What is the fundamental difference?
Shopify is a hosted solution: you pay a monthly subscription, and Shopify takes care of servers, security and updates. WooCommerce is a free extension for WordPress that you run on your own hosting. This gives you more freedom, but you are also responsible for updates, security and backups.
How do Shopify and WooCommerce compare?
| Criterion | Shopify | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|
| Operation | Hosting, updates and security included | Own hosting, organise updates yourself |
| Running costs | Monthly subscription, apps, payment fees | Hosting, paid plugins, maintenance, payment fees |
| Customisation | Themes and apps, checkout only partly customisable | Full control over code and checkout |
| Multilingual | Built in, with Shopify’s translation app | Via plugins such as WPML or Polylang |
| Payment methods | TWINT, cards and more via payment providers | TWINT, cards and more via payment provider plugins |
| Growth | Scales without server questions | Hosting has to grow with the store |
| Maintenance effort | Low | Medium to high |
When is Shopify the better choice?
- You want to start quickly and focus on sales and marketing
- There is no in-house IT to look after servers and updates
- The store should grow with the business, including during promotions with many visitors
- You want to manage the point of sale, online store and marketplaces in one place
When is WooCommerce the better choice?
- You already have a large WordPress website with a lot of content
- The store needs features that Shopify apps cannot provide
- You want to keep the data entirely on a server of your choice
- An agency or an in-house person reliably takes care of updates and security
What do Swiss online stores need to consider?
- Set up VAT correctly: since 1 January 2024 the rates are 8.1% standard, 2.6% reduced and 3.8% for accommodation
- Show prices for private customers including VAT
- Swiss francs as the store currency, plus euros when selling abroad
- Shipping with Swiss Post or other carriers directly from the store
- Multilingual if needed: German, French, Italian
- Legal notice with full company details, a privacy policy under the revFADP and terms and conditions
How important are interfaces to suppliers and inventory systems?
Very important as soon as the product range is large or changes often. Maintaining products, prices and stock levels by hand costs a lot of time and leads to errors. That is why the product range for the handy.ch store flows into the store through an automatic connection. Both Shopify and WooCommerce offer interfaces for connecting suppliers, inventory management and accounting, for example with n8n or Make.
Can I switch platforms later?
Yes. Products, customers and orders can be transferred by export and import or with migration apps. The URLs usually change in the process, so every old page needs a 301 redirect to keep your Google rankings. Our article on relaunching a website without losing rankings explains how.