Which one is more suitable for independent websites, WordPress or Shopify? Below I will compare their differences from the perspective of a front-line technical operator who has contacted both.
First of all, the conclusion:
For B2C websites, WordPress is suitable for people/companies who know some technology, pursue perfection, and pursue high customization; Shopify is suitable for novices/companies who are afraid of trouble, have no spirit of research, and do not plan to recruit technical personnel;
For B2B websites, just choose WordPress and don’t need to consider Shopify at all.
The following is a detailed description:
Contents
1.Feature Comparison
Similarities: Shopify and WordPress can both build online e-commerce websites with comprehensive functions and good user experience.
Differences: The ecosystem of WordPress is much more powerful than Shopify and can achieve more functions.
Shopify is a closed source CMS launched in 2006. It was originally designed for online e-commerce purposes, so it has all the functions of e-commerce.
Plugins:
Shopify’s app store has a rich selection of plugins, with more than 8,000 plugins currently available, which can further supplement its missing functions.
Backend language:
Shopify uses Liquid, which is developed based on Ruby. Few people master this programming language, so if you want to customize the development of functions later, there are few reliable programmers/service companies to choose from.
WordPress is an open source CMS (note the difference between wordpress.org – open source CMS and wordpress.com – hosting service), released in 2003. Originally designed as a blogging platform, WP itself does not have e-commerce capabilities, and needs to be implemented by installing e-commerce plug-ins, such as WooCommerce and its many supporting plug-ins.
Plugins:
Thanks to its open source nature, WP is widely used, and currently tens of millions of websites are built with it. Therefore, WP’s plugin ecosystem is very complete, with more than 59,000 plugins in the official app store, and many third-party paid plugins that are not officially available. In addition to e-commerce functions, we can easily implement many other functions, such as building industry/product forums, online course management systems, etc.
Backend language:
WordPress uses PHP, one of the most popular programming languages in the world, so it is easy to find high-quality coders/service companies to customize website functions.
2.Cost Comparison
The entry threshold for Shopify is $29/month, and the plugin fees are high; the entry threshold for WordPress ranges from $5 to $14/month, and the plugin fees are low.
Payment fee:
In addition to the gateway fee of the payment service provider used by the website, there is no need to pay any transaction fees similar to Shopify.
Plugin fee:
WordPress has a large number of free plug-ins, and there are also many plug-ins with free basic functions and paid advanced functions. Compared with Shopify, the free functions provided by WordPress paid plug-ins are much more generous. In many cases, the free package is enough to meet the needs, and it is not necessary to upgrade to the paid package.
3.Comparison of ease of website building and maintenance
Shopify is much simpler than WordPress. Both have many ready-made themes to decorate the website.
Shopify website building,It’s very simple. You only need to prepare a domain name, and you don’t need to consider server bandwidth and hardware configuration.
Maintenance:Shopify websites basically require no maintenance.
Building a WP website is much more complicated. In addition to the domain name, you need to select the server hardware configuration, set the operating environment, and even install WordPress itself.
Maintaining WP requires more effort. Each version upgrade of WordPress may affect the compatibility of website plug-ins; there may also be incompatibility between different plug-ins; sometimes serious errors in some plug-ins may even cause the website to crash. You also need to pay attention to the server operation and check the website logs.
4.Daily operation comfort comparison
From the perspective of site operation, we deal with the website backend every day, so the convenience of operation is very important. It is undeniable that Shopify is more comfortable to use than WordPress. Shopify is a business system built specifically for e-commerce, so the interactive operation experience is good and the e-commerce workflow is relatively complete; WordPress is comprehensive and powerful, but it requires more customization, and the fluency of the backend needs to be improved.
Daily operations include: adding products, processing orders, analyzing data, adding pages, publishing blogs, etc.
From the perspective of the fluency of the backend interface, Shopify wins. Shopify does not need to refresh the entire page when switching interfaces, and the interaction is comfortable; while the UI interface of wordpress is very old, and the worst thing is that you need to reload the page when switching interfaces, which takes several seconds. After all, you have to operate the website backend for a long time every day, so the fluency experience is really important! WordPress really needs to improve this aspect.
From the perspective of product management, the two are similar, and each has its own shortcomings.
In terms of product classification, Shopify’s product collection has only one level, and it is impossible to achieve multi-level classification such as breadcrumb; wordpress has no problem at all.
In terms of product details, WooCommerce does not have a field for filling in product UPC (needed for advertising), which needs to be implemented with a plug-in; Shopify has this function built in.
From the perspective of order processing, Shopify is more convenient. Because Shopify has the function of filling in the express tracking number and notifying the customer; and wordpress needs to rely on plug-ins to achieve this function.
From the perspective of data analysis, Shopify is far ahead. Shopify comes with 80 data forms, which can easily analyze the data of all dimensions of the entire site; WoCoOmmerce has limited analysis reports and no data for the entire site, and generally relies on GA4 or Looker to view the analysis data.
From the perspective of file management, the native interfaces of both are equally bad, and there is not even a custom folder classification function – so many pictures, where can we find them? ? ? Fortunately, there are plug-ins to achieve this function. There is a happyfiles plug-in in wordpress, and a squarewise plug-in in shopify.
From the perspective of page design and blog editing, shopify is far worse than wordpress. Shopify’s blog editing is still in the very old era of rich text editing, and it is difficult to design layout styles unless you write code yourself or install additional paid plug-ins; wordpress is far ahead in page design and blog editing because it has the Gutenberg editor.
From the perspective of plug-in search, wordpress wins. In order to improve the functions of the website, we usually have to install many plug-ins. However, the description on the plug-in details page of the shopify app market can be described as simple. If we are looking for a plug-in with a specific function, we will probably go crazy… The plug-in descriptions in WordPress are much more detailed, so we don’t always need to blindly download and test.
5.Safety comparison
Shopify is undoubtedly more worry-free in this regard; WordPress websites do have the risk of being hacked.
Shopify is a SaaS platform, so the security of the website is of course the sole responsibility of their large security team, provided that you do not install pirated themes that may have backdoors. Therefore, the security level of the Shopify website is quite high, and you don’t have to worry about this at all.
Compared to Shopify, WordPress is a bit weaker in terms of security, because we manage the website ourselves, and we may not be professional enough in security settings, which makes it easy to be attacked by hackers. Of course, we can actually use a variety of combinations to protect the website