We build on both, so we have no platform to sell you. What follows is the comparison we give clients in the first meeting, organised around the things that actually decide the outcome: launch speed, running cost, performance, search, payments and who is going to maintain it.

Cost of ownership

Shopify charges a monthly fee from around £25 to £300 depending on the plan, plus transaction fees unless you use Shopify Payments. Apps add to this. WooCommerce is free software, but you pay for hosting, premium plugins, security and the developer time to keep it all working. For a typical small store the total cost over three years is similar; for a store with a developer on staff WooCommerce is often cheaper, and for one without, Shopify almost always is.

Speed and reliability

Shopify hosts everything and handles traffic spikes without you thinking about it, which matters enormously for seasonal retailers - a fireworks store in late October cannot afford a slow checkout. WooCommerce performance depends entirely on your hosting and how disciplined the plugin stack is. It can be very fast; it is often not, because nobody has looked at it since launch.

SEO

Both platforms rank well when set up properly. WooCommerce gives more control over URL structure, markup and content, which matters if your strategy leans on editorial content. Shopify has some fixed URL conventions (the /collections/ and /products/ folders) but handles the technical fundamentals - speed, mobile, structured data - with less effort. In practice the difference in results comes from the content and the work, not the platform.

Payments, tax and shipping for UK stores

Shopify Payments supports UK cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna and Clearpay with no extra integration, calculates VAT correctly and handles multi-currency for selling into the EU, US and Australia. WooCommerce does all of this through plugins - Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce Payments, tax and shipping extensions - which works well but means more parts to configure and keep updated.

Our recommendation

Based on the stores we have built and inherited, this is where we land.

  • Choose Shopify if you want to launch quickly, trade through seasonal peaks reliably, and do not have a developer on staff
  • Choose WooCommerce if you already run a content-heavy WordPress site, need custom pricing or catalogue logic, or sell B2B with quotes and account pricing
  • Choose a headless build if you have high traffic, a unique customer experience to protect, and the budget to maintain it
  • Avoid either if what you really need is a brochure site with a 'buy' button - a simpler setup will cost less and convert better

Published · Last updated · By the Websitelift team