There is one age-old question which is bothering each online seller – which e-commerce platform is the best. Starting your own business sometimes might look like one long process of making big decisions. Even if you know two of the most popular sales channels – Shopify and WooCommerce, there are some uncertainties in choosing one of them. For this reason, we gathered their differences and answered the question – which one to choose. By comparing them, we found a solution to the Shopify vs WooCommerce situation.
Shopify
1. Starting to use Shopify
First, let’s talk about registering with Shopify. Their main advantage in the Shopify vs WooCommerce situation is their simplicity. To be exact, you can create your Shopify online store by simply signing up. After sign up, you just go through a basic setup wizard and that is it. Furthermore, this sales channel gives you tips and explanations in each step, so you won’t need any site-building or design skills.
2. Shopify control
Shopify is a closed source platform. In other words, it means, that each online seller does not have the full control of their online store. Consequently, you can make changes and modify just the parts, that Shopify allows you to. Shopify offer their own hosting. However, they control all your data and has your information.
3. Shopify availability
Shopify vs WooCommerce – they both have their similarities. One of them, of course, is that they have their support service. The difference – Shopify has 24/7 email, chat and phone support. Another thing is that there is also a possibility to sell offline in Shopify.
4. Shopify payment
Shopify suggests using Shopify payments, which is powered by Stripe. Despite that, Shopify provides a possibility to use a third-party payment gateway such as Paypal, Stripe, authorize.net, amazonpayments, FirstData, 2checkout, etc. In total, Shopify integrates with over 100 different payment gateways.
5. Shopify design
One of the biggest Shopify advantages is their design. They offer more than 54 store templates, and some of them are totally free! Also, all of them have unique variations, which creates more than 100 separate designs. All of them are colourful and mobile responsive. Not to mention, that Shopify allows you to easily change them.
WooCommerce
1. Starting to use WooCommerce
In this case, the Shopify vs WooCommerce situation creates a slight advantage to Shopify’s side. Using WooCommerce is as easy as Shopify, but registering takes more time. Since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin and not a subscription-based platform, before selling there you need to complete a few steps. You need to:
- Get a domain name
- Sign up for a hosting account
- Install WordPress
- Choose and install your WordPress theme
2. WooCommerce control
WooCommerce is an open source platform. This sales channel allows making changes to everything and modifying everything. In other words, WooCommerce has an advantage because it allows you to control everything without any limits. Also, since hosting is excluded each online seller has complete control of their data.
3. WooCommerce availability
As mentioned before, in the Shopify vs WooCommerce situation, they both have customer support. The thing is that WooCommerce offers you a ticket support, forum support and blog. Also, WooCommerce documents, which are really informative. Despite that, WooCommerce allows you to only sell online.
4. WooCommerce payment
By default, WooCommerce is offering two payment gateways – PayPal and Stripe. On the other hand, this sales channel supports all other popular payment gateways through add-ons.
5. WooCommerce design
First of all, WooCommerce does not come with any actual design. Their design developers are WooThemes and it looks a lot like WordPress. So, practically you can choose any WordPress theme and make it work with WooCommerce. Also, you can get a range of child themes for your storefront.
Shopify vs WooCommerce
The answer to this question is quite simple. Both of these sales channels have their own advantages and disadvantages, which makes each of them remarkably great for different kinds of users. In other words, you see the list of their benefits, but the best option is based on each user individually. Our suggestion would be to use both of them! That’s right, we found a solution which allows you to work with both of them, as easily as working with one.
Shopify vs WooCommerce – working with both of them
Multiorders is an order management software which has integrations with both – Shopify and WooCommerce. Also, it has integrations with all of the most popular shipping companies, which allows you to fulfil orders with just a few clicks. Multiorders has an adjustable inventory management system and creates a time efficient way to modify stock-levels, pricing, etc. In other words, all changes you make in www.multiorders.com will instantly appear on each e-shop. Also, Multiorders automates your shipments, by creating a single order management system. Automatically mark your order as dispatched on all platforms with tracking numbers. Because of shipping carriers’ integrations, the system automatically adds tracking information to each marketplace and additionally informs your customer. Multiorders:
- Inventory management
- Automated shipments
- Single dashboard
