Rented storefront against owned infrastructure. Shopify publishes its prices; WooCommerce's costs hide in hosting and extensions. Both cost structures, laid out in tables.
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Shopify and WooCommerce power a huge share of the world's online stores, and they represent opposite bets. Shopify rents you a complete storefront with hosting, checkout, and support in the monthly fee. WooCommerce is a free plugin bolted onto WordPress you host, patch, and extend yourself.
Shopify's prices come off its published page as of July 16, 2026. WooCommerce's honest cost has to be assembled, and the numbers below use WooCommerce's own published ranges rather than optimistic blog math: hosting it estimates at $25 to $350 a month for most stores, extensions at $29 to $299 a year each.
Choose Shopify if
You want to sell, not run infrastructure. Basic at $29 a month billed annually covers a real store with hosting, checkout, and support included, and the platform scales to Plus without replatforming.
Choose WooCommerce if
You already live in WordPress, want full ownership of your stack and data, or need customization Shopify's template walls block. The plugin is free; the responsibility is the price.
Bottom line
Most first-time and small merchants net out better on Shopify once their time has a price. WooCommerce wins for content-heavy WordPress sites, developers, and stores whose requirements outgrow rented walls.
$25 to $350/mo for most stores (WooCommerce's own estimate)
Online card rate
2.9% + 30¢ Basic, 2.7% Grow, 2.5% Advanced
About 2.50-2.90% + 30¢ with WooPayments, or your gateway's rate
Third-party gateway
Extra 2% Basic, 1% Grow, 0.6% Advanced
No platform surcharge
Staff accounts
None on Basic, 5 on Grow, 15 on Advanced
Unlimited (WordPress users)
Enterprise
Plus, from $2,300/mo
Scale hosting and development as needed
Shopify list prices and processing rates as published July 16, 2026; the intro offer was 3 days free then $1 a month for three months. WooCommerce hosting and extension ranges are the ones WooCommerce itself publishes, and real stores land all over that range.
Ownership, work, and risk compared
Shopify
WooCommerce
Products
Unlimited on all plans
Unlimited
Checkout control
Shopify's checkout, customizable within limits
Fully yours to modify
Themes
Free and paid themes, platform-reviewed
Any WordPress theme, quality varies
App / plugin risk
Apps vetted, can still stack monthly fees
Plugins vary; compatibility is your problem
Security and PCI
Handled by Shopify
Your hosting, your SSL, your updates
Site speed
Platform-managed CDN
Depends entirely on your hosting spend
Content / blogging
Serviceable blog
WordPress, the strongest content system there is
Multichannel (POS, social)
Native channels and POS
Extensions per channel
Data portability
Exports, within platform limits
Full database ownership
Support
24/7 platform support
Host support plus community forums
What Shopify's subscription really covers
The $29 Basic price (billed annually; $39 month to month) buys the whole operating burden: hosting that survives traffic spikes, checkout that converts, fraud tooling, SSL, updates that never break the store on a Friday night. Grow at $79 adds 5 staff accounts and better card rates; Advanced at $299 adds 15 staff and the best standard processing at 2.5% plus 30 cents.
The costs that surprise merchants are the payment terms. Use any processor other than Shopify Payments and the platform adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow, 0.6% on Advanced on top of your gateway's own fees. Apps are the second creep: a store running reviews, subscriptions, and advanced SEO apps can add $50 to $200 a month before noticing. Model both against your projected volume before trusting the $29 headline.
Pros
Everything operational is included and just works
Processing rates improve by tier
Scales from first sale to Plus without replatforming
The plugin is genuinely free and takes no revenue share, and WooCommerce is refreshingly direct about the rest: it publishes $25 to $350 a month as the hosting range for most stores and $29 to $299 a year per extension. A lean store on $30 hosting with three or four paid extensions runs maybe $60 a month, less than Shopify Grow. A store with heavy traffic, a developer on retainer, and a dozen extensions can cost multiples of that.
WooPayments processes at roughly 2.50 to 2.90% plus 30 cents, in Shopify's neighborhood, but with no platform surcharge you are free to chase cheaper gateways. The real line item is labor. Updates, plugin conflicts, backups, and security are yours, and the first hacked weekend or white-screen deploy converts a lot of merchants into Shopify customers. Budget either your own hours or a maintenance contract honestly.
