Shopify vs WooCommerce for a Small Business: Cost, Fees and Control (2026)

Shopify and WooCommerce sell the same thing — an online store — in opposite ways. Shopify rents you a finished, hosted platform for a monthly fee. WooCommerce gives you free software to run on your own WordPress site, and every cost after that is yours to arrange. Neither is cheaper by default; they are cheaper for different stores.

Which is better for a small business, Shopify or WooCommerce?

Shopify is better for a small business that wants to sell without running software; WooCommerce is better when the store sits inside a WordPress content site you already run and someone keeps it updated.

How much does Shopify cost compared with WooCommerce?

Shopify's Basic plan is $39 a month, or $29 a month billed annually, with apps on top. WooCommerce costs nothing to install, and its running cost is a WordPress site's — $100–$1,500 a year for hosting, themes and plugins before anyone is paid to maintain it.

On Shopify the number that grows is apps: the Shopify cost guide has a 300-store benchmark putting the median at about $52 a month. On WooCommerce it is extensions and upkeep: hosting runs $3 to $35 a month in the WordPress cost guide, and paid extensions renew every year — Woo Subscriptions, for example, is $279 a year. The design and build is a separate cost on either, and the e-commerce cost guide prices it by approach.

What are the transaction fees on Shopify and WooCommerce?

Both charge 2.9% + 30¢ per US card payment on their own processor — Shopify Payments on the Basic plan, WooPayments on WooCommerce — but Shopify adds a fee if you use any other processor.

• Shopify's surcharge on orders through a third-party gateway is 2% on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced, per Shero Commerce's 2026 breakdown, on top of the gateway's own fee. Shopify's help centre confirms it applies to third-party gateways and not to Shopify Payments.
• Shopify Payments' own rate drops as the plan rises: 2.9% on Basic, 2.7% on Grow, 2.5% on Advanced, each plus 30¢.
• WooPayments adds 1.5% for cards issued outside the US, per its fee schedule. WooCommerce itself takes nothing from a sale on any gateway.

Is WooCommerce really free?

The WooCommerce plugin is free; running a store with it is not. You pay for WordPress hosting and a domain, for any paid extensions and theme, and for the time or the developer that keeps WordPress, WooCommerce and every extension updated and compatible with each other.

Which is easier to run day to day?

Shopify is easier to run: hosting, security, checkout and updates are handled for you, and products, orders and discounts live in one admin. WooCommerce asks you to run the website as well as the store, which suits a team that already runs WordPress and frustrates one that does not.

Which gives you more control over the store?

WooCommerce gives you more control: it is open-source software on a host you choose, you hold the files and the database, and any developer can change any part of it. Shopify trades that control for a platform that works out of the box; the store can only run on Shopify, and what it can do is set by Shopify's features and its app store.

Can you move from WooCommerce to Shopify later?

Yes: products and customers can be exported and imported, the design is rebuilt on a Shopify theme, and every old URL needs a 301 redirect so rankings carry over. The Shopify migration cost guide prices the move from WooCommerce and lists what carries over and what does not.

Which does American Web Guild build on?

American Web Guild builds on both, at the same fixed e-commerce tiers of $600 to $3,694: Shopify stores through our Shopify development service and WooCommerce stores through WordPress development. A store of up to 100 products goes live in 14 days; larger catalogues, migrations from another platform and custom apps take three to six weeks. We recommend Shopify for most small stores and WooCommerce when the store belongs inside an existing WordPress site with someone to look after it.