands by you 24/7. You can connect with them via chat or email. They usually revert within 2-3 days.
Moreover, Shopify has a number of video tutorials and blogs that might come in handy if you face any glitches. Even if you purchase Shopify Plus Plan, it’ll offer you a dedicated store manager.
WordPress Customer Support
If you opt for the paid plans on WordPress, you will only benefit from good support; otherwise, you have to take care of your site on your own.
But WordPress.org doesn’t offer any customer support system. So, you can always take help from the internet to deal with any issues.
Who Wins?
Obviously, Shopify is the winner here as it takes care of its users more than WordPress.
Shopify Vs WordPress: Performance & Security
Performance and security are two crucial eCommerce features for online stores. Without website performance, your sales will go down drastically. And without proper security measures, hosting platforms put store owners and their customers at risk. Let’s see which platform offers better performance and security features.
Shopify Performance & Security
Shopify is designed specifically for eCommerce, which gives it a significant advantage in terms of performance. The servers of Shopify are optimized to run online stores. They ensure lightning-fast loading times, even during high-traffic periods.
With each Shopify plan, you will get CDN (content delivery network), which helps you reduce loading times by delivering content to the nearest servers. Additionally, you will also get an in-built caching system and various customization options to improve performance.
When it comes to security, Shopify doesn’t take any chances. That’s why Shopify includes a variety of security features and protocols to protect online stores. All Shopify plans come with an SSL certificate, which encrypts data in transit and protects against MITM (man in the middle) attacks.
They also monitor their platform 24/7 for any security threats and vulnerabilities. Shopify is Level 1 PCI DSS compliant that meets the highest level of security standards for handling customers’ personal information and data. Its two-factor authentication and limited login attempts protect users’ accounts from cyber-attacks.
WordPress Performance & Security
Basically, WordPress is an open-source CMS (content management system), so its performance depends on the hosting provider, theme, and plugins used by the user. With proper optimization, WordPress can deliver fast and smooth experiences to users.
However, you will need to choose a decent hosting provider in order to optimize your online store to its full potential. You will also need to install caching plugins and optimize site images to improve performance. And try not to install unnecessary plugins to your website as they can cause slow page loading speed.
Similarly, the same thing happens in WordPress’s security case. WordPress has a range of security plugins and features that help users secure their websites from cyber attacks. WordPress is also a favorite target of hackers, which is why security can be a huge concern if not properly managed.
WordPress sites can use SSL certificates for end-to-end encryption and MITM attacks. Luckily, they have a huge community of developers who release security updates and patches to address vulnerabilities. If you are a developer or have coding skills, you can take security maintenance into your own hand. But one mistake can cost you a lot, so make sure to choose the right platform for your online store.
Who Wins?
Shopify is the clear winner in this case, as it offers in-built features and security measures. With Shopify, you don’t need to separately install any apps to increase your website’s speed or secure your website. On the other hand, WordPress depends on third-party plugins for its website performance and security, so it can be hit or miss. It all depends on which plugin or platform you choose to host your online store.
Who Should Use Shopify?
If you are starting out your own eCommerce business and looking forward to a suitable platform for it, Shopify is for you.
Also, if you have a growing business, Shopify Plus has your back. But if you are looking for international growth, Shopify won’t be a good choice.
Who Should Use WordPress?
WordPress is a multi-purpose platform. If you want to build your own website or a portfolio or create an eCommerce store, WordPress is for you. But remember, you need to have prior coding knowledge to navigate WordPress. So, we won’t recommend this platform to newbies.
What About Their Rivals?
| Features | Shopify | WordPress | Bigcommerce | Wix.com |
| Overall Ratings | 4.5 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.4 |
| Pricing Plans (per month) | $29-$299(Shopify starter at $5) | $30-$3000 | $29.95-$299.95 | $23-$49 |
| Number of Templates | 70+ | 10k+ | 120+ | 1000+ |
| SEO features | Effective, | Remarkable SEO features. | Highly effective | Excellent fit for every website |
| Ease of Use | Easy | Difficult for newbies | A bit difficult | Very easy and user-friendly |
| Business Globalization | Not appropriate | Ideal for big brands | A perfect fit for growing business | Not Appropriate |
Related Read;
Final Words: Who Wins This Battle In 2023?
It’s a bit difficult to come to an ultimate conclusion as both of them target different sets of audiences and have different goals. On the one hand, Shopify is the leading eCommerce platform for newbies and is inappropriate for international business. On the other hand, WordPress is expensive but not appropriate for newbies.
Though WordPress is way better than Shopify as far as international and growing businesses are concerned, you can’t ignore Shopify as it’s mainly created for beginners and has decent features.
Now, it’s your turn to gauge your business growth and choose the better one. If you find this guide helpful, let us know below.
FAQs: Shopify Vs WordPress
Yes, WordPress is more expensive than Shopify, but it’s worth it as far as customer reviews and records are concerned.
Though it’s mainly used as CMS, you can use it for eCommerce by integrating other plugins like Ecwid and Woocommerce.
Yes, selling on WordPress is easy but navigating this platform is hard for newbies.
