Shopify vs WordPress: Which one is best suited for you?
It is always tough to muster the courage to take the first step. To start from scratch, to begin a new journey. And if you are here, it means you are ready to take that first difficult step and I am here to help you in that.
If you want to create a new website, or want an ecommerce site development, a blog, want to start a business online, you would be wondering what should I use to create my website. Which option should be better for an ecommerce store or for a blog. Shopify or WordPress. Which one is better? which one should I pick? Which one suits me better? Guess what, you will be the referee and we will see the big mystery unfold in the ultimate showdown.
Shopify:
First, I will discuss with you what shopify is. Its pros and cons. And what it is best suited for.
Shopify is a web application that is used to launch or manage an online store. It is basically a dedicated ecommerce platform designed to host your own online store, and believe me, it is pretty good at doing that.
6 main reasons to choose Shopify:
As we’ve already discussed that shopify is a dedicated ecommerce platform, some of the pros of using this platform are:
- Free hosting: There is no charge for hosting on shopify. So, the hosting on shopify is free.
- Requires zero Web development skills: Another advantage of using shopify is that it doesn’t require web development skills to create your store
- User friendly: It is extremely user friendly so you don’t need anyone’s help for the maintenance of your store. You can handle and run your store alone if you want.
- Themes And Templates: You have to choose a template on shopify for your store and there are decent number of free templates that are available at shopify. Even if you are not satisfied with the free templates, there are also many premium themes and templates available too so you can choose whatever you want from a huge awesome collection with some extra payment.
- Good security: One of the important and biggest point which may compel you to choose shopify in Shopify vs WordPress is that chances of getting hacked when using shopify are very rare because of its great security structure. It is preferred by many just because of its good security.
- Special features: There are also some special features available by default on shopify for an ecommerce store, for example Abandoned cart recovery, (if someone add a product to cart and abandon it, shopify allows you to contact them and give you a chance to deliver what exactly the customer wants and recover your cart, ultimately leading to sale), built in email marketing, great for drop shipping
In short, in the first part of Shopify vs WordPress, I discussed some pros of using Shopify. it has Free hosting, and it is extremely User friendly, with great security, no need for an extra administrator to run the site for you, great collection of free and paid templates and awesome built in ecommerce features like built in email marketing and Abandoned cart recovery etc.
5 things to consider before choosing Shopify:
These are some factors that you should know to fully understand what you’ll be singing in for if you choose shopify.
- Ecommerce only: The biggest con of shopify can be its one of biggest pros. That is, you can only use it as an ecommerce store and it can’t be used for other purposes like blogging, etc.
- Paid Service: In addition to that, Hosting on shopify is free but you have to pay to use shopify. So, it’s not totally free application after all.
- Limitations: Also, there are some limitations too in shopify like having only three options per product so if you have a product with multiple variations, you’ll have to hire a developer or pay for an app to do so.
- Difficult and expensive Customization: you’ll have to hire a developer or you’ll have to pay for pretty expensive apps to alter some specific areas.
- Key features missing: Some key features are either missing or you’ll have to pay for expensive apps to enable them, like multi currency selling or third party payment gateways.
In the 2nd part of shopify vs WordPress, I discussed some cons of using shopify. It is not an open source application and can only be used as ecommerce store, have to pay to use though the hosting is free, there are some limitations in features and you’ll have to pay extra to use some important features, for example, professional reporting plans, multi currency selling, limited per product options etc.
WordPress:
If you’re looking for the easiest and most powerful Content Management System to build yourself a website or blogging site, all you need is WordPress.
It is an open source and free web app development platform that can help you create the website you need.
To make the ground level in our showdown of Shopify vs WordPress, I will have to look at the pros and cons of using WordPress so that it can help you choose which one suits you well.
6 main reasons to choose WordPress:
- Its Free: WordPress is a free and open-source web development platform.
- Creative Control: WordPress provides you complete creative control over your website. You can create and customize a website, an ecommerce store, blogging site etc. all on WordPress.
- Multilingual: WordPress is multilingual, which means it supports multiple languages.
- Supports SEO: WordPress also supports search engine optimization (SEO).
- Unlimited Themes: You can have unlimited themes and apps to use on WordPress after paying for them.
- Woocommerce: WordPress supports eCommerce site development with the help of its dedicated plugin known as Woocommerce. Woocommerce is an open source and customizable ecommerce platform that is built on WordPress.
In this part of shopify vs WordPress, I discussed the pros of using WordPress. It is open source web development app. You can create both blogging or an ecommerce site using WordPress. It is multilingual and supports multi currency transactions. And also supports SEO.
6 things to consider before choosing WordPress:
- Pay for hosting: WordPress is a free application, but you still need to buy hosting for your website.
- Web developing skills: Another drawback of full creative control is either you need to have high web developing skills and if you don’t have them, you’ll have to hire someone who does.
- Skills for Maintenance: Even after development of your site, if you don’t have enough knowledge, you’ll have to hire someone to administer and maintain your site as things are a bit complicated in WordPress unlike Shopify where the interface is way more user friendly.
- Security risk: Another problem that you might face on WordPress is that of security. To hack a WordPress built site is way easier than that of shopify.
- Smaller user base for ecommerce: If you want to make an ecommerce store only, then the user base in that particular category is too small for WordPress.
- Woocommerce: you need the Woocommerce plugin on WordPress to create an ecommerce store.
In this part of shopify vs WordPress, I discussed some cons of using WordPress. You must need high web development skills, or a high budget to afford web developer and administrator. Security of your site will be at risk, you will have to pay for hosting. Need Woocommerce plugin for an ecommerce store.
Conclusion: Shopify vs WordPress:
Finally, we’re here. Now you know well what are the pros and cons of both WordPress and Shopify. And it must be easy for you to conclude which one to use. So, my conclusion after whole discussion is that there isn’t a right or wrong answer to the question that which one will be the winner of Shopify vs WordPress. It depends on what you need and what is best suited for you. Both shopify and WordPress are the winners with respect to the situation, need and want of the consumer.
So, it depends on you.
3 situations when SHOPIFY is the winner for you:
- You lack web developing skills: If you want to create an ecommerce store, and you don’t have enough skill in web development, and you don’t want to hire someone to manage your site. You should go for shopify.
- You are a beginner: if all the tech talk and handling difficult interfaces is not for you and you want an easy to use and user-friendly platform, then shopify is the right answer for you.
- You are Launching new store: if you don’t have an existing website on WordPress and you want to launch an ecommerce store, you should use shopify as it is a platform which has everything you need to have in an online store.
4 situations when WORDPRESS is the winner for you:
- You have high development skills: If you have a good knowledge of web development and you can afford to create and maintain your site, you should go for WordPress.
- You want creative control If you want full creative control over your ecommerce store, use WordPress with Woocommerce plugin and create and customize whatever and whenever you want.
- You want a blogging site: If you want a blogging site, WordPress is what’s right for you.
- You are Already on WordPress: An important factor of Shopify vs WordPress comparison is that If you already have a WordPress website and you want to now launch an ecommerce store with that website, it will be cheap and easy for you to just add woocommerce and launch you ecommerce store with your already existing website.
One last important point in this whole shopify vs WordPress can be that You can also start your store on shopify and with the passage of time you can transfer your site over to WordPress as per your convenience.
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