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Shopify or WooCommerce: the honest version

The answer is not universal, and anyone who gives you one without asking about your catalogue is selling something.

Category
E-commerce
Published
28 Jul 2026
Reading time
6 min
Author
Techsion team

We build on both, so we have no stake in which you choose. The decision usually comes down to three questions.

First, how unusual is your pricing? Tiered trade pricing, quantity breaks, per-customer rates and local tax quirks are all possible on Shopify but sometimes fight the platform. WooCommerce gives you more room, at the cost of owning more.

Second, how much content sits alongside the store? If the catalogue is the site, Shopify is comfortable. If the store is one section of a much larger publishing operation, WordPress usually wins on the content side.

Third, who maintains it after launch? Shopify absorbs hosting, security patching and platform upgrades. WooCommerce hands those to you or to whoever you retain. That ongoing cost is real and belongs in the comparison.

Everything else — themes, apps, design freedom — matters far less than these three.

Weighing this for your own store? Our Shopify and WooCommerce development team builds on both and will tell you which one your catalogue points to.

Still deciding how to build it? We also compare WordPress against a custom build, and explain what it takes to ship a Shopify app of your own.

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