WooCommerce vs Shopify: when to switch, and when to stay

Switch platforms when you need something the other one does by design and yours does not. Move to Shopify if you no longer want hosting and software updates to be your job, and you can live with the parts of a store that Shopify fixes. Move to WooCommerce if you need to change one of those parts, or you want the store's files and database on hosting you chose.

Stay where you are if the trouble is slow pages, a plugin conflict or the work of updates. Those are upkeep problems. They can be fixed in place, and a move is a much larger job than fixing them.

Neither platform is the better one. They ask different things of you.

What each platform asks of you

Reasons to move that hold up

From WooCommerce to Shopify

• You do not want to run software. On WooCommerce, the hosting, updates and backups are yours to do or to pay for. If nobody in the business will do them and you would rather not hire that out, a hosted platform removes the job.
• Your store is a catalog, a cart and a checkout. If you use little of what WordPress offers beyond the store, you may be keeping up a system larger than you need.
• You are content with a theme as it comes. A store that fits a ready-made Shopify theme has less to rebuild and less to maintain.

From Shopify to WooCommerce

• You need to change something Shopify fixes. The fixed address paths are one documented example. If a limit like that is costing you, no setting will lift it.
• Your payment provider is not Shopify Payments. Shopify's third-party transaction fee applies to those orders. Work out what it comes to at your own volume before you decide.
• The site is mostly content, with a store attached. WooCommerce runs inside WordPress, so articles, pages and products live in one system.
• You want the database and files in your own hands. On WooCommerce they are on hosting you chose, and a backup is a full copy of both.

Each of these is about what the platform is. None of them is about a fault that could be repaired.

Reasons that can be fixed where you are

Slow pages. A slow WooCommerce store has causes that can be found: hosting too small for the store, a page cache set up wrongly, no object cache, a database that needs tidying. How to speed up a WooCommerce store goes through them in order. Moving does not remove the question. Shopify says the theme, the apps and added code are the biggest factors in how fast a Shopify store is, so a store carrying many add-ons can be slow on either platform.

Plugin conflicts. A conflict shows up when an update to one plugin breaks another. The cure is to apply updates on a private copy of the store first, and to find out there. How to set up a WordPress staging site explains how to make that copy and keep it from emailing customers.

Update work. Updates are a short weekly round when they are done on a schedule, and a pile when they are left. The WordPress maintenance checklist sets out what to do each week, month, quarter and year. If you would rather hand it over, on our WooCommerce maintenance plan updates are tested on a staging copy first, and checkout and payment are tested after every update.

A Shopify theme that will not do what you want. This one is on the other side. Shopify's help center says a theme's code can be edited, and suggests hiring a Shopify Partner if you do not write code. That is a smaller job than leaving.

What a move costs you besides money

Most of these costs apply in both directions.

• Redirects. The two platforms give pages different addresses. A WooCommerce product is at /product/ and its name by default. Shopify's is under /products/, a path it fixes. Every old address needs a redirect to its new one, or links from search engines, other sites and old emails stop working. Shopify also says it cannot redirect an address that begins with /shop, /cart, /orders or /services, and some WooCommerce stores have product addresses that begin with /shop.
• Passwords. Customer passwords do not move between platforms. Shopify says they cannot be migrated from another store. On its current customer accounts, customers sign in with a code sent by email. Customers arriving on WooCommerce set a new password.
• The design is rebuilt. A WordPress theme does not run on Shopify, and a Shopify theme does not run on WordPress. You choose or build a new one.
• Every plugin or app is replaced. Each job an add-on did has to be done by something on the new platform. Reviews are an example: Shopify's guide says they cannot be migrated from WooCommerce directly and points to third-party apps.
• Order history takes extra work. Shopify lists no CSV import for past orders, only migration apps and its API.
• Your time. Somebody has to check every product, place test orders and read every page before the domain is changed.

How to decide

1. Write your reason down in one sentence. If it is slow pages, a conflict or update work, fix that first. Then ask whether you still want to move.
2. List what the store does today that comes from a plugin or an app. Find what would do each job on the other platform. A job with no answer is a reason to stay.
3. Count your addresses. Look for any that the new platform cannot redirect.
4. Add up both sides with your own numbers. On WooCommerce that is hosting, paid extensions and upkeep. On Shopify it is the plan, paid apps and the payment fees at your volume.
5. Decide who will look after the store. If the honest answer on WooCommerce is "nobody", that points toward a hosted platform or toward paying for upkeep. Both are sound choices.

If you decide to move, the steps are in how to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify and how to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce. We do either move as a job quoted in writing: WooCommerce to Shopify migration and Shopify to WooCommerce migration.