- All In One Solution For Creating and Managing Your Online Store
- A Safe and Efficient Platform Trusted By Millions Of Users Worldwide
- Customizable Templates, Domain Names, Affordable Prices & A 14-Day Free Trial, No Credit Card Required
- Thousands of Easy-To-Install Add-Ons
- Built-In Marketing and eCommerce Features
- WordPress Hosting, Domain Names, a Website Builder, Blogging Features, and Professional Email
Shopify vs. WordPress: Quick Summary
Shopify and WordPress both help you build and run an online store without needing coding skills. But, they fit different types of users.
Shopify is the easier option. It’s fully hosted, beginner-friendly, and includes everything from hosting and templates to payments and support. However, it’s pricier and limits customization unless you stick to its tools.
WordPress, on the other hand, gives you complete freedom to customize your site with thousands of plugins and themes.
It’s cheaper and faster in tests, but it needs more technical know-how to get started.
In the end, WordPress wins for its flexibility, affordability, and performance, while Shopify is better if you want a simple, ready-to-go solution.
What is Shopify?
Shopify is an all-in-one website-building platform that can help you build, launch and grow an online store without any previous tech experience. The e-commerce platform has been on the market since 2004 and has become one of the best website-building platforms for online stores. Shopify is so popular that millions of users have used its platform to build online stores and sell their products.
Shopify’s platform is user-friendly and fully hosted, unlike other Shopify competitors. This means that Shopify will give you all the necessary tools to create, manage and make your online store successful. When I say everything, I mean everything; from a domain name, a Theme Editor, and build-in hosting to all the tools that will enable you to customize your site just as you want.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is one of the most famous platforms for building websites. It first started as a blogging platform but managed to grow into a sophisticated website builder that will enable you to create the ultimate website and online shop. The WordPress website builder has open code access, allowing users to control and customize the features of their site. The open-source platform comes with many sophisticated tools and access to more than 50.000 plugins, giving you additional features.
The WordPress website builder also includes CDN, SSL certificates, XML sitemaps, and SEO elements that will improve your ranking. This platform is so popular that it has more than 80 million users worldwide.
Shopify Vs. WordPress: Quick Comparison
Before we go through both website builders in detail, let’s have a quick look first.
| Shopify | WordPresss Website Builder | |
| Value for money (Pricing) Winner: WordPress website builder | Shopify offers three different paid plans that cost from $29/month to $299/month. It also provides a 14-day free trial. | The WordPress website builder offers two plans: the Basic for $5/month and the Pro for $15/month. You can also try it for free for 14 days. |
Ease of use Winner: Shopify | Shopify offers a Theme Editor and build-in hosting for all the tools. It’s also user-friendly and excellent for beginners. | The WordPress website builder has open-source code access and a straightforward dashboard with great tools, but it requires more tech knowledge. |
| Templates (Design flexibility) Winner: WordPress website builder | Shopify offers more than 100 free and paid-for eCommerce templates, but the number of free templates is much smaller than the paid ones. | The WordPress website builder offers 1000 themes for eCommerce only, which are all customizable to fit your needs perfectly. |
Features and Tools Winner: WordPress website builder | Shopify offers excellent eCommerce tools and has a rich Shopify app where you can download countless eCommerce apps. Yet still, it didn’t win in this category. | The WordPress website builder has over 1000 plugins that will help you transform your site into a successful online store, where you can see physical and digital products without any problem. |
| Performance Winner: WordPress website builder | Our tests showed that Shopify had a loading time of 2.16s, which is excellent. The website takes up 1.9 MB and has 179 requests. | Our tests showed that WordPress website builder has a loading time of 1.54s for a website that takes up 6.0 MB of storage space. |
| Help and support Winner: Shopify | Shopify offers 24/7 support through chat, email, and phone. It also provides a rich Help Center where you can find countless helpful information. The Shopify community is also a great support option. | WordPress doesn’t offer any of the traditional ways of support. The only way to get an answer to your question is through their community, which is why this builder didn’t win in this category. |
| Overall rating Winner: WordPress website builder | Even though Shopify didn’t win, it’s an excellent all-in-one website-building platform. | WordPress website builder won this competition by winning four categories out of 6. |
Shopify Vs. WordPress: Full Comparison-Who is Better?
Value for money (Pricing): Shopify Vs. WordPress-Which Website Builder Offers Better Value For Money?
