Ecommerce platforms advertise a monthly price. The real cost is that number plus payment fees, apps or extensions, design, maintenance and your own time. Here is how to add it up honestly, and how we help clients choose.
Start with what you sell
- A few services, deposits or subscriptions: you probably do not need a store. A payment form is cheaper and simpler. See integrating Stripe with WordPress.
- A small catalog of physical products: Shopify or WooCommerce both work. Pick based on what else the site needs to do.
- A large catalog, complex pricing, B2B, or deep integrations: WooCommerce or Shopify on a higher plan, with a developer involved from the start.
The cost categories
Platform
Shopify charges a monthly subscription by plan. WooCommerce is free, but you pay for hosting that can handle a store.
Payment processing
Card processing (Stripe, PayPal, Shopify Payments) is a percentage plus a small fixed fee on every sale, on any platform. On Shopify, using a gateway other than Shopify Payments adds an extra transaction fee.
Apps and extensions
Subscriptions, advanced shipping, product bundles, reviews, accounting sync: on either platform, these are usually paid add-ons with annual or monthly fees. This is where budgets most often grow.
Design and setup
A theme, product photography, product descriptions, shipping and tax setup, and testing. Plan for this up front, whether you do it yourself or hire it.
Maintenance and support
Hosted platforms handle server updates. Self-hosted WooCommerce needs updates, backups, security and monitoring, which is where a Care Plan comes in.
Your time
Adding products, handling orders, customer emails and returns. Pick the platform your team will actually enjoy using every day.
WooCommerce vs. Shopify in one paragraph
Shopify is faster to launch and simpler to run, at the cost of ongoing fees and less control. WooCommerce is more flexible, keeps your store and content in one place, and has no platform fee, but needs good hosting and maintenance. If your website is mainly content and lead generation with a store attached, WooCommerce usually fits better. If the store is the business and you want minimal technical work, Shopify is hard to beat.
Get a straight recommendation
Not sure which way to go? Ask for a free site review and we will tell you what we would do for your products and budget. Already selling? Our conversion rate optimization service finds where shoppers drop off.