SHOPIFY VS WOOCOMMERCE: WHICH ECOMMERCE PLATFORM FOR SMALL BUSINESS?

Look, if you just want to start selling online and don't care about getting into the technical weeds, Shopify is probably your answer. You pay monthly, they handle everything, and you get on with running your business.

If you already have WordPress, want total control, or just hate the idea of another monthly subscription, WooCommerce makes sense. It's a plugin, not a platform. More flexible, more complicated.

That's the short version. Here's the longer one.

Here's what actually matters when you're choosing between them.

Shopify is a hosted ecommerce platform. You pay them, they give you everything you need to sell online. Simple.

Australian pricing in 2026:

Basic — $49/month USD (about $75 AUD). Good for most small businesses starting out.

Shopify — $149/month USD (about $230 AUD). More features, lower transaction fees.

Advanced — $449/month USD (about $690 AUD). You probably don't need this unless you're doing serious volume.

What you get:

Hosting, SSL certificate, shopping cart, payment processing, themes, apps, support. It's all there. You pick a theme, add your products, connect your payment gateway, and you're selling.

The pros:

Fast to set up. No technical knowledge needed. Shopify handles security and updates. Built-in marketing tools. Works great on mobile. Decent support if something breaks.

The cons:

Monthly fees add up. Transaction fees on top unless you use Shopify Payments (which doesn't support every Australian bank). Apps cost extra. Customisation is limited without coding. You're locked into their ecosystem.

WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin. It turns your WordPress site into an online store. You install it, configure it, and you're responsible for the rest.

What it costs:

The plugin is free. But you still need hosting ($10-50/month depending on your traffic), a domain name ($15-30/year), an SSL certificate (often free with hosting), and maybe a premium theme ($50-100 once-off) and extensions for things like subscriptions or bookings.

So "free" is a bit misleading, but your ongoing costs are usually lower than Shopify if you're just running a basic store.

The pros:

Total control. You own everything. No transaction fees beyond what your payment gateway charges. Thousands of free plugins. Works with any WordPress theme. Scales as big as you need. Perfect if you already have a WordPress site and just want to add a shop.

The cons:

You're responsible for updates, security, backups, and hosting. Bit of a learning curve if you've never used WordPress. Can get slow if not set up properly. Support is community-based unless you pay for premium extensions.

And here's the thing — if something breaks, you're the one who has to fix it. Or pay someone like me to fix it.

Choose Shopify if you just want to sell stuff and get on with your day.

You're not technical. You don't want to be technical. You value simplicity over customisation. You're happy to pay a monthly fee to not have to think about hosting, security, or updates.

Shopify is also solid if you're selling physical products and need things like inventory management, shipping integrations, and automated tax calculations. It's all built in.

And if you're planning to grow big — like, really big — Shopify scales without you having to do much. They handle the infrastructure.

Go with WooCommerce if you already have a WordPress site. Why pay for Shopify when you can just add a shop to what you've already got?

Or if you want full control. You want to customise every detail. You're comfortable with WordPress (or willing to learn). You hate recurring fees and would rather pay a one-off cost for hosting and a theme.

WooCommerce is also better if you're selling services, subscriptions, memberships, or anything that doesn't fit the standard ecommerce model. The plugin ecosystem is huge, and there's an extension for basically everything.

And if you're selling in Australia and want to use Australian payment gateways without transaction fees, WooCommerce gives you more options.

Square Online is worth a look if you're already using Square for in-person payments. The free plan is genuinely free, and it's stupid simple to set up. But it's pretty basic.

Big Cartel is popular with artists and makers. Cheap, easy, limited. Fine for a handful of products.

Then there's Wix, Squarespace, BigCommerce — all decent options. But if you're reading this, you're probably trying to decide between the two big ones.

For most Australian small businesses, it comes down to Shopify or WooCommerce. Everything else is either too simple or too complicated.

Real talk — not every business needs a full online store.

If you only sell a few products, or your customers prefer to call and order, or you mostly do custom work, you might be better off with a simple website and a contact form.

I've seen businesses spend thousands on ecommerce setups they never use. Meanwhile, they could have just listed their products on a page with a "Get a Quote" button and saved themselves the headache.

If you're a local business and most of your customers are walk-ins or phone orders, maybe you don't need Shopify or WooCommerce at all. Maybe you just need a good website that explains what you do and makes it easy to get in touch. I wrote about what retail shops actually need in a website if that sounds like you.

For most small local businesses in Australia, I'd say keep it simple.

If you're starting from scratch and want to sell online, Shopify is the safer bet. Yeah, it costs more per month, but it's reliable, and you're not going to accidentally break your own store trying to install a plugin.

If you already have WordPress and you're comfortable with it, WooCommerce makes sense. Add the shop to your existing site, save the monthly fees, and keep control.

And if you're still not sure, start with the simplest thing that works. You can always migrate later. I've moved sites from Shopify to WooCommerce and back again. It's not fun, but it's doable.

Just don't overthink it. Most people spend more time choosing a platform than actually selling anything.

Need help figuring out what your website should actually cost? I wrote a breakdown of small business website costs in Australia.

I don't primarily build ecommerce sites, but I can point you in the right direction.

If you're trying to decide between Shopify and WooCommerce and want someone to just tell you which one makes sense for your business, I can do that. No sales pitch, just honest advice.

And if you're in East Gippsland or anywhere in regional Victoria or NSW, I can help you set it up properly so you're not still figuring it out six months from now.

Get in touch here →

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