Shopify and WordPress both function as e-commerce websites, although those aren’t their only capabilities. Shopify is primarily an e-commerce platform while WordPress is a content management system.
If you’re looking for a platform that’ll allow you to build a comprehensive e-commerce website with all the necessary ins and outs, Shopify is probably the one for you. But if you’re looking for something that can do a whole lot more, you may want to opt for WordPress.
The best way to compare the two platforms is to put them side by side and have a look at all their most important features and capabilities and judge them from there. This includes this like product, subscription fees, customer support, plugins and more.
Shopify and WordPress at a Glance
At a glance, WordPress provides extensive capabilities – it’s a whole lot more than just a storefront. It allows you to create and run a fully customisable website, designing every little thing according to your own preferences. That being said, it’s a bit more technical to use, so it can be a bit more complex.
Shopify, on the other hand, is designed for easy use, meaning that the idea is that just about anybody can use it fairly easily to set up an online store. However, because of this, it doesn’t necessarily provide as many options for customisation as WordPress does.
Products
On both websites, you can upload as many products as you like for sale, and you can keep track of all your sales with the inventory tracking option.
The difference here is that while both platforms allow for unlimited products, WordPress does have limited storage – you’re capped at 50GB. So, although technically you can upload as many products as you want, these storage limits will mean that you’re likely to max out your space fairly quickly.
Storage
So, WordPress limits total storage capacity at 50GB while Shopify is unlimited. However, Shopify does have a 20MB maximum per file.
If you’re using WordPress, you can opt for more storage (and pay for it), but even if you do that, there’s still an absolute maximum of 200GB which isn’t the case for Shopify.
The reason for this is that Shopify’s primary use is to upload and sell products, while for WordPress, that’s only one of a variety of different features.
Integrations
Shopify allows users to make use of more than 8,000 different applications available in the Shopify store, including things like options for design customisation, subscription management, social media connections and marketplace integrations.
With WordPress, however, by means of WooCommerce, users have access to more than 800 different extensions relating to e-commerce. In addition to that, WordPress has nearly 60,000 different plugins that are available for free – plugins that can be used to improve your website and store. Of course, they’re not all relevant to e-commerce stores, but many of them will be super helpful.
Customer Service and Support
Shopify and WordPress offer pretty similar offerings in terms of customer support, so you can’t really make a decision between the two based on this factor alone.
Neither platform has phone support, but its email and live-chat support options are pretty good.
Pricing Options
Technically, both WordPress and Shopify offer free options that can be used to set up basic e-commerce websites, but in both cases, you’re going to need to buy at least the Entrepreneur/Basic plan (respectively) if you really want to get the most out of your website and make sales.
Most people find that WordPress tends to be a bit cheaper overall, especially since you’re getting access to a full-on CMS, but it really depends on what you need and how much you’re willing to pay.
So, Shopify or WordPress?
Again, it really depends on your needs. If you only require a website for e-commerce purposes, then Shopify could be your best bet. But if you want a bit more and like the idea of having access to loads of different plugins for a variety of customisation options, WordPress could be the winner.
Essentially, Shopify is considered the best option for those who want to set up and start selling quickly, businesses that want all sales information in one place and companies that don’t have a lot of experience in web development.
Meanwhile, WordPress is ideal for businesses who are seeking a variety of customisation options, individuals who know how to work on the backend and deal with plugins and companies with very large content libraries.
So, if you’re trying to make a decision between Shopify and WordPress, make sure you contemplate all these factors, bear in mind what your needs are and then select the best option for your business and its future.
