WooCommerce or Shopify – which one to choose?

Those who are more familiar with e-commerce, surely know about the platforms like WooCommerce and Shopify and have heard of their rivalry. But which of them should you choose?

Estonians have made a clear choice. The number of WooCommerce stores in Estonia exceeds the other platforms by far. Looking at the customer portfolio of MakeCommerce, which consists of nearly 4,000 e-shops, we can see that WooCommerce is the most important player in the entire Baltic region. This platform is used by almost half of the e-shops in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Shopify, WooCommerce’s competitor, is in second place in the Baltics, but still lags behind WooCommerce. Shopify has about a third of MakeCommerce stores.

In the future, the competition will become more intense. Looking at all Baltic stores, we see that Voog is in third place, even in a situation where there are no operations in the Latvian and Lithuanian markets. Magento is still an important platform with a weight of less than five percent, followed by Prestashop and OpenCart with a weight of a few percent.

The previous numerical overview was based on the number of rig installations. But it is also important to look at where the money flows – which are the stores with the highest turnover. From here, a completely different picture faces us. Large shops with a wide range of goods have chosen the Magento platform, and it is from these shops that the largest part of the transaction volume of Baltic e-shops comes.

Which e-shop platform to prefer?

Before making a final decision, you should thoroughly consider and evaluate what the future sales volume is and whether you manage setting up the e-store on your own or need to use the help of a developer.

The reason for WooCommerce’s popularity is that the software is available free and open source – it can be freely used and customized according to your needs. However, setting up a WooCommerce store may require the help of a developer. On the other hand, the advantage of Shopify as a cloud platform is that it is quick to set up, easy to use, and has several out-of-the-box integrations.

Below we present a more detailed comparison of the two market leaders.

WOOCOMMERCE

Pros:
1. Free and open source. The e-shop is placed on a virtual server, which is why the web hosting fee is added.

2. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. For those who already use WordPress, WooCommerce is the easiest choice.

3. Intuitive and easily adaptable to your needs.

Minuses:
1. You need a little deeper technical knowledge or use the help of a developer.

2. Is software in its classic sense, while Shopify is a cloud service.

SHOPIFY
Pros:
1. Intuitive and simple. Much has already been prepared for the merchant, and in general, any skilled computer user can handle starting an e-shop.

2. Convenient and safe. With a cloud solution, you don’t have to worry about server maintenance, Shopify takes care of the software and its security.

Minuses:
1. Monthly fees. Depending on the package, the monthly fee varies from 24 to 289 US dollars, and a service fee for e-store transactions is added. The monthly fee for Shopify Plus (designed for e-stores with high transaction volumes) reaches $2,000.

2. Customization options are limited. Before starting an e-shop, you should definitely check which payment and delivery solutions the platform supports. Read more about MakeCommerce Shopify integration here.