Shopify vs. WordPress: Which is Best for E-Commerce?
Among the 9.2 million e-commerce websites in the U.S., 28.51% (or 2.6 million) use Shopify. It ranks 4th among the top e-commerce platforms worldwide with a 26.2% market share. Shopify is a leading global e-commerce platform, and some of its biggest success stories include Allbirds, Gymshark, and Kylie Cosmetics.
WordPress powers a lot of websites on the internet. By 2024, it’ll run 42.7% of global websites, and it’ll have 63.0% of the CMS market. The New Yorker, TechCrunch, and BBC America are all built on WordPress.
In this blog post, we will discuss Shopify vs WordPress.
1. Ease of Use
What makes Shopify so popular with e-commerce owners? It’s easy and doesn’t require coding. Its interface makes adding products and processing orders hassle-free. While for WordPress, you have to do it all manually. Shopify allows you to change the appearance of your site even though you do not know how to code. It is possible to update the typography, colors, and layout of your page in Shopify. WordPress is a bit more technical and may be better for businesses requiring more options in terms of customization.
2. Hosting
With Shopify, you get hosting, a domain, and an online store editor bundled together. You do not need to buy anything separately. But for WordPress, you have to buy plugins, themes and hosting. WordPress provides more control and ownership compared to Shopify. With WordPress, you own your data, choose your hosting provider, and enjoy complete independence. Shopify, being a hosted platform, offers less control over technical aspects. For beginners, Bluehost is the best WordPress hosting.
3. Price
Shopify’s pricing is split into four plans:
- Basic — $29 per month
- Shopify — $79 per month
- Advanced — $299 per month
- Plus — $2,300 per month
However, WordPress and WooCommerce (e-commerce plugin) are free, but you’ll have additional optional fees for:
- Plugin subscriptions — $13-$75
- Themes — $70 — $380
- Hosting — $5-$55
4. SEO Implemenataion
Both offers great features to optimize the SEO of your website. However, WordPress typically dominates due to Shopify’s certain limitations. With the help of the Yoast SEO plugin WordPress helps in full optimization. Shopify and WordPress have SEO tools to make your website rank higher on Google. Some of these integrated SEO features includes custom metadata, clean URLs and mobile-responsive themes; help boost the visibility of your website on Google.
Contrarily, WordPress offers you more freedom as well as power when it comes to SEO. Among such plugins are those such as Yoast SEO which helps users optimize individual pages and blog posts with specific keywords as well as create an XML sitemap.
5. Multi-Channel Commerce
Shopify and WordPress both offer multi-channel commerce. Shopify excels in ease of management with its diverse integrations. WordPress offers more flexibility through plugins like WooCommerce but requires more manual work. Additionally, WordPress supports a broader range of languages and currencies as compared to Shopify.
Conclusion
Choosing between Shopify and WordPress depends on your budget, objectives, and requirements. Shopify is best if you want to run your business as fast as possible and want an all-in-one solution. While WordPress is best for those who want to customize their online store and have the time or skill to install all. So, which platform are you going to choose for your e-commerce store? Share in the comments below.