Shopify Pricing
Shopify has three available plans for purchase: Basic, Shopify, and Advanced. The Basic plan is the most affordable, starting with a price of $29 a month; Shopify will cost you $79 a month, and the most expensive is the Advanced plan, with a price tag of $299/month. Shopify plans include an online store, unlimited products, 24/7 support, sales channels, free SSL certificates, discount codes, abandoned cart recovery, customer segmentation, marketing automation, and unlimited contacts. Third-party calculated shipping rates and eCommerce automation are available only with the Advanced plan. All plans are great, but no matter what option you choose, you won’t be able to keep 100% of your revenues because Shopify obliges you to pay additional transaction fees for each sale.
One big plus for Shopify is that it allows you to test its services for 14 days free, unlike other companies like Shopify that require you to purchase a plan immediately. Before buying a plan, you can see how their builder works and all the features it offers.
WordPress Pricing
WordPress has two available website builder plans: WordPress Starter and WordPress Pro. WordPress Starter comes at $5 a month, and WordPress Pro costs $15 a month. These prices are for plans billed yearly.
Both plans include a custom domain name free for one year, collect payments, 6GB and 50GB storage, and Google Analytics Integration. You’ll also get professional email, free for three months, and the option to invite unlimited users to edit your website. The WordPress Pro plans also include unlimited plugins, premium support, premium themes, and selling products in your online store with one-click payments, premium and store design, advanced social media tools, advanced SEO tools, automated website backups, and much more.
The WordPress website builder comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee, or you can start with a free site. If you’re unhappy with the product, you can cancel the plan within 14 days and get a full refund, an excellent option not offered by most WordPress alternatives.
Winner
Although Shopify and WordPress offer excellent tools for building and running your online store, the WordPress website builder is a much more affordable option. The bottom line is that the WordPress website builder will only cost you $5 a month, while for Shopify, you have to pay up to $29/month. The difference in the prize is enormous, so the winner in this category is the WordPress website builder.
Want to Try WordPress website builder?
The WordPress website builder offers excellent features and tools to help you build, maintain and run a successful online store. It provides excellent value for your money, and you can purchase a plan for only $5/ month.
Ease of Use: Which Website Builder is More User-Friendly?
Shopify: Ease of Use
Shopify is a fully hosted solution, meaning that everything runs on Shopify’s servers. Most Shopify alternatives are not fully hosted, so this is an excellent option for users who want the whole package. After all, you won’t need to purchase a web hosting plan or install any software because you’ll get everything you need to create, maintain and run an online store in one Shopify plan.
Shopify’s user interface is straightforward, and you’ll easily navigate through the builder even if you don’t have any technical skills. You can create your online store from scratch without previous coding knowledge or designer skills, making Shopify the perfect builder for beginners. However, if you have some coding skills, Shopify allows you to edit the CSS and HTML of your website, so you’ll be able to customize your store even more.
Shopify also has a drag-and-drop design, meaning if you follow Shopify’s requirements, you’ll be able to create your site with a few simple clicks.
WordPress: Ease of Use
WordPress might be the most popular web building platform, but it’s a bit more complex than ordinary website builders. The WordPress website builder is easy to use, but you need some previous technical knowledge. Don’t be afraid of the platform if you don’t have coding knowledge because if you take some time, you’ll quickly learn everything. Companies like WordPress may need some knowledge, but they also open many new opportunities.
When using the WordPress website builder, you’d have to install an eCommerce plugin, such as WooCommerce, to make your site eCommerce ready. The WordPress website builder has a straightforward dashboard from which you can manage your site and store. Once you look at the dashboard and the WordPress requirements, you’ll notice a lot of tools and options, which can sometimes be overwhelming, especially if you’re a beginner. This platform is not the ultimate beginner-friendly platform, but with a little effort, you’ll be able to manage it properly. It’s super simple to add products and content, but if you wish to customize your site more, it can get a little tricky.
Winner
Both site builders are user-friendly, but Shopify is a better option for beginners. It doesn’t require you to have any coding or technical knowledge, and you can easily navigate through the dashboard. It’s also a fully hosted solution, so you won’t have to search for a web host, making it a terrific choice.
Want to Try Shopify?
With a user-friendly dashboard and a fully hosted service, Shopify is the best builder for beginners.
Templates (Design flexibility): Which Builder Offers Better Design Flexibility?