Pros
No platform fee, no revenue share, any gateway
Total control of code, checkout, and data
Rides on WordPress, the best content engine for SEO
Costs scale with choices, not a vendor's tier ladder
Cons
Hosting, security, and updates are on you
WooCommerce itself cites up to $350/mo hosting for bigger stores
Extension quality and compatibility vary
No single support line when things break
Three store profiles, priced both ways
A side-hustle store doing $2,000 a month: Shopify Basic costs $29 plus processing near $63, about $92 all-in. WooCommerce on $25 hosting with WooPayments runs near $83 plus your maintenance hours. Effectively a tie that your time settles.
A growing brand doing $50,000 a month: Shopify Grow at $79 plus 2.7% processing is about $1,449. WooCommerce on serious $100 hosting with a $150 monthly maintenance retainer and comparable processing lands near $1,700, but a negotiated gateway rate can pull it back under. The platforms converge; the operating model is the real choice.
A content-led store whose traffic comes from articles: WooCommerce wins on structure, because WordPress handles editorial at a level Shopify's blog never will, and the store rides the same domain authority. Run the numbers with our calculators if margin per order is the deciding constraint.
Who should choose Shopify
First-time merchants, teams without a developer, and operators who count their hours as money. Also anyone selling across POS, social, and marketplaces, where Shopify's native channels save integration work. The $1-for-three-months intro makes testing the platform nearly free, and leaving later is an export, not a hostage negotiation.
Who should choose WooCommerce
WordPress-native businesses, developers and agencies who bill for the control, stores with unusual checkout or catalog logic, and merchants in markets where local gateways beat Shopify Payments. Also brands that simply refuse platform dependency: with WooCommerce the database is yours, on your server, exportable to anything.
Migration reality
Moving between them is routine in both directions: products and customers export cleanly, orders mostly, URL redirects need care, and themes never survive. Plan a quiet month, freeze catalog changes during the cutover, and test checkout with real cards before pointing DNS. Merchants regret rushed migrations far more than they regret either platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is WooCommerce really cheaper than Shopify?
At the low end, roughly even: a small WooCommerce store on $25 hosting matches Shopify Basic at $29 once you count paid extensions. WooCommerce gets cheaper when you have technical skills and time; Shopify gets cheaper when you price your labor honestly. WooCommerce's own published hosting range runs to $350 a month for bigger stores.
What does Shopify actually charge per sale?
With Shopify Payments: 2.9% plus 30 cents online on Basic, 2.7% on Grow, 2.5% on Advanced. Using another gateway adds a platform fee of 2%, 1%, or 0.6% by tier on top of that gateway's own rate. High-volume merchants move up tiers or to Plus partly to buy down these rates.
Does WooCommerce take a cut of sales?
No. The plugin is free and takes 0% revenue share. You pay your payment processor (WooPayments runs about 2.50-2.90% plus 30 cents), your hosting, and any extensions. That absence of platform fees is the core of its economics.
How much is WooCommerce hosting really?
WooCommerce itself publishes $25 to $350 a month for most stores, scaling with traffic and performance needs. A starter store runs fine at the bottom of that range; a store doing six figures monthly with heavy plugins needs managed hosting near the top, plus someone to maintain it.
Which is better for SEO?
Both rank fine for product terms. WooCommerce inherits WordPress, which is stronger for content-led SEO: structured blogs, custom taxonomies, full technical control. Shopify covers the essentials and keeps improving, but serious editorial operations on Shopify usually end up bolting on a separate blog anyway.
What is Shopify's trial offer in 2026?
Three days free, then $1 a month for three months on standard plans. It is the cheapest way to test the admin, themes, and checkout with real products before the $29-and-up pricing starts.
When does Shopify Plus make sense?
From about $2,300 a month, Plus buys unlimited staff accounts, the best processing rates, checkout extensibility, and B2B features. The usual trigger is either volume (well into seven figures annually) or checkout customization the standard tiers refuse. Below that, Advanced at $299 covers most scaling stores.
Can I run WooCommerce without a developer?
Yes at small scale, with patience: managed WordPress hosts automate updates and backups, and WooPayments removes gateway setup. The risk is the bad week, a plugin conflict or a hack, with no platform support line. Merchants without any technical appetite usually sleep better on Shopify.