Shopify’s Templates and Design
Shopify offers a wide range of templates, more than 100 in particular. They offer both free and paid-for themes. The number of free templates is much smaller than the paid ones, raging between $150-$350. Shopify’s themes are easily edited, professionally designed, and divided into categories. Shopify is also excellent for customization because through the Theme Editor menu; you can customize everything from fonts, color, social media buttons, etc. The best part is that the templates are user-friendly, so even beginners will easily manage everything. You’ll also be able to switch to another template anytime, even after your site is gone live.
Shopify’s templates are mobile-friendly and responsive, meaning everything will be adjusted appropriately for any mobile device, desktop, or tablet.
WordPress: Templates and Design
The WordPress website builder comes with more than 1000 themes, only for eCommerce, which is pretty incredible. The only downside is that not all WordPress themes are mobile responsive, and some templated can contain malicious code, so be careful when you pick a template so you don’t compromise the security of your site. A WordPress website builder requires technical knowledge, so choosing a well-constructed WordPress template is best. To be safe, pick a WordPress own eCommerce theme, and customize it to your liking.
WordPress’s Block Editor will enable you to customize your template and layout using the drag-and-drop editor. Companies like WordPress allow you to easily customize the color schemes and font sizes until you create the site of your dreams. Most WordPress alternatives don’t offer a vast variety of templates and plugins, making WordPress extra attractive for users who wish to customize their site more.
Winner
Both site builders offer excellent and mobile-friendly templates, but the WordPress website builder is the winner in this round. Shopify is impressive, offering around 100 templates, but the WordPress website builder is fantastic, offering more than 1000 templates. All the templated are customizable, and if you follow WordPress requirements, you can design your site according to your wishes.
Want to Try WordPress website builder?
With more than 1000 templates available, WordPress website builder is the ultimate builder that will help you customize your site to perfection.
Features and Tools: Which Builder Offers Better Features and Tools?
Shopify Features and Tools
Shopify is a full-package eCommerce website builder that offers various eCommerce features and tools. Shopify also has a rich App Store with countless eCommerce apps that will improve your online store. Another great feature offered is that you can integrate your store with the most popular social media and eBay. Companies like Shopify offer top-notch features and tools, so let’s see some features and tools provided by Shopify:
- Shopify’s Buy Button: This is an excellent feature for people who have a blog or a website and want to add eCommerce features to their existing site. This buy button will enable you to sell your products directly from your site, make an income and grow your business.
- Shopify Point-of-Sale System: This system is an excellent feature for anyone with an online store. The Point-of-Sale system will give your customers an outstanding shopping experience on your site and enable them to pay offline. The system is designed to help you integrate your online and physical stores’ sales, inventory, and orders. By following Shopify requirements, you’ll be able to manage both your stores from one place.
- Logo Maker: Everything looks better with a logo, and Shopify will enable you to create your professional logo without any coding experience.
- Email marketing
- Pop-up tools
- Automated shipping discounts
WordPress Features and Tools
Although WordPress’s primary goal isn’t eCommerce, like other WordPress competitors, it’s still an excellent platform for creating, maintaining, and running an online store. By downloading the WooCommerce plugin, you can transform your site into a successful online store, and you’ll be able to sell digital and physical products online.
Here are some of the incredible features and tools offered by the WordPress website builder:
- WooCommerce dropshipping
- Free shipping
- Local pickup
- Automated tax calculations
- Built-in payments for some of the top credit cards, gateways
- Ability to sell anything on your site, physical and digital products
- Built-in blogging options
- Products reviews and ratings
- Products sorting and filtering
- More than 500 extensions are available
- Thousands of plugins are available
To improve your site’s SEO, WordPress website builder offers Jetpacks Essentials, sets of features designed to help you optimize your site and protect it from spam.
Winner
Although Shopify was created to be a proper eCommerce website builder, WordPress offers much more eCommerce features and tools. With more than 1000 plugins available, you can transform your site into a successful online store where you can sell physical and digital products without any problem. Offering a variety of features and tools, the WordPress website builder takes the crown in this category.
Want to Try WordPress Website Builder?
Sell digital and physical products successfully from your online store without experiencing any issues with the incredible WordPress website builder.
Performance: Shopify Vs. WordPress- Who Has Better Performance?
Shopify Performance
We will use the same speed testing tool to test both Shopify and WordPress website builder. We’ll also use the same location on both builders just because we want to be more accurate and demonstrate trustworthy results. Our performance test for Shopify revealed the following results:
- Performance Grade D 61
- Page Size 1.9 MB
- Load Time 2.16s
Our test showed that our Shopify website has a loading time of 2.16s, which is excellent. The perfect loading time is between 1 and 3, so this is great. In the following images, you can see the test results and other metrics. All in all, Shopify’s test came out excellent.
WordPress Performance
We tested the WordPress website builder the same way we tested Shopify, using the same speed tools and the exact location. After we finished the test, we got the following results:
- Performance Grade D 65
- Page Size 6.0 MB
- Load Time 1.54 s
The WordPress website builder testing showed an excellent load time of 1.54s for a website that takes up 6.0 MB of storage space. The results were superb. Check out the images below the see the full results of our testing.
Winner
The winner in the performance category is the WordPress website builder. The load time was faster than Shopify, and in this business, even milliseconds matter. So the WordPress website builder wins over Shopify in just milliseconds!
Want to Try WordPress website builder?
The WordPress website performed better than the Shopify website, making it the faster option of the two.
Help and Support: Which Builder Provides Better Customer Support?
Shopify’s Support
While most Shopify competitors focus on features and tools, Shopify is focused on giving you the best support ever. Shopify offers support through live chat, email, and phone. Their support team is friendly and always there to take care of your needs. They also have a pretty helpful Shopify Help Center where you can search through their documentation to find the answer to your question. The Help Center is divided into categories: Starts, Sell, Manage, Market, and Expand, making the search much more accessible.
The Shopify community is also a great place to find helpful information, join discussions, connect with other Shopify businesses, discover insightful events and browse through the latest blog posts from Shopify’s staff. Companies like Shopify enable you to search through the community or ask a question to find an answer quickly.
Shopify offers Shopify webinars, where you can get free sessions to help you run your store and Video Tutorials, directly taking you to Shopify’s YouTube Page and giving you access to countless high-quality video tutorials. Overall, Shopify offers various support methods to help you navigate Shopify much more quickly. Many Shopify alternatives don’t provide great support methods, which is why Shopify is popular among users.
WordPress Support
Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t offer traditional customer support options such as live chat, phone, email, or ticketing. The only way to get support is to contact the community and ask for help. The helping community contains information about starting, creating, customizing, and connecting your site. Although this information is helpful, your support options for WordPress are very limited.
Winner
The ultimate winner in this category is Shopify because it offers live chat support, phone support, and email support. It also has an excellent Help Center where you can find valuable information. The Shopify community is also a great support option because it will enable you to get in contact with other Shopify users.
Want to Try Shopify?
Shopify provides excellent support through chat, email, and phone. It also has an incredible Help Center where you can find helpful information.
Shopify Vs. WordPress: Conclusion and Recommendation
When to Choose Shopify?
Shopify is an excellent website-building platform for beginners that’s super easy to use. You should definitely choose Shopify if:
- You don’t have any tech experience but want to start your own online store– Shopify is one of the most user-friendly website-building platforms, making it the perfect option for beginners with no tech or design experience. Without any knowledge, Shopify will enable you to create your online store just as you want.
- You want to sell both physical and digital products– Shopify will enable you to sell physical and digital products, such as courses, audiobooks, music, ebooks, and much more. Shopify has a Digital Downloads app that will allow you to see any digital product.
- Want to build a huge online store– Shopify has unlimited storage and doesn’t restrict the number of products you can sell. This means that following Shopify requirements, you’ll be able to build, run and maintain a big online store with an unlimited number of products.
When to Choose WordPress?
WordPress is the most famous website building platform with excellent eCommerce tools to help you create a successful online store. You should definitely choose WordPress website builder if:
- You want to create a blog that also contains eCommerce features-WordPress was primarily designed for blogging, making it the best blogging platform on the market. You can sell your products directly through your blog by adding WordPress plugins.
- You need a website-building platform with various eCommerce features and tools-WordPress offers more than 1000 eCommerce plugins and more than 500 extensions.
- You want a variety of templates and an easily customizable site builder-WordPress offers more than 1000 templates that are all customizable.
Our Recommendation
To wrap up this battle between website builders, we must declare a winner, which in this case is the WordPress website builder. The WordPress website builder is affordable and offers excellent performance and a variety of extensions and plugins. If you need a website-building platform with unique eCommerce features and tools that provides thousands of templates and is budget-friendly, WordPress website builder is the perfect choice for you.
Want to Try WordPress Website Builder?
The WordPress website builder is the better option when compared to Shopify. Both offer excellent features and tools, but WordPress is more affordable and offers more themes, plugins, and extensions.
